The Self-Employed Struggle of a Work / Life Balance (And how to help!)
I’m sure you’ve been there, sitting down on the sofa after a busy day of self-employment, and instead of relaxing, all you can think about is what else needs to be done. It can be so difficult to switch our brains off, even when we know we’ve done a good day of work.
We’ve also all heard about a work / life balance, but how do we get that without feeling guilty?
For me, work and life are very closely linked, not only do I love my business, but I also operate from a home office. This means my work room and my relaxing-in-front-of-the-tv room are right next door to each other. I used to struggle a lot with feeling guilty about relaxing, which is why I put a few steps into place.
Planning Ahead
The best thing about being self-employed is the ability to be flexible with work hours, so often one week for me looks very different from another, which is why I have never been able to stick to a nine to five schedule.
If this sounds like you, try sitting down with a piece of paper, with your days of the week along the top. Then, block out some times during the week that you know you won’t be able to work. Then, think about how many hours you want to put in that week, and be realistic with your time and commitments.
Then, just start blocking out some slots that you know will work for you in the days, adding up to the hours you would like to put in. Then you can see where your free time is, where you can relax, and where you are ‘scheduled’ to work. If you really wanted to target something in your free time too, like going to the gym perhaps, make this a priority to schedule into the week too and stop just going when you feel like you are free enough.
For myself, I don’t punish myself if I have to move things around through the week, you never know what is going to pop up! I just simply switch it with some spare time somewhere.
Now you may be thinking this is all well and good, but how does this stop the guilty feeling when we put our feet up?
Record the Good Things
Something else I have put into practice now is recording my wins for the day. When I first heard of doing this, I thought, well, I have to-do lists. I know I finished this and that today, I don’t need to do that, but when I gave it a go, the results were surprising.
It’s easy to forget all the little tasks we can accomplish through the day, so noting down in a separate little diary at the end of the day all the things I achieved today really made me think about my day and my productivity. I found myself labeling a day that I felt I hadn’t made much progress on my business, suddenly quite productive, because I sent those emails, and I finished those little tasks on the website, and I researched these new packaging options. A lot of these tasks seem invisible when we look back, but without them, we wouldn’t have the same business to work on.
It was recognising these things that helped me change my view on my productivity, which in turn made me feel like I had the time to switch off and relax a little. Now, this doesn’t work out perfectly every day, when ideas are flowing or a deadline is looming, but generally planning my week ahead and recording my wins help a lot towards a healthier work / life balance. I feel less guilty and I am able to do more of the things I found difficult to fit into my week now.
Sometimes when our businesses are so close to us, it’s hard to see anything else besides it, but hobbies are important, self-care is important, time with family and friends is important. We need balance to come to our business every day with a clear head and without that burn-out feeling.
