By Shannon Courtney
As an entrepreneur, creating a healthy work-life balance is crucial to maintaining strong mental health and avoiding burnout. Resilience as an entrepreneur helps your business become stronger and adapt to whatever setback or unexpected hurdle comes your way. Your communities and partnerships can also fortify necessary resilience. However, the ups and downs of the entrepreneurial journey can often negatively impact mental health and well-being. Here are some key takeaways to help emerging entrepreneurs find work-life balance.
Establish a clear and concise list of priorities
As an entrepreneur, it can be overwhelming to tackle all of the necessities and challenges encountered in the first five years of operation. Take some time to rethink and write down your business’s values and priorities to see what is essential to focus on. For example, is it more of a priority to develop partnerships or establish a networking strategy?
In regards to your personal life, is one of your goals to spend more time with family and friends? According to a survey from Entrepreneur, “better prioritization of home and work tasks is key to achieving a better work-life balance.” Therefore, once you understand your priorities, you can minimize distractions, embrace change and open yourself up to new opportunities.
Include “me time” in your daily schedule
Successful entrepreneurs know that to give their devotion to their business, they must learn to incorporate “me time” into their daily schedule. Whether it is exercise, sleeping, social interaction or browsing the internet, these moments allow you to quiet your thoughts and reflect on your present and future.
For example, Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code, focuses 30 minutes every day doing various activities that are not related to work. Likewise, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates completes a “think week” ritual where he spends a week in the forest with books to embrace nature and quiet.
Learn to say no
With the ever-expanding entrepreneurial opportunities at your fingertips, it can feel as if you must fill up your schedule and forgo mental well-being for success. However, this ultimately results in overscheduling, being overwhelmed and incomplete tasks. Although it is a straightforward concept, it is fundamental to building resilience: You do not need to do everything. Learn to say no.
It is more efficient to focus on specific business endeavors than to juggle a hectic and impossible schedule. According to author and business executive Seth Godin, “The short run always seems urgent, and a moment where compromise feels appropriate. But in the long run, it’s the good no’s that we remember.” You avoid burnout and can engage more in-depth in other projects to reach your full potential by saying no.
Head to #YLAIStrong for further resources about finding a work-life balance while finding entrepreneurial success.