NAV CANADA

Meredith Ivany

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, like many others, my life outside of work shrank to quiet evenings of reading books and watching TV with my partner. My other hobbies and interests fell to the side and it left me feeling unfulfilled and overly reliant on my job as my main source of purpose. Without other meaningful pursuits, work started to feel higher-stakes than it needed to be and routine decisions carried more stress than they should.

Ask any HR professional about work-life balance or stress management and you’ll likely hear the usual advice: take breaks, set boundaries, use your vacation days. These are all good strategies, but this advice is often incomplete. What’s missing from the conversation is the idea that a rich, fulfilling life outside of work can actually enhance your performance at work. We often frame self-care as rest and recovery and while sleep, nutrition and mental health are essential, there’s another layer: actively investing in personal interests, relationships and side projects can build resilience, reduce feelings of pressure and exercise our minds in different and valuable ways.

This will look very different across individuals depending on where your skills and interests lie. Here are some examples from my life that might help you think about how your personal pursuits are assets to your professional life.

Side Hustles as Skill Builders

Early in my corporate career, I ran a small side hustle proofreading academic grants and manuscripts for researchers in my field who had English as their second (or even third!) language. Not only was the work satisfying, but it became a career advantage. I was honing my written communication skills in a new way, staying on top of the latest developments in industrial-organizational psychology and building fluency with research findings that I could later apply in my full-time role. When it came time to evaluate new assessment tools or interpret validation studies, I had an edge, not just because of my formal training, but because I’d been actively engaging with the material.

Keeping Rarely Used Skills Fresh

My full-time role requires advanced statistical analysis, but I only need to do this once every year or two. That’s a long time to go without practice. For a few years, I tutored university-level statistics on the side. It wasn’t a major time commitment, just a few sessions each semester, but it made a big difference as a low-stakes way to sharpen high-stakes skills.

“As HR professionals and as leaders, our actions help set the tone. Others look to us for cues on what is acceptable, encouraged or expected”

Hobbies Build Creativity and Mindfulness

Not everything needs to be monetized to be worthwhile. In recent years, I’ve taken up gardening and painting. I’ve found that the input is small, but the impact is outsized. In the summer, I take half an hour to tend to my fruit and vegetable garden most mornings before logging in, which gives me a sense of calm and accomplishment that sets the tone for the day. Art has become a feature of my home office as I rotate new works through the space and my pieces are often icebreakers during meetings with colleagues and external partners. These pursuits involve a form of mindfulness that helps me to hone my observational skills and look at problems in a different way.

Relationships That Reframe

I moved to a new city shortly before the pandemic and when lockdown restrictions lifted, I found it challenging to form new friendships locally. After several months of trying (and failing) to make personal connections through my workplace and neighborhood, I turned to technology and downloaded a friendship-finding app. I went for coffee with matches and eventually introduced the ones I clicked with to each other. Over time, we formed a solid friend group.

That friend group has been more than just social support. When I was navigating the challenges of transitioning into a people manager role, I would vent to my friends and get different perspectives because they worked in different industries, sectors and functions. Our outside-the-box discussions helped me reframe problems and approach them in more creative, balanced ways.

Leading by Example

As HR professionals and as leaders, our actions help set the tone. Others look to us for cues on what is acceptable, encouraged or expected. When we make space for ourselves to pursue our interests, we don’t just protect our own wellbeing–we model a healthier culture for those around us so others can feel empowered to build a rich and fulfilling life outside of work.