Comments on: Productive Output Update

By: Scott Fox

Scott Fox — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:50:24 +0000

Congrats on being so aware of these balance issues in your life, Adam. We all know people who tilt too far toward work or play and wake up when they’re 40 or 50 and wonder what went wrong.

@Nethy – very interesting point about balance being an industrial age construct.

By: nethy

nethy — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:42:10 +0000

“the line between what is “work” and what is “fun” for me has never been 100% clear anyway”
That’s an interesting thing actually. I think it’s a bit of an artificial split anyway.

You definitely have a clear split in high school, or in a factory job or a lot of other ‘normal lives’. But that ‘normality’ is mostly an industrial age thing really. Still in nappies if you put it in perspective.

If your a hunter-gatherer you don’t have a work/play divide.

‘Work Life Balance’ (a real buzzword down here at the moment) feels like an uncomfortable workaround to me. Like the cosmological constant or NOMA. Maybe you should be doing different sorts of things with your day but I don’t think that the solution to working too much is creating a bigger distinction between work & play.

I don’t have any better solutions though.

By: George

George — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:02:06 +0000

Seems we talk about it in person all the time, I should put my thoughts down more often for others to read.

By: Adam McFarland

Adam McFarland — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:12:58 +0000

Thanks George, always appreciate it when you take the time to chime in

By: George

George — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:17:22 +0000

Adam, great post. I too find myself in a similar dilemma where you question how much work your putting in compared to your social life. Being single again has forced me to become more socially active and it definitely is taking a strain on some of that extra time I had to work on furthering myself with the business or side projects. At the same time, I feel the balance has helped me focus on those key times I am doing work and productivity may have jumped a little during the hours I am working.

This is a big struggle any entrepreneur faces. You can’t be happy with yourself if you work 100% of the time, but you can’t be successful if you only work 10% of the time. Finding the right balance to succeed in business and socially is a struggle for many.

Great read, I always admire how much work you get done in a day, it’s truly impressive.

George