Are You Wasting Your Time Chasing the Elusive 'Work-Life Balance'?

As a PhD student back in the day, I used to work quite happily till 10pm on my research and then retreat to the bar with my research partner-in-crime’, Kevin Powell, for a ‘balanced’ meal of Guinness and chocolate!  At that stage of my life, I had few other responsibilities, no partner, no dependants.  Life felt simple, and genuinely great.

Fast forward to today.  I now work for myself, and some days I can quite happily be still working at midnight.  I have responsibilities, a partner and dependants.  It still feels great.

But how can this be, if we’re meant to be chasing a ‘work-life balance’?

This contradiction has made me pause.  By traditional standards, my work-life balance has been “off” for most of my adult life.  But what if the traditional definition is the problem?

We’re told to aim for a perfect split between ‘work’ and ‘life’, as if they’re enemies on opposite sides of a scale.  But what if they’re not?  What if trying to separate them so neatly causes more stress than it solves?

The book Nine Lies About Work, by Buckingham and Goodall, reframed things for me.  It suggests we’re not battling between ‘work’ and ‘life’, but rather between what we love and what we loathe. 

Then it began to make sense to me.

From the studies highlighted in the book I realised that if I can spend just 20% of my day doing the things I truly love, whether it's work or not, it’s enough to protect me from burnout.

Now I have moved away from trying to force balance and have started to weave the things that bring me joy into the fabric of my days.  And so far, so good!