Dave Crenshaw on why you should build mini vacations into your week

Dave Crenshaw on why you should build mini vacations into yur weekDave Crenshaw on why you should build mini vacations into your weekCall it work-life rhythm elend work-life balance if you want to achieve it. Thats according to Dave Crenshaw, author, time-management expert, and speaker. He recently publishedThe Power of Having Fun.The reason why I prefer the term work-life rhythm to work-life balance is because balance implies its a one-to-one ratio, like its on a scale, and we have to make sure that we spend just as much personal time as we do with work time, Crenshaw told Ladders.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreBut of course, no one is capable of that life just doesnt work that way. Things go really nahe daran sein and its hard for us to keep up, and were never going to achieve a one-to-one balance, Crenshaw said. But what we can do is we can find the right pace of life, the right amount of time that we work, and the right amount of time that we need to take a break, in order for work to be productive.Everyone has their own rhythm.For some people, that is going to be a very fast pace of life, and for others, its going to be a more relaxed pace. The question is finding out what your rhythm is.Crenshaw uses a few concepts to achieve work-life rhythm.The line-in-the-sand theoryThe line is the sand in a boundary, a way of saying what you will not do. For example, your line in the sand might be that you will stop working at six oclock, and absolutely stop checking emails from home after 8 pm.The line in the sand says, There is a line which I will not cross, a point in the day where Im giving myself permission to turn off the phone, to turn off the email, explained Crenshaw. Without that permission, people will work as long as it takes. If you give yourself permission to work as long as it takes, guess what happens? Youre going to work late, long hours. That s not productive.Having a boundary, he says, means that to finish on time, youre going to have to be more focused. Im going to have to reduce the amount of interruptions that Im causing for myself or that others are causing for me.Boundaries boost creativity and qualityIts almost like a game, said Crenshaw. It creates an opportunity to look for new things and be more creative and do work in a different way. Constraints are surprisingly effective at helping people their work.Dont forget to have funHaving fun is critical to effective productivity, said Crenshaw. Its purpose in work and play is two-pronged Having fun is essential to not just feeling happy, but also productivity.Unfortunately, Crenshaw said, a lot of people put fun as their last priority and only if they can fit it in.It should be a top priority, he said. In fact, when youre scheduling your year, vacation should be one of the very first things that you schedule because then you have to work around it.But vacations aren t just yearly, said Crenshaw. They should come in bursts. Monthly, daily, weekly, you want to have little pockets of fun. They should function like mini oases.An oasis is a moment in that journey where you get refreshed, Crenshaw said. Well, you can put little oases into your day and into your week. Even if its just for five minutes where you say, This is my sanctuary from the rest of the day. Im going to spend five minutes watching funny videos on YouTube. That five minutes is so powerful on either side. One, because you know that the break is coming and its going to provide a relief. Then afterward, because it provided a relief youre more productive.Not only is it good for you, but its good for your work.When you take these breaks to have fun, no matter how you define fun, your productivity increases. Your ability to feel happiness, and your ability to feel that work-life balance improves significantly.More work does not equal more productivityUltimately, Crenshaw says, in order t o achieve work-life rhythm, we have to let go of the idea that working harder means that we are more productive.There is so much guilt and so much pressure in our society to continue to be busy, he said.Were not rats in a maze, but yet, so many of us treat ourselves as if we are. Were depriving ourselves of those moments, thinking that were being more productive when in fact, were going to get worse and worse.Its not a matter of being lazy, its a matter of being smart. When you take time off on a consistent basis not all the time, but on a regular interval, thats smart. You will get things done. You will be more productive.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from jngste im bunde Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people