One reason for this is that you need to give yourself a mental break from work. The effort and concentration required for your work, whether you realise it or not, is quite a lot. The type of job you have can vary this, but most IT jobs involve a significant amount of mental concentration. A lot of people in the trade industries and other physical jobs often feel sore after a long day. It's similar for working in IT - working a long day can leave you mentally tired. Your body needs time to recover from this. You need to rest and take a break from work in order to recover - this is done in the "life" part of the work life balance equation. Spend time doing what you like, other than work.
In my life, I always sense that there IS actually something like work-life balance when the balance is thrown off! So I am doing okay up until a certain point, but then: life starts to feel out of whack, there is no time to do what I need to do, let alone what I WANT to do; family, social activities, work, they all start to encroach upon me; everything needs to be juggled, relationships seem to get tighter and tighter, work becomes even MORE demanding, I start to cross out weekends to at least have two days to myself, etc etc............It is all too much.
As a business owner or executive we know how hard it is to disconnect from your work, probably more so than the average worker. You run a team or an office and it seems like there is always something that needs to be done. We are not here to tell you to forget your work; we just want to help you create some me-time.
Though a person who can work for long hours is considered more sincere, I strongly believe it's a reflection of an unprofessional attitude. New entrants in an organization follow in the footsteps of their superiors. It becomes a vicious cycle of low productivity, excess stress and less energy for the following day. Eventually, it becomes part of the company culture as well. Once you reach home on time and engage in recreational activities, you will get some more vigor to perform your best the next day.
At school there is an emphasis to teach the 3R's which stand for reading, writing and arithmetic (I am still baffled why they are called the 3R's when only one begins with the letter R).
There is no perfect. Your balance isn't static, and it isn't perfect. When you consider work-life balance to be a journey, you will have a healthy approach to it. While judgment gets in the way, so does comparison. People often look at others who appear to have the 'ideal` balance and try to emulate them. This is also a mistake because your balance must be based on your values (more on this in a second) and your needs. You won`t reach your perfect by emulating someone else.
The most important thing to remember is that, to achieve a successful work life balance, you must place your personal life at the top of your priority here list; having work as your only priority is a sure way to fail at both. So don't overburden yourself, organize your schedule and work life balance will be much easier.