What advice would you give to someone who is struggling with work life balance?
Soumya Chaturvedi
20 replies
Replies
Sarah Jordi@sarahxjo
Focus on one thing at a time. Don't try to change everything right now. But for example, start with:
Week 1: Say no to two things at work
Week 2: Try to go to sleep no later than 11 pm every night
Week 3: Start a morning ritual just for yourself
... and slowly add more things to it. Maybe like "On Fridays I leave the office before 5 pm"
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I may advice the following points:
1) Set a schedule, and try to follow it.
2) Always try to make plans for your after-work hours to help balance work fatigue.
3) Take Care of Your Health.
4) Take a walk.
5) Take Time to Rest Both Mentally & Physically.
6) Spend quality time with your family & friends.
7) Love you work.
There is no perfect work-life balance
@ali_rehman1 Hey Ali any specific reason why you feel so ?
Even I have struggled a lot with it for years. And, here I am giving you the key to work-life balance in one line- Do multiple things in a day, but do only one thing at a time.
Go out in the nature and take deep breaths regularly in the morning.
One of the most important advice for me is to have all notifications turned off in your work off hours and set up a range of contacts with high priority that could contact you anytime they want - rest of them, you can always call back later! :)
Be ruthless when it comes to prioritizing. Have a long-term view of your goals. Instead of working on lots of small projects, start moving towards 1-3 medium-to-big projects over 6 weeks.
@arunachawla was thinking how can small and long projects have different impact ?
@soumya_chaturvedi you've to continuously ask yourself if the smaller projects are really moving the needle or just making you 'feel' productive. I like working in 90-day sprints, where I set a big goal and do everything only around it. Anything that doesn't fit the bill needs to be moved off the priority list. It helps me be diligent, focused, and not overwhelmed :)
I generally look at balance in seasons rather than day-to-day. There are weeks and days when my time is all consumed by work (this week with us launching on PH for instance was all-work) and "life" takes a backseat. Then there are weeks where I'm better at containing work and I'm all in on my family and friends and other fun things.
I'm okay being out of balance for short periods of time, and sometimes that when excellence really happens... but when done for too long, burnout is inevitable.
Good luck! It's not easy in startup life to strike the right balance and I know I've got it wrong many times before!
BTW I just watched this video about how to plan your time in a way that builds in (and be disciplined) rest and recovery. Really interesting.