Tips on Achieving the Elusive Work-Life Balance
Among CEOs and business leaders, the search for the best work-life balance has been going on for years. Only recently has the crucial importance of this balance become crystal-clear for everyone. Without a proper balance, business leaders face exhaustion, burn-out, and even risks to their physical well-being.
Essentially, work-life balance “is the state of equilibrium where a person equally prioritizes the demands of one’s career and the demands of one’s personal life,” notes Business News Daily. The objective is “more about having the flexibility to get things done in your professional life while still having time and energy to enjoy your personal life.”
A lofty goal? Perhaps. But there are many ways in which to influence that work-life balance and make it more amenable to your own situation. Here’s how:
Aim for simplicity
The work you do is complex and made up of many moving parts. At the same time, you may be inadvertently making things more difficult for yourself than they have to be.
As Manager Up suggests, it’s a good idea to “get rid of the things you don’t need” in your professional life. When something isn’t “meeting the bottom line, you either change things so it does, or you get rid of it.” The same principle applies to your personal life.
Say “No” to perfectionism
An obsession with getting every element right on a key project—thus, risking its completion per a predetermined deadline—is a big disruptor of the work-life balance.
As we have noted before, “Working on a project or initiative until you think it’s ‘perfect’ is a time-consuming luxury you can’t afford.” The more strategic approach is aiming to “do the best you can and then move on, as opposed to endlessly tweaking and sweating all the minor details.”
Delegate!
Most business leaders are keenly aware of the need for delegation. When you assign tasks to other talented individuals on your team, you take things off your plate that might otherwise detract from a successful work-life balance. When others are getting important tasks done, your schedule is more flexible, with more opportunity to take time off of work and recharge with family and friends.
According to CEO Today Magazine, delegation helps “the senior leadership team develop and also [enables] you to let go and ensure that the business runs smoothly” in your absence. The most effective business leaders set up “conditions for a business to run seamlessly, whether they are in the office, or not.”
Join a peer group
In a setting where business leaders and their peers gather to help one another, members learn about ways to improve their work-life balance. As a TAB survey indicated, hundreds of entrepreneurs asked about their work-life balance indicated that “those using peer advisory boards reported higher satisfaction with their time both in and outside of work.”
TAB members found they were less likely to neglect either their families or themselves when they were part of a peer group that held them accountable for aiming for a better balance in their lives.