Can You Have Too Much Flexibility?
Working with flex is great. And it can be challenging.
I love how my guest, Annie Auerbach, author of FLEX: reinventing work for a smarter, happier life, in episode #49 of The Sustainable Ambition Podcast shared how what people often get wrong about flexibility is that they think it is soft and pliable, when it actually requires hard edges and setting boundaries. Flex is hard, not soft.
This was helpful for me to hear, as it aligned with my own experience. One of the reasons I started to work for myself was my desire for flexibility. And yet, as I learned in my first year of running my business pre-pandemic, having too much flex and working from home everyday didn’t work for me. I didn’t feel like I was operating at my best. It was hard to focus. I felt stale and a bit bored. I soon found myself getting a co-working space, so that I could get out of the house at least 2-3 times a week and put more structure into my days.
Now after 2 years of the pandemic and working from home, I’m experiencing the same. I’m experiencing cabin fever. In addition, in an effort to do the variety of activities I like to do, I’ve allowed my schedule to become too porous, and in some respects, as Annie says, I’ve not set strong boundaries around my time and how I work, while also being too rigid in staying at home and not varying my environment.
What I’ve learned over the last four years is that not managing one’s flexibility can turn it from a benefit into a detriment. It requires self-discipline.
While there’s a chorus for flex, and I’m singing the tune, I also think we need to be more realistic about what flex looks like to have it work for us.
I encourage you to listen to the podcast episode (link below), check out Annie’s book (featured below), and also offer up these tips that brings forward ideas shared from several of the guests on the podcast over the last year to make flex work for you:
Set boundaries and structures around your time and how you manage your days, weeks, and months.
Get attuned to your energy and how and when you like to work.
Bring flex into multiple areas of your life. (Annie’s book offers a wonderful perspective around this.)
Be flexible with flex. Recognize that you can’t always have it your way, and that flex doesn’t mean you never have to work hard.
Here’s to making flex work for us, not against us.
P.S. Have flex tips you’d like to share that work for you? Send Kathy a quick note. If we hear back, we’ll follow-up with a round-up to share back with all of you. Thanks, in advance!
//
Want to sign-up for Sustainable Ambition™ Forum, our newsletter? Join here!
Sustainable Ambition™ is about crafting a fulfilling career to support your life from decade to decade.
It is centered around articulating your personal definition of success and achieving that without burnout while honoring your personal aspirations and ambitions as they ebb and flow over time. The end game—more fulfillment and ease in your professional and personal life, while still being ambitious.
We offer 1:1 Executive Coaching, Leadership Coaching, or Career Strategy Coaching, as well as VIP Leadership Brand Sessions and Workshops on a range of Sustainable Ambition topics. We also provide tips and inspiration, advice on career management over the decades, guides on key Sustainable Ambition topics of interest, and coverage of tools and inspiration.