10 Levels of Work-Life Balance

The 10 levels of WLB. A completely non-scientific leveling system to work-life balance. Where do you fall on the scale?

I see a lot of founder content on "996" or "I worked so hard I ended up in the hospital" and I immediately cringe. I've always been of the mindset "work smarter not harder," but I had trouble putting into words what that meant.

You can't sprint a marathon, and you can't sprint a startup. But working on a startup will be more intense than your job at a big company, and that intensity comes in waves.

I wrote this post to contextualize the "levels" of intensity on the WLB scale - from all work to all life. I'm hoping this will help answer questions on "what does WLB look like at Clearly AI" and what my anti-996 philosophy really means.

Level 0

Level 0 has truly no work life balance. People at level 0 exist just to work, to an extreme detrimental degree. They forget to sleep, forget to eat, and neglect personal care and contacting others. Partners or roommates might note that the person seems like they’re not really present even when in the same room, and that they’re wholly obsessed with their work. Their work can suffer by pushing their bodies too hard. Your brain is simply less capable with less sleep and nutrition.

Level 1

Folks at Level 1 have addressed basic personal care - they manage to feed themselves when hungry and sleep when tired. They often don’t have the capacity to plan meals outside of work, may depend heavily on their partners or on takeout, and generally neglect any tasks outside of doing their job and ensuring they are healthy enough to do their job. Most people who say they are "996" probably fall here.

I spent a fair amount of YC at Level 1. So much so that we had to auto-deliver Sweetgreens every day so we’d both remember to eat. Spending too much time at this level leads to degraded mental health, feeling tired all of the time, and work feeling like a "grind." It also means you forget to walk your dog (Sorry Daisy!!!)

Level 2

Reaching Level 2 requires stronger commitment to general self care outside of work, including fitness and relaxation activities. People at level 2 work out at least 1x per week, are able to do activities like walking their dog or winding down at night by reading a book. They’ll be able to devote at least 2 waking functional hours to non-work activities (including eating, working out, resting).

I try not to go below Level 2, but frequently reach this level during high-stress times. My Level 2 activities are an occasional workout class, walking my dog, watching TV instead of working while eating dinner, and some wind down time before bed. I can’t exist at Level 2 for more than 2-3 weeks before I really feel like I need a break.

Level 3

This is the level where life really starts getting some breathing room. You can generally spend some time every day working out and/or relaxing outside of work. Pure social activities are still limited, but room can be made by trading off workouts/rest time.

Level 3 is the sustainable level for me. It’s not ideal, but it allows me to workout almost every day, wind down before bed, have a weekly TV binge, and occasionally see friends. This is where I spend 90% of my time.

Level 4

At level 4, you can generally take most of the weekend off and/or most nights of the week after dinner. How you fill that “life” time is much more flexible as you have more than enough time for personal needs and can start adding more social life activities.

I strive to be able to exist and run my startup at level 4.

Level 5

Level 5 is your “really busy and social coworker” level - you have enough breathing room on the work side to do activities after work most days of the week, with the occasional heads-down sprint time, and you don’t often work during the weekends. At Level 5 you have more flexibility with your working hours.

This is the level we expect from our employees.

Level 6

This level is for your 9 to 6-ers. Not quite a 9 to 5, but pretty close. You can flex your workday pretty substantially, taking time during the day for personal activities with minimal consequences (although you will still have to catch up on work later). Less flexible jobs with more rigid hours that are still around 40/week also would fit here.

This is the minimal amount of work most tech jobs expect of their employees.

Level 7

At this point we’re comfortably on the life side of WLB. Cushy 9-to-5, probably with some flexibility, with no weekend or evening work.

Level 8

Your coworker that just chats all day and goes on lots of trips. Alternatively your friend who is always free and seems to never have to work. Generally inhabited by non-work-oriented people.