During the last weeks I had talked with friends doing their PhD, and again questions about work-life balance had emerged and make me reflect on how much we talk about having work-life balance and how poorly we really try to achieve it in our daily lives, no matter our career stage or life situation. So in today’s post we are going to discuss about this topic again.
Our crazy and fast- running system, not matter if its in academy or out of it, demands that we go at a fast speed while trying to achieve all the dreams and goals we propose to ourselves. While doing our PhDs is finishing the next paper, not very different if we are doing a postdoc or even if you are a professor, or finishing the next report for our job, the next business or the next client. Our next goal’s name can change but at the end is another step in a large line of things to do that we make to give purpose to our everyday life. I don’t think this would change for anybody, we will always have a list of things to do not matter if they implies manual labor or a complex thinking process, what I found is important to change is the way we see it and how we assume those goals. Why I want to achieve x or y? It is worth it to sacrificed my health to achieve it? What other thing I want for my own life?
When I was doing my PhD, I was in a marathon to achieve things that I though it will give me stability, that I though it was necessary to get the life I dream, but while I was in this crazy career I lost part of my health and recovering that health had cost me a lot… So for those who are doing a PhD make time to rest, don’t burnout, it is not worth it. Enjoy student’s life and benefits, that will never come back. Work hard for your goals but don’t forget that you are also human and need time for yourself. Learn to recognize the best hours for writing, when you are more focus, and recognize the times your brain is more disperse and use that time to do other things to bring balance to your life.
For those who are in a working life, money never will be enough to pay you if you lost your health. No job will ever consider you irreplaceable, there is always someone else waiting to do what you are doing. Try to do what you love in life, that will give you more satisfaction than working for big salaries. Take a break and enjoy life every now and then. We don’t know how long we will have in this world and a life full of experiences always will be better than a life with regrets and “what if”
A work-life balance is a continuous learning process in which you weight the cost and benefits of everything you do and every decision you make, but if you are sure of all the reasons why you are doing it then you will live the life you always dream. For me had been studying monkeys in the field with small breaks to see whales in the wild and a continuous search of answers to all the questions I have while I’m looking at monkeys…
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