Knowing When to Work Like a Dog and Go For Broke!
Read more about: Entrepreneurship, Work Life Balance
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Last week, Dawud wrote a phenomenal post on Knowing When to Slow Down, reminding us to take the time to enjoy all of the perks that working from home affords us.
I’m going to mess with him a bit and talk about the exact opposite - when is it OK to work like a dog and let balance slide?
Well, before I go any further, let me first say that it’s never OK to let balance slide all of the time and become a workaholic. I’m NOT advocating that, nor would I ever do so! But sometimes, we DO need to pick up the pace a bit and put our business into overdrive.
But when would you want to work more?!
- Time of year
I’ve found that home business owners tend to follow the seasonal trends of regular businesses. While December and August are filled with family time and activities, January and September are big times to put your nose to the grindstone. - Special Projects
There are times when you want to kick off a new idea, project, campaign or promotion. These things, though time consuming, always seem to require a few extra hours on the clock - Increased Income
Although you can simply work more hours to bill more time, you can also devote extra time now into new business ideas that will provide passive income later, such as a new affiliate campaign, creating a special report, building an eCourse, etc. It’s always wise to build revenue streams that work while you play. - Extra Quiet Time
If for some reason the rest of the family is out of town and you’re left behind, or if you actually have extra time away from the family sometimes it’s the perfect excuse to get more work done - that way you can have more time to spend with the family when they are around. (Although, if you actually have “extra quiet time”, can you tell me how to get some, too?!)
Again, working hard is not something you should be doing all of the time - not only is it bad for your heath, but in my experience lack of work-life balance may actually put you out of business.
But balance is just that - making sure that your business, yourself, and your family all get the time they need. Sometimes you need extra “me” time, sometimes the family needs extra attention as well. The same goes for your business - sometimes as an entrepreneur you really need to put in the hours it takes to make your business grow and succeed.
So why am I writing so much about work life balance lately? Well, I’ve got the first 3 of the 4 reasons brewing in the background right now. Thus, I have a huge announcement coming up soon… yes, it’s still a secret - you’ll just have to stick around to find out why I’ve been working so dang much lately! 
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Read more about Entrepreneurship, Work Life Balance
Sparkplugging Founder Wendy Piersall is dang passionate about helping people start & grow a business while maintaining life balance (somehow). 
Kelly McCausey is an internet marketer, blog publisher, podcaster
and web business coach. Host of 
Bill Parlaman is owner of 
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I just love surprises!
Yeah, well YOU won’t be very surprised with this one…
Lol, I just posted on my site about my new found quiet time as I’ll have one day per week where I am home and the kids are at school and my wife is at work.
The first week this happened I treated myself to a mindless viewing of the movie SuperBad. This week I spent some time at the library.
But moving forward this time will be when I can really buckle down on new projects and my blogs. The great thing is that I should be able to do a good deal and that will end up improving my balance with the family when they are home.
Great post Wendy!
I really dislike the term “work-life balance” as it implies that there is “work” and there is “life.” It’s not.
And balance implies it should be 50-50 all the time; you know, balanced.
But we all know that life isn’t like that. We CHOOSE to do some things more than others. We CHOOSE to do that which is most important to us right now. Whether that is recovering through quiet time or pounding out a secret project.
I’m being picky what language means, of course. But I think it is important to frame what we all do in the best manner possible — saying “work-life balance” means you get to be guilty one way or another every day because there is no balance!
I can’t wait to hear about the new project as well. And, yes, these are all good reasons to CHOOSE to focus on items dear to our hearts.
Can you at least tell us when your big surprise is coming? Next week??? Next Month???
I am looking forward to the surprise.
George, I’m praying for next week.
I was supposed to be early to mid August.
Having just started my own business, I find myself having to keep in mind two juxtaposing thoughts:
1. I have to work my tail off, especially in the beginning to build this thing.
2. One of the reasons to work for yourself is so that you can choose when and how hard to work.
The fact that I’m doing projects I enjoy is really helping to balance those things out, though.
I like the post, wish I could take the advice, however at 61 and having started this blog in Jan 07, having never blogged before..I will be working nights for awhile. I sell commercial real estate by day..and rather well I might add….
So I’ll remember the balance when my links and traffic, are where they need to be to monetize…… I think I’m going to enjoy your site. Dorothy from grammology
http://grammology.com
You know, I always knew there was a sibling relationship between us. You just proved it. Thanks sis.
You’re right, you know. Work hard, play hard…that’s always been my philosophy. And to add balance…rest hard.
Hi Wendy, I actually feel like I haven’t been working enough lately…spending more time on home improvements than on my site. Now that I’ve gotten a large project done (my driveway), I will be putting more time into my blog’s to-do list.
Hello Wendy:
Good post to get me thinking . . . sometimes it’s the prospect of having to work like a dog that stops me from getting started. But, knowing that the payoff could be huge gets me motivated. Most of the time I have so much fun getting the new thing going that I forget about the effort. Love your increased income suggestions. Looking forward to seeing what’s next with you!
Barbara
Looking forward to the surprise.
Getting the balance can be a challenge- we are having a few days in our old home town of Sydney and the body just seems to want to stop.Sleeoing in, this is my only time at the computer as i found the post I thought i had uploaded before I left are not in worpress- time for a break.
I think number 3, increased income, is my biggest reason for working more. I always like to build more stability and diversity into my business.
Number 2, special projects, sometimes gets way out of hand for me. I can get really into them and lose track of time. I end up working way more than I should have. Lately, I have been hesitant to start complex projects unless I am planning on outsourcing most of the work.
wendy, thanks for this post! This week I’ve been staying up to 1 and 2am to get stuff done because my husband’s been at the CEDIA show in Denver…so he doesn’t have a clue about my bed time. heehee! I typically do this when he’s gone..I’ll work extra late and kill myself and give myself permission to catch up on projects, etc. Fortunately though he doesnt’ travel much.
Hi,
I think, work/life balance does mean that sometimes we may have to do a lot of work and another time lot’s of play! I think it definitely doesn’t mean to have a time-table.