Work-Life Balance Mapping: A Systems Thinking Approach

To model the issue of work-life balance maintenance, I created a map of affiliated words. Basically, I surrounded the word “work-life balance” with ones that immediately came to mind. On the right side of the map, the words that I came up with are associated with having a poor work-life balance. On the left side, the words are associated with having a good work-life balance. After writing down all the words, I connected them based on direct relationships between them. For example, I connected the phrase “little social life” with both “no hobbies” and “poor relationships” because these, to me, result from not having the time to be social with others or with yourself. In another instance, I connected the phrase “better sleep” with “full of energy” and “full of energy” to “productive” because I imagined them as a series of events. Many of the connections in the map represent, even if subtly, the idea of cause and effect.

In this second, more refined map, I took a different approach by using inspiration from the stock-and-flow diagrams from Donella H. Meadows’ Thinking in Systems. By utilizing systems thinking, I was able to illustrate how even work-life balance can be represented as a feedback loop. This visualization is a simple, easy way to see the source of a poor and good work-life balance.