Have you heard the phrase, “there’s no such thing as ‘too busy?’” For some of us, this phrase is motivating. If you have the same number of hours in a day as Warren Buffet and Mark Zuckerberg, surely you can tackle your top to-do’s, clear your inbox, attend your co-worker’s birthday lunch and make it home by dinner time. For most of us, however, this phrase makes us want to roll our eyes. More often than not, there doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to tackle your workload, let alone spend quality time with your loved ones.
In business and in life, there is a delicate scale balancing productivity (getting things done, working towards accomplishments, and reaching goals) and relationships (family, friendships, co-workers and even your relationship with yourself). Take a moment to identify how your scale is currently balancing. Has it been a while since you’ve nurtured your relationships because you’ve been focusing on being productive? Has dealing with issues in one of your relationships taken over your time and mental capacity, that you find it hard to be productive during the day? Weighing where your current priorities lie will help you find balance in life once again, and both your productivity and relationships will start to improve.
Finding Balance is Important.
When you operate on a tilted scale, you’ll find that something’s got to give. If you’re not careful, you may lose something very important to you. When you start to feel strain on your productivity or your relationships, evaluate if one is the causation of the other. Dissatisfaction on one side of the scale often impacts the other side. By evaluating your core priorities, adjust your time management accordingly and decide what needs to be delegated or removed from your life to reach a healthy equilibrium.
Tips for Leveling the Scale:
- Delegate or eliminate your biggest non-essential time constraints: Audit your time to see what daily or monthly tasks eat up your days. Is there anything you can delegate to a teammate or hire someone to take it off your hands? Can you cut back on the number of social media mini-breaks you take throughout the day? Find three tasks to delegate or eliminate this month so you can focus on your main priorities.
- Create monthly and annual productivity and relationship goals: Actionable goals are great for staying focused and motivated on productivity, while setting boundaries on what can be worked on at a different time. It is essential to have goals with your relationships as well. Set a goal, such as taking a work-free family vacation, and list out the steps you need to take to ensure you meet your goal. Who do you need to train to handle your workload while you’re away? What do you need to work ahead on in preparation?
- Seek out help or mentorship: The stressors in your life and business are there to tell you that something is not working. If you feel like you’re so busy you’re about to break, find a mentor group of business owners or executives that have dealt with the issues you’re going through. Contact a business coach who can help you identify the underlying problem, guide you to a sustainable solution, and hold you accountable of following through so you can once again have a work-life balance.
Remember, the only way to balance the scale is to make a change. Readjusting your priorities to make time for what’s important is key for finding a balance between productivity and relationships. If you’re having trouble finding or maintaining that balance, contact me today.