Tips for New Entrepreneurs: How to Maintain a Work-Life Balance
Being an entrepreneur is just as rewarding as it is busy. You’re trying to grow a small business, most likely from the very beginning, and it can be difficult to step back and relax. An entrepreneur’s mindset is akin to a worker bee – if there is more to be done, it needs to be done now, and there is always more to be done.
Having a proper work-life balance is critical to your well-being and mental health, as well as the health of your business. The last thing you want is to burn out and become unproductive because your business will suffer. Giving yourself a chance to unwind after work will help keep your mind fresh and let you wake up each morning motivated to do more good work.
It can be challenging to find the time to turn off your brain, particularly in the beginning phases of your business, so here are some helpful tips on how to ensure you can find a happy and healthy work-life balance.
Have a stable home life
Your life at home can majorly affect your work habits. If everything is running smoothly, and the stress at home is kept to a minimum, you’re more likely to perform better at work. However, if there are situations at home that are tense or strained, you can carry that mental stress to work, and it can cause problems.
Major stressful life events like health problems or divorce can divert your attention from your business and leave you feeling mentally exhausted. Hiring a Charleston Divorce Lawyer can help ease the stress of a divorce for you and your spouse and make the process simple, so you both can focus your attention on other matters. Being an entrepreneur, especially during those first few years of starting a business, requires a lot of mental energy, so it’s important to make sure you have the capacity to handle it.
Create a schedule and stick to it
Creating hard stops around when you work and when you aren’t working will help give yourself time for leisure. For example, setting a schedule where you’re in the office from 9 am until 5 pm and stop answering emails or client calls after 7:30 pm can allow you to prioritize yourself. If a set schedule is unrealistic based on your business, try blocking out times during the day for yourself the same way you would with a client. Take a lunch hour away from your desk, or set aside an hour or two for some self-care or exercise. If you take good care of yourself, you can take better care of the other commitments in your life.
Take time off
Taking breaks from work is one thing, but taking time off to decompress is crucial to your mental well-being and productivity. Being in the office and forcing yourself to stay “on” all the time will eventually drain you of all motivation and mental sharpness. If you allow yourself to take a break, like booking a long weekend or taking a week off after an especially busy time, you can rest, recharge, and come back to work feeling sharp again.
Maintain your hobbies
The tough part of being an entrepreneur is not letting your work consume your life. After all, what’s the point of having a successful career if you can’t enjoy the fruits of your labor? A good way to make sure your life isn’t entirely business-related is by finding and participating in outside interests, like joining a sports team, committing to a yoga class once or twice a week, or finding a hobby you can do at home like indoor gardening or crafting of some kind. Do your best not to let your outside interests fall by the wayside.
