Managing the great balancing act. Running a business in crazy times

The idea of a work-life balance is hard to fathom when you’re running your own business. Especially, if it’s a solo business, and you are it.

The rules and guidelines keep changing. No one is quite sure where they should be. No one knows what’s round the corner, or how long this pandemic will last.

Working from home long term, or working in short bursts in much emptier offices means that everything can become a bit blurry.

Not working as much as you’d like and worrying from home is equally wearing and hard to maintain for the long term.

Loss and pressure

For many of us there is a sense of loss. For lost clients, lost projects and the loss of the business we thought we were building. Some of us have seen our sales pipelines torpedoed with no way of rebuilding them. Some of us have been thrown into working harder than ever without coming up for air. It puts pressure on everything else, family, relationships, and financial security.

Maybe you heeded all the early lockdown business advice. You pivoted and doubled down. Or maybe switching lanes was never an option and you’ve been waiting for things to pick up again. But you wonder if that’s ever going to happen.

Either way, if you’re not where you thought you’d be, and things haven’t worked out the way you planned, then it’s good to acknowledge that this unsettling feeling is a kind of grief. If it’s your business, then business is personal, and when the business is rocked, you feel rocked too.

It is overwhelming at times, and exhausting. You need to look after yourself if you’re going to move through it and out the other side.

How to find balance when nothing is certain

If you are feeling adrift or low, then aim for resilience rather than happiness. Happiness is a tricky state to capture, and making it your goal might leave you feeling like you’re not getting there.

Do the things that make you feel stronger and more able to cope. Do the things that raise your energy levels, and make you feel more positive. Be kind to yourself.

When you get the balance right, you’ll feel pockets of joy, or slices of ‘it’s going to be okay’. Seize those moments, and keep on keeping on.

Structure

I like to walk to work even on the days I’m working from home, even if it’s just round the block and back into the house. And it’s the same at the end of the day.

There’s something about making a physical break between home and work that makes both sides of the equation feel better. Whether it’s mentally preparing or winding down, a twenty minute buffer zone between working and not working is a good idea.

Taking a proper lunch break, and finishing at a set time are both helpful habits.

Plan your time

Make time for your own marketing, and for your admin. Group easy tasks and tackle them all in one go to save time. Make proper space for tasks that need your full attention.

Structuring your time to give yourself bigger blocks of thinking or planning time can make you feel more in control. A half day blocked out in my diary for writing feels like breathing space, and that makes me happy.

For me, living a kind of ‘always half switched on and never quite switched off’ life is miserable. I work better with boundaries and space.

What about you? If it’s your business, you can structure it however you like too.

Co-working

I’ve been experimenting with remote co-working as a way of getting focused work done, and to make working more enjoyable. Even if you’re really used to working on your own, having a few blocks in the week where you’re working side-by-side with other people can lift your spirits.

Whether it’s working on the same document - say a shared Google Doc that you’re co-creating - or working on your own projects at the same time as someone else is working on theirs, having other people around keeps you accountable and makes you feel connected. I’ll be doing more of this.

Exercise

Biggest mood lifter, energy enhancer and vital to a balanced life. For a writer like me, sitting hunched over a screen all day long is fairly standard.

Running, walking, online exercise classes - as lock down has extended these have all become even more important. Make movement and exercise part of the structure of your week, and it will feel more balanced.

Find whatever feels right to you. Rejoin the gym if that’s your thing. Take up cold water swimming. Try the couch to 5k challenge. Do more online yoga.

Feeling fitter and stronger will give you a boost, however you achieve it.

Fresh air

Spending time outside has never felt quite as vital as it does now. Crowded, indoor spaces don’t feel safe, so that might be what’s driving me to want to be outside in the fresh air. Or it could be that noticing the natural world is grounding in an era where time has lost its meaning. I wouldn’t believe it was October already if I couldn’t see the leaves changing colour and falling to the ground.

As the evenings start lengthening, getting more natural light into your day is a really good idea. Whatever else is going on that feels out of control, experiencing the change in the seasons makes you feel more connected with the world around you.

If you want to breathe some fresh air energy into your whole team, I really recommend looking at The Fresh Air Leadership Company.

Read books not social media

Social media is tricky when you’re actively trying to make your life feel more balanced. It occupies that murky greedy space between work and not work. If it’s a necessary part of your work routine, give it space in your diary and stick to it.

Scrolling through Twitter or Facebook at other times means you’re only ever a click away from checking work emails, or doing work admin or thinking work thoughts.

And that’s setting aside the fact that you’ll almost certainly see something in your stream that triggers feelings of gloom/outrage/disbelief. If consuming social media feels like throwing yourself into a pit of hopeless despair, choose to do something else instead.

Far better to put down your phone and read a book instead. I’m currently loving Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library. (I’ll happily send you a reading list of books that have lifted my spirits during lock down if you’re stuck for what to read next!)

Creativity

Nurture your creativity. I mean creativity in the widest sense here. Creativity as a way of seeing the world differently, or seeing patterns and finding connections. It can be as simple as slowing down to notice the way the light is falling across the table, or as elaborate as getting out your easel and oil paints and trying to capture the scene, but I think what matters most is that you give your mind a chance to play. Running a business demands a lot of creative problem solving - so it really helps if you can fuel your creative brain.

Experiment

Think of these as ideas to try out, rather than rules you have to stick to religiously. Part of achieving a balanced life is knowing what works for you. If any of them make you feel better or more productive, carry on. If they don’t, try something else instead.

Prioritise looking after yourself, put your own physical and mental health first and looking after your business will become easier too, whatever happens next.