“How can I find a better work-life balance?”
It’s a question many of us have asked as we strive for an elusive sense of equilibrium between the demands of work and the joys of personal life. This concept of work-life balance has often been idealised—an image of neatly separated categories where work ends when life begins. For decades, it has been championed as the key to wellbeing and productivity.
But with today’s always-on culture, where work bleeds into evenings, weekends, and even holidays, one has to wonder: Is work-life balance even possible?
What if, instead of assuming that work and personal life should be kept strictly separate, we tried to find ways for them to interweave, complement, and enrich each other? This is the concept of work-life harmony, which is about making work work for us rather than against us.
In this article, we explore how work-life harmony offers a fresh perspective for professionals navigating demanding work cultures. As we reimagine the relationship between work and life, we also offer some practical strategies for thriving both personally and professionally—even amidst the pressures of modern life.
Table of Contents
What is Work-Life Harmony?
Work-life harmony is a modern framework for understanding the relationship between our professional and personal lives.
Unlike the concept of work life balance, which assumes a clear separation of roles, harmony embraces the idea that work and life are interwoven. It is not about achieving equal distribution of time but about creating alignment where these domains support and enrich one another.
While the terms are often used interchangeably, they refer to different concepts, although both are still useful in helping us understand how to work towards work-related wellbeing.
Balance vs. Harmony
Work-life Balance
Work-life balance emerged as a popular concept during the late 20th century, as employees sought to maintain clear boundaries between their professional and personal lives. The idea is often visualised as a scale where work sits on one side and life on the other, with the goal of achieving an equal and stable distribution. This framework emphasises allocating specific, compartmentalised amounts of time to each domain to prevent one from overwhelming the other.
While balance offers a straightforward and appealing metaphor, it often falls short in today’s fast-paced and interconnected world. Technology has blurred the lines between work and home life, making it increasingly difficult to maintain the strict boundaries required for balance. The rigidity of this framework can lead to frustration when real-life demands fail to conform to such an ideal.
However, despite its limitations, work-life balance remains a useful concept for understanding work-related wellbeing as it highlights the importance of setting boundaries to prevent one domain from overwhelming the other, serving as a foundation for discussions about healthier work habits and personal fulfilment.
Work-life Harmony
Work-life harmony reimagines the relationship between professional and personal priorities. Rather than striving for equilibrium, it focuses on the quality of interactions between work and life. It’s about aligning responsibilities and activities so that they complement each other, creating a rhythm that adapts to the evolving demands of daily life. For example, attending a family event during the day and completing work tasks in the evening could represent harmony, as both domains are prioritised in a way that feels natural and satisfying.
Work-life harmony is not about erasing all boundaries between work and personal life; rather, it is about crafting boundaries that adapt to individual needs and align with the unique interplay of responsibilities and values. Effective harmony embraces flexible boundaries that protect what matters most, whether it’s undisturbed family time or focused work hours, while allowing for fluid transitions when priorities shift.
In essence, harmony seeks a dynamic integration. By embracing harmony, we shift from a zero-sum game—where gains in one domain are perceived as losses in another—to a model where both can thrive together.
In the next sections, we will shed more light into what work-life harmony is as we consider its benefits and explore examples and practical strategies for achieving harmony in life. But before going into that, let’s first understand why work-life harmony is especially relevant for today’s working professionals in Singapore.
Why Harmony Matters for Today’s Professionals
Singaporean workers exemplify why the shift towards harmony is essential. In 2023, nearly 9 in 10 employees reporting high levels of stress and 16% categorised their stress as “not manageable” – a rate significantly higher than the global average. Almost half of the workforce ends the day feeling mentally and physically drained, citing excessive workloads and the “always-on” culture as primary culprits.
This unrelenting pressure has also contributed to a vitality crisis. A mere 1 in 10 Singaporeans report having high vitality, compared to the global average of 20%. Vitality – the sense of being alive, alert, and in control – is essential for resilience, motivation, and overall wellbeing, yet it remains elusive for many.
Work-life harmony offers a path to change. It is not about striking a perfect balance but about creating a rhythm, and a dynamic relationship between work and life that feels fulfilling, energising, and true to each individual’s unique needs
By redefining how we approach the interplay between work and life, harmony presents a more sustainable and empowering path forward, with many promising advantages.
Benefits of Harmonising Your Work and Life
Enhanced Wellbeing and Productivity
In a work-life balance approach, the pressure to maintain strict boundaries between work and personal life can inadvertently add stress and reduce flexibility (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). Work-life harmony reduces the perception of a tug-of-war between competing responsibilities and encouraging individuals to view their roles as interconnected rather than separate.
Research by Ong and Jeyaraj (2014) highlighted that work-life harmony fosters a more satisfying integration of roles, reducing the internal conflict and tension that often arise when trying to keep work and personal life completely separate. Mello and Tomei (2021) also observed that expatriates who adopted a work-life harmony approach during the COVID-19 pandemic managed to maintain or even improve productivity by integrating personal commitments with professional responsibilities.
Here, the Wheel of Life, a tool often used in life coaching, can help to illustrate why work-life harmony improves our wellbeing.
The Wheel of Life is a visual framework that helps individuals assess and reflect on key areas of their lives—such as career, relationships, health, finances, personal growth, and leisure.
Work-life harmony improves our wellbeing by encouraging integration rather than separation of these domains. The Wheel of Life illustrates this by highlighting how imbalances in one area can ripple across others. For example, if someone prioritises work to the detriment of their health, they may experience fatigue or burnout, which in turn reduces productivity and impacts their ability to enjoy personal relationships. Conversely, investing time in self-care or relationships can create a foundation of emotional and physical resilience that supports professional success.
The Wheel of Life also helps individuals see how intentionally shifting focus or energy can restore harmony. For instance, identifying low satisfaction in the “health” or “relationships” section of the wheel can inspire someone to adjust their schedule, integrating short wellness activities or meaningful interactions into their daily routine. Over time, these small but deliberate changes improve wellbeing by creating a sense of flow and synergy between professional and personal priorities.
Strengthened Relationships
One key principle of work-life harmony is ensuring that professional success does not come at the cost of personal relationships. Instead of compartmentalising their time, individuals can prioritise family and social connections alongside their careers, building stronger support systems.
For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many families adopted role-sharing—a flexible and collaborative division of responsibilities within the household. This could involve one partner taking on more childcare duties while the other focused on work during critical hours, and then switching roles as needed. Such adaptive strategies not only helped families manage their commitments but also fostered a sense of teamwork and mutual support, strengthening both personal bonds and professional resilience (Mello & Tomei, 2021).
Exercises Resilience
By moving away from fixed expectations, individuals adopting a work-life harmony mindset learn to respond flexibly to shifting demands, whether those demands arise from personal or professional contexts. For instance, a working parent might need to adapt their schedule to attend a child’s school event during the day, balancing this by dedicating quiet evening hours to completing work tasks. This ability to pivot and reallocate time helps individuals handle life’s unpredictability with greater confidence, reducing stress and enhancing resilience.
Ong and Jeyaraj (2014) also emphasised that harmony-oriented interventions are more effective in reducing stress and enhancing creativity, both of which are essential for resilience. This ability to adjust and rebound helps professionals mitigate the impact of stressors and maintain performance in the face of challenges.
The Bigger Picture
Work-life harmony benefits organisations and communities, not just individuals. Employees who experience harmony are more engaged, less likely to burn out, and better equipped to contribute meaningfully to their workplaces (Mello & Tomei, 2021). For employers, this translates into lower turnover rates, improved morale, and greater organisational success.
By adopting work-life harmony, professionals and organisations can move beyond the limiting notions of balance, fostering environments where productivity, personal fulfilment, and wellbeing coexist and reinforce each other. This integrated approach holds immense potential for creating sustainable and thriving professional and personal ecosystems. But how can work-life harmony be realistically implemented?
Practical Strategies to Achieve Harmony
Achieving work-life harmony requires intentional effort and the willingness to experiment with strategies that suit your unique circumstances.
Here are three practical suggestions to get you started on integrating work-life harmony in your life:
Prioritise Energy Over Time
Rather than focusing solely on dividing your time equally between work and personal life, pay attention to your energy levels throughout the day. Start by identifying your most productive hours—whether you’re a morning person or thrive in the evening—and schedule your most demanding tasks during these peak times.
To maintain energy, take meaningful breaks to engage in activities that recharge you. For example, step outside for a short walk, meditate, or connect with a loved one. Research highlights that these restorative moments can boost your focus and productivity (Ong & Jeyaraj, 2014). By managing your energy flow, you can approach tasks with greater enthusiasm and effectiveness.
In this scenario, notice that it’s no longer about calculating how much time is spent in each area, but about balancing the energy input and output from both professional and personal tasks. This shift in focus allows for a more dynamic and sustainable approach to achieving harmony.
Set Flexible Boundaries
Establish boundaries that adapt to your responsibilities, such as “no-work” zones during meals. Communicate these boundaries clearly with colleagues and loved ones, but recognise when exceptions might be necessary, such as during an urgent work project.
Of course, this strategy also hinges on the company management being open to communication and supporting flexibility. A culture of psychological safety that encourages employees to discuss their needs without fear of judgment is crucial for successfully setting and maintaining flexible boundaries.
Align Work and Life with Your Values
A key ingredient for work-life harmony is aligning professional and personal pursuits with your core values and goals. Reflect on what truly matters to you and consider how your current commitments align—or conflict—with those priorities. Understanding your values and assessing how they fit within your workplace can reveal opportunities for meaningful change.
Leaning into your strengths—those activities that energise and engage you—can help you find a greater sense of flow and harmony across life domains. For instance, if you excel at organising and energising teams, you could embrace opportunities to lead collaborative projects at work while also using these skills to plan family activities or community initiatives.
Job crafting, or reshaping your role to better match your values and strengths, is a practical way to enhance this alignment. Whether it’s requesting more autonomy or prioritising team-based projects, tailoring your work can make it more fulfilling. By aligning your work activities with your values and strengths, you reduce internal conflict, enhance satisfaction, and find deeper integration across the various areas of life.
Cultivating an Ecosystem for Work-Life Harmony
Work-life harmony isn’t achieved overnight—it’s a continuous process of fine-tuning that also requires a supportive ecosystem.
Work-life harmony thrives in environments where individuals feel empowered to align their priorities, and external structures support their efforts. This means that personal decisions about energy management, boundaries, and value alignment must coexist with supportive policies and cultural shifts in workplaces and communities.
Research shows that while individuals play a pivotal role in creating harmony, external factors such as job flexibility, mental health resources, and cultural norms significantly influence their success (Ong & Jeyaraj, 2014; Mello & Tomei, 2021). In this sense, work-life harmony is not achieved in isolation but within an interconnected ecosystem.
How Organisations and Employers Can Help
Employers hold a critical role in fostering work-life harmony. By creating flexible and inclusive policies, organisations can empower employees to manage their responsibilities without fear of judgment or penalty.
Key initiatives that promote harmony include:
- Flexible Work Arrangements: Allowing employees to choose where and when they work, such as remote work options or staggered schedules, can help them better integrate personal and professional roles.
- Mental Health Resources: Providing access to counselling, wellness programmes, and mental health days acknowledges the importance of psychological wellbeing in achieving harmony.
- A Culture of Trust and Empathy: Encouraging open dialogue and demonstrating empathy for individual needs fosters a workplace environment where harmony is not just possible but celebrated.
When organisations actively invest in these practices, employees feel valued, motivated, and better equipped to balance their roles effectively.
How A Shift in Culture and Perspective Nurtures Work-Life Harmony
Societal norms and cultural attitudes also shape the possibilities for work-life harmony. A shift from the “always-on” mindset to one that values quality over quantity, collaboration over competition, and wellbeing over output can significantly enhance harmony across all levels.
Such a cultural shift requires:
- Redefining Success: Moving away from metrics like long hours and constant availability as markers of dedication, and instead celebrating outcomes, creativity, and innovation.
- Normalising Integration: Highlighting success stories where individuals and organisations have blended work and life seamlessly. For instance, the pandemic showcased how integrating family and professional life can foster resilience and productivity (Mello & Tomei, 2021).
- Community Support: Encouraging societal structures, such as local wellness initiatives or family-friendly urban planning, to support individual and organisational efforts towards harmony.
Towards A Harmonious Future
In this article, we have explored the evolution of work-life harmony as a concept, distinguishing it from work-life balance and highlighting its potential to foster resilience, productivity, and fulfilment. We discussed the benefits of embracing harmony, and offered a few practical strategies to incorporate it in our lives.
Cultivating work-life harmony requires a shift in perspective, and achieving this transformation isn’t solely the responsibility of individuals. Organisations and leaders must play their part by fostering cultures of trust, flexibility, and support.
If you’re inspired to delve deeper into workplace wellbeing and lead the charge in transforming organisational culture, our Positive Psychology courses, and especially the Postgraduate Diploma in Positive Organisational Psychology and Leadership (PGDPOPL) may offer the perfect next step. This comprehensive 12-month programme equips professionals with cutting-edge insights and tools from positive psychology to create thriving workplaces and communities.
Whether you’re a corporate leader, HR professional, or aspiring positive psychologist, the PGDPOPL empowers you to pioneer initiatives that enhance employee engagement, boost organisational performance, and foster a culture of wellbeing. Simply get in touch with us to learn more about the science driving organisational excellence and place yourself at the forefront of change.
References
Cheng, C., Wang, H. Y., & Ebrahimi, O. V. (2021). Adjustment to a “new normal:” Coping flexibility and mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12, 626197.
Greenhaus, J. H., & Beutell, N. J. (1985). Sources of conflict between work and family roles. Academy of Management Review, 10(1), 76-88.
McMillan, H. S., Morris, M. L., & Atchley, E. K. (2011). Constructs of the work/life interface: A synthesis of the literature and introduction of the concept of work/life harmony. Human Resource Development Review, 10(1), 6-25.
Mello, S. F., & Tomei, P. A. (2021). The impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on expatriates: A pathway to work‐life harmony? Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 40(5), 6-22.
Ong, B. S., & Jeyaraj, S. (2014). Building harmony between work and life: Challenges and strategies in dynamic work environments. International Journal of Positive Psychology, 9(2), 59-70.
