The Wireboard Blog

You're Not Imagining things. Work-Life Balance Is harder Than It Used To Be.

By Edith "Edie" Raphael, PhD |   Mar 08, 2019

The average American worker in non-agricultural fields puts in a little more than half as much time on the job as the average worker in 1830. That should be great news, right? And yet the majority of working people report the struggle to find balance between work and personal life is getting tougher, not easier. 

But is this sense of struggle all in our heads? Or are there real reasons we can point to that make balance tougher now than it has been in recent decades? 

My Local Apple Store Gave Me An Amazing Work-Life Balance Experience

By Jason Abell |   Feb 18, 2019

The other day, I ordered a new battery for my iPhone. A few days later, I received an email that I could drop my phone off on Saturday to have the new battery installed. I got to the Apple store 15 minutes ahead of its opening on a beautiful Saturday morning, and there was already quite a crowd gathered at the front doors.

Finding Deep Relaxation: The Physical Body in Meditation

By Edith "Edie" Raphael, PhD |   Nov 28, 2018

How your body aligns in meditation is important, whether you are sitting on the floor or in a chair. It’s essential to feel a firm connection with the floor (either through the “sit bones” — the lower portion of the pelvis — or through the feet). It’s also always appropriate to keep the spine long.

5 Really Smart People Share Ideas to Improve Work-Life Balance

By Steve Longan |   May 30, 2018

As we've discussed before on The Wireboard, work-life balance is crucial to productivity, satisfaction with our work and overall health. But what are some innovative ways to think about work-life balance? And how can we start making changes to maintain or improve balance? 

Enter the following five talks from TED. Each one contains wonderful insights about the nature of work-life balance as well as cues for how to improve in this area. 

Infographic: Why Work-Life Balance Is Difficult; Why We Need to Pursue Balance Anyway

By Steve Longan |   May 23, 2018

From "The Busy Person's Guide to Work-Life Balance:"

To Recover from Job Burnout, Start with These Questions

By Steve Scanlon |   Feb 13, 2018

There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond and to know one's
self.  - Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard's Almanac, 1750

As I pointed out in the last post, job burnout is real. It is powerful and has lasting effects if not dealt with. It does not discriminate by vocation, age, job role, or intelligence. 

3 Signs You're Suffering Job Burnout

By Steve Scanlon |   Feb 06, 2018

Have you ever been at the doctor's office and they ask you to rate your pain level from 1 to 10?

That is such a strange question! What would I say? 2.349? Or do I round to the nearest tenth? And how does the doctor know that my 3 isn't someone else's 8 (or vice versa)? I assume the question must be important for medical professionals, but the comedian in my head is imagining a Monty Python-esque sketch set in an ER. A man comes in on a stretcher mangled and bleeding. The doctors ask him to rate his pain on a scale of 1 to 10, to which the man replies weakly, "Probably a 2... maybe 3." Pain is such a relative thing. 

Things I Learned from Listening to My Procrastination

By Steve Scanlon |   Oct 26, 2017

Last night before falling asleep, I had a brief and final thought about going for a good run in the morning. But the next morning, lo and behold, I wake, do some meditation, get to some work, and then realize that I have a headache. I almost felt queasy. I don’t really know why, but at about 8:00 the little man inside of me began to create reasons not to go for that run I had whole-heartedly committed to just hours before.  You know that little person, right?  He or she is the one inside of all of us crafting all manners of excuses for us not to do something.

Four Ways To Fill Up Your Tank This Weekend (and Every Weekend)

By Edith "Edie" Raphael, PhD |   Aug 30, 2017

Have you noticed that much of our social interaction at work revolves around the topic of weekends? Two of our most-common questions are:

Vocational Wellness Is Key. Also, What's a "Vocation?"

By Steve Longan |   Apr 27, 2017

Welcome back to the Wellness Mini-Series! In this video, Steven Longan makes the case that vocational wellness is a vital part of growing our work. But, because we don’t often talk about “vocation,” Longan gives us a working definition to start.

7 Strategies for Effective Stress-management

By Edith "Edie" Raphael, PhD |   Feb 23, 2017

Wish we could turn back time -- to the good old days

When our momma sang us to sleep -- but now we're stressed out

~Twenty One Pilots, “Stressed Out”

Readers who’ve met me in real life likely know that, in addition to my work with Rewire, I teach yoga. A few years ago, I had a scheduling conflict and asked my friend Sarah to lead the class in my place. The class was held in a yoga studio below an accounting firm. Unfortunately, poor Sarah turned the bass on her music a bit too high. So a few minutes into class, the meditative stillness was broken by a BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! on the door. The whole class started and turned to see a red-faced, stress-deranged accountant yelling “TURN DOWN YOUR MUSIC!”

The Sound of Silence: Questions and Answers from a Week Spent at a Silent Retreat

By Edith "Edie" Raphael, PhD |   Jan 05, 2017

Max Hermann begins his famous poem, "Desiderata," with this piece of wonderful advice: “Go placidly amid the noise and haste and remember what peace there may be in silence.”

How many of us have paused momentarily in our frantic schedules to think that same thought? How many of us feel pressed by the busyness and noise and long for more peace and silence in our lives?

Let's Rewire Two Common Holiday Wellness Problems

By Edith "Edie" Raphael, PhD |   Dec 22, 2016

This period of time between Thanksgiving and the New Year is quite special. There’s a sense of excitement and possibility, lots of parties, time with family and friends, old and new traditions, memorable smells, and good food. Despite all of the good cheer (and sometimes because of it), many of us find ourselves with holiday wellness complaints. The three common health-related complaints heard around water coolers in December are:

The Law of Morning Habits Helping You Win

By Jason Abell |   Jun 22, 2016

When a topic surfaces repeatedly during a short period of time within coaching sessions and workshops, I start to pay attention. Recently, that’s been happening with the topic of “how we spend the first hours of our day.” One dynamic I started to notice was that our clients who displayed intentionality with their mornings were getting more out of their life and work than those who were less "morning intentional.” That led me to start researching what kind of studies there might be to support what I was hearing from my clients. And for the last few months I have become a student of morning rituals, lack thereof, and possible connections between how we spend our mornings and our effectiveness at work and life.

Running Out of Time to Exercise and Rest

By Steve Scanlon |   Jun 15, 2016

A wise man once told me that the best time to plant an oak tree is 25 years ago. The second best time is today. I love this simple aphorism because it points to the idea that, even if it will take time to reap the rewards of our efforts, the best time to start something new is now.