Balance: How to spend time on your business, not just in your business
Balance is defined as “a condition in which different elements are equal or in the correct proportions.” To be honest, having all the elements of life in balance has never been easy for me, because I love to work. I am always thinking up a new, amazing change to implement with all sorts of “positive” ramifications, and I just don’t take much time for balance.
I don’t think I will be able to change that about myself, and to be quite honest, I do not desire to change. However, what I also do not do very well, but do desire to change, is the time I spend working on the business versus in the business.
In entrepreneurial circles, there’s a well-known book called “The E-Myth Revisited,” by Michael Gerber. He popularized this concept of working on the business as opposed to in the business. Easily put, working in your business achieves results for your customers, while working on your business achieves results for the company and your customers.
If you want to achieve sustainable long-term results for your business, you’ll need to do both. For me, staying focused on working on the business is hard. I know it is the right way, but before I know it another month is gone, and all I have done is work in the business. One way to check yourself on this is to start a journal and record everything you do for a week and then categorize everything into either an “in” or “on” column. Your time must be weighted to “on” if you want the financial results of the company to continue to grow. Here are some lists to help you choose the right column in your journal and keep you honest.
I know from experience how easy it is to just work IN your business for weeks and weeks and even months without doing anything to work ON your business. Every day stuff happens so you deal with that stuff, and if you aren’t very careful, the day will end without achieving much at all to help your business move forward.
So, give the journal a try. It doesn’t take much to get started, even 30 minutes a day to begin with to get into the habit. The great thing about working ON your business is that very quickly it will make working IN your business a lot easier and more rewarding.
