Work-Life Balance: How to Balance Family, Friends and Entrepreneurship
When you own your own business, you know there isn’t a lot of time available. You have some many things that need to get done and, if you don’t do them, no one else will. On the other hand, you have a family and friends that you can’t neglect. You need to find a healthy work-life balance.
While we’re sure you’ve heard that before, it’s much easier said than done. As an entrepreneur, it’s up to you to ensure that your business succeeds. It gets even worse if you have people working for you. They’re relying on you to succeed in order to put food on their table. At the same time, you need to succeed in your personal life. Your husband/wife, children, parents and friends love and care for you. However, if you don’t spend time with them, there can be a painful rift that can’t be fixed.
While it seems impossible, we’ll help you find a perfect work-life balance so you’re able to succeed in your business and personal life. Check it out.
Your Family Has to Understand What You Do
First thing is first, your family needs to understand what you do for a living. Just people you may be home, doesn’t mean you aren’t busy. If you’re on the phone or on your computer, you need your space and quiet. This could include off hours – there are no traditional hours as an entrepreneur.
Speaking of non traditional hours, they also need to understand that you may need to work on any day and at any time. If you have a client calling you, you need to take the call. You don’t want to risk losing the opportunity after all.
This is a huge part of owning a business and you need to make sure that your loved ones are aware that there could be late nights and no weekends. Since they love you, they will understand – you just need to make it known upfront.
You Need to Make Time for Those You Love
At the same time, you absolutely can’t neglect your family. There are many horror stories out there of entrepreneurs who lost those they loved because they were so focused on the job. There needs to be times where you put the phone and computer down in order to spend quality time with your family.
Think of it this way, even if your business succeeds beyond your wildest dreams and you become incredibly rich, you’ll want someone to share it with. An unhealthy lifestyle can alienate you and cause many problems mentallty and physically. Finding a healthy work-life balance can ensure your business success while keeping your family happy.
Understand Your Families Needs
It all starts with understanding what your family needs. You need to understand what’s most important to them and how you can find time to be there in those moments. When you know what means the most to those you love, you can schedule your life around those events. It may require a late night or early morning but it will be worth it in the end.
Make the Most of Your Time with Your Family
When you do have time with your family, make sure you make the most of it. Be engaged and be loving. If you’re on your phone or not speaking, you’re not really spending time with your family. You need to avoid distractions and put all of your attention on your family. This will ensure that everyone is getting what they need.
It’s also important to do activities that you know everyone will enjoy. If you choose to do events that you know your husband/wife and kids won’t like, then the quality time becomes more aggressive. Same goes for settling with something you don’t like. Make sure everyone is happy with what you’re doing and focus on ensuring everyone is having a good time.
Make Time for You
One thing that is often ignored is making time for yourself. This is the time that you’re away from both work and your family. It’s time for you to unwind doing something you, and only you, enjoy. It gives you an opportunity to unwinds, turn yourself off and completely clear your mind. As an entrepreneur, a husband/wife and a parent, we know that you need to be on at all times.
The question remains, why is this so important? This is an article all about making time for your family and now we’re mentioning alone time. It doesn’t seem to add up. That’s where you’re wrong. Going into anything not refreshed means you’re not giving your best effort. While we’re sure you know that about work, the same can be said for family time. If your mind isn’t quite there and you haven’t unwinded, you’ll be distracted. It isn’t fair to your partner or your children.
5 Tips for a Better a Work-Life Balance
Now that you know the basics of a healthy work-life balance, it’s time to get into some tips to achieving that goal. These 5 tips are a wide arrange of small changes from healthy habits to scheduling. Keep reading and see what you can do to be a better business owner, spouse, parents and friend.
1. Cut Out Low Value Activities
We get it – everything we mentioned seems so daunting. There just isn’t enough time in the day to do everything at work, everything with your family and everything you want to do for yourself. How on Earth is it even possible.
The key to achieving a healthy work-life balance is to identify low value activities and not participate. This goes for both personal time and work time. If there’s a tedious, low-value work task, delegate it to someone else. If there’s an event you can’t make that isn’t crucial to your family, don’t sweat it. There needs to be compromise from everyone involved in order to make your business and family life successful.
2. Live a Healthier Life
Making sure you’re healthier will make everything better. That means eating right, sleeping enough and taking care of yourself personally. While at first glance this has nothing to do with having a better work-life balance, it can make all the difference.
Eating three healthy meals per day (away from your office) gives you a clear mind to continue to work, keep your energy up and allows you to spend time with your family. Sleeping clears your mind so you won’t be crabby with your family or miss important details at work. Taking care of yourself allows you to take care of your family and your business.
3. Schedule Events
The fact of the matter is that spontaneous events tend to die when you start your own business. You can’t just up and do whatever you want anymore – you have too much responsibility. That’s why creating a schedule for both your personal and work life can ensure that you get more done with less time.
For instance, you kids will have sports and activities schedules. You won’t be surprised by any of their events so you can plan around them. You can do the same with work – create a calendar and make sure to put all of your appointments and tasks in there so you can plan extra family time around that.
When you create a schedule, you’ll be more prepared for spontaneity and random events that are sprung on you. If you don’t have a well prepared schedule, you’ll get less done and spend less time with your family because you aren’t prepared.
4. Make Compromises
We’ve mentioned it above, but it needs to be said again: you, your family, your friends and your business will all need to make compromises in order to have a healthy work-life balance. You won’t be able to do everything you want and nor will your family. It’s the sad fact of owning your own business but it isn’t all doom and gloom.
The good news is that since everyone will be making compromises, everyone will end up happy with the solution. You’ll have time for your family, your friends and your business without risking one for the other.
5. Avoid Social Media as Much as Your Can
Another thing that was mentioned above but is extremely important is that you can’t be spending family time or work time on social media. While many people like to blame the social media websites for their addictive nature, you need to be able to avoid it when you’re with others.
We’re not saying to get rid of it – far from it. Social media is a great way to stay close with those you don’t get to see often and even network with business opportunities. However, if you’re scheduled to be working or spending time with your family, you should be distracted on your phone. Make the most of this time to succeed with your business and family.
Finding a Work-Life Balance is the Key to Being a Better Entrepreneur
Having a more balanced and healthy work-life balance will make you a better spouse, parent, child, friend and, most surprisingly, entrepreneur. The reason you own a business and maintain healthy relationships is the same: to be happy. You won’t be happy if one is lost for the other.
Having a healthy work-life balance will also give you a fresh mind to be the best you. You’ll be ready for just about anything. Your business will improve and your relationships will flourish. We know it isn’t something that’s easy to do – there isn’t enough time to be perfect. However, working on this is key and should be the focus of an entrepreneur.