We spoke to four startup founders to see what advice they had for maintaining a health work-life balance. Here’s what they had to say.
Work From A New City
Pretty much every self help blog or popular advice on this topic will tell you to take a holiday, schedule in a “device-free” day, take up yoga, cut out caffeine and meditate several times a day. But i can tell you from experience that you’ll find none of it ever sticks.
Sure I might decide to take up meditation, stick with it for a week, maybe two, but the reality of growing a business is going to kick in at some point and before I know it has been a month since i sat cross-legged and Ohmm’d my lungs out.
As for device-free days or trying to take a total holiday? The stress of worrying what might be going on kills any attempt at relaxing. I’d rather know what is going on. I don’t have to act on anything, but just knowing everything is still humming along gives me permission to relax.
So what do I do when (and not if) I’m feeling really burnt out? I’ll go to a new city for a week, stay somewhere nice and get straight down to work from my new location It is a total cliche but a change really is as good as a holiday. And with this type of holiday I can relax knowing that I’m staying on track. I still feel like I am achieving and moving forward and the novel environment gets the brain buzzing again.
– Daniel Barnett, founder at Worketc
Separate Private Life From Work Life
Eat well, sleep well, exercise and enjoy your private life (without connecting every conversation to your company). I try to separate my private life from my company life as much as possible. I usually do not talk about work outside of it and spend as much time as I can with my family, bringing my kids to school, eating dinner together and spending the weekends together. I work out 3 to 4 times a week and for lunch I would always sit down outside the office and take my time to eat a healthy meal. I do not think that anybody (outside of a very small group of people) can work 50 hours or more a week fully concentrated at their highest level of capabilities. If you do not use the rest of your day to recharge your batteries even those 50 hours a week will become less productive.
– Rolf Ritter, founder/CEO at People As A Service
Take a Break
Just because you are at work or sitting in front of computer doesn’t mean you are working. If you are unproductive or spinning your tires on a problem, take a break and enjoy yourself. Once you have that nagging idea in your head or solution to your problem, get back work. Work-life-balance is very important.
– Tim Holmgren, founder at NewsMeister
Personal Hobbies
The key is to have personal hobbies or projects, that give time to relax, unwind or think about other things. Obvious things like spending time with the family help, but something that uses skills not utilized at work are great, like a DIY project, building a tree house, raising sheep, the more left-field the better, to give your mind a true break from the norm and perspective change. As they say, a change is as good as a rest!
– Ian Naylor, founder/CEO at AppInstitute
