On May 6, 2015, two foam boards with the question, “How do you balance life and career?” were mounted on easels at the Career-Life Balance Initiative Launch, an event open to the entire University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) community. People came to learn about the Career-Life Balance Initiative at UMBC, a new initiative on campus. Attendees were provided with a colored post-it specific to the following categories: blue (administrative members), green (faculty), orange (undergraduate students), pink (staff), and yellow (graduate students). Each person had the opportunity to place his/her post-it on the foam boards, describing how he/she individually balances life and career responsibilities. As an open-ended question, it brought insight to the various strategies people utilize for achieving career-life balance.
Career-Life Balance Initiative Foam Board.
Attendees were given the opportunity to answer the question, “How do you balance life and career?” Post-it color key: Administrative Members (Blue Post-Its), Faculty (Green Post-Its), Graduate Students (Yellow Post-Its), Undergraduate Students (Orange Post-Its), and Staff (Pink Post-Its)
From the post-its that were gathered, there was a wide variety of career-life balance strategies that were used. Below is a list of methods the UMBC community has used for balancing life and career responsibilities. Feel free to use the strategies below if you find them useful!
Example Career-Life Balance Strategies Utilized by the UMBC Community:
- Exercising
- Having a good boss
- Having a massage
- Keeping work tasks at work and home tasks at home
- Reserving a day out of the week to relax
- Spending time with family and friends
- Taking a nap
- Taking a vacation
- Using the Google calendar to organize and plan events
- Waking up super early