Intro

“Work-life balance” is such a trigger word in the startup community. Drop the phrase in any conversation with founders and investors, and you’ll likely start a flame war. The staunch advocates of hustle culture will argue its a luxury that true entrepreneurs can’t afford. The opposition will insist that work, even as a founder, shouldn’t come at the expense of the personal facets of life, otherwise, you’ll burnout.

Not gonna lie, when I hear the expression, I cringe. It feels wrong. Even though I’m not a zealot for either side of the debate, I think the idea is charged with black-and-white thinking that misses the nuances of entrepreneurial success and well-being. A sliding scale between sacrificing everything for your startup, and subverting the startup for other life priorities doesn’t seem like the right model here.

I subscribe to an alternative philosphy of “work-life harmony” (some call it “work-life integration”). This approach recognizes that our lives aren’t compartmentalized into neat “work” and “life” boxes, and a vote for one doesn’t necessarily trade-off against the other. Instead, it suggests a more fluid integration of the different areas of your life where they don’t just coexist, but they heavily complement each other. Let me elaborate.

Harmony > Balance

The central idea behind harmony over balance is dead simple: Investing in one life category, like physical health, can give you leverage to be more productive in another category, like work. For example, I’m sure you’ve observed your own output diminish the longer you work, uninterrupted. But splicing your work time with a 20 min. outdoor walk or a phone call with a loved one can give you a surge of energy to be even more productive in the same amount of time. Punctuating a month-long sprint to close a round of financing with a weekend trip to enjoy the outdoors isn’t being careless with your time, its taking a strategic break to clear your head so you’re better prepared to meet the challenges of the business when you return.

Having a keen appreciation for these leverage points can level up your performance as a founder. This is not a secret. Every time you see Brian Chesky make a public appearance, the dude looks even more swole. Clearly, the CEO of a centicorn knows how spending hours a week doing vigorous physical exercise is a worthwhile investment. Back when Jack Dorsey was at the helm of not one, but two, publicly-traded companies, it seemed like he was going on week-long meditation retreats every few months. The stereotype of the billionaire entrepreneur being really into fitness, meditation, spirituality, isn’t an expression of their eccentricity. It’s smart adaptive behavior that allows them to tackle the stresses and demandes of their high-pressure jobs.

Work-life harmony refers to the integration of work and personal life in a way that increases your odds of success, as well as improving your sense of fulfillment and satisfaction, without strict compartmentalization of your life. It’s carefully designing your life around sleep, fitness, psychotherapy, friends, loved ones, etc., and of course, work, so they form a circle, with a positive loop, instead of a line with a strict trade-off. And the benefits aren’t uni-directional. Sure, living a healthy life contributes to better professional performance, but exceling in your career gives you purpose and meaning that enhance the quality of relationships and life.

In the game of startups, sound decision-making, innovative thinking, and creativity is the lifeblood of companies. So I don’t see work-life harmony as just a feel-good concept—it’s a fucking tactical advantage. Managing your emotional well-being with occassional 20 min. meditations, or going on intense 5-mile morning runs everyday to trigger an endorphin rush, or enjoying a date night with your partner to reassure your sense of emotional security, etc., I believe constitutes the best, sustaining performance-enhancing drug I know of for founders.

Ok, so work-life harmony is not that different from work-life balance. At least upon first glance. But the key difference is understanding the precise levers across the different buckets of your life, and exploiting them the right amount to enrich your whole life. Being more intentional about work-life design can unlock synergies (yuck) better than naively dividing your time for the sake of “balance”. By reframing the conversation from “balance” to “harmony”, you emphasize it’s about integration, not separation.

Time Scales

Work-life harmony can be fostered over many different time scales. It doesn’t just happen on a daily basis.

I have daily routines that optimize my productivity, and I interweave these activities throughout my day to try and maximize the benefits. I start my days with a strenuous morning workout, which gives me a concentrated dose of energy and cognitive clarity for the day ahead. I use short meditation breaks between intense focus sessions and I’ll usually spend some quality time with a friend or loved one in the evenings. But zooming out, my work and personal life follow weekly and monthly rhythms. My Saturdays are “flex” days, which I optionally use for work or R&R, depending on what I need. Every month I take a weekend off to disconnect from work. Zooming out further, I schedule week-long breaks around major work sprints or milestones. This is the work-life style that works for me, but figure out what works for you.

Now looking at the lifetime of a startup, the takeoff phase is…intense. Before you’ve hit escape velocity, you can’t afford to hire a bunch of people and outsource your tasks, so you and the founding team have to do a lot. This period of a startup is work-heavy, where success/survival is a function of your labor, not just your decision-making, unlike a later-stage company. It’s like raising a child, where the bulk of the raw effort is spent during early infancy. You’ll have to incur deeper sacrifices to personal life early, but when the company gets off the ground, you can reclaim your time to restore your ideal harmony.

The key to mastering work-life harmony across these time scales is flexibility and intentionality. Recognizing that different periods may require different approaches. A product launch week might be work-heavy, but you can plan for recovery time afterward. Similarly, a family event might take precedence for a while, but you can ramp up work engagement later.

Guilt

Some people, especially with Type A personalities, have a hard time doing things other than work. They feel guilt or shame, and presume they should spend every waking hour working, even if some of those hours are spent spinning their wheels because of exhaustion.

The mentality of work-life harmony helps me overcome that “guilt” by acknowledging that not working is work. The whole point of this essay is to emphasize how quality time outside of work ensures you can perform well at work. Athletes put as much attention into high-quality rest as they do into training and competing. Athletes who neglect rest underperform and even get burnt out or injured. This invariably applies to knowledge work.

Conclusion

As a founder, I don’t believe you should sacrifice everything but work on the altar of success. But also, don’t over-correct for the sake of “balance”. Be intentional about the interplay between professional and personal. Work-life harmony isn’t about working less; it’s about working smarter. It’s about recognizing that peak performance doesn’t come from relentless grind, but from a holistic integration of work with other life-enhancing activities. It’s realizing that a weekend spent hiking could lead to the breakthrough idea you’ve been chasing for weeks. Or that regular therapy sessions might be the key to navigating the emotional rollercoaster of startup life with greater resilience. This can be your competitive advantage.

As a final note, I’ll admit that I personally don’t like the dichotomy between “work” and “life”. But it’s the segmentation our society has come to accept. They say, “if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” I find enjoyment in what I do everyday, and that’s why I love being a founder. I consider myself very lucky to feel a deep sense of fusion across work-life.