Find ways to have your cake and eat it too.

In this  discussion, I cover some quick tips for Work/Life Balance.

One of the tricks to a positive Work/Life Balance is the ability to blend your personal and business aspects.  As a small business owner or even student – you have a unique and rare opportunity to do this blending.

Tips that will also help:

• Combining like (similar) activities
  • Schedule, consolidate, and confine email, phone calls, and other correspondence
  • Confine outside meetings, home estimates and errands to certain “road-trip days”, leaving the rest of week for uninterrupted project work time
• Combining “things you don’t have time for” with other tasks
  • Have one-on-one meetings with staff/client/friends as you walk around your building for exercise
  • Take kids along when you walk the dog at night.  Many children actually “wind-up” before “winding down”.  If this is a common scenario at your home, use the info.  Schedule an “energy burning” activity prior to bedtime to burn off the excess energy (like walking the dog).
• Properly triaging incoming tasks versus “first in/first out” default mode
  • Clearly articulate and frequently review your goals, vision and mission
  • Use the 4-Ds and 4 Quadrants to triage
  • Make sure every activity supports and propels you forward (instead of stalling you)
• Focus on the essence more than the task
  • Keep in mind “the why” you are doing this task
  • During the course of completing a long or difficult task, tasks may mutate away from your original goals
  • Often times there are many, many ways to accomplish the essence of your goal or the “why you are doing this”.  This particular “task” is just a tool – it’s not the “end-goal”.  It’s okay to abandon the task if it’s no longer providing benefit.
• Expect the unexpected
  • Use sprints and buffers to prepare for interruptions
  • Even though you don’t know exactly what will interrupt you – you know interruptions will occur.  Plan with that knowledge.
• Create contingency plans (fire escape/emergency plans) that support your overall goals (versus taking away from your goals)
  • Create contingency plans when everyone is of calm and cool minds
  • Don’t discuss your fire exits during the fire.
• Stop to differentiate between true and imaginary.
  • It’s our imaginary Dragons that drag us down.

If you would like my help in doing this, please let me know.

Things I can help you with:

Protocol Recovery Discussion

Mastering incoming priorities versus distractions

Creating contingency plans that support your overall goals (versus taking your away from your goals)

Finding the proper place for everything.

Incorporating, combining and blending the personal and business aspects of your life

Key reminder: You have time for everything that is important to you – maybe just not all at once.  So you need to schedule time for the things that are really important to you – to make sure the unimportant distractions don’t divert your attention away.