Our life consists of our relationships with family and friends, our communities, faith, hobbies and interests. It’s also our minds, bodies and everything we do to keep them as healthy as we can. Your life, what you want to do, who you want to be, how you spend your time, is infinitely more important than any work you will ever do.

Loading

Sometimes that message can be difficult to deliver to a society that’s been fed hustle culture, girlbossing and leaning in, but it’s a harsh truth we all need to hear.

The second issue is with actual words itself. There are dozens of alternatives that float around, like work-life juggle, harmony, integration, equilibrium, fit and symmetry. I could continue with a thesaurus of options, but none of them address the bigger issue that by putting “work” at the beginning of the phrase we are implying that is the more important of the two.

I do have a solution to this whole mess, however, and it’s to swap the words around. Instead of talking about “work-life balance”, we should refer to it as “life-work balance”. This deceptively simple reframe doesn’t erase all the negatives around the concept, but it does go some way to reclaiming life as the most important part that we should always put first.

So the next time you hear someone talking about “work-life balance”, just casually invert the phrase to be “life-work balance” instead. You’ll be amazed at how powerful this one small change can be.

Tim Duggan is the author of Work Backwards: The Revolutionary Method to Work Smarter and Live Better. He writes a regular newsletter at timduggan.substack.com

The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.