As a business owner, you have a lot of free time on your hands. Said no one ever! The truth is, running a business sucks up your time like a Dyson vacuum sucks up dust. Except we’d say a business can steal your time even faster. If you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself stuck in a pressure-bubble of meetings, to-do lists, and budget sheets, with your family on the outside with no way to reach you.
Before you started your business, you may have been the ultimate family man. You were often found helping your spouse in the kitchen, playing catch with your son outside, or sitting down with your daughter to help her with a difficult math problem – the whole shebang. But now, you only dream of those moments with your family.
You may be asking yourself, “Is this simply the life of a business owner in which I must accept?” Absolutely not! Your life doesn’t have to continue this way. You can have the best of both worlds. You can have your cake and eat it, too.
A healthy balance in life is not too good to be true.
With a little determination and dedication, you can have success with your business AND your family. We have some very helpful tips to help you start on the path toward a more balanced life. Keep reading to learn more!
Tip #1: It’s All About Time Management
We know, shocker. As simple as managing your time sounds, it is a discipline that few people master. As a business owner, you may have mastered your schedule at the office, but what about at home? Certain meetings and tasks won’t get done at the office if they are not scheduled – and the same applies to what goes on at home. If you want to be more intentional with your time at home, then start putting activities with your family on the same calendar you use at work. This will help eliminate any overlap of work and home responsibilities. Give it a try! That homework session with your children will be a lot easier to remember when it’s on the calendar you check every day. Check out this list of helpful time-tracking tools!
Tip #2: Delegate
A great business owner knows how to delegate. Although you may want to do everything yourself, the truth is you don’t have that kind of time – not if you want to make it home for dinner every night. So, you delegate. When delegating, concentrate on your strengths. Focus on what you’re good at and what you enjoy doing, and then assign the rest to your team. Doing this will avoid a lot of frustration on your part. Instead of wasting time researching tasks that you know little about, play to your team members’ strengths. Fewer tasks equal more time for you!
Tip #3: Assess
Just like when you launch a project and assess its performance, do the same for your efforts to create a better-balanced life. In the beginning, take time at the end of each day to assess how the day went. You could also make this a weekly thing, too. Look at how you spent your time that day/week and determine if you want to make any adjustments. At the end of the day, having a work-life balance is not supposed to be burdensome, but rather a way to help you enjoy each day more than you did before when your life was devastatingly unbalanced.
We always like to stress how much we truly believe in helping our clients achieve success not only in their financial lives but also in other areas like at home and at the office. If you’re looking for the good life, look to Good Life Financial Advisors of NOVA. Schedule a meeting with us today!
