When it comes to keeping a good work/life balance, most would agree that we could do a better job. Unfortunately, there are so many things needing attention on a day-to-day basis that making the effort to keep a good balance gets left by the wayside. Here’s 2 things you can work on to help make work/life balance more second nature and less something else to squeeze in.
1. Keep it separated
As much as possible separate your work and home life. If you work from home, it’s not always that easy, but consider physical things like:
- Having a dual login on your computer
- Have a separate “work only” work area, extra points if it’s physically outside the house
- Having an answering service for your phone, a separate number for work calls, or even a separate phone
You can also try some of these mental tricks to separate “work” time from “home” time:
- Go for a short walk at the beginning and end of the work day to get in the right headspace
- Dress differently for work than for home times
- Develop some small routine that has meaning for you to separate work from home time. It can be something as simple as rebooting your computer at the beginning and end of the day. Turning an Open/Closed sign (on the back of the door if it’s too cheesy for public display). Even just having something that you put on your desk while you’re at work, then pack away after hours.
2. Respect Yourself
Decide what’s important to you personally and to your business. Then go through and prioritise the top few things that only you can do. Then, find a way to either drop the rest or get them done in some other way. Bear in mind, that prioritising yourself last will not help anything. If you put business ahead of health and fitness, you’ll suffer from lack of energy as well as a myriad of potential health issues. If you put your personal relationships below your business ones you risk ending up lonely and with an imbalanced life.
In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey calls looking after your personal needs “Sharpening the Saw” and lists 4 main areas that need maintenance to keep yourself at peak physical and emotional condition. They are:
- Physical: Things like, exercise, health, diet, stress management etc.
- Mental: Reading, Visualizing, Planning, Writing
- Social/Emotional: Practicing empathy, Service to others, Synergy, Intrinsic security
- Spiritual: What’s important to you, Study, Meditation
Maslows Hierarchy of needs has a similar list of requirements for reaching your full potential.
Naturally, there are also business imperatives that must be done for you to remain in business. That includes things like marketing, inventory management, tax & regulatory commitments etc, etc. all before you even start counting the time you’re actually performing core business tasks.
The point is… Balance is important and you’ll find there’s a lot of things that HAVE to be done, so it’s not like you can just drop a few things to make room for others. This is where you need to get creative and find things to do more efficiently. To outsource wherever possible, and find ways to do things differently in some way to make better use of your time.
It’s easy to forget to look out for yourself, or to ignore some of the business imperatives to fit in a little “me” time. The best you can do is to make sure you have clear boundaries and remember that important aspects of your non-work life are just as important as your business. While it’s OK, even necessary, to spend long hours at work every now and then, if that’s your default, you need to find a bit more balance or risk becoming incapable of running your business through stress or ill health.
