Unconventional Tips for MORE Work-Life Balance

Hey Friend!

As a busy entrepreneur, do you ever doubt that a healthy work-life balance is even possible? I’m here to tell you that it is possible to find balance, you just have to be very intentional with your time. I have found balance in my life and I want that for you too. Today I work only 15-20 hours a week and don’t work past 3:30 on most days. At the end of my work day, I get to spend time with my family and study my Bible. I have time to work out and make a nice nourishing dinner. I even have time to reset my house so that the next day I feel optimal and in my best head space to start the new day fresh. 

It hasn’t always been that way for me, so I understand if this sounds like a far-off dream. It doesn’t have to stay that way. After 15 years as an entrepreneur, I’ve learned that if you are intentional with your time, you will find a way to have a good work-life balance. 

I’ve learned the strategies for maintaining a healthy work-life balance even when things keep shifting. Keep reading to learn the unconventional tips on how to create a good work-life balance as a Christian entrepreneur. Maybe you are a busy stay-at-home mom, or you work a full-time job, no matter what your situation is, there is an opportunity for balance in your personal and work life.

Unconventional Tips for a Healthy Work-Life Balance

The Secret to Balancing Work and Life

Here’s something that may surprise you, you have to do less if you want to have more time. Time is the secret sauce to attaining more balance in your life.

Since you can’t create more time, you have to be intentional with how you spend it. Before we go over the unconventional tips to have more work-life balance, let’s review a couple of the basics to starting your journey to finding more balance in your work and life:

• Time management: Build out time blocks in your schedule for when you can actually sit down and work intentionally. Plan out at least 5 days at a time. 
• Delegate tasks: To save work time, have someone come on your team temporarily to provide assistance as an admin, Facebook moderator, or as a podcast editor. Trade with them service for service if you don’t have the money to hire someone right now. If you do have some money to invest in your business, hire someone to do small tasks for you. If you have teenagers, hire your kids for a couple of hours a week. Have them make graphics for you in Canva, or edit an episode. 
• Automate tasks to save time:  Think of all the ways you can automate to save time. BONUS TIP: If you want help finding ways to add automation to your business, head on over to stefgasscommunity.com and look at my podcast catalog in the guides (it’s guide #4). You can search for automation, schedule, time management, or whatever you want help with. I have over 750 podcast episodes in the catalog for you to choose from.

Unconventional Tip #1- Eliminate the Losers

Take one week to audit and analyze what you are doing on a day-to-day basis. What are you wasting time on? How many hours a week are you losing on social media? How much time do you spend trying to edit your podcast to perfection?

Take all your activities and put them into buckets or categories. Analyze the different categories. Let’s say you learned that you’ve spent 5 hours this week on social media. Go to your analytics. How many leads did posting on the socials bring you, and how many sales did it bring you? If that number is super low, (or zero) do not do that thing anymore.

I found out I was wasting 3-5 hours a day trying to grow my business on Instagram, with little to no results. I got rid of it, and it saved me 15-20 hours a week. As a result, I had more time to fill with things that were actually benefiting my business. Get rid of the stuff that isn’t working! Eliminate the things that are wasting your time. You don’t have to say you’ll never do it again, just pause it for now. You can go back and add more things to your calendar after you’ve become a six-figure podcaster.  

Unconventional Tip #2- Amplify the Winners

While looking through your week’s worth of work, think about what is actually working. Even if you are brand new there is something that is already working for you. Is it your Facebook group or your podcast? Double down on your winner for 90 days. 

When I eliminated my Instagram I gained 15 hours back into my week, so I was able to add another podcast episode. My podcast was actually growing leads, and bringing in sales so it was a clear winner for my business. Instead of wasting 15-20 hours on social media with no results, I focused on podcasting. This took me only 2 hours a week and brought more money to my business. 

Unconventional Tip #3- Embrace Imperfection

The third unconventional tip to finding more work-life balance is to embrace imperfection. If you are spending seven hours on one podcast episode, you are spending way too much time trying to make your episode perfect. 

It should only take you two hours a week to record your podcast episodes. Allow your work to be imperfect. I promise you that people actually like real people a lot more than overproduced perfectionist stuff. The top-performing episodes on my show are conversational. 

PRO tip: I give my students only the amount of time that they’ve recorded the episode to edit. So for example, if they’ve recorded a 15-minute episode they only have 15 minutes to edit. This is a great way to find 1-3 more hours a week.

Unconventional Tip #4- Go on a Digital Detox

If you want to have more work-life balance, you have got to stop staring at your phone. Turn off every notification on your phone. Take a detox from social media. (It will be worth it, I promise!) The only notifications that I have are if I get a phone call or a text message from the 5 core people in my life. For other communications, I set apart a separate time block for that. If you do a digital detox, you will gain 30 minutes to an hour per day to have more balance in your life.

Unconventional Tip #5- Do Work Meetings While on a Walk

Exercise is one place where you can mesh work and working out. Take your phone with you on a walk and message your team or clients on Voxer. Schedule a discovery phone call while taking a walk. 

This is a great way to knock out your exercise goals and your work goals for the week and to manage your time well.

It’s Time to Take the First Step Towards More Work Life-Balance

It’s time to take the first step towards more work-life balance. Write down 2 unconventional tips that resonate with you. Pray over them, and make a commitment to follow through with them. 

Here’s a quick review of the five tips to finding more work-life balance in your life:

• Tip #1 Eliminate the Losers- You can easily gain a few hours a day when you stop doing things that don’t bring you results. 
• Tip #2 Amplify the Winners- Focus on doing whatever brings you results. This is a quick way to bring rapid growth to your business. 
• Tip #3- Embrace Imperfection- Instead of wasting hours trying to have a perfect podcast episode, accept imperfection. People appreciate authenticity, so if your episode isn’t perfect that’s okay. 
• Tip # 4 Go on a Digital Detox- Don’t be on your phone all the time. Instead, time block when you will be on your phone for specific purposes, and you will have more time in your week for what’s important. 
• Tip # 5 Do Work Meetings While on a Walk- This is one area where you can integrate work and life together. Take a walk and message your team members. You can save time while doing two things at once!

You Can do This!

Once you have chosen two tips to follow, implement one tip this week, and the second next week. This is a manageable way for you to find a better work-life balance going forward. 

God is not calling you to be hyper-focused on your business for 47 hours a week and then spend only 8 hours with your family so your podcast can be perfect. He’s calling you to show up, share your message in your business, and to spend quality time with your friends and family. When you find balance in your work life and personal life you bring glory to God. If you’d like more help with managing your time or growing your podcast, come check out my podcast catalog. It’s got over 750 episodes filled with strategies and tips that will help you grow an online business that glorifies God.

I pray this blesses you!

Xo,

Stef

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