Your effectiveness in business and personal life lies in the balance between your business and personal life. We always have this temptation to focus all our efforts and commitments to becoming a success in business. And most of us fall into this temptation and eventually justify ourselves by the progress, promotion and profits we seem to be accumulating, but over time we come to realize it can’t always work this way — either when we have a significant breakdown in health, relationships, marriage, or family.
What we all want is to be able to achieve goals in business and still spend quality time with friends, family and with yourself. So how do you work this out? Is it even possible to get this kind of balance in this fast-paced life?
Yes, it is, but:
You Must Take Ownership and Full Responsibility for Your Life
You can’t allow your business or personal life to own and control your life. In setting out to get a balance, you must make sure you’re making the decisions and not your bias self. For you to implement all the advice on how to find a balance, you must actually be the one in control. This is what being proactive means.
To make some of these changes will bring pain, but guess what? It’s the only way to get freedom and true happiness. You are in charge of your destiny and you can determine to choose a balanced life. After a resolution to have a balanced life, go onto the next step.
Determine What is Really Important
In an interview with Forbes.com, Jody Miller, founder of the executive staffing firm Business Talent Group, says that prioritizing your responsibilities and seeing if your company allows for flexible scheduling are two key strategies for managing your time. Not everything you do is really important; some are just urgent but not important.
The result of taking ownership of your life is the ability to discern what is important and what is not. Create a list of the things you’re most thankful for – the most important things in your life are the things you’re most thankful for. Make them a priority in your life. It doesn’t matter what others think; you have to determine your own priorities. Things that cause you to be happy are the things worth chasing.
Create a Weekly Schedule of Your Activities
If your company allows for flexible scheduling, maintain a schedule with your smartphone; implementing a daily routine will keep you on track to achieve the right balance. We’re humans of habits — when you create a routine and follow it long enough, it becomes a habit. According to Lewis Howes, author of “The School of Greatness”, setting strong habits, such as sleeping eight hours, not checking your email for the first couple hours of the day, getting outside daily and taking time to eat right and work out, will make you healthier and happier.
Structure your important activities and ensure you do first things first. Schedule your time to fit the number of hours you have in a week. Taking into consideration you already have 8 hours for sleep out of those hours. Set time for romantic dates, family time, medical checkup and other responsibilities aside from just your business responsibilities.
Find an Easier Solution to Your Problems
Keeping your business life as organized as possible is a step in the right direction. By using project management software, you can have all your work in one place, and it is easily accessible at any time.
Combine this project management software with the weekly schedule you have created. The software for your business life, while the schedule for your personal life. This will give you clarity on what your time should be spent on and what you’ve been able to achieve. This way, you set a healthy boundary between your business and personal life.
If you run a business, you can also implement automation to help out your employees. For example, if your employees spend a ton of time managing purchases–automate the process. Consider using tools such as procurement management software to make things easier on your staff and more importantly yourself.
Don’t Feel Guilty or Proud to Delegate Some Duties
Some see delegation as some abdication of responsibility and feel guilty when they think about it. But that’s not true. Delegation is a great way to relieve yourself of some less important or less immediate tasks and thus you get more time for higher-level and more important duties. Hire an assistant if you can, to pick on your emails, calls and other urgent but not so important activities.
And if you’re working with someone, I know you feel like you’re the only one who can get the job done. But without delegation, you can never find out the capacity of those under you. You’ve got to trust someone else to handle some tasks on your behalf; when you eventually break down because you’re stressed out, someone is going to do that task for you anyway. So be proactive and delegate.
There are no laws set in stones concerning these things, ultimately, you still have to figure out what works best for you.
