Most entrepreneurs I know hate the term 'work-life balance'.

"My work is my life" they cry. If you love what you do for a living, and hopefully most entrepreneurs are firmly in this category, why stop working at 5pm? When you are building a business there is always more work you can do. No-one is making you do it. It's your choice.

This attitude completely resonates with me and last year I found myself regularly working until 8 or 9pm until my partner got home (he's an entrepreneur too). There were emails to send, blog posts to read, people to connect with on Twitter. What's a few more hours on the laptop? Is this a problem?

Well, yes and no.

Working long hours, especially if you are building a business, is sometimes necessary. You've got to put the work in to get where you want to go. What can happen, however, is this way of working becomes a habit and our Work-World balance gets out of kilter.

What is Work-World Balance?

Work-World balance is different for everyone but common themes would be maintaining social bonds, looking after our bodies, and fulfilling our minds.

When we are working too hard we can start to neglect our social relationships, whether that is family or friends. We decide to work late again instead of getting home for a family dinner; we cancel after work drinks with friends as connecting with our fans and followers online seems more important; and even when we are with family and friends we are not really present but are continually checking our phone for updates.

Sometimes it is our health we neglect. This is all too familiar in a work-obsessed city like London. In contrast, my month in Amsterdam was an eye-opener - at 5.55pm everyone downs tools and off they head home for dinner! I would suggest that our Work-World balance is off when we start to miss our regular exercise classes or sports due to work or when we regularly don't make time to cook a proper meal and grab a takeaway instead.

Work-World balance is also about connecting with the world around you, doing the things you love (apart from work!) and trying new experiences. Our Work-World balance is off when we don't travel and experience new cultures; when we never get around to reading those books on the nightstand; when we miss a great exhibition or show because we didn't make the time to see it.

As entrepreneurs, we tend value ourselves by how busy we are, by how many emails we deal with, by how many followers we have. When we make a conscious decision to examine why we are working the way we do and perhaps work less, we can feel that our value is threatened. I don't have the answers but it seems to me that we need to find other measures of value and self-worth then just the long hours we put in.

So, what can we do to regain our Work-World balance?

1. Bracket your work

One of my major strategies this year is that of 'bracketing'. Instead of just scheduling your work commitments, try scheduling your 'play' time as well. Make appointments, preferably with others, that you will want to keep. Book for that show on a Tuesday evening with your partner, invite friends around for a mid-week supper, go running with a buddy every Friday before breakfast. Personally, by bracketing my work in this way, I have found that I am actually getting more work done as I have a self-imposed deadline most evenings.

2. Plan, Don't Barcode

'Barcoding' is when we fill our day with back to back activities, tasks and meetings (our diary looks like a barcode, hence the name). This leaves little space for our daily digital activities such as dealing with email or connecting on Twitter, or for the unexpected tasks that naturally crop up, pushing these tasks into the evening. I find it helpful to leave space everyday so that work does not feel overwhelming.

3. Be Mindful

Another strategy is mindfulness and paying attention. We need to continually question what we are doing at work and see if it is creating value for us and our customers. Set little reminders for yourself to ask "am I being productive or just active?” By starting to examine my work in this way, I can see more clearly what my high leverage activities are and what I am wasting time on.

Over to you

How is your Work-World balance?

What strategies do you put in place to ensure that you keep balanced?

[Image with thanks to D Sharon Pruitt via Creative Commons]