“Work a job you don’t need a weekend escape from.”

I like the overall sentiment of this cheeky internet maxim, but to me, it still implies something unhealthy: Your work is the most important thing. It insinuates that because work is the core vehicle for purpose in life, optimizing your life for impactful work (that you enjoy) is the best path to a meaningful life. Perhaps that’s true for some, but not me.

The idea of entire days of the week being allocated to certain parts of our being—weekdays for work, weekends for everything else—is insane to me. The “work/life balance” isn’t really a balance at all… it’s just you, existing! Trying to brute force your productive schedule into the serendipity of life is foolish, and leads to the preposterous feeling that you must artificially balance things that should already coexist naturally.

In other words: Work, rest, play, pleasure, chores… let them all exist in harmony throughout every day of the week. Prioritize what you must — but in general, loosen your grip on the idea that the standard work week has your best interest in mind.