What do you do if your personal life is being neglected due to the demands of your Business Strategy career?

"You can't pour from an empty cup. Take care of yourself first." - Norm Kelly. Just exchanged thoughts with peers on setting boundaries for work-life balance. It's crucial to carve out space for our personal lives to maintain our overall well-being. Are your work and personal life blending a bit too much? Setting clear, realistic boundaries is essential. It's about knowing when to switch off work mode and focusing on what rejuvenates you outside the office. Let's commit to establishing boundaries today. Who's with me in making balance a priority?

The golden rule of the work-life balance sounds great, especially if it is easily implemented. But most of the time it is not. And it is understandable. It depends on what are your priorities. If you start a brand new business where you invest time and money, your talent, vision, and ideas - it is almost impossible to have this balance and set boundaries. When you are new in the niche, you don't have the experience and confidence of those further than you, it's okay to set more time for work and less for personal life. With time, you will find the balance if it fits your priorities.

No existe tal balance entre trabajo y familia. Los negocios requieren una demanda elevada de atención y energía. No puedes atender bien tu familia y atender bien el negocio. Este es el costo del éxito empresarial y el éxito profesional. Tu no puedes disfrutar de la ni?ez de tus hijos y al mismo tiempo ser un ejecutivo exitoso. Llevar tus hijos al colegio, comer con ellos, participar de las actividades extra curriculares, implica disposición de Tiempo completo. Por eso, resuelve tu vida financiera y profesional antes de tener familia si quieres disfrutar de ella

By boundaries, we as individuals set personal limits to every thing we do - be it in daily life or at work. These protect one’s time and energy and which allow one to perform at their best. Mothers, especially working women, working fathers juggle with this daily. Managing our schedules, our teams, our times comes with prioritising our tasks. It calls for a multitude of personal and learned skills - be it delegating, networking, asking for help etc. Taking time to pause, reflect and consider helps to keep a clear, uncluttered and calm mind, and deal with others in a confident and affable manner. Our energies transform our living and working space.

Planning is crucial. Regardless if you are at the beginning of your career or you already have several years behind your back. Having an agenda and daily tasks makes you feel more comfortable and creates stability.

If you want to grow in your career you can't be the one-man show all the time. Unfortunately (or not) we are humans and have a capacity of our abilities and tasks we can handle simultaneously. Delegating responsibilities is not a sense of laziness or lack of expertise. It is a way to make another person grow and be more responsible for the success of the business and it helps you have a deep breath and recharge for the rest of your work.

This is often the hardest for so many business owners but so crucial. You have to trust your team and delegate so you can free up your time for other tasks. You can always offer assistance but let others take the lead and empower them.

Breaking tasks into controllable objectives is a sound idea. So planning ahead is crucial. Strategic planning involves handling different teams from different departments in terms of objectives, inputs and outcomes etc. It involves a lot of interaction :sharing, collaborating and delegating etc. A lot of time is taken up by administrative work, and a lot of time is lost through poor communication, misunderstanding, too many non productive staff meetings … yes, and even office gossip so it is important to improve the quality of work and relations.

Networks are a huge help so you can get re-assurance, ask questions and learn from others. Masterminds are another good option. You ahve to surround yourself with like minded people so you can uplevel what you are doing.

Taking a well deserved pause for reflection, mental or physical activity is most encouraging. This is especially good for those who welcome a quiet moment away constant work demands, distractions from the pings of mobile phones, volumes of emails that need instant attention, staff that rush in for answers, etc. Walking in a long corridor or if possible in a nearby park close to lunch breaks could be a therapeutic distraction. Some have sciatica pain, some need fresh air. Others may have acid reflux. So being alone can refill our depleted energies by being closer to nature. Take an impromptu nap is encouraged in some Asian company cultures…even in Asian schools. Taking a refreshing break is giving the mind to pool in everything quietly.

Most people I talk to seem to think that work-life balance should be achieved at all times. I find that if I think of it over a period of time it helps. Sometimes work takes over. Sometimes “life” takes over. My family know that if they need me I’ll be there for them. No question. But they also understand that I have to put work first sometimes. I rarely feel like it’s truly balanced 50:50 but over a period of time it works out.

I sometimes experience this which makes me sad and moody. I try to schedule my life in a better way. I feel that it is important to be social in order to be motivated.