Today I returned from a quick vacation. I took Thursday, Friday and Monday off. I came back feeling refreshed. My goal was to keep that momentum going? Well, it turns out that was not an easy task. My Tuesday felt like a Monday to me. I told myself that I was not going to return to the long hours that I have been keeping prior to my mini vacation.

Did I keep that promise to myself? Of course not. I returned today working 15 hours. Now this is not because I am unorganized, rather it is because being responsible for MDS/MMQ processes have time constraints. My fellow MDS/MMQ nurses know that this is Cycle A for MMQ’s and the goal is to have them submitted by the 15th of the month. That being said, I also had several google chat calls, and the need to answer the many emails received while I was off. Tomorrow, I decided that I was going to embrace some of the ideas below to help me keep my promise to myself.

These are the ideas I have identified to help myself meet the demands of my role as a manager which I would like to share with others at this level.

They include:

Reviewing your calendar and see what is a must do and what can wait.

Prioritizing your facilities that you cover by the strength of the team. Assess what tasks are being met vs not met.

Setting a time allottment for each task you must complete and move on to the next task when the allotted time has been reached.

Ensuring that you take your lunch break to recharge.

Give yourself the gift of work life balance which means shutting your computor off and switching to family time at least by 6pm each day.

The last one for most of us is difficult in this day and age of remote work. It is very easy to continue working because everything you need is at your disposal. There is something to be said for having an office that you need to leave and not being able to continue your projects until you return in the morning.

I am reminded of words of wisdom from my dad. He would say, “Remember at the end of your lifetime, it is not the job you had, or the material wealth you had that you will be remembered for rather it will be the memories you made with your loved ones who are still alive when you are gone. “ So with that, please remember to work smarter not harder. If you are unable to attain work life balance then evaluate if that is ok or not and make the necessary changes in your life that will help you meet the anwer you decide that is right for you.