Work-Life Balance Is a Cycle, Not an Achievement👏🏾

Here's an interesting article/study out of the Harvard Business Review. It's not a long read, but this is the part that gave me pause:

"At a high level, our research showed that achieving better balance between professional and personal priorities boils down to a combination of reflexivity — or questioning assumptions to increase self-awareness — and intentional role redefinition. Importantly, our research suggests that this is not a one-time fix, but rather, a cycle that we must engage in continuously as our circumstances and priorities evolve." 

When I still worked at an office, I found it pretty easy to distinguish between my work and personal life (compartmentalize much?). But, more recently, I've read countless articles and heard many anecdotes from friends who work from home that their work-life balance became askew as they tend to work longer hours inadvertently.

Personally, I'm a massive proponent of remote/hybrid culture. You'll have to pry me out of my desk if you think I'm going back to hour-long commutes in and out of downtown Los Angeles each way five times a week. However, it is interesting to think about work-life balance as cyclical and reflexive instead of goal-motivated. I used to go for a run right after work to physically and mentally take myself out of work mode. In hindsight, there was a rigidity to it that caused me to fall off cycle many times and I had to "reset" my schedule time and again.

Now I'm curious whether people have been operating this reflexive take on work-life balance and if it's a strategy worth trying out.