Entrepreneurship is challenging. Chasing a win easily becomes synonymous with having a big workload and a busy work life. It isn’t easy to grow your business while prioritizing personal health and happiness. Being your boss and setting your hours often backfires, causing many entrepreneurs to become workaholics.
Yet, this is dangerous for physical health, amongst other reasons. These days, it is clear that a strong work-life balance is essential to the longevity of an entrepreneur and their business. In this article, we will discover efficient ways for entrepreneurs to find a perfect balance between their personal and work lives. This makes it possible to create an environment more conducive to peace and success.
Importance of Work-Life Balance
Before we explore the strategies, let us first gain a good understanding of all the reasons why work-life harmony is vital for entrepreneurial success:
- Enhancement of Innovation & Creativity – balancing work and personal life efficiently allows time for creative brainstorming, increasing the chance of innovative ideas and solutions.
- Ability to Prioritize Self-Care – work-life harmony allows entrepreneurs to prioritize their mental and physical health. Health should never be put on the back burner.
- Improvement of Relationships – not having enough time for relationships can lead to their downfall. Work-life balance enables both work and personal relationships to flourish.
- Avoidance of Burnout – Working under high stress and without sufficient breaks can lead to Burnout Syndrome, known to have negative effects at home and work, possibly even leading to cases of cold and flu.
- Entrepreneurs can easily develop burnout, but achieving work-life harmony will prevent this!
Best Strategies for Work-Life Balance
1. Plan Breaks
Breaks are a privilege for some, but a must-need for everyone!
Scheduling regular breaks throughout the day will enhance productivity and work-life balance. Harvard Business Review reported research showing that “micro-breaks” of a few minutes are more beneficial in the morning, with longer breaks reigning in the afternoon.
During these breaks, some helpful activities include stretching, hydrating, snacking, or simply zoning out towards a window.
2. Set Realistic Goals
How do you set the right goals for yourself?
Entrepreneurs like to shoot for the moon to land among the stars. Yet, having your head in the clouds means your thoughts can get cloudy. Don’t stop dreaming big.
Instead, note that it is better to set small goals to achieve one by one until you reach the ambitious endgame you desire. The smaller the goal, the more realistic, the better!
3. Prioritize & Outsource Tasks
Work tasks differ in importance and urgency.
Making a list of priorities and knowing how to delegate or outsource some tasks can also help you achieve work-life harmony. For business growth, outsourcing is a great strategy since the routine, time-consuming tasks get removed from your busy schedule. Ensure you never delegate or outsource something just because you “don’t want to do it”.
The three types of tasks that Entrepreneur.com recommends outsourcing are: (1) very repetitive, i.e. data entry; (2) high executive expertise, i.e. periodically bringing in high-level executives as consultants; and (3) technical knowledge, i.e. tech support.
4. Set up a Support System
Whether it comes from friends, family members, peers, or mentors, support motivates and empowers everyone. Especially entrepreneurs!
Moral and hands-on support makes it easier to strike a perfect work-life balance. Create a network of helpful individuals who can have your back when things become more busy and stressful. This network should include people you can trust to give you the right feedback.
Networking as much as possible can help you achieve this. Businesscollective recommends using “professional entrepreneur websites like StartupNation.”
5. Implement Automation
Technology has only recently brought us the immense power of automation.
Automating processes like email replies or social media scheduled posts has been a game-changer for entrepreneurs. Getting more work done in less time has never been easier! Creating Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and using project management software apps are other examples of automation.
In this day and age, automation software is being used by every major business, so think carefully about what tasks you can automate for maximum work efficiency.
6. Use Time-Management Aids
“And then one day you find/ Ten years have got behind you/ No one told you when to run/ You missed the starting gun” – Time, by Pink Floyd.
You don’t want this to happen to you! Time-management is an essential skill for any entrepreneur.
A great way to better manage your time is to use tools like the following: (ii) Clockify for all time & activity tracking; (ii) Toggl – quite similar to Clockify; (iii) Buffer for marketing tasks specifically; And finally, (iv) QuickBooks Time which is “best for mobile workers”, based on Forbes’ list of the best time tracking software.
7. Follow Self-Care Best Practices
If you can’t take care of yourself, you can’t work to your highest potential. It’s as simple as that.
Try our Essential Self-Care Tips for best results:
Prioritize getting 7-9h of sleep per night, a minimum of 0.5h of exercise per day, a minimum of 2l of water daily, fuel your body with healthy food, avoid multitasking, socialize daily, set healthy boundaries, practice mindfulness meditation, and more…
At the end of the day, you may experience setbacks in business at some point in your life. However, these are easier to bounce back from than any setbacks in your health. Practice the self-care strategies above consistently to give your mind and body the proper treatment they deserve!
Final Thoughts
Work-life harmony is not achievable overnight. It takes a while for the seeds you plant to start bearing fruit. If you’re feeling stressed, tired, and are experiencing general burnout, try some or all of the strategies mentioned in this article. For example, maybe what you are currently lacking is realistic goals, automated processes, or a solid support system. With the right amount of patience, dedication, and consistent effort, success in improving your work-life balance becomes inevitable.
Are there any strategies you know that we forgot to mention? Let us know!
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We wish you all the best of luck in your journey to achieving a healthy and sustainable work-life harmony!
