Finding a balance between work and personal life is not easy. Is it possible to spend time with your children, returning home every day after 7 pm? Not surprisingly, more and more people are demanding more flexibility in their schedules to help achieve this goal.
Unfortunately, running your own business is a different story. When starting your own business or a new project, it is not always possible to do your personal business. Since you are financially responsible, you have to personally respond to all emergency situations.
So, how can you be where you need it without sacrificing the time you spend with your family? Try the following ten tips.
The key to everything is planning.
Scheduling is crucial if you intend to run a business and combine it with your family and personal life. It is important to know what you will do every day when you get up so as not to waste your time and energy.
Plan all your affairs on the calendar so that the work schedule is real. Get used to your daily routine and schedule so your days are predictable. This will guarantee that you will not be taken by surprise. Most importantly, the schedule allows you and others to know when you will be working, spending time with your children, playing sports, or being inaccessible.
It is also advisable to make a schedule for your children. This will not only support your organization and productivity, but also allow you to take them. Examples of this can be determining sleep time and actions that they can perform on their own while you work.
It is important to note that you need to create a schedule that is best for you. Often this is determined by factors such as periods of greatest productivity or when children are at school. Do not be afraid to experiment with different charts until you find the most convenient. Once you have decided on your schedule and completed your calendar, make sure that it is available for your team and family.
Know what you can sacrifice and what not
If you want to find a healthy balance between your startup and family, you will have to make sacrifices. This is the only way that you can manage your time.
However, you must determine what you can donate and what is not negotiable. For example, you like to travel on business trips. This is a great way to get out of your comfort zone, chat and tell others about your business. But for the sake of family, you have to reduce the number of events attended. Exclude a few events that are ultimately not worth the investment, both financially and temporarily.
But don’t sacrifice the time you spend with your family. Be home every day at 6 p.m. so you can have dinner together. On weekends, if the family is busy or sleeping, you can sneak out and catch up or do some work, but never in family time.
Engage your children
Obviously, this does not mean that they should work full time. But there are creative ways to spend time with your children and do business at the same time. For example, a child can be involved in marketing, product testing, or included in a focus group. Depending on the business and age of the children, the latter can make a greater contribution. For example, entrepreneurs engaged in jewelry, introduced their children to it.
You can also engage them in other areas, such as scheduling the day.Take photos of each step as a visual reminder of the next step in the process. Children should be involved in the creation and adaptation of the schedule so that they have ownership of it. They will be happy to do this, and this will help them acquire a very useful habit that will be useful for life.
Take care of yourself
The reality is that everyone can find 10 minutes a day to focus on activities such as exercise or meditation. You can probably even perform these actions right in your office during a well-deserved break in the afternoon.
Make sure you get enough sleep and eat healthy foods. Like your children, you should sleep 6-8 hours every night. And you have to bring your own lunch to work and fill the office with healthy snacks.
Taking care of yourself, you will worry less, experience stress and will have the energy needed by the parent and entrepreneur.
Delegation, Outsourcing and Automation
Want to know why many cannot keep a balance between work and personal life? Because they cannot stop doing everything on their own. If this also applies to you, then it's time to determine what your tasks can be delegated, outsourced or automated.
If you correctly trained your team and gave it the necessary tools and resources, then it will be able to cope with any work that you do. You must declare your expectations and fully trust them.
Outsourcing is like delegation. The difference is that you pay experts outside your organization. For example, you can hire a freelance web developer to create a website if you don't have one of your own.
Automation is a tool that performs everyday and repetitive tasks. These can be chat bots or automatic e-mail responses to customer requests when you are not online. Other examples may be accounting programs that issue invoices, or smart calendars that provide recommendations for planning your next appointment.
Master the art of grouping
This is one of the best ways to time management at home and at work. Simply group similar tasks together and complete them all in one go. Thus, you do not multitask, do not waste time, and provide structure.
For example, unlike checking your email every time you receive it, schedule it for a specific time during the day to examine the contents of the mailbox at a time. Instead of daily meetings, take one day a week to everyone. And cook on Sundays so you don't have to do it every day.
Use voice recorder
Each smartphone allows you to use your voice to create tasks, add events to the calendar, and set reminders. It’s not a god news that, but the number of people who do not use this technology is surprising. This is much faster and more convenient than typing.
No matter how you try, mistakes are inevitable. There will be days when life fails to meet your schedule and challenges you. In such situations, you must admit that it was not your fault. More importantly, don't give up. Be prepared to learn from your experience and become more flexible.