You Are NOT Your Business

3 Strategies to Maintain a Balanced and Happy Lifestyle as You Grow and Scale Your Business!

Owning a copywriting business has been one of the most rewarding (and stressful) experiences of my life.

You may face similar challenges running your health business…

From delivering client work to creating content to managing VA’s…

Tasks can quickly pile up and leave you feeling overwhelmed.

So today, I’m sharing my BEST strategies to stay healthy and sane! 

Commit to a Strict Work Schedule

Do you often say: I don’t have time to do that!

Running a business requires us to wear multiple hats. CEO in the morning, manager after lunch, and perhaps an accountant, marketer, or editor during the evenings. It’s easy to spread yourself too thin and burn out!

To stay organized, I use a work schedule.

A work schedule keeps me honest about boundaries, helps me focus on important tasks, and helps me spend time with family.

The power behind a work schedule lies in Parkinson’s law, which states that “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

Simply put, this law means that the more time you allot for a certain task, the longer you spend completing it.

Setting specific and reasonable work hours per day, therefore, helps you switch from “work” mode to “relax” mode.

And that’s important because the latest research shows that spending long hours at work increases health risks in the long run.

Plus, longer work hours don’t always translate to higher output! A study from Stanford found out that you decrease your productivity when you work longer:

And yet, Americans worked more than 8 hours per day in 2019 and 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It’s our culture! But luckily, we can always reset and take note of ways to improve.

In my business, I’ve seen the biggest improvements to my mental health (and my wallet) when I follow a work schedule. In fact, I look forward to long breaks from work because I can recharge and come back fresh and full of new ideas. 

So how do you create your work schedule?

Forget the 40-hour per week rule. Personally, I can’t work 40 hours. Instead, start tracking your time to see how long it takes you to complete certain tasks. I use Toggl time tracker religiously and I average about 20 hours of deep work per week. 

For more on deep work, check out Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: 

In Flow, Csikszentmihalyi recommends using work blocks and pre-scheduling those blocks well in advance.

My personal work block categories include:

• Motive tasks which are fun and big-ticket business initiatives

• Revenue tasks which include client management and delivery

• Development tasks which include marketing, team management, and personal development work

(Huge shoutout to Kevin Rogers and his Freelancer Profit Pie for helping me dial in my work schedule! 🙌)

Here’s a quick view of how I schedule my day in Calendar view:

What’s important here is keeping a nice balance between client work, business growth, and fun projects!  

Invest in Personal Time

You have to be able to do something outside work that fosters your overall well being.

Allocating personal time lets you decompress from work and come back feeling refreshed mentally and physically. As mentioned by Harvard Business Review, having a life outside work is prerequisite if you want to be happy and satisfied  mentioned that a life outside work makes you happier and more content at work.

Anything that brings you joy impacts your work performance positively.

Incorporate some personal time even in the daily grind: don’t skip lunch, have short breaks, power nap. 

Dedicate time during the week where you can exercise, learn a skill, do your hobby, meditate, or anything that brings you joy.

Again, here is where the schedule plays an important role. I don’t take calls before noon because that’s my deep work time. And I don’t schedule anything past 5pm because that’s my family time. 

Now I know that if I stay in my “work environment” past 5pm, I’m more likely to jump on the computer and do a little work…

So at least a couple times a week, my wife and I make a point of getting OUT of the house for a walk around the neighborhood or even to run errands. 

I also do a lot of cooking and in the summer, we fire up the BBQ.

Changing your environment has a profound effect on your mood and overall energy… so that you’re ready to rock the next day! 

Delegate Tasks Effectively

Even though you love what you do, delegating tasks is crucial to keep a balanced life. 

You can’t do everything and still be efficient.

Perhaps doing certain tasks even hurts your business’ growth in the long run.

Source: Prialto

Consider outsourcing for tasks that are not your strengths, but keep tasks that you think are crucial to your business.

Now that you have narrowed down your work hours, you have to be intentional with tasks you focus on.

At the end of the day, delegating tasks would do you good. If you have employees, it’s nice to know that someone is capable of doing certain tasks if you go on a vacation or when you get sick.

It also puts you off mental stresses that come with the task. You get to focus more on the things you deem critical to your work and personal life.

So, how do you delegate tasks effectively?

Know which tasks to delegate. To do that, you have to understand your strengths and weaknesses and analyze which tasks you’re going to do and which tasks you need help with.

Whether you have employees or hiring a freelancer, you have to thoroughly explain what you want to expect; hand out helpful resources; give them the authority to finish tasks once they know what to do; and check them from time to time to make sure they are on the right track.

If you’re working solo, automate tasks using app or software. If your business requires meeting clients, try using Calendly for seamless scheduling of meetings:

Or manage issues and deliver exceptional customer service for your product or service with software like FreshDesk:

You don’t have to do it all to yourself, there are apps designed to help you operate your business easier.

Need Help with Your Business?

I’m confident that I could help you get some clarity on your copywriting and marketing strategy pretty quickly. 

No pressure, no sales tricks.  

I love connecting with health and wellness professionals for short calls offering up my expertise to:

A. Build up my network

B. See if I can help anyone on a longer-term basis 

C. To just get out there and serve (I’ve found that good things happen to people who put service first) 

If you’re interested in having a chat, you can select a time that works for you by clicking here to book your call: