Today is World Mental Health Day, making it the perfect time to share another exclusive interview that emphasizes the importance of work-life balance and well-being.
We carry on our mission to explore how global leaders find the balance between professional success and personal fulfillment.
I hope this will inspire you to take action and enhance your well-being and personal satisfaction, while also driving greater success in your career and performance.
Do not allow other people to control your time. Make sure you regain control of that.
This time, I had the pleasure to interview Peter Smith, Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Cover Genius. Peter is an inspiring leader who continually fosters a human touch in his professional environment, keeping it at the heart of everything he does.
In his own words:
“I am Peter Smith, Sr. Vice-President of Strategic Partnerships at Cover Genius.
Much of my role involves strategy but mostly it’s about people! It’s about building relationships internally, cross functionally and, of course, building external relationships to establish and develop global strategic partnerships.
I think of my role very much as building relationships through people connection above anything else.
Personally, I’m a family man with a high school age son. Being part of his life journey has given me whole new perspectives. It’s the most wonderful experience. I enjoy continuous learning, self-improvement, health, fitness, and trying to be a little more Zen every day.”
Let’s dive right into the interview and gain inspiration from Peter’s insights and experiences.
How do you personally define work-life balance, and why do you think it’s important?
Work-life balance means different things to different people.
I don’t believe it’s the amount of hours you spend in work vs. doing other things.
I think of life-work balance as being happy within yourself, in how you spend your time.
Some people would be happy spending more time working. For others, it might be spending more time on their health and fitness, or with their family and friends.
For me, it’s a blend of the two. It’s about feeling like I am making progress at work and in my career, while having the opportunity to do the things that I love, with the people I care about.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in maintaining work-life balance, and how did you manage to overcome it?
My biggest challenge is not taking work “home” with me. Especially working from home, having a start and an end to the work day can be difficult, a real challenge.
Furthermore, we are all connected all the time. Carrying around our phone means it’s really hard actually to escape from emails, calls, Slack, WhatsApp. Particularly when like myself, you work in a global organization where your days are typically bookended with comms, calls, emails from other time zones. So, there’s a huge challenge in knowing where to set your boundaries and figure out which time is your ‘own time’.
Recently I’ve started to plan time in my diary for myself. By adding slots for tasks I need to achieve, and not just for meetings, I can protect my time and choose to use it as I please – from a quick 10 mins planning early on, to thinking and creative – I vary the durations according to what I need to do.
One of the biggest learnings for me over the recent years is do not allow other people to control your time. Make sure you regain control of that.
The second thing that I’ve started to do is genuinely switch off. If I go on leave for example, I choose moments where I might lock my phone in the safe, or simply switch it off – even if it’s just during dinner.
However, whilst you can switch off your phone and be physically present, it’s not always so easy to be entirely in the moment, mentally. In these scenarios is writing down what’s on my mind; Physically putting pen to paper is something that we don’t do so much nowadays – but the power we can regain by such a simple act is rather extraordinary.
Lastly, I don’t try to do everything at once because that’s a sure path to failure. I start small and build micro-habits. After 3, 6 months, I realize that I’ve stacked them all, and it can be quite transformative.
What misconceptions about work-life balance have you encountered in your journey?
The scales aren’t evenly balanced, and they probably never will be. Once you understand and get comfortable with that, it becomes easier to handle when at times the scales have to tip in either direction.
For example, you may be up against a tight deadline, be working on a huge project, or having to entertain clients during the evening, which would typically be family time.
Or, you may have something personal to attend to at home, like a sick child for example, on a day where you’d planned several meetings which you have to drop because of your bigger priorities.
For me, when I think of work-life balance – it’s about priorities and flexibility. For example, I made a commitment to myself on the day my son was born that I would never miss key moments in his life, from learning to walk, to school plays. I’ve stuck to that promise because these things only ever happen once in life, and I don’t ever want to grow old with regrets. I’ve never heard of anybody growing old with regrets that they didn’t turn up to that a work meeting, but you often hear business people speak about regrets that they weren’t there for a key moment in their child’s life.
Make promises to yourself around things that are truly, deeply important to you within your heart and try to stick to those promises. But also realize that life is very rarely evenly balanced, and if you get comfortable with that fact, everything is much easier.
We work in technology, and downtime in tech is a bad thing, but down time in life is a feature. We have to make time for it.
How do you prioritize tasks and manage your time effectively? And could you share some personal strategies or tools that help you stay organized and focused?
Keep things simple and use tools that are available to you.
I used to make lists a lot because I like the feeling of being able to cross things off, which is really important because the satisfaction you get when you can cross something off a task list is huge. But now, there are tools that I use that speed up that process and still allow me to cross things off. For example, within my email app there is an easy-to-use Tasks list, which I use every day and can simply drag items to with ease. The first thing I’ll do every morning is check my task list, and that helps guide how I’m going to prioritize my day.
One thing that I do at the start of every single day is, instead of picking several tasks to do, I ask myself – “what is the one thing that will make a difference today” – and I focus on achieving that one thing! Often it will be something that contributes to my OKRs, KPIs, my priorities, deliverables – or it could be whatever it is that you measure in your own business and for your own self – Will it move the dial? If the answer is no, move on to the next thing. At the end of day if I can say I made progress or ticked off that one thing, I can leave the office happy.
By focusing on one thing, it becomes mentally and physically a lot easier to achieve it and make progress.
Also, build and block time for tasks to give you headspace for thinking and creativity. Often, we think that the only time for them is when we go to bed at night, but that’s the time for sleep. Build that time into your day. If during that time you are not feeling in a creative mood, that’s fine – move on, do something else, go for a walk, refresh and start again.
How do you encourage and support work-life balance within your team?
You have to lead by example. If your team sees you working evenings and weekends, there is a very high chance they are going to start forming the same habits.
It’s really important to set boundaries and stick to them.
For me, a boundary I have is that typically I do not work weekends: my laptop remains shut and I don’t have Slack on my phone. Weekends are for family time. By me doing this, it gives permission to the team to do exactly the same thing.
The same stands for being able to switch off when on leave, affording the same to the team – the same boundaries. As part of the “rules” of how we operate as a team, I afford flexibility to everybody. People hold different roles and responsibilities at home as well as within work, and so I allow the flexibility for people to work where and when they want to a large extent. They stick to the rules: everybody knows where they are, when they are on, and when they are off. If there are major projects or deadlines to be hit, they will afford the same flexibility in return and work as they need to hit those deadlines.
This flexibility also helps to build trust amongst the team, but it’s important to ensure that everybody’s clear on their deliverables and goals, and providing they’re being hit, it’s all good.
I feel it’s important also to have a connection with your team that goes beyond just work.
How do you set boundaries between work and personal time, especially in a remote or hybrid work environment?
Having very clear deliverables and having people clear on what’s expected of them. Then measure that: are targets being achieved, are expectations being met?
If they are, great.
If they are having to work long hours in order to hit those things, and I’ve identified that, then it’s also very important that I address the reason why: is it a capability issue, is it a skills gap or are they overloaded with work, from me or others.
In your check-ins, it’s important to keep abreast of how much time they are actually spending in work. There are 2 things here: if they are spending too much time and I’ve identified that they don’t have a balance, I must understand why and then help them to regain that balance. On the flip side, if somebody’s under delivering, it’s also really important to address that early on. Don’t let it drag on over time because trust will start to diminish. Understand their ‘why’ and don’t jump in with both feet with assumptions. It’s important to adopt an empathetic view and support when needed.
How do you ensure you make time for family, friends, and personal interests despite your professional responsibilities?
Firstly, weekends are out of bounds for work, except in extreme circumstances. Regardless of what happens Monday to Friday, I know weekends are sacred – family and friends time. I safeguard that and I set very clear boundaries around it, so no matter what happens, that time is for the people I care most about. I set that expectation early on in any role that I am doing to make sure everybody knows that.
I also don’t have Slack on my phone. I’ve had varying responses to this when I tell people, particularly within work. Some people react with sheer disbelief, but it’s for a very clear reason: if people need me urgently, they can and will get hold of me. They have my phone number. If I had Slack on my phone, every message from everybody, in every time zone around the world would pop-up on my phone and I would be continuously distracted from morning till night. It’s a very small thing that I do that has a big impact on my life. Figure out what those little things are for you. It might be removing Gmail from your phone, for example, or something maybe not so extreme – a lot of people may gasp at that suggestion – but it could be a small step which makes a huge difference.
How important is physical health (e.g., exercise, diet, sleep, rest) to your work-life balance, and how do you incorporate it into your routine?
This is so important to me. It’s a huge part of my life. There is no balance without these things: exercise, diet, sleep, rest.
We are not machines, despite what some people think, and we really need to prioritize self-care, because ultimately, nothing else matters if we don’t have our health. Prioritizing self-care is imperative.
Down time is really important; we don’t want to experience burnout.
We work in technology, and downtime in tech is a bad thing, but down time in life is a feature. We have to make time for it.
How do you manage and prioritize “me time” in your schedule, and what activities do you enjoy during this personal time?
For me, the waking hours every day, before the sun rises, feel like own personal, private time that I get all to myself before the rest of the world awakens; nobody else gets to interrupt me.
One thing that I’ve built into my daily routine for a long time now is getting up an hour earlier than I need to every day. It doesn’t interrupt my family life or my work life, it’s time just for me.
I’ll stretch, I’ll do breathwork, cold showers. I can do those 3 things within that 1 hour.
I feel that if people can build the discipline and habit to use that time when they would otherwise hit snooze, they will thank themselves for it in the future.
Also, every day, I get outdoors, even on busy days. I get to walk along the river, and I get to see the sky every day, rather than just sitting indoors at my desk all day.
With all the travel that your job entails, what are your top 3 tips for keeping work-life balance on track?
It’s difficult, for sure, with time zones and meetings. Quite often, you are entertaining clients when you travel, so things get skewed – that could be diet, it could be sleep times.
I manage to overcome that by setting my alarm 30-60 mins earlier than I need to in the morning. That’s time that I get back, that I don’t typically have during the rest of my working day.
I make time in destination to explore; by that, I don’t necessarily mean to go out sightseeing – It can be building time even just to go for a walk. Getting out for a short run is a nice way to get outdoors, with the added benefit of enabling me to catch my bearings and of course it helps to reset my body clock, essential if you are dealing with different time zones.
If you don’t enjoy running or can’t carve out enough time, take a walk down the road and grab a coffee, but get outdoors, see the sky, and build it into your routine.
There’s something else in terms of work life balance that I try to do wherever possible. If I have options around flight times, I’ll always try to get home in time to tuck my son in before he goes to bed at night. That’s been a little bit of a non-negotiable for me since he was small.
I found the power to say “no”. “No” doesn’t have to be a bad word. “No” can be said in many different ways that is actually helpful and useful to other people as well as yourself.
As your career progresses and life circumstances change, how do you adapt your work-life balance strategies?
For me, work has always been an important part of my life and something I’ve always been committed to. The time and energy that I’ve personally put into work hasn’t changed an awful lot throughout my career. It’s always been significant.
I’ve continued to challenge myself with different roles, tasks, and jobs, but I’ve always given the same energy and time. So, the work side of things has not really changed much for me. What has changed, and what tends to change for people, is their family life.
As my son’s grown up over the last 12 years, his needs and what we do together as a family have changed and will continue to change over the next 10 years. Therefore, my routine will continue to evolve.
I think ultimately being flexible is really important. Build rules and boundaries around what your non-negotiables are.
Can you share a personal success story where improving your work-life balance led to better performance or greater satisfaction in your work?
One of the things that I’ve found helps an awful lot is doing breathwork every day. some people call it mindfulness; essentially, it’s taking time for yourself to reset, relax and allow your mind to be free of many thoughts; even if it’s for only 5 mins. This can have quite a profound effect on how calm (or not) you are for the rest of the day.
Another real-life example of something I changed that made a big difference… During Covid, I experienced burnout for the first and only time in my life. I was doing the role of 2-3 people, sat in front of a screen for hours upon hours each day. I think because I was working from home permanently, I almost felt there was a greater pressure upon me to deliver.
I built in zero downtime for myself. I was working long days and I was hopping from call to call, quite often without even a minute in between. I remember one very significant moment where I remember just putting my head on my keyboard, and I thought I was having a breakdown. I know now it is burnout and I was burnt out.
What did I do to change things?
The biggest thing I did was learn to say “no” to things. It’s all too easy to say yes because you feel like you want to please everybody. I found the power to say “no”. “No” doesn’t have to be a bad word. “No” can be said in many different ways that is actually helpful and useful to other people as well as yourself.
The power of “no” had a profound impact on my day-to-day work life. It gave me back time: thinking time, free time, airtime to walk and breathe, and get creative – all of those things that I hadn’t done during the previous 6 months that led to burnout.
What advice would you give to someone struggling to find balance between their work and personal life? What is the first step to start?
Put on your own oxygen mask first. There’s a clear reason why: unless you are good, you can’t be any good to anybody else.
I talked about self-care earlier – recognize the importance of that. You are going to be much better in the rest of your work and life.
Don’t make big plans; start small. I talked about micro habits and habits stacking.
For example, if you want to add more exercise into your life, don’t plan on running 3 times a week for 5 miles each time. Start with just popping into your diary once a week that you are going to get out and do a brisk walk for 20 mins. Do that at the same time every week, block it out, and be in control of your own time. Once you’ve done that a few times, add another little habit on top. Instead of just going for a 20 mins brisk walk, put on some shorts, running shoes and a T-shirt, and if you feel like it, run or jog. The likelihood is that you probably will, because you have already mentally set yourself that you are going to do that. But if you don’t, that’s ok; eventually you will.
Start small and just build the habits slowly with small steps.
What is one thought you’d like to share with other leaders to inspire them to improve the work-life balance within their teams?
The most important thing that helps underpin all of this is to build trust within the team. Set clear goals, expectations and boundaries. If you have the right culture and the right people within your team, once you have started to build that trust, let go of the reins and allow people the flexibility to work the way they want to work.
Time will tell if that approach works or not. If it doesn’t work, take action fast, adapt, and then go again. If it still doesn’t work, you need to address the culture and the people. Are there the right people? Is there something wrong with the overall culture of the organization? Is it me?
Lead by example. If you work weekends, your team will work weekends. The likelihood is they’ll feel obliged too. Set your own boundaries, expectations, and rules, share them with the team, and afford them the same.
I hope Peter’s strategies, tips, and best practices inspired you as much as they did me.
I also hope you found that one very first step to start applying today in order to create a better work-life balance.
Remember, your mental health and well-being should always come first—when you’re at your best, you can take care of everything else.
Take care of yourself today and every day!