On balancing what matters

In reponse to my post asking readers what their typical work week is like (and sharing mine), Carrie, a third-year graduate student writes,

[W]hat strikes me about all the replies here is how much work-life balance is being stressed. This is something I've talked about with my fellow students, since our observation of our professors at our university is how little work-balance many of them have, whether they are are pre- or post-tenure and whether they have partners and/or children or not (e.g., never taking weekends off, feeling like they don't have enough time for daily tasks like cooking and cleaning, etc.). Perhaps this is a generational phenomenon (although some of them are pre-tenure, so not too much further along the the posters here), or part of being at a research school? Either way, it's encouraging to hear stories from people who are getting a lot of research work done and still spend time with family, friends, and things outside philosophy. 

I wonder what readers think. In reply to Carrie's comment, I shared my (admittedly anecdotal) sense that it may have something to do with working in an R1 environment (where one must publish a lot of stuff in top-ranked journals to get tenure). What do readers think?

Also, since Carrie brought it up, what sorts of work-life balance rules do readers follow (and how do you find that they work)? Again, my rules are pretty simple: no work at night (past 6pm) or on weekends (I break these rules only very occasionally, maybe a few times a year). 

Comments

[Rachel]

I've noted this before, more than once, but hey:

I generally don't work nights (past 4pm) or weekends. I break this rule when I absolutely must, or when I want to, but it's pretty rare. I started this in my last year of grad school and it's worked wonders for me. I get to leave work at work, and I find myself looking forward to Mondays.

Without this, I felt like every day was the same, I never really had a break. It was exhausting.

I take vacations (I took two weeks off in November when my girlfriend was in town). I compete in sports. And I exercise a lot with my dog. I also don't usually work >35hrs/week.

Oh…and I still publish 4+ articles/year. It can be done.

[Marcus Arvan]

Rachel: Yep - completely agree. I started basically the same rules my last year of grad school and I can't *wait* to get up and get stuff done on Mondays. It's important to give oneself time to recoup. I also take vacations. It's amazing, but my productivity has soared since I implemented these rules. Looks like yours has too! :)