Review Your Work Life Balance Strategies on a Regular Basis

Building an online business can be a bit of a balancing act. Whether you work from home or from the local coffee shop, you still have to fit the rest of your life into your schedule. You have to create some work life balance strategies for yourself.

Just because you now work for yourself and can control your own schedule, doesn’t mean that you will automatically know what’s going to work best when trying to both live your life and work your business.

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In fact, you may find that you are actually working MORE now than when someone else dictated your schedule for you.

This doesn’t always feel like a bad thing at first because you probably enjoy doing your own thing.

Work no longer feels like work and therefore you are less likely to watch the clock like you did when you worked for someone else.

The problem is…if you neglect the rest of your life, while building your online business…you will find one or both starting to fall apart.

Make a Plan

So, it’s best to make a plan on how you are going to allocate your time.

This plan does not have to be set in stone, but you should at least have a plan.

You should revisit your plan on a regular basis.

Why?

Well, as you organize your work and life schedule for balance, you’ll eventually get to a point where you’re happy with your work life balance strategies.

However, in a few weeks or a few months, your work life balance strategy might not feel as good as it used to.

Instead of everything feeling balanced, you may start to feel stressed out again, and you’ll wonder where you went wrong, after getting your life all sorted out.

The truth is, work life balance productivity needs to be reassessed every now and again as your life and business progresses.

Things can change pretty quickly in life and in online business, and so some work life strategies might work one month and then might be totally off after you take on a new responsibility in your online business or at home.

Reevaluate Work Life Balance Strategies

By reevaluating your work life balance techniques regularly, you can avoid stress when the balance is off.

Whenever you get your life balanced out, it’s only going to be temporary until something new comes along and you make your required adjustments.

For example, you might have your balance figured out, but then you and your spouse are going to be having a baby or someone else in the family needs more of your time or attention.

The responsibilities that this will require are going to be substantial, and obviously it won’t just work naturally to your current work life schedule.

Readjust

Instead, you’ll need to readjust and make room for these new responsibilities or changes.

However, don’t assume it just has to be reevaluated after just major events or big changes.

It could be that you felt great working during a certain time of the day or even late into the night and maybe your physical health has changed and now you are more tired than you used to be, during times you had felt more energized.

It could be that maybe you need to tweak your schedule more to allow for more exercise or even a nap or two.

It’s so easy to ignore your body’s physical needs when you are laser focused on your online business.

I have been guilty of letting my day or night get away from me and then realize that I have not eaten or stayed hydrated or neglected to get up and move around enough.

Getting up regularly is something that I have to do because of my back and neck issues.

I know this, but I still catch myself neglecting myself.

It helps that my elderly cats let me know that it’s time to get up, if I get too distracted. It’s like they have built-in alarm clocks when it’s time for their meals.

Yeah, it’s not because they are looking out for me…lol. It’s all about them and their needs.

This is actually a good thing though because they are persistent and I have no choice but to get up and take care of them.

Remember You Are in Control

The silly thing is…all of this is in my control and I don’t even have to ask my supervisor if I can get up and move around.

In fact, when I used to work in call centers…there was really no flexibility at all.

You are basically stuck at your desk until your assigned breaks, when you work in those places.

Now from home, I can do whatever I want, but if I’m not paying attention…I still find myself out of balance with my life, health and work.

Actually, this is something I have to address often because my physical needs vary from day to day sometimes, depending on how I feel.

So, my work life balance and my schedule is something that I tweak as needed, on a very frequent basis, because of my individual health issues.

Consequences of No Work Life Balance

I have paid the consequences many times for not having a good time management plan in place to help balance my work and the rest of my life.

Some days I end up working too many hours and then I end up not being able to do much for a day or two because I overdid it.

There are some days that I cannot be in front of a computer at all.

This is why I love online affiliate marketing and promoting things with recurring income.

So, my work is still working for me, whether I’m in front of my computer screen or not.

Lately, I have been working nights more often, which is my natural rhythm anyway because I’m a night owl and always have been.

I’ve been reserving the daytime hours more for self care and other personal responsibilities.

So, I don’t really do much work now, until I have taken care of myself first.

I’ve had to get stricter lately with myself and keep myself more focused on time management.

Your situation is specifically unique to you as well and so you can set a regular schedule, like once a month or so, and then adjust your balance accordingly.

They might not be huge adjustments every time, but it’s better to slowly correct them.

By doing this consistently and only having to correct minor things each time.

This way you avoid the process of having to totally flip your life around, if unexpected things happen or things get complicated.

Additionally, you avoid stress that might be caused by having your life totally out of balance.

Be Flexible

You should be ready and open to changing your work life balance as needed.

Life isn’t as consistent and predictable as many would like it to be.

Instead, it has unexpected twists and turns that can set you back, as well as minor course corrections along the way.

There may even be times when you adjust your balance because of the way things in your life evolve.

For example, you might spend a lot of time with your child when they’re a kid, but once they’re a teenager, they might want more time to themselves.

No matter the reason, these changes are often simple if done sooner rather than later.

If you prolong the process and let your life get more and more skewed in one direction or another, it’s going to be harder on you.

This doesn’t even have to be complicated. Remember, YOU are the one calling the shots now and you can do whatever you want.

You Make the Rules

That is the beauty and the benefit of working for yourself doing affiliate marketing or whatever online business you are building.

The whole point of being an online entrepreneur is to NOT have to ask an employer for permission to have a life along with your job.

Take it from me, employers do not care what is going on in your life and how it may affect you.

They just want you to show up when you are told and do your job.

Work life balance doesn’t mean anything to most employers.

So, now that you don’t have to ask permission to schedule your work and your life, you can decide what work life balance strategies are going to work best for you.

Just be sure to have a time management plan and review that plan on a regular basis.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day 🙂

To Your Success,

P.S.- Be sure to grab your free gifts below as a Thank You for visiting my website 🙂

About

Nicole Lynn

from

Resources for Online Success

My Online Journey

You don’t know me. I’m not some flashy internet marketer with my name and face all over the internet.

Nope. I’m actually way too introverted for that 🙂

I’m just an ordinary person that had to figure out a way to make money online when I lost my job in 2008, due to health issues.

In the offline world, I gained several years experience in Customer Service, Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable and various other clerical type positions.

Much of it was drudgery, especially working in call centers.

I was good at my various jobs, but I did not enjoy being hostage to a cubicle and headset..lol 🙂

But, you do what soul sucking jobs you have to do, in order to make money to pay the bills.

As a free spirit, I always had the deep desire to break free from the cubicle-zombie-robot rat race world and have full control over my time, income and life, without having to have permission from a boss.

I was tired of being just another “number” that was expendable, no matter how dependable I was or how hard I worked (just to help build someone else’s wealth and make their dreams come true).

I wanted to create MY freedom…not just build it for someone else.

Unexpectedly in 2008, severe neck issues forced me out of the 9 to 5 corporate world rat race (before I was actually ready financially, which really sucked a lot and was pretty scary).

My neck issues got worse after years of being trapped at a computer, with little to no permission to get up and move around and stretch.

This is not good when you are suffering from old car accident injuries.

This was especially the case in call center jobs with low cubicle walls. They didn’t want you standing up, due to the noise while on calls.

And although losing my job and the paycheck was a less than pleasant experience, my goal was to be an online entrepreneur anyway.

But, I was forced to make it happen at that point…which was not ideal.

Wasted Time Dabbling

It’s better to have a 2nd income already coming in regularly before losing your main source of income, but I had no control over what happened.

I had already been “dabbling” in internet marketing, on the side, since 2004…basically wasting time.

I treated it as a hobby, instead of an online business.

I actually made a little bit of money with affiliate commissions and some advertising revenue, but it was nothing to write home about because I did not build it up.

If I had realized that my health was going to go sideways so badly in 2008, then I would’ve taken my online business “side gig” much more seriously.

I would’ve hustled, even while still working a full-time job, because 4 years would’ve been more than enough time to have built that online business into a full-time income.

Just an extra 1 hour per day consistently over that 4 year period…would have made all the difference.

So, after I lost my job in 2008, I was in a real bind for more than one reason.

I needed to get serious and stop dabbling and start hustling to make money online, but it takes time to build an online business that brings in consistent income.

I was out of time. My household went from two incomes to one and I needed to get moving.

The problem was my severe neck issues and the accompanying dizziness from nerve damage in my C1 Vertebrae, the Atlas.

So, this meant that I couldn’t exactly hustle like I needed to because being on a computer for hours each day at home is no different than doing it at a job.

I was no longer able to do this, if I wanted to not end up completely disabled or bed-ridden.

The years 2008-2011 were extremely tough in trying to heal, but with proper therapy, the worst of it got better, but it’s not 100%.

Even now in 2022, I still can only be on a computer so much each day, without causing flare-ups.

So again, if I had taken it all more seriously, then I wouldn’t have ended up with so many financial worries, when I lost my job.

I would’ve had something more substantial to fall back on during times that were difficult money-wise and health-wise.

Then, add in beating my head against the wall, jumping from one “program” to another and basically flushing more time and money down the toilet.

Losing my job made me act in desperation because I wanted to make something happen right now.

So, I ended up doing what a lot of people do, which is looking for a shortcut and something “quick” or “push button”…which is not realistic because it doesn’t really exist.

Then in 2012, I joined Wealthy Affiliate because it had the tools and resources I needed all in one place, to help me build an online business.

Fast forward to 2020, I joined The Home Business Academy to add even more great tools and resources to my online business arsenal.

I now use both of these resources to build my online business.

I talk more about this over on my Recommended Resources page listed under Resources #1 and #2.

I enjoy making money online because I can work from anywhere and on my own schedule, while still being able to take care of my health.

You Can Do It Too

So, why do I tell you all of this?

I share all of this with you, so you’ll know it’s possible to make money online and have total freedom from the 9-5 grind.

It takes time to build an online business, but it’s worth it to build either a side-income to supplement your full-time job or replace your job.

If you have found yourself in a similar situation to me or you simply want to get ahead of things and plan for the future, your goal going forward should be to not waste any more time.

Whether you love your job or hate your job, it’s always a good idea to have a Plan B to supplement your income or replace your income.

You never know what can happen with your job or even with your health.

Don’t waste time, like I did.

Just get started and keep going.

Hustle.

Do not dabble.

Take action now.

And most importantly, believe in yourself.

You can do it!