When you set up your own business, you will find that it is very much all hands on deck from day one. There will be lots of work to get through if you are going to get your company up and running, and doing as well as possible right from the word go. In fact, some entrepreneurs and company owners find that they have to put in very long orders in order to get everything on their to-do list done.
Working hard is always good, as it will help the money come in and will keep your business going. However, if you ever find that all your hard work and dedication is starting to eat into your private life and personal time with friends and family, you might need to reassess just how much time you are spending at work. This can be very difficult to do, especially if you love to work and do so from home. It can be all too easy to just keep on going! But working long hours, no matter how much you love to do so, will start to raise your stress levels and could lead to some health conditions. It also means that your friends and family won’t get to see you so often!
Do you think it is time you limited the number of hours you work each day? Here are some helpful ways to do just that.
Set Office Hours
When you work from home, it’s easy to just dip in and out of work whenever you want. That’s great because you get to set your own schedule. However, it does mean that you might be likely to work in the evenings. Ideally, your evenings should be your own time spent with your friends and family. So, try and finish work at a reasonable time, say 5 or 6 PM. That way, you have plenty of time to unwind in the evening. The best way of ensuring that you clock off in time is to set yourself some office hours. You will find this especially productive if you work on your own at home. So, for example, your working hours could match the usual working day from 9 AM to 5 PM. Once the clock hits five o’clock, it’s time to clock off for the day!
Use Time Trackers
If you aren’t strict enough on yourself to enfor self-imposed office hours, it’s a good idea to start using some proper time trackers. Thankfully, there are now lots of mobile employee time clock services that you can sign up for. These are especially useful if you don’t work for such long chunks each day. So, for instance, if you work for an hour or two at a time at different times throughout the day instead of working through the day, you can set off the timer to record all your hours. That way, you won’t accidently work too much!
Sign Up For Activities
Still struggling to quit work in time? If tracking your hours and putting some self-imposed office hours in place aren’t working, then it could be useful to sign up for some activities. If you love your fitness, you might want to sign up for some gym classes in the evening, for example.
You will then have a very good reason to turn off your laptop and leave work! If you find that you regularly work through your lunch hour, you might want to sign up for some lunchtime activities too. You will find that there are lots of gyms out there that have lunchtime classes which are aimed specifically for workers to go to during their lunch break. You’ll then be able to enjoy a proper break for once!
Set An Alarm
You can always take it back to basics as well and just set an alarm. Be sure to set this at the end of the day at the time that you would like to stop work. Then, when it goes off, it will alert you to the fact that it is time to quit work for the day. If you haven’t got everything done that you need to, you could always snooze the alarm for fifteen or twenty minutes to give yourself a chance to wrap things up. But don’t keep on snoozing that alarm, though – you will just carry on working and that’s not the point!
Get A Friend Or Relative To Call You
If you find that none of the above help you cut down your hours to a reasonable number, you could simply ask a close friend or relative to give you a call at the end of the day. They could always be your alarm! This is an especially great idea if you are wanting to cut down your working hours so that you can spend more time with your loved ones. They can give you a call and tell you to put all your work away so that you can spend some well-earned time with them! Of course, you might not be able to find someone to call you every day, so it’s always good to have another option that you can use to help you cut down all your evening work hours?
Carry Out A Daily Task Review
Some people like to wrap up at the end of the day with a review of all the tasks and projects that they have worked on throughout the day. This helps them bring their day to a natural close. If you think that doing such a review would help you wind down and bring your work to an end, it really is worth spending the time on one. This should also help you figure out what you need to do the following day. You will find that the following day should be a lot more organized and go a lot smoother as a result.
Start Saying No
Of course, there is one very easy way to put an end to all of these very long hours – you just need to start saying “no” more often! The reason why you are working so late could just be because you have way too much on your plate. As long as you are earning a comfortable living, there really is no reason to take on more than you can chew. After all, you will probably just end up over stretching yourself and becoming very stressed. Your quality of work might suffer as a result.
Have Plenty Of Patience
Don’t forget that you will need a lot of patience when you do start to try and cut down your working hours. After all, if you are used to working ten hour days, you might find it very unusual to start going down to just eight or seven hours. So, be sure to give yourself a lot of time, as it could take a few weeks before you get into the swing of finishing work early. It also means that you will need to rejig your schedule. This can take some time, as you will need to figure out a new schedule that you feel completely comfortable with.
It is always best to try and cut down your work hours whenever you can. Hopefully, all of the tips in this blog post can help you do just that. And when you do, you will feel a lot less stressed all of the time. Let me know how you get on with these tips; I’d love to hear from you!
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