Last Friday afternoon, I got a phone call around 4 from one of my top referrers in town; they had a client for me. They only caveat was that I was going to have a much shorter deadline (as in tomorrow) than what I am used to working with. Because of the relationship with my referrer (plus the fact that this client has their own wikipedia page) I took the work, despite the fact that it meant I would be breaking my no work on weekends rule.
And as I sat in my office yesterday, I couldn’t help to be a little jealous of the 9-5ers out there that leave their work the minute they clock out. Most notably, my wife, who was out at the pool with our daughter.
We all want to be our own boss. I think that that is the main reason why making money online is so attractive to most. There is this idealistic frame of mind that if we can get it going, we would have more free time to do whatever it is we want to do.
As any entrepreneur will tell you though, this is rarely the case. There is always something to do and if you aren’t careful, a lack of a separation between work and play can make it seem like all you are doing is working.
In fact, if you don’t control your work, it will consume your personal life as well.
Here are 3 rules I live by as an online entrepreneur…
Steven Pressfield calls it determining what’s important and what’s urgent. And it is absolutely critical to figure out the things in your life that you enjoy and make time for them.
Otherwise, working will become your life.
An example of the things I value are my family (I spend the evenings and weekends with them) as well as my health (I go to the gym daily and enjoy cooking). I make it a point to carve out enough space in my day where they know I am around. We go out to eat. We go to the park. We shop.
This is where most entrepreneurs fail. They fail to build boundaries. The problem with working for yourself is the reason why most are so attracted to it; they can make the rules.
They imagine work free weekends and 6 hour workdays. But without boundaries, this usually winds up being working (or seemingly working) all throughout the day and into the night.
My personal work boundaries are 9-4 (with a 2 hour break inbetween) and I don’t work weekends. I also very rarely get online after 4. Well, I say that but there are always exceptions to the rule (as in the example above) but those are far and few between.
We live in a world of addition. More of this. More of that. But the problem with more is that more usually also means more work. If things are piling up at your desk, then your problem isn’t going to be helped by doing more or even automating services. You have a efficiency issue.
Usually, when an auditor walks into a business, they rarely are looking to add more function to the business. Instead, they are looking to see what they can cut.
Entrepreneurs need to be on a constant mission to cutting things out of their work environment in order to be more efficient. Just like an auditor, you need to ask why you are doing something and what effect it has on the business. If the return is marginal, cut it. I call this skinny marketing, by the way. And it is just simply smarter business to do it this way.
Those are my 3 rules to managing my business.
What can you add to this list that has worked for you?
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Twitter: content_muse
says:
Hey Leo, I like the font of your site (bold and easy to read).
yeah, #1 is huge. It can be easy to forget how your personal life fuels the work life and vice versa. For instance, you mention exercise. I’m the same way. This morning I woke up late. I became anxious about getting to work. I didn’t jog, thinking it would make me get on computer even later.. Ironically, now I feel crappy about not jogging and will likely get off at some point in the afternoon to jog.. so if I just did that first.. If it’s important to you, it’s important to you; find time for it.
Also, and this feeds into #1, the peers or friends one spends time with- the right people can inspire greatness while others may inspire complacency.. Unfortunately, as a younger man, I didn’t ‘get’ that; now I do.
You’re absolutely right (and something that I totally forgot about)…creativity usually happens outside of work and is fostered by the relationships that you have in your personal life.
I appreciate you noticing the font. This blog doesn’t get a lot of traffic and most webmasters discount the design choices that they make in terms of readability and scannability…and when you don’t get a lot of traffic, you have to make the most with the traffic you do get…and this means, serving up content that is easy to digest. Fonts, line spacing as well as graphics (I use a lot of text graphics) are just a easy ways to make this possible.
Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Twitter: twitterbudgetmindedorg
says:
It took a long time for me to finally find a balance between work and personal time. After a lot of trial and error, making lists, tearing those lists up and then making new lists, I finally found a rhythm that works for me. Personal time and gardening from the time I get up until 10:00 a.m. Computer work, with breaks, from 10-5. The rest of the evening is spent gardening (my second passion) and with my husband. I also forgive myself for disruptions in this schedule, after all that’s life and it has it’s own agenda.
Thanks for the article.
Laura,
I can totally get where you are coming from. Finding the sweet spot between work and play as well as what hours go where is a challenge. When I was much younger, I worked late at night but these days, considering I have a 4 year old, concessions have had to get made. So I completely understand where you are coming from.