12 Ways To Improve Work Life Balance Beginning Today

Last week I talked about entrepreneurs and addiction to work. I concluded that while clinical addictions to work can be real, they are relatively rare. Furthermore, the negative label of addiction is sometimes misapplied to the commitment and energy that is very typically one of an entrepreneur’s greatest traits. If you missed that post, you can find the column and link to the work addiction self-test survey here.
Clearly, however, the concept of work/life balance has struck a sensitive nerve. While clinical work addictions may be rare, lack of work/life balance is a pervasive issue that to some degree perhaps applies to us all. As someone who has been an entrepreneur through multiple companies and for nearly all of my life, I can see room for improvement on most every point. So with an eye towards improving the balance of work, rest and play for all of us, I have compiled the following 12 strategies entrepreneurs at every level can use to increase their strengths on this front.

First, let’s consider some recommendations from WebMD:
1. Build downtime into your schedule. Because hard-charging entrepreneurs are proficient at filling their schedules with goal activities, we can make great progress by using our planning strengths to our advantage. Make downtime a specific goal and schedule in the time and the steps you will take to achieve it. Exercise and reading are activities you can schedule in to achieve. The same applies to date night or to planned activities for physical relaxation and play. Perhaps you can set a goal of achieving 3-5 relaxation activities a week and build them into your calendar. If circumstances require you to miss a scheduled downtime event, you can discipline yourself to replace it with another, thus maintaining an increasingly better balance of work time and play.
2. Drop the activities that sap your time or energy. Have you noticed that some activities take more time than they should, or are physically and mentally draining beyond the time they require? Maybe you have a friend or a set of friends who tend to bond over too much drinking or gossip. Yes, you appreciate their friendship, but you leave these situations feeling dragged down instead of enriched. Or you are clinging to maintenance activities you could delegate or hire someone else to take care of and add a welcome lift to your day.

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3. Make time for exercise. This is a big theme for me as I have loved exercise and athletic challenges for nearly all of my life. As you consider your health and well-being, determine the kinds of exercise that will accomplish your goals. Schedule your workout activities for realistic times that you can achieve such as noon hour walks or runs, early morning workouts, or forms of exercise that can help you unwind after work. Keep your plans flexible as well for the kinds of fitness you want to achieve, to strike a healthy balance between cardio workouts, weights, and activities that emphasize stretching, strength and agility. We all know entrepreneurs and others who actually lose health and risk injuries by adopting one favorite exercise activity and neglecting all else.
4. Remember that a little relaxation can go a long way. If you allow time for 10-15 minute visits with a friend or loved one, to read an enjoyable article, or to take a quick walk around the block, these short activities can go a long ways towards increasing your emotional well-being and health. Stop to enjoy the “small things” perhaps once an hour or several times every day to keep your spirit fed and your motivation and commitment running high.