What are your top tips for maintaining a healthy work-life balance?

Margaret Chisolm, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

I’m not a fan of the term “work-life balance,” as I think of work as part of my life, just as my professional identity is part of my overall identity.

Finding balance between my professional and personal time can be a challenge, as it is for anyone in academic medicine, as the demands of the profession are endless and the need to be available for service is non-stop.

I’ve found that incorporating the arts and humanities into both my professional and personal time nourishes me and helps integrate these two parts of myself. I enjoy listening to music (live and recorded), reading, watching movies, and can do at least one of these on a daily basis. I can also take a long walk outside almost every day.

More special is the day or week that I set aside to do nothing but daydream, a relaxing activity that also fuels both professional and personal creativity. I highly recommend it!

William Greenough, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

When not at work, put all your focus on those you love and activities they value that are also fun and robust distractions from work worries!

Outdoor experiences have been the best for me. Whitewater canoeing as a Fellow in hematology was all absorbing with my four-year-old a bow ballast as enthusiastic company!

Panagis Galiatsatos, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Focus on self-awareness, and create a time and space to take care of yourself, with constant check-ins with your core values and passions.

Tina Zhang, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

My favorite practice to maintain work-life balance is to travel! I love to plan trips months in advance – it gives me something to look forward to after a busy stretch at work.

My favorite practice to maintain work-life balance is to travel! I love to plan trips months in advance – it gives me something to look forward to after a busy stretch at work. Traveling to new places is also rejuvenating for me and leaves me energized for work!

Laura Hanyok, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

One thing I do is that I try to maintain “situational awareness” of my level of stress and workload.

When I am developing symptoms of burnout I can catch them sooner and intervene sooner (by taking a couple hours off, or getting more sleep, or reviewing my current workload and deciding what to adjust).

I do this because over the years I have identified what physical and mental “symptoms” I get when I am feeling less balanced.

Mike Fingerhood, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

I try to balance work with life by enjoying time with family and making time for myself exercising and reading.

When my daughters were in high school, I did my best to get to their sporting events, which was not always easy as my younger daughter played soccer, basketball, and lacrosse.

The total escape for me is a long swim – I zone out and become very relaxed.