By Laurie Segall @CNNMoneyTech May 18, 2011: 5:19 AM ET NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- What if men ran half of households around the world and women ran half the companies? Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg thinks the world would be a better place. Sandberg offered that idea in her commencement speech on Tuesday in New York to a group of 600 graduating students from all-women college Barnard, as well as their camera-festooned families. "Let's just say I'm not usually in a room with this many women," quipped Sandberg, who works in Silicon Valley's tech trenches. As Facebook's No. 2, she provides the "adult supervision" -- and a widely admired wealth of operational expertise -- to the tech world's hottest company. Her message to Barnard's graduating crop was clear: There aren't enough women in the workforce, and the gender gap is very much part of our society. "Men run the world," she told the audience, before rolling out a list of statistics to support the statement. One eye-popping one: Among the world's 190 major heads of states, nine are women. Those numbers haven't moved in the past decade. "It's very clear that my generation is not going to change this problem," she said. Sandberg, who served as chief of staff for the Treasury Department and a top executive at Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) before joining Facebook as 27-year-old CEO Mark Zuckerberg's right-hand woman, wants to see young women be more aggressive in pursuing paths in government and business. "Men are more ambitious. We will never close the achievement gap if we don't close the ambition gap," she said. "Women underestimate their performance." But Sandberg will admit -- it's not easy. She spoke candidly about her early days at Facebook and the criticism she faced in the beginning, specifically citing a "well-read blog post" (she didn't name the blog, but our money's on a Gawker post labeling her a liar) blasting her soon after her arrival. "I cried some when I was alone," she said. "Then I told myself it didn't matter ... My only response was just to do my job and do it well." Sandberg has hit similar themes before in her speeches, including an extremely popular TED Talk on "Why we have too few women leaders." Many in the crowd at Barnard responded enthusiastically: Graduating student Tiara Miles declared Sandberg's advice a "perfect fit" for the way Barnard educates its students. Parents also liked what they heard. "Having two daughters, I loved it," said Doug Roger, a father in the audience."If we have more women in government and positions of responsibility, we'd have fewer wars, less famine." Sandberg joins a flock of tech luminaries making the rounds at universities this month, delivering commencement speeches. Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley spoke at his alma mater, the Syracuse School of Information Studies, about his twisty journey from working $6-an-hour jobs to launching a series of hotshot tech startups. Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) CEO Steve Ballmer slipped a few Skype jokes into his University of Southern California talk last week, which focused on finding your passion and being tenacious in pursuing it. Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) co-founder Steve Wozniak also urged students at Michigan State University to pursue the projects they really care about: "Don't waste your life," he advised. Woz's comment was a poignant echo of Steve Jobs' one and only commencement talk, delivered six years ago at Stanford and still often cited as the speech of Steve Jobs' life. "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life," he told the crowd.

Nikki Mark was having trouble leaving her two young boys at home when she was heading to work every Monday morning. Her boys kept asking why she had to leave, and why couldn’t they keep playing. To answer, she wrote a book titled Mommy Brings Home the Bacon, which instantly caught on with the general public and working moms everywhere. The book was originally created for her boys, but once the book was written Mark decided to publish it to give other mothers and single working parents an easy to understand book for their children to understand why mommy is going back to work. Mark also discusses the proper work life balance, and how difficult it might be to attain.

Find out what it takes to be happy working mom by talking with Julie Auclair and author of What Happy Working Mothers Know, Cathy Greenberg, who appeared on Parents TV. Being a happy working mom is key to your happiness. Greenberg discusses the formula she created for making a HAPPY mom. H – Healthy A – Adaptation P – Proud of your family P – Proud of your work Y – Young at heart Understand more of what Greenberg tells in her book by watching the video below.

Exercise is good for you. Staying active is good for you. Staying stationary for long periods of time is bad for you. OK, we get it. Get up and move. However, it might be a bit more complicated than that. Epidemiologist Steven Blair, a professor of public health at the University of South Carolina, has spent 40 years investigating physical activity and health in adults. Even if you adhere to the federal health officials recommended 30 minutes of physical activity a day, you’re still spending 8 hours sleeping, 8-10 hours sitting at a desk, and another hour or so sitting at a kitchen table, watching TV, or reading in a chair. Basically, we’re sitting for most of our lives. This, Blair speculates, can lead to serious health risks, and possible death. Blair headed a study at the University of South Carolina where he reported on adult men and their risk of dying from heart disease. Of those who reported 23 hours a week of stationary activity (which is the minimum amount for those who work at a desk all day), even those who regularly exercised had a 64% greater risk of heart disease than those who reported only 11 hours a week of stationary activity. These new facts are just starting to get attention from and researched by scientists. Blair’s studies are finding that people who sit more have less desirable levels of cholesterol, blood sugar, triglycerides and even waist size, which increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease and a number of health problems. Basically, our bodies are simply shutting down. Dr. Tony Yancey, a professor in the health services department and co-director of the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity at the University of California, Los Angeles, along with Dr. Blair, offers us the following tips to staying active throughout the work day.

• Take a 10-minute activity break at a scheduled time every day
• Park farther away from the places where you work, shop, play, study and worship
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator
• Put printers a short walking distance away from your work or study space instead of right next to it
• Replace desk chairs with stability balls — or use a standing desk to get rid of the chair entirely — to burn more calories while working.
• Fidget, stand up and stretch at intervals during meetings

Although having a job is considered "lucky" nowadays, working too hard and not incorporating enough work life balance may not just be effecting your sleep and social life; it may also be effecting your health. People who work an average of 11 or more hours per day have a 67% higher risk of suffering a heart attack or dying from heart disease than people who work a standard 7 to8-hour day, according to a new study in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Those who work between 10-11 hours per day have a 45%t higher risk. Work schedules may be an overlooked and underutilized early warning sign for heart disease, the researchers say. Routinely burning the candle at both ends may not increase heart risk by itself, but it may be an indicator of an unhealthy lifestyle in general, according to experts who weren't involved in the research. The study didn't show a cause-and-effect relationship between long hours and heart attacks, they point out, and the apparent link could be due to a number of complicated health factors, including stress, lack of exercise, and eating high-calorie takeout rather than healthy home-cooked meals. "Somebody who works hard may eat fast food and not be very active, so it may not be the long hours that give them heart disease," says Stephen Kopecky, M.D., a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota. "It's eating fast food and being inactive." What's more, the type of work, and how much you enjoy it, may make a big difference, Kopecky says. While sitting behind a desk for 11 hours may be unhealthy, farmers are notorious for working 12 or even 14 long, hard hours a day -- and they tend to live longer than average, he says. Source: Health.com article through CNN.com

Having a baby increases your family expenses one hundred fold, and can sometimes be too much to handle financially as a single working parent. If you thought buying a home (one time purchase), or getting a dog was expensive, just wait until there is another human being in the home! They might be small, but they cost just as much as any other roommate! Cutting your spending and reorganizing your budget can take some time when you have a baby. A lot of habits need to be changed or broken, and the concept of hand-me-downs needs to be accepted with open arms. Here are some quick tips to help decrease your expenses when a new baby comes into your life:

• As I said before, take whatever hand-me-downs you can get, whether it is in the form of clothing, strollers, cribs, etc.
• Spending money on baby formula is going to add up quickly. Breastfeeding is not only natural, but actually better for your baby. It cuts costs on formula, bottles, nipples and cleaning racks.
• When you do buy something “new” and don’t get a hand-me-down instead of shopping at Target or Babies-R-Us, shop at second hand stores. Their merchandise is just as good quality as the super stores, and sometimes accepts trade-ins which can decrease your expenses even more!
• As long as you don’t mind cleaning them, cloth diapers really do make a difference, both on the environment as well as your wallet
• Instead of using a stroller to get your baby around, try a baby sling. They are cheaper than strollers and other carriers, although they can sometimes put a strain on your back or shoulder.

CAMBRIDGE, MA, March 15, 2011 -- With child care costs for two children representing the single largest household expenditure nationally, more families are seeking options to finance this expense. Child care fees outrank annual food costs and exceed median monthly rent costs and mortgage payments according to a recent study published by NACCRRA, the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. The study ranks California as the 5th least-affordable state for full-time infant care in a daycare center. In response to the need for flexible payment options fueled by the recession and rising child care costs, Cultural Care Au Pair is piloting an innovative financing plan for families in California to allow them to pay month by month during their year of live-in childcare. This program is the first of its kind in the au pair industry where it is standard for families to pay for the bulk of or the entire program fee shortly after they apply. Agencies have traditionally operated this way to ensure their upfront costs—like those associated with  recruitment, screening, matching, training, health insurance and transportation of the international au pairs—are covered. Cultural Care’s new plan puts paying for an au pair on par with other forms of childcare and makes it even more affordable than daycare for many families. Now, families can make a down payment of $1500 on the program fee when they apply and then make eight monthly payments of $760 after their au pair arrives. For the remaining four months of the one-year program, no payment would be due. This is a total of $7580 per family for up to 45 hours per week of live-in childcare compared to with the average annual cost of full time care in a center in California for an infant which is $11,580 per child per year. Even when you consider the $195.75 stipend paid to the au pair each week, the au pair program is significantly more affordable for a family with more than one child. “We heard from families, both through our on-line community and our biannual host family survey, that parents were looking for an option that worked better with their monthly budgets and cafeteria plan reimbursements given the uncertainty of the current economic situation,” says Melissa Fredette, Executive Vice President of Cultural Care Au Pair. “We understand that every family’s financial situation is unique to them and Cultural Care is pleased to have the ability and strength within our industry to provide our families with as much choice and flexibility as possible. Families in California have already started enrolling in the program that was introduced on February 1^st and we hope to launch it nationwide in the coming months.” Fredette explains, “Parents who may have been frustrated with daycare hours or high turnover of child care workers, which is17-45% in California, can now take advantage of the many benefits of the au pair program, such as the flexible scheduling, one-to-one customized care and cultural enrichment, with less of a financial commitment and relief on their family budget.” Families interested in learning more about au pair child care can call 1-800-333-6056 or visit www.culturalcare.com for additional information on the Cultural Care Au Pair program. # # #

If you have decided to go back to college – good for you! Continuing your education is extremely important in this day and age. However, with the added night classes, 9-5 job you already have, along with the full-time gig you have as a parent, how are you ever supposed to find a work-life balance? The number one golden rule for keeping a work life balance is simple: TIME MANAGEMENT. The following is a list of tips from our career center to help break down time management into simple tasks:

1. Don’t cram – this is first on the list because it is the hardest to accomplish. If you received a long-term assignment, start it the day it was assigned and work on it for a half hour whenever you can.
2. Manage stress – understand what triggers your stress, then do everything you can to alleviate that cause. If that doesn’t work, make time to work out or participate in other “unwinding” techniques after you know you will be encountering a stress trigger.
3. Communicate with managers – let managers know when you have finals, or need to study for a midterm before the time actually comes up. Professors give itineraries on the first day of class for a reason… to manage your time wisely!
4. Take assignments with you – take advantage of things you can do on the go and utilize all time that comes available to you. Read while taking public transit, or jot down notes while on your lunch break. Every little bit helps.
5. Use one calendar - looking in multiple places to find your work schedule, internship hours, and homework is daunting. Use one huge calendar to manage your time and workspace effectively.

If you're feeling overworked and finding it more challenging than ever to juggle the demands of your job and the rest of your life, you're not alone. "A lot of people are having a more difficult time finding balance in their lives because there have been cutbacks or layoffs where they work. They're afraid it may happen to them, so they're putting in more hours," says psychologist Robert Brooks, PhD, co-author of The Power of Resilience: Achieving Balance, Confidence, and Personal Strength in Your Life. "But even if you don't have much control over the hours you have to work, you can ask yourself: In what other ways am I bringing greater enjoyment into my life?" Brooks says. "Focus your time and attention on things you can control." Here are five ways to bring a little more balance to your daily routine:

1. Build downtime into your schedule
2. Drop activities that are draining or tap into your stored energy
3. Rethink and reorganize your errands
4. Exercise
5. Remember that a little relaxation goes a long way

Although you were fortunate to keep your job during the recession, I’m sure the amount of work you had increased. In fact, a survey by CareerBuilder found that 50% of those employed had an increase in the workload, as well as 25% employees said they had not taken a personal/sick day in the past couple years. What is this increase in work doing to us? Not only is it decreasing our productivity, increasing our time away from families, and inducing stress in already overworked employees, it is also resulting in mental and physical illnesses. The 9-5 job (or more accurately, the 8-7 job) has taken over the average adult’s life. Here are some more stats from the CareerBuilder survey:

• 24 % of workers reported that when they're at home or out socially; they're still thinking about work
• 19 % often dream about work
• 16 % stated that most of their conversations tend to focus on work
• 22 % of workers reported they don't have time to pursue personal interests because they're always working
• 12 % said the amount of time spent on work is causing friction with their family
• 9 % are more concerned about approval from their boss than their family

1. Set aside personal time. The same way that workers schedule business meetings and events, they need to schedule personal and family time. It is critical for workers to stick to that schedule with family and friends.
2. Delegate work. When possible, workers need to delegate some of their work-related tasks and responsibilities. Many workers believe they are the only one who can do it, when the truth is they can get help from fellow employees and subordinates.
3. Decompress. When they get home, they should let the emails and text messages wait until they return to the office. Make home a sanctuary. If necessary, turn the electronic devices off.
4. Prioritize work tasks. Workers usually know which assignments can wait until they get back in the office. If the proper focus is put on the highest priority tasks, less home time may turn into work time.
5. Communicate. If necessary, workers can talk to their managers about the situation. Managers want to get the work done, but not at the expense of losing valuable workers to health-related issues. Most are willing to listen and work on solutions.
6. Change careers. If a worker is in a situation where the workload cannot be decreased, and it is impacting their life, they may have to look for another job outside the company. For some situations, this may be the only solution.