The Balance of Life and Work

We each get exactly 168 hours every week. No scientist or philosopher or great individual of the past has ever gotten more. In today's world we can get bombarded with interruptions from every side and before you realize it your day then week then year is gone and you can not even remember what you had yesterday for lunch. I hope you guard your time because it is a precious commodity I have gathered a few ideas below that may help keep the guard up.

1. Get away. You must take time for yourself. If you will take one hour per week to plan the next week you will save a day in trying to figure out what to do next. I do not use a day planner to keep time down to the fifteen minute block. I do have a 3X5 card my to-do list for that day only written on it. Remember it this way: one week per year, one day per month, one hour per week and fifteen minute per day. If you take these times to plan your life and set goals you will be more successful than 95% of Americans.

2. If possible put your self on an information diet. I know this sounds harsh but try to only check your email twice to three times per day. (If you are still reading thanks) If you think about it your email reading and sometimes rereading takes up significant amounts of your time. On my website I tell people that i only check my email in the morning and in the evening so the know that when they send me mail it will not get answered right away. In the last week I have even turned off the auto check feature so if I am at the computer I will not even see that mail has come in.

3. Move to online mail such as Gmail or Yahoo mail or the new windows live which uses Hotmail and forward or set up your online mail to check your work and personal mailboxes. Once you have moved the convenience is that you can check mail from anywhere in the world. If you set up filters for your incoming emails you will know which ones to check and what can wait until later or never at all. (Your can do this with windows outlook also but online is much faster and we will all be there eventually) If you use firefox as a web browser there is a Getting Things Done (GTD) add on for Gmail so you can label your mail as it comes in and then act later.

4. When you do check your email do it quickly and efficiently. If it is trash then trash it. If it needs a response respond immediately so you don't stick yourself with trying to answer all of your email two days after you have received it and then you are bogged down for two hours trying to catch up. Steven Covey says in his book Focus that we should either a) file it; b) act on it; or c) DELETE IT, in my opinion most mail goes in this category.

5. Let the phone go to voice mail. If it is not someone you need to talk to right away then don't. They will either leave you a voice mail and you can check it like you do your email or they will not and it must not have been that important.

Everything you do needs to be done with this thought in mind. If you are working on a project and you stop to talk to someone it takes you at least five minute to ramp back up and start your thinking process again. If you are a boss this should apply to your employees also. If you want them to be productive then leave them alone and let them work.

Bonus: Get rid of NEXTEL or set strict limits on its use. it is the biggest time waster on the planet. Most alerts are for bogus things or just to chit-chat not work. Those of you that use Nextel know what I mean. You will alert someone to ask them what they had for lunch, but you would not call someone and waist cell minute to ask that. Either ban it or teach people how to use it.

When Henry Ward Beecher was asked how it was that he could accomplish so much more than other men, he replied: "I don't do more, but less, than other people. They do all their work three times over: once in anticipation, once in actuality, once in rumination. I do mine in actuality alone, doing it once instead of three times."

Did you read that statement? How many times have you created a list; or just did not put something on a list; or maybe sat outside a customers office because you were playing out in your mind what would happen when you did the thing your knew you were supposed to do? Chances are you have procrastinated before. Nike gave us the phrase, "Just Do It." I think they took Mr. Beecher's sentiment and condensed it. If you want a balanced life you must stop projecting your thoughts on something before it happens and quit worrying about what you should have done after it is passed.

Three good ways to break this cycle are:

1. Change your thoughts. I know this sounds over simplified but it is true. The best way to change your life is to change your mind. Think about people in your life that affirm you. Think about what made you happy when you were a kid. Think about what makes you happy now; wife, husband, family, art, music, football, whatever.

2. Change your heart. What you let into your heart is what stays in your life. If you are constantly playing out what the next business deal is or where the next sell is coming from or how the bills are going to get paid stop because these things are going to become habits then you may get stuck in a rut you will need more than coaching to get out of. I'm not saying don't plan and set goals. I am saying quit playing in your mind and just do it.

3. Change your future. Find someone to come along side you as a coach or mentor that can help you set goals and keep you accountable to those goals.

Plan daily what you are going to do and do your most important things. Do not spend time wrestling with the; "should I do this or the", "I wish I had done that." Make quick but solid decisions and trust your gut. Always focus on the task at hand.