I got back from vacation last week. With summer vacation being in full bloom, it seems natural to talk about work life balance. My advice to entrepreneurs is to schedule your time off. This advice goes further than your vacation. It includes your daily life. If you had a peek at my calendar, you would notice a mix of personal and business activities. By doing so, I keep my stress level down since everything fits together.

The funny thing is that I learned that lesson not through my years as a businesswoman but when I was a fully-time blogger.

For 6 years, I passed most of my day in front of a screen, with a camera on my hands or by researching stories. I wrote several posts a day, commented on other blogs, tweeted and was on Facebook or Pinterest. I attended many blog-related events every week. My vacations were in destinations that I loved but that also offered me opportunities for writing posts. I work from the time I woke up in the morning to very late at night 7 days a week. This is what it took, and still takes, for any blogger to build a reputable brand.

Every successful blogger did it! Since I loved every minute of blogging, it didn’t feel like work. I was surrounded by what I was passionate about; therefore, I did not see the time flies.

Since then, parenthood forced me to became wiser. We need time to recharge our energy. The funny thing is that having more personal time makes me more productive at work. There is no doubt in my mind that it takes hard work to excel in any field and to build a successful business. We can all find ways to work more efficiently. This is the key to having a more balanced lifestyle.

We also need to set boundaries. It is not because we can be always connected that we must do it. Not long ago, I met a ex-consultant who told me how happy she was since she found a permanent job. Being her own boss was not for her because she was unable to set boundaries. She was unable to say no to clients. She answered, before going to bed, emails that clients would send her at 10 PM. We teach our entrepreneurs and business owners that they must work harder and longer. Just like bloggers, entrepreneurs must experience life outside of the office.