The small business time juggle
August 5th, 2008 by Ingrid Cliff
I finally got back to reading more on the MYOB report on small business I mentioned the other day. Here are some more stats that caught my attention.
- 33% of all small business owners work over 51 hours per week
- 46% work a 6 or 7 day week
- 34% work more than 10 hours per day in their most recent work week
Queensland small business owners had the longest average working day of all the states with 37% of all owners regularly working over 10 hours per day.
My question is – how productive are we really? Are we making the highest and best use of each of those more than 10 hours per day? Yes … we are really busy, but are we making a difference?
I know there are days I burn the midnight oil when I am in peak creativity mode. Those are the times when all I can do is write copy for my clients and I can’t stop until every ounce (mg for those metrically minded) of creativity is drained out of me.
The phone isn’t answered, dirty coffee cups pile up around me like the Great Wall of China and it is as if my keyboard is somehow wired into my internal circuits – there is this amazing connection between brain and keyboard. It doesn’t seem like work – it is much more fun and exciting when that flow happens!
There are also some days when I pfaff around distracting myself beautifully from anything except the task at hand. I go wander through my Google Reader feeds, hit the Stumble button a few too many times and all of my contacts get to hear from me. Those days it feels a bit like I am playing hooky and work seems almost insurmountable.
Then there are days when I turn the computer off totally and go for long adventures with my kids (I call them adventures – the kids just reckon I get lost and don’t know how to get home). Work – what work?
So am I productive 100% of the time – NO WAY! But on balance I reckon my 10 hour plus days when I am hyper productive seems to balance out the down times. Overall I know I am making a difference somewhere to at least one person each day.
Enough of the philosophy – how balanced overall is your life? Do the MYOB stats for you reflect a life of overall happiness and fulfillment, or one of struggle and hardship?
Just some questions to get you thinking ….
Until next time
Ingrid Cliff
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 at 9:21 am and is filed under Business trend. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 5th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Good point Ingrid about being productive and balanced in our day. For the sake of balance and longevity, I learnt this week about the importance of oscillating between stress and relaxation in four areas of our lives. ie. physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. It was a good lesson which I’m already starting to apply! It’s important when we’re juggling so many responsibilities in business, family and community.