By Anastasia Bennett, TwoBrain Mentor
Having a balance between work and home can be challenging. But like any challenge it can be rewarding if done successfully.
By learning how to prioritize balance you will become happier, healthier (both mentally and physically), and be more productive at work.
“Be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. In the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.” ~Max Ehrmann
As business owners who are always busy taking care of their staff, customers, sales, bills, family and so on, we forget what should be our number one priority: OURSELVES!
You can’t pour from an empty cup.
Look after yourself:
- stay active
- Keep exercising – whatever form that takes. Change it up if you need to keep it interesting; do yoga, go for a run, do some strength training or CrossFit classes.
- Reduce stress and anxiety
- eat healthy food
- Eating healthy will give you more energy and make you feel better
- get as much rest as you can
- You can recover from distractions faster
- It can prevent burnout
- It can help with memory and improve your decision-making abilities
Accept help or Delegate
Instead of trying to do everything, reassess your strengths and weaknesses. Carry on with doing what you are good at and what you love to do and delegate or outsource other things that you ‘waste’ your time on. Think about what can you let go and delegate to your staff in order to give them an opportunity to grow. It will give them the chance to learn and help them to feel valued while having the added benefit of freeing yourself up to concentrate on your priorities.
Stop trying to do everything perfectly
Are you a perfectionist? If you are reading this, you probably are. Stop trying to get everything done perfectly; no one is going to give you an award for it. If it is taking too long to make it perfect maybe it’s one of those things you should delegate to someone who is better at it.
Start by making small changes
Don’t set yourself up for the failure from the start. Committing to huge changes immediately won’t do anything other than add more stress. You already know that success doesn’t happen overnight, but if you start looking after yourself and learn how to balance your work/life better you will be setting yourself up to be a massive success.
You might be asking yourself: “So what should I do now?”
- Make a list of jobs you love doing and don’t enjoy doing (a “love/loathe list”)
- Make a list of all your staff
- What can you delegate and who will benefit (grow) by doing it?
- Catch up with your staff one-on-one and ask them what their perfect day looks like. Do they want to learn more?
- Through a process of delegation reduce your workload by 3 hours per week
- Commit those 3 hours to looking after yourself (however that looks – gym time, seeing a movie, going for a swim)
- Book time in your calendar with “ME” time and don’t compromise on that
- Commit to a new change for a month and reassess after that.
