Obtaining a healthy work-life balance is very easy when you are a sole trader. You will probably work from home and you won’t have anyone else that you need to answer to either. For this reason, it should be very easy for you to switch off, right? Unfortunately, this is not always the case. In fact, sole traders often find it very difficult to strike the healthy balance between their work and home life because the lines are much more blurred than they might appear. If you want to strike a good balance, then you can find out what you need to know, right here.
Play to your Strengths
The first thing that you need to do is try and play to your strengths. You need to stop being everything to everyone and you also need to put yourself first. If you are not a whiz when it comes to accounts or even graphic design, then try and outsource this instead of wasting your time. The sooner you are able to do this, the sooner you will find that you have way more patience and understanding for others and their respective skillset. You will also get a better understanding of your own work ethic as well and what you’re good at, so keep that in mind.
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Prioritise your Time
If you look at your to-do list, then you may find that it has over 50 tasks on it. You have to make sure that you prioritise these tasks into different categories. This includes urgent tasks, important tasks and tasks that fall into neither category. If you can do this, then you will soon find that you are able to have a much easier time when you sit down to work and that you are also able to focus more as well.
Are you a Morning Person?
If you are a morning person then make sure that you assign tasks that may require a great deal of concentration during this time. Never leave your tough tasks until later on because if you do, then you may find that you end up having a nightmare with them and this is the last thing that you need. If you are not a morning person then this is not an issue at all, in fact, you just need to make sure that you take the time to work out when your most productive hours are so that you can work around this much more efficiently.
Plot some Personal Time
When personal issues come up, it can be very tempting for you to bury yourself in your work. You have to make sure that you don’t do this if possible. If you do not make time for your personal life or if you do not give yourself some time to handle any issues that might come up, then you may well not have a company to go back to, so you have to make sure that you keep this in mind as much as possible. Stuck with what to do with your personal time? Why not watch sports or learn about sports betting?
Have Set Work Hours
Set working hours for yourself and do everything you can to stick to them. If you don’t, then you may find that you end up working until midnight every single night. This is the last thing that you need, so when a client is demanding that you give them your time, tell them that you will, but when your working hours are over, you are no longer available. It may be difficult to stick to this at first, but eventually it will become second nature and the whole thing will be easier for you in the long run.
Feel Confident about your Finances
It doesn’t matter whether you work for yourself or whether you have other connections because you have to make sure that you are entirely confident about your finances. If you want to do this, then you need to get some accounting software. This is the best way for you to make sure that you are staying up to date with everything from the very first day. Of course, cash flow is super important if you run a business and it can also be challenging to stay on top of everything too. If you want to work around this, then you need to start using tools early-on so you can forecast your future much more efficiently.
Manage your Time
Create a specific timeline of all of your activities. It’s also very helpful for you to use specific computer programs if you can. This will help you to customise your own documents. Use MS Excel and put your dates across the top column, with all of your activities down the side. You then need to break each task down into various components. Include your family commitments, such as birthday parties or even holidays. This will help you to stop forgetting about them.
Make your Workspace Available
Working for yourself will come with long hours and you may even find that you don’t have much downtime either. You need to invest in equipment and you also need to try and support yourself as well. This would include getting a comfortable chair and even an ergonomic keyboard. Investing in a support stand for your laptop would also help you out a lot here.
Tap into Tech
Don’t waste your time driving to meetings, use a video conferencing technology instead. When you do things like this, you will soon find that you free yourself up some time and that you also don’t need to worry about things like fuel costs.
Workout
Sure, it’s super easy for you to cancel going to the gym or even stopping yourself from going to a yoga class because you know that your client wants something done. At the end of the day, your clients should not come before you, so you have to make sure that you do everything you can to try and make sure that you work out as much as possible. If you do this, then you will soon find that you are able to reap the benefits of having more energy and higher self-worth.
