Work-Life Balance

An MA in Technical Communication and E-Learning, at the University of Limerick. One year full-time, two years part-time. Online, on-campus, or blended. A very diverse course with very diverse study options.

Based in Galway and (at the time of applying for this MA) working full-time I opted for part-time and fully online. By semester two (of five), I was pregnant with my daughter. I opted then for a years leave of absence to return in September 2020, blurry-eyed and bushy-tailed.

I was a little apprehensive at the thought of attempting to work, study, and mother at the same time. But surprisingly, the structure and routine of having a small child created structure and routine in work and study that I had never had before. I found that I was more focused and less likely to procrastinate because I knew I only had X amount of time to study before my husband left for work. I also close my laptop at 9pm every night and take an early(ish) night; as there is always the threat of a sleepless night when you have a small child in the house.

This structure was lacking when I completed my undergrad. As many do, I would stay up past midnight to complete course work, often pulling all-nighters to make deadlines. Don’t get me wrong; it worked! However, I now wonder how much better I could have done if I ensured structure and (most importantly) sleep to my routine back then.

My current situation made me think of something the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg said a few years ago,

Work-life balance was a term not yet coined in the years my children were young; it is aptly descriptive of the time distribution I experienced. My success in law school, I have no doubt, was in large measure because of baby Jane. I attended classes and studied diligently until 4 in the afternoon; the next hours were Jane’s time, spent at the park, playing silly games or singing funny songs, reading picture books and A. A. Milne poems, and bathing and feeding her. After Jane’s bedtime, I returned to the law books with renewed will. Each part of my life provided respite from the other and gave me a sense of proportion that classmates trained only on law studies lacked.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Advice for Living, NY Times,
By Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Oct. 1, 2016

Bader’s time with baby Jane is almost identical to my time with my daughter. I can only wish my influence will be as significant as Bader’s!

Covid-19 has shifted a lot of our lives online, with many people working remotely. A situation that is likely to continue post-Covid. Unfortunately, remote work can lead to an inability to ‘switch-off’ and the work-life balance can weigh heavily on the working end. This ‘new-norm’ is something we all have to adjust to, although, what I have learned in these past six months, is invaluable to the work-place of the future: the importance of switching-off.

Thankfully, the working from home legislation that is currently making motions in the Dáil, with ‘the right to disconnect’, is a fabulous one. Permitting workers to disconnect from work allows for the all-important work-life balance. Something that Ruth Bader Ginsburg and I both highly recommend.