Sensei never believed in the term “work-life harmony”. He dismissed it as a fluffy concept designed by organisational psychologists to help them advance in their career. Useless and impractical — like the appendix in his body.
But that Sunday, inspiration struck him out of the blue. He had brought home his laptop; his household chores were not going to get done by themselves; and his accumulating cobweb of to-do things sank in his compressed mind, weighing down his spirits. He bolted out of the sofa, his look of fresh determination adding to his purposeful gait.
To regain (some semblance of) control over his life, he took his laptop to the kitchen, turned it on and watched one of the many training videos he was entrusted to learn from. Simultaneously, he took out the cutlery and utensils that had been left overnight in the dishwasher to wipe them one by one. Pairing an unpleasant household chore with a work task he couldn’t summon enough energy for during his hectic workweek. Blending work and life. Leaving his children to their devices (read: consuming mind-numbing YouTube videos) without guilt — because hey, a perpetually exhausted parent-teacher can only do his best.
At the end of an hour, his spirits felt lighter. Not that sunflowers were blossoming in the oasis of his mind — but he did his chores, even cleaned the toilet. Watched several videos — and formulated a mental list of feedback to give to the organisers after he was done with the training. Sat down to be present and really watch a YouTube video that his son wanted him to watch — something about the longest train journey from Portugal to Singapore.
“So this is what work-life harmony feels like,” he thought inwardly to himself as he marshaled his children out of the flat to have breakfast. To merge both sets of responsibilities in the same time frame and accomplish them decisively, not letting the candle burn on both ends. Breakfast would be another tough battle, but he would take this part of the morning as a win, damned it!
His wife was still sleeping blissfully — catching up on her sleep debt.
This rings true: harmony isn’t balance, it’s pragmatic overlap. Not ideal, not pretty just finding a way to make progress without burning out that’s a quiet win.
Ah, no better feeling than getting multiple tasks done efficiently! Killing two birds with one stone, as they say
We might be workaholics
You understood the intent of my post haha.
没办法。为了生活。
Bueno ya dijeron que la palabra bonito fue la ganadora del año y seguirá siéndolo mientras hayan historias asi. 💪🧡💯
May 2026 be a beautiful and meaningful year for you as well
Here in Texas, I more often hear the phrase "work-life balance" which is not as fun sounding as "harmony." But it implies to me a sense of not letting the work aspect of your life dominate the non work.
But I think these days we have pretty much abandoned that meaning. The new version may be "go touch grass." We tell people to take a break or step away rather than to figure out how make it work like you have. (Or it is possible that we tell people to take a break because they are trying to do too much at once).
Because I certainly identify with the feeling of victory you describe when being able to keep all the responsibilities moving smoothly with each other.