Can You Enjoy Yourself AND Be Productive?

I think that the “always on” mentality has sucked the joy right out of work. And, I would hazard a guess that future research will show that there are, at minimum, no productivity gains and more likely productivity losses from this approach. Additionally, your best employees will either burnout or leave as this level of work is unsustainable.

Now, I realize that when you work for yourself, you only have yourself to report to. At the same time, it is all on you to make the business successful. And so, for a time, I found myself on that hamster wheel of productivity…let me check emails at night…let me write that proposal over the weekend…let me meet with that client on a holiday…I was consumed by work. And that worked — for a while.

Over time, though, I found that my business was suffering. My relationships were suffering. And, I came to realize that I was suffering. What’s the saying? “All work and no play makes Lisa a dull person.” Yep. I had lost sight of the fact that one of the reasons I had chosen to go into business for myself is that I wanted to jump off the corporate hamster wheel. What I didn’t appreciate (even though it is one of the things I work with my clients on!) is that by failing to be intentional and to set clear boundaries (not only with others but also with myself), I’d carried the bad habits I’d adopted in corporate right into my own business.

Some of the boundaries I have since set with myself include:

• a cap on the number of hours I will work in the week
• flexibility as to when I work those hours
• flexibility as to where I work those hours

I’ll share what that means in terms of this week. I had an evening meeting with someone in Asia, an early morning breakfast with a client, and I am facilitating a course one evening a week. Those are some of the work efforts being done outside of what is thought of as standard business hours. So, when my husband needed help with a photoshoot midweek, I had no issue “taking a few hours off” during the traditional workday to assist him. Today is a gorgeous day. So, I arranged to have a business lunch at a restaurant with outdoor seating on the water. Now, I am writing this blog as I sit on my patio. While I will spend a bit of time over the weekend working on a presentation I’ve got coming up, I will likely do this in the evenings while the house is winding down for the day. I would argue that the quality of my productivity — the quality of my output — has improved.

I know that you are sitting here thinking, “Well, good for you Lisa! I don’t work for myself. I don’t get to set boundaries like yours.” In part, that may be true, but I have to ask you, how much of your time are you giving away without even thinking about it? For example, do you check email (or other communication channels) multiple times on evenings, early mornings, weekends, holidays, and even on vacation? Perhaps start by rolling this back a bit. Something like, “I will check email once in the evening, after dinner. And, once in the morning, after I’ve gotten ready for the day.” Maybe you carry the same pattern (once in the morning and once in the evening) on the weekends and, if it is too far a stretch for you to ignore work on holidays and time off, then strictly limit that too. These are good and healthy boundaries that will allow you to return to your work refreshed and renewed.