Working moms (especially those with kids between ages 0 – 3) have always known that work-life balance is a myth. I mean, try asking your 1-year-old not to get hungry or restless until your work hours are over. Impossible. Right?
After the pandemic, the work from home culture became more common, and the boundaries of work-life balance have only become harder to maintain. So, it’s time to improve your work-life balance by shifting our focus from trying to have an unrealistic work-life balance to creating a better work-life integration.
Work-life balance and work-life integration: The Difference
So what is the difference between work-life balance and work-life integration? At the outset, both aim to ensure that you have enough quality time to spend on your personal life and work. But the core difference lies in their approach to achieving this goal.
Work-life balance
Oxford defines work-life balance as “the division of one’s time and focus between working and family or leisure activities”. Typically this involves keeping your work and personal life separate and having designated work hours. During this time, you focus only on work, and once the time is up, you focus only on your personal life.
While this seems like a reasonable thing to do, it might not be practically possible most of the time. I don’t know about you, but I find it impossible not to check work emails when they come, even if it’s after my work hours.
Work-life integration
This involves a smooth blending of both personal and professional responsibilities. The idea is that both parts of your life must coexist in harmony instead of keeping them completely apart. This way you can make most of both aspects of life without struggling to have a strict time boundary.
This is especially important for women because we are expected by default to focus more on family once we have kids. But remember, even studies show that daughters of working moms grow up into stronger professionals, and sons grow up to share the household work equally.
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Why choose work-life integration
1. Flexibility
It provides way more flexibility than trying to improve your work-life balance. Everybody’s personal life has a different kind of demand, and so does their work life. So, having strict work hours might not be the solution for all.
Instead, when you merge work and life, you can come up with systems and time management tactics that work best for you and are adjustable to create a lifestyle that you want.
2. Satisfaction
Don’t you think about your kids during work hours? Or about your work during your personal time?
If you don’t, you are great! It’s difficult for most people like me. So having work-life integration actually increases my satisfaction in both areas of my life.
3. Productivity
When done correctly, work-life integration can greatly increase productivity as you would be working so that both are prioritised effectively.
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How to create work-life integration
For work-life integration to be effective and provide positive results, you need to create healthy boundaries. The following tips can help you do that.
1. Change your mindset
The first thing you need to work on is your mindset. You need to start acknowledging that work is a natural part of your life and shouldn’t be considered secondary to your personal life.
2. Mix responsibilities
Find effective and creative ways to blend your work and personal life. This can be taking your kids to the office when they have holidays or running errands during a commute to your work.
3. Have a purpose
Why are you trying to be good at both? Having a strong purpose can provide great motivation to make work-life integration happen.
4. Batch your work
Make sure that you batch your work effectively. For example, if you have to cook three meals a day instead of doing three rounds of cooking, you can cook the three meals at a single stretch. Or you can complete all the work that requires going out in one go.
5. Focus on things to be done
Forget clocking in specific hours for your personal life and your work. Instead, focus on what needs to be done and complete it in a reasonable time. It’s ok if it takes less or more time than planned. Remember giving half an hour of undivided attention to your child is much better than blocking one hour in the calendar just to be distracted all the time by your to-do list.
6. Have non-negotiables
This is the most crucial point to remember. Have non-negotiable elements in both your personal and work-life. It could be not missing your child’s events in school and certain deadlines and goals in work.
By following the tips mentioned above, you can improve your work-life balance and establish a solid work-life integration to make both your work and your personal life more fulfilling.
Work-life balance does not work. Focus on creating work-life integration.
