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Does blending work with your personal life amount to less balance in your life and more stress? If you don’t create boundaries and instead, mix your life and work, things can easily get out of hand making you ineffective. Women entrepreneurs may find balancing family life and a home office a bigger challenge than their male counterparts simply because they traditionally take on more responsibilities related to the home and raising children than men.
For many people, it’s less stressful to work based on a schedule that offers fixed hours. This helps create a structured day and helps you set your boundaries. However, as a woman entrepreneur, things don’t have to get stressful. You can have a flexible schedule and still get everything done without a lot of stress. Remember, it’s good to take time off from work and spend time with your family to create balance in your life.
Even if your children are grown up, focusing entirely on work without engaging in a social life is not healthy. To avoid this, here are some useful tips commonly applied by women entrepreneurs to create work-life balance.
1. Make Your Expectations Realistic
Regardless of the circumstances, don’t accept the idea that women can manage everything all the time. It’s not an easy task to create balance. There are times when your family will need your attention – especially with children or aging parents in the picture. At times, your business will be the center of your focus. For example, this is often true after acquiring new projects and customers. It becomes challenging to compartmentalize all of the aspects of your life. If you find yourself in this situation, it’s helpful to be flexible and make adjustments to your expectations. Doing so will reduce a lot of stress and create balance in your life.
2. Build in Time for Yourself
Get the necessary support you need and build in time for yourself in your schedule. If you currently are not outsourcing any of your business tasks and activities, look at where you could use regular assistance. You could hire a virtual assistant to help with your work , or you could hire a babysitter or house cleaner to help at home.
3. Switch off Your Devices
Plan your work time for the day or week, and don’t work outside of those scheduled hours. When you unplug your devices, it helps you put a hard stopping point on your work day. Some people refer to this as a “digital detox.” If you form a habit of doing this bit by bit, you’ll start to feel the positive effects fairly quickly.
4. Be Sure of What You’re Comfortable With
Find out what works best for you. It’s important for you to understand what you need physically and emotionally to stay energized. Identify things that help you to detach yourself from commitments or activities that add to your stress level. What brings energy, motivation, and passion to your mind? Remember, what works for others may not necessarily work for you. Choose an activity away from work that brings great meaning to your life. Enjoy it, and don’t feel guilty about doing that activity.
5. Reduce Distractions
Distractions may cause you to lose precious time for your work and/or your family. Don’t let non-work tasks distract you from your work. This is particularly important if you work at home. Turn off social media, unplug your phone, and shut your office door. This will enable you to get more done in a shorter amount of time, so you’ll have more time to spend with friends and family.
6. Take a Lunch Break away from Your Desk
When it’s time for lunch, get up from your desk and eat in another room. Leave the office even if you’re working from home. Changing your environment and physically getting away from your work is a good way of clearing up your mind and helping you recoup energy for a productive afternoon.
7. Let Your Spouse Be Part of Your Business
It doesn’t matter whether your spouse is in another field. You can talk about your challenges and opportunities to get a fresh perspective, verbally strategize, and more. If your partner in life understands your business and supports you, everything will be easier, including finding work-life balance.
To lead a healthy life, you need to Maintain work-life balance. As a woman, you may feel compelled to handle everything, but no one can do it all. Instead, follow the useful tips described above that women entrepreneurs use to create a work-life balance. You’ll be happier and healthier as a result.
Wonderful and excellent tips…well women these days try n multitask and hence start suffering from health and mental issues. Need a helping hand for sure. And women too should ask for help clearly not just expect people to understand their situation.
Well put up points.