Work-Life Balance and Farming

As farmers, we basically work from home most of the time. As you step out the door you are in your workplace. Even the office work is frequently done in your home, possibly at the kitchen table.  This can result in an overlap between our work life and our private / personal life.  It is therefore all too easy to work late into the evening especially when you take the view that “a farmer’s work is never finished”.  There will almost always be something that you could do or even feel you should do on the farm. This usually comes at the expense of family time or personal time for yourself.  The challenge is how can we maintain a balance between our farming or work lives and our personal lives? How can you get the required work done and still take proper care of yourself and your loved ones? 

What is Work-Life Balance

Work-life balance refers to the way we prioritize our time and effort between our work and personal lives. It is about creating a life for yourself where you are not overworked. It involves ensuring you have time to get the required work done while also having time and energy for yourself and the important people in your life. This includes your loved ones, family and friends that are important to you. 

Finding a healthy work-life balance is really important to your overall well-being. It can reduce stress levels and actually result in improved performance and productivity.

In previous newsletters and blog posts I spoke about scheduling time each day to:

1.  Do something you love doing

2.  Spend more time with some person or people you enjoy

3.  Do the three most important tasks you want to get done for the day

I now want to look closer at how you might use these tips to help you improve your work-life balance.

Do something you love:

Here I suggest two things to consider.  Firstly, give yourself time to relax and unwind and secondly, do something you love or would love to do.

Most workplaces tend to have scheduled coffee breaks when workers down tools and take a short break for coffee and a chat with their colleagues. Just because you are working alone doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t indulge in proper breaks from work also. You are just as entitled to a proper lunch break as people in a full-time job. Giving yourself a short break from work can be a good way to disconnect from the stress of work. These breaks also offer you the opportunity to take some exercise, catch up on some personal jobs you want to do or just relax. In any case they offer you an opportunity to unwind and take your mind off your work for a little while.

Engaging in a hobby and treating  yourself is often the last thing you think of. Ask yourself if there is a hobby you have but perhaps do not have time to engage in. Try to identify ways of allocating time for such a hobby. This may just require a commitment one evening per week, but it gives you something to look forward to. This will usually mean you must set an end time to your work day. Schedule time for your hobby. Otherwise, work will take over and you will never have time for this hobby.

Spend more time with some person or people you enjoy.

Making an effort every day to spend more time with the important people in your life can be hugely rewarding. This does not need to be complicated. It could be as simple as going for lunch with your spouse, partner, or friend. Even a short break with time for a coffee and a chat may be all that is needed. Perhaps you can combine this with your scheduled breaks referred to above.

Furthermore, have you been meaning to catch up with a friend? Is there someone in your life that you have lost contact with but you know you should reconnect? Perhaps there is a family member with whom you have had some disagreement and now find it difficult to talk to that person. Something such as this can act like a cloud hanging over you. Perhaps now around Christmas time might be a good time to reach out and take the first step to addressing this problem. The hardest part will be taking that first step but the rewards can be great.

Schedule the three most important tasks

Many of us make a list of all the things we have to do.  Even when we do not write this down, we often have a mental list. While this list is very useful, it can get very long and seem difficult to achieve.  Rather than facing this long list daily, and constantly adding to it I suggest taking a look at your day and week ahead. Ask yourself what the priorities you want to achieve.  Sometimes these will be determined by deadlines set by others such as an application to the Department of Agriculture.  But for other items, you get to decide what are the priorities for the day or the week. Once you have an idea of what you want to get done for the week, you can then plan out your day. Try to make your goals as realistic as possible to increase the chances of actually sticking to them.

I suggest you aim to do the three most important tasks you want to get done for the day. Make your goals as realistic as possible. If the tasks are very big, perhaps you need to break them down into smaller chunks that you can manage in a day and over a number of days you get to achieve the bigger task overall.  Once these are achieved, this will give you a sense of achievement. It allows you to have the time to do 1 & 2 above and any other work accomplished will be a bonus.

Christmas time is a great opportunity to pause and reflect on what is important in your life. Try to achieve balance, making sure you spend time with the important people in your life. As the new year approaches, you may be able to build on the effort you make now and make a more balanced life a priority for 2022.