Work-life balance is not something that is on top of mind for many entrepreneurs and small business owners. After all, when you have customers expecting immediate response, employees asking for help, vendors waiting for payments, all at the same time how can you even think about taking time off from work. Life can wait until you have established your business. Once you have put the business on the right path you can go back to enjoying the life, right? Wrong. Let’s face it. When you are running a small business will there ever be time when you will not need to take care of this?
That is why it is important to have work-life balance WHILE you are working on building the business. Failing to do so can burn you out eventually. It can also impact your health and make you lose friends and families. The sad part is this damage is non-reversible. Even if you want to go back to having a balanced life with friends and families afterwards they may have moved on.
Many entrepreneurs will argue that it is simply not possible to have perfect work-life balance when you are building your business. It may be true, but only to limited extent. While you don’t need to have 50-50 ratio for work-life balance it is advisable to have 60-40 or even 70-30 ratio. The key is to have quality life even if is only 30%. Your friends and family will greatly appreciate your undivided attention for 30% of time versus time that is interrupted every few minutes. So what are the ways by which you can get a quality work-life balance? Below we list number of hacks you can use.
- Get sufficient sleep every night. All nighters can make you a hero at work, but it cannot last long.
- If you are not able to have recommended 7-8 hours of sleep, emphasize quality of sleep. A good, uninterrupted sleep will keep you fresh all day.
- Leverage technology to automate many aspects of your life. The Smartphone can be your best friend if used properly.
- At the same time, learn to leave technology behind when appropriate. Texting away on the dinner table can be really annoying to friends and families.
- Have dinner with the ones you love at least few times a week.
- Set aside 15 minutes per day for quiet time and do self reflection.
- Practice yoga and meditation few times a week.
- Learn to say “No.”
- Prioritize your tasks on a continued basis. Focus on what is important first.
- Delegate non-core tasks to your employees so you can focus on the most important ones.
- Start your work day early when everyone is still getting ready. You are most productive early in the morning.
- Do not multi-task. It may seem like you are accomplishing a lot at the same time you are not doing justice to any.
- Curb social media use. They are time hogs.
- Exercise regularly. Even better, do it in the outdoor gyms.
- Schedule shorter meetings. Not every meeting needs to be 30 minutes. You can even schedule meetings for 10 min if that is all the time you have.
- Plan your week on Sunday, plan your day in the morning.
- Eat healthy foods and snacks.
- Get regular health checkup.
- Meet your friends regularly. Stay in touch with them via phones and emails.
- Maintain calendar. Block time for leisure activities with family and friends on the calendar.
What other tips would you add based on your personal experience?
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Great tips. This is what i need right now when i am huffing and puffing my way through life and work.
Thanks.
Hi Harry,
Number one is repeated often and there’s a reason. Once you get in these unhealthy work habits it can be very difficult to break them — even when you’re not working! However, this is an especially big difficulty for part-time entrepreneurs who work on businesses in their spare time. It can’t be helped that sometimes you need to put in extra hours. But it cannot be sustained, or your work in all areas will suffer.