Every business owner has, at some point, struggled with work-life balance. With the livelihoods of your employees depending on your company’s success, owning a business can quickly make a workaholic out of anyone. Yet we all know balance is necessary for a healthy, fulfilling life.

The Importance of Balancing Work and Relationships

Songwriter Bronnie Ware, author of The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, writes: “For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die… When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again.’”

The five most common regrets of patients who were on their deathbeds were as follows:

1. “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”
2. “I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.”
3. “I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.”
4. “I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.”
5. “I wish that I had let myself be happier.”

All of these regrets are a byproduct of poor work-life balance. If we don’t commit to our friends and family the way we commit to our jobs, we’re setting ourselves up for a hollow life devoid of significant things.

The #1 Tip for Balancing Work and Family

The best way to achieve work-life balance is to treat your life outside of work with all the seriousness of a job. This requires setting goals and managing your time effectively, ensuring every spare hour in your calendar has a purpose to avoid wasting precious hours in front of the TV.

To do this, we’re going to make a series of lists. First, list categories of what you most want and need to prioritize outside work. Your list might look something like this:

1. Faith
2. Family
3. Friends
4. Exercise
5. Hobbies
6. Diet
7. Sleep

Next, we will create two more lists based on these categories. The first list will be your work-life balance goals in an ideal week. If you had all the time in the world, what tasks would you do in each category to feel happy and fulfilled? How many hours of sleep would you get? How much time would you spend with your family?

Not all of your tasks will be weekly. Some might be monthly or even yearly. Include them on the list and pencil them into your calendar accordingly.

As a business owner, there will be times when you’ll need to put in more hours at work. That’s where the second list comes in a to-do list of the primary tasks you need to keep you sane during a hectic week. Looking at your ideal list, what non-negotiables must you accomplish? Conversely, what can you let slide for a week without actual harm?

So that you know, every single category must be addressed for both to-do lists. The key to maintaining a long-term work-life balance is addressing your priorities. Never get in the habit of taking one of your ideal tasks off your list forever. As tempting as it is, every week cannot fall into the “hectic” category.

I have many other blog posts about becoming more efficient and setting boundaries to give yourself more time at home. If you maximize your productivity at work, you’ll also find it easier to maximize your downtime.

If you struggle with finding a good work-life balance, a business coach can help. Sign up for my email list to have weekly articles on leadership and management delivered straight to your inbox.

Coach Dave