Complete Meeting Guide
Planning for Work/Life Balance
Download this GuideOverview
Although the majority of mothers in the United States work outside the home, women today still do the lion’s share of housework and child care. How can we better balance the workload at home to ensure that women have the time and energy to invest in their careers and men have the opportunity to be equal partners and active fathers? As the second installment of our three-part series “Work & Family: Getting to 50/50,” this meeting will help you develop strategies for creating the work/life balance that works for you.
Meeting Goals
- Understand the value of letting go of perfection, staying motivated at work, and asking for help prioritizing goals when you need it
- Identify the gap between how you spend your time today and your ideal time breakdown
- Learn strategies for improving balance at work and at home
Pre-Meeting Prep
- Watch the “Planning for Work/Life Balance” video individually or as a group
- Send everyone the link to this meeting guide; if meetings are offline, remind them to bring the PDF version of it.
- Remind everyone to bring her One Action update (if you’re doing this)
Meeting Agenda
1 hr 45 min (based on 10-member group size)
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1
Check-In
20 min
Warm up, catch up, and get going
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2
Activity 1: Key Takeaways
5 min
Review the core strategies presented in the “Planning for Work/Life Balance” video
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3
Activity 2: Reflect on Your Current Work/Life Balance
15 min
Do you have enough time in the week to live a balanced, rewarding life?
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4
Activity 3: Discuss Ways to Improve Your Work/Life Balance
30 min
Discuss the strategies that can help you create balance at home and at work
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5
One Action
25 min
The little push you need to go for it
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6
Wrap-Up
10 min
What’s next and a few final words
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7
Optional
One Action update
Check-In
20 min
Warm up, catch up, and get going!
Step 1: Icebreaker
Group activity
1 min per member
An icebreaker is a powerful tool to help us become present with one another and ourselves. One by one, fill in the sentence below and share it with your Circle. Listen carefully as each member takes a turn and say thank you when she’s finished. Avoid the urge to slip into conversation.
- If I could give up one task at work, it would be . . .
- If I could give up one task at home, it would be . . .
Step 2: Member Updates
Group activity
1 min (or less) per member
Once you’re warmed up, go around your Circle and share personal updates. As a general rule, personal updates should be brief and focus on big changes and important decisions in your life. (It’s OK not to have one every month!)
If you have a One Action update, share that with your Circle at the same time. (A One Action is one concrete action you committed to take at your last meeting; the goal of a One Action is to step outside your comfort zone or practice a new skill.)
For example, a member update might go like this: “Since our last meeting, I asked my boss for a big assignment and got it. I’m thrilled but a little nervous [personal update]. For my One Action, I asked that coworker I’ve been struggling with out for lunch. She immediately said yes, and I was surprised by how easily we got along. I can see it helping in the office, and we’re going out for lunch again next week—her invite! [One Action update].”
Activity 1: Key Takeaways
Individual activity
5 min
Before you jump into today’s meeting, review the key takeaways from the “Planning for Work/Life Balance” video individually or as a group:
Give up on perfection. Doing things well is better than making them perfect. Perfection is stressful! “Good enough” will lead to greater happiness.
Don’t leave until you leave. It’s a perfectly reasonable decision to stay home with your children if you’re able to, but don’t take your foot off the gas at work in anticipation of having a family. Instead, try to achieve as much as you can in your career to be in the best possible position to balance work and family life when the time comes to make that call.
Build professional credibility. The more professional experience you have before you have kids, the more power you have to negotiate and build a career you love.
Learn to ask questions and prioritize. Engage your boss and coworkers in prioritizing. What are your key responsibilities? What matters most in your job? Sometimes you may feel yourself being pulled in many different directions. Find out what is most important. It’s in your best interest to prioritize—and it’s great for your boss, too.
Activity 2: Reflect on Your Current Work/Life Balance
Individual activity
15 min
Step 1: How do you want to spend your time?
Individual activity
5 min
Draw. Draw a pie chart showing the percent of time you spend on yourself, your job, and your relationships during your waking hours every week.
Are you happy with the arrangement you drew above? If you could change anything, what would it be? Draw your ideal time breakdown next to your first pie chart.
Step 2: Reflect on your different time breakdowns
Individual activity
10 min
Write. What about your current time breakdown works for you? What doesn’t work?
Write. How is your ideal breakdown different from your current one? Why is it better?
Write. What are some things you can do to help achieve this ideal breakdown?
Write. How would giving up on perfection help? In what area of your life would it have the most impact?
Write. Is there anything you can ask for at home or at work that will help? If so, how will you do this?
Activity 3: Discuss Ways to Improve Your Work/Life Balance
Pair activity
30 min
Step 1: Share your work/life balance strategy
Pair activity
5 min per partner
Break into groups of two or three members and share the following:
- Your current and ideal time breakdowns
- How you plan to get closer to your ideal time breakdown, including where you can give up on perfection and whom you can ask for help
Step 2: Share your reflections
Group activity
2 min per partner
Go around the Circle and share your reflections from the pair activity:
- What surprised you about the difference between your current and ideal time breakdowns?
- What’s one area in which you can give up on perfection to achieve greater work/life balance?
One Action
20 min
We recommend you close every meeting by committing to a “One Action”—one concrete thing you’re going to do before your next Circle meeting to step outside your comfort zone or practice a new skill.
Step 1: Identify the action you’re going to take
Individual activity
5 min
Giving up a task you don’t enjoy, adopting a “good enough” approach to certain parts of your life, or asking to share tasks at home or at work are all strategies for changing how you spend your time.
Write. In the space below, describe a situation you’d like to change in order to move closer to your ideal time breakdown.
Write. What specific action will you take to change the situation?
Write. Create a quick plan. When, where, and (if relevant) with whom will you take action?
Step 2: Share your One Action with your Circle
Group activity
2 min per member
One by one, go around your Circle and complete the following statements:
- One situation that prevents me from having my ideal time breakdown is . . .
- To change this situation, I will . . .
Wrap-Up
10 min
What’s next, and a few final words.
Step 1: Finalize logistics of your next meeting
Group activity
10 min
Before you break, make sure you have the basics covered for your next meeting: day and time, location, food and drink. Decide what you’re going to do when you get together or who’s going to send out ideas. You may also want to talk through what worked—and what didn’t—in today’s meeting and brainstorm improvements going forward.
Step 2: Close on an energetic and inspirational note
Group activity
2 min
Ready to give up on perfection to make your life more balanced? Go around the Circle and share one thing you plan to do a “good enough” job on in the future!
Optional: One Action Update
Use the following prompts to prepare your One Action Update before your next meeting, to maximize your time with your Circle.
- What was the challenge that you planned to address?
- How did you accomplish this?
- What was the outcome?
- In the end, what did you learn?