Finding your balance

So I am back from a full week away with the family, answering no work related calls or emails and posting barely a handful of comments on dental Facebook threads. Instead my time was spent swimming, climbing, walking, reading, playing games with the kids and socialising. A proper holiday.

This time away with a pretty strict cut off from the dental world has helped to remind me of the importance of finding the right balance between time dedicated to work and time free from it. If I am honest, before last week I don't think I have had a day this year that didn't involve at least some significant time dedicated to dentistry. There have been periods of time this year when I have attempted to find this balance by forcing myself to switch my phone off when getting home in the evenings but that habit has never stuck because it just isn't convenient.

What I have decided I will be trying going forward is to leave FB notifications off so that the little numbers don't drag me back in multiple times a day. Instead it will make it easier to just check FB at times of my choosing just a few times a day. And I am also going to dedicate more time to pursuing non-dental hobbies such as reading fiction books at the weekends and increasing the amount of time I spend really trying to improve the quality of my Tai Chi. And as part of rearranging my diary to accommodate my time teaching in Exeter I will be attempting to have one long weekend every month and even though we may not be going away I plan to make these weekends dedicated to family time.

How do you attempt to find your balance?