Work Life Balance - my perspective...

What is your understanding on Work Life Balance?

* as many assume/think/expect 8-8-8 i.e. 8hr work, 8hr family & 8hr sleep is not Work Life Balance...
* as much as your family need you work also need you and you need rest too...
* it does not mean they need you equally at all times on all days and all through the year...
* there are days where family needs you more and there are days work needs you more...
* one has to understand all these three (work, family, rest) cannot exist with out each other...
* importance is what we have to balance, proper understanding and identification of which is important is where the balance lies...
* eg. at work you may be undergoing audit during year end or peak time in your project, then it is clearly evident that work needs you more...
* on those situations one can even work for 16hrs a day(say) to gain focus, meet time to market, maintain quality...
* however this (peak time) is not going to continue for ever and all through the year, it is going to be for a short period of time...
* once peak time passed, you must give more time to family and less time to work...
* now lets take a reverse example...
* your family need you more such as say your parent, spouse, kid is sick, you have to more spend time with them than work...
* this need not be taking off from your work, where ever possible you could try to work from home (not everybody could do this though)...
* if you cannot work from home then go late to office, return home early and spend more time with family...
* there may be situations where both family and work need you more say family member falling sick during your peak time. what to do?
* on those situations of course family takes precedence... as a matter of fact all these we do predominantly only for our family...
* so Work Life Balance all lies in identifying the right importance at the right time and attend it rightly...
* one must keep well informed about the importance of work to family and vice versa...
* as a matter of fact, only you know what is important to you. no body else...
* so from my perspective Work Life Balance is balancing the importance of Work and Life and not the hours that we spend on each...
* if you are a Manager help your team members understand this and encourage them to follow, hear their views and make it better...
* if you are a team member, discuss with your manager about this hear and give feedback and suggestions if any and implement...
* there is no one silver bullet solution for Work Life Balance, so what works for me may not work for other...
* reason behind it is importance differs from person to person...
* as @dhivyadn nearly said enjoy what you do and do what you enjoy... this is the key to your success...