These days, there is a lot of talk about work-life balance. But in my opinion, it is something that's a bit tough to grasp in the North American working world.

Most corporate employers expect you to work a standard 8-hr day, Monday to Friday. Non-corporate roles will expect you to work the shifts you are assigned - no matter how that might restrict your home life activities, or participation therein. From my perspective, both observed and experienced, employee productivity, and engagement, increase drastically when they have flexibility in when and how they get their work done. Even if their days are longer once all the work and familial commitments are complete each day.

Part of this has to do with working preferences, and the times of day when we each feel energized and efficient. Part of it has to do with relieving the stress of trying to balance all if the demands on our time. And ridding us of the guilt of missing familial events.

When your mind is distracted with nagging thoughts of being absent at home, or broken promises, you can be sure that you won't be delivering your best at work.

While employers are starting to realize this, there are still many for whom work comes first, where schedules and deadlines push into longer hours. Taking breaks, in the form of vacation or little getaways, are far and few in between.

So how, in instances such as these, do we keep ourselves productive and energized?

Listen to this clip, where I talk about making the best use of breaks in the day, fitting extras in during and/or amongst the multiple things we all try to achieve in a day or week.

And to taking impromptu diversions from routine by adding in something different - perhaps that might be a movie, a football game, or some fireworks (which my family and I enjoyed all of, just last week).

As noted, some of our best ideas, particularly for problem solving, come when our bodies are active and focused on more natural tasks. This clip is actually an example of one of those impromptu ideas that came to mind while I was out walking my dog - I thought, why wait to write my thoughts down? (You'll have to forgive my un-edited talking headshot - I don't own a selfie-stick!)

As our current weekend was filled with football games and hockey try-outs, adventures were a bit tougher to fit in, but we still made a couple happen. This weekend was a hike down a new trail, and a surprise bike ride to the grocer to grab some ice cream treats just before sunset!

Below, I share a few excellent photos taken by my natural photographer - my daughter - I hope you'll like them!