Is work-life balance still relevant in 2023?
I can’t recall when work-life balance became a thing but at the time, it seemed to suggest that you allocate 50% of your time to work and 50% to your personal life. But this seems odd to me. Isn’t work part of your life and life part of your work? Practically speaking, how do you actually do this? Is it measured daily? I like to think of work-life balance as Swiss cheese. Sometimes work is the cheese, and your personal life is the holes; sometimes your personal life is the cheese and work is the holes. The point is that it can’t be equal all of the time and it changes constantly.
I believe you have achieved balance if you are comfortable with your decisions regarding your work (career) and personal life. So, how do you do this? First, set goals in all areas of your life and be willing to modify your approach to meet those goals. Early in my career, I decided pursuing an MBA would be personally satisfying and important to my career. I set this as a goal. As an undergraduate, I invested as much time as necessary to get the highest grade that I could. But the circumstances were different; I had a full-time job and two small children. I had more than just myself to consider and felt guilty when activities pulled me away from my children. I did not change the goal but established time parameters that allowed me to still focus on my children and settled for less than an “A” as an outcome.
Second, and equally important, determine and prioritize what is most important to you. This is also an exercise in recognizing that you can’t do/have everything, and you can’t be everything. By not setting priorities, you may feel pulled in many directions, feeling very busy but never feeling like you have accomplished anything. If attending your child’s school programs is a priority, give this equal importance and block those events on your work calendar far in advance to manage work expectations. If having a neat and clean home is important but you don’t want to use precious time to do this chore, hire someone to do it for you. Spending your financial resources in this manner may mean going out to dinner less often. Again, it is about setting priorities.
Some final words on work-life balance. Goal setting and prioritizing are fluidly changing over time. You may need to delay a goal or place less importance on something now but in the future re-visit that goal and re-prioritize. Time changes circumstances and it is important that you continually review your goals and priorities so you can be flexible in how you adapt.