Instigator Blog

Work-life balance is a topic of constant debate. Can you achieve it? Does it exist? What’s it all mean?

Wendy Piersall is asking those very questions. This time she’s asking dads for their input. Certainly, this is a topic of much debate and difficulty for moms. But dads get less attention. It’s assumed that dads will exist more on the work side than the life side. There’s no question, we do.

Yet, I know more and more fathers unwilling to sacrifice the life-side of the equation. They want to be there for their families, they don’t want to be married to their work. It’s tough. Lots of expectations weigh on our shoulders.

So when asked the question, “How do you balance work and life?” I reflect on my current situation - starting Standout Jobs at the same time that I’m raising a young family. Here’s what I’ve got:

You work hard.

Really, really hard.

Sometimes you win.

Sometimes you don’t.

You live on a roller coaster.

Each day you go to battle…

And hold on for dear life.

But you love every minute of it.

And that’s the secret. That’s how you start a company and a family at the same time.

Love your family. Love what you do.

Beyond the love and passion you have for your family and your business, here are some additional things to think about:

1. Every day, try and move things forward, even just a little bit. Think chess. Granted, your life is more like chess on speed…
2. Spend time with your kids. As a dad, I like to do those things my wife isn’t fond of, to complement the many talents she brings to the game. Kick a ball. Roughhouse. It can be simple, your kids will love the time.
3. Don’t take things too seriously. I would never de-value the importance of your business; but it’s not worth sacrificing your life for.
4. Date your wife.
5. Become a master of productivity.
6. Realize that no situation lasts forever. Your child might be having trouble sleeping - that’s OK, it won’t last forever. You need to spend more hours working to get your business going - that’s OK, you can balance it later. As grim as any situation might look, remember that it won’t last.
7. Develop a routine. This is perhaps the most important thing you can do - for yourself and your family. Kids thrive on routine. It sets good expectations for how things ought to be. It won’t be perfect, but it will help tremendously if you can setup a routine that’s manageable. Squeeze the chaos just a little bit.

Images from Flickr: jsems, pete90291, olive le basque_64, ed from ohio, soldiersmediacenter, dru!

Whether business or personal, no relationship succeeds without trust.

Trust is the cornerstone of any great relationship. There are plenty of other important ingredients, but trust rules them all.

Trust is especially important when first starting a business. You’ll rely heavily on your business partners to do their share and more. You’ll trust them to do what they need to do in order for the business to get rolling. At such an early stage, if there’s no trust, you might as well pack up and go home.

And where does this trust come from?

It’s tough to say. Trust is something you feel intrinsically, but it’s also earned. When first starting a business, there may not be any prior working relationship between the partners, so there may not have been any opportunity to earn trust. You might have been friends, but the trust gained through friendship isn’t always the same as the trust you need in business.

You can get to know your partner before going into business, but until everyone’s feet are in the fire, you can’t be certain if they’re trustworthy.

So you go with your gut. It’s scary, and risky, but ultimately very few businesses succeed without partners. You need them to bring complimentary skills, leverage their network, and share your dream. And you trust they’ll do all those things.

On May 28th at 12:25am in the evening my wife gave birth to our second son, Quinn Alexander Yoskovitz. Mom and baby are at home, doing great.

Quinn was 7lbs 13oz.

I rarely get into things that are too personal on this blog, aside from the occasional anecdote, but a lot of people were awaiting this news and this is the best way to get it out there.

I’m thrilled, ecstatic and exhausted. You can expect scattered postings here for the next week or so but there’s a lot going on, and I’m working on plenty of ideas. So don’t disappear just yet…stay tuned…

In the meantime, some pictures I’ll share with you of our new arrival.

Last week the Ultimate Guide to Productivity surpassed 100 submissions. These are productivity tips and ideas submitted by people from across the blogosphere in an effort to help others get more productive. Each person has their own unique twist on things, and in combination the Ultimate Guide to Productivity is an amazing resource.

The submissions keep coming. Here are 20 more productivity submissions, bringing the total to 129!

1. Challenge Your Brain for Productivity - 5 MITA Steps by Robyn McMaster
2. My Ultimate Productivity Tip: Unplug! by Hugh Hollowell
3. 10 Ways Communicators Can Stay Productive by Nonprofit Communications
4. One Is A Productive Number by Carolyn Manning
5. Ultimate Guide to Productivity: To-Do Lists by Tonya
6. The art of getting things done by Vernon Lun
7. The Greatest Productivity Secret Of Them All by Roger Carr
8. Productivity Tips for Writers by Yvonne Russell
9. A Housewife on Steroids by GP
10. Single Best Productivity Tip by Susan Sabo
11. How To Organize Your Desktop to Boost Productivity by Anthony
12. Productivity Group Writing Project by Vickie Turley
13. What’s Your Greatest Productivity Secret? by World Wanting Peace
14. Get More by Doing Nothing by Lyman Reed
15. Productivity Group Writing Project by Karen Del’Marmol
16. Ultimate Guide to Productivity by Jeff Simon
17. Ultimate Guide to Productivity: My Tip by Gillian Hood-Gabrielson
18. What is my secret to being productive? by Sunny Days
19. What’s my top productivity tip? by Tracey Lawton
20. The Greatest Productivity Tip in the World by Alex Brie

Feel free to contribute your own productivity tips, even if you weren’t tagged by someone to do so. You can start a new thread of this group writing project meme and share it with others.

Productivity is a topic that never goes stale. We all have different ideas, opinions and things that work for us. And some people swear by a life of chaos and randomness.

There’s no perfect answer to being productive. That’s what makes productivity such an interesting subject. And that’s what makes collecting so many productivity tips and sharing them a great experience. Out of the volume of posts written about productivity tips there must be at least one thing that each of us can experiment with; and that would make the Ultimate Guide to Productivity a success.

With this latest batch of submissions we’ve surpassed the 100 mark (we’re at 109!) and I want to thank each and every one of you for submitting your productivity tips.

1. Productivity Tip by Jenn Givler
2. Productivity Tip - Just Start by Andrew Garrett
3. My Key To Productivity by Matt McDonald
4. How Productive Are You? by Tish
5. Time management for graphic designers by Rob Cubbon
6. Productivity Tips 2.0 by Stephen
7. My Most Powerful Productivity Tip by Ellesse
8. Ultimate Guide to Productivity by Ian McKenzie
9. Ultimate Guide to Productivity by GTD Wannabe
10. The ultimate productivity tip by Matthew Cornell
11. My single best tip for productivity by Brett Kelly
12. My Key to Productivity by Andrew Barbaccia
13. Blog Even More Efficiently by Scott Hartshorn
14. The Greatest Productivity Tip in the World by Gary Vaughan
15. The Ultimate Guide to Productivity Group Writing Project by Joy Slaughter
16. Single Best Productivity Tip by Leo
17. Join the Ultimate Guide to Productivity by JC
18. My top productivity tip by Steven Aitchinson
19. Phil Gerbyshak
20. Virtual Assistants and Ultimate Guide to Productivity by Key Business Partners
21. Ultimate Guide to Productivity (My First Meme) by Geoff R.
22. The Ultimate Guide to Productivity - What’s your secret? by Mary Ann Copson
23. Continuously Increase Productivity by Embracing the Optimization Mentality by John Wesley

My goal was to reach 100 submissions before I started compiling the e-book. But this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep submitting! I won’t be able to do a lot on the e-book for a couple weeks still, so please feel free to post your own productivity tips, tag others and let me know about.