Maintaining Work/Life Balance
Meeting the constant demands of a fast-paced workplace is challenging for every small business owner. As the person in charge of your company and livelihood, you may feel pressure to work 12- to 16-hour days to manage the many aspects of your business. This high workload inevitably leads to stress and burnout. Taking time to yourself to maintain work/life balance is essential to the success of your business.
The Importance of Maintaining Work/Life Balance
Chronic stress negatively impacts your health and ability to efficiently run your business. Stress is associated with high blood pressure, cardiovascular problems, fatigue, insomnia, irritability, and reduced longevity. Lesser-known side effects of chronic stress include mental fuzziness, poor memory, impaired decision-making abilities, and mental burnout. These cognitive effects of stress directly impact the success of your small business, making work/life balance a priority for any business owner. Achieving work/life balance is the result of reducing the daily demands of your job as well as increasing the time you dedicate to relaxing and recharging.
Get Organized
Staying organized is key to managing the stresses of business ownership. Begin by monitoring both work-related and personal activities for at least one week. Write down the time of day, how much time the activity took, and whether it was a regular appointment or unexpected activity. Carefully assess your schedule, cutting the length of time you spend on unimportant or unhelpful activities and focusing on the ones that matter most.
After analyzing your schedule, make more efficient use of your time by using a calendar or planner to mark deadlines for filing important paperwork, completing projects, or reaching key goals. Rather than scheduling meetings throughout your day or week, try to set aside blocks of time to have multiple back-to-back meetings. This frees up uninterrupted time for you to complete other business tasks without intrusions. Consider using a whiteboard or computer spreadsheet to make lists of things you need to do; sorting them by time sensitivity and importance helps you prioritize your work.
Delegate
In the beginning stages of your business, you were likely involved in every aspect of its organization and operations. As your business grows, it is no longer reasonable to expect yourself to perform every task or oversee all operations. Facilitate better work/life balance by delegating responsibilities. Hire trusted employees to take over the day-to-day operations of the business. Consider recruiting a chief financial officer or chief operations officer to decrease your overall work burden. After hiring these individuals, trust them to effectively perform their jobs without micromanaging their work. Schedule regular meetings with staff to ensure they perform efficient, high-quality work that meets your expectations.
Take a Vacation or Spend Time With Your Family
One of the joys of being a business owner is being your own boss and setting your work schedule. However, owning a business also means that you constantly must worry about the health of your company. Schedule vacation time for yourself several times each year to relax, recharge, and refresh your mind. Whether this is a weekend getaway or a longer vacation, commit to using the time to reduce your stress. Resist the urge to check your work email and refuse to make calls to the office for the duration of your getaway. Instruct your staff members not to contact you unless there is a serious work crisis. In the absence of any real emergency, reading work-related emails simply prevents you from maintaining the work/life balance you need.
Unplug from Technology on a Daily Basis
In addition to taking vacation time throughout the year to restore balance to your life, make it a priority to prevent your business from consuming your waking hours. Smart phones, computers, and other technological advances make it easy to monitor the operations of your business 24 hours per day. However, spending too much time thinking about work prevents you from enjoying the moments you spend with family and friends, reading a book, or spending time outdoors. Commit to turning off your cell phone and computer at a certain time each evening or during all family events to resist the temptation to monitor your work. Making a conscious decision to disengage from technology allows you to appreciate your time away from the office and maintain work/life balance.
Nurture Your Body Through Healthy Living
Because chronic stress has such a devastating effect on your body and mind, it is important to take care of your physical health. To combat high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and chronic fatigue, incorporate physical activity into your routine every day. Aim for 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per day reduce your stress and improve your overall health. If you find it difficult to make time to get to the gym, break your workout into smaller 10-minute segments. Walking, biking, swimming, dancing, gardening, golfing, or jumping rope count as aerobic activities. Also maintain a healthy diet with plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole-grain foods, and lean protein.
Taking care of yourself, scheduling personal time to de-stress, and delegating work responsibilities improves your work/life balance and ensures the success of your business.
Tags: ActionCOACH, Balance, business owner, business ownership, delegate, healthy living, Jodie Shaw, life, technology, work, work/life balance
ActionCoaching | Jodie Shaw | 
January 14, 2012 11:43 pm | 
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