Find Motive

“When you play, play hard; when you work, don’t play at all.” — Theodore Roosevelt

I wrote an article last week titled Tips for keeping your vision alive which highlighted 3 points in maintaining vision and motivation. In this article I will cover several points I think are important for being highly productive, but also leaving room to enjoy life outside of work.

Know your limits, Avoid burn out
I consider myself a fairly busy person with my 40+ hour a week job and side businesses. In fact, I’ve been putting in 12 hour days this week to finish up on a project for our company expansion, but I know that I can only push myself so far until I will become less productive and eventually burn out. Now I am not saying you shouldn’t push yourself, I’m not saying that at all. I think that pushing yourself is required to get stuff done in crunch time, but you also need to keep in mind that your body physically and mentally can only handle so much. Knowing where this limit is for yourself is key. More time will be lost recovering from burn out than time spent spacing out work for yourself.

Play hard, really hard
I can’t stress how much you need to take time for yourself and relax. Don’t think about work and don’t even dare think about doing work. I love the feeling of unwinding after a long(but productive) day at work and doing something I really enjoy. Now for me, stuff I enjoy doing to unwind is riding my new 2006 Yamaha R6 (oh its sexy). Some of the advantages of living in Oklahoma is the long country roads and beautiful summer nights, which BTW on a motorcycle is 10 times better and makes stress just float away. My point is, whatever you love doing or lets you relax and put things in perspective…do it! Make the time for yourself and play hard.

Results make the money
Having a balanced life will help your productivity and creativity, which returns better results. Not too mention a more consistent workflow and healthier lifestyle. Plus all work and no play makes Noah a dull boy.

I hope this article helps and comments are always welcomed.