Getting the work-life balance right
by Shivani Gupta,
Newcastle Herald,
published Monday, 2 August 2010
After closing out another financial year have you started to implement your priority changes to the way you run your business? What about your personal life? Whether you like it or not, the two are linked.
I am writing this column after having just breastfed my two week old baby boy. Ironically, I have just finished a Skype conference call with a colleague who was also breastfeeding. I have called a couple of clients to deal with some planned and urgent matters, letting them know why they may hear a baby.
As small businesspeople and sole traders we are often “the business”. The temptation is to do more and more, sacrificing our work-life balance.
“I love what I do and working long hours is just what you have to do in small business” I hear some of you cry. Sometimes we do have to put in very long hours but doing that week in week out is not smart or sustainable for you or your business.
Stress is cumulative. A couple of long weekends a year to de-stress is not the solution to maintaining a healthy, happy self and productive business.
I am talking from experience after having burnt out in a corporate role. Working 80 hours a week was manageable initially, but on reflection, my productivity was dropping. I developed a habit of working weekends to compensate. Sound familiar?
To start getting your work-life balance right, you must have the right mindset to change. Ask yourself who and what is most important to you. Is it is your health, family, and loved ones? Will “I wish I had worked harder in my business” be on your tombstone?
You also need to practice each day. Take small steps and realise that you won’t always succeed. Go home at 5:30 pm one night and then, over the next month, build that to two nights.
Achieving work life balance does not always have to mean spending less time in the business. Better time management and goal setting as well as outsourcing domestic chores to other family members or professionals are some ways to get more out of each day.
I use the 3D rule. Ask yourself if you can DELETE a task. If not, can you DELEGATE it? If not, DO it.
Yes, I am working after just having had a baby but I am trying to do it in a balanced way. My workload has been re-organised and tasks outsourced. A babysitter helps me at key times to get some work done and to have some “me” time each week. After finishing this column I am off to do a 45 minute meditation.
Getting work-life balance right is a constant battle for small business people but it can be done once you make the choice to act.