Preserving work life balance when you own your own business is tough! Being an entrepreneur bleeds over into the rest of your life in so many ways it’s a cliche. I’ve tried to strike a healthy balance between working twelve hour shifts at my full time job, being a good husband and father and building our brand in whatever time I have left. That makes for a lot of late nights and early mornings!
But Sometimes it goes off the rails
When she sent that, it was because this was the third Sunday in a row that a planned upload to IGTV of our weekly interview program Sunday Conversations had malfunctioned. I typically upload the episode about three to four days ahead of time and save it as a draft. Theoretically, I should be able to simply post the draft and head out right? Not so much.
Every Sunday, Our Work Life Balance Has Been Affected
Either we have to change which service we attend or we’re late. This Sunday it happened again and then I took a call from one of our contributors who was upset about a message I had sent earlier, again about our IGTV uploads.
I Was Right to Take That Phone Call
Even though it led to me sitting in the church parking lot for thirty minutes. Imagine if I’d just blown off someone who was already upset about a misunderstanding; that would not have been good. Jesus even said that if you’re at the altar and your brother has something against you, you should leave your sacrifice at the altar and go reconcile with your brother then come back to worship. But what I should have done is avoid the problem in the first place with better scheduling.
Preserving Work Life Balance Proactively
What we decided to do is change the time of the upload for Sunday Conversations. It’s still on Sunday on the East Coast but even though it comes out technically on Saturday night for everyone in Pacific Time, most people who follow us are fitness people who go to bed early and wake up early so they still won’t see the episodes until Sunday or later.
We Made More Changes
We also shifted some of our other programs from YouTube to IGTV, and changed the times for other programs so Sunday isn’t so packed with work. It is our family’s day of rest and worship after all.
Preserving Work Life Balance isn’t just a slogan.
Because we believe in family first, preserving work life balance means making sure that my family doesn’t grow to resent the very business my wife and I are creating to ensure their future.