How Working Agile Helps Me to Maintain a Healthy Work/Life Balance

How working agile helps me to maintain a healthy work/life balance 

The perfect work/life balance. For a vast number of people, long gone are the days of working a standard nine to five. Staff cuts, smaller budgets, and sometimes, less talent, have meant that employers are often having to achieve the same or higher targets, with fewer people.  

This corporate environment can be exciting for many who thrive on the pressure of going the extra mile and working extended hours to achieve those goals. Whilst this has normally summed me up, I’m beginning to realise how separating my work life from my personal life, and truly switching off when I get home, is helping me to be more productive during my working hours, and they are still definitely not 9 -5!  

The ability to work agile

Working for Cloudbooking has greatly enabled me to do this. What I’ve noticed since joining the company and having the ability to work agile, is that I am honestly making the most of every hour. Whereas before I may have been sitting at my desk in the office and been distracted by peripheral work discussions, I am now able to focus more clearly and organise my day to be the most productive I can be.  

On days that I head into London to our office, I often find myself commuting for two hours – one hour each way. Now, for some people that could mean catching up on TV shows, getting to the next gaming level, or having something to eat. This means I can get all of my “admin” work done – answer emails that I haven’t gotten to yet, start writing proposals, write my post-meeting notes, all the small but vital bits that need to be done.

Goals

I set myself realistic goals on what I need to do by the time the train pulls into the station. This allows to me to fully switch off when I get off the train. When the train doors open at my station, my laptop is packed away and I’m officially off duty. This helps me to concentrate on what I need to do, without distraction. I also find that it lowers my stress levels, as I get off the train feeling a sense of accomplishment.  

Of course, what this also means is that I rely on Wi-Fi a lot! How did we ever survive before the internet? The Wi-Fi on the train is often patchy, so I need to tether from my phone. I also have to make sure that I plan ahead and try to ensure that I’m on a train that has a seat with a fold-down table, and sometimes a plug socket (if I haven’t fully charged my laptop).  

While I may not have made any “train buddies”, working on the train has also helped me with my work/life balance. Cloudbooking provides agile workplace solutions to allow people to book meeting rooms, hot-desks, or manage their visitor management systems on the go. It’s so refreshing to actually work for a company that practices what it preaches.  

If you want to make the most of your train commute and improve your work/life balance like I did, here are my top tips: 

1. Pick a train that you know will have seats, and a table to work on.
2. Try and pick a train that has plug sockets. If not, make sure your phone and laptop are fully charged, and carry a couple of decent power banks. 
3. Make sure you have enough data on your mobile, so you can use it to tether if you need to. 
4. Try to commute outside of rush hour, so the train is quieter and you’ve got less chance of distraction. 
5. Plan ahead and make the most of the time you have. What’s most urgent? What can’t wait until tomorrow? 
6. Make sure that as soon as you’re home, that’s it – it’s family time.

Matt Makan 

Head of Sales Cloudbooking