Tips and tools to increase your work-life balance during Covid and beyond
TOTAL COURSE LENGTH: APPROX 4 HOURS
We’ve undergone a tremendous shift in the past couple of years with the global pandemic – striving to juggle working from home with family and personal life. And all the while learning the technology to make that happen.
The learning curve has never been so steep.
Our stress levels, anxiety, and fear have risen to all-time highs while our certainty and access to regular routines have plummeted. Our boundaries have changed and become fuzzy. And talk about the ‘new normal’ is rife – yet who can even remember the old ‘normal’?
While we’re all in this together, our situations vary wildly, which makes it even harder to relate to each other.
- Some of us are trying to work while little ones, with sticky fingers, cling to us, begging for mommy/daddy time, while we look longingly to those who have quiet, uninterrupted spaces to work.
- Those of us who have quiet, interrupted time may be suffering from deep loneliness and lack of connection, as our parents, friends, and/or children can be counties or countries away.
- Some of us are clinging longingly to working from work and are resisting returning to the workplace.
- Those of us who are trying the new hybrid may be overwhelmed and confused – with no ‘normal’ work rhythm anywhere in sight.
- While yet others are rejoicing about being back full time but finding our expectations may be dashed.
Meanwhile, throughout these challenges, we’re told to look for “balance” in our home and work life. It’s enough to make us dizzy with confusion, trepidation, hopelessness, and more stress.
Fear not. There is hope.
We’ve come a long way in learning how to navigate the challenges of working from home. Let’s build on all the things you’ve learned in the past years and add to your toolkit so you’re healthier, more relaxed, less stressed, and more resilient.
Here’s how.
Join me for this interactive, online workshop where I’ll introduce you to a myriad of simple tools to add to your toolkit. The workshop will be very practical, so you can get going on your continued way to wellness ASAP. It’s also 100% self-paced so you can dive in and complete the whole thing in a few hours, or dip your toe in from time to time. It’s your course and your pace.
Delivery:
The course is divided into nine sections (hover your mouse over each lesson to get more information) →
- Introduction
- Lesson 1: checking in Welcome! You made it. I’m so glad you’re here. In this section, you’ll learn more about the learning objectives, a little bit more about me, your instructor, Lee-Anne Ragan, and the secret message I’ve hidden somewhere in the course for you (aka an Easter egg).
- Lesson 2: How to get the most out of this course You worked hard to get here, and I know we both want you to make the most of your time and your learning. This section will help you do just that in a way that works for you.
- Lesson 3: Pick your own adventure I get it. You’ve got a lot of plates in the air and they’re all spinning and threatening to overflow. That’s why I encourage you to dip into the course content that best meets your needs right now. Go through the lessons one by one OR create your own learning adventure. Scroll over each lesson to get a quick overview and then dive into what piques your interest (and your needs).
- Quick little pick me ups
- Lesson 4Time-crunched? Need something quick and simple? This is your go-to place for some really fast, easy pick-me-ups.
- Big picture
- Lesson 5: Intro to work-life balance Let’s dive into your work-life balance introduction together. Here we go!
- Lesson 6: covid and context We’ve been through a lot (understatement of the year!). Which is why it’s important to understand how your work-life balance is affected by the context of the pandemic.
- Overwhelmed
- Lesson 7 Here’s what to do if you’re overwhelmed.
- 4 tools to know thyself
- Lesson 8: ambiguity One of my four tools to know yourself better, discovering your tolerance for ambiguity has a huge impact on your work-life balance.
- Lesson 9: changeOne of my four tools to know yourself better, here’s how to figure out how you typically deal with change and how that relates to work-life balance.
- Lesson 10: gritOne of my four tools to know yourself better, when you know your grit level, you’ll have powerful insight into your path towards work-life balance.
- Lesson 11: motivationOne of my four tools to know yourself better, knowing your motivation style will help you achieve and maintain work-life balance.
- 4 skills
- Lesson 12: Keeping up Do you ever feel like no matter how much and how hard you work that you just can’t keep up? Here’s some help with that very issue.
- Lesson 13: Weird stressbusters Dive into my weird (but science-based) stress busters that are proven to work almost instantly.
- Lesson 14: accountability/responsibility Find out where you’re at on the accountability/responsibility continuum when it comes to your work-life balance.
- Lesson 15: celebration We get so busy focusing on the next goal to achieve that we often forget to celebrate our achievements. Here’s how to do just that.
- Ready for action
- Lesson 16: diagnoseIt’s been a long, challenging few years and yet you’re making your way through. Before we look forward to your future work-life balance, take some time to look back with my ‘diagnosis’ tool.
- Lesson 17: Mapping Here’s my easy and illuminating ‘map’ to your three types of stressors.
- Lesson 18: Pulling togetherI applaud your progress. You’re doing great. Here’s what we’ve covered together so far.
- Lesson 19: TodoYou carved out time to take this course. Here’s an easy-peasy tool to help ensure you actually use what you’ve learned.
- Lesson 20: PartnerYou’re so close to finishing. Way to go! As you take what you’ve learned and apply it to your own work-life balance, here are some top tips to ensure you won’t get overwhelmed along the way.
- BonusHere’s a gift to your future self - your one-stop place for ALL the resources we covered in this course PLUS a bunch of bonus resources. Enjoy!
- Checking Out and Using What You’ve LearnedYou did it! Here’s how to put all your great learning into action.
What other UN staff have said about this workshop:
- What did you enjoy most? Pretty much everything. It was very informative
- Very informative on handling work/life during COVID
- Great!. Positive. It’s enlightening and puts in words how to manage certain aspects of work-life balance.
- I feel inspired and eager to apply and develop some of the skills
- Realizing that I’m not alone and that there are ways for dealing with stuff.
- A breath of fresh air Awesome
- Fantastic! So much to learn.
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Lessons in This Course
- Unit 1, Lesson 1 — Checking In
- Unit 1, Lesson 2 — How to get the most out of this course
- Unit 1, Lesson 3 – Pick your own adventure
- Unit 2, Lesson 4 – Quick little pick me ups
- Unit 3, Lesson 5 – Introduction to work-life balance
- Unit 3, Lesson 6 – Covid and context
- Unit 4, Lesson 7 – Overwhelmed
- Unit 5, Lesson 8 – Know thyself Tool -1 Ambiguity
- Unit 5, Lesson 9 – Tool – 2 Change
- Unit 5, Lesson 10 – Tool – 3 Your Grit Level
- Unit 5, Lesson 11 – Tool – 4 Motivation
- Unit 6, Lesson 12 – Skill 1 – Keeping up
- Unit 6, Lesson 13 – Skill 2 – Weird stressbusters
- Unit 6, Lesson 14 – Skill 3 – Accountability and Responsibility
- Unit 6, Lesson 15 – Skill 4 – Celebration
- Unit 7, Lesson 16 – Self-Diagnose
- Unit 7, Lesson 17 – Mapping
- Unit 7, Lesson 18 – Pulling together
- Unit 7, Lesson 19 – To do
- Unit 7, Lesson 20 – Final top tips
- Unit 8 – Bonus
- Unit 9 – Checking Out and Using What You’ve Learned
Hello! And welcome! You belong here. I’m so glad you dropped in.
I work with mission-driven individuals and organizations to help them learn, laugh and lead.
Specifically, I focus on three areas:
- Workshops that Work - Training of trainers: taking that beloved subject matter expertise of yours and teaching it to others for game-changing workshops with real impact
- Tech tools for ease, efficiency, learning and communication and
- Working Better Together, including teambuilding and the 7 C’s - communication, con res, culture, creativity, collaboration, celebration, and change.
I've worked with more than 50,000 participants in and from more than 150 countries. I'm the founder and facilitator of the Learning and Development Roundtable, a monthly online gathering for people interested in learning, training, education, L&D etc., which has been meeting for more than 10 years and for which the roundtables count towards UN-mandated training.
I'm a proud Canadian who calls Kenya home..
My clients include UNON, UN Environment, UNDP, UNHabitat, various CVE organizations (Countering violent terrorism), the Canadian High Commission, the Danish Embassy and many INGOs and NGO’s and intriguing entrepreneurs and solopreneurs.
You can find my interactive bio here (make sure to run your mouse over my face for a surprise).
On a personal note I believe:
- creativity is inherent in all of us.
- being human means being socially responsible.
- for many of us, suffering is optional.
- for all of us, humour is our golden ticket.
- in differences that make a difference and similarities that are significant.
- that to see myself and others fully I have to get out of my own frame.
I think:
- the world could use more whimsy
- cookie dough should be a food group unto itself.
I know:
- being a Canadian living in Kenya rocks
