Over at Brazen Careerist, Ryan Healy of Employee Evolution has written a guest post about the advent of the blended life and it has caused quite a stir; typically among people who believe that a blended life can't possibly work for them.
I think it is important to clarify some aspects of the blended life. A blended life is not the same as multi-tasking (i.e. you're not on your blackberry while you're at your kids play). This is typically an inefficient way to operate and causes problems when neither one of your tasks receives the focus it deserves. The concept of the blended life might be better stated by saying that things no longer occur in set schedules. In a blended life, work is no longer confined to 9 to 5 and family life and other pursuits are not confined to the rest of the day.
It's perfectly acceptable to make your schedule flexible to fit your needs and it is not a bad thing to do some work late at night or to take a half hour to send work email while at home. If you're working at something you love this shouldn't even be a big deal. The same thing goes for tending to other interests or to children in the middle of the "work day" if the need calls for it. This is not an entirely novel concept. The blended life is just becoming more acceptable and in reality is probably a more efficient way to work.
I should stress again that multi-tasking is not blending. When you are doing something your attention is completely focused on the task at hand. When you begin to accept that your schedule is malleable then you begin to move towards a blended life.
The first step to a successful blended life is finding work that you don't mind blending into the rest of your life. Pursue something you're passionate about and enjoy doing. It is not surprising that most of the people who want their work to be separate from their lives are also the same people who don't like their jobs and don't want to have to think about it the rest of the day. If you take the time to evaluate yourself and find something you enjoy, you might be surprised when your life starts to become blended without even thinking about it.
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2 comments:
Hi Brad
Just wanted to follow up on your comment over at Brazen Careerist - I completely agree with your description of a blended life. I enjoyed your post on it too, and will keep checking back.
Sarah
Brad,
This is a great point you make. I guess I wasn't clear enough about the fact that a blended life does not mean multitasking while out for the night or at your kids soccer game. It means you can fit all aspects of your life into your daily schedule, like you say.
I also completely agree that multitasking is not the most efficient way to get things done. I often struggle with this, but its clear that when I do buckle down and focus on one task at a time I accomplish a great deal more in less time.
Keep up the great posts!
Ryan Healy
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