One of the hardest things about running a business from home is maintaining a work-life balance.
As commendable as it may seem to put your business above everything else to secure success, it does nothing good for your health and well-being. When you aren’t taken care of, you can’t take of your business.
Let’s discuss some of the main reasons why maintaining a work-life balance as a business owner is difficult. In addition, take a look at a couple of tips that will ensure you don’t have to sacrifice your well-being to own a successful business.
The difficulty of maintaining a work-life balance as an owner
Because you have to do so much to get to the next level, life outside of running your business is easily neglected. In addition, doing it all from home adds unique challenges to the mix that can influence productivity and, ultimately, success.
Keep reading for more on the challenges of maintaining a work-life balance when running a business from home.
You’re wearing all hats
It’s common to launch a home business and be responsible for everything. You’re the owner, but you’re also the:
- Marketer
- Sales rep
- Bookkeeper
- Product developer
- Customer service rep
- Package and shipping department
Being just one thing in a business can be difficult to manage. Being everything hardly leaves you time for anything else, hence the challenge of maintaining a work-life balance.
Long hours are the norm
Wearing every hat in your business takes up a lot of your time and often leads to long hours. Waking up early and going to sleep late, sometimes not at all, becomes the norm if you allow it to.
Working long hours regularly can be especially dangerous to your health, leading to issues like:
- Anxiety
- Stroke
- Isolation
- Chronic fatigue
- Sleep problems
- High-stress levels
- Increased risk of cardiovascular diseases
Less-talked-about health risks, like the negative impact on your oral health, are also linked to working long hours. The stress can make you grind your teeth more often and can increase your risk of developing gum disease. All of the coffee and unhealthy foods you go to when you don’t have time can lead to eroded enamel and tooth decay.
Working long hours doesn’t leave much time for life outside of running your business. The days you do get off are likely spent sleeping or lounging because you just don’t have the energy to do anything else, especially if you’re struggling with the health issues above.
Everything Is happening at home
Great perks come with running your business from home, like avoiding office or warehouse rental expenses, cutting your commute, and having more flexibility around how and when you work.
The thing is, everything happens at home now. Your family, household duties, relaxation time, and now your business. It’s all in your face all the time, and that can be incredibly overwhelming and frustrating.
It’s easy to blur the boundaries between work and home when you’re running your business at your house. You’ll never truly feel like you get a break when everything melds together like that.
2 tips for balancing life and being a business owner
There are many ways to approach achieving a better work-life balance as a home-based business owner. But let’s not overwhelm ourselves. Start with these two tips to see immediate improvement in the way you balance life and being a business owner.
Prioritize your health and well-being
You’ve got a lot to do as a business owner and in your personal life. It takes you being at your best to accomplish and balance it all. So, you must prioritize your health and well-being if you want to be successful. When you’re good, you do good.
Take stock of where you are currently health-wise. Go to your primary care physician (PCP) and get a physical to gain more clarity about your physical health.
From there, you two can put together a health plan that treats any conditions and keeps you healthy long-term. Make sure you keep up all of your future appointments with your PCP and specialists too.
Don’t neglect your mental health either. The stress of running a business can lead to anxiety and depression and worsen any mental health challenges you’re already navigating.
Start with self-care to ease into taking care of your mental health. Set aside time every day to do at least one thing that makes you happy. If you need additional support, reach out to a mental health professional to get into therapy or counseling.
Implement productivity-boosting tactics
One of the best ways to get time back is to be more productive and efficient. In other words, work smarter, not harder.
Implement work-from-home productivity tricks like these that will help you run your business and complete projects with ease so that you can pay just as much attention to your personal life and passions:
- Leave work alone once you “clock out.”
- Stay physically active so you stay energetic, clear-headed, and creative.
- Rely on automation tools to take repetitive tasks off your plate.
- Meal plan to avoid overeating and ensure you take your lunch break.
- Stick to a routine where you clock in and out of work at the same time every day.
- Determine priority tasks for each day and complete them one by one.
- Rely on tried and true methods to organize work, like maintaining a physical calendar.
It’s also a good idea to hire top talent when it’s financially feasible. Outsourcing tasks to reliable professionals opens up your schedule for a better work-life balance.
Conclusion
You’re fiercely dedicated to your success as a business owner, and that’s admirable. But you can’t be so dedicated that you neglect your well-being and fail to establish a healthy work-life balance.
Prioritize your holistic health and implement tactics that boost your productivity working from home, and you’re chances of being successful and actually enjoying it will be better.
Beau Peters is a creative professional with a lifetime of experience in service and care. As a manager, he’s learned a slew of tricks of the trade that he enjoys sharing with others who have the same passion and dedication that he brings to his work. When he is not writing, he enjoys reading and trying new things.
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