I appreciated Naomi Riley’s column today in the Wall Street Journal on “Work and Life — and Blogging the Balance” pointing out the incredible narcissism at work in this sphere. As she notes, women feel the need to share the intricate details of their daily balancing act, pontificate about their choices, defend themselves — often in 10,000 words or more. Perhaps, she suggests, this rumination makes women unhappy (quite possible). On a more fundamental level, it’s probably a waste of time. Time that could be spent, say, working or hanging out with your kids.

While I have probably been guilty of this, too, I was struck, while writing 168 Hours, how low the bar for “effective time management” seems to be for women. I put out a call for people who managed their lives well and would get moms who worked 20 hours a week and had 2 kids and thought they deserved  a medal for their balancing act. Fortunately, I found some other folks who are, say, meeting a 12-person payroll at the small business they own while raising 6 children. They tend not to have time to blog about work-life balance, but hey. There is time for everything that matters.