I belong to a cloud app called “pocket”.  It allows me to download interesting articles to save and/or read later; it also suggests interesting reads on my google page. I was intrigued when I came across one article called “The Downlside of Work Life Balance”.  Hmmm, the work-life balance.  We all struggle with that one.

David Sedaris came up with the 4 Burners Theory.  This is not a study or grand psychological experiment, just a plain thought that someone came up with but it kind of makes sense.  He says to think of your life like a stove with 4 burners.  Each burner represents a part of your life.  Burner 1 represent family, burner 2 friends, burner 3 health, the last is work.

In order to succeed you have to cut off one burner, cut off two if you really want to be super successful (whatever success means to you).  All these things are important to everyone, so you see the dilemma.  We all try to keep all the burners going but something always gives, doesn’t it?  Some people outsource small parts of the burner, like paying a babysitter under burner 1 (if you can find one).

I’ve found that keeping your life as organized as possible (saving time) is good for health, family, work, and friends, or to keep a good balance of the burners.  But even then sometimes it doesn’t work, especially on those days where everything goes wrong.

So how do you manage the burner of life? Let us know.

If you’d like to read more you can access the original article here at pocket:

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-downside-of-work-life-balance-1305940612