Work-Life Integration: Why it’s Better than Balance
Summary: We’ve all been told to chase work-life balance, but in reality, that can create more stress than it solves. In this article, I share why I believe work-life integration is a better, more realistic approach. One that embraces flexibility, reduces burnout, and actually helps people get more done. I walk through some practical tools for managing your day (like an end-of-day routine and time tracking) and offer up a simple mindset shift: instead of forcing separation, let’s create a structure where work and life can coexist without guilt.
Work-Life Integration Can Feel Strange
One of the great benefits of entrepreneurship, and working in the coaching industry, is the flexibility it allows me to plan my day. If I have a dentist appointment or need to run errands, I can plan my day around the different appointments I have. Then if I need to catch up on work, I get a little done after dinner, or start work earlier the next day.
However, it wasn’t that long ago that this kind of work structure was a completely foreign concept to me. I recall graduating from university and landing my first coaching job. I was fortunate that I had a leader who empowered me. He stressed that I had complete freedom to complete projects in my way, and that he was not monitoring my office presence or time usage. He also explained how there would be some times where a full 8 hours at the office wouldn’t be necessary, and other times where it would not be enough. As long as I got my projects and tasks done on time, there were no problems.
While this philosophy might seem counterintuitive for a young employee, it was incredibly motivating. Furthermore, it created a more relaxed work atmosphere, which greatly improved my productivity. Nonetheless, at the time, it was still a very strange feeling for me. It just didn’t feel… balanced.
The Why of Work-Life Integration
In recent years, there has been a growing movement towards workplace wellness. And along with that, has come the idea of Work-Life Balance. We have been told time and time again that work-life balance is something we should desire personally and promote organizationally. For our purposes, we could define this term as:
“A state where an individual feels a healthy equilibrium between their personal and professional lives.”
Now, while I am thankful that this concept has increased awareness around employee wellness and mental health, in practice, I have often seen it have the opposite effect. It can increase stress and burnout. This is because hidden beneath this “balance” is also the idea that one must have very strict boundaries between their work and personal life, and there is little allowance for crossover or flexibility. Rather than seeing this as a problem with 1 correct answer, it’s helpful to see it as a tension to be managed. This article unpacks some useful tips for how to look at this tension or polarity, as they call it. If we fail to recognize the polarity that work-life balance creates, we will run into several issues:
Time Constraints – Human beings love to compartmentalize our lives. Thus, the idea of work-life balance is inherently attractive. However, the first problem is that this can create pressure to accomplish more within a given workday for fear of not letting your personal life get interrupted. Then, when distractions or the inevitable unproductive day happen, it can be incredibly stressful. Consequently, what often happens is that even once individuals return home, they are still thinking and worrying about work. So while your physical capacity between work and personal life may be balanced, your mental capacity is not.
Uncooperative Environment – These time constraints can also cause people to become less cooperative and focus more on their individual objectives. The idea of collaboration or helping their fellow employees becomes a burden. Furthermore, any communication outside one’s regular working hours can be taken as an attack on their personal time and could be ignored or cause offense.
Managing Personal Responsibilities – Finally, strict work-life boundaries may not even be helpful to the individual. As we know, the demands of life do not always conveniently align with our working hours. Sometimes things need to be done during the day. If a company, its employees, or both, are too rigid on these work-life boundaries, then it can make it harder for people to manage their responsibilities. This will, of course, spill over into work as people are more tired and stressed.
So, like I said, while work-life balance may appear like a noble ideal, in practice, it can actually create a number of other issues. Instead, what I like to encourage leaders and organizations to strive for is something called Work-life Integration. We could define this term as follows:
“Creating a flexible approach where work and personal life can coexist and be managed in a way that suits individual needs.”
It’s about combining personal and professional responsibilities rather than keeping them separate. This is the structure my leader gave me at my first coaching job, and it’s a huge part of the reason it was such a motivating environment.
Tools for Integration
Now, in reality, most people are already living out some form of work-life integration without knowing it. The problem is that we are still stuck in the work-life balance mindset, and these faulty expectations create much of the stress. However, what if we gave ourselves and our employees room to fully embrace an integration mentality? Among other things, we could observe:
Reduced stress
Increasing productivity
True work-life balance
Improved retention and engagement
This article also goes into more detail on the benefits of integration.
Now I should mention that work-life integration can blur the lines between work and personal life, thus leading to people working more if not managed carefully. That’s why it’s important to have an intentional plan and some tools to help manage/your work structure effectively. Here are a few of my favorites:
End of Day Routine: Many people like to plan their workday in the morning. However, I encourage people to flip this structure and use the very end of their day to plan the following workday. This is because usually we are more productive in the morning than in the afternoon. So what you want to do is decide when you would like to end your day, then count 30 minutes back from that. Block off that time to create a meeting with yourself, and during that meeting, you will do a final email check, but most importantly, you will pick your 3 most important tasks for the next day and schedule them as blocks of time in your calendar. Finally, consider any personal responsibilities you may have, like doctor’s appointments, errands, picking up your kids, etc. You can also mark those down in your calendar.
Track your Time: A very quick and simple way to build healthier work habits is to track your time. You can do this by creating an Excel sheet with different categories. Create some categories that make sense, such as: meetings, admin, emails, errands, etc. This way, you can see over time how much time you are spending on your personal and work life and make adjustments if necessary. This can also be a good tool for helping your employees.
Hiring a Coach: What’s helpful about having a coach is that they are a 3rd party perspective who can help you identify your blind spots and any beliefs that may be reinforcing bad habits. Often, the problem is not that we don’t have the right tools; it’s that we are getting in our own way and don’t even realize it. A good coach acts like a mirror so you can see what’s working for you and what isn’t. You can learn more here about how coaches drive results for their clients.
Your Work-Life Expectations
So with all that said, I think it’s important to note that work-life balance is not necessarily a bad thing. However, we need to remember to remain flexible. The many demands of our work and personal life do not conveniently fit into specific time slots, and trying to make them do so can often be an exercise in futility. Like trying to drive a square peg into a round hole.
To learn more about the differences
I would encourage you to set healthy expectations for yourself and your team and embrace an integrated lifestyle. Finally, if you are looking to become more productive while also getting the most out of your work and personal life, I would love to have a conversation about how coaching with me can help. Go ahead and book a Free Discovery Call to get the process started!
