All work and no play makes any entrepreneur stressed out, exhausted and burnt out. But it’s way too easy to let your business eat away at your personal life. But if you want to be both successful and happy as an entrepreneur, you have to find a way to achieve a bit of work/life balance.
To help you do exactly that, I recently solicited tips from more than 100 experts on productivity, time management, business/life balance, mindset and more. I’ve been sharing the best of these in a series of blog posts. Here are a few more I thought were worth your time. Enjoy!
Take “serenity breaks” every hour…
“Google, Yahoo, Monsanto and IBM all encourage employee meditation because it helps bottom line and streamlines business life balance. Whether you consider yourself religious, spiritual or secular, there is some compatible way to train your mind to be deeply present with moment to moment experience instead of resisting it and burning out. Business owners would do well to take two to three minute "serenity breaks" every hour or so for stretching, prayer, exercise, meditation, reading a favorite Rumi poem or Bible verse, etc. Small intervals of calming and grounding activities add up below the level of consciousness and culminate into a centered, blissful and productive state.”
Tom Von Deck, corporate meditation trainer – www.DeeperMeditation.net
Manage your life the same way you manage your business.
“Choose at least 2 things you want to devote your time to every day aside from work, and dedicate specific time for them each day. Make a public commitment to the people affected, whether family or friends, and ask them to hold you accountable if you fail to meet your goals for work life balance. If you have trouble keeping the schedules you set, add incentives for yourself with personal rewards and penalties for meeting your goals each week.”
Charlie Belmer, Founder & CEO – Golem Technologies www.golemtechnologies.com
Always remember that you are in charge of your time and how you spend it.
“Don't let Social Media, your ToDo lists or your creative impulses become the boss of you or override your personal life priorities. Set up a daily schedule for how you will run your business day to day and commit to it. To design your schedule, log all of your business and personal activities for one week. Then review your log, organize your tasks and use that to create a daily routine that will keep your business and personal life in balance.”
Susan Liddy, MA, CEO Susan Liddy International www.susanliddy.com
Take stock of your goals and activities
“Work/life balance is essential to well-being. First, clarify your vision. What do you want your life to look like? Write it in detail, review it daily, consider it your ultimate guide. Next, inventory your activities, personal and professional, and ask yourself if they move you closer to your vision. Those that don’t need to leave your life. Those that do need to be scheduled. Seriously, if you don’t schedule things they wont happen. Make appointments with yourself for both work tasks and pleasure. Leisure time is critical, it refuels you so you can be a better business person.”
Kelly Jayne McCann – Perfect Order Organizing www.perfectorderorganizing.com
To balance your business and personal lives, first define "success" for yourself.
“Keep that definition in mind as you decide what things you will do and what things you will let go. It will also help you keep joy in your life, because you will connect the tasks you do to the success you're working for. It's the difference between "I am carrying bricks" and "I am helping to create a great building."
Mark Chussil, Founder and CEO – Advanced Competitive Strategies, Inc http://www.whatifyourstrategy.com/
What do you think about these tips? Got more to add? Please do share by leaving a comment below…
Excellent tips!
Thank you!
Susan Liddy
Thanks for contributing Susan!