Is it becoming too difficult to balance your business and find time for other priorities in your life? Is your business taking up too much of your time? Are you finding it difficult to simply keep your head above water?
Spending too much time working can come with lots of negative consequences. Letting your work consume your entire life is not only hindering, but also detrimental to your overall happiness and work-life balance. It can instantly cause you to neglect other household responsibilities, and even put a strain on certain relationships due to your lack of attention and time.
Finding and maintaining a work-life balance is extremely important to figure out. As a self-employed business owner, you have to find ways to manage your time and workload so you aren’t neglecting your life duties. If you are currently feeling like you’re putting way too much time into your business, and not enough time into simply living and doing life, then we are here to help! Here is a simple and effective guide to work-life balance that can help you restore and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Stop Thinking it’s a One Man Band
Many business owners spend most of their time working because they simply don’t believe in the idea of having others help them—they’d rather do everything by themselves. Delegating the workload and various job tasks to a team can definitely help free up some extra time. Having a team of employees can be expensive, but it can also be very necessary too. Once your business begins to grow and evolve, you won’t be able to handle every single task that’s required to successfully run your business. A personal assistant is also another asset that can be extremely helpful in this situation.
If you are unable to pay for a full-on employee team, you can also use outsourcing as an option. Outsourcing allows you as a business owner to hire in-house employees to complete tasks such as marketing, IT support, recruitment, or even something as simple as answering business calls. Whatever it may be, just know you don’t have to do it all alone—there is always someone there to help.
Establish a Work Routine
One advantage of owning your own business is being able to set your own hours. Business owners are granted work flexibility, and should put it to use. Several business owners use this flexibility in a way where they end up doing even more work than they should, which makes it even harder to balance work and life. Having an established routine and actually sticking to it can help you ensure that you have free periods of time that allow you to do something else other than work. Set a cut-off period for yourself in which you completely stop doing anything work related and focus your attention on something totally different. You could also benefit from giving yourself at least one day off in which you solely focus on spending time with your family or doing something for yourself that doesn’t involve working. With this, you will be able to establish a clear and concrete divide between your business and your personal life.
It’s OK to Say No
Learning to say ‘no’ is so important as a business owner. In order to maintain a work-life balance, you have to learn how to say no! You may be in a situation where an employee contacts you on your designated off day—it’s important to establish boundaries and stick to them. With that, you want to also make sure you don’t schedule any meetings during your set free time.
You should also learn how to say no when it comes to having to take on more tasks than you can handle at a time. If you continuously take on more than you can handle, you’re instantly forcing yourself to work during your free time hours in order to get everything done. Sure, accepting all of the work for your business will bring about exposure and will for sure be a good thing, but it may not be good for you personally.
Get a Separate Work Phone
If you’re using your personal phone as your business phone too, it’s no wonder you aren’t able separate the two and find a balance. You’re making yourself constantly reachable to employees and clients, so it only makes sense that you aren’t able to free yourself from work. Having a separate work phone keeps a professional and much needed divide between work and life. You are also given the option of switching from business mode when you are no longer working—which can be extremely beneficial.
