Be Home in Time for Dinner: 4 Ways to Work Less, Make More and Increase Productivity

Maybe you enjoy working the long hours.

Yes, staying late to work on a deadline project or to finish the twenty things on your task list probably makes you feel a bit nobler than your cubicle-mate (who jets out the door as soon as that wall clock strikes 5 p.m.). There's a sense of pride that comes with being in charge, having employees "under you," and being the one that comes in at 5 a.m. and then stays late, burning the midnight oil.

But, working long hours is exhausting. And having nothing on your paycheck to show for it should cause you to consider changing the way you approach your business or your job.

Nearly 40 percent of Americans work more than 50 hours per week, according to a study from the American Psychological Association. Now, as heroic as those long, industrious hours may seem, a recent study claims that overtime could land you in the hospital – yes, the hospital. People who report stress at work are 68 percent more likely to develop coronary heart disease than those who report no stress at work, according to research from University College London (UCL).

So sidetrack the medical bills and simply make a few adjustments to the way you approach your job or your business, and you could experience freedom and wealth that come from working less and making more.

1) First things first, you need to humble yourself. Stop priding yourself on being an expert at every facet of the business. Delegation is a must. You may be like the majority of people who dislike delegating because they believe the delegated task will "fall through the cracks," and never happen, or it will get done, but not properly. By holding on to tasks, all you do is cause more stress and lead others to believe that you don't trust them or don't want them to take on new responsibilities. So delegate. And do it in writing, so the task being assigned is clear and detailed, has a due date, and can't slip through the cracks. But never delegate an assignment and completely leave it up to the other person to make sure it is completed. Be accountable and follow up with your coworker or employee to make sure the task is in progress or near completion. Maybe make Microsoft Outlook's task feature your best friend.

2) Create written documentation. Over 50 percent of small businesses fail in the first year, and 80 percent fail within the first five years, according to the U.S. Small Business Association. The single, major difference between a small, floundering company and a large, successful company is that the large business employs documentation. This can't wait until tomorrow. If you already own a small business, and you don't have documentation, carve out time today, sit down, and develop a strategic objective for your business. This should define overall goals, methodology, and prescribe action. It should give direction for major and minor decisions. Like a mission statement, but punchier and more specific. Once you have the strategic objective, move on to your general operating principles. This should be a two- to four-page collection of guidelines for decision-making. And, third, you need written working procedures – instructions that describe how the individual systems of the company or the job are to operate. You should have a written procedure for nearly every action that takes place in your work environment, including how someone should answer the phone, make a deposit, or call for repair of the copier.

3) Eliminate time-wasters. If you own a business, your mission is to work hard but not long, to reduce the workweek by 95 percent, and to make more money than you require. If you have a job, the goal is to quickly ascend the management ranks until you can call your own shots. But no matter what your situation, if you are going to work, then work! Turn the radio off, get your feet off the desk, stop the pointless babbling with a coworker, and put your head down. Get in, do the work, and get out! Instead of checking e-mails 35 times a day, check 5 times a day, at designated times. Suggest polite ways for keeping a conversation moving along, especially if a long-winded coworker comes into your office for a "quick question," then starts recapping last night's episode of American Idol from start to finish. And what about staff meetings? Are they a waste of time? Yes, if you don't have an agenda.

4) Work for 98 percent perfection. Time and money wasted is time and money gone forever. And a waste of time and money means some other positive thing that could have happened, didn't. Apply a "good enough" rule to your work: A 100 percent flawless document that took forever to create carries an imbedded imperfection: The extra time spent creating the masterpiece – that extra 2 percent – is lost forever, therefore the finished product carries an imbedded taint and – catch 22 – you can never call it "perfect." Your work and your written procedures should be "good enough" so the desired results are consistently produced while valuable time isn't spent on absolute perfection.

After Launch, Work-Life Balance Remains

Launching BrazenCareerist.com was my first professional experience of timelessness, where time starts to become irrelevant and that feeling of normalcy that used to keep life balanced becomes harder and harder to get a grip on. Something really interesting happens when you're completely absorbed by a project like that one. You rarely look at the clock, your schedule becomes increasingly erratic, and if not for a DVR (and of course, the writer's strike) you miss some damn good television.

So here we are — all systems go for the BC team. But now that we've launched, should we expect that our day-to-day lives are going to return to normal? Not a chance.

Finding a good balance between frantic fire-fighting and numbing normalcy is always going to be a struggle. So the question is how do you establish equilibrium? Honestly, there's really no great answer. It's all about priorities.

Normalcy is irrelevant to an entrepreneur. You do what you have to do to get where you want to be. And hopefully, you're able to have some fun along the way.

But take our friend Travis, former proprietor of YoungGoGetter.com, for example. His entrepreneurial lifestyle led him to become a self-proclaimed "creature of the night."

While the rest of us were winding down around 7 p.m. and getting ready for prime time T.V. or a quick drink at happy hour, he was eating breakfast and preparing to pull his "darker" version of the daily grind.

I can't imagine my life like that. In fact, after reading his post about it, I gave it a shot, but failed miserably. As Travis points out, you have to be pretty abnormal to navigate that terrain. And I just don't fit the profile.

So what do I do to get a grip? I try to balance two very different mentalities. Some days, I tell myself "I have to get this done, no matter what." And then others, I say "Hey, this isn't going anywhere, let's get a beer."

Balancing your state of mind is just like deciding when it's okay not to go to the gym. And because we all deserve a break, you shouldn't feel bad about not going sometimes.

So tonight, in honor of our lack of sleep and hardcore work ethic while launching the company, Healy and I are headed out for a few drinks at the pool hall with our friend Dale. And I don't feel an ounce of guilt.

Working your ass off is standard for any entrepreneur. But if you're going to work twice as hard, then when you have the chance, you better play twice as hard as well.

Before You Commit to Being an Entrepreneur, Stop and Think

The only thing I knew about entrepreneurship when I joined Brazen Careerist was that it was going to be risky, more than I could have ever imagined during my time in Corporate America.

In hindsight, I was probably ill-prepared to make such a big commitment. Would I have made the same decision if I knew about the pressures I deal with today? Sure, but I'd certainly plan better.

Preparation is key for any soon-to-be entrepreneur. Timing can be everything, and the people you work with can make you or break you. Not to mention, it's a commitment that's not easy to walk away from.

Find Your Strengths (via StrengthsFinder 2.0)

Ryan Healy, Penelope and I are all very different. Unfortunately, we didn't truly discover this until after we all got together in Madison. It would've been nice to know more beforehand.

Fortunately, our strengths ended up lying in very unique areas. If they didn't, we might have ended up stepping all over each other.

Business partners who are too common end up in competition. Do a strength assessment with your potential team to determine if the relationship can really blossom into something great. I recommend using StrenghthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath. The book took me 45 minutes to read (I'm a really slow reader) and the online materials are especially practical for someone who is online for a significant piece of the day.

Make sure your finances are in order

In a perfect world, money wouldn't matter. But it does. Even our career decisions are affected by the clutches of personal finance.

Money was the first thing that came to mind when I thought about entrepreneurship. I had been working for less than a year, had a full-year lease on my house and had a heap of other payments to deal with on top of that. How could I give up a steady paycheck with all of these responsibilities?

After taking a look at my finances I decided that I could manage my bills on the money I saved, barely. Speaking of, you have to be willing to barely get by to endure the life of an entrepreneur. You'll always have just enough to survive and you'll never stop worrying about when the money will run out.

Ask a lot of questions, share your concerns, don't be afraid to annoy

Don't be embarrassed to ask questions about everything, it's expected of you. In retrospect, I wish I had asked more. And I asked questions for a solid week.

Still, after committing to Brazen Careerist, the questions didn't stop pouring in for at least another month. The sheer anxiety of the situation kept me up at night.

I must've been an enormous pain in the ass, but I didn't care. I was committing to a huge lifestyle change that wasn't going to be easy. I had to be sure that my big questions got answered before I packed up the moving van and hauled it cross-country to Wisconsin.

Ultimately, asking questions will make your business a lot stronger. When everything is out on the table you understand where each other are coming from and know where concerns lie.

Make sure you're doing what you really want to do

Everybody says that they want to be an entrepreneur, but most people are just kidding themselves.

Most entry-level corporate jobs are going to suck. And to top that, the transition from college to corporate is damn near depressing. So a lot of people tell themselves that their problems are with corporate life when they are really about the stage of life they are in: the transition into adulthood.

Most people can get through this period and have a fine life in the corporate world. So it's important to know how to make these distinctions.

Entrepreneurship is a very stressful endeavor. Dealing with your transition into adulthood is not going to get any better because you're an entrepreneur. It's probably going to make things more difficult. Think about it.

I just went into business with one of my friends, now what?

Ryan Healy and I have been friends for years. It all started in 616 Geary Hall at Penn State. We were randomly assigned to be roommates during out first year of college. What a wild time…

During our first year out of college, we bantered back and forth about our future careers. We wanted to start our own business. Create something where we could share our advice and experience with other young people like ourselves. And eventually, we did.

Learning to work together wasn't easy. Besides Healy tutoring me in Accounting during my senior year, our friendship was merely social. Our new business relationship took some patience to understand.

Every day is different. Some days are just like college. Others, we're nearly at each other's throats. Starting a business with one of your friends is an incredible experience, but if you don't prepare yourself for the unavoidable drama, it's really going to suck.

Talk about anything and everything

Men don't complain to other men, especially about things that might seem petty. In a business relationship, you have to let go of this mentality.

Healy and I had poor communication skills during our first month working together. At times we didn't say a word to each other over the course of an entire day. It was bad. Really bad.

I ended up flipping out. After lots of yelling, senseless pacing and god knows what else, things started to get better. But it didn't need to come to that.

Avoid an emotional collapse by sharing your frustrations early. We don't make that mistake anymore, and things have run a lot smoother since.

Give each other space

Living with someone you work with is hard, even when they're your friend. And it's not just us. Other young entrepreneurs run into the same problem.

Part of it develops from spending way too much time with one person. The other part occurs when you start scheduling your life around one another.

Sometimes Healy wants to work, but I want to watch T.V. or vice versa. It sucks. When someone else is working, you don't want to be the guy that's sitting around doing nothing. Or if someone is watching T.V., how do you concentrate on work?

What ends up happening is that your schedules will merge. You'll sacrifice spending your time the way you planned on spending it and you'll hate every minute of it.

This isn't good for a startup. The time you spend away from the business strongly influences the effectiveness of the time you put in.

The best thing to do is to get office space. Separate your work life from your home life and make few exceptions. But that's not feasible if your business isn't fully funded.

What can work for anybody is to create your own schedule, share it with your team and tell them to be respectful of the time you need away from the company.

Be understanding, even if you don't understand

We all have our quirks and they make for some interesting and/or irritating situations.

You must be willing to deal with the eccentric behaviors of your co-workers if you want your business to survive. People don't change because you want them to.

I'm a pretty eccentric guy sometimes. And Healy is about as even-keeled as they come. If you look at Healy, then look at me, you'd probably wonder how these two guys even ended up being friends. It happened because despite our differences, we're pretty understanding, even though we don't always get each other.

If you're not understanding with your friends, forget starting a business together. Save the friendship and keep things social. Not only will the company fail, but the friendship may too.

But, as counterintuitive as it may sound, if you're willing to be considerate in your dealings and communicate when times get rough, it may be one of the most amazing things for a couple of buds to do. It's an emotionally trying and physically exacerbating road. Sharing that path with a good friend is an immeasurable experience.

The Best of Employee Evolution 2007

To say the least, 2007 has been an interesting ride for Ryan and I. Our year started on the East Coast, each of us working as entry level employees in Fortune 500 companies, itching to find something bigger and better. Today, the year is ending in the frozen tundra of Madison, Wisconsin, where we're working as entrepreneurs in a three person startup.

We launched Employee Evolution nine months ago as a fun little side project where we could spew our thoughts about the good and the bad of entry level work to a few dozen people. Now we have over 1,000 subscribers, and we can't say anything the least bit controversial without someone questioning our characters!

Regardless, the community that has come together around this blog is absolutely amazing. We truly appreciate everyone who has continued to read, subscribe, comment and submit guest posts. I fully expect 2008 be as fun and exciting as 2007 has been and I hope everyone will join us for the journey.

So, without further ado, here is a list of our favorite posts from this past year.

Gen-Y Articles

The Most Self Centered Generation Ever?

Where should a Millennial draw the line?

Young workers are important, with good reason

How Gen-Y is decentralizing corporate america

What Gen-Y wants from work

Why I don't have health insurance

Millennials are strategically political

At the Office

Suits all week for a day in my boxers

Getting beyond cubicle hell

Why don't you cry about it? Seriously.

Best Buy gets it. And stop watching the clock

Boomers are reinventing retirement, I'm going to bartending school

It's all about selling yourself (out)

Multitasking vs. time management

Blogging

Blogging is the new graduate school

Learning to run a business: get a blog, not a job

Why I started blogging

Start up life

BIG news: we're starting a company

Working with Penelope Trunk – Tales from a start up soap opera

Working with Penelope Trunk – A reality show in the making

Books

Leaderless organizations make sense, read the starfish and the spider

My Start Up Life

Getting from college to career

Recruit or die

If you're still looking for more, be sure to check out our archives, and our top articles on the right sidebar.

Happy New Year to all!