4 Tips for a Happy and Healthy Work-Life Balance

“Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.”

Dolly Parton is beloved for being larger-than-life while dishing out down-to-earth advice. This quote resonates: it’s how we want to live!

It’s just easier said than done.

For many of us, we enthusiastically jumped into our business with both feet. Although we never intended to throw off our work-life balance, we found ourselves in over our heads. There’s always one more thing to do. We follow the “as-soon-as” strategy: we’ll reset, as soon as… (fill in anything here! Spoiler: there’s always one more thing.)

If we don’t figure out how to strike a practical work-life balance NOW- we never will. There’s never an ideal time. Something different and unpredictable will always come up.

?Prioritizing four areas has enabled me to experience a healthy work-life balance.

????1. Your schedule reflects your priorities.

By now, we recognize the difference between working hard and working smart. When we started out, our hard-work ethic was admired and encouraged. But now, as we transition into leadership , responsibilities become more complex, and demands on our time outpace our personal resources. We limit ourselves by trying to do it all.

Your schedule needs to reflect this transition.?

• Prioritize your to-do list. What are the things that only you can do, as a leader? Define the most important tasks for the day, break them down into doable steps, and block out time to accomplish each step.
• To maximize efficiency and productivity, your time management needs to reflect the necessity of managing your mental and emotional energy.?

What times of the day are you most productive? Schedule decision-making and strategic planning during these times. Which tasks are mentally or emotionally taxing to you? Factor in short breaks that account for these realities. The Pomodoro Technique is an example of a strategy that breaks up your work day into 25-minute blocks separated by 5-minute breaks. Whatever works for you, your schedule needs to reflect time off to recharge, so you’re fully engaged when you’re ‘on’.?

• Schedule time to schedule! At the end of the day, or first thing in the morning.

While you’re at it, block out time to meditate, eat, exercise and sleep. Work-life balance is ultimately reflected in your schedule. Your schedule also reveals your priorities- and if you value focus and productivity, you’ll prioritize self-care. More on that later.

?????????2. Protect boundaries.

“Good fences make good neighbors.”

This line in the classic Robert Frost poem is my favorite definition of boundaries. Simply put, a boundary shows where one thing ends, and another begins. They’re intentionally maintained. And they’re a good thing for relationships. A person with healthy boundaries can clearly articulate their expectations: this is what you can expect from me, and these are my expectations of you. My side. Your side.

Entrepreneurs and business owners are notorious for having bad boundaries . It’s often reflected in our work-life balance- lines are often blurry at best because the work is never done. There’s no logical stopping point. Stakes feel higher and more personal.

It’s critical to create and maintain healthy boundaries- for your sake, as well as for the sake of your business, employees, family, and friends. If you’re not able to define healthy boundaries for yourself, then you’ll have difficulty understanding how to protect the boundaries of others.?

And you won’t succeed in any of these categories without healthy boundaries.?

When boundaries are pushed,

• Personally, you’ll wear out physically, mentally, and emotionally. You’ll have trouble making decisions.?
• Professionally, it can lead to chaotic teams and unmanageable work environments. When the boundaries of your employees aren’t respected, their motivation deteriorates. They’ll burn out. Loyalty dissolves, and distrust spikes. Simply put, it’s bad for business.
• Relationally, it increases conflict. Crossed boundaries provoke feelings of resentment if either party feels imposed upon.

To create boundaries, define your core values- the qualities that you measure a decision by.?

To maintain boundaries, let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’, and your ‘no’ be ‘no’.

Distractions can mess with our boundaries too! If you’re checking Facebook or googling something that crosses your mind- stop! Kick in the discipline to stay off during time designated for something else.

When you say ‘no’ to the wrong things, you’re creating time to say ‘yes’ to the right things.??

?????3. Delegate.

The art of delegation isn’t always intuitive to the entrepreneurial types. It’s in our identity: we’ve built our business from the ground up. To be fair, a lot of foundational work falls exclusively to the leader. For a while, we may even be able to do it all, usually by convincing ourselves that we’re the exclusive exception to the rule stating that humans need sleep to function.

?If you choose to be self-sufficient, you may discover your true potential. But you’ll never realize the full potential of your business. And you’ll compromise your work-life balance.

?Delegation is the secret ingredient in successful businesses. It requires that you embrace a paradox : leaders need to become more essential and less involved. Busy isn’t the same thing as productive.

?When you examine your to-do list, many tasks fall into categories that are easily outsourced:

• Mindless and time-consuming tasks. Ex. data entry and picking up groceries.
• Tasks that take too long because they’re not your flavor of expertise. Ex. accounting.
• Tasks that you hate.

?When your company is ready to grow and you’re ready to delegate responsibilities, create clearly defined job descriptions that connect a team member’s contribution to the overall mission of the company. Prioritize training. Keep an open-door policy. And trust them to do their jobs.

Leaders realize that they can’t do everything. When the leader allows her team members to do the things that they do best, then she is free to do the things that only she can do.

?????????4. Don’t neglect self-care.

If you don’t take care of yourself, nobody will! This is your responsibility- for yourself, and for the sake of your family and business. This affects your capacity to focus, improves memory, minimizes stress, and enables creativity and problem-solving.?

?Self-care includes:?

• Exercise
• Healthy eating
• Sleeping through the night
• Meditation?
• Practicing gratefulness. It would be foolish to miss out on everything that’s going right. There’s joy in the journey.?

A healthy work-life balance is why I started my business in the first place. I’m not afraid to work. I don’t want to forget to live!