Make Your Own Rules to Achieve Work-​Life Balance

BY Courtney Huckabay
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Darius Foroux follows the rules. Maybe you should too. In the ongoing quest for work-​life balance, laying down some ground rules might just be the tactic that sticks for you. It's like our time in school — a few rules set up much-​needed structure for success when they are followed. As an entrepreneur, Foroux calls them his work rules in his productivity blog. These rules are powerful and effective in their simplicity.

Two Rules for Achieving Work-​Life Balance

  1. Leave on time
  2. Don't take your work home

Leave on Time

"The art of working hard is knowing when to quit," Foroux writes. "You must protect yourself against too much work. And it’s straightforward. Just leave the office on time. Whether you love your job or not — it doesn’t matter. When it’s time to go home, GO! No one needs you to be at the office 24/​7. Only your ego does."

That being said, you obviously still need to work hard. There will be days when you will actually have to stay late because you were not as productive as you should have been. But that should be a rare occurrence when you're distracted for some reason.

During your day-​to-​day work schedule, results will not turn out better because you put in 12-​hour days. On the contrary, you need to remain sharp and focused to advance your career and achieve your sales goals. And everyone knows that too much work, too much stress and not enough breaks will only hinder your success in both your monthly sales quotas and your career as a whole.

Now, write this rule down for yourself and follow it. Leave on time. Make a daily calendar reminder at the end of the work day if you have to. If you don't make time for you, both your personal and professional lives will suffer since your work;life balance will be nonexistent.

Don't take your work home

Now, you may think you're so clever and that you've found a loophole past that first rule. You can just do your work from home. That'll help your work-​life balance because you'll still get more work done and be present at home, right? Wrong!

"No one thinks it’s cool when you’re closing deals on the phone at dinner," Foroux says. "Look, living a happy life is very simple. It’s all within our control. We can decide what makes us happy."

For one, it's distracting to your prospects to talk with them while in your home. It's your partners', kids', animals', roommates', whomever you may live with's place of rest where they don't have to be quiet for business calls. They shouldn't have to be so that you can sabotage your work-​life balance. And they probably won't be, which may annoy you prospect.

In the same vein, your family is not impressed that you left work on time only to hole up in your at-​home office for the rest of the night. Your friends don't see you as soooo important because you are handcuffed to your phone at all times. It's just rude. And annoying. Make sure you are doing meaningful, intense work at work, so you get it all done. That way, you can actually have a work-​life balance.

Start making your own rules today.


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