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We must never be too busy to take time out from our job and experience other valued parts of ourselves that are so often buried and yearning to be expressed. I love my job, but it hurts that I am missing out on valuable time with my loved ones, time that I know I will never get back. I understand that it’s far too easy to ignore these valued parts of yourself when you’re caught up in your job and struggling to succeed. The amazing thing is that most of the time it’s just a simple matter of becoming aware of what is missing and then making the appropriate choices to fix it.

Maybe you end up giving too much time to your personal life, causing your job to suffer, or maybe you spend so much time focused on work that you miss opportunities to connect with family and friends, work on hobbies or simply de-stress. To learn what that really means and how you can do it, we asked members of the Young Entrepreneur Council how someone might achieve work-life integration, rather than work-life balance. Here’s what they said: Work-life integration is the new work-life balance. The same can be said about time with friends and family—instead of thinking how much time you are spending on your personal life, focus on how to make that time more significant and meaningful.

I use that time to catch up on the news of the day, particularly health and scientific developments, by listening to podcasts that relate to our business. The keys to maximizing my productivity are being conscious of how I spend my time and planning my days before they begin —what time I’ll wake up, eat, work, have meetings, work out, get my kids, have lunch with my wife. Having a framework to prioritize where my time is most valuable for the company gives me the right to say “no” to things that fall outside of those bounds.

Secondly, the concept of work-life balance is designed to make us feel bad about work. If you duck out early some days to do the school run, you’re going to impact your day’s work about 5 percent and improve your family-related guilt about 1,000 percent. It’s important to respect people’s time and ask for permission, but their having to put up with a bit of background noise and a quick hello from the kids often outweighs them having to wait until tomorrow for an answer or some direction. It’s about managing your commitments so that everything you want to do gets done, without forcing yourself to conform to “work time” and “personal time.