I bought the book last week and read the first chapter. It definitely looks great.

Over the last couple of years I have greatly increased the amount of reading I do, and I am a bit humbled that most of what I have practiced or was taught to me by various mentors is contained in those pages.

I have found that tracking my time helps me control the balance as far as it is reasonable. As a consultant, I did this for billing purposes, but it has stuck with me ever sense.

I have reached a point in my career that I am able to say “no” and stick to my guns without fear of utter ruin. Once I got through my head that I can say “no” and live, I started to be in more control of my time.

Thanks guys for your comments – I greatly appreciate you stopping by.

Simon Stapletons last blog post..When Outsourcing Goes Wrong

Ideally each person should be able to become more aware of where they are on an imaginary ‘productivity scale’ where 1 is idle and 10 is omnipotent super-efficiency (David Allen? lol)

In practice there are often other competing demands on our time and energy (boss, significant-other, family, colleagues, hobbies etc) and it’s only human to drop the ball.

Even so, I still feel Michael’s time log idea has merit if you want to have at least a little more choice over how some of that irrecoverable time is being spent each day. I haven’t yet done it for 2 weeks solid – managed 3 days in a row but that was illuminating enough.

As Michael notes, scheduling of time for certain activities and interests with yourself and family/friends does help to ring fence important events in your life. I admit that here too, a certain amount of give and take is required – but still worth doing.

BTW – One of the “side-effects” of imbibing in too much productivity p0rn is that you easily can forget what the end goal is – assuming you have one or more. If you haven’t then, just as nature abhors a vacuum, “work” rushes in to fill the time available

Mark McClure Coachings last blog post..So You Want To Be An IT Leader?

The determination of “balance” in one’s life is never easy. I have relied on my values to determine my overarching priorities and goals. These values give my various roles (husband, father, IT Director, friend, mentor, etc) of my life structure and boundaries.

This allows me to stack up the various roles and allocate time. I do not get it right most of the time. I find that I tend to swing back and forth giving one area more or less focus then it truly deserves. But like a ship’s captain, I am always making course corrections to keep me on the right path. I also ask for direct feedback from my peers and the ones closest to me. While sometimes hard to hear, the information is priceless.

Family and recreation time is important to me, and I feel this time enables me to be effective in my career. I schedule time or fun and the family. This makes sure that I do not intrude on these activities with work, and it also makes sure that I do not over indulge in playtime.

The balance is always unique to the individual and takes time to find the right individual balance.

I would recommend that anyone interested in determining values and roles read the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steve Covey.

How can you tell when your “recreational” activities are serving the valuable purpose of recharging your batteries, as opposed to when they’re just wasting your time?

Stanley!s last blog post..100 Years of Mixed Blessings