10 useful tips for reaching an equilibrated work-life balance

Being in an equilibrated work-home balance is probably the most difficult objective to set. How should you organize your schedule so you can spend more time with your family? How should you spend your time to evolve at your workplace? These are the questions we think about, almost every day. Now you feel like spending more time in nature with your beloved ones, then you feel pressured to finish your work tasks. You may think that it’s impossible to accomplish all your objectives: to be the best in your career and to have a perfect family life. But how do you, however, divide your tasks so that you can live in a harmonious environment?

A family or a life partner may be considered an obstacle to those who want to give 100% at the workplace, but this workaholic thinking has to change sooner or later. As a popular quote says, “never get so busy making a living, that you forget to make a life.” You have to start thinking about how to strike a balance between the time you spend at home and how much you dedicate yourself to work.

At Goldie, we read daily about our clients’ life stories, about their problems, fears, feelings, their goals, how did they start their business from scratch and how did they grow it. Besides that, they always tell us one important thing: they need more free time. How can you overcome this obstacle and organize yourself better so that you can create a balanced work-home lifestyle? Let’s find it out.

1. Increase your efficiency at work

When you know you have to complete a task, whether you have to make a gel refill, a balayage, to take care of a dog or you have a training session, don’t waste time. Organize yourself, make your plan before the session begins and do not let yourself distracted. We all tend to spend some time on social media, write a message, talk to someone else or have a snack while we work, but those activities will lower considerably our productivity.

Before I began to write this article, I spent 15 minutes doing sort of nothing on my phone. Why? Honestly, I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure that if you ask yourself what do you remember from the information that you found today on your mobile phone, you don’t remember either 80% of them.

People spend an average of approximately 4 hours a day on their mobile phones. This thing decreases the efficiency and you will only suffer from that: instead of finishing your task in 2 hours, you will finish it in 4. Focus on what do you have to do and avoid thinking about other things. This is a very good exercise for your memory! Why wasting your time doing nothing, when you can enjoy an extra 2 hours at home, in your comfortable bed?

2. Manage long-term time

Set your work schedule in detail and try to respect it. You can include some free days in your schedule, as long as you know that you will be able to respect the other days of activity fully. Do you work 3 days a week? Very well. Fill in your program in those 3 days and enjoy the rest of the days if you think that it is effective. Do you feel like you have too many things to do in a single day? Divide your time equally for each day of the week so you can be present and efficient at home and at your workplace. Pay attention: sometimes you might feel very uncomfortable and anxious because you will be haunted by the unfinished work. Try to find harmony and think strategically when you set a long-term schedule.

3. Know your strengths and weaknesses

Are you a morning person? Assign the high-concentration tasks in the morning. Are you a nighty person? Do the easy stuff during the day, relax for a few hours and then start doing your best to reach your goal. We are all different and we are the ones who already know in which moments of the day we can give our full energy. Have you ever felt that every time you start doing something important, someone’s calling? A colleague needs help, a family member is calling you, a friend needs a piece of advice…the universe wants to challenge and conquer you.

The impact of interruptions on people’s productivity is catastrophic. A recent report shows that on average, we experience an interruption (social media, calls, messages, tv, etc.) every eight minutes. In an eight-hour day, that is about 60 interruptions. The average interruption takes about five minutes, so that is about five hours out of eight. If it takes around 15 minutes to resume the interrupted activity at a good level of concentration, this means that we are never really concentrating at our maximum capacity.

4. Don’t neglect personal time

When you give up on anything that might distract you, everything goes accordingly. However, you need to be aware that you need time for yourself, even during your hours of work: a coffee break, lunch in a quiet environment or a short break spent alone. A recent study shows that to increase productivity, on average, we need 17 minutes of break every 52 minutes of hard work. “Turns out, the secret to retain the highest level of productivity throughout a workday is not working longer – but working smarter with frequent breaks.” Do not forget: after each service that you provide, give yourself a little time to recover.

5. Learn to say “no”.

Do you remember our meme about that moment “when you see a client after you told her that you’re out of time for the weekend”? Yes, funny again. Why would you think about lying instead of learning to say no? We all want to do that just to avoid making someone feel uncomfortable for declining their request, if you learn to be fair play and to say no in a kind way, things could work too.

6. Set goals and priorities

Setting realistic goals is the key to success in life. You might want to have 20 clients in a day, but it isn’t really achievable. In order to overstock yourself in one day, you should take it easy and share your tasks in a smaller piece.

When you set your objectives, keep in mind the SMART technique. Your objectives should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely.

“What should be done?” Well, if your objective is specific enough, you will know the answer to this question. The first step is to know exactly what you want to do. “How?” Well, easy. As I already said, you have to be aware that you can’t have 20 clients in a single day. Analyze your situation and divide your time for each day of the week. When your objective is specific and measurable, let’s make it achievable. “Can you do it?” Can you train 20 people in a single day? Can you wash 20 dogs in an 8-hour-work day? Probably not. Reconsider the number of clients you book in a day. “Does it represent a high priority? Is it worth doing it?” Well, if the answer is yes, your objective is realistic and worth accomplishing. Timely means setting deadlines. You must include one, otherwise, your objective isn’t measurable. Your deadlines must be also realistic, or the task isn’t achievable. As you see, everything goes hand in hand and you have to take into consideration all the 5 elements to have a smart objective. 🙂

7. Use technology to your advantage

Why waste your time talking on the phone, looking for the agenda and, damn, you never have a pen …? It’s time to use technology to your benefit. Goldie is ​​an appointment scheduling software that helps approximately 40,000 small business owners manage their appointments daily. Beauty professionals are using Goldie every day and they are thankful for how it helped them grow their business. Thanks to the automated text message reminders, online payments and deposit processing, and other powerful features, their clients cannot say anymore that they forgot about their appointment again. What do you think about downloading Goldie and make that smartphone more useful? 😉

8. Do what you love

Think about the activity you love the most when you are at home and enjoy it. Do you like washing the dishes? Turn the music to the maximum and don’t let anything distract you. Do you like to read? Go in a comfortable room, light a scented candle and enjoy reading. Leave your problems at the door when you enter the home and avoid thinking about the things that stress you. Did you know that people generally tend to associate places with memories, feelings, people or smells? If you’ll keep your environment pure, without stressing or thinking about negative stuff, then that place will always bring you a good state of mind.

9. Never eat alone

As Keith Ferrazzi says in his bestseller, never eat alone. Whether it’s at work or at home, it’s always good to have someone in your company when you eat. Are you at work? Lunch is probably the perfect time to communicate and to find new ideas on how to bring in new customers. Your colleagues can be a source of inspiration and a very good connection person (gatekeeper). Take advantage of the moments spent in their company.

Moreover, when you are at home, lunch or dinner time is a very important one. You can ask your partner or children about how their day was like, what’s new in their lives, what happened recently. It is a moment that will definitely bring you all together. You don’t have to ask uncomfortable or heavy questions. A simple “How was your day?” or “This meal is delicious.” is enough to turn this moment into a precious one.

10. Live with passion every minute of your life

Love your job. Go out every morning with a positive thinking, don’t consider it as a burden. Even if it is an easy-to-do activity, if your mindset is negative, then the activity you do will seem 10 times harder than it actually is. I remember what my aunt used to tell me: “Wake up every morning and do from the very beginning of the day exactly what you love. If you do so, you’ll forget that during the day you have to do even things that you don’t like.” I realized she was right. If you’re too busy thinking about the good things in your life, you don’t have time to think about the bad ones. Make every moment of your life be the best experience and enjoy every second of it.

“You aren’t perfect. All you can be is your best. Be your best at work. Be your best at home. Even if you can’t spend the time you want in an aspect of your life, be your best at it when you are in it. Be in harmony.”- Dr. Bill Gentry

At Goldie, we put love in what we do. We are trying to provide the best services for you and we’re glad when we receive positive messages such as the one from Gina: “Love your app! I have recommended this app to all my business friends.” ❤️