With InterNational Downshifting Week 2008 starting this Saturday It got me thinking about some of the work life balance ideas around at the moment. The idea of InterNational Downshifing week is nothing to do with changing gears on your bike, or your car - it is about about taking one week of your life and slowing the pace right down, and hopefully leading a greener simpler life.

In essence, if you re-address your work/life balance in favour of ‘life’ then you will inevitably slow down, enjoy the simpler and often greener things in life more. I know many people love work etc, I am just putting the idea out there. The principle, in a nutshell is that working less will mean you will probably earn less (boo), therefore become thriftier and greener naturally (yay). Your overall consumption should decrease - and this will have a positive effect on the environment. Failing this the website has list of other things you can do to downshift - even if it is just a little, like shopping locally for a week.

This may well be a wee bit extreme for most of us but there are less radical measures you can take to get back in touch with your creative side, balance your life and possibly become a little greener. Back in December the Carsonified team took a step back from their computers and took a week out to do something creative (idea week). They came up with the fabulous hugmymac.com, they made fabric cases (hugs) for Mac Books and iPhones – the results were pretty impressive and I think they even surprised themselves.

I think the main point here is downshifting doesn’t have to mean re-arranging your entire life, it can be as simple as changing one or two things, it could make a big difference – who knows you might surprise yourself!

Photo supplied by hAdamsky’s over on Flickr.