B.A.B.E. Week 39: Blurry dancing and separating personal from work

Elle "danced" for the first time this week.   By dancing, I mean bopping up and down while sitting in her high chair.  She is also starting to pick up and eat finger foods a little bit.  Above, you can see her grabbing some off her friend's high chair.   (Incidentally, they also held hands below.)

Elle's dancing hasn't really been blurry.  It's more my life has continued to feel blurry.   Juggling "B.A.B.E.dom" isn't easy and it's hard not to repeat myself as I examine the reasons why.   One new insight that I gained from a friend today is the fact that maybe my life is too "integrated".

An "integrated" life -- what does that mean?   Well, as my friend said today, there are two major ways to think about how people deal with their lives and work.   One way is that they are "separators" -- they keep work and personal life separate -- clearly delineating between personal and work time.   Whereas integrators, often try to do both.   The research that she saw was that separators tend to be happier and more productive employees.  Who knows if this is actually the case?  Or would be the case for me?  But it is something to think about.


I think that I often do work during non-working hours and also do the reverse.  And I wonder if I might feel less harried if I separated more.  I am not sure -- I think that it might simply be our modern condition that we are so connected in all ways that it is hard to turn either off or forego any opportunities in either dimension.  E.g., we want to go to our friend's barbeque but we also want to be put on the newest or biggest project.   Finding that balance is difficult whether you are a separator or an integrator.