Was being able to set flexible working hours a drawcard to owning a business? In reality, do you work more than ever, affecting your personal life? Don’t despair! Pathfinder Solutions can help you free up time so you can do more of what you love.
A key benefit of owning your own business is choosing your working hours.
That was probably a major influencing factor when you started out. Chances are, you planned to spend less time in your business and more time with your friends and family. Then reality struck, and you found yourself coming in earlier, staying later, and taking work home with you on the weekend. This probably wasn’t the life you’d imagined.
How do I improve my work /life balance?
1. Identify the biggest time wasters in your day.
Consider the things that appear urgent and important but are not necessarily the best use of your time.
“Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.” – Stephen Covey
Examples of tasks that appear urgent but that aren’t always important include interruptions and some emails, phone calls and meetings.
Examples of urgent and important things that can still be time-wasters are managing a crisis or problem that arises due to insufficient planning, procedure development and time management.
Some people find it helpful to make lists of tasks under three headings: (1) Urgent and important, (2) Important, not urgent, and (3) Not urgent, not important. The process of putting this together and then seeing everything written down, can help focus the mind on what needs to be done and in what priority.
2. Identify how you can better utilise your team and resources.
Ineffective delegation, or no delegation at all, could be monopolising your time. It’s essential that you trust your employees, and that they have enough training and resources so that you can empower them with new tasks.
We can help you develop your organisational structure with clearly defined roles and responsibilities, so you can gain time for yourself to concentrate on key activities, such as revenue generation, more family time, or hobbies. We’ll also help you identify delegation opportunities.
Don’t employ a team? What tasks could you outsource to free up your time? Consider responsibilities you don’t enjoy or aren’t your strength and yet are crucial and time-consuming. The most commonly outsourced departments are marketing, administration, HR, and finance.
3. Plan for your desired lifestyle.
Setting clear SMART goals, along with monitoring relevant KPIs, can help you to prioritise your most important tasks and gain time freedom. If something’s not helping you achieve one of your goals, consider whether it’s truly necessary, and if it is, whether someone else can do it. If not, schedule time to get it done before it becomes urgent.
If you struggle to hold yourself accountable for achieving your goals, we can be that accountability backstop. You don’t need to be spending 80+ hours in your business (unless that’s really what you love doing!)
Pathfinder Solutions can help you get effective systems, processes and software in place to reduce the time you need to spend at work. If you’re craving an improved work /life balance, please do get in touch.
About Pathfinder Solutions
Pathfinder Solutions advisory team members have either owned or managed businesses, or are investors themselves, so we know first-hand the challenges you face in your world.
Sure we’re Accountants, but the best solutions in business come from focusing on more than just the numbers. Our real-world business experience delivers just that.
