Work/Life Balance
Session Outcomes
- To discuss the balancing act between our personal and professional lives
- To discuss the roles our personal lives play in our mental and emotional well being
- To discuss the how our professional work has provided meaning in our lives
- To build and grow relationships with individuals who make up this group
- Strongly consider having your meeting in-person and doing something active rather than by Zoom
Incubator Pod 2.0 is built to be flexible and your group was designed to accommodate your schedule based on your availability. We sincerely hope that this helps you to get the most out of your time together. The session agendas are designed to get a conversation started, but we encourage you to adapt or change the meeting prompts/topics to meet your group’s interests and needs.
A lack of balance between our work and personal lives can sometimes lead to burnout, a syndrome that includes depersonalization of relationships, emotional exhaustion, reduced sense of accomplishment and is associated with impaired job performance and poor health (https://accelerate.ucsf.edu/training/mdp-seminar4-worklife). To prevent this, it’s critical to reflect on and clarify personal values and choices. Spending time with family and friends, participating in religious or spiritual activity, and focusing on self-care (e.g. nutrition, exercise, etc) are all very important. In addition, it is important to control the workload, find a meaning in work, and settle limits as well as learn to use administrative support systems adequately. As John Gardner puts it: "Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties . . . out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something."
Choose someone in the group to serve as a timekeeper, to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to share during the session.
10 minutes: I
ntroductions and welcome; invitation for each group member to share what they wish to get out of the next near together. For example, if there are any particular topics that you wish to discuss that are not included in the agenda, please feel free to express this and to design your own experience based on what you wish to get out of your time together. The meeting agendas are here to serve as guides, should you desire to use them.
15 minutes:
Quick Hits: This is an opportunity for individuals to bring up any active issues/problems/projects that they would like to get the group’s feedback, advice, or support on. When sharing a “quick hit”, please be clear on what type of feedback you would like to get from your group so that they can best support you.
20 minutes:
Sharing on work-life balance. Here are some questions to help get you started:
- How are things going for you? Do you feel you have a good balance between work and outside activities
- Share tips/tricks on how you’ve balanced work and outside activities
- Discuss outside activities and their importance to your overall well being
- Discuss how different professional activities provide meaning in your life
5 minutes:
The cadence of the group meetings will be approximately every other month for one year. Use this opportunity to select the location, date/time of your next meeting and email this info to Michelle Lifto so that she can help support you.