It’s not just you.

No-one else will either.  Myself included.

Before you shake your head at me for sending an email which is so down in the dumps on a Friday morning, let me re-assure you:

I’m hoping to leave you feeling upbeat and cheery by the time this email is done.

First, a short thought experiment.

Imagine you have a bowl, a bunch of pebbles and a pair of scales.

Place the bowl on one side of the scales and the pebbles on the other side.  Add or remove a few pebbles and you’ll soon find the sweet spot where the scales align.

i.e. pebble/bowl balance.

So far so good.

Next step:

Put the pebbles inside the bowl.

How would you go about finding pebble/bowl balance now?

Clearly you can’t.  Two objects need to be separate in order to balance with one another.

But perhaps we forget that working is part of living when it comes to work/life balance.

Just like sleeping, eating, resting and playing are part of living too.

So if you’re trying to balance working with living, or balance work with life, you’ll never succeed.  And that’s because the whole concept of work/life balance is a misnomer.

You might say this is semantics.

But I say this matters. Because it means employees all around the country are shooting for something which doesn’t even exist and then beating themselves up for not being able to find it.

Anyway, I suggest you shrug off the whole idea of work/life balance.

And, instead, start thinking about two little words which I’ve found to be infinitely more useful.

These words don’t just define work/life balance in a more helpful, truthful way, but the words themselves tell you how to achieve that balance too.

I used to work 12 hour days and spend my weekends stewing about work. 

But I don’t anymore and these two words are a large part of the reason why.

Even when I find myself stuck in the office at 7.45pm on a Friday (as I did a few weeks ago – it’s going to happen sometimes) I wasn’t banging my fists on my keyboard, thinking “why is this my life!”.

Instead, I felt calm, peaceful and balanced.  And I have these two words to thank for that.

They’re not exotic, mystical, complicated words.

In fact they’re as simple as they come.  And each word is just four letters long.

But for two such simple words, they pack a mighty punch.

And if you’re someone who wishes you had more time to spend with your family & friends, to go to exhibitions & plays, to hit the gym, go for a run, read a book or simply not have to shrink your life outside the office to compensate for your job, then I think these two words might help you too.

If you’d like to know them, I’ll share them with you.

But I’m asking for a little something in return.

How many hours do you work in an average week?  And in an ideal world, how many hours would you work each week?

I’m trading my two words for your two numbers.

If you’d like to make this trade, hit reply, give me your two numbers and I’ll reply with the two words I have in mind.  I’ll also explain exactly why I think these words are so useful.

That’s all for today.

Have a great weekend.

 - Tom