The 4–2–2 manifesto: My guide to better work-life balance
By: Sreedhar Reddy
Tags: Design Process, User Experience, Design, Ux Collective, Productivity

This is a story of love and loss. I love my job (I design future healthcare products & services) but I started to lose control over my life outside of work. Well, its not as tragic as it sounds but demands at work and my own work habits did lead to a poor work-life balance over the last few years. I had very little or almost no time to spend with my friends and family, learn any new skill or spend any time to unwind.

I thought I was managing both spheres relatively better when work and home lives were conducted in two separate physical spaces; I wasn’t doing great but I was managing OK. As working from home became a new reality due to COVID-19 situation, home and office merged into one, time boundaries became virtually non-existant and as a result I worked a lot more than I used to. I never had a burnout but it felt like I was close to having one. To make it worse, this felt like a lasting change. I knew my work habits had to change if I were to continue doing good work. I knew I needed something that would last beyond this Covid-19 induced work-life situation.

As a designer, I love to frame and work with crisp problem statements. I knew that I needed to fix my work timings but more importantly I needed to organize it well enough to do quality work — How might I manage my own time more effectively at work? So that I am able to make time for things that matter to me outside of work (family, upskill etc.)?

This is what I came up.

4–2–2 Manifesto

I will first prioritize my time to craft things. (4 Hours)

I will spend half my time to focus on applying my craft — creating design sketches, prototyping etc. This is what excites me and I want to spend lion’s share of my time on.

I will carve out time to enable communication with others. (2 Hours)

I will spend a quarter of my time unblocking my team — solving design problems, managing stakeholder expectations etc.

I will allot some time to focus on miscellaneous work. (2 Hours)

I will allot some time to focus on miscellaneous tasks — respond to emails, be part of scrum ceremonies, attend to any work that is not critical, and if nothing else use it as ‘connection time’ with colleagues.

Initial sketch of the 4–2–2 manifesto

Why I think this would work

It’s not like any other plan that it would start and end with me, it’s a Manifesto! Manifestos are published declarations of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer; by deliberately choosing to publish this manifesto I hope to be setting the right expectations with the right people in the right manner. I will be using this as a tool to assess how I spend my time at work — how I prioritize and manage my work within the 8-hour bracket, its impact on my performance and overall well-being.

My current role is a combination of individual contributor and design lead. I devised this manifesto keeping my day-to-day responsibilities and team norms in mind. As I work with colleagues distributed across 3 time zones I end up spending most of my late evenings in remote meetings. I prefer starting early but doing so and working late evenings was taking a toll on me. After a bit of experimentation, I figured 1PM-9:30PM works best, I am able to balance between focus time and still have enough overlapping time to work with team members from other time zones. I have reserved my mornings for exercise, rituals to improve mental clarity and some family time.

This is an experiment and the division of time is based on my current role, responsibilities and the overall setup. As I move forward I would continue to adapt this manifesto and keep the the wheel of work-life balanced.