Chad Silverstein argues that 'work–life balance' is a misleading concept. Instead, he advises being present: focus fully on work while working and fully on family during personal time. He also notes seasonality—different life phases (starting a job/company, having children) legitimately shift time priorities.
Chapters
Work life balance is not something I focus on. You know, for me, and it's a challenge, but when I'm at work, I focus on work. When I'm with my family, I try to focus on my family. So I just try to be wherever I am, wherever I am, try and have work life balance. I don't know what people even mean by that. Are you trying to talk about time? Are you trying to talk about, you know, I mean, at the end of the day when people are, are at work, you know, they are thinking, man, I need to spend more time with my family. I want to make sure I spend more time with my kids. And then when they're on vacation, they're thinking about work. What you have to do is stop focusing on work life balance and start focusing on making work your work and making your personal time, your personal time period and do whatever you're doing in the moment. And this is what being present is all about. And I think if you look at the micro messages that people send, the people that they love by simply having a phone and having it out, you send a message to whoever you're sitting with that this is more important. I don't care if you're just going to look at it and put it, put it down, you send a message, even if it's a subconscious message. So when you're with your family, put your phone away. My wife and I have a discipline that when we're sitting at the dinner table, you don't see our phone. I don't put it out. And I think that's an important discipline to have. And I think everyone needs to do their own hard work and have some awareness of where they are when they're doing work and when they're with their family. And I just think that it's a myth to have work life balance. I also think there's things that are seasonal, meaning that you have timing. If you are new at a job or you just start a company, you're going to spend a lot more time pouring yourself into that new company or that job. And that may, you know, hurt a little bit of the time that you want to spend with your family. And when you have a kid or you just get married, then you should be spending more of your time with your wife, with your kids, taking care of your responsibilities. And work may have to take a back seat. So I think depending on where you are in your life, the seasonality of it, there is no balance. And I think, you know, just trying to do what you're doing when you're doing it is the key.
