5 Tips to Manage Your Personal Life as an Entrepreneur
Creating balance in your life is something almost everyone struggles with. Everyone strives to bring more order and balance to their lives in an effort to feel more fulfilled and to meet all of the obligations we hold. As an entrepreneur this becomes much more difficult to do.
The responsibilities and obligations on your plate are enough to easily occupy multiple people. Entrepreneurs need to be disciplined enough to sacrifice time to achieve their goals but also wise enough to know when and how to take care of their personal life.
Create balance in your life is a matter of defining your principles and sticking to them. As an entrepreneur you’ll have to be focused each day to make room for all the things you want in your life. This article will cover 5 different things you can do as an entrepreneur to help create balance.
This article will help you put things like time management, your mindset and habits into perspective when trying to achieve balance in your life.
1. Value Your Time…Even If Others Don’t
As an entrepreneur you’ll need to be very judicious with your time. Careful planning and organization will ensure that you get the most out of your days. This need for time management will ultimately spill over into your personal life. It’s important that people in your life understand that even though you’re at home, you’re still working.
Suggested Read: 3 Amazing Ways to Being More Productive at Work
You should have set times where you’re unavailable and they need be respected. Working for yourself requires long periods of deep focus, you can’t tend to your personal life while trying to put maximum effort into your work.
“Time is the most valuable coin in your life. You and you alone will determine how that coin will be spent. Be careful that you do not let other people spend it for you.”
― Carl Sandburg
What you do with your time is ultimately up to you. Even if you have multiple distractions surrounding you it’s up to you how you’ll handle it. Will you set clear boundaries? If people are uncooperative, will you spend time arguing or simply find a different locale where you can be focused? Always remember to give yourself options. Use your time wisely and it will pay you back tenfold.
2. Find Your Natural Rhythm, When Are You At Your Best?
Use your flexibility as an entrepreneur to your advantage! If you notice that you enjoy pulling all nighters, adjust your schedule that allows you to take advantage of this time. Same thing applies if you want to go to sleep early and start your day at 4 am.
“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.”
- Thomas Merton
A lot of entrepreneurs make the mistake of working themselves to death, being busy with both business and personal affairs. If you have children and you know daytime is usually busy don’t hesitate to adjust to your work schedule. Don’t be afraid to work on different schedules from the majority of people.
Working on a different schedule requires discipline to say no to people who may not be on your schedule. People may not understand why you’re busy during the evening or on weekends but you’ll need to stay disciplined to succeed in your business.
3. Prepare Yourself for Highs And Lows
Being an entrepreneur requires a lot of mental fortitude. Throughout your journey you’ll experience lots of highs and heavy lows. It’s important to be equally prepared for both experiences. Success can be hard to handle if you’re not ready. You need to be mature enough to save your money, stay humble and realize that it won’t last forever.
“One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.”
- Arthur Ashe
When dealing with low points it’s key to remember that nothing lasts forever. Dealing with low points usually raises feelings of anxiety, inadequacy and stress. As long you do your best in all your work you can take confidence in your ethic. Low points usually indicate lots of stress.
Remember to take breaks and spend time not using your brain for business. Get out of your home and when you’re ready to go back to work, switch your work location. Patience will be an extremely useful virtue.
4. Let go of being perfect
It’s human to want things to be perfect but life frequently shows us that’s seldom how things work. Having a need to be perfect causes anxiety as you strive to reach a goal that, quite frankly, is impossible. You won’t be on your game 100% of time.
Research professor Brené Brown had this to say about perfectionism:
“Perfectionism is a 20-ton shield that we lug around thinking it will protect us when, in fact, it’s the thing that’s really preventing us from being seen and taking flight.”
Letting go of perfectionism doesn’t mean letting your standards drop. As long as you put your best into every thing you do. Sometimes for long projects, simply finishing is better than spending time changing agonizing details. Don’t be a martyr striving for perfection. It makes you erratic and blind to potential ways to improve.
5. Set Time Aside Specifically For Your Family
Just as how you make your work a priority in your life, you also need to find time to prioritize your family. Scheduling distraction free time to spend with your family is a great way to maintain balance in your personal life.
You’ll need to plan your work schedule around this time and make sure you keep it separate from work. Setting time aside for family doesn’t work if you’re on your laptop the whole time trying to get a few extra things done.
If you’re pressed for time you can do activities with your family that have a set end time. Things like watching a movie, playing a round of mini golf or going out to eat are all activities that will most likely take up around 2 hours of your time.
During this time period you can focus your energy on relaxing with your family and enjoying their presence. Think of it as an extended break and you can get right back to work once you’re done. This helps rid you of any anxiety you have about work while you’re out.
If you don’t set aside time to spend with your family and time to just relax (keep in mind they are not the same thing) you put yourself at risk of burning out.
As an entrepreneur you’ll quickly get used to making sacrifices to achieve your goals but you need to slow down before you give away too much. Rome wasn’t built in one day and neither will your empire. Take some time to enjoy your journey as you progress.
It’s up to you to find ways to put these tips in practice in your own life. Entrepreneurs have an uncanny ability to extrapolate information and adapt it for practically; this is something you’ll have to do here. Balance in your life does not mean the same for everyone else.
Two very balanced individuals can have two very different ideas of what that means and how they practice it. Remember, to achieve balance you’ll have to define your principles (what’s important to you) and finds ways to work towards them.
If you consider spending time with family and friends important, you’ll find a way to incorporate that into your life. Remember that you will have to value your time before anyone else does. Set the tone with a clear focus that will guide you towards your goals.
