Candidly, Impossible To Achieve.

But must be strived for.

Balance doesn’t exist in Nature. And it rarely exists in a business. In the life of a start up, you have to put more of you into something than you will ever get out.

In terms of effort and hours, just sheer stubbornness will have to get you on through. You will sometimes need to burn the midnight oil. But sometimes can’t become the norm.

You will need to rest you mind, body and soul. You will need to eat well. Sleep well. Love well. You will need to look after yourself. Exercise must not be forgotten, put off, or parked. You will need to seek to attain balance. And you will need to be more creative to keep it.

These days, Arianna Huffington encourages her employees to leave their desks at lunchtime and use all 21 of their vacation days. She offers them meditation, yoga, and breathing classes. And she tells them not to worry about checking email after leaving the office.

HuffPo’s refrigerators are stocked with hummus, baby carrots, yoghurt and fruit. And they have installed two small nap rooms in the company’s New York offices. Each outffitted with a reclining, space capsule-like EnergyPod that provides ambient noise to promote hibernation.

Ev Williams.

Co-Founder of Medium.

“What is a startup without bleary-eyed, junk-food- fuelled, balls–to–the-wall days and sleepless, caffeine-fueled, relationship-stressing nights?”

A place that is a lot more enjoyable to work at. Ev Williams is the co-founder of Blogger, Twitter, and now Medium, which is quickly becoming the most important network for sharing ideas. But as well as starting some of the most influential platforms on the Internet, he is also a pioneer in how to work.

Yes, high levels of commitment are crucial. And yes, crunch times come and sometimes require inordinate, painful, apologies–to–the–SO amount of work. But it can’t be all the time. Nature requires balance for health as do the bodies and minds who work for you and, without which, your company will be worthless.

“There is no better way to maintain balance and lower your stress that I’ve found than David Allen’s GTD process. Learn it. Live it. Make it a part of your company, and you’ll have a secret weapon.”

Simple rules

David Allen’s book ‘Getting Things Done’ has become the manual for Silicon Valley in order to get a lot done fast with minimum stress.