Adjusting life to a new business and balancing with other aspects of your life can be tricky. I personally found to begin with my balance of life and work wasn’t right.

Balance of Life – What I soon discovered however, if you plan and organise the balance of life wisely, then you will find yourself contributing good quality time towards your business. Firstly, I find a paper diary is so important for maintaining an equal balance of life and business work. Write down what hours you are dedicating to a part-time job, the hours you are going to networking events and anything else you have in your life. This will help work you out when in the day you can work and how long you can dedicate your time to the business.

Secondly, I have a to-do book where I write what I must do each week. This helps to plan what days to do certain tasks from the to-do book so I can make the most of it. I can prioritise and be aware of deadlines.

It’s important to realise that it’s not the quantity of time you spend on your business BUT the quality of it instead. Especially when you only have a few hours in the week to do work for your business, the quality time for it can be so precious and valuable for the growth and strength of the business. I used to get worried when I only had a two-hour day rather than a whole one to do my business as it didn’t feel like I was really “working”.

However, when I reviewed the workload I had done for a week, I worked harder and did more in two hours than when I had a whole day to do it! I think this is because a whole day seems long and endless and therefore it makes you want to procrastinate. But when it’s two hours, it acts like a mini-deadline and you have until a certain time to finish a certain task.

One important thing to remember when balancing your life is to put aside time to rest and transfer from one aspect of life to another. What I mean by this is that I especially find it’s hard to jump straight from my part-time job into my business. This is because I need to re-energise ready for my work and get into the business mindset. In my “rest and transfer” stage, I watch TV for 15 mins before getting changed, have a bite to eat and then I’m ready to do my work. I find it’s important to do this to divide minor aspects of life (like part-time work and the gym) to the major aspect of my life that is my business.

Overall, introducing my business as a major aspect to my balance of life can be difficult at times.

Written by Abbie Ede – Abbie Ede Design