Ah, the hardest question out there! There are two parts to the question
1) Finding your balance
2) Keeping it
You're asking about the second, but most people haven't figured out the first, so I'll start there with some thoughts.
In terms of finding your balance, you have to first know what does balance mean to you?
+ Hours: Does it mean X amount of hours per day? Does it mean X hours per weekday and Y hours on weekends? Does it mean reserving time for special events?
+ Special Activities: At McKinsey, an expression people used all the time, which resonated with me was "what brings you energy?" In other words, regardless of how many hours you work, as long as you have time for X, you'll feel great
+ Control over your time: Perhaps, regardless of hours, as long as they can be predictable, you'll feel balanced
+ Amount of travel vs. home.
In all of these, everybody is different and this can change over time, too.
Then there's keeping the balance:
+ Communicate it to your supervisors, managers, staffers, etc. and repeat it right at the start of a project
+ Work with people who respect your limits (this may depend on the firm you work for, so know what you're getting into)
+ Don't take crap from anyone, but be reasonable about rare exceptions
+ Overdeliver on your project work, so you never feel self-concious
I can tell you that, personally, at McKinsey, I was always scared to communicate my limits, but whenever I did, I was very impressed by the respect I received from my colleagues.
Happy to discuss further if you reply her or DM.
Best,
Allen
Hi there,
Here are some tips:
Management Consulting can be a though job and you will need some self-discipline to be able to balance it with your personal life.
Mehdi
All firms have internal trainings on this, so you don't need to worry about planning for that now. A few best practices are
First: Assume that you won't
Second: Set expectations so low, that anything is a "plus"
Ok, now that we have that out of the way, here are a few things you can do:
Let me take a few excerpts from a Surival Guide I wrote here: https://www.spencertom.com/2018/01/14/consulting-survival-guide/
Hello!
TBH, most of the times you don´t, and this is why the average stay in consulting is 2-3 years.
This said, there are some people who are better at:
Hope it helps!
Cheers,
Clara
Hi A,
Nice question!
Apart from the 80/20 rule and setting limits, I would say that physical activity together with some meditations (i.e. just getting rid of all unpleasant thoughts and having rest from all news, internet, etc.) are really essential for stable good health (both mental and physical).
It is also good to learn as fast as possible to distinguish between work time and personal life. Here I mean that when your work hours are over, they are over. It is really sometimes hard to switch.
Was this helpful for you?
GB
Hi,
Let me keep it very simple for you. If you want to be a consultant, you need to forget something as work life balance. It definitely differs from company to company and nowadays new ways and means are being leveraged to ease the load off consultants like paid off/unpaid off..But lets accept the fact that work life balance is pretty bad in consulting firms.
I have had my share of it. I was on a major implementation program for British Petroleum where the actual work on the project wasnt too much but then travelling was hectic, from India to Baku, India to Egypt . Moreover you are also being pulled on to lots of other stuff like practice development, recruitment, events, PoV, White Papers, Annual business planning, account planning etc.
So its good to be prepared for a screwed up work life balance then be surprised later.
Thanks