It really comes down to setting boundaries on your time

and having long spans of uninterrupted time.

Boundaries can be great for creativity and productivity.

The constraint of knowing you only

have X number of hours to work on something

can force you to focus.

But how do I do all the little things

like mail, and house chores, and errands?

This one can be a bit tricky, especially

if you work from home, like we do at Team Gantt.

It's really easy to see the unmade bed or the pile

of dishes or the long grass in the yard and think,

I can just take a few minutes and get this done or that.

But those distractions can often lead to long stretches

of unproductive time.

Then at the end of the day, you feel

stressed because you didn't get as much

done as you wanted to at work.

Try to do as much as you can on your lunch break

or put it off until after work.

Trying to get all those little things done during the day

can be a real time killer.

Even if the tasks are short, it can take you a long time

to get back in the zone and start being productive again.

Talk it over with your family.

If you work from home, it takes everyone in the household

to be on board.

Talk about how a structure like this

can benefit the entire family.

While you may not be available 24/7 like you were before,

they'll know that your time outside of those work hours

will be higher quality because you

won't have work on your mind.

You'll be done for the day and can devote your full attention

to family or friends or non-work related tasks and projects.

But people keep emailing, or chatting, or tweeting,

or Skyping, or whatever-ing me.

To put it simply and bluntly, they can wait until tomorrow.

Now I know not all companies have the same culture that we

do here at Team Gantt so your mileage may vary here,

but for us, no one expects a response

from anyone else outside of work hours.

Try it for a week or so and see what

happens if you wait until the next day to respond

to emails and chats.

Does anyone freak out or did it maybe

go better than you expected?

How can I get all of my work done in just 40 hours?

Five, eight hour days a week is actually a ton of time.

You can get a lot accomplished in that amount of time,

it's just that too often, much of that time gets

sucked up in meetings, interruptions

from instant messaging, or a quick chat

when another member stops by your cubicle or office.

A lot of those things don't need to happen.

If you can reduce those interruptions

and get real work done for 40 hours,

you can accomplish so much.

It's also a matter of focusing on the big rocks,

like Franklin Covey teaches.

David mentions this in his podcast

and we couldn't agree more with him.

Nathan took the Franklin Covey course at a previous job

and it stuck with him.

He's since made those ideas a big part of the culture

a Team Gantt.

Big rocks is a simple strategy of identifying

your most important tasks and dedicating time

to work on those.

Block out your calendar and don't allow any interruptions

during the time you're working on those tasks.

Turn off slack, close your email,

put your phone on do not disturb,

and just work for an hour and a half or two hours at a time.

You'd be amazed how much can happen

with that much focused time.

This was part two of a three part series

on achieving a healthy work life balance.

Stay tuned for part 3 about the top benefits

of a structured work time.

What tips do you have for keeping your work and life

in balance?

Let us know in the comments.

We'd love to hear from you.

And make sure you like this video

and subscribe to our channel for more great content like this.