As work and non-work activities become increasingly blended, having a clear purpose and creating your own definition of work-life balance will be critical to a sustainable career.
As most of us spend the majority of our time working, it’s important to consider where that time is spent, how to manage your tasks and energy, and how to ultimately find fulfilment.
1. Know where you spend your time
In order to manage your money, you need to know how much is coming in and where it is going. Managing time is no different.
Assuming 8 hours of sleep, you have 16 hours available to spend each day. For consultants, the average work day will consume the majority of that time, around 10-12 hours.
Now that you know how much time you have, do you know where it is being used?
Two things that you should be doing to calculate where you spend your time are:
- Planning your day
- Tracking your time
Planning your day will help you identify what needs to happen and when. It will help you prioritize the most important tasks and hopefully leave some room for the unexpected. Planning your day can also help set expectations around how much time you can devote to non-work activities.
Time tracking should be done daily using a simple and frictionless process. I use a note taking app on my phone, and just list the time and activity. I have built the habit of recording time as I switch between tasks, and it takes no more than 20 seconds to record the time spent on my last activity. It’s not a detailed description of what I did, just a couple of words on where the time was spent. This helps for accurately recording hours worked on different projects, and helps to estimate how long doing the same task will take in future. I have also found that this habit of time tracking acts as a tool to help me batch tasks (i.e. emails, reading articles, researching information) and acts as a reminder of what I did during the day when I do an end of day review.
2. Manage your tasks
During any given workday your time will likely be spent on a combination of:
- Independently working
- Attending meetings
- Learning
- Networking
- Traveling and eating
The amount of time spent in these areas will depend on your job title, career stage, and lifestyle. As your days stack into weeks, it’s important to manage the amount of time spent in each area to succeed in your current position.
2.1 Independently working
During blocks of time when you are independently working, you need to focus on getting the task done. To help you work more effectively, you can first spend 5 minutes on pre-planning to identify what needs to be accomplished and the steps you are going take to get there. Try to estimate the amount of time it will take and set a timer when you start working. This can help you focus and avoid distractions by working to a time limit. A couple ways you can get back time in your day is to know when to ask for help and, as you become more senior, when to delegate work to others.
2.2 Attending meetings
The other most common activity is attending meetings, which generally fall into a few categories: planning, updates, discussion, or making decisions. Regardless of the meeting, there should always be an agenda to keep people on track. You should always stick to the allotted time, and if all of the items are covered, it’s more than ok to end the meeting early. A few ways to reduce the time spent on meetings are to have less of them, make them shorter, or turn them into emails.
A meeting cadence is established early in the project, but as the project evolves it’s important to evaluate whether this cadence meets the needs of the project. Also, it’s important to identify your role in each meeting. You might be responsible for taking notes, or simply required to be present, so your level of attention can shift accordingly, allowing you to multitask.
2.3 Learning
During your first position and once you receive a promotion, you will be developing or deepening your foundational knowledge for your industry and job responsibilities. This needs to be done so that you can add a significant amount of value. Industry and function specific learning will help you develop your consulting toolkit. On every project, you will also have client specific learning which will require you to learn about the client’s business, market, product/service, customers, etc.
When it comes to learning, don’t leave things to chance. Be focused on what you want to learn, and make a schedule. Ask other people for resources and leverage their knowledge by setting up times to ask specific questions of more senior team members. You will constantly be learning on every project, but you should also carve out around 10% of your time for more formal learning and skill development.
2.4 Networking
Networking is a critical habit for those in a consulting career. Once you join a firm it becomes much easier to network with other people in the firm, but you still have to take initiative. You will have to both make and manage requests. Batching the tasks involved with networking such as finding people you want to connect with, scheduling time, and making an agenda can help save you time. It helps to set a goal of networking with 1 or 2 people per week in order to learn about different industries, specific skills, and to build your network of relationships.
Setting up an excel spreadsheet to keep track of your networking efforts is important not only for new connections but also to help you build closer relationships with existing contacts. Often scheduled catchups will need to be rescheduled as conflicts come up, so I have found it better to have fewer pre-scheduled meetups so that you don’t get overloaded in any given week.
2.5 Traveling and eating
These aren’t necessarily part of the job but do have to be factored into your day. If you already have to work 12 hours, saving time on these activities can give you time back for higher value activities. If you can’t work remote, try to commute during off-times, either earlier or later, to prevent getting stuck in traffic. If you can carpool or take public transit, then this could help you preserve your mental energy or give you an opportunity to do some extra work during your commute.
We all must eat, and it is possible save time around meals. The fastest way to get food is to bring it with you from home. If you can’t do that, see if you can have it delivered or ask a team member to pick something up for you when they go out to eat. If you do eat with the team and have a lot of work to do that day, it’s good to be honest and let them know you have to get back by a certain time. Don’t avoid opportunities to connect with others over a good meal, but be strategic about when work needs to get done and where your stress levels are at before committing to an hour lunch break.
3. Manage your energy
As you plan your day, schedule your individual working time for when you are most productive and alert. If you need a break, try to plan a networking call or a meal. If learning isn’t immediately required, it can be pushed back or done in the evening once the rest of your work has been completed. If you can commute during the middle of the day and split your day between two locations the change of environment can help to reset your focus and recharge your energy. The time you have to work may be the same, but when and how you work can change the cadence and emotion of your day.
4. Find fulfilment
Work-life balance looks different for people at different levels of their career. The tension between work and life arises when you aren’t interested in the work, or when the work prevents you from meeting your personal obligations or doing things you enjoy.
It’s important to do something for yourself each day. This could include:
- Things that energize you
- Things that give you purpose
- Things that make you feel happy
Whatever the activity is, identify what would give you 100% satisfaction and then scale back to the level that would still make your day feel complete. For example, going for an hour run would be my ideal for exercising, but if I don’t have the time or energy then doing 15 minutes of stretching/yoga would also fill that bucket. If I don’t exercise, I feel like something is missing from my day. When something feels like it is missing, it’s easy to blame your job as the reason that you didn’t feel like you had a complete day. It is sometimes true that you will spend the entire day working, but more likely than not you will be able to find 20 minutes to do something for yourself.
The bottom line
During your consulting career you will experience long hours, tight deadlines, and stressful situations. As you better understand the job and better understand yourself, it’s important to intentionally design your day so that you can deliver your best work. Knowing yourself, deliberately designing your day, and creating habits that make the consulting life more sustainable will prove to be valuable regardless of your career trajectory.
Andrew Kuczmarski is a PhD candidate at the University of Delaware whose passion lies at the intersection of science and business.
Image: Pexels
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