Kudos to preserving boundaries, especially having a dedicated workspace and leaving the laptop in the office. Critical to keeping boundaries with iPads and iPhones too as its way to easy to dive into checking email.

One of the practices I’ve adopted from ZenHabits.net’s Leo Babauta in one of his books is the concept of Big Rocks and MITs (Most Important Tasks). Here’s a blog post he wrote that expands on this concept. I just keep 3 Big Rocks to focus on for the week (and chip away at), and 3 MITs to conquer for the day. I’ve even written my 3BR + 3MITs on my “Notes” iPhone app, snapshot it, and used it as a daily changing Wallpaper for my lock screen. This way, when I look at my iPhone to use it, which is probably 100s of times a day, I am re-focused on what’s most important for me for the day and week. It’s quite amazing how good I feel striking off each MIT!

And like you shared about buying your life back with outsourcing, I’ve found this to be a phenomenal strategy – once I can get out of the mindset of having to do it all myself – to effectively work ‘on’ my business instead of ‘in’ my business.

Thanks for writing this, M! Here’s to your balancing act! :D