How about a vocabulary refresh this spring? Shifting your words can help you shift your perspective, that is, the way you see the world and your place in it. And with a shift in perspective, you can gain new insights, see new ways to do things, and make positive changes for yourself.

You can start this process by being open to opportunities that come your way. For example when I signed up for the Institute of Coaching’s webinar on “Balancing the Scales: Time Theft, Workplace Policies and Women’s Well-Being” led by Gena Chang-Campbell, I wasn’t expecting to get so many insights. But that’s exactly what happened.

First, let’s lead with two ideas that Gena shared: two different ways to describe popular concepts with well-worn phrases. (By the way, the phrases aren’t new but they haven’t gotten the traction they deserve yet.)

1.“Work-life harmony” instead of “work-life balance.”  Both work-life balance and work-life harmony have a similar goal: improving well-being. However, work-life balance highlights a distinct separation between work and personal life. Furthermore, the implication is that you should be striving for equal time and attention for both.

By contrast, work-life harmony directs your attention to integrating your work and personal life in ways that they can complement and support each other. You can find the best flow for you to meet  your priorities. As Dr. Patti Fletcher explained in her Forbes Human Resources Council article, Work-Life Balance Is Over: Let’s Talk About Work-Life Harmony, “Work-life balance and work-life integration were all about the what, the when, the how. Work-life harmony is all about the why. Why are you doing what you are doing? Who are you doing it for and who are you doing it with? Start redefining your activities in this way and notice the shift that happens.”

Harmony also implies a longer time horizon, giving you permission to emphasize one element over the other for a period of time if your priorities change. For example, parents may decide to spend more time with their children before they start school.

2. “Energy management” instead of “time management.” Time management is all about using your time effectively and efficiently to complete tasks and meet deadlines. But traditional time management primarily considers the amount of time you allocate to tasks without recognizing how they align with your personal energy patterns, your performance, and your priorities. Once you make the effort to recognize what times of day you feel most alert versus sluggish as well as which activities energize you and which drain you, you can be more mindful about how you spend your energy and your time to get good results.

As Gena explained in her webinar, you can schedule deep focus work during your peak energy times. You also should use your peak energy time for your creative and analytical tasks and other results-oriented work that support your priorities. You can use your moderate energy time for meetings, working with your team and networking. Try to save your administrative and routine tasks, including answering emails, for your low-energy times. You’ll need to flex this schedule in order to work with others, but you’ll be more aware of the impact on you and you can work around it.

Gena also recommended intentionally scheduling microbreaks (5 – 10 minutes) and midday resets to help you recover and regain your energy. These are vital to your brain health. And as the weather is getting nicer in the northern hemisphere, try to get outside for some fresh air, which will help your brain even more.

3. Multi-purpose instead of multi-task. This third concept is more than a name change; it’s also a recognition that your brain can’t perform multiple cognitive-taxing tasks simultaneously. You may think you’re multitasking, but you’re kidding yourself. You’re actually rapidly switching between tasks, which strains your brain and hurts your performance.

As I wrote in Be kind to your brain: choose “multi-purposing” over multitasking for the Forbes Coaches Council, you need to avoid, not embrace, multitasking. However, you can do multiple activities at the same time—as long as you combine one action that’s a higher-order cognitive function with one that’s simple and mostly automated from your brain’s perspective.

Call this multi-purposing. For example, you can drive and talk with a passenger in the car or sing along with music. You can  listen to an audiobook while driving or exercising, including walking outdoors or on a treadmill. You can do walking meetings or dine with co-workers, clients and others. The higher-order activity requires more focus and attention, such as talking with another person, watching a screen, or listening to a recording.

In this vocabulary refresh discussion, I’d be remiss as well as disingenuous to avoid acknowledging the current chaos affecting another previous popular term – a three-letter one often part of many work settings. Since the start of the current presidential administration, the U.S. President and his followers have been targeting public and private sector policies, programs and other initiatives related to “DEI” – even though these concepts are embedded in the U.S. Constitution and federal civil rights laws, according to the almost 75-year-old Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights organization.

Rather than continue using the words and initials that people with political power have claimed to be verboten, we’ve got to be pragmatic now. For example, instead of referring to programs, talk and write about outcomes that you’re focused on achieving. And reference values, such as involving a variety of people and treating them in a fair way. And maybe some soon we can return to living and working in the 21^st century rather than reverting to the past, such as 1984, the Jim Crow era, and pre-Civil War times.

Language is constantly changing. We need to change intentionally too to support our perspectives and our goals to get good outcomes.