Work Life Balance

Do Not Let Your Business Become Your Life!

We often forget about ourselves because of how hectic our lives have become. So many things need to be accomplished each day and there never seems to be enough time to do it all. Eventually you find yourself working later and later. Then you start putting in time on the weekends. Eventually you are at work more than you are at home. Your business has become your life.

It doesn’t need to be this way though. Not if you lay down some ground rules for yourself. If you have a family they will appreciate having you home. You can’t neglect the rest of your life just because of your responsibilities as a small business owner. You have a responsibility to yourself and the other people in your life. That is something you should never forget no matter how hectic your working life become.

So what kind of ground rules do you need? Well for starters the number of hours you put in at work need to be set. Now we know a forty hour work week is not going to be a reality but you can try to limit yourself to something less than seventy or eighty hours. Try to set yourself a time that you need to be out of the office and on your way home each night. If you have a family try to make it a point to be home in time to have dinner with them. If you need to put some time in on the weekend make sure to limit yourself. If you have to go do it early then leave by noon. Get out and do things. Enjoy your weekend. Your business will still be there Monday morning.

So what if you are the kind of person that takes your work home with you. Well that is a decision for you to make. But you need to ask yourself whether it would be more productive for you to take it home or could it possibly wait until tomorrow. More times than not it can wait until the next day and then you can give the task the attention it needs. Home is full of distractions. And when you are at home you need to be doing other things. Even if you don’t have a family to go home to you need to take the time to give yourself a mental break.

Everyone needs to take time out from what you do. If not you are going to burn yourself out. And that will not be good for you or your company. Regularly taking a break is good for you both mentally and physically. Too many people work themselves into the ground. You don’t want to be that type of person.

What else can you do to have a life outside of your work? Take a vacation! People that run their own businesses go years without finding the time to go on vacation. Occasionally we need to get away from it all if you ever want to be able to recharge your batteries. Yes it can be a hard thing to do. You either have to shut things down for a few days or trust someone else to hold down the fort while you are gone. Whatever it takes everyone needs to take a few days off. Not just a few hours or a couple of days. You need a real vacation. A week in a land of paradise is preferable.

Remember that taking care of yourself is not just good for you it can be good for your company and even the people that work for you. Not to mention your family if you have one to go home to. Everyone needs time to themselves and time to spend with others besides those you work with. So no matter what you do not want your business to become your life!

Cash Miller is an experienced entrepreneur and speaker who has spent over a decade as a small business owner. His years of experience in small business cover a variety of topics. If you are looking for more small business help please check out http://www.smallbusinessdelivered.com

8 Tips to Improve Time Management

Are you the person that can never get anything done? Do you feel like your work day is always moving faster than you can? Or are you the eternal procrastinator? Whatever the reason, there’s never seems to be enough time in the day to get everything done. But, here’s the good thing. There’s tons of things you can do to improve your efficiency and gain back some of that lost time. Let’s take a look at eight solid things you can do today to improve your work and time efficiency.

Just like they say at AA, the first step is to acknowledge that you have a problem. So, knowing that you have a time management problem and accepting it is the first step to improving it. So stop denying it and accept it.

The second step is to decide. You need to decide that you’re going to do something about your time management. You can know you have a problem, and you can acknowledge that you have a problem, but until you decide that you’re going to do something about it nothing else matters. Once you decide that you have a time management problem, you can move forward. Save yourself some goals that you can achieve. And in the same way that someone tries to lose weight, make sure the goals are actually achievable. Create some success but you can build on.

Number three, stick to your goals. The reason that you create a goal is so that you have something to hold yourself accountable to. If you can’t secure goals, and you’re not going to achieve anything. That’s why it’s so important to create goals that are achievable. Once you achieve those initial goals, you can raise the bar again and continue to strive to get better, and better. You also have to have a stick to it might set, you have to make sure you don’t give up.

The fourth step is to create daily task lists. Creating a to do list for yourself is an easy way to properly manage your time. In fact, it is one of the easiest approaches that you can take. Outline what you need to do throughout the day. Be sure to list your tasks in order of importance. Every time you accomplish something, cross it off of the task list. Not only will this give you a sense of accomplishment, but you can see how you’re getting things done during the day. At the end of the day create the new list for the next day. At the end of the week, create the new list for the next week.

Use time management tools. Properly managing your time is important, but it can be hard for many individuals to get use to, especially right away. If you are one of those individuals, you will want to consider using time management tools to your advantage. But make sure that the time management tools don’t become time wasters. Your PDA, or your scheduler, should be used quickly and efficiently. Don’t spend minutes and hours just messing around and tooling with it.

Learn to say no. In all honesty, there are times where you may not be able to refuse a project at work or a task at home, but try to not take on more than you can accomplish. If you must, look into using outside help. In the home, this outside help can come from a housecleaner. At the workplace, this outside help can come from a coworker. Remember, there is a nice way and a rude way to say no. But at the end of the day if you are the one that says yes all the time, you never get anything done for yourself.

Get organized. Organization is key to being able to properly manage your time. If you are unorganized, you are likely to waste a large amount of time. For example, in the workplace you can waste time by searching for lost or misplaced documents. The same can be said for the home; if you are unorganized, you can spend hours searching for your glasses or car keys. Look at your desk, lift your computer, and ligature filing system. If things are all over the place, you will have a hard time finding them and you will waste time. Take a few minutes at the end of every day to put things back where they belong to you can start your next day fresh.

Get a coach. Or get help. If you have that much to do, and you’re super busy, it may make sense to hire someone to help keep you organized like an assistant, or if you’re just having a really hard time keeping to your plan, a coach can help keep you accountable.

Put all of these steps to work and you are sure to see success! Remember, you only have 24 hours in the day so make use of every single minute wisely.

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An Online Home Based Business Can Change Your Life

A home based business is just as much work as any other business and takes extreme amount of dedication and determination. Working hard each and everyday in the beginning is going to be something that you will need to do. You will need to invest time and money into your home business to keep it running.

After all of that hard work you put in you are going to have a business that you are in control of. This means that you will have more freedom then you ever experienced working for anyone else. Owning your own business means that you will have the freedom to spend time with family. Your daughter has a ballet recital, or your son has a baseball game? No problem for you, because you are free to take off and go when ever you need to. If your child gets sick you do not have to worry about calling in sick to work to stay home and take care of them. Doctor’s appointments for you and your family are no longer difficult to arrange, because you are free to go at any time that is available to you.

Many people would love the freedom to just go on vacation when they wanted to. When you own your own business you have that freedom. You can take a couple of days off to go on vacation any time of the year you want. Depending on the type of business you are running you may even have the freedom to take your business with you where ever you go.

An internet business can be run from anywhere in the world. If you have a laptop you can take your work with you anywhere. That soccer game of your son, daughter, cousin, niece, or nephew is now your office. Perhaps you would like to take an extended vacation but need to keep tabs on your business and how things are being run. Not a problem at all if your business is an internet based business and you have a laptop. Go on a cruise, or take a trip to another country all while still working and making the money to enjoy your life.

Running an internet business and taking it with you wherever you go also means that you can even work at the park or some other out door location. This is especially nice if you have little children who need the time to be out doors but you still need to do the work to keep your income level where it is.

Remember that the more work you put into your home based business the more money you are going to make. The more profitable your business is the more freedom you will have to do the things you really want to do. Having freedom to do the things that you want to do will lead to a more happy and fulfilled life. Obtaining your goals for your life is one of the reasons that many people enjoy having their own business.

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Can an Ergonomic Work Chair Help Your Back?

Working long hours can take it’s toll on your back. They say that it is important to get a good bed as you spend a large portion of time in that piece of furniture, but it is the same with a work chair. This is a common scenario for everyone–we are often too engrossed in doing our work that we oftentimes forget that it is very important for us to be seated comfortably as possible. Before you know it, neglecting your back can create future problems. While more costly, it is often worth the extra dollars for your health. If you are one of the million people who are in the same line of problem, then it is time to have an ergonomic task chair in your home office.

So what is an ergonomic task chair? The goal of an ergonomic chair is providing you with the maximum comfort that you need once you purchase it. In addition to comfort, the work chair is designed to work around and support your body for minimum stress on you. What manufacturers put into mind when coming up with this type of office necessity is that it should have the ability to coordinate the existing physical conditions felt by an individual who uses it coupled with the understanding of the health capacities of the user. There are some important aspects to consider when you plan to have an ergonomic chair to rest perfectly in your office space.

It is very important for a user to further evaluate the design of the ergonomic task chair that he wants to buy. Make sure you pick a chair that is snug and secure, but also gives you enough room to move freely. Make sure that the ergonomic chair that you decide to purchase is made up of quality materials, with its cushion providing the maximum comfort for the user. The cushion should allow the weight of the user to be evenly distributed in the bulk of the chair.

Other areas to look at are how your shoulder sit naturally when in the chair. Your shoulders should not feel hunched up. They should sit naturally. So, the arm rests should sit at at level to support the arms, without pushing up your shoulders.

When you sit in the chair, your legs should break evenly at the knee where the seat ends. If your knee line sits before the end of the chair, you run the risk of cutting off your circulation.

Make sure that your feet can sit evenly on the ground. If your feet hang, again, you are creating a cut off of circulation on your legs, and that can cause discomfort.

Choose one which employs an adjustable back feature coupled with a stretch seat. In this way, you would be sure that your back pains would further be alleviated once you take note of this aspect. If you want to have a full support for your mid-back, then a chair incorporating a lumbar support feature would be best for you.

With this type of ergonomic task chair, you would be assured that it would provide you a better comfort than the standard office chair that we oftentimes have. This type allows the user to adjust it to whichever height you desire so as you could bid goodbye to the toughest back pains in the world caused by stress and strain brought about by the standard office chair.

Matt loves his Herman Miller Aeron Chair. For more information on an Aeron Chairvisit http://getmychair.com

The Great British Time Squeeze

The United Kingdom has embraced the return of the ‘long hours culture’. Over 3 million people have begun working over a 48 hour week. The number of people working long hours increased at a faster rate over the last year than the decline in excessive working between 1998 and 2006. The recent increase in working hours could be the result of the challenging economic climate, which has made employers more reluctant to recruit new staff, leading to existing employees having to work harder.

After slow but steady progress over the last decade, long working hours are making their way back into Britain’s workplaces. Employees across the UK already work the longest hours in Western Europe with the least amount of public holidays. The recent increase will mean lower productivity, more stress and less time to have a life outside the office with friends and family.

This is supported by a recent survey commissioned by Beefeater Restaurants, which reveals that 70.6% of Britons don’t feel they have a positive work/life balance. Work-life balance is achieved when an individual’s right to a fulfilled life inside and outside paid work is accepted and respected as the norm, to the mutual benefit of the individual, business and society. The survey, carried out by NEMS Market Research, shows that, as a nation, Britons don’t feel they spend enough time with their families and friends. The results reveal that, even in a culture which claims to prioritise a healthy work/life balance, British companies are falling short in their efforts.

A third (33.1%) of full-time workers surveyed didn’t feel they spent enough time with their family and friends and cited a busy job and work pressure (83.8%) as the main obstacle. When questioned on the impact this had on their lives, more than a third of full-time workers (34.6%) felt that life was passing them by without enjoyment.

Working long hours also comes with a health warning. There is sufficient evidence for us to be concerned about the potentially negative effects of working long hours on physical health. The strongest evidence probably concerns the links with cardiovascular disorder.

Stress is often the outcome of a work/life imbalance. According to a survey conducted by the National Life Insurance Co., four out of ten employees state that their jobs are ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ stressful. It is clear that problems caused by stress have become a major concern to both employers and employees.

Symptoms of stress are manifested both physiologically and psychologically. Persistent stress can result in cardiovascular disease, sexual health problems, a weaker immune system and frequent headaches, stiff muscles, or backache. It can also result in poor coping skills, irritability, jumpiness, insecurity, exhaustion, and difficulty concentrating. Stress may also perpetuate or lead to binge eating, smoking, and alcohol consumption.

A survey conducted by Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank found that 44 per cent of workers in the United Kingdom take off fewer days of holiday than they are entitled to. Furthermore, 77 per cent admitted to keeping in touch with work, via email for example, while they are on holiday trying to relax.

One way of improving employees work/life balance is to ensure that they are able to use all of their holiday allocation effectively throughout the year. If employees were to take holidays throughout the year then it is suggested that employers would reap the benefits of increased productivity, improved recruitment and retention, lower rates of absenteeism, plus a more motivated, satisfied and equitable workforce.

Patrick is an expert Research and Travel consultant. His current interest is in Cardiff Airport Parking, Cardiff Airparks.