Awesome comment!
I love what you say here:

I have seen that having lots of free time doesn’t mean someone automatically has a good work/life balance. I think a person will always struggle as long as they simply make work the biggest priority.

That is so true and I have seen that in my own life. Just because I have chunks of "free time" does not mean I am living into my priorities. I am really encouraged by your examples of drawing clear boundaries and finding ways to work with your situation to make the best of it (e.g. using the commute, implementing new tech).

The idea of turning down a bump in income is so backwards for most, but you clearly see that there is a real cost to your time. I think one of the problems in my industry is that there actually is not clearly defined link between working more and getting paid more. We work on a billable hours system, meaning we have to bill to a client X amount of hours each year (in my job, it breaks down to about 37.5/week). BUT, almost no one can actually bill 40 hours by working only 40. The motivator is somewhat of a stick, and somewhat of an ambiguous carrot (if you hit your hours, and the firm does well, and you might get a bonus). Plus, we are often dealing with very tight deadlines. For example, I am often given an assignment that needs to be turned around in 3-4 days (or less). And what if I am also working on something else in that window? I have refused to take on assignments at times, but that is usually not an option. If I am running a case, there is literally no one else who can just jump in and do the assignment.

Anyway, I am ranting, but I am thankful for your comment and inspired to find ways to improve my own balance. Cheers!