Ben Morton argues that judging work-life balance over a week is useless because demands shift constantly. Leadership and life operate on longer cycles, so a real measure of balance needs to span about three months, accounting for periods when work dominates and others when family or health takes over.
And I think there are two things that make the pursuit of work-life balance particularly difficult. The first is that we often try and measure it or achieve it over far too short a period of time. It's often the case that we'll look at one week or even a day and then make some sort of judgment about how balanced things have been and whether or not our work-life balance is correct. But the reality is leadership and life don't really work like that. On some days, work will absolutely dominate. And on others, family, health, or something else in your personal life might need more of your time and attention. So for me, work-life balance isn't something to be measured over days and weeks. It's something I look at over a much longer period of time, and for me, that's roughly 3 months.
