Three Work-Life Balance Tips For The Self Employed

Managing your work life balance as a self employed person can be one of the most difficult tasks. After all when you are the sole driving force for your work it can be easy to be tempted to jus do that little extra hour or two of work, but with work life so close to homelike overworking and burnout are a real issue. Make sure you don't become your own worst boss with these three tips.

1. Stick To Your Hours

Treat your work hours the exact same way you would for a regular job. That means choosing a weekly hour total that you will not work over. This applies to weekdays too, if you agree with yourself to work 40-50 hours a week spread over 5 days, don't let yourself work more than 8-10 hours a day. Try to take two days of per week to relax just like you would at a normal job. Eventually you will encounter a problem that needs additional hours to deal with, when this happens do what you need to get the job done but do not allow the extra time working to become a habit.

2. Put Up Barriers

This applies more to self employed folks who are working from home. You may find that working in the house doesn't have the same 'end of day' feeling as working in an office. this is due to the close proximity and the lack of that drive home after work. You can try to emulate this by using a room dedicated to being a home office. Keep that room dedicated to work. This teaches your mind that the office is the place for work which in turn builds a habit for working hard, then relaxing when you leave the office and put your feet up. You can even add a short walk after work to simulate your commute home and get some steps in as an added bonus.

3. Avoid The Phone

These days everyone is glued to there phones, and its no wonder why, the things are just too entertaining. whether its watching YouTube videos or talking to friends on social media, modern phone tech is super. However when you are using the same phone for work and play, things can get overlapped quite easily. This can be avoided by getting yourself an additional phone purely for work use. If this isn't an option for you than you should limit using the phone for work reasons once you finish for the day. That means turning off your email notifications in the evenings and on weekends. As well as limiting the amount of entertainment you use the phone for during the work day!