Thursday, December 8, 2011

work when you work & don't when you don't.

my friend's peaceful morning home
Today's tip is one that I am currently trying very hard to implement myself. 
I'm a worker. 
I never knew this about myself until I started a small business. 
I knew that I wasn't extremely lazy and I knew I liked to do a good job, but in all the years I worked outside the home before having children, I enjoyed leaving work at work and I didn't enjoy staying late. 


I think there is something about starting a business that you LOVE that reveals what kind of worker you are. There are parts of running my business that feel like straight up worship (the creative parts), but most of it feels like work. Emailing, keeping track of orders, packaging, shipping. And I realized that even those things are necessarily fun, I like to do them until they're done. 


And it wasn't until I was on vacation this past week in someone else's home that I realized I've blurred almost all lines of work and life for myself. I couldn't get over how peaceful her home was in the morning. It was a lot of coffee brewing and padded toddler feet running and even cartoons and conversations. But there was no frantic emailing or package packing. 


When I started this business, I would have told you that it was ludicrous to try and work in the morning. When you have small kiddos, the small business should take a backseat during high volume and high stress hours, right? But slowly I let "emergency" work hours become the norm, and before long I was clocking in at 4:50am because someone's order just HAD to get done. 


Unfortunately, this isn't my only time I've having to steal back from my work "schedule". But I've recommitted to work like crazy when I'm supposed to be working, and do the opposite of work when I'm not supposed to be.  And I'm wondering if I'm not the only one who has muddled the lines? 


How about you? 
Is there an hour or a day that you need to steal back for your life of your family? 
Or is there a period of time where you could or should be furiously working and you're filling it with something else? 
Let's discuss, ladies. 

1 comment:

  1. Jessi I definitely struggle with this also. I always feel like I'm neglecting something or someone. I want to always put my family first but I find there isn't enough hours in the day to do that all the time. I really enjoy and am proud of my business but the more success a find the more stressful my family time is becoming.

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