Work-life balance has always been important to me. I never wanted to work 70 hours and 7 days a week. I avoided big law firms because they require lots of hours.
My first tip for achieving your work-life balance goals is to put your important things on your calendar. Whether it be working out, projects, walks with family, swimming in the pool, or catching up on emails, block it off. If you don’t, you won’t get to it.
Realize that time is our most critical and scarce resource. When a minute is gone, you’ll never get it back.
Focus on what is important to you. Remember, people are driven to succeed and create visions. You pour yourself into work and success but don’t forget about ‘life.’ Make sure that you’re making time for your spouse, friends, kids, and more. It’s essential that you don’t forget about them during your busy life.
I try to think about it like this. If I were to lose someone close to me, I would not feel good if I prioritized other times (like work) over them.
Think about what you want your tombstone to say. Do you want it to say ‘He billed a lot of hours’ or ‘Wonderful son, friend, husband, compassionate, and a good listener’?
Show Transcript
In this video, I’m going to talk about how to achieve a work life balance. Hi, everyone. I’m A.J. Grossman, divorce lawyer, and owner of Leap Frog Divorce.
As far back as I can remember, work life balance has been important to me. I never wanted to be the type of person that worked 70, 80, or 90 hours a week, seven days a week. As a matter of fact, when I was going through law school and I was thinking about my first job out of law school, I intentionally avoided going to work for a big law firm. Why? Because most of them require an exorbitant amount of billable hours, meaning I’d have to work seven days a week, and I wouldn’t have time for the rest of my life or my family. And that’s not what I wanted.
So this video is to give you a tip or two on how to achieve a work life balance. All right, so number one, get it on your calendar. If it’s important to you, block it out on your calendar, whether that’s working out, eating lunch, taking a break, walking through the garden, swimming in a swimming pool, focus time to work on projects, meetings with employees, whatever it is, if it’s important, block it out on your calendar.
Look, time is our most critical and scarce resource. As soon as a minute is gone, you’ll never get that minute back. So it’s important that you make time to focus on the things that are important to you. And that includes things outside of your work. You know, as an entrepreneur, having run several companies, it is so difficult. Because as an entrepreneur, you’re driven, you’re driven to succeed, you’re driven, driven to create, you’re driven to innovate, you’re driven to lead, you’re driven to create a vision and share it with everybody you know, and you pour yourself into whatever endeavor you’re currently pursuing.
And it’s so important not to forget about your other life, your life, outside of being an entrepreneur, if you’re married, you’re your spouse, whether that be your wife, your husband, whomever, your kids, your mother, your father, your grandparents, don’t forget about your family, don’t forget about your friends. You know, at the end of the day, if you were to lose somebody close to you, I know if I were to lose somebody close to me. I could not feel good if I ignored that person because I felt that my time was better spent, you know, 20 hours pursuing my entrepreneurial responsibilities or duties. I could not look at myself in the mirror.
I don’t know how you are, and I’m not going to assume how you are. But ask yourself, at the end of the day, if I lose somebody close to me, am I going to be okay and satisfied with the fact that I sacrificed my time with them because pursuing my job, my work, my business was more important. You know, at the end of the day, when I pass, my tombstone is not going to read “he was a great lawyer.” He billed a lot of hours. No, what I want it to say is he was a great son. He was a great husband. He was a great friend. He was compassionate and supportive and a great listener. That’s what I want.
What do you want? Think about that. Think about what’s important to you. And put that on your calendar and help yourself achieve a work life balance.
So that was just one tip. I’ll have more. I hope you found it valuable. If you did, please like and subscribe and have a wonderful day and be well.
