Work/Life Balance

Pt. 2 – Work

As I mentioned last week, I’ve always been an advocate for work/life balance. In my personal and professional life, I’ve seen that people who maintain a healthy balance of work and play are healthier, wealthier, and wiser.

When I started Madison+Main, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. My experience in Corporate America and at big agencies left me jaded. My goals changed from creating the best work and working with the best people, to obsessing over balance sheets and personal career advancement. I lost focus on important things. I wanted a bigger title, and a bigger paycheck and I thought success meant moving from a cubicle to a small office to a corner office to a top-floor suite.

I was sold on the idea that spending more time at work (late nights and missing time from family and friends) was the way to get there. In 2005, at the age of 37, it finally clicked. Working smarter, not harder, is the way smart people succeed. So I built my company on that premise. We quit work at 5. We went home to do stuff. We went out to “hang out.”

Today, there is no longer a delineation between the time and places where we work, live, and play. Through the years technology changed the way work, communicate, and organize our days. Texts, messenger, Zoom meetings, and other web-based and mobile apps changed the work day and unfortunately expanded it beyond the 9-5. The pandemic locked in those technologies and pretty soon we have found ourselves working or at least partially working before 9 and after 5, and sometimes checking emails on a weekend or vacation. I’m guilty of this. 

I used to split up my days into 3 equal parts; 8 hours for work, 8 hours for sleep, and 8 hours for life. These days it’s more like 12 hours for work, 9 hours for sleep, and 3 hours for Netflix. That means that I have unintentionally lost focus and need to bring back the work/life balance. These days I do not feel healthier, wealthier, or wiser. But I’m changing that and you can too.

When you work, sleep, and live in the same place, how can you get the balance back? The answer that author Sheila Liming puts forward in “Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time” is just to make the effort to “hang out” more. Yes, for the second week in a row, I’m plugging her book. If you didn’t buy it last week, you still can.

For you as an individual, it is vitally important to work towards a work/life balance. For a business owner, it is the most important thing you can do, for yourself and your employees. If you don’t already do this, keep track of the time you work and the time for life and see if it is truly in balance. All work and no play makes anyone a dull boy (or girl)…and ultimately less productive at both.