12 Tricks for Improving Work-Life Balance

If you’re a working adult between the ages of 25 and 50, 2013 was the year of work-life balance. First there was Lean In. And then there were the many (many, many) responses to it — some positive, some negative and some even featuring brave male voices. But the question still remains: Can anyone, man or woman, successfully balance their work and personal lives?

“['Work-life balance'] is often used as a word for ‘getting everything you want’ or work-life perfection, which is unattainable by definition,” says Larissa Barber, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology at Northern Illinois University whose work focuses on workplace flexibility, workplace stress and work engagement and burnout. “Work-life balance is really about thinking carefully about your values and needs in both domains … and working to manage activities and relationships on a day-to-day basis.”

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