Strategies for Work-life Balance for Entrepreneurs: Discipline and Commitment | Outsource and Delegate | Distractions and Notifications | Multitasking | Personal Time | No or Later | Longer Hours | Final Thoughts

For an entrepreneur who’s as busy as a bee, 24 hours is not enough hours in a day to create a good balance between their professional and personal lives. Hence, it’s necessary to encourage a good work-life balance for entrepreneurs, lest they fail miserably in one or both lives.

Moreover, as an entrepreneur, your desk is constantly filled with tasks from business planning or strategy phases to sorting out finances and tax. Thus it can get pretty overwhelming if you’re focused on handling all of these alone.

But that’s not all, the hustle culture pushes you (the entrepreneur) to success, but it can quickly push you to the other side of the coin. That is burnout and being overwhelmed with zero time for yourself and the people you care about.

7 Strategies for Work-life Balance for Entrepreneurs

Here are some proven strategies to help you achieve work-life balance:

1. Discipline and Commitment

It’s easier said than done when it comes to finding a balance; by balance, we don’t mean a 50/50 balance. It’s that sweet spot where you’re living in your genius zone, getting the work done, and living a happy life.

But without discipline and commitment to the cause, there won’t be such a balance that works for business and personal life.

Consider having an accountability partner to help keep you in check. But remember, a lack of discipline or commitment is equivalent to an F in this journey. 

2. Learn to Outsource and Delegate

Agreed, as entrepreneurs, it’s not out of place to feel like no one else can do a more satisfactory job as you do – we all feel that way most times. But when your tasks keep piling up, you end up being less productive and doing poorly than someone else would have done.

Rather than do it all alone, consider taking the time to find the right person for the job and train them. This is assuming that there’s truly no one else that can do it better. 

Outsourcing and delegating specific tasks will help free up time to focus on more critical tasks and your personal life. However, this doesn’t work only for business-related tasks. It does the same for house chores. 

3. Turn off Distractions and Notifications

The perfect work-life balance for entrepreneurs involves turning off distractions while working and turning off notifications (email, slack and whatnot) when you’re living. Creating boundaries and letting your employees in on your boundaries is a great way to ensure you hold them up. 

For instance, letting your PA know that work emails are not allowed after 8 pm will keep them in check. And unless it’s a do-or-die affair (which is likely never the case), you’ll never get an email from them.

Turning off distractions promotes productivity. But when working, turn off distractions, especially those from social media. It makes no sense to get distracted while working and trying desperately hard to remember what you were up to before the notification dropped. You can always check in on social media during short breaks in-between work.

Quick tip: Have short breaks in-between work. Especially when you’re stuck but never in your zone because you might never get your mojo back. 

4. You’re Not an Excellent Multitasker

Multitasking is one of the biggest lies we were sold decades ago, but now, we know the truth – there’s no such thing as an excellent multitasker. 

You can’t multitask life and work, so focus on work or life one at a time and stop trying to do 3 tasks at a time. It builds stress, overwhelms you, and impedes your productivity level. 

Also, while at work, don’t get carried away with the idea of working on several tasks simultaneously because it never ends as good as you think. Hence, to create a work-life balance quit multitasking and go head to head with one task at a time.

5. Prioritize Personal Time

Let’s face it, in the battle of finding a work-life balance for entrepreneurs, life always suffers. So if you truly want your life to get a fair share of your 24 hours daily routine, prioritize it. 

Treat it with just as much importance as you treat work matters. Having a picnic with your family or friends should be like meeting with a client. Seeing it as an essential venture helps keep you in check and maintain a good balance.

Quick tip: Consider using a scheduling app for your personal life as well. This will help ensure that you don’t forget important events or dates.

Related: How To Take 2 Weeks Off From Your Business

6. Say No or Later

It’s easy to fall into the trap of “yes, I can do that now” when you can easily outsource the task (if it’s urgent) or get it done later if it’s not super urgent. Regarding entrepreneurial work-life strategies, saying no goes a long way in helping you stay disciplined for your cause.

Learn to say no to out-of-the-blues conferences or invitations to be a speaker. Do not fall under the illusion that you’ll never get a better invitation because you will. If you’ve got a lot on your plate and you’re stressed out, take a rain check on such events.

7. Working Longer Hours is counterproductive 

Don’t work too long; using a time tracker or logging your hours is a great idea. Some experts recommend working for just 40 hours a week. But if you ever need to clock in more hours, it should never be more than 50.

And if it is, consider hiring someone to take up some of those tasks on your back. Moreover, studies show that working long hours is detrimental to your health and can increase your chances of having a stroke or atrial fibrillation. 

PS: Working more hours isn’t equivalent to getting the job done, nor is it equivalent to earning more dollars.

Final Thoughts

None of these strategies on how to achieve work-life balance will work if you aren’t committed to the journey. The perfect strategy or tip on work-life balance for entrepreneurs starts with discipline and ends in commitment; everything else is in-between.

Don’t assume that your life, or the people and things you care about can wait, while business can never wait. 

Related Article:

Successful Entrepreneurs Embrace the Hard Parts of Business

Are Longer Hours and Harder Work The Future? Is Wayfair CEO Right about Work Life Balance?