Win at Work and Succeed at Life

Michael Hyatt is the founder and chairman of his own business consulting company, Michael Hyatt & Co. He was formerly chairman and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers. He is the creator of the Full Focus Planner, and the author of several books including the bestsellers Free to Focus, Your Best Year Ever, Living Forward, and Platform. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Businessweek, Entrepreneur, and other publications.

Megan Hyatt Miller is Michael Hyatt's daughter and CEO at Michael Hyatt & Co. She is also the co-host of the Lead to Win podcast. Under her leadership, Michael Hyatt & Co. was named by Inc. magazine as one of its Best Workplaces for 2020.

Do you really have to choose between winning at work and succeeding at life? In other words, do you have to work such long hours that you have no time and energy left over for your family and other interests?

Most people will say you have to choose one or the other, but a "Double Win" really is feasible. You can have a great career, and simultaneously succeed at life as well. To achieve that, five principles are involved:

1. Principle #1 — Recognize success is multi-dimensional. Work is important, but you can also be successful at building a family, having great friends, serving in the community, becoming physically fit, and so on. True success is only achieved when you're successful in all the areas that matter to you, not just your career.

2. Principle #2 — Constraints are great productivity tools. Constraints always force you to make choices. Everyone has a finite amount of time, money, energy, mental bandwidth, and so on. When you work to those constraints, you'll experience tremendous gains and fresh thinking. Welcome and embrace constraints.

3. Principle #3 — Work-Life balance is genuinely possible. Work - life balance is not a myth. It can be achieved, but be aware it's dynamic rather than static. To achieve it, you're going to have to make ongoing adjustments and fine tuning. Weigh the domains of your life and give the right weighting to all the different domains.

4. Principle #4 — There's great power in nonachievement. Having hobbies, making art, and spending time on raising your family are incredibly enriching and restorative. Build some time into your schedule for doing the stuff you love, but which won't show up on your balance sheet. Downtime pays great dividends.

5. Principle #5 — Rest is the foundation of true productivity. People are trying to cram more and more activities into every day in pursuit of productivity. Don't fall for it. You need to be getting enough sleep to feel good. Sleep is not a necessary evil — it's something you need to do to charge up your batteries over the long haul.

When it comes to productivity, sleep always gets a bum rap. People look with admiration at high profile businesspeople who boast in the press they get by on three or four hours sleep a night, and feel compelled to follow their lead. Does that really make sense?

You can have a great career, and simultaneously succeed at life. A Double-Win really is feasible, but it's a dynamic balance. You have to work at it.

Wouldn't you like to make more money by working less hours? That's exactly what Michael Hyatt and his daughter Megan Miller are suggesting in this book. They point out that working crazy long hours, so that you have no time for your family, friends, and other interests, is short-sighted and unsustainable. It is feasible to have great work-life balance, to have a successful career while simultaneously succeeding at life as well. Their five principles approach to achieving that is practical and, most importantly, sustainable.

All of the communication tech we take for granted today really has the side effect that people feel like they need to be available 24/7. That's not good. The underlying message from this book is by taking quality time off, you'll achieve more in less hours with your work. Getting enough sleep, having hobbies, interests, and friendships are not design flaws in humans. They are features that contribute to making us more productive. Great work-life balance is achievable and valuable, but it's not a static target, or a once-and-you're done activity. It requires ongoing work, adjustments, and fine-tuning.

Great book. Timely message. Well put together.