What’s the right balance between work and non-work time? The traditional 9-5 has slowly disappeared with the emails and zoom and texting going far beyond traditional business hours. We asked members of our community to share with us how they think about work-life balance.

Tessa Karrys | Singer-Songwriter

As a mom of a two year old and a six month old, my work/life balance has changed a lot over the last few years. After I first became a parent, I felt like I really had to let go of everything and then put the pieces back in a completely new way in order to redefine balance in my life. Having kids made it more challenging to play shows frequently and carve out time for myself to write but it encouraged me to get back to the root of why I write songs and play music and appreciate it in a new way. Parenting has helped teach me the invaluable lesson of not forcing things and finding balance by working with the natural flow of life. I incorporate playing music and singing into my time with my kids, even if that means most of the requests I get at home are for songs from “Frozen”, and rather than worrying about finding shows that work with the kids, I’ve seen time and time again that the perfect gigs fall into my lap (aka email inbox) when the time is right. Read more>>

Renee Johnson | Health & Wellness Coach & Meditation & Yoga Instructor

Learning to balance work and life is an on-going and evolving process. As our lives change the balance often shifts and so we need to learn to shift with it. For me a balanced life includes balancing the mind, body, work, and family. For me, learning to balance work and life has always been an evolving process and I have come to realize that we need to be balanced physically, mentally, and emotionally and if any or all of these states are not in balance then we are not living our optimal life. When I was younger, my children were my focus and as they became adults my focus and balance had to change, and I felt as though I had to reinvent myself.  Who was I now that I wasn’t a stay-at home mom? It was during this time that I realized I wasn’t balancing things as well as I had thought I had been and needed to make some changes. I started doing more meditation and yoga which eventually led me to starting my business. Read more>>

Joey Szolowicz | Nutrition & Fitness Coach

H3Living is technically my 4th or 5th small business endeavor. Suffice it to say there have been successes and failures in these various businesses. This has given me plenty of time to think about work life balance and specifically what my ideal lifestyle would look like if I had 100% control over my life’s design. When I opened my first business my priorities were, frankly, completely distorted. I put everything I had into that business because at that time in my life, I believed that the all-mighty dollar would bring me happiness and solve any issue that I might arise in my life. This mentality left me with a business that generated healthy cash-flow but came at the expense of my emotional health, physical health, and many of my relationships. The ironic thing is that ultimately grinding away 16 hours a day at that first business endeavor is largely what led to it not working out in the end. Talk about being out of balance. Here’s why… you know that line on the airplane safety check-in, ‘put your own oxygen mask on first’? Well it is completely true about so much more than just airplane safety. Read more>>

Sarah White | Freelance Writer and Editor

Like many people, my work life balance has seen many types of imbalance. There have been phases in my life where I prioritized work over living my life and it showed in my personal relationships, and there have been phases in my life where I have prioritized life over work and it showed in my career. When I was nearing my college graduation, I was working three jobs on top of a full credit load. I got married a few weeks after I graduated and then worked to support my husband and I as he finished up his second degree. It was safe to say my balance was off, but the bills were paid for, we were independent, I knew it wasn’t going to last forever, and so I was okay with it. We were also really happy, and got exceptionally good at dealing with finances together. Once my husband entered fully into his profession, I downgraded my three jobs to just one. And it was a huge adjustment for my schedule – one that I had waited for for so long! It gave me more time to focus on my life outside of work, which ended up shining the brightest light on to my work life balance, not only in the imbalance that was so glaringly apparent in my coworkers’ lives, but mine too. Read more>>

Tawnya Cline | Total Nutrition Coach / All Natural Bikini Pro/ Tawnya Cline Collection Athletic Wear

I believe that work life balance is extremely crucial to my success. It has absolutely changed and will continue to do so. Learning to pivot has taught me so much with my brands. This past year was full of pivots and balance! Making time to first take care of me so that I can better serve others can not take a back seat. Then spouse and family balance is next. When you are pushing hard to reach new levels and do powerful things this can eat up a lot of time, and family must feel important. There have been time’s I was able to include them all in my goals and allow them to participate so they feel valued. I included them in my vision boards and timelines so they knew what were moving towards. They would make vision boards of their own as well. Balance is different now with the children becoming adults so the balance is readjusted as empty nesters! This has been fun, and also imperative to not lose sight of work balance. We are on the same page with goals and not afraid to work. Now my balance for “me time” takes place at 4am when hubby is still sleeping. Read more>>

Christopher Amos | CEO & Marketing Strategist

As a new small business owner, I have found maintaining a work life balance to be unbelievably different from the corporate world. The reality of owning your own business means that you are responsible for all aspects of the business, from customer service to order fulfillment and everything in-between. Once we made the decision to open up our business, the transition itself was relatively simple, however in hindsight, we should have done a better job of process mapping and really understanding all the moving parts and regulatory requirements. With that said, we wouldn’t change our decision to go out on our own in the slightest. There are long days, tons of stressful moments but the level of service that we are able to provide to client and the satisfaction knowing you are doing right by those who trust you is extremely rewarding! We love what we do and enjoy coming into the office each and every day. Read more>>

Jinny De Luca | Managing Editor, Scottsdale Moms & North Phoenix Moms

My work life balance has changed drasitically over the course of different jobs and positions. Early on in my working life, some of the more task oriented or service positions really allowed me to clock in and clock out, leaving the work at work. Jobs like those make it easier to achieve that balance because there are clearer boundaries. Then I moved into a longer stint at a position that was a blend of tasks and projects. Finding that balance there was challenging for sure, because the cycle of work was based on a weekly and monthly deadlines, so those projects and stresses easily crept into my home life. That was a job I was not able to mentally leave at work. And now, my editor position allows the most flexibility to accomodate this season of virtual learning (and now, thankfully, school drop-off and pick-ups) violin lessons, and all the other household responsibilities we all juggle. No matter the work requirements, I feel like having established parameters for work and non-work areas of life helps me make the most of the opportunities I’m given. Read more>>