No matter how your time is used, the maximum time available remains constant. Your waking hours are customarily divided between your business and your personal life. There is no one right time to stop thinking about your business life, any more than there is one right time to attempt to forget your personal life.

When you are living a satisfactory, successful life, your business and personal hours are closely intertwined, but you have learned to focus on business and personal activities at the appropriate times. On the job your primary focus is on business activities and goals. That does not mean that on company time you won’t plan a golf game, have an interesting conversation with a friend or coworker about your personal thoughts and feelings, or think about how achieving your business and career goals will also help you achieve some of your personal objectives.

The same is true when you leave your work environment. There is no mental switch that causes you to shut off thoughts about business activities and plans. In fact, it is when you’re away from work that you may come up with your latest and greatest business-related ideas, even though your primary focus will normally be on personal activities and goals.

There is, however, one important separation that must be made between your business life and your personal life. Don’t drag worry and stress from your work into your personal life,
and vice versa.

No man on his deathbed ever said, “I wish I’d spent more time at the office.” Yet business time priorities often seem to take precedence over personal-time priorities. Don’t let it happen. One reason you work hard is to have the money to do the personal things you’ve always wanted to do, such as travel, play more golf, buy a boat, and spend enjoyable, uninterrupted time with your family.

Your personal time is just as important as, if not more important than, your business time. Don’t allow business activities to cancel, interrupt, or control personal activities. If in your job or business you treat everything that goes wrong as an emergency, you will end up spending your life handling emergencies rather than spending quality time with those you really care about - your spouse, kids, parents, and friends. Jobs and businesses come and go, but these folks are with you for a lifetime. Start treating your personal time with them as the priority it should be.