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Achieving Better Work/Life Balance in 2015

It's a reflective time of year, with the chance to take a breather and look at what's been achieved or not.

I enjoy reading business articles / books from experts I value. This article on Work/Life Balance comes from a Landscape Business Expert - Jeff Scott:

"Work is more productive when it is more focused.

Move 1 to 3 things forward a mile, instead of a thousand things forward an inch.

Family is more satisfying when it is experienced "in the moment", away from technology and media.

Get away and reconnect. Your perspective is more balanced when you take a break and go to the gym or go for a run or walk.

Get your pulse and heart beat up, and it will refill your reservoirs.

You have 4 priorities in business: 1)Personal health, 2)Family, 3)Employees, 4)Clients.

Your clients are best served in that order;

1) Personal: Take care of yourself first in order to take care of others - when the oxygen mask drops down, put on your own first and then help those around you. Refill your tank, sharpen your blades, and organize your thoughts. The better shape you are in mentally and physically: the better father/mother, spouse, boss and leader you will be for others. Are you investing in your own well being?

2) Family: Take care of your family and they will take care of you. Ignore them and everyone suffers. Even a busy entrepreneur can be home by 5:30pm for dinner. Still burning the candles at both ends? Start with two days a week.

3) Employee satisfaction and retention is the foundation for client satisfaction and retention. Build the team that will build the client base. This includes key vendors, suppliers and whomever is a strategic partner. Put employees first.

4) Clients are the life blood, and they want to work for a first class service company that has their act together. Do you have your act together?

BREAKTHROUGH IDEA: Schedule your personal commitments first, then schedule business around that. The other way around rarely works. "

Food for thought.......

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  • PRO
    Thanks for posting this Gary, I'd recently been googling "burnout" ( after being warned about it by yourself and others quite some time ago) and this just serves to remind us that we do need to take stock from time to time.

    Even if you think everything is ok, stop and take a closer look. After all, it can't do any harm.
  • PRO

    Seems a good time of the year to bump this thread in readiness for 2016.....and just as relevant :)

  • This is a very good topic and it will be interesting to hear others on this topical subject. One of the reasons for going self employed for me is to get the work/life balance right. I don't work weekends or Bank Holidays and I usually finish at 4 in the afternoon thus giving me sufficient recovery time from the work and being with the family. In the past I would be working on a structured weekend basis and getting home after 6 during the week plus the hassle of managing staff and budgets and so forth. I know too many people who are working long hours and in some cases working 6 days a week with barely any time off. A phrase someone once told me is that you never hear anyone on their deathbed saying "I wish I worked harder at work."
  • "Schedule your personal commitments first, then schedule business around that"

    Thats a hard one.

    Isn't it the other way round that males us successful?

    • PRO

      I'd go with "Schedule your personal commitments first, then schedule business around that" mantra.

      Unless you have a stable personal life, with the support of your loved ones and family, any sucess you have will be hollow,  in isolation and be of limited use. Unless of course, you're a loner.

      Business is full of bosses with broken mariages, runied family and missed family time.

      • PRO
        I think it's a problem as if you are not a "driven" person you won't go that far. But if you are you may push things too far regarding work life balance
        • This reply was deleted.
          • PRO
            I can understand that but I've seen myself over the years that if you have not got something about you you won't go that far. Maybe driven is the wrong word maybe passionate or commited are better. I've seen a lot fail because they can't be bothered to focus on it.
            I'm not talking 80-90 hour weeks though
            • PRO
              It also depends what you class as success doesn't it?
              Happiness or money I don't think the second can buy the first
              • I know someone who earns around £150,000 a year plus bonuses. He lives in a £1m house with 18 acres. His materialistic lifestyle is the envy of many. Is he happy? No. He's stressed out with work and has commitments to pay for private schools for his children and university. His wife, I am afraid to say, relishes all the succesul trappings of a Profesional man's status. His work dominates his private life.
              • It is great advice to put in your personal and family appointments in the diary and then put in work appointments after. If you are organised and more relaxed, in my experience, it breeds more enthusiasm and commitment about business. For me what gives me happiness comes from good health so these points above are spot on.

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