Whether you are an established business owner or a new entrepreneur, you know you are working hard to grow your business.
The uncompromising and tireless “always-on” work culture can make it harder to strike a work-life balance. According to a survey conducted by Harvard Business Review, 94% of 1000 professionals working in many business areas said that they work almost 50 to 65 hours per week.
Some even get some of their work done at home after office hours!
Moreover, these weekly hours do not even include the time spent on digital devices and handling social media activities. As a result, you neither have time for yourself nor your family.
You are setting and achieving goals, dealing with coworkers or associates, and on a path to self-improvement. This is a common scenario in American workforces and many other parts of the world. The pandemic has added to the frenzy, with people losing their jobs and businesses closing down.
Too often, people think they need to give up their personal life to achieve success. However, this way of thinking and working is not sustainable. After all, didn’t you get into business to achieve the freedom to do what you enjoy?
As an entrepreneur, achieving a work-life balance may appear impossible. However, work-life balance going off the rails is usually due to letting things slide because you are not intentional.
Achieving work-life balance demands self-discipline. It’s also essential to bring back the focus on your wellness.
If you follow the following simple tips, you will strike a healthy work-life balance and grow your business while also enjoying life and quality time with those close to you.
1. Proper Stress Management
As a business owner or highly paid executive, you shoulder countless responsibilities, leading to increased stress. This level of stress can affect productivity and hurt business profitability.
Stress Management is the process of maintaining physical and mental wellbeing, which will eventually be beneficial for your business. So, it’s essential to know your stressors. Once you are aware of your stress triggers, you need to manage and tackle them carefully. When it comes to a business project, project schedule, or a new customer, find out your responsibility and, if needed, outsource some activities to your coworkers or other entities, schedule everything carefully, and keep yourself from getting overworked.
2. Prioritize your activities and set appropriate limits
You’ll always have projects and schedules to maintain. Therefore, it’s a great idea to rank those in their urgency and importance.
Decide which responsibilities are the most important. Mastering how to prioritize projects will make a big difference. Above all, decide which tasks on your to-do lists are the most crucial.
As soon as you decide which tasks are most crucial, schedule them into your calendar and set an appropriate time for those specific tasks.
Here’s how to prioritize your tasks?
- Get all your tasks in a master list, use an online tool or productivity app
- Categorize your task daily, weekly and monthly
- Separate the urgent from the vital tasks
- Rank your daily tasks based on priority
- Use time multipliers to make the most of your day by day hours
- Prioritize your most essential tasks throughout your work hours
You can use “The Eisenhower Matrix” to differentiate between Urgency and Importance.
Prioritizing your time can be easier when you see your list of obligations/ tasks each day.
3. Be more productive, avoid unproductive activities, and always have a plan B
Your tasks and plans will be manageable if you prioritize and follow time management techniques. There are many productivity tools like Slack, nTasks, Infinity, etc. Even your Outlook and Gmail mailboxes have many features that can help you manage your time and help boost productivity.
At the same time, be mindful of the time you spend on unnecessary social media activities. The other tip is to never rely on one plan; always have a plan B or even plan C.
4. Set your own do’s and don’ts
As business owners, we all have so much to do. It is critical to know what you should do and what you don’t need to do.
5. Learn to say “No.”
Your professional and social calendar is likely full. There may be times you will need to turn down both professional and personal events politely. Our responsibilities should be our priority. If you don’t learn to say “No,” you may compromise your schedule of productive activities or downtime.
6. Cultivate a daily practice
While you are in business, maintaining a tight schedule with daily professional or business activities, you sometimes forget to care for yourself and your family. So, when prioritizing activities, take yourself and your family into accounT.
This practice will not only increase your productivity and efficiency; it will also optimize your wellness.
Wake up as early as you can. Habits like waking up earlier in the day will take you far. All the successful CEOs like Bill Gates, Satya Nadella, Warren Buffet, and Sunder Pichai are early risers. You can use more hours in the day to include exercise in your routine. Make sure you eat healthy meals throughout the day, and of course, have time for yourself and your family.
7. Don’t bring your work home
Due to overwork or an unplanned schedule, most of us get in the habit of taking work home. The lines are further blurred during the pandemic as we increasingly work from home. Create a working schedule and stick to it.
8. Don’t hesitate to make necessary changes and learn more
Life is a journey. To make this journey successful, you need to have all the necessary tools around you. It’s okay to keep tweaking and improving your schedule as long as you are mindful of your activities.
Engage yourself with meaningful work. Develop a good mindset and improve the quality of your life. A healthy work-life balance will not hinder business growth; on the contrary, it will boost productivity and profitability.
