Work Life Balance Tips for Small Business Owners

Linen Service would like to challenge you to take off a little time off today and follow these work life balance tips to rework your personal / life calendar for a more productive tomorrow.

Whether you are starting up your first family practice or running a bustling trendy restaurant in downtown Chicago all small business owners at one time or another find it difficult to properly balance work and life activities; often leaving entrepreneurs burnt out and significantly decreasing productivity across all scopes of life.

Here are a few tips to help you regain control over both your work efforts as well as your personal life.

Step 1: Planning your Daily Work / Personal Schedule

Take some time and jot down a list of what your perfect day would look like. Be sure to include daily work tasks at hand as well as personal items including meals, errands and tasks around the house. Make sure to include some personal downtime for yourself as well as scheduled time for family and friends. It is also important to understand your personal schedule including when you are performing at your best (are you an early bug or evening owl) and take this into consideration when scheduling out your tasks.

Step 2: Creating your Work / Personal Life Calendar

Once you have everything jotted down in a list format; open a calendar (The Google Calendar is free and integrates with most phones)

Draw a Line between Work and Home
Make sure to include a defined line between work and home. Make it a rule to not take work home with you at night.

Schedule Personal Time
Make sure to include slots for “me time” to exercise your body, spirit, and mind. Included in these activities should be time to get active, eat regular meals, family & friends activities and personal time for your favorite hobbies.

Make sure to include a Time to Unplug
Set a time period every day where you unplug yourself from electronics in the house including your phone, computer, and television.

Step 3: Eliminate Time Sucking Events from your Calendar

Now that you have the important tasks laid out in your calendar, take some time to figure out how to remove items from your daily tasks that take time and return little to no value to your life. Take this time to ask yourself how I can cut out time from my schedule. Make sure to consider your commute schedule, errands…

Here are some tips on how to eliminate time sucking events:

Consolidate Errands to One Day per Week
Make sure to plan ahead and reserve one day per week where you handle all of your business & personal errands. By doing this you can plan out your daily route and save both time and money on gas.

Filter Phone Calls
Filter your phone calls and let those phone calls go to voicemail and then sort through them later. This will allow you to filter out the noise and concentrate on the tasks at hand.

Delegate Tasks when Possible
Consider tasks that could be outsourced which take up your time and make them a priority for delegation. For instance, if you are still taking your business uniforms & linens home on the weekends for laundering; consider filling out this quick and easy commercial laundry service request form and get connected to local commercial service providers in your area that have been pre-screened for excellence in quality and service by our linen finder service.