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.

Sally Chan | Social Impact, Media Executive & Bridge Builder

For as long as I can remember, the idea of work life balance felt more like a juggling act. In fact, I remember attending a women’s conference and a speaker shared that finding balance between your personal and professional life could be compared to the act of juggling several balls – some made of glass, others made of rubber, with each ball representing a priority in your life. The goal was to make sure you didn’t drop the one made of glass and essentially making it irreparable (ie your health, quality time with family, friends, etc.). While the concept made sense, I’ve since recognized that it presents a lot of unneeded pressure. During a separate meeting, a facilitator introduced a new approach. Could it be that finding work life balance was actually unrealistic and perhaps the better lens was the pursuit of harmony? What if we replaced the juggling act with a music mixer? Each column represents a life priority and we get to choose which knobs to dial down or increase to create harmony. I love this idea of adjusting the knobs to create our own tune to fit each season of life. Read more>>

Andrew McDanniel Robles | Director & photographer

Becoming a fulltime father for 2 years kind of made me create a balance. She became more of a priority than the business. And as time went by it made me focus on big projects and not small budget gigs it taught me to say no to a lot of customers that really didn’t have a budget and wanted the whole movie set for a price of new shoes. I had to step back and think will this job do anything to benefit me other than monetary wise and is it worth me taking my baby out of daycare school for at the end of the day I choose the latter. Read more>>

Tristin Cole | Artist + Sound Bath Practitioner

My work / life balance has changed considerably in the last 3 years since 2020. I went from working full-time as an in-studio animation artist and commuting through LA traffic 3 hours a day to an office, to suddenly working from home full time. And then, after a corporate merger, layoff, and strikes in my industry this past year I’ve had to learn to pivot, switch gears, and do other things to make a living. It is fun figuring it out! I’ve never spent so much time at home, with my family, and in my community, getting the rest I need to, and doing the things I always wanted to try. During this past year I put my skills as a yoga teacher (RYT200) and sound bath practitioner into effect, as well as sharing my skills as an art instructor for kids. Some of the highlights of this past summer were participating in an artist residency in Toronto, Canada with my son, and assisting a muralist on a giant mural for The District in Tustin. With more time to paint my own paintings, I participated in 3 art gallery shows in Laguna this year. I continue to illustrate my children’s books and am getting ready to publish one in 2024. While looking forward to the SAG strikers coming to an agreement and the studios ramping up projects again, I enjoy staying open to the flow of life. Read more>>