How to Find Work-Life Integration: Definition & Tips | FlexJobs

Often the holy grail of jobs is one with work-life balance: you don’t feel like you’re constantly working and have ample time to give to whatever is important to you. While many flexible jobs make it easier to find work-life balance, the truth is that achieving true work-life balance may be impossible.

That’s why more people are trying to achieve work-life integration. Instead of trying to balance work with home, the two are integrated throughout the day. While it sounds like the ideal solution, work-life integration is not for everyone. Here’s what you need to know.

What Is Work-Life Balance?

You’re probably familiar with work-life balance and may have even tried to achieve it. People usually equate work-life balance with a set of evenly balanced scales. Work is on one side, your personal life is on the other, and you devote (or try!) an equal amount of time to each.

The other essential detail about work-life balance is that work and life are separate. You keep them on opposite ends of the scale as a strict boundary to ensure you keep things balanced. When you’re working, that’s all you’re focused on, and when you’re doing personal things, you ignore work.

But many critics of work-life balance point out that in today’s world, it’s almost impossible to maintain these strict boundaries. Pandemic aside, modern technology has meant that work can creep into our lives whenever and wherever we are. Email on the weekend? Sure! Talking to a client at your kid’s soccer game? It happens.

What Is Work-Life Integration?

This “work creep” is why work-life integration is growing in popularity. Unlike work-life balance, work-life integration focuses on finding the best time to work throughout the day instead of maintaining strict boundaries between work and personal time. In some ways, work is just one more activity you complete during the day, like doing the laundry or walking the dog.

For example, someone who’s trying to achieve work-life balance might have strict working hours of 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. During that time, they do not do any personal activities, and outside of that time, they don’t do any work tasks.

Someone who integrates work and life doesn’t keep the same boundaries. Instead, they might get up early to answer emails, drop the kids off at school, work for a block of time, walk the dog, mow the lawn, then work another block of time before dinner. This schedule treats work as “just” another activity.

Which Approach Is Right for Me?

Work-life integration has its fans, but it may not be the right choice for you. Here are the pros and cons of both work-life balance and work-life integration.

— Work-Life Balance Pros and Cons

Work-life balance is often easier to achieve when you work an in-person job. That’s not to say it’s impossible to do when you work at home; many people can and do. But because your office is physically located somewhere else, it can be easier to maintain the boundaries you need to find balance.

However, the reality is that it’s not always possible to maintain boundaries or balance. If your boss is calling you after hours or sending multiple emails, you’re probably going to take the call and respond to the messages.

— Work-Life Integration Pros and Cons

Work-life integration is much easier to do when you work remotely at least some of the time. On those days, you can make work another task on your to-do list. However, this only works if you have a job and boss that’s supportive of work-life integration. For example, if you work from home as a customer support agent, you likely have to work your whole shift in one chunk and can’t take off for a few hours to do the laundry or run errands.

Likewise, work-life integration is still subject to work creep. When work is something you do whenever the time is right, there’s a chance you’ll find yourself doing it all the time. The lack of boundaries between work and not work can make it harder for you to end your workday and could lead to you working more hours than you want.

And finally, you have to remember that even though it’s called work-life integration, there will be times when work has to be the priority. While that’s true for any job, if you find yourself spending more time on your personal tasks than your job, work-life integration may not be the right choice for you.

How to Achieve Work-Life Integration

If you want to try out work-life integration, here are some tips to get you started.

— Find Your Definition

Just like work-life balance looks different for everyone, so does work-life integration. Before you decide to do it, make sure you have a clear idea of what you hope work-life integration will help you accomplish.

Are you trying to spend more time with your family? Want more time to run errands during the week? Reduce stress? Knowing first what your goals are will help you find the right way to integrate work and life throughout the day and give you enough time for each activity.

— Integration Requires Balance

Though work-life integration gives you more flexibility throughout the day, work will often be the priority, so you still need to strike a balance between work and home.

For example, if part of your integration means making sure you’re free Tuesday evenings to be at your child’s soccer game, you may have to take some phone calls during the game. Or, if you want to integrate a yoga class in the morning, you may need to work an extra hour at night to get everything done.

— Know What You Have to Keep

While work-life integration is a flexible way to work, certain priorities are “fixed,” meaning they have to be done at certain times. To that end, part of your integration will have nonnegotiable blocks of time.

For example, some remote companies have core hours you’re required to be online and available. As you work toward work-life integration, you’ll have to set aside a block of time to cover those hours. Likewise, if you have a pet in daycare, you’ll also have to set aside time to pick them up.

— Baby Steps

While you might want to go all-in on work-life integration right off the bat, start with baby steps to see if it’s really the right choice for you. Try taking some phone calls at games and practices and see how it goes. Or, make one appointment in the middle of the day and work early in the morning or late at night to compensate and see how it goes.

After some trial runs, add in a few more integrations to see what works and what doesn’t. You may discover that some parts of your work and life integrate more easily than others, or that work-life balance is the better choice for you.

What Works for You

Whether you decide work-life balance or work-life integration is right for you, ultimately, it’s how you define balance or integration that will determine its success. Knowing what you want from a job and how that fits into your life will make whatever path you choose the best one for you.