Work life balance - I'm bringing it back

I had a moment of clarity while running for 2hrs on Sunday.

Lately I'm feeling that my work/life balance is completely out of whack. I'm up at 4am working, work when I get home and work on weekends.

I know that something is going to give sooner rather than later and I realised this yesterday when I drove to work in a foul mood and I hadn't even got here yet! And please note, I love my job.

I will not give up my horses or polocrosse or my 12wbt journey or my marathon training, so I need to devise a plan that fits everything in.

Just recently I learnt about a man named Dan Sullivan and his version of a working week. In short it works likes this:

• You have 3 highly productiove days where you do what makes you money,
• You have 2 'buffer' days where you do all the other stuff involved in your work, and
• You have 2 free days where you do not do any work.

My understanding of this is that if you know you are going to have those 2 free days, you will do everything in your power that have your work done over those 3 productive days and 2 buffer days - bit like when your getting ready to go on holidays.

I am going to follow this principal to my work life.

Monday and Friday
These are my buffer days. I will be doing our bookwork, chasing up information required and doing other jobs that need to be done but are not part of the 'money making' operation of the business. For too long I have been working in the business and not spending enough time working on the business.

Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday
These are going to be my highly productive days (oooops today is Tuesday). These days I will concentrate on doing the jobs that are imperitive to our business making money.

Saturday & Sunday
Whooo hooo, by doing this I have now earnt some free time! And here's hoping that I never drive to work on Monday again feeling like yesterday.

I'm going to take this a step further as I have to exercise myself and my horses every day, so I will not be getting to work before 8am and will be leaving at 5:30 - is that too much to ask?

OK, I understand that at times things are going to be out of my control and I may have to do a bit on a weekend, but why can't I work my backside off during the week so I dont have to work on weekends (and at 4am in the morning).

I will keep you updated on my progress with my working week - starting next week. And I would also be interested in your thought on what has and hasn't worked for you.