The work life can be very frustrating and could lead you to a burnout, especially when you always give a 100% to achieve your goals.
During my career I learned a lot about how to establish the best combination of work-life balance.
1. The Beginning:
I worked from 8 a.m. to 9 or even 10 p.m. in the evening, just because I thought it must be done 100% perfectly. But always my boss came to me and asked for changes here and changes there. So I invested a time effort over the edge and it was in many cases for the bin. I did not realize what I made wrong, it was always only little things he wanted to change. At that time I was young, 25, a fresh bachelor degree and my first job, some naive guy I guess.
2. On the way:
I realized soon, it could not be me that was the reason. It was something else, some hidden principle why everybody else was able to finish his work before me. My boss was the guy who used to always critize everything, even if it was done in the best possible way. It took time for me to finally realize that the investment of my time was not equal to get a sufficient result. There was something wrong about it :-).
3. Result:
Once I did some work on the last minute and under a lot of stress, it was of course not done 100% from my point of view. When I showed it to the boss I was really in panic, but you know what? No difference... it was enough, or let me say it was the same as always, some small corrections and that's it. I wondered several times about it and then I came to found the 80/20 principle on the internet.
4. 80/20 principle:
This principle says in very easy words: If you invest 20% of your usual efforts, it leads to 80% of the result. And 80% is usually enough for most cases of office work tasks. So it is really crazy but this principle is a key to a much simpler and more time efficient life. Many tasks do not require you to design it in highest perfection, the work must be correct of course, but there is no need to format the excel file or chart like a piece of art.
5. Conclusion:
Perfection means effort and you should only be perfect in the case where it is really really required, otherwise you will be on the road to a burnout soon. I know people that are used to do it perfectly and had a burnout because they could not apply this principle. But believe me it is possible and an easy way to reduce stress and to use your time much more efficiently.
Just think of this: YOU HAVE ONE LIFE ONLY, LIVE IT THE BEST WAY
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Sources:
Image 1: http://engineering.electrical-equipment.org
Image 2: http://www.chileprevencion.cl
Image 3: Flickr.com
Image 4: wikimedia.org