The Third Space - Finding Balance and Happiness

Ever struggle to get that balance between work and home?

Ever wonder how you might be able to get a better balance? Originally I thought that managing what I did at work was a key to a better work-life balance, but lately I have found the work of Dr Adam Fraser and The Third Space.

What is the Third Space?

Dr Adam Fraser highlights that as you transition between your job and home, you need to utilise this 'Third Space' to unwind from the business of work. He suggests doing this through three ways:

1. Reflect
   “As you move away from your day, reflect on your day. Make sense of it. Now, when you ask a busy set of high achievers to reflect on their day, what will they think about? Everything that went wrong, everything that sucked about their day. What we found was that when people reflected on their day, they have a cynical bias. So what we did instead was to get people to answer these three questions – ‘what went well today? What did I achieve today? How did I get better today?’ What we found was when people at the end of their day look at what they achieved and how they grew, they got an optimistic mindset and they grew in terms of happiness.”

2. Rest
   “Use this stage to calm your mind and recompose so you don’t move onto the next task with racing thoughts. Depending on time, take a few deep breaths, do a crossword puzzle on the bus on the way home from work, or go for a quick walk around the block.”

3. Reset
   “Align your mindset with what is about to happen. Ask yourself what your intention is. Do you want to enjoy time with your family? Think about how you’re going to show up when you walk through that door. What’s your intention? How do you have to behave to get that intention?” When you walk through the door at the start of the day, how do you affect the office? When you get home at the end of the day what kind of energy do you bring?

“They say there are two types of people in life, those who light up a room when they walk and those who light up a room when they walk out,” Adam says.

If you are looking for a way to get that work-life balance right, then finding your Third Space might be the answer. Take a look if you are interested. Here is a great introductory video:

Thanks for reading!

---

Come and join us in the Team Australia Discord Channel

^{Thanks to @ryivhnn and @bearone for the fantastic footers :)}