10 Myths About Work-Life Balance and What to Do Instead
This article comes from Entrepreneur.
10 Myths About Work-Life Balance and What to Do Instead
Here are 10 myths regarding work-life balance that are stressing you out and setting you up for failure.
1. It’s actually about achieving balance.
This is the biggest misconception regarding work-life balance. The hard truth is that balance doesn’t exist. It would be great if it did but our lives don’t exist in silos.
No matter how hard you try, there will be times when work bleeds into your personal life and vice versa. Just because you clock out for the day doesn’t mean that you’re 100 percent free from work. You may still have to respond to an email or review your schedule. As an entrepreneur, you’re always thinking about work in some capacity.
2. Life needs to be compartmentalized.
Another myth is that we need to compartmentalize life. For some of us, that means an even 50-50 split where we spend half of our time at work and the other at home. For others, it’s dividing our days into 8-8-8 hour blocks. This longstanding mentality is that we should spend eight hours at work, sleep for another eight, and set aside eight hours for leisure and social activities.
The thing is that it’s not possible to evenly divide your time like this. There will be days when you put in 10 hours of work. The tradeoff is that there will be others when you only work for a couple of hours.
3. You can have it all.
Even if you have created a schedule that allows you to exercise, spend time with your inner circle and get all of your work done, you’re still making a sacrifice somewhere. If I want to help my business grow, then I will have to travel frequently. Whether it is to check in on my remote team or speaking at a conference, I will be out of town and unable to spend that time with my family.
4. Time management is the answer.
I’m all for time management. At the same time, it’s an outdated concept. Most of the time management techniques we put on a pedestal were created before we were connected 24/7.
I wish I could completely unplug to free me of distractions or unwind. The reality is that as a business owner, I can’t go completely off the grid. To counter this, you have to be selective with how you spend your time. That means spending your energy on the right actions at the right time.
5. Technology will give you more free time.
Automation has definitely made life much more comfortable. However, it’s not guaranteed to add more hours to your day magically. For example, you can use chatbots to handle necessary customer service inquiries. Artificial intelligence can give you smart suggestions on how to schedule a meeting. But, you still need to interact with customers personally and plan your own productive meeting.
In other words, technology is an assist. But, it’s not going to do everything for literally. You still need to put in a little effort.
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