New Year's Resolutions worth keeping - keep a balance

We published a blog last year that reported data from a “use of time” study that showed we are increasingly experiencing feelings of hurriedness and time famine.

If it is your resolution this year that you will create a more equitable balance between work and personal life, then we've got ways to go about it.

• Just because you have the technology doesn't mean you have to use. Set aside some time each week (or day) to be technology free - this means phones too! It's amazing the things you can learn about those nearest and dearest to you when you're actually talking to each other. In addition, you can start to think about some physical spaces as technology-free - the bedroom and bathroom are good places to start. You may choose ultimately to return to a “work only in an office” mode, as a way of ensuring that your work/life balance is good.

• Bring all your incoming messages into one inbox and keep all your appointments in one calendar. That need to check all those different places in order to keep on top of your life will go away. Then set aside times to work through your inbox, rather than reacting the minute a new message arrives. Given the time taken to process a message and then get back to what you were originally doing, means that doing this will add significant chunks of time back into your day.

• Be smart in your use of technology – if you really have to send that email out of office hours, how about you take the recipient into consideration and schedule it to arrive during their work day.

• Get a hobby,  or a class or one definite appointment you have to keep each week that is not work-related. Over time you might increase the frequency but let's start out with an achievable goal. It's a great idea if this activity is fun to do with friends or family.

• Take breaks. No-ones productivity improves when they work non-stop. So take a break (leave your desk) and increase your productivity for the rest of the day. If you get more done during your “work-hours” you can in good conscience "not work" for the rest of the day. Sometimes, to work faster, you just gotta work slower.

As with all the resolutions we're considering this week, make sure you start with something that is achievable in bite-sized pieces and then, all going well, increase the frequency or intensity. In this way, you may well get to the end of 2012, with that rare gift of a balanced work/personal life!