Is it possible to have a successful career and a happy family life at the same time?

The last year or so has produced a few editorials and blogs about choice, success and how we spend our time. They struck a chord with us and went viral. And they may help us be healthier and happier, even on our deathbeds.

Anne-Marie Slaughter’s Why Women Still Can’t Have It All from the July/August 2012 Atlantic Magazine became the most widely read piece in the Atlantic website’s history. It was a thoughtful exploration of the difficulties that remain for women who “want it all.”

Slaughter suggested that women are not both able to have a successful career and a happy family at the same time—and won’t be—until our social structure changes.

Even if we are not able to have it all, most of us—women or men—spend an awful lot of time trying to get it—something New York Times’ Tim Kreider pointed out in The ‘Busy’ Trap on the June 30, 2012. This also went viral, widened the net to include men, and spawned missives like “Stop the Glorifi cation of Busy,” which began to infest the pages of Facebook. Kreider pointed out how enthusiastically busy we all are, and how this M.O. is applauded, even revered in our culture. He makes the old-fashioned point that time may possibly be more important than money and that having it may be as essential to wellbeing as things like Vitamin D.