I agree with Jeff Bezos

I agree with Jeff Bezos on one of his viewpoints.

He thinks you should aim for work-life "harmony", not work-life balance.

Work-life balance implies that there's a strict trade-off between work and life.

That more dedication towards one takes away from the other.

It is true that time is, and always will be, traded-off.

We all have 24 hours in a day. And if you spend more time on work, by the laws of physics, you'll have less time for non-work.

You may be in a position where you separate work and life. Most of us are.

Where, after you put in the hours at your day job, you disconnect completely and live the rest of your life: family, hobbies, entertainment.

You, like many, may treat work and life as distinct. Independent.

And that's ok. We will tend to compartmentalize different parts of our life.

But we all have the same 24 hours in a day. 1440 minutes. 86,400 seconds.

So it's what you do with that time that matters.

The energy and engagement that you bring to a given unit of time matters.

An hour of high engagement is not the same as an hour of low engagement.

One can do work that energizes her non-work life, and also have a non-work life that energizes her work.

The truth is, work and life can energize each other. They don't have to be opposed to one another.

Work and life can form a cycle. They can become partners.

Not one or the other.

But a harmony where both sides nurture and elevate each other.

Not independent pieces, but an integrated whole.