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Perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of being an apprentice or trainee is finding a work-life balance. You have various work commitments competing for your time which can sometimes leave your social life and hobbies wanting.
I thought I would share with you a concept a friend once imparted on me. It’s called the ‘Four Burners Theory’. Some of you may have heard of it before under its British guise, the ‘Four Rings Theory’, however, they are essentially the same concept. The Four Burners Theory was first coined by the New York journalist, David Sedras, in an article he wrote to document his time travelling in Australia. It is a way of visualising one’s life and recognising that you cannot give one hundred percent of your energy to all aspects in your life at any given time.
The theory asks that you picture a gas cooker with four hobs. One represents your family, one your friends, one your health and the last your work. According to its creator, in order to be successful, you need to turn off one of your burners and to be really successful you need to turn off two of your burners. This is a relatively morbid concept and I prefer to think that the theory offers a good prompt for thought over what success looks like to you. Is it being the top of your industry? Is it being able to complete a marathon in sub three hours or is it being the most liked person in the room? Personally, I think success is a combination of these factors. Success is recognising when you are not providing enough energy to one of your burners and dialling back on some of the other burners to compensate.
In this respect, I believe the theory offers a good visual for a work-life balance. If your work burner is burning incandescently bright but your health or friend’s burner is choking smoky fumes, perhaps it’s a sign that you need to divert some of your energy to other important areas of your life. It is perhaps most usefully perceived as a snapshot at a given point in your life. For example, as I prepare to take the SQE1 exam, I have no doubt that my work burner will be a torrent of hot flame, whilst my other burners are likely to look like dismal embers by comparison, but I take that as a prompt that when I have finished my exams, it is time to take a moment and put my efforts into other areas of my life.
Others have used this concept to consider how they can make aspects of their burners more efficient, to enable them to spread their time more effectively. James Clear, an author and productivity expert, did an interview for the Next Big Idea Club on this subject, drawing out three main ways to combat the issue of trade-offs in the work-life balance conundrum. The full interview can be read here, but broadly the first idea considered the application of outsourcing aspects of our life, to free up our most valued commodity: time. For example, you may hire a cleaner to tidy the house or use a drycleaner to do your washing, freeing up time to spend with your family or go for that run you said you would do earlier in the week.
The second idea is to set clear and definite boundaries on our time, making our efforts more productive. This ties into the concept of Parkinson’s law, the idea that a task will only ever take you as long as you allocate to it. The idea is that if you only have 30 mins to tackle a task, it will only take you that long, whereas if you allocate the whole day to it, it will take you the whole day.
The third option is looking at our lives more holistically, a seasonal approach to how we split our efforts. When things are quieter at work, you are able to turn down the work burner and add some more gas to family and friends. This is an approach that I allude to in respect of my SQE exams above.
One additional option that I thought I would leave you with, is to consider whether you can double up on your burners. Are there opportunities for you to apply the same energy to two burners in one exercise. For example, can you go for a long walk with a loved one hitting your health and family burners? Is there an opportunity for you to join a football friendly league at work hitting your health and friends burners? This leads into the much deeper concept of considering what is important to you in your career choice. Perhaps you are looking for an employer, such as Michelmores, that offers you work-life balance perks, such as flexible working, sports clubs and a generous holiday allowance.
However you decide to manage your time, it is good to remember the constraints on trying to do everything in life all at once, and to take stock of the aspects of your life that remain important to you.
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