It’s not a 1-to-1 trade-off

So often, I see women think that work-life balance is a 1-to-1 trade-off. That to get a fulfilling life, they need to make major sacrifices in their career. But, it’s not 1-to-1. In fact, really small changes on the career side can have a huge impact on life.

Let’s just do a bit of math from a self-care lens. Let’s say you work 45 hours per week and get an hour of self-care per day (so 7 per week). If you shift one of those hours from work to self-care, that’s only a 2% decrease in work effort, but a 14% increase in self-care.

You’ll never notice that 2%, but you will notice that extra luxurious hour. Remember this when you are debating whether to take that lunch break to go to the gym or do a blow-out. 2% is negligible. Give yourself the extra hour.

(Also, I’m trying to figure out a good analogy to explain this lack of 1-to-1 trade-off. Do you have any?)