The Only Way to Ensure Work-life Balance in a Job
If work-life balance is not important to you, if you want to throw yourself into work, this blog post is not for you.
If work-life balance is important to you, the only way to ensure it is to allocate a certain number of hours every week to work. I used to use 40, but maybe you want to work 32 hours a week 1. Whatever it is, set a limit.
Then, prioritise your work 2. Whatever can be done in the allocated number of hours, do it. Keep the rest for next week.
You can work longer hours as long as you’re clear that you’re pre-paying your dues so that you can work fewer than 32 hours in the future without feeling guilty. So it’s not about being rigid. It’s working 32 hours a week on average, not every single week. You can work more, so long as it’s your choice, and not on request from your manager. Because the latter sets a dangerous precedent that you will work longer when pushed, thus watering down your commitment to work-life balance. I know too many managers who will take advantage of this situation and push you to work longer every week.
A lot of work will remain undone, which is fine as long as you’re prioritising well. Then only the lower priority ones remain undone. You should also let managers know that you limit work to a certain number of hours per week, so that they’re not unpleasantly surprised. If someone is not okay with this, they’re not a good fit for you. Ironically, we’re expected to plan work properly, but negative-minded managers frown when you apply that rigor to your working arrangement.
Some managers say that you can work any hours you want as long as the work is done on time. This destroys work-life balance, because you’re giving the manager a blank cheque. I’ve told them, “I understand your point of view, but I don’t do things that way. I allocate 32 hours to work. Whatever is done in that time will be done. If things are done ahead of schedule, I’ll pick up another item from my todo list, even if it’s not required yet, and do it. If things are behind schedule, I’ll stop my work at 32 hours, and resume next week. I’m very productive and can do in an hour what someone might take two, but the hours are limited.”
Some managers say that you should meet your estimates, since you yourself have given them. Say no to that. Estimates are only guesses, not commitments. This is because the scope of work is never known when estimating, and changes throughout the project.
One founder told me he worked with someone who valued work-life balance, and he worked only if and when he was free after his personal activities. The founder asked me if this is what I mean by work-life balance. I explained that it’s balance, and not “life first, work second”. You’re creating two buckets, one work, one life. You’re allocating some hours to each, and each should stay in its bucket.
It’s important to measure time in hours, like 32 hours/week, not 4 days/week. Because the latter implies that you’ll work long hours Mon-Thu, defeating work-life balance. That’s not a four-day-a-week schedule, that’s five days of work compressed into four. To avoid this ambiguity, measure time in hours per week, not days.
One engineering leader told me that there will be times when more time is needed, and others when less is needed, that demands go up and down like a sine wave:
But, following his philosophy, he got himself into a situation where he ended up having to work long hours continuously. The founders expected him to work at the top of the sine wave continuously. I have seen too many managers who expect that. Since you yourself have shown them that you’ll stretch, they’ll think you can do this amount of work, and demand it all the time, either because they don’t care about your work-life balance or about honoring commitments they themselves made3, or they don’t have the mental space to think of all this. So, don’t stretch beyond your committed time just because there’s a deadline.
If you disagree with these ideas, maybe it’s because you don’t prioritise work-life balance in the first place? Which is fine, as long as you’re clear about your priorities. If, on the other hand, you do care about work-life balance, these tips will help you achieve it.
If I took up a job, I’d work 32 hours a week, not the 40 I used to work. 32 is the new maximum for me.
Which you should be doing even if you don’t care about work-life balance. Along with delegating what you can to junior people. And training and upskilling them so that you can delegate in the future.
Which is not a trustworthy attitude.