Life as a Business Owner: How to Balance for Success

Being a business owner is a large responsibility that requires a big time commitment. Because of this, it is common for these entrepreneurs to have a difficult time properly managing a sustainable balance between their work and personal lives. Unfortunately, failing to take the proper steps to be there for your family can lead to serious issues such as divorce. Therefore, every business owner who puts in a lot of hours each week should begin utilizing time saving techniques that will enable them to have a profitable company without sacrificing their personal happiness. The following are some tips that can enable you to spend less time at the office.

 

1. Hire an Assistant

It is understandable that business owners strive to keep their expenses as low as possible, but hiring even a part-time assistant could definitely remove some of the daily burden that makes it difficult to get home at a decent hour. As an added bonus, an assistant can tackle the tasks that you dread doing such as sorting through all of your calls and emails to prioritize them. In fact, they will be able to reply to emails and calls for you that do not require your personal input.

 

2. Outsource Your IT Needs 

Hosting all of your data on-site requires a lot of attention to detail, and you will also need time to make sure that everything runs smoothly at all times. However, you can outsource some of your IT needs by utilizing the services of a professional data center such as QTS Atlanta data centers to back up all of your critical information. In fact, data centers provide a higher level of uptime, and they also serve as a much safer storage facility for all of your customers’ sensitive data. Due to this, working with a data center can definitely free up some of your time. Fortunately, some companies have these useful facilities that can be found nationwide, and this will make it easy for you to find the right company to suit your needs.

 

3. Cross-Train Your Employees 

You need to ensure that your employees have been cross-trained in order to secure your company’s ability to deal with any unexpected situations. After all, if you or another member of your team suddenly becomes seriously injured or ill, the overall productivity of your business could severely suffer from a lack proper training throughout your entire staff. Additionally, making sure that multiple people can handle the same tasks will give you the opportunity to delegate more responsibilities so that you can spend some quality time with your family.

 

4. Institute a Workplace Wellness Program 

Promoting healthy behavior among your employees through a workplace wellness program has been proven to help reduce sick time, and this can definitely have a positive impact on your ability to go home for dinner each night. After all, offering healthy food options and utilizing healthy practices such as hosting walk and talk meetings will help improve everyone’s overall quality of life. This will result in increased energy, higher workplace morale and a more stable environment that will allow a business owner to work shorter days.

 

Although it might seem difficult to balance your work and personal lives on a daily basis, you can definitely make the entire process much easier by hiring an assistant, instituting a workplace wellness program, cross-training all of your employees and taking advantage of the opportunity to outsource some of your IT needs. These four techniques can make the difference between working 80 hours a week and having enough time to dedicate to your personal relationships so that your family life can run just as smoothly as your business.

 

Lisa Coleman shares some tips that can help a business owner with time management and ways to free time up for their family. She recently read online about the professionals at QTS Atlanta data centers and how they are equipped to provide custom data center, colocation and cloud services for a business.

 

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/76029035@N02/6829508519/

Categories: atlanta data, business nbsp, business owner, data center, data centers, family relationship wellness, owning a business, personal lives, qts atlanta, Time Management

New Year’s Stressolutions: How to Unwind in 2014

What New Year’s resolutions did you set this year? Maybe you decided to lose weight, or perhaps protecting your health against smoking habit was on the agenda – but what about stress? Did you resolve to be less stressed in 2014, or is the idea of making resolutions too stressful to even contemplate? Stress doesn’t only play a part in your corporate wellness; it impacts every aspect of your wellbeing, but how do you achieve the seemingly impossible goal of reducing stress?

 

There are many ways of coping with stress, but some are less healthy than others. Unhealthy ways for managing stress include smoking, drinking too much, over or under eating, zoning out for hours in front of the television or computer, withdrawing from friends or family, using medication or drugs to relax, sleeping too much, procrastinating, filling up your day to avoid facing problems, and taking your stress out on others by lashing out. If that sounds all-too familiar, let’s take a look at healthy ways to manage your stress:

 

1. Avoid unnecessary stress. Rachel Clements, BSc Hons, M Psych, MAPS, co-founder and Director of Psychological Services and Principal Organisational Psychologist at the Centre for Corporate Health, you need to learn how to say “no.” Clements urges, ‘Know your limits and stick to them. Taking on more than you can handle is a sure-fire recipe for stress, so be realistic in your personal capacity.’ The same goes for people who stress you out. Clements advises, ‘If someone consistently causes stress in your life and you can’t turn the relationship around, limit the amount of time your spend with that person or end the relationship.’

 

2. Reduce your to-do list: ‘Look at your schedule, responsibilities and daily tasks,’ Clements instructs. ‘If you have too much on your plate, distinguish between the “musts”, the “shoulds” and the most urgent. Drop the tasks that aren’t a priority to the bottom of the list or eliminate, delegate or delay doing them.’

 

3. Change the situation: Clements recommends, ‘Express your feelings instead of bottling them up. If something or someone is bothering you, communicate your concerns in an open and respectful way. If you don’t voice your feelings, resentment will build and the situation will likely remain the same…When you ask someone to change their behaviour, be willing to do the same. If you both are willing to bend at least a little, you’ll have a good chance of finding a happy middle ground.’

 

4. Be more assertive: ‘Don’t take a backseat in your own life,’ Clements insists. ‘Deal with problems head on, doing your best to anticipate and prevent them. If you’ve got an exam to study for and your chatty roommate just got home, say up front that you only have five minutes to talk.’

 

5. Improve your time management: Isn’t it often the case that you’re the most stressed right before a big deadline? ‘Poor time management can cause a lot of stress,’ Clements notes. ‘When you’re stretched too thin and running behind, it’s hard to stay calm and focused. But if you plan ahead and make sure you don’t overextend yourself, you can alter the amount of stress your under.’

 

6. Step back and adapt: ‘Try to view stressful situations from a more positive perspective,’ Clements suggests. ‘Rather than fuming about a traffic jam, look at it as an opportunity to pause and regroup, listen to your favourite music, or enjoy some alone time…Take perspective of the stressful situation. Ask yourself how important it will be in the long run. Will it matter in a month? A year? Is it really worth getting upset over? If the answer is no, focus your time and energy elsewhere.’

Categories: avoid stressors, clements, nbsp, Stress, stress nbsp, time, Time Management, To Do List, year

What is a Job Burn-Out and Who is at Risk?

Job burnout is a particular type of stress that creates a state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion, combined with fears over your ability and value in the workplace. It’s become something of a phenomenon over the past few years, with so many people making huge lifestyle sacrifices in order to get ahead in their careers. But who is at risk? Pay close attention to how you act at work – are you cynical or critical? Do you have to drag yourself into work in the morning, having difficulties once you’re there to even get started? Are you using food and drink, or even drugs to help you feel better about your situation? Do you lack energy and satisfaction from your job? If you’ve answered yes to some or all of these questions, you could be suffering from a job burnout. A job burnout causes you to become disillusioned and unhappy, as well as affecting your productivity and your lifestyle. If you feel you could be at risk, speak to your GP straight away to see if they can help you treat the condition. Checking with your GP is important as some of the symptoms could be related to another problem, such as depression or thyroid disorder.

 

A job burnout can result from a variety of factors, such as a lack of control within your job that mean your schedule or workload has changed dramatically, or being unclear about your expectations and then feeling worred and anxious all the time. Your workplace may have a dysfunctional dynamic which puts pressure on you, or you may simply be a poor fit for your ob and it’s left you stressed. If your job requires constant energy to remain focused, either through it being chaotic or monotonous, then you may find that you end up fatigued and burned out. For many people, the lack of balance in their work and social life leads to stress and unhappiness, and this can result in a job burnout over time. If you already feel that you’re tired all of the time, if you’re trying to be everything to everyone or if your job is monotonous, then you may be more likely to experience a job burnout.  The consequences are far more than simply being a bit tired though. You could be increasing your risk of fatigue, excessive stress, depression, insomnia, anxiety, stroke, obesity and even heart disease. Don’t ignore your symptoms if you are struggling with this issue, as it could develop into something far worse than just stress if left for too long.

If you want to tackle the problem, the best way is to identify what it is about your job that is making you feel this way – is it the hours, the workload, the people? Look at what your options are and see whether there are possibilities of you being moved to a different department, or perhaps a role within your team that’s better suited to your skill-set.  Adjust your attitude and realise the plus points of your job – perhaps your team is nice or it’s close to work, so you avoid the dreaded commute. Try to do things in your social life that will help with the stress, such as getting plenty of exercise to calm your mood and boost the endorphins for a calmer outlook to work. You should also seek support where possible, in the form of friends, family or co-workers. If you’re still struggling, a counsellor may be of use to you in helping you deal with the stress and work through your issues about your job.

Categories: Stress, Time Management, Workplace Wellness

Plan, Cook, Exercise, Drink: Weight Loss Tips

With so many random fad diets and fitness programmes out there, wouldn’t it be nice if someone just listed the wellness steps you can take to lose weight – ones that actually work? Junk the jargon, miss out the marketing, and just follow these tips that can improve your overall wellbeing, and help you to lose weight.

 

Firstly, begin your weight loss journey with a destination in mind. How much weight will you lose? Use your BMI target to calculate how much weight you actually need to lose, and ask a medical health professional to help you set a healthy target. Once you have your goal in place, take a look at your time. Time management is often overlooked in weight loss, but it’s a huge determining factor in your success. In order to sustain your weight loss efforts, plan which part of your day will be dedicated to exercise, when in the week you will stock up on groceries, and when you will do the cooking.

 

Speaking of groceries and cooking, make sure your kitchen is well-stocked with fruits, vegetables, healthy meats, grains, cereals, spices, and flavourers. Then, ensure that you cook using healthy cooking methods and ingredients. Healthy home-cooked meals are a big reason behind anyone’s successful weight loss, so use less oil and salt and more fresh produce, and you’ll start seeing results in no time.

 

When it comes to your exercise programme, you need to have 30 to 60 minutes of physical activity every day. This should involve both cardio exercise and weight training, as any workout that stresses on muscle tone and increased heart rate will always help you lose weight and keep it off. A good way to get moving is by having active hobbies, such as playing a sport, dancing or even cleaning the house, as you’ll be working out without even realising!

 

Remember, stress is always detrimental to healthy weight loss in the long run, so find ways to combat stress such as yoga, meditation, deep breathing exercises, or even simple hobbies like reading. Finally, make sure you drink plenty of water as your body relies heavily on water for all important bodily functions. Drinking at least eight glasses of water daily can help to re-hydrate you after exercising and curb your appetite so that you eat less, and so you will consequently lose more weight.

Categories: home-cooking, Time Management, Weight Loss

Against the Clock: Time Management for Working Parents

Family wellness is a difficult enough task when you’re not working. You’ve got to ensure the kids are all happy (but not spoilt), stimulated (but not overly stimulated), and healthy and clean (but still allowed to be kids). Taking care of your child’s wellbeing can be a six or seven person job, so how on earth do you maintain your corporate wellness on top of that?

Time is like gold dust when you’re a working parent, and so managing it becomes of the utmost importance. Firstly, don’t fall into the trap of multitasking. You may think you can leave the office early and work from home whilst watching the kids, but two hours later your work is unfinished, and all you have to show for your time is lovely crayon drawings on the walls. Whether you need to concentrate on work or family life, pick one and switch off other distractions like smartphones, social media and emails.

Next, sort out your priorities. Some work to-do items will need your attention, and others will carry more emotional weight. Combine those to-do lists and tackle the most onerous tasks first, so you’ll know things are only going to get better. Remember that both family life tasks and work life tasks are important, they just need a little bit of sorting so you don’t drop the ball on one.

Whilst getting the most out of your time is important to achieve a decent work-life balance, remember that you also need time to do nothing and just be. Pad out your activities with periods of quiet – “serendipity space” – where there is nothing to do and nowhere to go. Some of the best family moments arise out of these times, such as in-the-moment puddle-jumping or sofa snuggling, and if you’re in a hurry to be somewhere or do something, you might miss them.

Finally, take advantage of those little five minutes in your day here and there where you can complete little tasks. Have these jobs queued up in your to-do list so that you’ve always got something useful to do when you’re waiting for something else. Save up tasks such as making phone calls, checking social media, responding to email, doing self-care tasks that fall by the wayside (e.g., nail filing, stretching), tidying up, even a single drawer or surface, sorting the post, and looking ahead in your calendar and to-do list to see where you could benefit from a little forward planning or preparation.

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Against the Clock: Time Management for Working Parents

Categories: family time, Time Management, working parents