For years, I've spoken to business owners who have wondered if they should have an office or how much they should utilize the office space they had. A huge part of that question of how we balance when we work and where we work has to do with what we desire for our lives to look like as business owners when it comes to how our work days go, when we desire to start our day, how often we take vacations, when we engage with family members, and more.
The pandemic pushed many business owners to work from home even if they hadn't been before, and caused boundaries to be even more blurred when it came to the concept of work-life balance. There are so many reasons why we all went into business, but most of us can agree that, no matter what our business sector is, we didn't go into business to work around the clock for 7 days a week and 20 hours a day.
So what can we do now to manage working remotely as business owners? Here are a few top tips that come to mind:
1) Really reflect on what your non-negotiables are when it comes to your work schedule during this season in your life
Reflect on what your current responsibilities are to your family and friends and also how much leisure time you want to have amidst your work responsibilities. Think about what an ideal life and ideal schedule would look like for you.
2) Establish clear starting and ending times for your meetings and your administrative work
As business owners, sometimes we have clear boundaries set on meeting times but carry our business administrative work late into the night (trust me, I know this first-hand!). Some of us are also still working on firmly establishing when we desire to meet with others and when we do not. Of course, there are exceptions, but definitely identify what might be considered an exception when it comes to when you are scheduling meetings or administrative work for your business.
3) Identify systems of accountability for balancing your work-from-home life
Everyone is different when it comes to what works well for accountability. Though some ideas of what has worked for current and past Executive Coaching clients who are business owners are:
Having a specific daily routine in place based on a time management structure within Google Calendar or another calendar tool
Setting alarms that remind you to transition to different aspects of the day that are personal or professional in nature
Scheduling personal tasks like cooking or food prep or errand running in the middle of the day on whatever calendar tool you use so that those tasks don't happen haphazardly throughout the day
Using apps or tools like Focus on iPhone or the Flora app to aid in focusing over a specific period of time on task
You may have heard a number of these tips before or they might be new to you, but my hopes are that you continue to implement whatever is needed to strive towards having a business that is in alignment with your values when it comes to how you spend your time, even as you're working remotely.
As always, please feel free to share this post with friends or family who you think might benefit from it!
Photo credit: Ishan on Unsplash
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