7 Entrepreneur Tips to Balance Work and Life to Reach Your Goals
Summary: Balancing the demands of work and life can feel impossible. We all know that women entrepreneurs have a lot on their plates - running a business, being wife or mother, daughter or friend. The problem is not that we don’t want to balance it all but rather how do we accomplish this without feeling guilty and pressure, and instead feeling calm and accomplished?
Listen in to these 7 tips for you to get your head back in the game so you can enjoy what matters most and still reach your goals!
A work-life balance is one of those things that often for women entrepreneurs feel as if it’s unattainable, and it feels impossible to obtain when you add in mother, wife, and daughter roles. Some of that doubt comes from our mindset and expectations around a work-life balance. But, in other ways, it all is about how we show up.
I will share seven tips for women entrepreneurs to help balance work and life to reach their goals still. The whole purpose is not to put one part of your life on hold so you can accomplish another but to bring ease and attainability into your life.
There Will Never Be A True Balance, And That’s Okay:
When we think of our different roles as equal, we put these roles into conflict with each other. The conflict has you trying to balance this role OR that role. Harmony is more about inclusion - bout this role AND that role. Since our lives are dynamic, there will always be a part of your life that is the priority while the other responsibilities come second.
This dynamic will always be ever-changing.
For example, your business life has been going great, so you can prioritize your home life for a while. Then, suddenly, it switches, and now it’s your business life that needs your full, undivided attention, and your home life comes second for that moment in time.
This will be a never-ending cycle of what part of your life will come first, and after you deal with that, there are all of the responsibilities on your to-do list. These seven tips will help you with this cycle of duties as a woman entrepreneur.
Why Do Entrepreneurs Need To Balance Work And Play?
Women entrepreneurs especially seem prone to show up with this expectation around this work-life balance which creates a lot of guilt, pressure, and stress. When we are under pressure, stressed, and pulled in a million ways, we never feel we are where we need to be. We are constantly distracted, which means we get less done—creating one of these vicious downward spirals that we would love to avoid.
If you adopt some of these tips that feel attainable for you today, I can tell you that what you experience will be a night and day difference.
I put these seven practices into play every day, and I can tell you that I am not perfect– but if I stumble, I can pick these principles back up. That’s why I am never worried about failing because I can quickly improve the next day.
1. Presence
It is about being present where ever you need to be when you need to be there and being there 110%.
One of the best conversations I have ever had was about time management and work-life balance with a male entrepreneur [funny enough]. He compared work-life balance to being on a surfboard. When you’re on a surfboard, the only place you can be is on the board, and if you are not present with what’s happening on the board, you will wipe out. He further explained that a work-life balance is about being present wherever you need to be when you need to be there and being there 110%.
The Gift of Presence is A Gift For Somebody Else:
The gift of presence is a gift for somebody else as well. If I am sitting across the table with you and being present– that is a gift. It tells you that you are important enough for me to give you my attention.
Presence creates this little bubble that blocks out the 1,001 interruptions and distractions that can flood your day and keep you off course. Presence is a skill that needs to be practiced, and our world is designed to break your presence with its pings, rings, and buzzing notifications. These distractions can quickly erode your patience because your phone, email, and even people can feel urgent and important.
If you're going to go from frazzled to calm, your presence is where you need to focus. If you are where you need to be, it becomes easier to move on to the next task when you need to be there with a 110% focus. There no longer is guilt about checking off your ‘to-do’ list because you now know you are doing each task well.
2. Priorities
We all know how to prioritize, but we have so many choices, options, and good ideas that it may become too challenging to prioritize. I want you to define your priorities at a higher level. It can be how you show up, the goals you have, your values, or your approach in life. For example, you prioritize in-person interactions over virtual interactions.
Being aware that this is your priority, you can now sow your energy into making it happen. Knowing your preferences in business is crucial, and you need to write them down.
Be mindful of your priorities and say no to anything not aligned with them. Don’t let your “fear of missing out” knock you off balance.
3. Goals
My priorities are my family, working to live, and not living to work. I have travel goals because travel is an expression of freedom, joy, and adventure. I have a business goal because I want to hit a certain level of impact, and I have a personal income goal.
You can have softer goals like fitness goals where you want to work out a certain amount of times per week. These are the points that keep me on track that make my priorities happen. It’s like we are stepping down in detail when defining those goals.
4. Alignment
We can have priorities and goals, but if they compete, our brain cannot reconcile how both can exist, creating a competing commitment.
A competing commitment will blow everything up because you will have the most challenging time reaching that goal, getting motivated, and following through on things you think you should be following through on.
If you have a workout goal of 2 or 3 times a week, and if that goal is in a competing commitment of how you view success about weight loss, then you will have a tough time. If you’re struggling with your goals and priorities, you need to identify why and then start changing the belief.
5. Let Go So You Can Grow
As women entrepreneurs, we tend not to put down any of the balls we are juggling. Whatever balls you are holding when you start your business, you tend to keep them. When you begin growing and having a team, you add new balls of responsibility to your already full plate.
What happens is you start dropping the balls because your plate is overflowing.
You begin to feel guilty and think, why can't you get it all done when before you could?
You can’t pick up something without taking something off your plate. To grow you’ll need to let go. Maybe the transition won’t feel good at first because you’re worried about how it will get done when someone takes that role from you.
We need to transition from the worker in your business to the owner and leader of your business. We need to start letting go.
6. Can you just do one thing at a time?
The thought of multi-tasking where you can do more than one thing at a time is false because all you’re doing is switching between two things, which ultimately results in inefficiencies. Instead, I want you to do one thing so well and entirely that it gets done. Once that happens, you can move on to the next thing.
This means, you’ll ultimately choose to do less things but achieve more because you get things done and into action.
We have a 1-4-3-1 rhythm we talk about in the Your Biz Rules Community:
- 1One (1) goal per year
- 2Four (4) quarters is one initiative per quarter to achieve the goal
- 3Three (3) months per quarter is one major project per month to complete the initiative
- 4Four weeks per month is one (1) major action item to complete for the monthly project
You will work in 90-day quarterly sprints, focus on specific tasks, and not deviate from them. Yet, every week, we are just working on one thing to get done. Maybe it’s a couple of things, but it’s not twelve. We are not trying to move the mountain in 30 days! What happens when you focus like this and complete your tasks entirely?
It takes less time, and you see results when you get it done.
This creates momentum, which is one of the hardest things you can do in business but once you build it, there is no stopping you.
7. Rest and recovery
One of the hardest things to do as a woman, mother, wife, etc., is rest.
You are not a machine– I don’t know if you’ve noticed?
You need a moment to take a breath and recover so that you can:
- 1Re-engage your energy level.
- 2Your motivation.
- 3Your inspiration.
- 4Your ‘stick-to-it-ness.
- 5To be able to keep all the balls in the air.
You need to realize that it is okay to recover, especially between sprints.
The way that I recover personally is to take off on Fridays. I want to have some room and space because my Monday through Thursday is pretty intense. I know that I need a chunk of time to recharge and catch up, so I feel ready to hit the ground running again on Monday morning.
Conclusion:
Create a balanced life using these seven principles. When you need to be 110%, it makes life easier. You can do it in a variety of ways. First, you need to find people going through a similar journey who can say, “I have been there, but have you considered this?”
It truly is how you’re able to find your secret sauce, your own seven principles, and make your work-life balance possible to reach your goals. If you’re looking for a place to have these conversations and you’re a woman entrepreneur who wants to surround yourself with other women growing their businesses and going through the same thing. Please reach out to me, and I would be happy to share with you about it!