How to find the balance?

SPIN Ideas is not my first company. I have done this before. I mean, working for myself.

It is a stressful thing being the only person responsible for every aspect of a business, but I loved and love every moment of it. It is my choice, so it is easy to dedicate all my time and energy to make sure I can achieve what I set up to do.

For me, it is the good type of stress. The one that keeps me on my toes and helps me to focus, to be more creative and come up with solutions out of the box. I am sure all the entrepreneurs that read this know what I am talking about.

Still, everything in life has a yin and a yang, and if the creativity and the motivation in this analogy are yang, the yin is the time you allocate.

I don’t think there is a single business owner that does not struggle with this. It is so easy to forget about time and work late into the night, weekends and holidays when you work for yourself.

I’ve always been interested in finding ways to be more productive and how to organize my time better. I don’t believe in 9 to 5. You can’t be creative if your focus is on the amount of time you need to spend at work, instead of solving the problem. I am very happy to see that more and more companies adopt this way of thinking. However, when you work for yourself, you tend not to apply it. And it is not because you are focused on accumulating a specific number of worked hours, but because you are so caught up in your work, that you forget about time.

But my question to you is: how to make sure you don’t overdo it?

You see, to be creative and figure out the best solution, you need a relaxed mind. And to be able to achieve this, you need time for yourself to do the things that give you energy, to discover what is outside your business boundaries and your day to day reality. You need me time.

When I started SPIN Ideas, not that long ago, I decided I will write an article every week. To write, you need inspiration. The problem with being focused only on your day to day activities is that, when you sit down in front of your computer with a new white page in front of you, you have no clue where to start.

I am lucky to be surrounded by great friends that write: blog posts, articles, even books. I love being with them because I always learn new things. They are always going somewhere, meeting people and trying new things. So, in order to be able to write an article each week, I decided to follow their example. After all, isn’t this one of the reasons we decided to work for ourselves, to be our own boss? So, we can do what we love and have control over our time?

Thus, I am making sure I take me time and enjoy the sun, visit an exhibition, read a new book or just have a long lunch with my friends. This is my yang. Every moment I spend doing something not related to my business, I become better at my business. It gives me energy and inspiration.

One of the reasons behind my company is the people’s story. I love to discover how a brand-name or a business idea came to life. You can’t do that if you do not take the time to talk with them and be with them. All this requires energy. Even if discovering that story is a huge source of inspiration, I need the me time to be able to help them be creative.

People talk about balance. I am starting to think, it is not a “time” balance, but more a “feeling” balance. At least for me.

How do you find your balance?