10 Ways to Improve Your Work-Life Balance

By Peter Barron Stark

The majority of our clients have felt an improvement in their business and profitability over the last twenty-four months. What we have not seen from our clients is hiring significant numbers of new employees to take on this increased workload. In fact, many organizations are experiencing three important things. First, they do not have the confidence that this strong economy is going to continue. Second, the workforce in place is doing a fantastic job with handling the increased workload. And third, these first two findings are rewarding organization’s staffing decisions with strong profits.

If there is not a lot of hope around the corner that a bunch of new employees are going to be starting tomorrow to handle this increase in workload, then all of us need to ensure that we have a plan in place to successfully manage and balance both our personal and professional lives. You are in charge here. Whether you are a business owner, CEO, senior executive, manager or front line employee, the principles of maintaining a successful work-life balance are the same.

Here are ten proven tips to help you successfully manage a healthy and happy personal and professional life.

1. Develop a clear, positive vision for a balanced life. While many people say that the word “vision” is overrated, they may not realize that almost everyone has a vision. Some people have a vision of being a successful business person. Others have a clear vision of providing extraordinary customer service. Some people are very focused on what is important to them and, for example, have a positive vision of being a great significant other, parent or friend. Very few people have a clear positive vision which successfully encompasses all of the areas of their life that are important to him or her. Develop a clear vision of what you want to accomplish: perhaps it’s a strong spiritual foundation, physical fitness, a happy family, engaged employees and/or loyal customers. Whatever your goal may be, our research from over 100,000 employees supports the necessity of having a vision: you need to see what you want to become, and then put the plan in place to turn your vision into a reality.

2. Prioritize what needs to be done. As much as we love talking about multi-tasking, the reality is that we can only do one thing at a time. Prioritize your work, prioritize your life and do what is most important in helping you to be successful and turning your vision into a reality. If you don’t get your priorities into the right order, bad things can happen. In business, when your priorities are misaligned, you can disappoint your boss and fellow team members to the point of losing your job. In your personal life when your priorities are not aligned you can lose your family, your health, or worse, your life. Just like dieting and exercise, balancing your life by getting your priorities in the right order is the key to your success.

3. Focus on results – not tasks or activities. Reading your email or surfing the internet is one of the greatest examples of participating in an activity that may have nothing to do with a result. We agree, being responsive to emails is important. What is far more important than the activity is the result that is produced out of the activity in itself. At work, re-designing a new procedure to overcome a problem or developing a new product are both examples of results. Being at home in the evening is an activity. However, listening to your significant other to build an even stronger relationship or helping one of your children with their homework is an activity that produces important results.

4. Get organized. It is has been estimated that people spend years of their lives looking for things that are misplaced. The more you can establish habits of where you place the things that you utilize in your life, the more time you will have to do the things you want to do. And, the less stress you will have looking for things that are not where you thought you would find them.

5. Build in margin. As all of us get busier, we lose the margin in our life. We say yes to every request for our time and then we are rushed from one activity to another. If you know an activity is going to take you two hours, then block off two and one-half or three hours to accomplish the task. Exceed customer expectations – if the job will take two days on your schedule, tell the customer three days and then exceed their expectations. That way, you have margin for error when other tasks come up that need to be done or there is more traffic on the road than you anticipated.

6. Learn to say “no.” Every day, people ask you to do things. To be successful in accomplishing your vision of living a balanced life, you need to feel good about saying the word, “no.” For the Amiables of this world who find it extremely difficult to say “no”, we recommend a “conditional no.” Instead of looking someone in the eye and saying, “No, I am not going to do that,” tell them, “I don’t have the time in my schedule to honor that request at this time, but it is something that I may consider doing in the future.” Saying “no” at the moment is difficult in the short run, but leads to a much happier and more meaningful life in the long run.

7. Hire the right people. What we have learned from the Best-of-the-Best leaders is that when they hired a P.U.R.E. (Previously Undetected Recruiting Error), they are quick to coach, counsel, train and when that does not work, share the team member with their best competitor. It is hard to take time off from work when you do not trust your team to do their jobs. Hire the right people, communicate a clear vision and goals, and then trust them to get the job done.

8. Buy tickets. Terry Paulsen, a great consultant, speaker and past President of the National Speakers Association encourages people to buy tickets. At the beginning of the year, plan out all the places you want to go and things you want to do and buy the tickets or make the reservations. When you have tickets and reservations, you always go.

9. Keep important things in perspective. For the really high achievers, remember, they have never modified a hearse and welded a trailer hitch to the back of it so you take all the things you have accumulated with you to heaven. I have learned this the hard way…when you die, the most important things you accumulated with be put into a box.

10. Celebrate success. There are too many people in this world who are fond of the line, “I will be happy when…” This life will be over in one heart-beat. Each day, acknowledge what you have accomplished, count your blessings and celebrate your success.

Whatever you do daily, the hardest fact to acknowledge is that you have control over the balance in your life. Take ownership, plan ahead and put these 10 tips into practice. We are confident that when implemented, you will have even more control over leading a successful and happy work-life balance.

Are there some tricks that you’ve learned that are crucial to keeping the balance between work and life, but are not shown above? Let us know in the comments section below.