Every woman is familiar with the pervasive push and pull between your personal life and your career. And that is never more evident than when you’re running full-steam ahead in your career while also balancing a weird dating thing that you don’t quite have a label for. So, if you find yourself pulled in the opposite directions of your illustrious career and a distracting, nebulous, and ultimately upsetting guy situation, take heed. By following a few simple rules, you’ll be able to keep up both a career and that sort of weird thing you’ve got going on.
Use your lunch break to make connections and then pump them for relationship advice.
Getting ahead at work isn’t just about showing up from nine to five. It’s also about being an indispensable team player your coworkers know and love. So when lunchtime rolls around, ask a higher-up to join you for a bite. Then make her read all of your guy’s contradictory text messages. Don’t stop networking until you’ve pumped everyone in the office has read the same texts over and over, and people are scared to have lunch with you.
Use your weekends for work, since he only sees you at weird times anyway.
When it comes to career and dating, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do it all. But lucky for you, your suitor has mostly relegated your meet-ups times to late at night on weekdays. Confusing, sure, but a total gift. You can work on your career during the time when normal dates would happen!
Never be fully present at work.
The best part of being at work is that your body may be sitting in a meeting, but your mind is free to wander. So when your boss outlines steps for the next project, nod at her, but keep fixating on the mixed signals he recently sent you on your last date. He seemed really into you and then suddenly started mentioning another girl he’s dating. What does it mean? By the time the meeting’s over, you’ll have managed to look worried about work while getting a lot of your daily anxious thinking done!
Write down a list of priorities with “career” at the top, but then still prioritize the weird dating thing, unfortunately
Career may be important, but for the most part it’s certain to keep progressing. Meanwhile on the weird dating front, he introduced you to his friends as his “pal” and then privately told you he sees a future with you. Then he didn’t text you for a week. So devote your mental space to figuring out all that. Your career will probably figure itself out!
Hone your expertise in the field of weird dating things.
The Internet isn’t just a work resource for skill advancement and networking. It’s also a great place to learn about the full array of weird dating things on the non-relationship menu. Every day, a journalist labels a new non-dating phenomenon. Whether it’s fading, benching or breadcrumbing, what he’s doing is just one of many documented patterns. So make sure you’re an expert in the field of non-dating so you’ll be ready for the next weird “thing with a guy” when this one inevitably goes up in flames.
In the end, balance isn’t easy to achieve, but it’s an essential part of life. So just remember this: the better you get at balancing career and a weird dating thing now, the more prepared you’ll be to balance the next, more fulfilling phase of life: a career and a weird breakup thing.
