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Year-end reflections on work-life balance

Second-Class Time

A year-end confession.

Confession time: I wrote up a year-end review for our family and realized while writing it that this was a weird year for my family — and it’s largely because of me.

Maybe this resonates with you: when I was working my corporate job in the first half of the year, I had money but very little time. Now that I’ve started my own consulting business, I have time but not that much money. I keeping getting caught in this unhealthy cycle: “When full-time-jobbing, must work endlessly so as not to jeopardize said job. When new-business-starting, must work endlessly to secure work.”

I didn’t prioritize non-work matters like I should have, and that had a noticeable impact, especially on my family. I spent time with them, yes. But it was usually second-class time, scraps leftover at the end of a workday, when I was mentally spent. In short, I didn’t give my family and home life the intentionality that I gave my professional life.

That changes in 2023.