We must find a congruence between living, learning and livelihood

livemint.com:

Mental models are algorithms of the mind. They are thinking constructs that govern how we make meaning and choices. How did separating work from life become a mental model? It goes back to early 18th century.

The Industrial Revolution introduced the factory system, which required large number of workers to travel from their homes to a central work location every day. This has long been the norm, one that we take for granted. So much so that the stress of a frustrating pursuit of a work-life balance feels normal too.

Time to challenge the ‘work-life balance’ mental model?: The factory system sure must have taken our forebears some getting used to, but the issue of balance was much simpler back then. Think of quadrants with our personal and professional lives mapped against time and space. The first, Q1, is personal on both dimensions; Q2 is professional time in our personal space; Q3 is time given to work in our work space; and Q4 is personal time in our professional space.

For long, Q2 and Q4 were virtually non-existent. Balance was embedded in the system by design: you clocked in and clocked out of a work-space at fixed times. Stress arrived with productivity metrics, like the input-output ratio.

The factory system began extracting more out of each factor of production. Q1 was the obvious victim of this squeeze, making workers prioritise work over life. This imbalance reached unhealthy levels once human resources were manipulated to become consumers and work harder to afford better lifestyles.

In the midst of this, some worker-friendly organizations arose that were liberal about Q2 and Q4. And then covid demonstrated to cynical employers and anxious employees that Q2 could be a possible new normal. While remote working