Last week, I heard someone say if they read something that references “work/life balance” - they immediately stop reading.

They stop because they don’t think there is such thing as “work/life balance.”

I get it - it’s overused and everyone has their own definition of it.

My personal definition - work/life balance doesn’t mean a perfect balance of work and life.

Work/life balance means making sure:

You make time for the most important things in your life (so they don’t get forgotten)
Being where your feet are when you’re doing these important things

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The Life Pie Exercise can be a visual way to think about this:

If your life was a pie, what are the 3-6 pieces of your life?

I found over the past 7 years of watching people draw their Life Pie — they often worry about if the pieces are equal, proportional, or “balanced.”

Let’s throw those words out the window and draw an “unbalanced Life Pie” knowing:

The pieces are never going to be perfectly equal in terms of your time or energy
The proportions are going to fluctuate week to week (more hours working this week, more time with family next week)

If you draw an unbalanced Life Pie but you’re proud of the pieces you have on it, you’re perfectly in balance with yourself.