For most busy professionals, separating work from home is a fantasy. Whether it is checking emails at the dinner table, taking a conference call at 9pm, scrolling through the latest Twitter feed when the morning alarm goes off, we are constantly connected to our work and/or business. We can moan about the blending of our personal and professional lives or we can come up with innovative solutions. It’s time to empower people to integrate work and life, in ways to position them to succeed at both.
The Australia Institute recently found that Aussies are among those working the longest hours in developed countries. Full-time workers reported working 6 hours extra each week in unpaid overtime, on top of the average 42.8 paid hours. One of the key messages from the A.I. findings was the fact that although Australians recognise the idea of work/life balance, 42% of workers stated their work/life balance had worsened over the last 5 years and 29% stated there was no change at all.
So how do we have it all? How do we engage fully in our careers and still find the time to enjoy the most important things in life?
The answer is Lifestyle Management.
Although lifestyle management and personal concierge services have been around in the U.S.A since the 80’s, Australia is still becoming familiar with the concept. It’s more than simply outsourcing your housekeeping and dry cleaning collection- it’s about having ongoing, high-end, personalised support to help keep the wheels turning in all areas of your personal and professional life.
Time is a scarce commodity and this renders it increasingly valuable. Lifestyle managers are accustomed with dealing with the myriad of tasks their clients throw at them. It could be outsourcing business support tasks to delegating personal shopping – groceries, post office, wardrobe, gifts & flowers. It could be putting together tailor-made international trips or unforgettable weekend getaways. It could be reminding clients about birthdays, events, appointments and making reservations for an upcoming anniversary. It could also mean coordinating entire relocations (interstate or overseas), de-cluttering your home, organising tradesmen and generally being the ‘go-to’ person who knows exactly what you need and how to get it done. A lifestyle manager is your one point of contact to streamline your life.
At the end of the day, having a lifestyle manager ensures the free time you are given is spent doing the things you truly enjoy. Whether you fill this space with fitness, family, friends, leisure, or catching up on Game of Thrones on the couch, the point is that you are making the very most of the time you have, doing what YOU want to do. We can’t always control the hours we work and how much work will overlap into our personal lives – but we can control how we spend the precious downtime we are given. It is no longer a secret of the wealthy few. Lifestyle management is an accessible, cost-effective and highly valued service that is now attainable for everyone. You may even wonder what you ever did without one…