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Nolan’s Notes: The Work-Life Balance—You’ve Got This

We all feel the challenge of achieving a healthy work-life balance. It doesn’t matter whether you’re early in your life and career, raising a family, passionately pursuing a lifestyle hobby, working toward an advanced degree in your spare time, or staring down retirement; the balance point is ever-shifting, and preserving that balance takes focus and vigilance.

We’ve all had our moments when we had to prioritize life over work (or work over life). Projects start and end, design schedules sometimes overlap, and family or health issues come up, often without warning. This month, Design007 Magazine features PCB designers and design engineers, marketers, managers, and business owners who discuss how they’ve worked to achieve this balance. How do we make it all work?

Here’s one example from I-Connect007 Managing Editor, Michelle Te, who shared an experience she calls, “The Night I Took a Meeting on the Way to the Eiffel Tower”:

“Last summer, my older daughter and I took an amazing two-week trip to Europe, visiting the UK, Spain, and France. But being away from work for that long was impossible, so I packed my laptop and fit in projects wherever I could. That meant working from the bed of an Airbnb, on cross-country train trips, and—most memorably—on a bus in Paris.

“I was on the final deadline for the Fall issue of Community Magazine, and our all-team meeting was scheduled to review the final proof. It’s the kind of meeting where we review ad placement, confirm last-minute editorial details, and ensure everything looks right. As managing editor, it wasn’t one I was willing to miss. The problem was that it was set for 10 p.m. Paris time—exactly when I was standing at a bus stop on my way to see the glittering Eiffel Tower. I figured I’d squeeze in the call before the bus arrived, but it was late. So, there I was, reviewing page proofs while riding a crowded bus full of strangers in a foreign city, trying not to miss my stop and trying to make sure we didn’t miss anything in the magazine I’d worked so hard on.”

Nope, the news never stops, and the publication calendar is relentless. I can just imagine Michelle on a bus, a Teams meeting on her phone with a magazine proof so small a magnifying glass would have been helpful, looking for the smallest of details and all while trusting that the internet connection she was using would remain stable enough to relay video. Cell service has come a long way, but it’s not ubiquitous yet. In this case, it worked; it often does not.

Our global society built these information networks precisely to make us more connected, productive, and communicative. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth pioneers undoubtedly saw Michelle’s experience as an aspirational goal, a vision of the future they wanted to create—just as I use connectivity to stay productive during the “forced downtime” of a flight on a commercial airline. I’m fairly certain they didn’t establish all these protocols so we could argue with strangers on social media or ignore our bickering family members by binge-watching cat videos.

Michelle sums up her story with some wise words about why this experience remained memorable and what it’s meant as she balances other projects at home.

“What’s stayed with me isn’t frustration. Clearly, I saw both sides of modern work. I fully appreciated how our systems let me stay connected halfway around the world. I had the flexibility to enjoy that trip while honoring my commitments. I also noticed how thin the line is between flexibility and being ‘always on.’ For me, healthy work-life balance isn’t about never letting work touch personal time, but about deciding when it does, and making sure the reason is worth it. That night on the bus was worth it, and I’m grateful for the special memory and the reminder that balance is less about perfection and more about intention.”

That “thin line” she calls out is exactly the topic of this issue. Those same internet developers probably thought the extra productivity would give us more personal time, tipping the work-life balance more toward leisure and quality time. Oddly enough, that extra productivity seems to have had the opposite effect on our lives. To my eye, it has simply accelerated the rate of change in our lives. As in Michelle’s case, was she working while on vacation? Or was she being a digital nomad, where her work was unchained from her desk and chair?  It all depends upon how you slice it.

Our thoughtful and thought-provoking work-life contributors include Kelly Dack, Stephen V. Chavez, Fil Arzola, Zach Peterson, Kelly Atay, Barry Olney, and John Watson. We also have contributions from Matt Stevenson, who writes about outer layer imaging, Anaya Vardya continuing his series on UHDI, and an interview with Peter Tranitz regarding the second Pan-European Electronics Design Conference in Prague.

Which brings me back to where I started: Preserving that balance takes vigilance. It is our sincere hope that, as you spend the December holiday season with your own traditions and reflect on this year and the year to come, the insights and inspiration in this issue will help you manage your personal work-life balance. May we all be ever vigilant.

Michelle Te contributed to this column.

This column originally appeared in the December 2025 issue of Design007 Magazine.