What do you do if your career in Strategy is jeopardizing your work-life balance?

It's important to have an honest assessment of what is your current balance between working and your personal life, as well as how much volatility does that balance have. It's also critical to define what is the root cause of the disruptions to your personal life. It's also important that you classify the factors affecting your work/life balance in terms of internal (you can control) and external.

"Strategy" as a profession can be very demanding, causing you stress and burnouts. You need to assess the situation to identify causes that affect your Work-Life balance. You maybe working long hours with heavy workload facing demanding Clients. Possibly you have set unrealistic goals to achieve. Due to your not sparing time and energy with your family and friends, there could be other tensions. You need to set boundaries scheduling your work and taking away time and energy for self-care to stay fit and agile for higher productivity in your profession.

Having observed that your Work-Life balance has been disturbed due to your long working hours, you need to take time off for your self-care to ensure your wellbeing. You need to set your boundaries to schedule your work, sparing time and energy for your personal well-being. You need to communicate with your Team and with other stakeholders on your set boundaries, seeking their support. With your attention for self-care, you can better perform in your profession.

In addition to communicating your boundaries to your team and to your manager, you must also develop the ability to say "No". Being able to say "No" to new assignments, to working outside of your boundaries, is critical to make sure that that you do not slip back to a burnout situation.

If you have specific yearly goals, key deliverables, and KPIs to measure your performance, then make sure that you prioritize your tasks according how it will impact meeting your performance goals. Spend your energy and time on the things that will get your closer to meeting all the goals you've been assigned.

You need to prioritize tasks according to their importance and urgency. You can use the classical 4-Quadrant method to classify your tasks as 'Important and Urgent, Important but not Urgent, Urgent but not Important and Neither Urgent nor Important'. With the above classification and ranking of your tasks, you can eliminate the last category of tasks and delegate 2nd and 3rd category tasks to your Team. With the above prioritizing, you can reduce your workload, pay attention to your self-care and enhance your efficacy in your profession.

You need to plan your schedule diligently to ensure that neither your work is affected and nor your wellbeing is ignored. You need to judiciously allocate time and resources for both your work and for your self-care. You can use a suitable method like checklist to organize your time and tasks. Everything won't go as per plan, no matter what your credentials are. You need to anticipate outages in your schedules and have a contingency plan handy to follow. With proper Work-Life balance, you can enhance your efficacy in your profession.

For success in your life, you need nurture your relationships with your Team, family, friends and with your wellwishers. You need to spend quality time with them and appreciate their efforts and contributions in their chosen domains. You need to maintain a cordial relationship with your Team and stakeholders seeking their suggestions and support. By nurturing your relationships, you would gain strong social and emotional bonding that you help you perform better.

In my experience, the best way to invest in yourself to have a better work/life balance is proper sleep, good nutrition, exercising, and education. These are all things that directly improve your body, your mind, and improve your skill set. Make the time to invest in these 4 things and reaching the right work/life balance will be easier.

Never ask a person what their priorities are, ask them how they spend their time. In the end, our actions show what we really do elevate & promote in our lives. Work-life balance isn't a static concept. And it's likely not something that should be examined on a day-to-day basis. There will be projects or times in your career where you have to step-up & likely give more. These times are challenging - and they cannot persist too long. Remember that your career is a marathon - and you can't always sprint. Be mindful. Set boundaries. And trust your gut. Give your best, but don't burn out. On the other hand, there will also be times that are more relaxed than usual. Noting the stressful periods, do NOT feel guilty about the downtime.

If my career strategy is jeopardizing my work-life balance, I would reassess my priorities and make adjustments. Secondly, I would consider setting boundaries, delegating tasks, or seeking support from mentors or colleagues. Thirdly, I would prioritize self-care and ensure I am allocating time for personal activities and relationships outside of work. Lastly, I would explore alternative strategies that align better with my desired work-life balance.