Brad Feld blogs about
Discovering Work Life Balance, one of the things that matter to me the most these days. I have been working all day in the past 2 years which was very ineffective.
If you work all day,
1. you might loose your motivation and enthusiasm because there are no other things you do
2. you feel you have unlimited amount of time to work because you always work. This is the reason why things simply don't get done. "I'll work all day so I can do it later today" - then it never gets done.
3. your personal life gets fckd up and you feel bad
4. you will have health problems because of sitting at the desk all day
On Friday I've sent a mail to all my partners letting them kindly know that I'll be in my virtual office "only" Mo-Fr 7am-5pm. This helps them a lot:
1. I can dedicate time for them
2. I'm always available via e-mail, skype, ICQ, cell phone in these periods so they can count on me and can expect prompt answers
3. I can focus better which means I can offer better quality and shorter timeframes for them
Finally, the things that I need to keep in balance:
1. work
a) subcontracted work (7-17h)
b) establishing passive income
c) producing/djing
2. personal life
a) home/meditation/sports etc.
b) family/friends
1a (subcontracted work) is now what I'll do in a fixed timeframe: 7-17h on every workday.
It is easy to see that doing all the things above without a balance leads to chaos. So how will the balance improve my life?
1. I'll focus better during the day (finish earlier while reaching better quality)
2. I will have free afternoons when I can work on my own projects which are partially for fun, partially for making passive income
3. I will have calm evenings to spend on family/friends, home/meditation/sports etc.
4. I will have free weekends that I can spend on music and/or family/friends
The best thing in all this is that working less will actually bring better results to me and everyone who is part of my life.
If you didn't establish a life/work balance yet, read the Bred Felds' article above. It hopefully will open up your eyes. You might spare many years and a marriage.
