No matter how perfectly happy you are running your business on your own, you’re not immune to burnout.
Yes, burnout can happen more frequently among solopreneurs like you than entrepreneurs who may have a huge team to lean on.
Being overworked can ruin every aspect of your life – your health, productivity level, creativity, and personal relationships.
Because you work in a home office, you need to make sure that you’re not adding more work hours to your day so you can have time for yourself and your loved ones.
Strive to create a balance between managing your business and your personal life. Work smarter, not harder!
In this blog post, I’m sharing with you effective ways to achieve work-life balance.
1. Take good care of your health.
If you care about earning more than staying healthy, you’re going to lose everything you’ve worked for over time. Once you’re ill, nobody’s going to run your business for you. You’ll miss work and tasks pile up.
Without health, you basically have nothing. Your body needs to function at an optimum level for you to be able to meet your business goals.
Below are some useful tips to stay healthy:
- Eat quality, fresh, and nutritious foods.
- Reduce sugar intake to avoid sugar crash.
- Stay hydrated.
- Get fresh air.
- Have quality sleep.
- Take needed work breaks.
- Make time for exercise.
2. Decide which tasks are important.
Important tasks are not the same as urgent ones. The problem is that people often get confused between the two, often mistaking urgent for important.
Urgent activities are those that seem to demand your attention – personal or work-related. These tasks are often the concern of other people and have deadlines. You can reschedule these activities (if possible) or delegate them to someone who can do them.
On the other hand, important activities do not have immediate deadlines but greatly impact your future business outcomes. These tasks require your creativity.
Your goal is to not allow important activities to become urgent. Anticipate unforeseen problems so you don’t end up cramming and getting stressed out!
3. Schedule time blocks.
Time blocking is an effective strategy that helps you get things done. It boosts your productivity by letting you minimize distractions and “cage” a particular task.
Set aside specific, uninterrupted time for a certain activity. You can use your planner’s calendar or Google Calendar. Make sure to assign bold colors to events on your calendar so you notice them immediately.
The benefit of time blocking is that you can use this technique not only for work but also for your personal life. For example, you can set aside time for putting your son/daughter to bed or watching a movie with your spouse.
Helping you maintain work-life balance, this color-coding technique when scheduling time blocks will also give you an idea on whether your life is really in balance.
Perhaps you will see more “work-related” colors on your calendar. If so, you can revise your calendar to make room for personal enjoyment.
4. Use tools/apps to streamline your work.
Being able to access your work from any device, no matter where you are is important. Solopreneurs are able to benefit from cloud-based, online tools/apps that allow them to go paperless and save time.
Online tools or apps that make your life simpler include the following:
- Hootsuite – If you manage multiple social media accounts, Hootsuite helps you schedule your social media posts in advance and make all of them go live at once.
- Wunderlist – Wunderlist is a simple tool that lets you keep track of your tasks by creating to-do lists. You can add anything on this app – even your grocery items or business ideas.
- Dropbox – This cloud storage tool allows you to keep all your files (image, text, video) in one place. You can also share these files with other people you may work with.
5. Find time for your creative hobbies.
Whether it’s painting, gardening, writing a book or a DIY project, having a creative hobby is one of the secrets to personal fulfillment.
Everyone including solopreneurs would be happier, less stressed, and feel more accomplished if they made time for an activity they truly enjoy.
Ignoring a personal interest can easily happen especially if you work round-the-clock. You deserve a break from your hard work.
Aside from keeping you happy, a hobby rejuvenates your mind and prepares you for more challenging tasks in your business.
Make sure that your chosen hobby does not add stress to your life. It should be your natural talent which you simply want to spend time on for the sake of having fun.
Conclusion
Work-life balance is a subjective concept. It can mean different things to different people. As a solopreneur, you need to identify your priorities so you can have the lifestyle you desire for yourself.
Regardless of how you define work-life balance, know that at its core is the experience of professional and personal fulfillment.
