How to Balance Work and Family Life
Finding a balance between work and family can be a constant struggle for anyone starting up their own company. In this article, we take a look at how entrepreneurs can help create a balance between work and family life.
In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, government-enforced lockdowns right across the world encouraged millions of people to work from their home computers. Although this did come with many unexpected benefits, such as saving time and money on commuting and being able to spend this time on hobbies and with family, it also had its disadvantages.
Whilst working from home was comfortable for some, for others it added an extra strain to their lives as they were unable to focus solely on work whilst their young children or perhaps elderly relatives caused distractions as they may have needed caring for.
Entrepreneurs starting their own companies from their own homes have also faced these challenges, and so in this article, you will find family/work-life balance tips for entrepreneurs who are just starting out.
The importance of work-life balance
Striking for a healthy work-life balance is important not only for your productivity and effectiveness while actually at work, but it is also a vital part of helping maintain your mental and physical health. According to University College London, working overtime can be so bad for your heart’s health that in one study, they found that the risk of developing coronary heart disease was 60% higher in individuals who work three to four hours of overtime, versus those who work zero to two hours overtime every day.
University College London found that making time in your working day to wind down after work is of vital importance to your overall health. Not only does this come with the added benefit of improving your overall health, but your general wellness increases too. This means you will be less likely to suffer from short term illnesses when you have a healthy work-life balance, which in turn means you will need to be absent from work for less, and hence be more productive in general as you can attend work on a more regular basis.
Another benefit of striking a good work-life balance is that you are likely to increase your engagement levels, and therefore increase your overall productivity. According to the Towers Perrin Global Workforce Study 2007 - 2008, “sustaining high performance requires high and sustained employee engagement”. For an engaged, and therefore productive workforce, their study then goes on to list the “ability to balance work/personal life” as a top retention driver for 13 out of 19 countries studied.
Striking a good work/life balance is clearly of crucial importance to individuals as well as to the companies they work for.
Startup work-life balance
When trying to get your own startup off the ground, it can be an extremely stressful and time-consuming period of your life. Not only do you have all the pressures of running your own company, but you also need to be making enough money to pay your personal household bills, as well as keep your company afloat.
According to Investopedia, 90% of startups in 2019 failed, whilst 21.5% of startups typically fail in their first year, 30% in their second, 50% in their fifth and 70% in their tenth. Statistics such as this only serve to add pressure to budding entrepreneurs starting their own companies, especially those who may have employees that they feel responsible for.
Starting up your own business is a really challenging time, but it is crucially important that you make time for yourself and spend time with your family, even when you feel like you should be working 10 hour days.
There are several strategies you can put in place to help keep your work and home life separate. Firstly, if you do not have your own designated home office, it can be worth investing in meeting rooms in a professional office space. To help keep your overheads low, you could consider renting these spaces as and when you need them, rather than signing an expensive lease to your own property.
As well as trying to physically distance your home and work life, being strict with the hours you will work each day is important, as is eating well, drinking plenty of water, exercising regularly and making time for hobbies and things you enjoy doing.
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Now having some idea about exactly how to strike a healthy balance between your work life and family life, you may wish to take steps towards separating these sections of your life. If you usually work from home, you might consider booking meeting rooms so that you can help increase your productivity whilst working, and simultaneously be able to focus fully on your family as you work from a different location.
