How do I balance work and home life?

I’m still figuring it out—let me be honest with you, right from the start. It’s not some perfect formula I cracked one quiet Sunday afternoon with a planner and three cups of coffee. No, it’s more like a dance I keep learning the steps to. Some days, I glide. Other days? I trip over my own feet and pretend it’s part of the choreography.

I wake up most mornings already balanced. There’s the phone buzzing with emails before my eyes are even fully open. There’s the breakfast I try to make while responding to a Slack message and packing lunch for the kid. I’m not just “switching hats”—I’m juggling them. And sometimes, I drop one.

But here’s what I’ve learned: balance isn’t about making everything equal. It’s about being present where I am. If I’m working, I work. If I’m with my family, I try—really try—not to check my phone every five minutes. It’s hard. But I’ve realized that my kid notices. My partner notices. Heck, I notice when I’m half-here and half-somewhere else.

I’ve set boundaries.

Not the kind with walls and locks, but soft ones. Like, “I don’t take work calls after dinner.” Or, “Sunday mornings are off-limits for meetings.” People push back sometimes. The world isn’t exactly built for balance. But I’ve started building my own version of it anyway.

And you know what else?

I’ve learned to forgive myself on the days when I mess it up. Because I will. Because I do. I’ll forget something at work, or I’ll snap at home after a long Zoom call and a longer to-do list. But I breathe. I apologize. I adjust.

So when someone asks me, “How do you balance work and home life?” I say: I don’t. Not perfectly. But I show up. I learn. I rest. I laugh when I can, and cry when I need to. And somehow, in all that mess, I find my rhythm again.

I’m still balancing—but maybe that’s the whole point.