Work-Life Balance Series: Strategies to Actually Set Boundaries, Protect Yourself and Your Business

In this new episode of the Work-Life Balance Series, co-hosts Hannah Robinson and Melissa Honan touch upon different strategies business owners can leverage to actually set boundaries, protect themselves, their time, and their business.

[1:09] Hannah feels as if this Work-Life Balance Series has come at a perfect time, especially since it covers something she’s been struggling with herself. It has been helpful for both her and Melissa.

[2:16] For Hannah, the topic at hand is a little controversial and it has shown a generational difference. On the one hand, there’s the older generation who didn’t believe in boundaries as much. On the other hand, there’s the new generation that has the topic of finding work-life balance closer to their heart.

[3:24] Melissa sees a connection between setting boundaries and delegating. One of the reasons people don’t delegate is the assumption that they will be seen as lazy if they essentially put their work off on other people. Younger generations see the difference between delegating to set boundaries and being lazy, but others may feel as if someone who’s delegating and isn’t working a certain number of hours each week is lazy…

[5:37] Hannah shares that one of the ways to set boundaries is to do more by doing less. The key is to focus on getting quality work done instead of little tasks that get you nowhere. For Hannah, the best way to do that is to delegate – and learning different ways to delegate, so that you don’t feel like you’re pulled in many different directions, is key. This is something Hannah is learning.

[7:16] Many “naysayers” of delegating make the argument of not having someone to delegate their work to, says Melissa. She recommends delegating to your future self.

[8:07] Melissa is a fan of prioritizing tasks using an ABCD approach: A stands for things that have to be done today, B refers to tasks that would be nice to take care of today but if they don’t get done today, they can get done tomorrow. C is about tasks that should be completed either this week or next week, while D is for something that needs to be done but that doesn’t have a due date or clear timetable attached to it.

[9:38] According to Hannah, overscheduling and spreading yourself too thin are something that negatively impacts your work-life balance. By her own admission, she’s guilty of this.

[12:09] Hannah suggests not giving out your knowledge and energy for free because it can become taxing to just give, give, give. Melissa asks Hannah how to do that, especially at a time where most people expect to get free advice through social media content, for instance.

[17:17] Hannah explains that you shouldn’t necessarily reject people who are breaking your boundaries because you can redirect them to something that does work for you.

[18:56] Melissa shares something she has learned from her business coach: you can’t control what other people do, but you can prepare for how you’ll respond to it.

Mentioned in this episode:

ILB episode 19 - Work-Life Balance Series: Work-Life Balance is a Good Habit with Alyssa Lang

success@ilovebookkeeping.com