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.

Brittany Boersma | 500hr Registered Yoga Teacher, Intuitive Embodiment Guide, Breathwork and Energy Medicine Facilitator

I’ve been working at a paying job since I was twelve years old. Prior to that, I volunteered at my mother’s work every summer and even spent time with her at work before I could walk. My mother is a nurse and gave birth to me just 2 weeks before she graduated from nursing school. Needless to say, work is programmed into my DNA. As a youngster, I didn’t have the privilege of witnessing much work/life balance. My mother worked extremely long hours, and substance abuse was a coping mechanism for her as well as others in my family. She would work until she was sick and I only remember her taking one real ‘vacation’ for a week in Mexico when I was 17 years old. Workaholism was ingrained in me from an early onset and continued the pattern until the last few years. I earned my Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology in 2009 while working at a local drive-thru coffee business, Dutch Bros Coffee. After graduating, I got a job doing research for the Developmental Sociobiology Lab at the University of Oregon for 2 years while also working part-time at Dutch Bros. Read more>>

Alexander Newton | Photographer

In the beginning work life was easy because I was doing photography for my own purposes, and no one cared about what I was creating; it was just me experimenting. It was easier to plan a creative shoot and do it on the weekend and do my day job. But over time people gradually took notice and that was the start of my commercial life. That is when I started consistent commercial jobs and that would’ve been on my own free time. I don’t really think about the balance much, I just focus on creating consistently. But recently I have been thinking about it. As I’ve gotten older, I’m starting to realize that you need time to recharge, and you need to maintain relationships with your friends. Read more>>

Michela Watson | Film Photographer

When I first began pursuing a career in photography, our world was deep in hustle culture. While my young heart knew this wasn’t a sustainable way of living or doing business, I fell for the trap, spending countless hours stressing over the “success” of my business and forgetting what successful life looked like. Fast forward to the present and I am so much more aware of the importance of work-life balance. I remind myself often that the world will continue to run even if I am not crushing the competition 100% of the time. I’ve become more open-handed with my business, truly passing off the control to God and trusting that if He wills this little business to continue, nothing can stop it. That is so freeing. Of course, I believe in hard work and turning a profit, but I also have come to believe in rest and being present. For me, this looks like an ebb and flow in my business life. I’ve set up systems to continue to bring in revenue even when I’m not capable of being fully committed to every area of my business for a week or so at a time. Read more>>