I feel both overworked and underpaid, and it's as if I don't have a life outside of the office. What can I do?

Let me start off with a number: 86,400. That's how many seconds there are in every day to spend on ourselves, our families, and our jobs, too. When work eats away at more and more of these precious seconds, it automatically subtracts valuable and finite time from other important areas of our lives.

With that in mind, I suggest you first sit down with your boss and talk about your lack of work-life balance. Explain your frustrations and lay out a list of your responsibilities. Ask him or her for assistance in finding ways to cut back the job's demands to an acceptable level. If your boss isn't willing to lessen your load, consider requesting a pay increase that you feel would compensate for your responsibilities. To that end, I suggest always having a precise idea of the value you bring to your job so that any financial upgrade you ask for is reasonable and justified.

Finally, if neither your workload nor your pay improves, be ready to take a frightening but ultimately satisfying step: looking for a new position that offers fair pay and greater symmetry between the office and home, where you'll have time enough for your outside goals. After all, despite the McMansions and private jets Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos can afford with their billions, neither of them will ever be able to buy back a single one of those 86,400 seconds.E