Preserving Work-life Balance Via Time Goals

I had a "work best friend" once. Its simple, you don't exist to them after 6PM or during the weekend. And this person taught me a ton about work-life balance. My first year at McKinsey, a bunch of us would travel out east on a marketing strategy project. The moment we landed back home every Thursday, however, this teammate would vanish without a peep only to be seen in the team room Mondays. His time-management strategy to preserve work-life balance:

1. Have time goals - understand how much time he'd spend on his family dinners, chats, workouts, etc. and make sure he doesn’t go off-kilter. This was central to how he operated.
2. Block time and protect it with rigor. E.g., not accepting any team meetings after 6PM, only working remotely Fridays.
3. Adhere to goals even if things change. Some weeks, we'd fly out Sunday night to be at an important Monday morning client meeting. Unlike all of us who'd stay till Thursday at the client during those weeks (consulting travel is typically Mon - Thu), he would leave Wednesday to make sure he made up for the missed Sunday dinner. I was a bit intimidated by this rigor but sometimes that’s what it takes to preserve what you value. One might think things can get awkward (e.g., when you leave early but teammates stay back) but they might not - it's a matter of clarifying who / what is important to one in life. Downloadable Summary ?