Maybe it really is time to take another line and stop cluttering up our lives with endless to-do lists

In the Huffington Post for February 20th, 2008, Lisa Earle Macleod published a challenging and combative article that attacks the whole notion of work/life balance. It’s worth reading the whole article, but here are a few quotes to give you a flavor:

Work/life balance is a crock. The elusive goal of balance keeps us teetering on a tightrope of insanity as we frantically juggle the plates of our compartmentalized lives.

The problem isn’t lack of balance. It’s that we’ve sub-divided our lives into a series of endless to-dos that hold no meaning for us whatsoever.

Think about it. Do you know anyone who achieved nirvana by mastering the art of the Franklin Planner?

Heady stuff!

Work/life balance means LESS, not more

She’s quite right in her fundamental point: that too many people equate better work/life balance with doing more things in the same time. This is total nonsense, on a par with the silly idea that you can gain happiness by having more “stuff” or piling up more cash.

You can’t obtain any kind of balance by simply adding things to your life; you have to take away from some areas in order to add to others.

More leisure means less work. More time with you family means less time elsewhere. More vacations mean less time at the office. It’s impossible to have everything, however fast you run, since time is a finite resource. Every hour spent working is an hour less for doing anything else.

There is no one secret to happiness

I suspect Ms. Earle Macleod is also right when she writes:

It’s been proven time and time again, by everyone from the researchers at Harvard to religious leaders, we human beings need both pleasure and purpose to be happy. And we need to experience them both at the same time.

However, I do part company with her when she writes that: “We’re the happiest when we’re connected to others and we know that what we’re doing with our time makes a difference.”

The second part is probably true at work, but why should leisure time make a difference in order to produce happiness? The whole point of many relaxing and refreshing activities is that they are just fun: they have no point to them, save to provide enjoyment.

As for the first element in her recipe for happiness, that may well be true for her, but her experience isn’t universal. I can’t believe that there is any one recipe for happiness that applies to everyone. Human beings are too variable. Different societies produce different traditions and norms about how life should be lived.

Like many people, the author falls into the trap of trying to set down a single panacea to produce happiness. If only it were that easy!

What work/life balance really means

The answer lies in the same quote I just gave from Ms. Earle Macleod’s article: people seem to need both pleasure and purpose in their lives to feel good about themselves. And since it’s tough to find both in the same place — pleasure tends to be found more outside of work and purpose more within it (though not exclusively in either case) — the real meaning of work/life balance is to allocate time sensibly between those areas, so that pleasure and purpose both result.

It’s not about spend more time on everything. It’s definitely not about buying planners, fancy to-do list software, or any other mechanical or electronic aids. Nor will balance be found by spending money or piling up goods.

Each person needs differing amounts of pleasure and purpose in life to feel good. The only balance that matters is achieving a way of life that supplies what you need, in the correct mix. Everything else is snake-oil and media hype.

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