This topic of work-life balance for entrepreneurs has been something I’ve never totally bought into. Both as an employee and as an entrepreneur myself.
There are times in my life when both my work and personal lives are flowing with ease. I experience way less stress in my life.
…then there are times when I’m working too much and stress levels are sky-high. I’ve experienced occupational burnout several times and usually, my body just says enough. And it takes me weeks to recover from these problems.
You would think I have learned my lesson the last time😅
What I have learned over the years (and I’m still getting better at this all the time!) is the importance of setting boundaries. Re-evaluating my priorities regularly and listening to my body are examples of work-life negotiation. These practices are important to my well-being.
My top priority is to take better care of myself. For example, my solutions for this are eating healthier, drinking more water, exercising, getting a good night’s sleep, unplugging, and enforcing downtime.
For me, this could look like gardening, reading, walking along the water, cooking and baking to fill the freezer, or simply hanging out with friends.
There are times when I’m working on a project, and the deadline is a week away, like a moving day. And it’s all hands on deck to get the house packed, repaired, painted, carpets redone, and all cleaned up.
Then the big day arrives, and my team is frantically unpacking to set up the kitchen and bedrooms.
In the past four months alone, I’ve packed, moved, and unpacked five households!
My work-life balance has been more on the work side lately. Our cycle is that we work longer days to get the job done faster.
Then we rest 😴
This leads me to believe in work-life negotiation as I find it more relatable in terms of how I merge time management and my personal life.
When I’m working longer hours, I negotiate with myself to schedule work days off. And on those days, I turn off my cell phone and don’t go into my office.
I literally turn it all off 📵
It might be a day or three days where I’ll get away. I’ll garden, read, go for walks with my husband, cook, get a massage, a mani-pedi, or meet with friends. When It’s my off time, I unplug!
When I negotiate with myself that I will have to work longer hours for a short time, I still make sure I’m taking care of myself.
With work-life negotiation – as Dr. Chris Mullen, Ph.D. wrote in Forbes – the concept of work-life balance is outdated.
Implementing work-life negotiation encourages you to reassess your workplace goals and empower not only yourself but also your employees.
This opens up the opportunity to discover an individual path of work time vs non-work time. It’s also a good tactic to force yourself into developing good time management skills.
It means you still get your work done… and you get to make time for yourself and your personal responsibilities.
So with all that, are you on Team Work-Life Balance or Team Work-Life Negotiation? 🧐
Comment below!