What’s the right balance between work and non-work time? The traditional 9-5 has slowly disappeared with the emails and zoom and texting going far beyond traditional business hours. We asked members of our community to share with us how they think about work-life balance.

Chocolate Fe | Spoken Word Artist, Motivator and owner of SHE Originals Custom Jewelry and Accesories

I still work a full time job so instantly that is 40 hours a week gone. Thank goodness I love what I do so it does not seem like work. I actually find myself scheduling my tasks in my head even in my sleep. yes, when you are passionate about what you do, you Eat, Sleep and Breathe it!. I actually have a large dry eraser calendar where I write down events/commitments for my Spoken word and Motivational speaking events. I have a separate board to keep track of client orders for SHE Originals. This helps keep me on track when I am able to see it. I also block off self care time for me. I have learned that “You can’t pour from an empty cup”. Read more>>

Randalyn Lauren | Founder and owner of Florida Girl Cosmetics

My work life balance has changed so much in the last few months. I make it top priority to write everything out in my planner that needs to get done. I try my hardest to follow my schedule. It works best for me to have everything written down that way I can see what needs to get done and complete it in a timely manner. Also, I am still a student, so I make sure to incorporate studying time and assignments, as well in my busy schedule. Time management is key and sticking to my schedule!. Read more>>

Ana Kamiar | Artist, Educator and Yoga Practitioner

Twenty years ago, I was teaching full-time at the Miami International University of Art and Design, and attempting to be a full-time artist, yoga practitioner, family member, and friend. I was 27 years old and freaking out about time and its passing. I felt this overwhelming urgency towards wanting to accomplish everything and to accomplish it all at once; and yet, I felt suspended between all the pushing and pulling. I didn’t understand that my perception of time passing, the sense of urgency I wove in, was the very thing, harmful to my goals. I thought instead, it was my inability to pick and choose one thing over another. To help organize time investments, I learned the idea of prioritizing my passions into sequential order. But, try as I might, this served to create more apprehension. I just couldn’t form a value sequence to help me move along. They were all; after all, my number one. I needed a map to help me toggle through all these number ones continually and in all directions without having to list a sort of value order; if that was even possible. Read more>>

Ten/10 Apparel LLC | Premium Lifestyle Apparel

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about work life balance when working on a new clothing line is you must absolutely love what you do and be excited to wake up every day so you can progress the line, come out with new content pictures and videos, network with other brands and people in general. The business is like a baby, you have to nurture it, put tons of hard work and effort into it for it to develop and grow in a positive direction. There are 3 essential words that we “Ten out of Ten” have adopted and currently live by: sacrifice, preparation, and adjusting. The first and most critical piece is sacrifice. Without understanding and applying sacrifice, time management collapses. Sacrifice is the foundation of time management because if we are unwilling to divest some time away from certain activities, leisure, and habits then our goals become unachievable. There are many times when we are on conference calls between the 3 of us late at night for hours on end. Read more>>

Cristiano Azevedo | Hospitality Operator

Personally I was never great at balancing work vs personal life/time. As a passionate workaholic I kept thinking how could I better myself everyday and do better by aligning the skill set with daily challenges and new goals. As the years went by I’ve come to realize that despite being professionally successful, I’d still struggled to have a group of friends or even a healthy and constant social life. Finding the right partner has helped me to work on this balance on a daily basis, and trying (even if for a day or a couple hours a day), to get ‘of the clock’. As a new entrepreneur the worries multiplied and the concerns would follow us home, so we had to find a way in separating both worlds, which is crucial for the overall success for both company and oneself as an individual. Read more>>

Brianna Hopper | CEO Yng Aesthetics lounge CCE, CME, Medical Aesthetician

Most people think that when you start your own business or you work for yourself and become your own boss that you can then create your own schedule and have more time off. This is so untrue. Most people don’t realize that when you own your own company you then play every role within the business. Even if you hire employees or independent contractors to work under you, there is still a process or training these people essentially, “your way”. You have to develop a business plan, your mission statement, each position and role, finances, licensing, payroll, marketing, scheduling, benefits, location, short term goals, long term goals and so much more. As your business grow, most of these things change over time. As the owner, being apart of the daily process is very important when establishing a culture within your brand and for the business growth. Nobody is going to care about your business like yourself so you must stay on top of the daily routines and constantly check to make sure operations are running properly. Read more>>

Craig Yearwood | Artist/Designer

As an artists and designers, we spend most of our time planning, researching and executing projects, mostly in near solitude. Often that leads to feeling stretched,, long odd hours and at times it’s difficult to manage that work life balance. The more I want to achieve, the more stretched I seem to become but as I’ve aged, I’ve become more aware of the value of time. Now I try to stick to routines as it relates to downtime, whether that be social interaction, exercise and rest. Read more>>