It can be difficult to draw boundaries between your personal life and your work life—especially if you own a small business. Despite your best intentions, it may feel as though you’re never giving enough effort to one or the other. The elusive work-life balance can feel impossible to attain.
While we don’t have a magic wand that can stretch time (still working on that!), we do have some advice for managing work-life balance based on the experiences of small business owners.
Look at the big picture
This concept is simple and yet hard to overemphasize: don’t look at each day individually to determine if your work and personal lives are balanced. If you tally the number of hours on any given day you spent on work and the number you spent on your personal life, you will rarely come out feeling good about the ratio.
Why? Because on some workdays, there is a disaster at every turn. The shipment is late, the customer is unhappy, the new hire doesn’t show, and your computer decides to quit. On those days, work is going to require more of your time and attention than it normally would.
On other days, your youngest wakes up with a fever, your oldest forgot about his science project, and the refrigerator repairman is supposed to show up to your house … sometime between 8am and 5pm. On days like that, work is not going to get your highest and best.
So instead of tallying up the score one day at a time, it’s better to look at larger chunks of time to evaluate your work-life balance. Set aside time every twelve weeks to go over a set of questions. Think through each one and write down your responses. If you can get into this habit, you’ll start to see patterns that were hidden when you were only focused on the day-to-day. Sure, that one day was awful, but how did things go overall the past three months?
Questions for your (quarterly) consideration
Here are some specific questions to ask yourself to help you evaluate your work-life balance:
What were the big highlights or achievements?
What were the setbacks?
Is there anything I could have done differently? If so, what?
How are my relationships with my family?
How are my relationships with my friends?
How is my business?
This is also a good opportunity to look ahead at your schedule for the next quarter. Are there any big events coming up? Any holidays? Any significant changes to routine, either in work or at home? Taking note of these shifts can help you be more prepared for when they come. Your expectations will be adjusted to the reality of how much time you have available for certain projects.
For example, if you know that you will be implementing a new software system at work the next month, it’s probably not a good time to start adding volunteer hours to your schedule. Or if you are moving to a new home, don’t take on any additional work projects. Allowing for the ebb and flow of work and personal life makes it easier to strike a balance.
At The ReWild Group, we believe that work is a fundamental part of human existence. When a person is part of an exceptional workplace, they can apply their natural talents, grow as an individual, and develop new skills. This person returns to home and society as the best version of themselves. We invite you to learn more about our mission and explore the resources we make available for small businesses (many are free!).