Work-Life Balance for Working Parents: What You Can Let Drop with Sarah Armstrong

Work-life balance and boundaries are at the center of this conversation with Sarah Armstrong, author of The Art of the Juggling Act.

Sarah Armstrong is the head of Global Marketing Operations at Google and the author of The Art of the Juggling Act: A Bite-Sized Guide for Working Parents. With a career spanning McKinsey, Leo Burnett, and two decades at Coca-Cola, she writes and speaks about what it actually looks like to show up for both work and life — and how to decide which is which.

In this conversation, we cover:

• The 5-ball framework: Work, family, friends, health, and spirit — Sarah's framework for identifying which balls in your life are rubber (they bounce when dropped) and which are glass (they don't), and why that distinction is more useful than any calendar hack.
• Defining balance on your own terms: Why balance isn't a fixed state you achieve once and maintain, why imbalance is inevitable (not if, but when), and how deciding what balance means for you is the work before the tactics.
• Saying no without explaining yourself: The story of a colleague who turned down a request with no justification — and why the absence of an explanation wasn't rude, it was the skill.
• The Grace block and the Sunday list: Two low-friction practices that protect non-work time — a standing calendar block that signals you're off, and a Sunday habit for parking unfinished thoughts so your brain can actually stop carrying them.
• Outsourcing and the transference of hours: The cost-value equation for deciding what to offload, and why the real question isn't what something costs — it's what you'd do with the hours you get back.

If you're a working parent who feels like you're failing at everything simultaneously, this conversation is worth your full attention. Sarah doesn't promise balance — she helps you figure out what yours actually looks like, and gives you the tools to protect it. Find her book, The Art of the Juggling Act, at the links below.

Connect with Sarah:

• saraharmstrong.com
• The Art of the Juggling Act

Connect with Erik:

• LinkedIn
• Threads
• Facebook
• Bluesky

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