Note: This post was originally a contribution that I did to Invision’s Blog.
Because of my lifestyle, I can’t think in terms of work-life balance anymore. It’d be untrue.
I’m a lucky digital nomad / 4-hour-workweek-type of entrepreneur. This is my current home office:
So I prefer to talk about Lifework: “a work extending over a lifetime” (according to Merriam-Webster dictionary).
Having this kind of freedom can be obnoxious at first. I wanted a way to keep me on the track of what I really wanted to do.
So, the single most important thing for solving this was accountability.
I trust a two sided system:
1. Time Tracking: I consider almost everything in my life as ‘projects’. I use Yast to log the hours spent in each one.
I keep record of personal and professional activities. In this way, I log my physical training hours too.
2. Time Segmenting: Have you ever tried the Pomodoro Technique? It was the single most important hack to push my focus and attention to new highs.
It goes like this:
– Take 25 (timed) minutes to work with no distractions.
– Then, use 5 (timed) minutes to relax.
– When you finished 4 pomodoros, take a long 20 minutes break.
To make the system work: I start a countdown-timer first, and then the corresponding Yast project stopwatch.