Category: achieving work life balance

Simple Steps To a Greater Work and Life Balance When You Work From Home

Scott Asai4 Comments

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

Working for yourself and working from home can bring with it so many benefits. The flexibility of the work can be a big pull, because as long as the work gets done, it doesn’t matter where or when the work is getting done. But because you are never too far from your computer, it can be hard to switch off; there can always be the temptation to have a look at your phone to make a few calls or a look at your emails. Differentiating between home and work can be difficult, but it needs to be achieved if you are going to achieve a greater life balance as the year goes on.

Here are some of the ways that you can get a better work and life balance, but still be able to get the work done that you need to.

Have a Separate Space

When your working space is somewhere like the dining table, which is very much a part of the home and family life, it can make it hard to switch off as it makes it hard to think that you’re either at home or down to do some work. Which is why having a separate space is really important. The space could be a spare room, bedroom or office, so when you close the door, you know that work is over. You could even look into a company that does metal home kits to create something like a garage for you that could be converted into an office, as not everyone will have spare space indoors. The space will help you to get into work mode or get into home mode, which is something that does happen when you work in a regular office.

Schedule Time

Flexibility has been talked about as one of the benefits of working for yourself. But even so, being able to schedule your time is important. Decide what you are doing and when, and then stick to it. If you have an hour a day for emails, then that is all that you have; the rest can wait. If you get into the habit of going back to check your emails all of the time, then it doesn’t help you to achieve the balance that you are looking for, and you’ll keep wanting to check them. So plan your time, otherwise it will plan you.

Make sure you incorporate physical activity into your day

One of the problems with working from home is that you miss out on a lot of the physical activity that would do if you were to work in the office. It is the small things – the commute to work, the walking up the stairs, the to and from to the coffee machine/water cooler/printer, the quick trip to the coffee shop at lunchtime, and so on. When all you have to do is roll out of bed into your home office, it can be very easy to miss those moments of physical activity. Make sure that you do incorporate some activity into your day; a jog around the block in the morning, a walk around the park at lunchtime, a session with a golf instructor that you have found on Grumpy Gopher. All of these will break your day up, give you a chance to leave your desk and get some much-needed exercise.

Ban Tech

Technology is a modern blessing that makes being able to work from home possible. But having times where the whole family (or just you if that is the setup), bans tech for a couple of hours, can help you to have some screen-free quality time, whether it is playing a game, cooking a meal, reading a book, or being able to switch off for a nap. All can help you to achieve a greater work and life balance.

The key is to really plan your time if you want to be able to enjoy being at home and feel like you aren’t constantly working. Then comes the time that you have to stick at it. It takes time, but it can be really worth it.

What Is Behind A Healthy Work/Life Balance?

Scott Asai4 Comments

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

When the modern workforce never stops claiming the right to a healthy work/life balance, too many companies continue to misinterpret their demands. Indeed, there is as much a need for healthy behaviour, as there is for a balanced home and work life. In other words, a healthy work/life balance is the combination of three elements that influence the wellbeing of an individual: health, home and work. The delimitation of each factor blurs into the next one so that it’s not uncommon for employees to blame their company for health or home-related issues. In other words, when dealing with the protection of this essential human balance, it’s crucial for companies to take steps that go beyond the realms of the workplace. Indeed, businesses that offer on-site health and relaxing services, or that provide their teams with discounted home offers – whether it’s about equipment, services or entertainment that can be relevant in the home environment – show a deeper level of understanding of their responsibility in the health and happiness of their employees.

The ability to relax

When it comes to your health, sleep is just as important as following a balanced diet. Indeed, when you rest, your body can maintain your immune system and ensure that your mind stays sharp and acute. But when you’re too stressed out to sleep, your mental health can rapidly degenerate. According to eh national College Health Assessment Survey, 15.8% of college students suffer from anxiety which keeps them awake at night. it’s likely that the percentage of anxious individuals is much more significant in the workplace. Employers need to consider new options to facilitate relaxation at work, such as meditation room or even noise-cancelling facilities. As stress is the number one health issue in modern companies, ignoring the situation can only cause more issues for your team.

The potential to build a home

While it isn’t your role, as an employer, to provide a home for your staff, it’s your responsibility to ensure that your employees have access to the essentials facilities to maintain their home. At a basic level, this means that you need to ensure fair pay on time and to limit overtime as much as possible. But you can also through perks support employee home life with discounts on appliances, and recommendations for an industrial waste management company like Instant Waste Management – which is helpful for anybody making home improvement works – or a professional financing advisor. If you make it easier for people to manage their home – whether they’re looking to buy, improve or simply refurbish – it means that they can be more focused on their work during the day, hence reducing overtime, stress and personal issues.

A satisfying job

Finally, the last element of the employee’s trinity is job satisfaction. Naturally, money is a key element of satisfaction, but it’s not the only one. The opportunity for growth through job crafting and improved internal relationships can make a great deal of difference. While your employees need to find meaning in their tasks, your role is to guide and help them to develop their skills.

In conclusion, there’s more than just a job behind the complaints about healthy work/life balance of Millennials. For employers, it means changing the way they think about work significantly.

The New Years Resolution Alternative

Scott Asai1 Comment

January is the perfect time to set New Year’s Resolutions only to see them fail by February.

The motivation to accomplish lofty goals at the start of the year disappears quickly.

It’s almost as if setting New Year’s Resolutions is a recipe for disaster.

Why is that?

The feeling you have after hearing a motivational speaker is the same as the beginning of a New Year. Inspiration is fickle.

Instead of setting New Year’s Resolutions, try creating new habits.

Habits are to goals as your journey is to the destination.

As an instant gratification-based society goals are sexier because you either achieve them or you don’t. But the downside of that is you’ll eventually fail. Once that happens the chances of you setting another goal decreases.

Habits are actually more controllable. They are based on effort, not results.

While goals depend on some variables you can’t control, habits are completely in your hands (take note Type A people!)

For example weight loss is a popular New Year’s Resolution (goal), but the equivalent habit is working out 3 – 5 times per week. People lose weight at different paces, but going to the gym multiple times a week is something you can track.

Most goal tracking apps for your smart phone are actually disguised as habit trackers. It makes complete sense because habits are much more manageable.

So this year instead of having New Year’s Resolutions figure out what habits will get your desired goals and set those instead!

Unbalanced: When Your Work Life Is Taking Over

Scott AsaiLeave a comment

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

We hear the term work-life balance a lot these days, but how many of us really achieve it? Probably not enough! In fact, there are still far too many folks that are drained and unmotivated from a life dominated by work efforts and worries. However, help is at hand, as you can follow the tactics below to achieve a better work-life balance. Read on to find out more.

Banish overtime

Staying at the office till 10pm regularly is not only unnecessary it’s dangerous. Do you want to know why? Well, it’s unnecessary because if you are having to put in working days longer than 9 hours on a regular basis, there is something wrong with the business. Maybe they need more staff, or someone else in the team isn’t pulling their weight, but this responsibility should not always be resting on you.

It’s dangerous because, how long do you think you can keep it for without becoming exhausted and demoralized? Even if it’s the most exciting job in the world, people need downtime, rest, and time to spend with their families and friends. Without this, you have a ticket to stress and medical problems that will do neither you nor your company any good in the long term. Leave on time at least 4 nights a week, no arguments!

Streamline processes

Next, a way that you can reduce the dominance of work over the rest of your life is to look at a way of streamlining processes. This streamlining applies to many different too, as you can improve the way things are done in production, in the office, and even on the road.

In particular, look at the way you are using IT within your company, and whether you can minimize the stages and time spent on performing functions in programs like Excel. To do this, you can speak to a from specializing in professional Excel consulting as they will be able to help you get the most from your data, without having to spend hours and hours pouring over it.

Also, take a look at the communion culture in your business as email and instant messages are areas that can often suck up a lot of time unnecessarily.

Use a no message policy if someone is in the same room or building as you. The reason being that it’s way clearer and less time consuming to have that person explain the issue face to face than send 10-20 messages back and forth to get one point clarified.

Have a personal goal to work to

Last, of all, something that can really help you get a good work-life balance is ensuring that you have something to focus on outside of work. A great way to do this is to set yourself a goal in your personal life.

You may pick something that relates to health and fitness, or you can choose to learn a new skill like sailing or speaking French. You may even choose to spend more time with friends and family as your goal. Something that will definitely contribute to a much better work-life balance moving forward.

The Forgotten Part Of Networking

Scott AsaiLeave a comment

friends-at-work

Your network is your net worth.

The assumption is networking is done “externally,” but what if you actually like your job and don’t want to leave, yet desire to expand your network?

Do it internally.

Similar to sales: return customers have a greater value than new customers.

That means co-workers you connect with and strengthen bonds over time can be more instrumental to your career success than grabbing coffee with a new contact on LinkedIn.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m that guy who connects with people locally on LinkedIn and grabs coffee, but those relationships take time to blossom.

Meanwhile your work relationships have the potential to grow much faster because of the frequency and ease of scheduling.

Too often job satisfaction is determined by what happens to you, not what you initiate. Some opportunities are all about timing, but others are about choice.

Once you understand the company culture figure out how you can connect with people at work: grab lunch, go for a walk, chat on Slack, etc.

Most likely there are too many people at your company to talk with consistently, but that only makes the challenge fun.

  • Be the person who asks others how they are doing.
  • Instead of going on break alone take a friend.
  • Make it a goal to grab lunch with someone weekly.

At my company we’re fortunate to have catered lunches twice a week so that leaves three open days for me.

Some days I make phone calls and other times I need to decompress alone, but imagine how fulfilling your day is with a stimulating conversation!

As an introvert/situational extrovert I prefer quality over quantity…

Making networking part of your lifestyle versus a goal starts by doing it consistently.

The trick isn’t to keep “score” on how many people are in your network, but how often you network with others.

Make it a habit and watch your work fulfillment level skyrocket!

The X-Factor For Employee Retention

Scott Asai1 Comment

x-factor

I admit I believe in work-life separation, but even an old dog can learn new tricks.

Being a corporate newbie (former FT entrepreneur) I can relate to that Scrubs episode where Dr. Kelso stepped one foot out the hospital and started whistling like he had no cares in the world.

Am I heartless? Far from it. But as I moonlighted as a contractor I walked into companies as a hired gun. I enjoyed getting to know people, but subconsciously I never mixed business with personal. It’s my way of keeping boundaries.

But now being an employee I’m starting to see things differently. I’ll never be that guy who grabs a drink after work with co-workers for 2 reasons: 1) I want to see my kids and wife as soon as work is over 2) I don’t drink. It’s not something I’m against, more so a different time in my life.

Yet what’s changed for me in the past month or so is my view towards friends at work. I’m completely fine with putting my head down, banging my work out and leaving unnoticed. But something happened along the way…

My role at work is to support our employees (online tutors). It happens over Zoom (video conferencing) weekly. Ironically I wasn’t taking the same approach to work relationships, but my shift in behavior has made me re-think work.

Maybe it’s the remote environment of the company I work for, but outside of compensation who you connect with at work is the X-factor of retention. This is a quality, not quantity issue. You can bond over work projects, but the natural foundation of a true friendship is built over common interests and reciprocity. Effort alone guarantees nothing, but without it you’ll get nowhere. The interest has to be mutual.

Honestly I’ll never be that guy who calls his work friends his best friends, but knowing there are more than a handful of people at my company I am interested in connecting with outside of work is a huge step in the right direction for me.

So where do you fall on the friends at work spectrum?

Why Startups Are Overrated

Scott AsaiLeave a comment

startup-life

Follow your passion. Chase your dreams.

Bad advice depending on your age/life stage.

The startup life is glorified from the outside, but those inside the ropes think differently.

Your corporate 9-5 job may suck the life out of you, but imagine working 40+ hours and getting paid less.

Think the grass is greener on the other side? Try turning grass over. It’s brown.

Similar to entrepreneurship and parenting, everything you see/read/learn doesn’t equate to first-hand experience.

Working for a startup is grueling. Long hours for little pay isn’t for everyone. Age/life stage should be your determining factor.

In your 20’s your career is most important, so working hard for something you believe in takes priority.

In your 30’s relationships (dating/marriage/family) are most important, so working hard to support your desired lifestyle take priority.

In your 40’s planning for retirement is most important, so working hard to secure your future takes priority.

Startups are ideal for people in their 20’s or younger. Fewer responsibilities means less concerns about work life balance.

Once you enter your 30’s boundaries become important. The difference lies in what you do after work: going to the bar with friends vs. going home to see your family.

There’s nothing wrong with chasing the American dream, but the better question to ask is: when are you chasing it?

Keeping Your Millennial Workforce Happy

Scott AsaiLeave a comment

Guest post by Faith MacAnas

hi-five

One of the key features of the millennial generation is their focus on job satisfaction and life fulfillment is a lot higher than their predecessors. Happier employees have a better and higher quality output; this has made the necessity for employee satisfaction strategies more important than ever. These following examples are just a few areas where adjustments can be made that will motivate your millennial workforce and optimize your business.

• Flexibility

For the first time, young workers are prioritizing their work-life balance over their paycheck. They want to be able to travel, balance their family and social life or pick up side projects. While full remote working conditions are inadvisable, providing some level of flexibility is a great tactic. This offer could come in the form of career breaks or simply the opportunity to work alternate hours from home on occasion.

student-with-mentor-on-computer

•    Crisp Technology

Millennials have grown up at the forefront of technology; they have always had the latest editions and expect their technology to be in good working order. Companies that can’t afford the latest pieces now allow staff members to work on their own devices. While this can save money, it does also require ensuring the security of confidential company data on machines that will leave the office. You can guarantee protection by investing in a company-wide Virtual Private Network program for all staff members to use or by creating an internal system where work can be shared exclusively.

•    Career Paths

Today’s young workers live in a shaky economy, and they know it. While they worry about the promise of work, they also will quickly jump ship if their jobs don’t appear to provide them with the opportunity to progress. Give your millennial workforce a voice; allow them input into innovation ideas and company policy. Ensure feedback channels are open, and offer opportunities for training courses or department transfers. Show that you are willing to invest in them, and they are much more likely to invest in you and your company.

woman-holding-money

•    Cash Incentives

If all else fails, then there’s one language everyone speaks: cash. Nothing gets motivation going like the promise of a bonus, and there are none who don’t relish the opportunity to make more money. However, there are both pros and cons to this strategy. If, for example, you set a goal for workers to achieve to secure the bonus, and they do not succeed, it’s possible to disenfranchise them further. It’s wise to set goals that are both realistic and progressive.

Millenials are some of most forward-thinking workers around today. They naturally possess crucial knowledge and hold to the key to the future. If you haven’t already implemented strategies to ensure you keep them motivated and dedicated, then now is the time to start doing so!

About the Author: Faith is a blogger and marketing and strategy expert. She specializes in internet security. She enjoys sharing what she’s learned with other business owners online.

My Achilles Heel As An Entrepreneur

Scott Asai1 Comment

employee-entrepreneur

5 years ago I tore my left Achilles tendon while playing basketball.

Like the stories I heard before, it felt like someone kicked my calf from behind.

When it happened it didn’t hurt, but I knew something was wrong. I remember grabbing my cars keys and limping to the car. It was a 6 month recovery to get back on the basketball court.

Post-recovery I’ve never been scared of re-injuring myself, but I’ve become much more in tune with my body. If my Achilles feels sore, I don’t push my body. I listen to it.

As an entrepreneur, I have a Achilles heel too.

Leaders create a “wake” of relationships built and tasks accomplished. What I realized is the one that means more to me determines the trajectory of my career.

I’ve had my business for almost 10 years now experiencing ups and downs financially. Starting out I was willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. It was my own startup that I was willing to work overtime for and be underpaid purely to build my “brand.”

But being married and 2 kids later my priorities changed. Time became the most important currency and I’d rather spend time with my family than always work hard. In work-life balance terms, I want a separation between the two.

I always believed working a full-time corporate job meant waving the white flag…settling. I did everything I could to avoid it, until about a month ago.

Reluctantly, I took a position at a tech startup because there was “no good reason not to.” Not exactly inspiring stuff, but the truth.

Fast forward to now, I realize it was the right decision.

The side of the wake that matters more to me is: relationships. If it were tasks, I believe I’d never take my current position because I would have already been rich.

What I realized is money is more important than people. Some say that, but my actions validate it.

The thought of a 9-6 was nauseating even a few months ago, but I started listening to my heart.

Not only am I enjoying the work I do (similar to the coaching I’ve been doing), but once I leave the office I leave my work there. That’s something I could never do as a business owner.

Do I still coach? Yes. But around my full-time job.

My Achilles heel as an entrepreneur is my love for connection. It’s much stronger than my desire to sell.

I still love to dream up and implement new ideas, but not at the cost of a steady paycheck and allowing my wife to stay at home with our kids.

I haven’t given up on entrepreneurship.

I just became more in tune with my desired lifestyle.

Work Life Balance Simplified To One Word

Scott Asai1 Comment

boundaries-sand

Boundaries.

The only way to separate your personal from professional life is to define your boundaries.

Boundaries are hard to identify until someone crosses them.

The reason work-life feels like a blur is because you allow it.

As an employee it’s a constant tug-of-war with management. You have to draw a line between what they want and what they can legally expect of you.

If you’re an entrepreneur, no paycheck is guaranteed so you have to hustle more, but at what expense? Ask most business owners why they started their own company and most would answer with reasons other than money. But as your own boss, if you don’t draw the line, your boundaries will be abused.

Start defining what’s inside and outside of your boundaries. Stand up for what matters and what’s right.

In the end you have no one else to blame for work-life balance: except you.