Work Life Play with Aaron McHugh

Discovering, restoring and recovering balance requires being honest about and accepting your limitations. I did not want to believe that I had physical, emotional and relational limitations. Unfortunately, despite my disbelief, my thresholds of energy stopped me in my tracks. I had ignored my stamina limitations for so many years until I found myself depleted and on the sidelines of life.

In this podcast, I offer my personal experiences of accepting my thresholds and limitations. I always feared that if I heeded the idea that I had limitations, it somehow seemed like giving up. Today, operating within my capacity I can live, work, play and love in a sustainable way.

Dan Roam is the author of the international bestseller The Back of the Napkin, the most popular visual-thinking business book of all time. Dan helps business people think and solve problems visually. His newest book, Draw to Win distills ten years of working with business professionals from Microsoft, IBM, The White House, Google, Lucas Films....and a bunch of others.

Build in MicroRest into your day. Begin choosing to pause, for a moment, a second or a few minutes. Stop, come to an idle and catch your breath.

Work: Schedule five to fifteen minute meeting blocks on your calendar. Title the meeting "Planning" or "Strategy". Be proactive by building in moments in your work day that enable you to rest, pause and catch your breath.

Power naps: Take ten to thirty minutes to rest. Turn off your cell phone. Turn on a timer. Put in your headphones and listen to something tranquil. Quiet your mind or fall asleep. Do what's good for you.

Pause on your block: After work, before walking in the door to your family, pull over on your street and pause. Remind yourself of your love and gratitude for your family. Honor the realities of your day, but transition away from your work day and into your family life.

Stop Multitasking and starting doing one thing at a time. In this episode, I outline how multitasking deters us from experiencing balance. Instead, focusing our energy and attention on one task, conversation, meeting, email, or project at a time increases our productivity.

Money Why you should start Singletasking. Multitasking makes us 40% less productive. Read More

Fast CompanyMultitasking rewires our brain and stunts our emotional intelligence. Read More.

Forbes Multitasking doesn't work. The truth is we are wasting time. Our brains aren't equipped to Multitask. Read more

I've found that closing the gap between where I am today and Where I want to be usually isn't accomplished with one magic lever switch or dial adjustment. Instead, it is a series of small adjustments made regularly over time that slowly reconditions our choices and habits to alter our future.

Restoring Balance in our Work, Life, Play, Health and Relationships isn't easy. We individually maintain our own definition of what balance means to us. Start where you are and begin making adjustments to recovering balance. Start by doing one thing at a time-Stop Multitasking.