How to not miss out without burning out - A simple guide

Having been struck by covid I find myself unable to concentrate for longer than 5minutes (dont worry, i′m fine all things considered). So for the first time in a very long time I have time on my hands to reflect on a few things.

As I am sitting in my beautiful rose garden, basking in the first light of this glorious june morning, I will try to respond to a student question on work-life balance.

This honestly is a tough one.

The best advice I came up with is 1) you need to make decisions, 2) make your peace with them and 3) understand, that you′re not alone.

As the economic crisis raged on in 2007, I already had build myself a career and started a family, but that was not enough. I wanted, no, I needed to understand the workings behind those global events.

I know it would have made me very unhappy, if I had to limit myself, nevertheless big decisions need to be addressed level headed. You have to be clear on the priorities, financial implications and the toll major decisions will take.

My family was a great help and Intel is probably the best place on earth when it comes to supporting employee growth and development.

For the next years, my husband took our daughter, later together with the twins, each weekend out of the house, so I could focus on reasearch and writing. Munich is a large cultural hub and they visited them all, basically living in Museums and Theaters, to a point, that my daughter was able to give me an impromptu tour on any exhibition when I came along.

For the past two decades I worked a steady pace of probably 16h a day and more at high times. But let me tell you my little secret on how this works. In my heart I′m a big procrastinator. This is actually a good thing, you just have to use it to your advantage! It is easy to burn out if you get lost in your demanding job, working endless hours with no reward. I found consciously switching between roles can give you a mental break, so every time you hit a dead end, are frustrated or just need a break – you can put a different hat on, with a different prospective and goals.?

Unfortunately, at least until we invent the time mashine, we still only have 24 hours a day. The key, I found, is to pursue what makes you happy, accepting the consequences.