Our community is filled with hard-working, high achieving entrepreneurs and creatives and so work-life balance is a complicated, but highly relevant topic. We’ve shared some responses from the community about work life balance and how their views have evolved over time below.

Jacquie Joy | Film & TV Composer and Sound Designer

When you establishing yourself in a certain craft/business, the work/life balance is ‘out of whack’ and is pretty much all work and all hours of the day! And you say ‘yes’ to EVERYTHING! Now, after 5 years of establishing myself in film/TV/media composing and freelancing I am fortunate and can finally be able to say ‘no’ and be alot more selective with the projects that I work on. I am now looking at spending more fun times with my lovely family and friends. Its also time get back to some hobbies (and regular exercise) again – I purchased a sports car and now driving on track is one of those new hobbies. Read more>>

Adelle Smener | Doctor of Physical Therapy

The idea of work life balance is a difficult concept for many people to understand and navigate – myself included. I used to be under the impression that work life balance meant a perfect 50/50 balance – a delicate game trying to keep my work life and personal life an equal priority. But as time has gone by I have learned to understand that not only is that a misconception but it is unrealistic – there will be times that your work-life “balance” looks more like a 70/30 split, or even 90/10, and guess what sometimes even the other way around 20/80 – and that is okay. Read more>>

Emily Nader | Nutrition & Health Coach, Fitness & Strength Coach

Everyone has their own “work life balance.” Some people might think of it as a certain number of hours working, and the rest of the hours of their life doing “whatever they want.” The magic number people seem to have in their head is 40 hours working. Or maybe a number of days per week on-the-job, like four or five. Read more>>

Jane Kang, DO | Resident Physician & Jane of all trades””

During medical school, I often found myself prioritizing work over personal life, sacrificing leisure time, and occasionally neglecting self-care; I felt guilty about taking time for my personal pursuits. At the same time, I was cognizant that these tendencies were not sustainable in the long term and burnout was a real concern. Read more>>

Yvette Sandoval-Schoenholt | Life Coach

Creating and maintaining a work/life balance is crucial to overall well-being. It’s ridiculously easy to technologically stay tapped into work, but we need to know when it’s time to unplug. There was a point in my career before I started my coaching practice when I reached a state of burnout. At the time, my work-life had highly stressful elements that I managed for so long until it caught up with me. I was fortunate that I was able to take some time off for myself to decompress, reestablish a wellness routine and find some new paths to explore… literally and figuratively! Read more>>

Jenn McGuirk | Actor, Voice artist and Director

Initially, I think the emphasis when you’re younger and fresh on the scene is: ‘when work is there, grab it’ tending then towards the vulnerability of burn out by always being ‘on’ over time I begin to realise that time off, time spent with family, friends and doing enriching things…as small as eating yummy food and petting cats!: brings the work/life balance into a more even shape Read more>>

Carolina Cuevas | Artist

I’m still trying to figure out that balance for myself. It’s also constantly evolving as my priorities shift and I find new ways to create and live. I do think I’m getting better at finding that balance. There is this expectation to keep producing and not end the momentum, but burnout is a real thing. For me, it’s more important to not get myself to that point where my mind and body are so exhausted that there isn’t any room for the people and things I love. Read more>>

Camila Rodriguez | Designer and Architect

Creative work pulls inspiration from life experiences. Over the years it’s becoming more and more clear that, if my life revolved solely around work, the work itself would become uninspired and I’d find myself struggling to connect with my creativity. I love my work but that’s not what life is about; life is about connection and experiences, and I’m lucky to have a job that allows me to tell stories about those experiences, Framing things in that way helps see “productivity” in a broader sense, not just the capitalistic sense, and allows me to find that famous balance in a more organic way – not work in opposition of life, but work as one of the many fluid and interconnected parts of life. Read more>>

Eunbee Jung | Tattoo artist

When I first began my journey as a tattoo artist I spent most of my time working, but I always had people tell me that I needed to find hobbies and figure out a balance between work and my own personal life. So I decided to take some time for myself and experiment with different activities and things that I might enjoy apart from tattooing. However, I quickly realized that none of the hobbies I tried peaked my interest as much as my actual profession. It taught me that if you love what you do there’s no need to stray from that path. Read more>>

Hannah Minardi | Brand Consultant & Skincare Founder

My definition of ‘balance’ has evolved a lot over the years. I’m not really focused on being ‘balanced’ as my goal. Balance at any stage in life is not really possible. I try to keep my priorities in check always, and then anything else is subject to ebb and flow with the season. As life goes on, we don’t have more opportunity to be ‘more balanced’ I think that life increasingly becomes more full. With new businesses, kids, etc. So I think the key is to not stress about having a perfect balance, but rather keeping the main things, the main things and especially when you have a start up. Read more>>

Liz Anderson | Creative Director & Fashion Photographer

Since the beginning of my career, I’ve balanced family life and photography/creative direction by attempting to weave them together as much as I can. This has ranged from wearing my youngest in a baby carrier (breastfeeding) while photographing a model, to including my 7 year old on set. This isn’t because I NEED to drag them along, more importantly I WANT my children to experience all the artistic elements included within my productions. My oldest understands composition, has opinions on my “location scouting” ideas & is also cognizant of how to be respectful around women. Read more>>

Artur W. Vienna | Mixing Engineer & Music Producer

I used to live a life where work was always my number one priority. When we first start out in the business, it’s easy to fall in the trap of taking every single opportunity just to build up your network, and while there are in fact some benefits to it, most of the times you will end up finding yourself working on projects that won’t result in anything. Read more>>