If you’re like many others with school-aged kids, you’re just coming off your Spring Break. So, how did you do?
I’m just like most every other business owner who has kids who are still in school. When March comes around, I forget my work schedule and pack up the car for a week-long adventure called Spring Break!
And whether you’re one of the many who travel to an exotic location to spend time with your family or you take the more reasonable approach and do the “stay-cation”, you’re faced with the same struggle and challenge that we all are – how to truly disengage from your work and stay engaged with your family.
Many business owners won’t allow themselves to totally disconnect from their business – even while on vacation!
In fact, I tried to carve time out of my week-long vacation to write this blog post among a few other business-related tasks I thought I could knock-out, but every time I sat down to do some “work” I found I was losing energy and enthusiasm. I couldn’t help but think about what I was missing with my family. And why was I sitting inside on my computer while I was a mere 200 yards from a beautiful, white, sandy beach?
Sound familiar?
I kept reminding myself to “BE PRESENT” and “LIVE IN THE MOMENT”. I couldn’t stop thinking about the many articles written recently about the person nearing the end of their life saying “I wish I would have lived life more”. Somehow doing regular “work” didn’t seem to fit the criteria for “living life” while on vacation!
Then I remembered an exercise I did recently and a website that I found to be very helpful in the area of time management and work/life balance.
The website is www.nobrowndays.com. It’s a very cool website built and managed by a colleague of mine who is focused on helping individuals work smart, have more free time, and enjoy life more. It’s one I would HIGHLY recommend you visit.
The concept that you’ll find at nobrowndays.com is that our days are made up of 4 primary activities, each of which can be defined with a color.
- GREEN is for Revenue Generating activities,
- RED is for Administrative activities,
- BLUE is for Strategic Thinking time and
- YELLOW is for Relaxation and Leisure.
The premise is that we should NEVER mix our colors. Each day should be focused on a single color. That way we can get the maximum benefit with minimum frustration and we will not lose focus as we try to switch back and forth from one type of activity to another.
Think about it. If you built your schedule so that on any given day you would ONLY focus on one color, how much more productive would you be? How much more efficient could you be? How much more effective could you be? I believe the results would be amazing!
But I know you’re saying to yourself…”there’s no way I could do that!”
And in the near term, you probably can’t. But if you had the right mindset and were truly motivated to make a change in your life for the better, I’m confident that you could do it!
And here’s the best part. You don’t have to figure it out on your own! There are resources and tools at www.nobrowndays.com that will help you think through the challenges, map out a plan, and build your Ideal Future Annual Calendar.
I recently went through the exercises and created my ideal annual calendar and it has helped me to stay focused and make progress towards my ideal future. And isn’t that what we all want – to make PROGRESS towards our goals!
So I’m going to do you a favor and keep this blog post very short (since I spent my last week playing frisbee on the beach with my college-aged son). I’m going to gift you some extra time to go towww.nobrowndays.com and register for the free resources. Don’t worry, they won’t spam you for signing up. Do yourself a big favor and spend the time necessary to understand the concepts, do the exercises, and begin changing your life by changing the way you get work done!
Simple! You willing to give it a try?
I’d love to hear what you think about the website and the concepts. And, if you’re willing to send me a picture of your Ideal Model Annual Calendar, I’d love to see it. I’m starting a collection of the many creative ways that business owners like us are scheduling our time in order to get things done while still living the life we’ve always dreamed about.
If you have a comment or question, please leave it in the comments section. Share this with anyone you think could use it. I hope this is helpful!
Ride Hard!
