The importance of having a work and life balance can be captured in the clichés that all work and no play will make one dull, and inversely all play and no work leaves you nothing short of a mere toy. Hence there is no denying the fact that balance is key mainly for entrepreneurs whose day to day life is characterised by far-reaching demands which require not only determination but more hard-working hours. Talk to any successful entrepreneur, you will surely realise that there tends to be a skewed arrangement with regards to working and resting time as founders strive to meet and possibly surpass targets. While the success attained in the business spaces is very much prized what use will it be to one who would have neglected his other life practices and duties. Hence you need to take time and understand just how important it is to maintain a balance between work and life. In this article, I attempt to proffer some few tips as to how one can have some semblance of balance between work and life demands.
Perfectionist Is A Thing To Be Avoided
Being perfectionists can well be defined as one common trait amongst high achieving entrepreneurs. There is a sense in which this characteristic stems from the realisation that being a successful entrepreneur, mistakes in production or service delivery must be kept near zero. As a result, they strive to take no chances in letting things slide instead they want everything to be done up to standard. Hence in the process of attaining that perfect outcome a lot of time is spent to a degree that little to no time is left to tend to other things outside work life. With regards to the origins of perfectionist tendencies, psychologists believe that such traits develop our childhood years where demands on time are only limited to few things. However, as one matures into adulthood and having to face the subsequent demands of life perfectionism tend not to go away and consequently get in the way for one to attain a proper work and life balance.
Free Yourself From Fear
One reason also accounting for the perfectionist tendencies in most entrepreneurs is the general fear that if they allow for defects, no matter how small, they might disappoint the market. In some instances, they fear that not constantly working to improve their products/service might make them lose out on a greater market share. Executives, on the other hand, even fear that if they do not put in those extra hours into their work or at least be seen working on things, they might miss out on a promotion or some other work-related benefits. However, what stands out as important in all this is the general presence of fear concerning work ethics and practices. As a result, this pushes most individuals into having a disorderly work and life routine. It can well be suggested that the best way to free oneself from such fear is in the belief that you are good enough for the work being done while emphasising that achievements are being attained in the most meaningful ways. This should be enough to give one the confidence which will go a long way in rooting out the fear in your thoughts which might be deterring you from attaining the desired work and life balance.
Limit Time Wasting Activities and People Too
Time management is also key if one is to have satisfying work and life balance. While this is the case, hardly a day passes by without encountering a time-wasting activity or person. One sure trick to handling such occurrences is inputting a limit to what you tolerate and this means establishing boundaries around the things you value. In so doing you need to identify what you value as being most important in your work and life activities. This will be very important in determining what you will put in your priorities list and those activities you need to put off. In this day and age, most time is wasted scheming through various social media platforms where there is always some online gossip to catch up to. In other cases, as a budding entrepreneur, you will quickly notice all those unproductive friends you keep and these always pop up now and then while you are working. While you might enjoy their company and the online activities, you also need to be aware as to how much of your productive time is being consumed by such activities.
Learn To Say No
Being a productive entrepreneur, you will find that as you begin to priorities your day`s activities you will have to say NO to some or most of the things you used to do. The very fact of saying NO to other things and yes to some means that you have been able to decide on what they want to do, who you want to be with and where and how you want to spend your time. In all this, it`s a fact that productive individuals always have so many requests made to them to a point that they have so many opportunities knocking on their doors. Where priorities are not set, the risk is that they end up saying yes to things that they necessarily don’t want to do. The result is that they find themselves caught up in drudging work which they dismally perform at and even stall on completion. In this regard, to have the desired work and life balance you should at least have the self-respect, confidence and courage to live life on your terms and say yes only to the things that matter.
While the list of things you could do to attain that work and life balance is virtually endless, the above are some of the few major pointers to look at. Life is a phase to be lived in a balanced state and the attainment of such a balance could be the key to the happiness you so much desire.
