What do you struggle with the most in balancing your personal life?

[Pesso]

Hey Sellers!

When you’re running a business, it can be really difficult to balance your work life and personal life. I just wrote this article about work-life balance over in the Community Blog, with some strategies to help reclaim your time, and a bit about my own experiences.

We’d love to hear your thoughts:

• What do you struggle with the most in balancing your personal life?

• What strategies work best for you to separate yourself?

Then check out the blog post to learn more!

Pesso

[mpmpmp22]

Thanks for sharing your story @Pesso, this is such an important topic!

• What do you struggle with the most in balancing your personal life?

For me, it's knowing when to unplug. I care deeply about the work that I do and sometimes that means that work blends into my regular life which has caused burn out in the past. I'll say this will always be a work in progress, but being aware of it, is a good step in the right direction!

• What strategies work best for you to separate yourself?

Finding an accountability buddy to help you when you need it. Even having someone check in on you helps a lot because it reminds you when you need to step away and having the support to do so. I've never been good at fully unplugging, but what I have found is giving myself 30 minutes to check in helps a lot with anxiety if I am traveling or away somewhere.

What about you? @WoolFamilyFarm, @Marcosspice13, @TCSlaguna 

[Pesso]

Thank you for sharing too, @mpmpmp22 !

These are so great! 

How do you know when to unplug?

I love the idea of giving yourself 30 minutes to fight the urge to keep working or checking and blending the two in an uncontrolled way.

Love to accountability buddy tip too! 

[mpmpmp22]

@Pesso glad it resonates! I find that when I am losing sleep and stressed/anxious is usually a good sign that burnout is approaching and that I need to start letting myself check out more so that it doesn't get worse. It's definitely good to catch the signs early before it becomes a problem! 

[TCSlaguna]

Great conversation @Pesso!

• What do you struggle with the most in balancing your personal life?

I like to help my friends, business partners and family as much as possible, to the point in which I am not taking care of myself. I need to constantly remind myself that there are things I need to do for myself before I can help others. This will ensure that I am capable of helping others in the future. 

• What strategies work best for you to separate yourself?

Honestly, it's still a work in progress. I've started creating To Do lists on my phone and on the refrigerator. I try to tackle a couple of personal items a day, but the larger items seem to still stay on the list. And I'm trying to learn to say "No" or "I can't at the moment."

[mpmpmp22]

I know this saying is a bit cheesy, but you can't fill up other people's cups if yours is empty. I need to remind myself of this often too.

Good on you for saying no more, definitely a good call on setting boundaries! 

[Pesso]

Suuuuuch a good point! I love that line. Thanks for sharing, @mpmpmp22 !

[Pesso]

I feel this so much, @TCSlaguna . I'm also a big giver, much to my own discomfort and self-sacrifice. You're totally right, if you don't help yourself, you can't help others later. I love that. 

Listing and prioritizing the big to-do's is huge, and saying no is a big one too. Thanks for sharing these! So excited to hear how things are going a few months from now.

[Bronze_Palms]

I struggled turning off my business life and it would bleed into my personal life.

My husband and I are both business owners so unplugging is something we are collectively terrible at and we do influence each other. We went on a 3 week vacation while staff worked both of our businesses, we were 12 hours ahead so essentially useless to the businesses. You wouldn't believe it, but the businesses did excellent without us. 

That vacation really showed me that the business will do great if we have the right team and systems in place. I am really proud of them and they made the vacation incredible for us. Being back from vacation, I am restructuring the business so I have a definitive line between business and personal to make time for family, friends, and myself. 

Removing notifications from my phone, DECIDING to put my phone away, DECIDING to put myself to bed, are all things that help me sleep, feel motivated to workout and protect my mental health. Without the vacation, I would not have trusted that I could do that. 

[mpmpmp22]

I resonate a lot with this and it is great to hear that while you were away, the business still ran just fine!

Definitely a good reminder to keep in mind, and it sounds like you're already making steps to ensure more balance between work and life. Nicely done! 🙂 

[Pesso]

That is absolutely incredible that you were both able to step away for so long, @Bronze_Palms ! Even better that things went smoothly along the way. Absolutely deciding to turn things off and disconnect is essential, and I'm so glad to hear that it worked for you. 

What did you do before you left to make sure your employees were empowered to run the business smoothly, and you were comfortable entrusting them?

[Bronze_Palms]

Thank you so much!!

We planned the trip about 4 months in advance, so I started planning to leave the salon then. I made a list of all the things I, exclusively, was doing: rinsing the units, cleaning public areas (lobby, hallway, staff area), posting on social media, replying to client text messages, replying to client emails, taking client phone calls, and packaging wholesale orders.

Instead of delaying to put these practices into effect (which I contemplated doing multiple times), I decided it was better to start ASAP, make it part of our routine, and work through the inevitable kinks that come with starting anything new.

Social media, client communication, and packing are part of daily tasks, and we have a rinse list for the bigger stuff. There are different cleaning tasks on there every day broken up.

I am not sure what the secret to trust staff is; I never liked the idea of having cash in my business so we are cashless. I trust my gut with hiring and have a strong training manual in place. Everyone is compensated well, shifts are only 5 hours, clients are great, I don't micromanage, and the work is fun!

[Pesso]

That is so amazing, @Bronze_Palms!

That's such a great idea to start delegating and getting employees to do new tasks as soon as possible, long before you leave, so they get used to it being part of the responsibilities and routine, and you can jump in to teach as needed. 

Love it all, thanks for sharing!

[GizzyDogGear]

Being the main one working our small business trying to keep the house duties maintained sometimes can be challenging. 

I'm trying to build the business, and social media platform, and working on the website, it's all so overwhelming sometimes. 

I'm trying now to write things down and mark them off as I go. 

[mpmpmp22]

Definitely no small feat! Remember to reflect on all of the work that you are doing too. Sometimes we get caught up on what we haven't done yet, but you are accomplishing a lot! 

[GizzyDogGear]

Thanks so much, I really needed this. 

[Pesso]

That is a ton for just on person, @GizzyDogGear -- I can absolutely see how that can be overwhelming, and make you feel like you're treading water and not getting anywhere. 

@mpmpmp22 is absolutely right! (Thank you!!)

A To Do list is great to keep focused on what you have, but it's also cool to keep a Done List to remind yourself of everything you've accomplished!

Take time for yourself, celebrate the wins, take breaks when you can, and you'll get through it. And if you can, look at bringing someone else in to take care some of the things. 

You got this!

[Bronze_Palms]

Totally! This way, I am not requesting staff do all of this work, then I leave a week later. That doesn't feel good for anyone. This system we have now is very fair and dispersed evenly.

[Pesso]

So great, @Bronze_Palms !

Did you end up keeping that delegation once you got back? 

Less work for you forever?

[Stacelyn24]

I'm a Libra so finding balance is the name of the game for me lol 🙂

It also means that I struggle with finding balance as well.  I struggle most stopping myself from always working.  It can be 10 o'clock at night and if something pops in my mind I will get up and work on it.  Also, not having a set agenda of what I'm going to be working on for the day...which leads to me not getting a lot of much needed things done...

[Pesso]

I feel this so much, @Stacelyn24 . It's sooo hard to stop working, especially when a great idea comes up and you just HAVE to act on it. It's really hard to stop that urge, and I think the two of those go hand-in-hand -- not having a schedule or agenda can make one jump around between a lot of different things, and keep that going into off hours. 

I started filling up my calendar with "Focus Time" for different tasks to keep me on track. This way I know from 9-10am I'm doing X thing, 1-2pm Y thing. And then if something comes up when I'm not "on," I'll write it down and focus on it the next day. 

It's hard, but you can do it!