Balance is B.S.

CHAPTER 3Balance Is Bullshit: Blend Instead

Whenever I do a speaking gig somewhere nice, I take my family and we have a mini holiday.

At the end the MC always says, “I'm sure everybody in the audience has lots of questions, so are you happy for people to come up to you?” And I unapologetically tell them where to find me if they want more: “No problem, but I'm here with my family so if you want to speak to me I'll be in the pool playing with them. You're welcome to come up and ask me anything.”

And they do. And I answer what I can, to these guys in suits hanging around the pool, getting splashed by my kids. I'm pretty sure I'm the only entrepreneur at the conference giving business advice in her bikini.

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That old idiom that you should keep business and pleasure separate is dead.

You're human. Your colleagues know that. If I weren't friends with the people I work with I'd never have any friends. (My friends joke that the best way to get me to spend time with them is to go into business with me.)

It doesn't make you unprofessional to admit that you're answering a work call from home, or during the school pickup run. You don't have to find a quiet corner and pretend to be in an office when somebody “important” calls. And you don't have to feel guilty for taking that call on the weekend. You love your work, don't you? Sometimes it needs you, just like your family does.

In the same way, you need to give yourself permission to have some availability for personal things during work ...