Work Life Balance — How To Run A Business And Maintain A Romantic Relationship | TBS #050

Work life balance is a very important topic. It’s interesting because I currently live with my girlfriend in Portugal, and because I’m an entrepreneur I have to be good at balancing my time.

This question comes from Filip and he asked: “How do you balance business and having a relationship?”

I basically had full control over my own schedule when I lived alone: I could wake up, work, and go to sleep whenever I felt like. I could manage my time as I wished.

However, when you move together you have to make compromises. You don’t have the flexibility you had before and have to find a rhythm that works for both of you.

This is hard work because when you are an entrepreneur you often have to work over 8 hours a day.

I would suggest you find out what daily rhythm makes sense for the both of you, so you can meet each other in between.

Something I recommend is to have clear boundaries between work time and free time. You want to be clear when you are working, and also be clear when spending time with your partner. Make sure you have a clear cut between work day and the time you spend with your loved one.

For example: I get up in the morning, work for a couple of hours, have lunch, and then for 1 to 2 hours I spend time with my girlfriend without phone, or distractions.

Then I get back to work and I’ll work until 8 or 9 p.m and then spend some more time with my girlfriend. And then after she goes to sleep I work a little more.

The most important part is to establish boundaries.

Otherwise things get messy.

You’ll be with your girlfriend thinking about business, and then when you work you’ll be thinking about spending time with her.

And that’s bad for your business and your relationship.

Hope it helps 🙂