What’s the right balance between work and non-work time? The traditional 9-5 has slowly disappeared with the emails and zoom and texting going far beyond traditional business hours. We asked members of our community to share with us how they think about work-life balance.

Marina McLean | Certified Master Coach

Work balance has changed over a period of time. My younger years with school age children; my creativity would begin once I dropped them off at school, I would have to discipline my efforts by having strict time management skills. This would mean planning meetings, phone calls, networking, lining up project and staying on task until they were complete. Usually results would begin to happen in the late afternoon and then it was time to pick them up from school. Read more>>

Nicholas Walker | Culinary Director/Chef/Business Owner

Work-Life balance is such an incredibly important piece of the puzzle in Food & Beverage. It gets taken for granted and overlooked so much in our profession. Chefs have a tendency to be workaholics. Often working 60-80 hours a week on a trash salary. This was my schedule for the better part of 2 decades. Working from 10am-midnight or 2am even sometimes. No days off for months straight. No life, only work. Using some spare time for partying and shenanigans. I’ve pushed my career incredibly far with that lifestyle, but my personal life suffered for a long time. I’ve changed this for myself as I’ve matured in my career. Where I used to think as many hours as possible is all that mattered, that you needed to prove your work ethic. My views have changed dramatically since then. Now, I strongly believe that every hour you work past 50, you become less and less effective. I think if you’re working over 50 hours, you should strongly evaluate what you actually get done in a day, work in your prioritizing and scheduling. Having a personal life outside of work is so important. Hobbies, love life, downtime, relaxation… these are all things that make you a happy person. What you do outside of work is just as important as what you do when you’re there. My wife, Emily, hated the hours I was working when we first met. She’s slowly but surely over time pushed me to start taking more time off during the week and I couldn’t be more thankful for her doing that. She’s made me realize some of the more important things in life that need my attention. Her and my kids are definitely the priority. They are my world. Things I would’ve never seen or realized were it not for my wife. Read more>>

Codi Chen | Writer & Co-Creator of HeartWorks Writing

My work-life balance was seemingly nonexistent when I started my entrepreneurial journey. I didn’t exactly plan to open my own business, but after the company my wife (Renee) and I both worked for closed suddenly, we lost the majority of our income. On top of that, Renee was recovering from surgery then and wasn’t yet cleared to work. While we were searching for jobs, living off the little savings we had, I decided to branch out and see if any of the other companies we worked alongside previously would benefit from the technical writing services I was doing for the other company. Read more>>

Krystle Jackson | Pampered Chef Senior Director

I have been with Pampered Chef just shy of 13 years and during that time I have heard the phrase “work life balance” an endless number of times. Everyone is trying to find balance in their lives. They’re questioning how to juggle life, work, activities, kids, spouses, dreams and more. They want to know how to give it all the same attention, as the word “balance” implies. I learned years ago though, that work life “balance” is not a realistic goal. That phrase assumes that we are able to give every aspect of our lives an equal amount of focus and attention. When we think through that, it’s easy to come to the conclusion that giving equal time to every area of our lives is simply unrealistic. Instead, I have chosen to look at it from the view of attaining “harmony” in my roller coaster journey of life. There will be times when my personal life and the circumstances we are facing require more of my time. Other times it may be work that needs a higher level of my attention. This is when it’s important to communicate your goals so the family understands an adjustment may be necessary and hopefully rewarding. There needs to be a timeline and specific goals agreed upon together. It’s near impossible to have “harmony” without that component. Read more>>