We came across an interesting article from Inc.com about people who go years without days off; people who throw themselves so fully into their jobs that their personal lives take a back seat. Inc.com gives some valuable advice on how to avoid this happening to you. Below we have summarised accordingly.
We all know the person in the office who never calls in sick, who never takes a day of their holiday, who always gets their projects done twice as well and twice as fast. Productivity seems like a natural by-product of their everyday life, but have you ever stopped to think about what they may be sacrificing to achieve this? A healthy balance of life outside work is essential for forming a rounded personality and character; the best businessmen and women are charismatic and social. You rarely find somebody at the top of the ladder who doesn’t have an indulgent social life: we’re only human after all.
Do you feel like you’re spending more and more time at work, or worrying about work? You need to live a little, and here are a few ways to take that step back.
1.) Assess your work-to-home balance.
Everybody has to work overtime occasionally, and we all have weeks where we’re in fifth gear constantly. But being in this mode permanently, or for the majority of your time, means that there’s something wrong with your business model. If you’re working at your maximum capacity every day, what happens when something goes wrong and you don’t have another gear to shift up to? We know that entrepreneurism sometimes seems like an impossible cluster of hours, days and weeks of non-stop work; but you need to re-assess that. It’s an unhealthy lifestyle and will hurt your business in the long term. Swallow your pride and go to a business coach, they exist for a reason.
2.) Passion vs. Productivity
Your new company was probably born out of a passion for a particular service or product that you can provide, but would you have done it if you didn’t see the financial rewards? We’re all guilty of having our eyes fixed on the prize, but why shouldn’t we be rewarded for our hard work? Go back to when you first started the job that you’re in now, do you have the lifestyle that you expected to have by now? You need to know when to stop throttling your efforts to earn money and take the time to relax with the luxuries you’ve earned. If you carry on as you are, your first chance to do this could be your retirement.
3.) Consider letting go.
Imagine cutting down to a four day week, or rewarding yourself with an early Friday finish. It might seem like a bad idea, but think about it hard. Are you really needed at the office as much as you think you are? Will everything fall apart the minute you step out of the door? Your employees and colleagues are usually far more capable than you think. Refusing to take time off work is often a trait of those who want to feel needed. You need to take a backseat for a while; if things go wrong then you’ll fix them. You might even identify improvements to your business model by stepping outside of the bubble.
4.) Business treatment for your personal life.
You’re probably good at organisation. Your business techniques can be applied to your life outside of work. If you’re having trouble managing time to see the ones you love, try writing an itinerary for home life as well as your working day. If you’re used to a system, there’s no reason that you can’t carry it over into other parts of your life. You deserve the freedom and happiness of a successful entrepreneur, otherwise why are you working so hard?
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