May 2023 - Focus Guru

How to get some balance back in your life

Wherever I go, everyone seems to be talking about a work/life balance. Some people say they want a work/life balance, or they wish they had a work/life balance. I’ve noticed these people tend to be the ones who are sometimes in a hurry, they are often late, and always rushed. You’ll hear them say they need more hours in the day, more days in the week, or simply that they have run out of time.

Always on the treadmill, they rarely stop to rest, relax and recover. There’s just no time! However, these are the same people who wish they had more time for family, friends and fun. They wish they had a work/life balance. Having personally met several people close to burnout from not taking the time to create a work/life balance, I am keen to help.

Is this you?

Would you like a work/life balance?

Or, would you like a better work/life balance?

There are always things which can be changed and refined at different stages of your life.

Work/Life balance isn’t always 50/50

For many people, the idea of a work/life balance equates to spending 50% of their time on work and 50% of their time on “other things”. They might want to spend more time with their family, or have time to meditate, to read, to go to the gym, or learn a new skill.

In reality, the balance is rarely 50/50. There will always be house chores, school runs, caring for family and many other non-work tasks which don’t automatically equal the fun time you want. Even though the tasks aren’t business-related or generating income, they still need doing and they take up your recreation time, the “life” part of the work/life balance.

Top Tips for creating balance

Look after yourself.

Your first priority must be to look after yourself. Get enough sleep. Drink plenty of water. Be mindful of your food choices. Make time for exercise. Your body will thank you and consequently your productivity will increase. You’ll get more done in less time.

Look after your finances.

One of the many stressful things in life is money. If you can spend time itemising and analysing your business income and outgoings, then it makes sense to do the same at home. Keeping track of how much things cost at home, everything from your TV licence, Internet, food shopping, presents, outings etc. and whether purchases are “wants” or “needs” will help you know how much you can spend on your personal life without it affecting your business.

Look after your time.

How many times has someone asked you for “just a minute” or said, “it won’t take long” and before you know it, fifteen minutes has passed, or an hour, or a day. Creating a ToDo list and assigning each task with a priority, an estimated time, and a tick or strikethrough when it’s complete is not only satisfying, it can help deflect “time thieves”, the people or technological distractions like Facebook or the TV that absorb your time without you realising.

There are many more tips for creating a work/life balance and it is easy to make long-lasting, effective changes to help you focus on the things you want to achieve. There is time to do everything you want, but it may mean re-prioritising activities, changing your schedule, dropping redundant tasks, asking for help, or delegating. There are many, many possibilities.

If you would like to chat about creating a work/life balance for yourself, an employee, or a family member, please book a discovery call via this link.

Is it possible to keep your house and your business running smoothly?

Is it possible to keep your house and your business running smoothly?

With many people working from home, the line drawn between office hours and home hours is often very blurry. Sometimes it feels as though the hours overlap and it’s not obvious where work ends, and home begins.

It’s not uncommon for someone to be answering a business phone call while loading the dishwasher. Or booking a meeting to finish in time to make the school run. Or helping with homework while catching up on accounts and admin. How many times have you worked late into the night when your daytime hours have been spent caring for others?

This is where having a system in place at home, as well as for your business, can make sure everything gets done. I can show you how it’s possible to keep your home clean and tidy without it impacting on your business work or family life. Just as a tidy desk can symbolise a tidy mind, having an organised household routine can take the pressure off running your business.

Get Started

To get started is the top tip. Today can be the day you make the changes. This is the first step to turning things around. Instead of chasing your tail, you can take control of your tasks and your time.

Involve Others

If you have a partner or family members who can help, involve them. Make it known that it’s everyone’s job to help around the house. Create a rota for tasks. Even if you think it is easier to do something like the laundry yourself, add up how many hours this takes each week. If you can delegate the task to another family member, you can free up your time for something else. You can introduce incentives or rewards based on the type of task, the amount of time, or the complexity.

There may come a point when it becomes cost effective to outsource household chores like laundry, ironing, loading and unloading the dishwasher, hoovering, dusting, making the beds, walking the dog and washing the car. Perhaps investing in having a cleaner once a week could help. Is it worth the price of having extra hours for yourself and for family time?

Group Tasks

Just as you might tackle a business project by grouping tasks together you can do exactly the same at home. If you have a batch of invoices to send out, you might do them one at a time, or you might do them all on a Friday evening.

The same principle applies when keeping your home and your business running smoothly. You can group tasks and allocate them to mornings or afternoons or assign them to a particular day of the week. If you have free time on Tuesday mornings, can you make that the time when you blitz the cleaning? If you put a time limit on the task it can help keep you accountable and make sure the time doesn’t drift away.

Accept Imperfection

It can be extremely hard for many business owners to accept things can’t be perfect all the time. High performers, ambitious, driven, successful, there is an inbuilt expectation for perfection, from themselves and those around them. In reality, dust happens, washing needs to be done, children need to be dropped off and collected from school and these things don’t always go to plan.

It might rain just as you’re about to put the washing out. A child may be sick during the day and need collecting early. Dusting seems to be a never-ending chore, especially if you have cats and dogs.

This is where I help my clients restore order at home and in the workplace. I’ll work with you to create responsibility lists and achievable accountability action plans that work for everyone.

Click here for more information and a free discovery call, let’s get your house and your business running smoothly.

How creating systems and processes can simplify your business

Every business has various systems and processes in place. These are the tasks you do and the order in which they are done. Over time, you might review your systems and make refinements, tweaking your processes to cut out redundant steps, or adding layers to the system as your company grows.

You might have a system in place for taking orders with various processes to make sure the tasks are not just done, but they are done in the right sequence. Having a system for this means the tasks are carried out in the same sequence each time, using the processes which you create in advance.

Your order process might be to receive an order via email or telephone, then check items are in stock, then confirm the order to the customer, then take a payment, then dispatch the product and reorder the item if needed.

But each process can also be broken down into steps. Perhaps you have multiple sales staff with individual e-mailboxes to check for new orders. Perhaps checking if items are in stock involves someone driving to the warehouse or viewing a stock spreadsheet in the office. Perhaps payments are received in cash, which then needs to be taken to the bank by a certain time of the day.

From the customer’s point of view, they have placed an order with you, but in behind the scenes many steps may need to be taken to deliver what they have asked for.

I specialise in helping companies identify their processes, right down to the micro-steps and I help you get into the nitty-gritty detail of what happens, when, by whom and why. This is a process in itself and it often leads to uncovering timewasting activity, finding redundant steps, increases staff productivity and consequently helps you save time and money.

This is where spending a little time “working on your business”, rather than “working in your business”, really does help.

Having systems and processes in place means:

Work is carried out to a consistent standard.
If a member of staff is absent, another employee can carry out their tasks.
Training new staff or temporary workers is much easier.
You can measure performance and monitor changes.
Customers receive the same level of service every time they use your company.

Having an outside opinion can identify things which you take for granted, but in reality, they are things you no longer need to do. If you are waiting until 10am for a cheque to arrive in the post before making calls to chase clients for outstanding payments, you may find this is no longer required and you could skip this step and start chasing outstanding payments first thing. In fact, you might even choose to automate payment reminders by text or email, saving human hours on a recurring task.

Regularly reviewing your systems can highlight areas where you can make changes and identify better ways of doing things.

If you feel your business would benefit from a systems overhaul or a process review, please contact me by emailing rachael@rachaelchiverton.co.uk or by telephoning me on 07756 772950 and I will be happy to work with you to make sure your business is running at peak performance.