You always hear people talking about Work/Life Balance.  Gotta have the work/life balance to be happy.  But really, isn't that a thing of the past?  When I think of work/life balance I think of going to work, leaving at 6pm and having your nights and your weekends free for the 'life' part of that equation.  But who operates like that?  With over 50% of Canadians now owning cell phones we are always connected...always!  And who's not going to respond to their boss when they email at 9pm asking an urgent...or what seems urgent to them...question?

I work at Google, and I'm super lucky to have access to the most amazing summits.  I recently attended a Women's Summit that was exclusively for Googlers (that's what we call ourselves).  They brought in the most AMAZING speakers - one in particular stood out to me - Wendy Clark.  She's the SVP of Marketing for Coke in the US and just a phenomenal person and speaker.  She talked about Life Integration instead - and I loved the idea.

Essentially, it's about integrating work and social life throughout your day.  There's no balancing, but what she emphasized is that you need to be fully present at whatever you are doing.  So, for example, if you're at work and your husband calls, give him your full attention.  If you're at home and you're playing a board game with your kids, don't be thinking about work.  But be ok with the fact that your personal life is going to come into your 9-5 day and that your work life is going to pop into your evening and weekends.  My boyfriend and I just renovated a house and we move in tomorrow.  We thought about the idea of leaving our mobile phones outside of the bedroom.  I love the idea.  The question now is, will we be able to stick to this?

Life integration - it's refreshing.