The Work/Life Balance and How to De-stress

Episode 27

Latest news

7:35 - Netflix stock price increased 75% in the last year, their push for content and how millennials are turning off their televisions in droves.
13:20 - Google confirmed that they made an algorithm change last week, which could have caused your rankings to drop and apparently, there’s nothing you can do about it but we have some ideas!
15:53 - Twitter are clamping down on Tweetdeck and bot accounts
18:37 - YouTube are testing AI to digitally remove backgrounds in your video and to add your own background
19:11 - Snapchat will start introducing the option for content creators who create their own lenses to promote them to the lense carousel. Users have already created 30,000 lenses.

Work-life balance and how to de-stress

20:10 - Introduction to the concept of work/life balance, what it means to us, what are our stress triggers and how do we work through it?
22:13 - The term “work-life balance” means something different to each of us. We ask, what does work-life balance mean to you?
32:04 - What are your stress triggers? Understanding your triggers for stress can help you to manage it sooner and help to avoid any health-related stress issues. We share a couple of our main stress triggers from work and home.
43:00 - How do you de-stress? The team share the ways that they work through and get over stress and to focus your perspective.

The tea

1:03:47 - The team talk about what’s going on in pop culture in an attempt to hide the fact they’re nerds. If Undertaker can wrestle John Cena at Wrestlemania at the age of 50+, we can do anything, people! Also, Jess talks about how she sits up like the Undertaker and won’t stop doing it.
1:05:24 - The team cover HUGE blunders made in the digital marketing space in the past week, starting off with YouTube’s The Alex Jones channel published (via it’s Info Wars brand) and monetized a video around the recent Florida shootings claiming that one of the students sharing their experience with reporters was in fact a paid actor. We also took Twitter to task for their role in allowing a Twitter user to claim that David Hogg, a 17-year-old survivor of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, was a paid crisis actor. Jess talked about how inspiring the students were and how their actions are inspiring real change not just in the state of Florida, but throughout the United States and the western world.

Let us know what you think by emailing us: podcast@bam.com.au

Show notes

Stress triggers, the work-life balance and how to de-stress

The idea of work-life balance means something different to everyone, and it all depends on our individual experiences. Being good at your job and being an engaged member of the family when you’re home, can sometimes feel us leaving stressed out. Understanding how and why you get stressed out and how to de-stress can help you to achieve your ideal of a work-life balance.

On this episode, we go deep into what work-life balance means to each of us, showing that it truly has a different meaning to everyone as well as going into the nitty-gritty of stress triggers for each of us. We also share some of our ways to de-stress and get back on track.

Inspiration for this episode

On a recent episode of The Point, host Jon Steinberg chatted with Ariana Huffington and Gary Vaynerchuk about work-life balance and switching off in a social media world. It’s a fantastic perspective on work-life balance by two inspirational entrepreneurial figures.

Ryan Lee and James Schramko are each prominent internet marketing experts that promote building a business around your lifestyle. We also reference Ryan Lee’s article, I’m Sleeping While You’re Working (9 Ways to Prove the “Hustlers” and “Grinders”.. are WRONG!) which you can read here.

What does work/life balance mean to you?

“If you’re focused on getting work done, it can affect your home life and it’s been a problem for me. I’ve had to learn that it’s within my power to say, ‘enough is enough’ and to draw a line where I have to re-prioritse to remember what is truly important in life. Life is better when you work at a place that supports work life balance, because there is no perfect ratio. If you go too far on one side and stay there, it can build up resentment at home.” - Rich

“The reason why people may struggle for work life balance is because it is a fallacy, it’s always fluid. If you’re not actively looking forward to work, if you’re not getting the rest you need, you’re going to work late, you’re leaving early, you’re having long lunch breaks, then you probably need to review things. I do feel like a lot of those questions are based on a dissonance of oneself, there is a conflict: being able to work on a job you love or providing for your family. Where there are issues you can’t get around,is where the dissonance comes from.” - Josh

“The term ‘work life balance’ really bothers me because I feel as though it’s a term that creates an unachievable ideal: that we can have it all. We are told that we work to live and not the other way around and we’re almost made to feel bad if we are living to work, because that does need to happen from time to time. Something has to suffer for the other thing to work. If I’m working very hard and putting in long hours and my home life isn’t getting the attention it needs during that time, I feel as though I’m a failure because I’m not achieving work life balance when in actual fact, it’s just time for a work life imbalance and my home life will get the attention it needs when this project is over. You need to learn what your boundaries are but also understand those people around you who are supporting you and take them into consideration, too. At the end of the day, they are the people you want to have around you when the work part of your life ends.” - Jess

What are your stress triggers?

"People tell me not to stress, and it bothers me because I am not a stress-y kind of guy, but people stress me out. When they don't need to stress, that definitely stresses me out. Or inter-relationship conflicts that are difficult to solve because it can cause irrational behaviour. It's part of being human. In terms of work, I find that I don't mind having a lot of tasks on the pile. Not everyone is like that. Some people get stressed out by things that are not in their control. Stuff happens and when there is nothing you can do, why are you stressing out? The fear of the unknown is a big stresser for me, too." - Rich

"I know when it comes to activities that I'm not comfortable in performing 100%, there's a chance I can take it on board but there is a measure of discomfort because it's not my house. I try to recognise that as much as I have the clarity to be able to do something but I'm not an expert to be able to complete it, then there is an element of stress involved." - Josh

"Stress, for me, is born out of fear. Fear of failure or fear of not meeting expectations." - Jess

What are some ways you de-stress?

"Time for yourself is really important. I find I'm so much more relaxed than I normally would be. If you remove work and only focus on the life aspect, you actually realise you need a life/life balance. If you have a family, things can be chaotic so it's important to have you time otherwise everything else suffers. I've got a hobby which is producing music, and I've been doing that since before I was full-time employed. As long as I'm happy with where that is at, I'm in a good mood and if I feel like I haven't been in my studio for too long, I am not in a good mood. That's my test to how I know how good life is going. It makes me think of the oxygen mask that comes down on a plane, and they tell you to put your mask on before helping others. Call me selfish, but I can't help others if I can't help myself first." - Rich

"No one can ever function at either end of the extreme in the spectrum. It's reiterated through different stories like Steve Jobs, who regretted so many things in life even though he was successful professionally, his home life was abysmal by his account. It's understanding when things need to ebb and flow and having control over the things you can in your life. I don't think we should be fooled to think there is a 100% extreme and that we can't always be present across everything." - Josh

"Well, firstly, Tony Robbins was introduced to me and it completely changed my life. I used to have very bad back pain and practising some of the things that he talks about actually got rid of all of my back pain. It's all about perspective. If you're self-aware, you can understand when you're focusing too much on the negative which feeds into that stress cycle. I immediately change my perspective and focus on what is good, what I've got, all that positive stuff. I practise gratitude as I go along in the day. I also make sure to take time for myself which basically means that I do not consume any content at all. That could be a walk or meditation." - Jess