THE common term widely used at corporations...

I have been listening to 'Work Life Balance' term for quite some time now...and trying to figure out what it actually means. After few observations, I realised that most think it in terms of dividing the 24 hours of the day for work and personal life. Does it mean absolute division of the hours? For some its x hours at office and the remaining hours at home or with friends. The question boils down to what is x hours. It does not mean, being 12 hours in office is going to affect the so called 'work life balance'. Or being at office for say 8-9 hours is going to increase the score of work life balance. I believe it boils down to the fact that it is very subjective and to the question - 'what makes you happy?' For one working for 9 hours, spending a couple of hours with family and friends, after that reading a book, playing games or just being curious on what is everybody up to by logging into Facebook, Orkut, Twitter! would make happy... Someone else may feel happy with what he/she is working on and may end up spending two or three hours more at office, does that mean work life balance is affected? I don't think so. Its a 24 hour day...and spending 8+2 hours does not affect the work life balance, it is more to do with how well you manage the time with work and family. As I mentioned earlier, it is very subjective and depends from person to person. After all, the 'work life balance' is to do with 'what makes you happy'.

How I manage work life balance? I don't keep a count of the hours I work or spend with family/friends, etc. I make sure I am connected to them by meeting them, speaking to them, etc. During breaks using the Internet on my phone to stay connected with Facebook, my blog, emails, etc helps me a lot. Even when it is quite busy schedule, I don't miss on speaking to my family or my close friends. I read a lot and I like movies. I make time to read and watch movies. Sometimes even after a busy day, to watch a good movie or read through some interesting pages i would not mind. All this put together brings a balance with my work and life :)