24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week. Junior investment bankers regularly work 80-90 hours a week. Many other high profile professions require the same level of commitment. Often those on the outside claim that working 80-90 hours a week is bad/wrong/terrible/silly/etc but we’ve spoken with so many folks who say working that much has been the best decision of their life – it allowed them to develop a deep and strong skill set far faster than would have been possible otherwise. In other words, by working 2x the hours, they were able to generate 5x or more the rewards. And depending on where you are in your career, investing heavily in your skills and competence can pay dividends for a long time.

Grace Park | Illustrator

Ever since COVID, finding a balance between work and personal life has been very challenging. In the beginning, I really wanted to simply rest after work every day, as I was working from home. Because my home became my workplace, the boundaries really blurred out, and I found it difficult to focus on my personal life. However, now that it’s been over two years, I try my best to clearly divide out the balance- both physically and mentally. It’s essential for creative individuals to take break and focus on their personal time and hobby, aside from work in order to refresh their thoughts and energy. Read more>>

Chase Chandler | Composer/Performer & Multimedia Artist

Finding a balance between work and life is an ongoing process. There are days I feel I’ve found it and other days I feel I still have much to learn. But when it comes to work-life balance, a huge shift in my perspective was reprioritizing away from productivity and quantity, and more toward efficiency and quality. I roughly spend half my time on work and half my time with life, though this fluctuates day by day and week by week (even month to month). For many years though, I spent most of my time on work and would hardly allow myself a break. Read more>>

Joseph Tilley | Artist/Producer/Songwriter

I love this question because as I grow and mature in life, balancing work and life becomes more and more important. When I was first starting out producing music, almost all I did was work. I really had a work over everything mentality. It affected my relationships and my mental health. I not only neglected time with friends and family, I also didn’t spend enough time with myself. Today, the most important thing in my life is my beautiful wife, Taylor. Read more>>

Jacqueline Nkansah | Animation Executive Assistant & Artist

I feel like as I’ve gotten older, work/life balance has become a bigger priority for me. When I was in college, I became very comfortable with the idea of late nights, power naps and heavily caffeinated energy drinks. I did what I felt was necessary to succeed in that environment since it was such a fixed amount of time. I was fine with opening shifts at the bakery I worked at, followed by supplemental community college classes, club meetings and my regular university classes, because they were all essential to my success. Unfortunately, I often neglected things like self-care and wellness because I felt the work aspect of my life was the most important thing. Read more>>

Milan Costich | Founder, Prevail Boxing

Work life balance has been critical in my journey with Prevail. We recently celebrated 9 years in business and opened our second location in the N. Hollywood Arts District. In order to get to this point, it helps to have a marathon mindset. There will be times where it’s absolutely critical to sprint and even sprint some distances that might feel impossible (COVID), but I couldn’t have nor would I have wanted to sprint all those 9 years. Read more>>

Chris Ungco | Cinematographer & Producer

If you could go back in time…what would You change? At first there was no balance at all, just the feeling that I had to be closer to the city to get what I wanted. I would crash on my friends’ couches while I worked random assistant or camera operator jobs, and when I did move to the city it was with this feeling of spending my new life always working to pay rent and live cheaply but happily in Brooklyn. Read more>>

Xochitl Trejo | Bridal Hair Stylist

My work life balance has changed so much in the last couple of years. As my business started growing I had to make an executive decision to figure or what days were the busiest & convenient for me To take of . After that was made I also starting to realize that I needed to have a break in between work and my business slowly I had to take more time off from my regular job and reduce my work days from Working 5 days a week to now working 3 days to focus more on my business and also have me time. I think that was the best decision I’ve made for myself. Read more>>

Jennifer Shiman | Cartoonist, content developer and animator

Before I became a mom, my work-life relationship had blurry boundaries. Having worked on projects I love, the work would blend with the passion of creating, such that I would think nothing of working all night or without regard for other needs. After I had my daughter (now 10), I encountered non-negotiable time and energy limits which required an overhaul of self-care and a re-definition of my identity. I learned to choose projects that were not only inspiring but also scalable and portable to cope with and flourish under new conditions. Read more>>