Standards are determined by you, not anyone else.
It’s pretty presumptuous and egocentric of someone else looking in to question why you’re working when they think you shouldn’t be.
As long as you are working on YOUR terms, by YOUR choice, it’s none of anyone else’s business when, where, how or why you are working.
Take the single mom. I can’t even imagine anymore (since my own daughter is grown now) the difficulties those with little ones still to raise have in growing and operating their business. Mad respect to her because she has responsibilities and timing that can’t be moved around at whim or done according to when someone else says she should or shouldn’t be working.
So, someone in that position might find, in the course of making it all work in her family, that she just does better working predominately at night or on the weekends. Hey, it’s not forever and no one ever said building a business would be easy or that you wouldn’t have to make some sacrifices along the way.
And that’s okay if that’s what she is doing by choice and what works for her.
Now, on the other hand, if you do find yourself feeling compelled to work beyond what you would choose to (long hours, nights, weekends, all your free time) due to extrinsic forces, and your business is running you instead of you running your business, that’s when an examination of your standards, boundaries, policies and operations will help you reclaim control of your life and become more at choice.
For example, you may be taking on the wrong clients and kinds of work.
You might be trying to be too much like an in-house assistant and working with clients like an employee instead of providing strategic—not daily—support as an independent consultant.
Perhaps your policies and procedures are not well-developed and you are letting clients determine those things instead of you.
Perhaps improving the communication about your standards, protocols, boundaries, the way things work and what procedures they should be following, etc., (such as with a client guide and/or new client orientation) and being more deliberate in communicating those things would help your client relationships and work go more smoothly.
Perhaps you are not charging enough which is forcing you to take on too much work in order to make ends meet, which in turn is taking away time for your life.
Perhaps you need to simplify and uncomplicate your administration and operations so that those things don’t overburden your time and attention.
Maybe you like working nights and weekends because it’s when you choose to on occasion, but sending communications at all hours is giving clients the wrong impression that they can impose on you beyond regular business hours. If that’s the case, making adjustments such as when you reply, scheduling your replies for certain hours, or even delaying replies a certain amount of time so as to manage their understandings and expectations will help keep clients from crowding you and overstepping boundaries.
It doesn’t matter when you work. Productivity and inspiration can’t be imposed or “managed.” They can only be facilitated.
There is some much in this post that sounds familiar to me. I’m going to go away and think very hard about it and how to address the issues that I recognise. Thanks Danielle – a brilliant post.