Why I choose Work Life Alignment vs Work Life Balance

Anyone else roll their eyes when someone mentions the ever elusive Work Life Balance? I prefer to think of it as Work Life Alignment, and here’s why:

When my former partner Holly and I were working on creating Coworking House, a collaborative workspace, I had no idea what work-life balance even meant! We spent months touring properties with our kids in tow, packing up all the essentials, and attending meetings with our architect and contractors. My 3-year-old son even joined in on the fun by coloring on spare blueprints during our meetings. Meanwhile, my 5-year-old daughter was helping me test out office chairs and creating artwork for the Kids room that was still in the works. It was an intense year of dreaming, doing, planning, waiting, and then doing some more. All while Holly and I were still each running our personal businesses - me as a photographer, and her as a personal trainer.

Even with all of the craziness, I still managed to make time for my family. I pulled my son out of daycare and made sure to pick my daughter up from kindergarten every afternoon. My husband and I made sure to sneak in some date nights, which sometimes involved assembling office furniture and sharing takeout. And believe it or not, I even found time to train for a half marathon and maintain my fitness routine. (This one still boggles my mind, but I credit it to wanting to listen to every episode of The Everything Coworking Podcast - shout out to Jamie!!)

But let's be real, it wasn't perfectly balanced - it was more like an ebb and flow! As my kids grew older and their needs changed, I had to adapt my schedule and find new ways to maintain that work-life flow. Back then, I would only take photography clients on nights and weekends, when I knew I had childcare. We would schedule our meetings around nap times and snacks. These days, I fiercely protect my nights and weekends from work obligations, and I only take meetings and photoshoots during the week when my kids are in school. I fit my workouts in during the afternoons, or when my kids are at sports practice.

Now I’ve come to realize that I don’t want balanced - I want alignment.

Work Life Alignment

When we talk about achieving something that looks like Work Life Alignment, I think it’s important to think about where you are in your life, and what ‘balanced’ looks like for you. My definition of balanced is likely different from someone who has young nursing babies, or from someone who has no kids, but manages a team of 200. What are your priorities? What are your goals? What do you value most? By answering these questions, you can create a vision for what Work Life Alignment looks like for you.

Sustainable Self Care

One way to create this alignment is through what’s known as sustainable self-care. This means taking small steps every day to take care of your mental, physical, and emotional health. As nice as a trip to Bali might be, a one-week vacation won’t fix 51 weeks of burning yourself at both ends, so daily actions are so important. A walk outside, a morning meditation, or spending time with a book each night - whatever fills your cup and takes care of you is worth it. The key here is that you choose something that is easy to do every single day - no giant wellness plans to attempt here!

Create Boundaries

Another important aspect of work-life alignment is creating boundaries. Like when and how you’re willing to take meetings or client calls. (And like my example above, this can change depending on your individual needs and season of life). When is your phone on and you’re reachable? You might decide that you won’t work past a certain time of day, or that you won’t check your emails on weekends. It might mean that even if you’re working from home, you’re not doing laundry or other chores before 5:00 pm. By setting clear boundaries, you can create space for the things you want to do, without having to make tough decisions in the moment… like should you book that meeting for 2:00 pm when you know you have to leave at 2:25 to get to your 3:00 yoga class without stress?

Opening & Closing Ceremonies

Finally, I want to stress the importance of opening and closing ceremonies. These are tiny rituals that get your brain ready to switch tasks, and an idea I’ve adapted from the Lazy Genius herself, Kendra Adachi. The shower and time getting ready before your kids get up. A song you play every time you’re getting ready to go workout. A routine of making your coffee and watering your plants before you sit down to work. Clearing your desk 10 minutes before you end your work day. A walk every night after dinner.

Give Yourself Grace

A quick last note: there are always times in our life where we are launching, hustling, building something new, and might dedicate more time to our work than to our families. Or when we’re training for a big personal goal, and don’t have the bandwidth to also create a new product. Maybe your kids are young and you don’t have reliable childcare at the moment. These are all very real, and require us to be ‘off balance’. Hopefully though, you’re able to look at the big picture, see that it’s just a season, and work to create alignment for yourself.

Want some journal prompts to help you create more ease and work-life alignment for yourself? Grab my free download here!

I’d love to hear how you’re creating alignment for yourself - come chat with me on Instagram about it!