Distinguishing between work time and family time can be difficult for business owners

Running a business is by far one of your biggest accomplishments. You feel proud of what you have accomplished and the way you are living your life. You are able to provide just fine for your family and are also able to enjoy some good quality time with your loved ones.

For the most part, that’s a big part of every business owner story. However, if you’ve ever owned a business, you know that’s not the entire story.

Why do I say this? Because running a business means several nights thinking about the most specific details of your operation. A few sleepless nights thinking about a particular issue that you don’t know how to solve. And why not, a few family moments where you wish you could be more present in the room, but your mind is thinking about a specific problem you need to solve for your business.

Your business becomes a big part of who you are. However, you also know that there are important moments in your life that you are not prioritizing as much. How can you solve this? Is there some middle ground where you can just have the best of both worlds?

I can’t promise you all your business issues will go away, however, I can promise you that by organizing a few key elements of your business, you will be able to enjoy more of those times with your loved ones. You know those times count the most.

Here are a few tips:

1.- Focus on your strengths. Do not try to do everything in your business, focus on the few things you do well and spend most of the time doing that. If you are a great sales person, then go out and sell, and outsource the other tasks. This is by far the most important practice successful business owners do.

2.- Set your priorities at the beginning of everyday day/week. If you allow yourself to think that everything is equally important, then you are not set up for success. This will not only hurt your business but will hurt your precious family time. Every day or week, take 5 minutes to establish your set of priorities and think about what is feasible for you to accomplish. In those set of priorities, ALWAYS include at least one activity that involves family time (e.g., Dinner with my partner, take kids to school, call my parents for 10 minutes, these little things matter so much more than you think).

3.- Set a specific number of work hours, and fit your day into those work hours. If you set yourself a specific number of hours and establish your priorities around that, you will find that hard stop refreshing, it is the only way to stop yourself from working long hours. There aren’t that many things you can actually solve at 9pm at night.   

By following these rules, you will find yourself spending more time with family. Trust me, it will be worth it and it will be good for you and your business in the long term.