There is always some project that needs saving, so if you are competent IT will quite happily consume your time 24 hours a day 365 days a year. Allocate time for yourself and your family. Switch offline regularly somewhere that you cannot be contacted.
“Our office in Korea was interesting to visit but I quickly learned they had a special rule:
DON'T GO HOME UNTIL THE MR. KIM DOES.
They worked long days, starting around 9am and finishing around 9pm because the boss Mr. Kim usually went out for dinner then came back later to check how things were going.
When I asked the team about the scope of the project I was told it was to build an RFID scanning solution to simultaneously detect thirty people walking down a corridor. It seemed pretty vague and I knew it would be impossible with the technology at hand. So that afternoon I went to visit the project manager.
He seemed a little surprised that anyone from the development team would visit his office, but he explained that the RFID scan was to open the front gate of the factory to a let a single car in. A completely different solution! I went back to the team and they listened to the actual requirements with obvious relief.
So the team had spent five months building the wrong thing. Worse than that, they were not making efficient use of their twelve hours in the office. They messaged friends over the internet, surfed the web, phoned friends, even slept at their desks. A long, boring day by anyone's standards. A few of the women had toddlers and most had spouses at home who they saw only through video chat.”
Work life balance means making sure you are productive (in the right direction) during the time you are at the office, and leave at an appropriate time.
