This summer has made me think about that quite a lot.

I've dropped my daughter off at her friends house, got my son off to some classes and, at the same time, I've got a toddler constantly wanting something, playing, asking questions or generally making it very difficult to concentrate for more than ten minutes.

And that's before you actually start doing any work.

For a long time, my natural reaction would have been to try and work around all of it. I'd convince myself that I could still get a full day's work done if I just got up earlier, worked later, squeezed an hour in here and another hour in there. Then I'd feel frustrated because I hadn't achieved as much as I wanted.

This year I've done something different.

I've actually decided to take more of a part-time approach during the school holidays.

And if I'm honest, that's been quite difficult for me to get my head around.

As someone who is constantly thinking about businesses, ideas, growth and what comes next, there is always something I could be doing. There is always another thing to build, another customer to speak to, another problem to solve or another opportunity to chase.

But I've started asking myself a fairly simple question.

Why did I start a business in the first place?

A big part of the answer was freedom.

Freedom over my time. Freedom to make decisions. Freedom to build something I believe in. But also freedom to spend more time with my family and actually be there for the things that matter.

It seems pretty ridiculous to build a business for freedom and then spend every waking hour working on it because you feel guilty when you're not.

So I've given myself permission to slow down a bit.

Not stop. Not give up on the ambition. Not take my eye off the ball.

Just slow down.

I've used the time to think about where we're going with 53°, what's working, what's not working and, perhaps more importantly, what I actually want to build. When you're constantly caught up in the day-to-day, it's very easy to keep moving without necessarily questioning whether you're moving in the right direction.

The slower pace has given me some space to reflect on that.

It's also given me time with the kids, which I've realised is probably more important than whatever I thought I needed to get done that day.

There's something quite humbling about trying to think through a business problem while your toddler is playing next to you, or realising that you've spent half the morning worrying about something in the business when your kids are actually right there wanting your attention.

The business will still be there tomorrow.

They won't always be this age.

That's not to say I'm suddenly going soft on myself. Quite the opposite. I'm probably clearer about what needs to happen next than I was before the summer.

The difference is that I'm not putting pressure on myself to make the business grow every single day.

I think that's something a lot of founders struggle with. We get obsessed with progress. Revenue needs to be up. Customers need to be increasing. The product needs to be improving. We need to be launching something new.

And of course, those things matter.

But businesses have seasons, just like everything else.

Sometimes you need to push hard. Sometimes you need to make difficult decisions. Sometimes you need to put the hours in and get something over the line.

And sometimes you need to step back, breathe and look at the bigger picture.

That's what this summer has been for me.

I've still been working, but I've stopped trying to pretend I can operate at 100% while also being fully present for my family during the holidays.

Instead, I'm using the time to reflect, recharge and work out where the next push needs to be.

Because there will be a push.

Come September, when the kids are back at school and normal routines return, I'll be back at it properly. There are plenty of things I want to do with 53° and I'm still hugely ambitious about what we can build.

After all, what's the point of building a business that gives you freedom if you never actually use it?