Balancing Work and Family - Simplify Your Life Series (1 of 10)

One of my old friends is working as a marketing maven in the software industry. His family is down in San Diego; however, not many opportunities for software marketers exist in San Diego. He was struggling with whether to move back to San Diego and sacrifice his career or to move his family to the San Francisco Bay Area and face the higher cost of living associated with living in the Bay Area.

My advice:

Get your family back with you, and simplify your life, and balance your work and family time to maximize your success and happiness.

Why did I give this advice? First of all, I felt in my gut that my friend's tone of voice indicated he felt he could do better with his career in the Bay Area. But he was really struggling with the challenge and pain of being separated from his family. My feeling is that we often don't realize how *little* we can get by with until we simplify our life. Cable? I've lived years without it before. Television, that, too. Cell phones, you'd be surprised, but I once went a year without a cell phone (as a salesperson, no less) just to prove I COULD get by without it. There were five times I had to pull over at a pay phone to make a call, but otherwise, it was no big deal, really.

Sometimes, there is value in living simply. When we simplify, we enable space for more interactions - real interactions - with people we love to occur. Space is good for creating relationships, spending more quality time, and creating more. For example, if you want to create something, such as a painting, a song, or writing a book, how many times do you start with a blank page or canvass? Exactly: almost every time! So, if you want to build something new, or create more connection with people, simplify your living space, simplify your office, and simplify what you do with your time. When you can do these things, and your family can do these things, you will find it easier to balance your family with work life.

Now, if you're separate, try to reconnect and get everyone back together in one space. Often times, when companies find themselves feeling confused or lacking direction, they pull back in regional offices and simplify by consolidating into one location. When I drove to the corporate offices at Dell Computer Corporation, they had over 8 offices all called Round Rock 1, Round Rock 2 and other creative names like that. But the point was that Dell organized his company in a way where all the different divisions were within WALKING DISTANCE - or at least a very short drive - of each other. When you're corporate campus is fragmented, it is more difficult to communicate face-to-face. So, that's what I'm talking about: simplifying so you can talk face-to-face enables deeper, stronger, creative relationships.

Try it in your own family and work life and see if you're more productive and successful!
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Time Management Tips For Peak Productivity

I recently read a post on productivity and considering the natural cycles of society, it makes sense that we're likely the most productive during the same hours that coincide the best times to post a blog post or post an article to our website.

How can I base this? Because this is when people are in the most focused, intense "work" mode.

Amazingly enough, the best time to post a blog post is 10:30 a.m. PST to 2:00 p.m. PST Tuesday through Friday. I'll stretch that a tad, but based upon this I'll state the peak productivity time, in general, for employees and workers is between 10:00 a.m. PST and 3:00 p.m. PST.

What I'm talking about is how to maximize things that so many people struggle with, ranging from time management to productivity skills, doing first things first, managing the "7 Habits of Highly Successful People", and other time/management/productivity concerns.

Considering the schedule I've proposed, I have to ask: are you taking LONG LUNCHES? If you are, you're cutting into your most productive time during the day. I'd suggest that you either eat a lighter lunch or take a late lunch, that way you'll be maximizing your highest productivity hours in each week.If you've failed to consider the most productive hours of a day, and claim that late night is your top time (I've been guilty) or claim that morning is also your most productive time (been guilty of that, too), well, here's the wake up call: most people are in work mode during Tuesday through Friday. They start to "check out" at 2:00 p.m. because many have kids they need to tend to. School schedules usually release children around 2:00 pm or 3:00 pm, and amazingly, this is also when productivity begins to wane among adults, too. After 5:00 p.m., we're thinking about dinner. After dinner, we relax and digest our food. During the weekend, we're relaxing and having fun from our hard work during the week. However, I will also point out that if we use Internet data for our assumption, then we need to consider that many people are East Coast-based and therefore 2:00 p.m. PST is 5:00 p.m. (EST) to them.

Peak Productive Time?

When is your peak productive time? If you're like many others, you probably take a half hour to settle into your work. In addition, you probably unwind for the last 15 minutes each day, too. On top of that, you'll need at least two 10 minute breaks, and at least 30 minutes for lunch. Take all of that away, you're probably going to have your peak productivity start to kick in around 8:30 a.m. and then wind down around 4:45 p.m., if you maintain an 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. schedule. Make the most out of it!The 80/20 rule will apply, too, so that peak time during the middle of the day is critical to your ongoing success. Don't waste it! Your best time for a meeting is likely on Wednesday or Thursday right around NOON. So, make the most out of these time slots!

Maximize the time when you can reach the most people, impact them the most, and focus your efforts to be your most productive self between Tuesday and Friday between the time frame of 10:30 a.m. PST and 5:00 p.m. EST. Schedule your most important meeting each week at Noon on Thursday. That is when you'll get the biggest bang for your time slot.When you practice solid time management skills, you will fare better. Ideas I have to refresh for you with this article include:

Time Management Tips:

1. Focus on one thing at a time. One of my mentors is Lou Holtz, formerly the Head Coach of Notre Dame. Lou had an expression that to WIN is to do "What's Important Now?" When you can answer, and do, those things, you will win more often.
2. Complete a task, then move on to your next item on your priority list.
3. Start with one global or long-term goal, then a short-term easy goal, each day. This will make sure you don't avoid the most pressing thing, and also ensure you don't ignore your long-term goals, either.
4. Set a goal for the amount of time to break, eat, and break throughout the day.
5. Don't get side-tracked with items off of your list.

When we instill a sense of discipline into our work day, we get more things done. See if renewing your focus on your peak hours, and by putting your list of things-to-do into the core of that time-frame, you're bound to be more successful.
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Copyright © 2008 AspireNow. All rights reserved. Want more? Subscribe to the A-Blog.