Keeping a healthy work-life balance is easier said than done, especially when you’re running a business!
Sometimes there are issues with staff, other times important deliveries don’t make it. Then there are important financial decisions to be made, like finding the cheapest card payment machine – and soon it can feel like there’s never a moment’s rest.
But away from work, your home life, family, friends and hobbies don’t disappear. Each will need dedicated time and each will make demands on your life.
If you’re not careful, it’s easy to see how things can feel as though they are spiralling out of control. The result can be fatigue, poor performance, irritability and ultimately exhaustion, which could keep you out of action for days or weeks as you recover.
It isn’t easy to enjoy a healthy work-life balance, but key to everything is staying in control. Here are some simple tricks that can help you along the way.
Let technology take the strain
In today’s world, you don’t have to do everything. Technological advances mean there are now more tools than ever that can help to ease the pressure and make your life a little bit simpler. Even common business items, like portable card machines, can save you valuable time serving customers, faffing with the till or cashing up at the end of each day.
Turn off your notifications
Smartphones have revolutionised our lives in so many positive ways. But their ‘always-on’ functionality can make it hard to feel like you’ve ever switched off from work. Emails. Social media. Messages. The barrage of information is constant – but how much do you really need to know now?
Try turning off your notifications and restricting when you check your work messages. Perhaps you’ll want your emails to appear one or two times over the weekend? Or maybe you’ll want to ignore all work messages completely until you’re back in the office.
Either way, switching off your notifications is a quick way to give you some mental breathing space and reduce the feeling of being pressured from all directions.
Keep organised
One of the biggest keys to reclaiming time for yourself is understanding exactly what demands you face. Something as simple as an online calendar, with your work hours entered along with any other appointments or socialising time with friends, will give you a quick, easy-to-understand view of your schedule.
If your mind works visually, you could even try colour-coding your entries – meaning you’ll soon be able to see if one thing in particular is sucking up all your time and energy.
Hire someone you can trust
If your business is growing, one of the most effective ways of buying back some time for yourself can be finding the right manager to look after things on a day-to-day basis.
Could a senior employee take some of the pressure off your shoulders? Would it free up more time for you to spend with friends and family? And would your own performance at work improve as a result?
Make time for exercise
If you don’t already exercise regularly, this will be hard for the first couple of weeks. But building a routine where you snatch 30 minutes or an hour to exercise will reap immediate dividends. Could you get up an hour earlier, for example, and go for a run before work? Or is there a gym near your work that you could visit in your lunch break?
As well as feeling stronger and healthier, you’ll also feel happier thanks to the endorphins released during exercise. You’ll perform better, too, with clearer thinking helping you to get your work tasks done more efficiently and effectively than ever.
There’s no one-size-fits-all method of building a better work-life balance. But taking the time to step back and trying to find some simple changes could have a big impact. Good luck!
To find out more about our card machines for businesses, visit our Card Machines section.
