How Great Business Owners End Their Day & Transition from Work to Family

As a business owner or entrepreneur, you sometimes get towards the end of the work day and you're transitioning into family life, but you have a lot more to do and you just wish that you had more time to get it all done. If that feeling's causing any sort of stress or it's causing you to really not be fully present with your family or your friends or whatever you're doing, this post will help you because I know exactly how you feel. I own a financial services firm; we've got a great team, we're growing rapidly, and I enjoy it a lot, but sometimes it’s hard at the end of the workday to transition into not working.

But once I started doing this two-minute practice at the end of each workday, it's allowed me to really feel great about the day and to lessen that feelings of, I wish I did more, and, I should be working right now. It's allowed me to be more present with my wife and kids so that I can truly enjoy the stage of life that they're in right now.

The Gap and The Gain

About a year ago, I learned this concept from Dan Sullivan called The Gap and The Gain and started to apply a two-minute practice to the end of each work day. The Gap and The Gain is really just how we measure our progress in life and how that determines if we feel happy or unhappy with ourselves.

I used to feel, even though I was doing things each day to move closer to my goal, I wasn’t there yet. And all I could see and think about was what still needed to be done to reach the goal. The Gap Trap is the space between where you are now and your goal; it’s only measuring the space still standing between you and where you want to be. There’s always more to do and measuring this can be useful to fuel growth and provide the North Star of the goal we’re moving towards. But only measuring the Gap is a guaranteed way to cause stress, overwhelm, and even burnout.

Dan Sullivan recommends measuring the distance from where you started to where you are now and I’m going to share a daily practice for how to do this.

If you can reframe how you look at your success, you’ll more accurately measure the progress you’ve already made, which will motivate you and encourage you. This continues to push you forward towards that goal without the unnecessary stress.

How to Make the Transition

Here’s the exercise I do at the end of each workday to easily transition from work to family life. Then, I'm able to be fully present with them because I feel good about the work that I accomplished that day.

As an example, right now I’m building a course for our clients and there are videos to write and record and a lot of other stuff that goes into it. And if I get to the end of the day and see I’m not there yet, I don’t have a completed course, then it’s guaranteed to make me feel like I’m behind and I’m losing. So, when I’m playing with my kids, I'm really thinking about what I wish I was doing instead to get to this big, important goal.

But instead, I ask this question: What progress did I make today that made today better than yesterday?

For my example of building the course, I wrote two new modules this morning. Not only that, I also met with a client and eased her mind about a financial decision. And, I got to inbox zero. Those are three things I did to make progress in my business and that I feel good about.

Prepare For Tomorrow

There’s a second step to this end-of-the-day practice to help you prepare for the next day. Write down three things you can do tomorrow that will make tomorrow better than today.

Again, for my example, I might say I want to:

• record the two modules that I wrote this morning
• finish prepping for a meeting I have on Friday
• check in with a prospective client who wants to work together

If after answering those two questions I still have some negative feelings about how productive my day was, I answer a third question: What do I wish that I did today?

Answering this third question helps me be aware of any negative patterns that are forming in my work life and it also gives me a list to focus on for tomorrow to make tomorrow better than today.