Working a 9-5 job, or really in my case 8:30-4:30 job, is pretty easy to balance. I swipe my id around 8:30 and I swipe my id again almost exactly 4:30 pm in the dot. When Friday comes and I walk out of the building, I’m finished and don’t even think twice about the work I left there or what’s coming up Monday. I have about 4 email addresses that come directly to my phone and my 8:30-4:30 is not one of those. The point is, when I’m done, I’m done.

But when it comes to running my business, it’s not always that easy. The email that clients use and that’s connected to my website is also a personal email and comes directly to my phone. Very easily do I get an email in the middle of cooking out with friends or spending time with my husband and to be honest, it’s not always easy to just let it sit until Monday morning.

When you love doing what you do, which I imagine you would if you decided to start your own business doing it, the line between your work life and living life can become blurred. I started to see this happening, I would book sessions or meetings right in the middle of life and I ended up missing out. As much as a love my clients and projects, I love my family, ministry, and friends.

Unfortunately, I can’t give you an exact blue print of what you need to do and what you don’t need to do. It’s not that simple. At best, I can tell you what works for me and give you some ideas that you can use to see what works best for you.

I am a calendar girl. I have an online calendar that is directly connected with my phone calendar which also shows my husband’s calendar. This digital calendar includes life, ministry, and work events for both my husband and myself. I also carry around a calendar in my purse that is strictly for church events. Due to a few mix-ups and double-booking, I found it necessary to invest in a new calendar that was strictly for business use. Every time a new month approaches I take my life/ministry calendar and use a colored highlighter in my work calendar to mark off the days that are already booked with events. That way it makes it easy to see what days I have available when clients contact me for sessions and projects.

When it comes to phone calls and emails I have a flexible process. Usually after a client leaves a message on a weekend, I return their call within 1 day to get basic information. I then as if they can be contacted via email and them email them first thing Monday morning. When it comes to emails, I have to show some extra restraint. Since emails come to my phone, returning them is sometimes like responding to a text message. If I get an email on the weekend, I respond first thing Monday morning. If I receive one during the week I try to respond between 24-48 hours. Based on time sensitivity, I will stop returning emails after 6 or 7 pm.

Again, none of this is set in stone but I’ve found that it works for me.

It may not work for you and your business but hopefully the conversation sparked some ideas of how you can manage the line between work and life.

Hope this helps! Happy Monday!

In love,

C.B.