The bible clearly spells the 10 commandments, and knowing that these would be hard to memorize or live by, they were summed up into two major ones. If you have a good memory, you’d recall your Sunday school teacher or the preacher often echoed that “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is “Love your neighbor as yourself”.
When the morning work alarm goes off, the natural reaction for many is to keep snoozing it until they can’t do it anymore, and this is mostly as a result of the fatigue carried forward from the previous working day, especially those who work in high-pressure environments with crazy deadlines. Right in this moment is when the gospel preached by their Sunday school teacher starts to re-manifest, in this case, not the two major commandments, but the need to find a solution to achieve the work-life balance goal.
In a well-structured work environment, an individual’s roles are clearly defined, which enables one to perform their tasks effectively. However, in unstructured work settings, there is a tendency for individuals to take on tasks that are not aligned to their roles, and because they ‘humbly applied’, they must somehow find a way to deliver. In this case, the overarching commandment ceases to be the major Work-life Balance Rule, rather juggling multiple things under work while the “life” being an accumulation of the day to day activities outside your 8 to 5 routine.
Can life really be balanced or is it a hoax?
Imagine a mid-level Manager, with an 8 to 5 or 8 to 9 job, pressured by the LinkedIn achievement to pursue further studies, hence, currently pursuing a professional course or a Master’s Degree in the field of their liking. In addition, they are running a side hustle because their 8 to 5 isn’t sufficient, and yet money is not coming as the Finance Minister promised, but the colleague has to seek it from all angles. Not to mention family, friends, and all the dear people in their lives who they have to keep in touch with. The to-do list goes on and on. Subsequently, the rules of life become harder and harder to navigate, hence multitasking being the only critical skill that can come to one’s rescue.
Frequently, I ran into people who ask me, “How do you manage to handle school, work, and serving on the Public Relations Association of Uganda (PRAU)?” I thought I would use my experience to share how I have been able to juggle all these and keep sane and happy.
With mental health being a prevalent issue among the working population lately, it is key that one avoids things that could potentially lead them down this rabbit hole. Given the zillion things I have on my sleeves, I don’t want to face a scenario where something I love to do has driven me down the path of not being effective as a result of being overwhelmed with work and life struggles. So, I plan my time well.
A daily or weekly to-do list, prioritization, then apportioning time on what is to be done and when, has helped to somewhat solve Shirley’s work-life balance puzzle.
Typically, I plan all the things to be done the following day, a day prior. When you work in a setting where any moment, an ad-hoc project might be briefed, you always expect something to crop up out of the blue. Hence, I am not caught off guard.
Working with teams is a plus. Knowing how to work with people, when to delegate, and who on the team will effectively perform that task helps avert prolonged tasks.
For my routine, early mornings, lunch breaks, and evening time are either dedicated to school assignments and PRAU responsibilities under the Director PR docket, both of which tasks are outside my 8 to 5. Such tasks are executed depending on their level of importance, which helps me to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
Proactiveness is key in being a multitasker; identifying a brief and working on it before it comes your way is important, as this will save you from feeling agitated. Given that you collaborate with multiple teams who may not align with your delivery timelines, it is key that you plan ahead and factor them in your planning, hence beating them to it would save you a lot. And this applies to both work and side hustle, where you deal with multiple business partners.
If there is anything that sets multitaskers apart, it is the positivity and willingness with which they get work done while juggling different things at a go with precision, because it is in their DNA. Ask MTN Uganda’s CEO Sylvia Mulinge, she is a clear example of someone who can juggle so many things and still dedicate time to family and things they love to do, just check her social media platforms, you will know what I’m talking about.
Remind yourself regularly why multitasking matters. There are 8 billion people in the world today. Each one of them, including you, gets only 24 hours a day. Additionally, organizations are increasingly looking to get more done using lesser resources, implying that multitaskers are their preferred human resource. In order to perform the tasks before you, increase productivity, yet be able to save some time, you must develop the mental and physical capacity to combine numerous tasks.
By Shirley Birungi, Director PR at the Public Relations Association of Uganda (PRAU)
