"Work/life balance" and "having it all" are phrases most often associated with working women—and chasing them can create unrealistic pressure around what we’re actually doing, which is living our lives and trying to feel as happy and at peace as we can.
So the real question becomes whether "work/life balance" and "having it all" are even goals worth pursuing. For Jeanelle Teves, the Chief Commercial Officer at stroller brand Bugaboo and a mother of two, both ideas are "falsehoods."
Instead, as Teves shares on the latest episode of "Nice Talk", she thinks in terms of "work/life alignment ... prioritizing the thing that matters most to you in that moment that will mean that you are not going to be able to do something else."
She explains this through what she calls the "pie theory."
"Think about your life and your energy and your time as a whole pie," she says on the podcast. "You're never going to have a perfectly sliced pie. You're going to have some weeks where your work slice looks really big, because maybe you need to kill a pitch, or you have a board presentation. Three weeks ago, it was one of my children's birthdays, and we took them to Disney World, and my entire pie was my family. I had to delegate at work. I did not work out that week. I did not see my friends. No other slices."
Along with the pie theory, Teves—who shares career advice on social media and through her platform Work Lunch—leans on another framework for deciding how to prioritize her time.
"A good exercise, or a good way to determine what actually matters, what's important versus urgent is—I like to think of the things in two timescapes," she says. "So, what is going to matter five months from now and what is going to matter five years from now? And start to prioritize what's important versus what's urgent."
For people working in business especially, the former Nike senior director adds, "It's where can you be good enough, and where can you be excellent?" For example: "Can the deck be an email? Can the presentation be a one-pager and still get the same impact? ... Where are those matter moments where you really have to shine? If you don't know what those are, ask your manager or pay attention in the town hall. There are the things that the boss is talking about and the themes that they're repeating over, and choose projects that you are going to be excellent in those areas."
For more from Teves—including her tactics for becoming more confident at work—check out this week’s installment of Nice Talk. The episode is available everywhere you listen to podcasts.