How to Work Double-Time Part Time for Full-Time Free Time

Balance is crap. The concept of balance is not only a discordant metaphor for how to spend your time but an ineffective strategy. Striving for "work-life" balance is an impractical standard; it's one that won't bring you the results you truly seek -- and it should be avoided.

By definition balance means "equal force in opposite directions," which implies that to be balanced our time and energy should be spread in a perfect distribution across various tasks we have in our life. But if we sleep eight hours a day and work eight hours a day, then to truly be balanced we could only do one other activity and it would have to be eight hours every day. That concept is absurd and outdated.

Success in business, at home, and in life doesn't come from applying our resources proportionately throughout different areas. In fact, it's just the opposite. Success usually is the result of focusing our talents, money, time or energy in one priority direction for a shorter period of time to create a desired result -- called a season. In one word, a season is best defined as imbalance.

• For example, if you were thousands of dollars in debt you wouldn't get out very fast if you were only paying off an extra $10 per month more than your minimum balance. You'd have to find a way to make sacrifices in other areas of your life to throw more and more money at your debt problem until it was gone.

Think about a farmer... if they worked a balanced schedule throughout the year including the harvest season they would have much less production. When the harvest season comes they must work harder and longer because they only have a short window of time to maximize their reap! So, during harvest season farmers work up to 18 hours a day.

The beauty about imbalancing your resources in one direction for a short period of time is that once you create your desired result it is usually much easier to maintain that level of performance post-season. It becomes comfortable to consistently stay in the new range and usually requires much less effort and/or little thinking at all. A panoramic view of a season and post season leads us to the strategy of "working double-time part time for full-time free time."

• Once you get out of debt and you have no monthly payments its much easier to get rich and stay out of debt.

All of these are examples of the payoff resulting from embracing a "double-time part time for full-time free time" strategy. The metaphor of a season not only makes more practical sense when applied to every area of daily life but is also the actual practice of "well-balanced" high performing people.

Here are three interconnected elements for advancing your mindset from "Time Management" to "Season Management":

1. Redefine Balance: Balance isn't equal time spread across equal activities; it's appropriate time spread across critical priorities. Don't worry about the quantity of time you are spending on something but instead focus on quality of time. In other words, don't measure success by the amount of time you're spending on something -- measure success simply by the results you're achieving.

"Balance" is more often an excuse for justifying underperformance than it is a valid explanation for why we're not achieving the results we want in the different areas of our life. Balance is not a benchmark you should be measuring yourself by, and it's not a standard that will bring you a life you love.

Embrace the season. Embrace the focused imbalance. Embrace working double-time part time and you shall soon embrace the full-time free time.

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