This Fox News article about working while on personal time is a growing trend for entrepreneurs and high-ranking officials at corporations. Owning a small business or being an executive of a large company has its demands. Your cell phone is constantly ringing, your email is always full, and people depend on you. But, when is it necessary to draw the line between business and personal time?

I am a strong believer that everyone should dedicate some time to themselves and their family. It’s not fair to you or your family to be answering the cell phone or replying to emails while on vacation or at home late at night. But, I know what you are thinking. If you don’t do it, your business or job will faulter. We are driven to get ahead in our careers. We will do anything and everything to get a leg up on the competition. However, getting burnt out can also cause the opposite. Neglecting your family and not taking leisure time can lead to depression. Depression will lead to less productivity. Here are five tips for helping you balance your work life from your personal life.

1. Turn off the cell phone. Whoever it is, they can wait. Trust me. Make sure you let people know when acceptable times are to call you. If you go on vacation, keep the phone off. If at all necessary, dedicate 15 minutes per day to check voicemails and only return the most important ones.
2. Create an “Out-of-Office” reply for email. If you are out of town, let people know you are out of town with an autoresponder. Also, try to check your email twice a day. Check it in the morning and at the end of the day. You’ll find that you get much more done when not checking your email incessently.
3. Schedule family and personal time. Don’t let your family know this, but mentally schedule time to spend with your spouse and children. One-on-one is sometimes the most quality time with family members. Take your daughter out for ice cream or treat your spouse to a fancy date.
4. Prioritize your life. Make a list of what is most important to you. Then, make a list of priorities for your day.
5. Get work done ahead of time. Whenever you have free time during schedule work times such as 7am to 6pm, try working on projects or tasks that are not due to be done until later. You’ll be getting ahead of the game and freeing yourself up to spend time doing things you enjoy in the future.

These tips aren’t rocket science. This is more a matter of overcoming yourself. Most work-aholics struggle with mixing their work life with their personal life. The first step is identifying you need to change things. Then, you’ll be able to come up with a plan to balance your work life from your personal life. Otherwise, you’ll start to see your personal relationships deteriorate, which will lead your hear to deteriorate. The balance is more important than you think!