It’s a sunny Sunday afternoon and I’m doing what I do best … working. This morning I made brunch for the wifey and did my monthly invoicing. This afternoon I’ll be working on my new (secret) book project and then making dinner. It’s grilled Jamaican jerked chicken night at the Tobak’s. Yum.

On a beautiful weekend like this I’m usually working outside splitting wood, burning brush, landscaping, or doing some work on the house, but I hurt my elbow and I’m resting it.

In any case, if that doesn’t sound like the life of a guy who spent decades working his tail off in corporate America and is supposed to be kicking back after last year’s mad rush to get his first book out the door, then you’re starting to get the picture. Welcome to my world.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t work all the time. After all, I grew up in the 60s and 70s. Sex and drugs and rock & roll and all that. Trust me, I party at night. But you know, I have fun doing all that work stuff too. Especially cooking … with a glass of wine. What can I say, I’m not the Homer Simpson type. I don’t lie around and take naps.

I’d say, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” but I actually do sleep the usual amount. That leaves about 112 hours a week. I probably spend about half that on revenue-generating work and the other half on work I don’t get paid to do and other stuff.

The thing is, I’ve never drawn a hard line between work and life. I don’t do the work-life balance thing. To me, it’s all just part of life. I guess you can call it an integrated life. And I enjoy it all or I don’t do it.

A VC Fred Wilson once wrote that a CEO does three things:

Set the overall vision and strategy of the company and communicate it to all stakeholders. Recruit, hire, and retain the very best talent for the company. Make sure there is always enough cash in the bank.

Not only does that work for CEOs, it translates nicely into life, as well:

Set your goals and how you’re going to achieve them. Take care of the people who matter, including you. Make sure there’s always enough cash in the bank.

Looking back, I’ve always lived that way, but with one big exception. There are way too many little things I love doing that are just too much fun to delegate. Guess I like to live a hands-on life. And yes, there is plenty of time to do it all and have fun doing it. Maybe that sort of life isn’t for everyone, but it’s always worked for me.

Almost forgot, there’s a load of laundry that isn’t going to fold itself. Fun. Fun.