I don’t know what makes entrepreneurs tick. There is some gene that scientists will probably identify someday that marks us with the entrepreneurship bug. I am guessing it is a recessive trait. Whatever it is, it drives us to keep starting businesses and working hard to make them succeed. That can hamper our home lives, so it is important to keep ourselves in check.
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Don’t Work on Too Many Projects at Once
I know that whenever I get really mad about something, my first instinct is to start a new blog. One such story led to the creation of Wikibias, a blog dedicated to uncovering and publicizing bias on Wikipedia, primarily related to topics in the Middle East.
While it seemed like a good idea at a time, keeping a blog going takes a lot of work. I decided Wikibias had made an impact and more or less decided to cut my losses working on it going forward. You can also see projects like The Israel Situation and Beer is Sexy. Both were once high priorities and have sort of slipped away from my focus.
While those have slipped away, there was a time I tried to manage all of them at once. Add those to my projects still going strong, Narrow Bridge Finance, Denver Flash Mob, Denver Underground Parties, and freelance work like writing for this site, and I have a pretty busy schedule.
Keeping that busy schedule, plus my non-profit volunteering and full time day job, does not lead to a lot of spare time for friends and family. To keep a balance, I have had to put limits on the time I dedicate to each project and take more steps to ensure I keep a good work/life balance.
Keep Regular Work Hours
While I do slip in extra writing time here and there, I generally try to keep my work hours limited to times that do not impact my relationship or limit my time with friends and family. Of course, sometimes unexpected issues arise or I hit crunch time planning a special event, but as a rule I keep work time limited and scheduled.
For me, I don’t work on Friday nights or Saturday with few exceptions. Other people set “office hours” or “work hours” to ensure they give enough time to the more important things in life.
Focus and Prioritize
When I realize that a project is not going to succeed or is no longer an important focus, I find a way to work my way out of it. I am actively trying to sell one project and have plans to sell another so I can focus on what I care about most and what is most successful.
As a serial entrepreneur, it can be easy to get wrapped up in too many projects at once. While it can be fun to do that and helps spread out the risk of one project failing, it can also distract you from focusing on the most successful projects and helping them grow.
Make a list of priorities in your life and rank your projects. Next, figure out how much time they should get and how much time you want to dedicate to hobbies, friends, and family. We each have different priorities, but it is very important to know what they are so we can live a rich and meaningful life.
About Carson Derrow
Eric, sounds like we suffer from the same problem. I’m notorious from starting a project at 100mph only to be “over” the project a few months later. I have entrepreneurship ADD 😉
Good luck on keeping your focus, I’ve found that what works for me is getting family involved. Not necessarily in the project itself but in the discussions of what you’re working on. It seems they can detect my ADDness much sooner and tell me I’m crazy to start another project without finishing my current one. Once I started submitting to their judgement I actually started finishing things 🙂
I also have a regular job that keeps me away from my many business ideas. It’s hard to focus sometimes. I also have the problem of worrying I am not doing enough in my side business. Switching off is a problem. Finding rec activities is also hard. I’m a mess but at least I love working.