The Virtual Assistant's Guide to Understanding Work-Life Balance | VA for Course Creators

You Deserve to Achieve Harmony Between Your Work and Personal Lives - Here’s How to Do It

Work-life balance is more than just a buzz phrase these days. It’s an important facet for you to know and incorporate it for your own mental and business health. Even moreso, you need to know what work-life balance for you personally looks like in order to achieve it but also know the signs to look for when you are out of balance.

So, what is work-life balance?

Well, that depends on who you ask 😉

For some, work-life balance¹ might look like being able to completely stop working at 2:00 pm to attend a mid-afternoon yoga class before dinner with friends. For others, it might mean being able to pause work to attend to personal matters during traditional work hours and getting back to work when they’re ready to.

It could also mean true balance by spending an equal amount of time and energy working and handling personal matters.

We’ll discuss how to determine what work-life balance looks like for you later.

First, imagine this scenario for a moment with me. Picture a kindergarten classroom filled with small, 5-year-old students each excited for the day and vying for their teacher’s attention. So Mr. Kindergarten Teacher teaches the children to raise their hands to get his attention instead of hollering across the room or running out of their seats to him. If he hadn’t set that system in place to help corral the children, he’d have a rowdy classroom on his hands. 

In this example, the teacher set boundaries to create order and organization in his classroom. 

The same concept can be applied to your daily life, especially when it comes to work-life balance. This is why setting boundaries is a huge part of mental health. Without boundaries, many things in your business and life can become completely out of whack. 

Burnout ≠ success

As a business owner, it can be so easy to fall down the rabbit hole of working so much that you burn yourself out. 

The goal, however, is to find the harmony in work and life that you sought after when going into business for yourself. When that harmony is nowhere to be found, you might experience what Harvard Business Review calls the three components² of burnout: exhaustion, cynicism (or decreased work engagement), and lack of productivity.

I remember all too well the first couple years of my business. I worked 6-7 days a week not just because I truly loved what I was doing at the time (which was absolutely part of it). 

I also didn’t know how to turn off my work brain or say no to last minute client requests. Needless to say, that led to burnout that took a while to recover from. 

My review: 0/10, do not recommend!

Here are some ways to combat burnout before it rears its ugly head:

👉 Set work hours (and stick to them!). Being a business owner means you can set the ideal work hours for your business and your life. To start, think about which times of the day you are more productive. 

For me, I like to do any admin work in the mornings since that takes more brain power. I’m able to do creative work any other time of the day because it’s fun! Both types of work are important, and knowing when to focus on each type helps keep me organized and on task.

👉 Understand your communication methods. Along the same lines of setting your work hours, know the best ways to communicate with important business partners and when you’re available to communicate with them. When you’re in the middle of a big project, it can seem like being as available as possible is the right move. Think again - it’s not!

Also consider discussing with your family (or anyone that you live with) when you’re working on something and when not to disturb you. 

Supernanny (you know, the British lady who whips families into shape and completely changes their lives?!) often speaks on the importance of clear communication. In one case, there was a mother who worked 10 hours a day because she couldn’t focus on both work and watching her kids.

Supernanny explained to her that the kids weren’t old enough to distinguish between working from home and not working. So the mom went to a designated work space and was able to get her work done in half the time.

Another example of Supernanny³ uncovering the areas that needed clearer communication methods was when a work-from-home mother couldn’t find one of her children, even though she had a regular nanny on staff 😱

👉 Take time off. You probably already know that taking time off during holidays and weekends is just one great way to get the rest you need. It’s important to rest your mind and body so that you’re not constantly operating at a deficit. Time off, however, could also look like not working on Mondays or taking two days off at the end of each month to reset for the next month.

For many of us, being a solopreneur comes with its fair share of pros and cons that each one of us has to identify and address. The way you face these challenges (or not!) will determine how successful your business will be. 

On one hand, you get to run your own business, but being your own boss means there are sacrifices and difficult decisions you often have to make. 

It could be nice not having to work with a team or set of workers everyday, but that might make way for loneliness to creep in. If you work from home, seeing those dirty dishes in the sink might be tempting enough to keep you from doing the client work due today.

Master your time management

Time management is key in keeping a productive schedule and maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Here, it’s all about identifying and prioritizing what’s most important for your work and personal life.

But how do you figure this out? By creating a time budget. Time budgets help you see all of the things you have on your plate so you can effectively manage everything and not stress yourself out in the process.

Try this:

1. Get out a pen and sheet of paper (or use the Notes app on your phone!) and number each line from 1 to 10. Write “Personal” at the top of the page.

2. On each line, write the things most important to you in your personal life. Don’t worry about getting too detailed yet - your list can be broad for now. You might list things like, “spending time with friends,” “having date night with _____,” or “exercising.”

3. Now let’s get more specific. Next to each item, write how often you’d like to engage with each item. For example, do you have a standing appointment with your therapist every other week? Make note of that on your list.
   💡Note: Ending the list at 10 is a round, arbitrary number to get you started. If you find yourself wanting to go past that or cut it by half, by all means do it! The idea here is to see at a glance all of the things you consider important, so you can make sure to make time for each thing. This is how you create a realistic time budget.

4. How long will it take to engage with each item? Will date night take you an hour to plan and another hour to get ready for? Write that down. If your goal is to exercise 2x per week, how long do you need for each session? 30 minutes? 1 hour? Write that down.

5. Now here’s the crucial part: block off time on your calendar for each item. Look at the next month and decide when the best time to address each item is. You may have to coordinate with your partner for date night or your friends on their availability to hang out, but having even an idea for each item is better than nothing. Doing this will give each item importance in your schedule, which means you’re more likely to engage in them.

6. Now rinse and repeat for your “Work” list 😊

Time budgets are great for helping you see how much time you really need to spend on each item - and how much time you actually have to spend. Knowing your time budget also helps to avoid overcommitment⁴, which can lead to stress, feelings of anxiety, and burnout. 

If you apply these tips regularly, achieving work-life balance is not only possible but well within your reach. 

You can do this! 

Take some time today to evaluate your thoughts and feelings about the current state of your business and your personal life. 

Are you happy with where you are? If not, take 5 minutes to reflect on what’s not working for you. Then, take 10 minutes to brainstorm solutions to the issues. 

Feel free to message me for support at support@va4coursecreators.com 😉

Interested in becoming a virtual assistant? Check out the FREE Learn How to Become a VA masterclass to get you started on the right foot.

References

1. Forbes - What does Work-Life Balance Even Mean?

2. Harvard Business Review - Beating Burnout

3. Supernanny episode

4. American Psychology Association - Avoiding Overcommitment