“Work-life balance.” This commonly referenced ambition is one that often plagues the blogging world, the columns that promise career happiness and the folks plugging late hours tonight in preparation for easier (and earlier) nights ahead. Some thinkers and speakers will advise you on how to achieve it while others insist it is merely a mythological phenomenon that can't exist.

However, Jim Coudal, co-creator of Field Notes notebooks (you know the ones) recently told Fast Company, despite deeming the intersection between work and home a “dangerous one”, that you only need two things in order to achieve this ever elusive state of being. And those two things are, simply stated: space and time.

If you’ve immediately decided that this is oversimplifying a very complex problem, take a moment to consider his advice. In reference to the challenge of space (or where to work and when), Coudal says:

"Technology makes it very easy to be everywhere all the time. If I'm at home and I need to get some work done, even just an hour's worth in the middle of a Sunday morning, I go to the studio and do it there. The commute helps me focus on the task at hand and by keeping work at work and home at home, I'm much better at both.”

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And when Coudal talks about time, he is specifically referring to the challenge of valuing your time as important and worth savoring. So how does someone as busy as we all tend to be manage that? Delegation is something we all tend to resist at times when it would appear most needed. And Coudal openly admits that this is a tough thing for us as humans to consider: “It takes courage to delegate and to admit that someone else could do things as well, or better, than we do. It also takes practice."

What steps have you taken to create boundaries, preserve your passion and achieve your own version of a work-life balance? Join the conversation.

Further reading:

Two Things You Must Do To Achieve Work-Life Balance, John Pavlus for Fast Company

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Helen Williams is the Community Love Director at Holstee. She is passionate about cooking and writing which pair well together on her vegetarian food blog, green girl eats. She's strives, every day, to be less sorry.