Advertising has never been a 40-hour workweek industry, but at least in the madcap days of the Mad Men when they left the office, they also left work behind.

Global clients, technology and doing what you love (re: entrepreneurs) are now standard factors for modern-day workers and have practically redefined the term work “day”. It may be 5:00 for you, but your biggest client still has three hours left in the “workday”. Airlines now boast of wi-fi service, and how many times have you checked your email first thing in the morning before (or while) having a cup of coffee and catching the morning news? And I’ll make a good guess that you wouldn’t be checking if the inbox didn’t have a pile of bold, unread messages to greet you every morning. Because of course, when you work for yourself there’s that extra pressure to deliver superior customer service as well as product.

And until someone discovers a 25th hour or 8th day, these additional hours all come at a cost. Breakfast with the family. Soccer games. Happy hours. Vacations even. And where do you draw the line? Do you? We posed the question on our Facebook page and received quite a range of answers. (Kudos to Rachel!)

While everyone’s situation is different (priorities change vastly when there are family members involves), here are just three very simple changes that you can start with toward evening out your work and life balance. Just three!

1) No checking email in the morning! Resist the Blackberry and the laptop until entering the office. Enjoy breakfast, time with family, catching up on the news.
2) Make sure you take a break during the day for yourself – whether that’s a short walk, a break from staring at the computer screen or just to eat a healthy lunch!
3) Schedule times to check your email, facebook or twitter and between those times – close the software! Otherwise it’s too easy a distraction!

So has the technology that was suppose to make our jobs easier actually made us work longer? What are your thoughts on our entry-level suggestions and can you add any useful tips for maintaining a work-life balance? Please share!

In the meantime, here are a few books for helping to balance your work and life:

Never Check Email in the Morning, by Julie Morgenstern

Rework, by Jason Fried

Making Ideas Happen, by Scott Belsky

The Four Hour Workweek, by Timothy Ferriss