Peter used to feel proud of how well he balanced his work and personal life. His lab ran smoothly, with a steady but manageable pace. Most evenings, he was home by six, cooking dinner or helping the kids with homework. On weekends, he shut off email completely. His colleagues joked that he had “cracked the code.” And maybe he had—so long as everything stayed exactly as it was.

Then came the new client. A major pharmaceutical company with tight deadlines and sky-high expectations. Suddenly, Peter’s once-reliable routines began to fray. He stayed late to review protocols. His weekends filled up with data reports. He told himself it was temporary—just a short sprint before things calmed down again.

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But life, of course, didn’t wait.

At home, things got more complicated. A family member fell ill. One of the kids started struggling in school. The quiet stability he’d once counted on now needed just as much time and energy as his growing workload.

Peter doubled down. He tried harder to “balance” both worlds: more to-do lists, tighter scheduling, longer hours. But the harder he tried to hold the border between work and life, the more it began to crack. He felt constantly behind, always letting someone down. The guilt piled up. So did the fatigue.

It was during a conversation with a mentor that Peter first heard the term work-life harmony. It wasn’t about drawing hard lines. It was about weaving both parts of life together in a way that supported—not strained—his well-being.

That concept stuck. Harmony, not balance. And slowly, Peter began to reorient his approach.

What is work-life harmony?

“Successful work-life harmony enables work to improve life and life to improve work,” says Scott Hanton, PhD, editorial director at Lab Manager. As a long-time lab manager, Hanton is all too familiar with the demands of the job and just how easily it can bleed over into personal life. In a recent webinar, Hanton recalls attempting to find work-life balance—with rigid boundaries between those two domains of his life—and was frustrated that they never actually seemed to be balanced. But when he found the concept of work-life harmony, illustrated through the Japanese concept of ikigai, Hanton was finally able to formulate techniques in which life benefited work—and vice versa—in an organic way that complemented the dynamic nature of life. In the webinar, he shares actionable tips for finding work-life harmony:

Align with your values

The first step, Hanton says, is identifying your personal values and recognizing how they guide your decisions. “Our personal values are our moral compass,” he explains. “They guide how we prioritize the things in our lives and how we make the hard decisions.”

To put this into practice, start by writing down your top five values—like integrity, curiosity, compassion, or family. Then ask yourself: Are the choices I’m making each day aligned with these values? For example, if you value family but regularly stay late to answer non-urgent emails, you’re likely to feel conflicted or resentful. That disconnect creates friction, which over time can lead to burnout.

Peter’s values—integrity, growth, and family—became his filter. When taking on new projects, he paused to ask: Will this help me grow professionally? Can I complete it without compromising family time or cutting corners? He stopped saying yes to everything out of obligation and began choosing the opportunities that aligned with his core priorities.

This didn’t reduce his workload overnight. But it helped him make peace with his limits. Instead of feeling pulled in every direction, Peter found that decisions came easier, guilt faded, and he felt more grounded. Work no longer felt like a threat to his personal life—it became something that supported it.

Manage expectations with SMARTER goals and clear feedback

Defining success is essential for defining healthy boundaries. “How are we being measured? What are the things stakeholders really want and won’t compromise on?” Hanton asks. “That’s what helps us create our personal boundaries.”

Peter realized his sense of failure stemmed partly from unclear expectations. When things were less busy, Peter had enough energy to achieve goals naturally; they didn’t need to be SMART. But now that he had less time than ever, his objectives required precision and metrics to keep the lab on track. He began a series of check-ins with both his team and his manager, redefining priorities with SMARTER goals—not just Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound, but also Evaluated and Reviewed, as Hanton recommends.

When deliverables started slipping, Peter didn’t keep it to himself. He initiated a conversation with his boss: “Here’s what’s on my plate. What matters most right now? Is there anything I should be prioritizing differently?” The clarity and feedback reduced Peter’s stress and helped him to be more decisive, which in turn allowed him the capacity to focus on family and projects outside of work.

Practice attention management

Time management can help, but attention management is better. “When I practiced time management, I became a busy person who got better at being busy,” Hanton admits. “But busy is self-defeating. It’s not about how much you do; it’s about how much you produce. And sometimes you have to slow down. You have to do less in order to produce more.” Rather than time management, Hanton recommends practicing attention management as described by Tony Crabb in his book Busy. Hanton says that Crabb has a few keys to effective attention management:

• Clarity: What is it that needs to be done? How does the business succeed? How do we deliver for our key stakeholders? By answering these questions, lab managers are equipped to “do fewer things, but do those things really well,” as Hanton says. And impact is more important than checking items off a to-do list.
• Saying “no”: Learning when to say no is a large part of effective prioritization. Without priorities, clarity suffers, and when clarify suffers, impact suffers.

Peter stopped measuring his productivity by how many emails he answered. He blocked two hours a day for focused work and resisted the urge to multitask. By working with greater intention and less fragmentation, he actually delivered more—and with less burnout. And as a result, he felt more free to enjoy time with his family at home instead of logging on to his laptop before bed to check a few more items off the to-do list.

Ask for help and show vulnerability

“Vulnerability is not weakness. It’s our most accurate measure of courage,” Hanton says, quoting researcher Brené Brown. For lab managers accustomed to doing it all, asking for help may feel uncomfortable, but it’s essential.

When the strain became too much, Peter admitted to his team that he was overwhelmed. “I need support this week,” he said. “Can someone else take point on the audit prep?” He expected reluctance. What he got was respect—and three people offering to help. It also gave Peter the opportunity to delegate important tasks to his team, which is another point of advice that Hanton shared.

Share responsibility

Delegation isn’t just about reducing your own workload; it’s an opportunity for growth across the team. “When I did the work myself, I realized I was stealing the opportunity from others,” Hanton says. “I had to reframe it.”

As Peter asked for help, he found that advice running through his head. He assigned specific tasks to each team member that matched their experience and career goals. Then, he held weekly one-on-one meetings with each employee to gauge their comfort with the task and discuss any wins, challenges, or concerns. After a few weeks, the results were clear: morale was higher, staff were more capable and independent, and Peter could focus on the strategic aspects of running the lab. Peter found he was able to evaluate complex decisions more effectively while hiking. His self-care had a direct positive impact on his work.

Final thoughts

After implementing Hanton’s advice for achieving work-life harmony, Peter found that he was more productive and had less stress. “There’s no one-size-fits-all answer,” Hanton says. “You have to define your harmony and take ownership of it.”

Peter’s journey didn’t end with a perfect solution, but it gave him a way forward. He let go of balance as a rigid ideal and embraced harmony as an ongoing practice.

Start by aligning with your values. Manage expectations. Ask for help. Share responsibility. Focus your attention. Take care of yourself. And don’t be afraid to challenge myths in pursuit of a more comfortable way of living.