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Two Major Challenges Of Being A Financial Analyst: Time Management And Work Life Balance
* All work and no play will eventually burn you out * Vacation is the down time for you to re-charge your energy: use it wisely * Only a balanced life will enable you to move forward fastest, furthest and easiest
“What’s the longest time you have worked without a vacation?” This is a post that caught my attention while I was visiting a CFA forum
Many of the responses were quite appalling: 14 months ago but has since worked every single public holiday, 2 years 7 months, 4 years and one analyst even said going on 6 years!
Time management and work life balance are two major challenges. Granted these answers may represent only the more extreme cases, it is indicative that being a financial analyst is one of the more stressful occupations. Financial analysts who don’t learn these two lessons will sooner or later get burned out.
Usually, financial analysts feel bad about taking their vacations because there is always some time-sensitive work that needs to be done. The work pile keeps growing when you are away from the office. So you need to make a less painful choice of the two: taking your vacation now and put in a week of all-nighters to play catch up or skip the vacation to avoid falling behind.
Other times, you may feel that if you’ll just sacrifice your personal life temporarily for now, you will establish your career sooner. Once your position with the company is secure, you’ll take your vacations.
Companies provide vacation days for a reason. You need your rest to re-energize and de-stress to prevent burnout as much as any machinery needs downtime for maintenance and prevent over-heating.
Think of your life as a wheel made up of these eight spokes:
1. Health
2. Wealth
3. Family and friends
4. Relationships
5. Career/job
6. Playtime, hobbies and fun
7. Personal development
8. Contribution
Rate yours from 0-10, with 0 being non-existent and the center of the wheel while 10 being the best possible and the rim of the wheel. Now connect them.
What does your wheel look like?
If your wheel is any shape but round, your life cannot move forward with ease. You likely will have trouble staying focused at work when you have family or relationship problems. You are likely to grow resentful of the heavy workload without fun for an extended time and will gradually lose your passion in the career that once motivated and excited you.
For total success in the long-term, all of you needs to move forward, not just a part of you. Only when your wheel is round and at a maximum of 10 for all aspects of your life will it take you where you want to go much faster, much further and with much more ease than any crooked wheel.