For a long time, I’ve been balancing so many facets of my life to keep myself a whole person. It hasn’t it been easy, especially at the beginning when I was convinced I had to work work work if I was going to own my own business. But it’s only gotten harder as I’ve tried to fit my daughter into all of this.

So what have I done to keep myself as sane as possible? It’s taken constant work to keep balancing what needs to happen, but it is possible. Let’s take a look.

Get rid of the idea of perfect balance

You are going to absolutely fail if you try to give the same energy and time to everything. Why? Because there are these natural ebbs and flows to life. There is always going to be one thing that demands more of your attention as well things that just don’t need as much of you.

One of the most important talents for a business owner to have is to recognize those different needs and respond to them accordingly. It allows you to budget your time appropriately and means not being crazy as you try to fit things into too short of time.

But also being able to forgive yourself for not getting it done perfectly will help your mental health as well. Constantly be gentle with yourself and observe what is happening with a cool so you can adjust for next time. Learning these ebbs and flows is more like a practice, and you likely will never get it perfectly. You can just hope to do better and better.

Block your time

I’ve found that the more open-ended my time is, the less I get done. But if I constantly budget my time and give each task a block on my calendar, then I can get loads more done than I think possible. It also puts in some limits so what needs my attention can get it.

Limits are often given a bad rap. In reality, they can help you do more. For me, I like to play games with these limits. Can I get this task done and maybe part of another one in this short amount of time? Can I maybe even reclaim some time for something else? It may seem silly, but it’s fun for me.

And having those limits also makes sure that your different priorities don’t try to take over each other. For example, unless there is a situation or event, I avoid actively working on my laptop during the weekends. Knowing that I can’t work on my laptop over the weekends, keeps me more on task during the week. It’s a mental trick, but it makes sure that the time with my daughter isn’t interrupted and helps me with balancing my life.

Take breaks for yourself

You need to give your brain a break from it all sometimes. What that means is that you can’t schedule every second of the day. I know this because I tried. My ability to do work while balancing the rest of my life was non-existent. So now I have mini breaks throughout the day. And guess what. That’s right. I get a lot more done because of it. Breaks are your friend.

It can be just five to ten minutes of staring off to space a few times a day. That would absolutely be beneficial despite how ridiculous it sounds. Or it can be what I do most of the time: Little reading breaks throughout the day. It’s amazing how many pages you end up reading when you do it a little at a time.

Whatever it is, make sure it’s giving your brain a break from your responsibilities. It’s going to make you much better at everything you do.

Say no

So many of my friends are going to read this piece of advice and laugh. I am the queen of saying yes to everything I can. I love challenging myself to do more. Except I’m not doing that as much anymore.

For every yes you say to someone else, you’re saying no to yourself about something. You have to figure out if tipping the balance towards another person is worth it. And to do that, you have to know what’s most important to you. A great way to do that is to have clearly defined values. Write down those values so you can constantly compare what you’re being asked to do against them. If you’re doing that, you will have some clear answers about what you should actually say no to.

But also be real about the time you have. Right now, I have very little extra time, because I’m saying yes to a lot of things for my daughter. To be honest, the easiest way for you to get me to say yes to something is by showing me how it would benefit my daughter and how little extra time it will take me. Because if I think it’s going to take me more than a few minutes in my day and I see no clear benefit to my family, it’s an easy no. I simply don’t have more than a few minutes a day to spare.

In the end, the key to balancing everything is to know that you don’t have to balance everything. Saying no to others and saying yes to yourself more will eventually get you to a place where life feels good. Until then, keep practicing and figuring out the balance that feels good to you.

How are you balancing everything as a business owner?