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In business, as in life, there seems to be a never ending list of items that need to be completed. There are always more errands to run, people to meet with, emails to write, and the list goes on.
In our “never too late to do more” world, how can you know when you are done for the day?
Bill Hybels talks about how you can “Create Your Own Finish Lines” in his leadership book Axiom. He encourages people to have daily, weekly, monthly, and annual “finish lines” that mark when your work is done.
For Bill Hybels, a daily finish line looks like leaving work each day at 4:00 and going home for a 3 mile run. This ritual triggers him to “quit working” and allow the day’s remaining tasks and ideas to move to tomorrow’s list.
In a way, the guys over at 37 Signals wrote about this in their book Rework. In the essay imploring that business leaders “Send People Home at 5″, the authors say,
“You don’t need more hours; you need better hours. When people have something to do at home, they get down to business.”
Why don’t we allow ourselves the freedom of a finish line?
Does having a finish line each day, week, or month mean we can not blur the lines of work and life. I don’t think so. I think it gives us the freedom to choose. I think highly effective people practice the art of choosing when to work and when to rest. We get into trouble though when we lack confidence in our ability to do great work and rest well. I think this is when we start to work all the time as a way of appearing productive and important but in reality producing work with diminishing returns due to exhaustion or burnout.
Effective people know when to work and when to rest.
Do you have a “finish line” you try to stick to each day? What are your thoughts?
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Comments
10.07.10
I don't always stick to one myself, but I try.
This illustrates an accompanying point I wish more people would pay attention to. As someone who works from home most days of the week, I take self-appointed breaks when I need to "shut off" or I, as you suggest, become ineffective, exhausted, and frankly, unproductive.
But I have two neighbors who work 8-5 jobs and they become INCENSED when they see me "breaking" during the day on my porch. From their perspective, my business must not be doing well, or I'm not doing much for it, because their perception of effectiveness is contained in the 9-5 period. For me, I work on and off between 8:30 and 11 pm, because it's what works for me. I'm always insulted when people imply that I must not work if I break during the day (instead of the more traditional, "go home at 5" approach). My peak tends to happen around 9 or 10 pm. That's just me. Because I'm 65% self-employed, I can have a flexible schedule - yet I still put in more hours than 9-5. (Really.) Just different ones!
Why do we want to punish people who develop effective habits?
That was a bit of a rant. But I agree with you. I don't think we're all brilliant entrepreneurs, like many bloggers suggest, but I DO think that some of us would be more effective if we could set (and have others respect) individualized "finish lines."
10.07.10
Great thoughts!
"Why do we punish people people who develop effective habits?"
What a good question with which to wrestle. It reminds me in part of a great and short blog post by Todd Henry at Accidental Creative (http://www.accidentalcreative.com/you/be-reasonable). Sometimes, in Todd's words, "people tell you to be reasonable so that they don’t have to face their own fear of failure?"
I also think part of the reason why people doubt the effectiveness of other people methods is that they don't really know how they are wired and what makes them tick. I think when you know who you are, you are much more comfortable with other people being different.
10.07.10
As a recovering workaholic, I can honestly say my lack of "finish lines" has lead to work-play imbalance over the years. You have to allow your mind time to regroup and focus on fun, non-work-related tasks or even the most efficient worker will eventually experience the dreaded burnout. Great post!!
10.08.10
I appreciate your idea here. Definitely it has a good content. Thank you for imparting more of your own thoughts. Good job!
12.29.10
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