24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week. Junior investment bankers regularly work 80-90 hours a week. Many other high profile professions require the same level of commitment. Often those on the outside claim that working 80-90 hours a week is bad/wrong/terrible/silly/etc but we’ve spoken with so many folks who say working that much has been the best decision of their life – it allowed them to develop a deep and strong skill set far faster than would have been possible otherwise. In other words, by working 2x the hours, they were able to generate 5x or more the rewards. And depending on where you are in your career, investing heavily in your skills and competence can pay dividends for a long time.

Ben Pryce | Serial Entrepreneur

This is probably the most difficult part of entrepreneurship for me. At the very beginning I thought being my own boss meant being able to take a ton of time off. Then it quickly meant having absolutely zero time off. And now I’m working on getting back to something a bit more healthy. The trick is that in a competitive world, sometimes you need to sacrifice some work-life balance to get things started. Because an entrepreneurs work is never really done, knowing when to shut off is a very large gray area. Read more>>

Cristyn Chandler | Full-time Actress

verything has slowed down during this pandemic, hasn’t it? What an incredible time in our lives that we get to really do a deep dive into what is important and what isn’t. I’ve always made sure my life was balanced between work and fun. I worked in an office for 18 years and that was “work”. The minute I left the pavement, I didn’t think about work again until I drove back in. A year ago, I quit my jobby job to pursue my passion of acting. What a leap! I left a full time salary with health benefits, a 401K, vacation time -all for an unknown and basically extremely difficult career. Since then, the balance has shifted exponentially. Read more>>

Stacie Birky Greene | Artist

Being an artist and a teaching artist my schedule is in a constant state of flux. There are times when I’m very busy teaching and I’m so spent at the end of the day that I barely get into the studio. This can last months, when I also don’t spend as much time with my husband as I’d like and house chores get ignored. I used to get stressed about that, years ago my friend and fellow artist Lauren Carrera said something to me one day about thinking of your time in terms of semesters. Now I’m doing X, later I will focus on Y. That mindset helps me a lot. Also, I am fortunate to be married to the composer, Adam Greene who is not only very supportive of me, but as a fellow artist understands the demands. Read more>>

Victoria Parker | Wedding Photographer

During this pandemic I have realized that change is inevitable, balancing it has been tough. Having to set a time to focus on schedules for my business and attending to my family has been the difficult time, nevertheless it’s has been achievable. Knowing when is the best time to spend a little more time on your business and when is time to say “hey I need an extra day off” is very important, it keeps you going. Balance is key, to have a happy and healthy personal and business growth. Read more>>

Jaslyn Hutchinson | Painter

My work/life balance changed drastically after getting pregnant and giving birth to my daughter. Working my schedule around feeding a baby, diapers, and other needs has definitely posed the greatest challenge so far to my creative aspirations. Sometimes, it is a struggle to find any time at all to paint. I am having to learn much greater discipline and time management in this season of life, but it is still difficult to balance commissioned paintings and taking care of a baby! Another change that the pregnancy brought to my work was a shift from oil paints to water-based acrylic paints. Read more>>

Morgan DeLuna | Photographic Artist

Balancing work and life is particularly tricky as an artist. The line between your creative and personal life can be blurry; add in working for yourself, and the 24/7 work cycle can take over. When I was starting out, I use to work all the time, and it caught up with me. It took a toll on my physical and mental health. Now, I have learned to set boundaries to my availability, accessibility, and work hours. I tuned into the times of day I am naturally at my most creative and productive to establish a more intuitive workflow. I also overhauled the time I spent on social media; this one was a significant stress relief. I am now more focused on the present, which is key to balancing life and work. Read more>>

Blue Wesley | Brand Content Consultant

This is a big one. It’s so important to feed your soul with adventure, your brain with visual and thought provoking stimuli, and your body with movement, blood flow, and energy to your cells. Can you do all of this from sitting behind a desk? No way. You have to get outside, SEE, DO, EXPERIENCE. The interesting thing is that it’s been proven that you will be more productive on your daily “work” if you make time for “life” activities. As a business owner and freelance professional I can attest to this study. The more you balance, the more success you will have. Feeling stagnant? Reignite old passions , learn new strategies on activities you currently do and decide which ones just aren’t stimulating you anymore. Read more>>

Hoami Tran | San Diego Photographer & HR Technology Solutionist

My work/life balance changed forever the moment I booked my first photoshoot. Since these early beginnings of my photography career, I’ve always had a full-time job in addition to all the photoshoots. Because of this, my work/life balance is more like what balance? Haha! When I first started off in photography, I was working all times of the day. If I wasn’t working my full-time job, I was chasing opportunities to build my portfolio, editing photos, planning, marketing, and shooting engagements on the weekends! I was working on repeat. As my work grew and I gained support, it wasn’t an uncommon event for me to consider going full time with photography or not. Read more>>

Elena Fowler | Illustrator

Over time it occurred to me that extreme time optimization needed to happen to achieve my personal artistic goals. I am always working on how to best balance my time and continually refining my approach. Certainly the biggest recent change to my schedule in the last year has been to set aside a regular time that I would be focused on and producing artwork publically. This currently takes the form of holding a live stream schedule once every week for a few hours. The added aspect of showing up for a community, albeit online, really adds to the sense of responsibility to myself and to my creative process. Read more>>

Lulu LaFortune | Furniture and Lighting Designer

What was your thought process behind starting your own business? Launching my own brand has been a thought that has danced around my head for the last 6 or more years, at least since high school. It has always been something that I knew I was going to do it was just a matter of when. After college I seriously considered going right into my own work, but if I was being honest with myself I didn’t know the first thing about starting or running a furniture business. I literally didn’t know how to create an LLC, I didn’t know how to work and communicate with vendors, I didn’t know how I was going to take my love of Furniture Design, Interior Design and Textile Design and translate it into a brand that would actually catch some attention. Read more>>