Studies suggest that our mental health is linked to successful work/life balance, but many believe that this delicate weight of scales is an unachievable dream. As the owner of nineteen salons, and two medi-spas, Peter Mahoney understands the multiple stresses and pressures that owning a business brings to the table.
Here are Peter's Top 5 Tips for Achieving Work / Life Balance:
1. PLAN AHEAD
I plan my schedule a full year in advance. Personal vacations, time with family and friends and my hobbies go into my calendar first. Even if I am not sure yet what exactly we are doing, or where exactly we are going, I know that our time is secured. This way, work events can be filled in around the most important aspects of my life. Our personal life fuels our soul.
It is when we feel good and creatively satisfied that we are able to lead our companies.
2. ONLY HANDLE THINGS ONCE
- I only handle things once. For example, instead of checking emails and messages non-stop throughout my day, I block time in my calendar to do “clean up” work. This means I only spend time reading emails when I have the time to to take immediate action, whether that means filing the email in a location, deleting it or responding. Scheduling time to take action, as opposed to spending time on tasks I cannot immediately take care of, gives me more time to manage more things.
- So many people are working sixty hour work weeks, but they are actually only doing the work of a forty-hour work week. They spend those remaining hours thinking about how they are so tired of working sixty hours a week. When you set your time up for success, you be able to then master the work of a sixty-hour week in forty hours or less.
3. FUEL YOUR MIND
- Reading is something I highly recommend. You are able to discover new perspectives and broaden your knowledge. My favorite book is The Alchemist. It is a great metaphor for life about how we all tend to be in a big hurry to go nowhere. Happiness is not an event; it is a state of mind. It has nothing to do with your circumstances, but instead with your mindset regarding your circumstances. Life is a journey and it is the journey that is fulfilling, not the destination.
- Two other books I highly recommend are The Energy Bus and Tap Into Greatness
4. ALWAYS MAKE TIME TO CARE
- I just left an hour-long meeting with one of my stylists, and very little of that meeting had anything to do with business. She is going through a hard time and just needed someone to listen to her, and give her advice that she could trust. It was an hour of my time, but that is worth it to me and that is why she has been with me for over twenty-years.
- You have to make time to care, when you have people working for you, who care for you and know that you care for them as well, then you build a strong culture. And when you have a culture built on trust, you are going to be able to have a much more balanced life because you can rest assured knowing that your company is ready for any challenges that come.
5. BE FLEXIBLE AND EVOLVE
- Anytime we are holding on too tight to our pride, to our one way of doing things, we lose the potential for work/life balance. This is because life, culture, businesses and demographics are constantly evolving.
- I recognize that there are plenty of topics that I am not the master of, and I am constantly seeking out people who are smarter than me on those topics. By having a diverse group of people in my life, I am able to stay flexible and this flexibility enriches my life by taking a lot of the emotion out of running my business.