Recipe for Entrepreneurs to Achieve a Perfect Work/Life Balance

Entrepreneurs who have recently started their journeys tend to go a little overboard with their work. These entrepreneurs become so focused on their work that they ignore their personal needs.

Having some downtime will raise your energy levels and make you more productive. Recently, Microsoft tested a workday workweek in Japan, and productivity soared by an impressive 40%.

Entrepreneurs need to try to attain a perfect work-life balance. Having this balance will make them happier, motivated, and productive.

Here are ingredients that you need to achieve a healthy and eventually a perfect work-life balance:

1. Make sure that you have a schedule.

Always come up with a plan for the future.

It doesn’t take too long to write up a plan for a week.

If you want to make a schedule on a mobile device, Google Calendar is the tool for you. It’s a free time management and scheduling tool from Google that you can use to organize your tasks and objectives.

If you’re a person that likes to have everything on paper, fill in important events on a calendar and place it where it will be visible to you.

All that matters is that you follow a schedule.

Effective planning can prevent a lot of last-minute hassles. Take an hour out every Sunday and plan for the week ahead. You’ll probably get done in under an hour. Planning and scheduling also put things into perspective. They highlight the goals that need to be accomplished and let you see your performance first hand. If you’re making your deadlines and keeping up with your schedule, that’s good enough.

Not having a schedule makes you more prone to miss deadlines and become unproductive. So make sure that you follow a plan and don't miss deadlines.

1. Delegate your tasks to other people.

If you’re the kind of entrepreneur that started solo, you’ll want to do things on your own. Even if your business has grown quite significantly in the past, you’ll prefer to do somethings on your own.

As an entrepreneur, you need to focus on the bigger picture. Like everyone else on the planet, you only have 24 hours in a day to utilize. Time is one of the few things that you can’t buy. You need to be smart about how you spend your time.

If you're doing small, recurring, and time-consuming tasks, who is going to make all the big decisions?

Spending time on these tasks will drain you of your energy and make you sluggish and tired.

Delegate your task to people on your team. Focus on the things that are of the most important to your business.

By delegating your workload to other people, you can give yourself some much-needed free time. Go for a quick jog or have a picnic with your family. 

1. Limit the number of times you check your email.

People love to see an inbox without any unread mail.

Checking your email multiple times a day isn't a smart move. You're going to get around 2.5 times the amount of emails you send in a day. Checking your email every hour is going to be a distraction for you. An easy solution to reduce email problems is by adding a live chat app to your website for solving most of the consumer queries right on the website in real time.

A lot of people have different opinions on how many times you should be checking your inbox. A good number would be three times a day. Anything below two, and you won't be able to stay on top of your emails. And anything above five is going to distract you from your work and do nothing more.

1. Prioritize your tasks.

Not all tasks carry equal weight. Some objectives are more important than others.

A great way to achieve a healthy work-life balance is to prioritize your tasks. Focusing on the processes that are the most important for your startup of business will provide you with the highest ROI (Return on Investment).

Here are three categories that you can divide your tasks into:

• High priority tasks: These tasks are of critical importance to your business. These tasks often have an approaching deadline.
• Medium priority tasks: These tasks are less critical than high priority tasks. These tasks may generally be easier to do and have a reasonable deadline.
• Low priority tasks: These tasks are of even lesser importance than medium priority tasks. Often these tasks can be delegated to junior team members. These tasks have relaxed deadlines, further reducing their priority.

1. Define your work hours.

For most entrepreneurs, there isn’t an off switch. If entrepreneurs want to make money, they’ll need to work for it.

A lot of entrepreneurs get so lost in the grind that they pay no importance to themselves. These entrepreneurs often end up bringing their work home, damaging their relationships with family and loved ones.

If you define your work hours, you’ll be more productive. A bold claim, no?

But seriously, if you know that you only have two more hours to complete an objective, you'll make more effort to focus on your work.

Not working after your work hours gives you the time to focus on yourself and your loved ones. You’ll be better rested to take on the challenges that wait for you the next day.

1. Take breaks during your work hours.

If you're continually working for extended periods, you're going to lose focus and become less productive.

Taking a break and getting a breather from your work will grant you more focus and make you more productive.

1. Have a team that you can count on.

If you have a team that you can rely on, you’ll have much more time on your hands.

Hiring the right team is going to take some time and experience. You may not get it right the first time, but eventually, you'll know exactly who you want on your team.

Having professionals on your team should be a top priority. Experienced veterans of a craft would be able to take care of themselves and your business in your absence. They'll hold down the fort while you have some downtime.

If you need to take some time off, having a team you can count on will do wonders for your peace of mind. 85% of entrepreneurs admit to working when they're on vacation. This percentage can be significantly reduced if the entrepreneurs have a team that'll take care of the business in their absence.

1. Use automation tools.

Technology has automated so many recurring and time-consuming tasks.

Use Slack or Skype to stay in touch with your team. By avoiding time-consuming meetings, you’ll get more work done without wasting time.

Not precisely an automation tool, but Canva is an easy to use software that'll take care of your design needs. I've tried Canva myself and found tools that are easy to use.

Buffer can be used to manage your business’s social media profiles and schedule posts. The best thing about Buffer is that it has an excellent free plan.

If you want to send emails to your target audience, use tools like MailChimp to take care of your email marketing needs.

There are several tools available that you can use to take care of time-consuming tasks. The good news is that some of them offer free versions for you to take advantage of.

Automate and delegate as much of your work as you can so that you can focus on the bigger picture and make better decisions for your business. Remember not to transfer all of your work to your employees or team. If you end up giving your team your work on top of their responsibilities, you're going to reduce their productivity.

1. Schedule time for hobbies and self-care.

All work and no play, makes an entrepreneur dull and no match for the competition.

It's healthy to have hobbies. Whether it's gardening or traveling, make time for your hobbies. The time you put into your hobbies is an investment in your happiness.

Take care of yourself. If you’re healthy and energetic, you can make better decisions. Having a positive disposition will allow you to be more optimistic. Being positive will also raise the morale of your team and colleagues.

Here are four simple ways to take care of yourself:

• Don’t push yourself beyond your limits more than you need to.
• Get an adequate amount of sleep.
• Eat a balanced diet.
• Exercise often.

1. Hire a virtual assistant.

Virtual assistants take care of all the time-consuming but essential things that need to be done.

Social media profiles take a lot of time and effort to maintain. If you instruct your virtual assistant to take care of your business’s social media profiles, you’ll be saving a lot of time that you can put towards more critical tasks.

Virtual assistants can also take care of other tasks like researching, preparing summaries, writing blog posts, and much more.

Conclusion:

Entrepreneurs need to hustle. To survive in the entrepreneurial world, you need to work hard and not stop working.

But that doesn’t mean that you can’t take breaks.

Being a successful entrepreneur depends on how long you can stay in the game. By having a near-perfect work-life balance, you'll be able to remain competitive in the long run.