How to Find Balance Between Business and Family: Advice from Alexander Visotsky Balancing work and family can seem like an overwhelming task for many entrepreneurs. In a constant state of stress and a high-paced life, finding harmony between professional duties and personal relationships becomes especially crucial. As a successful businessman and devoted family man, I want to share my proven methods for achieving balance in these two important spheres of life. My goal is to show that success in business and a happy family life can go hand in hand if you use the right approaches. How I Balance Work and Family For me, both work and family have always been priorities. To ensure neither area suffers, strict time management and clear separation of work and personal affairs are essential: Clear Planning of Work Time: I develop detailed plans for the week and month, including all important work tasks and family events. This keeps me current and ensures I don’t miss important moments. Setting Priorities: It’s crucial to understand that not all tasks are equally important. I learn to prioritize and focus on truly significant tasks in both work and family. Creating Rituals and Traditions: Family rituals and traditions help strengthen bonds with loved ones. For example, I try to spend weekends with my family, organizing joint dinners and outings. My success largely depends on family support. My wife takes care of my diet, finds trainers, and ensures I don’t miss workouts. She looks after me, allowing me to dedicate a lot of energy to work. In fact, moral support is important in any job. But if you’re a business founder, it needs to be doubled. Challenges of Balancing Work and Family Blurring the Lines Between Work and Personal Life: When working from home, it’s hard to determine when the workday ends and family time begins. This requires understanding and cooperation from all family members. Moral Support: During moments of stress and conflict at work, it’s crucial to have support from loved ones. Family helps maintain moral balance and cope with difficulties. Next, I’ll share what helps me overcome these challenges and harmonize both areas of life. Time Management: The Key to Harmony My rules for successful time management that help me balance work and family: Focus on Emotionally Driven Goals: Plans and goals should be not only work-related but also personal, bringing satisfaction and joy. Realistically Assess Your Time: Don’t try to schedule too many tasks. I recommend planning no more than 35-40 hours of work per week to avoid overload and stress. Plan for Pleasure: It’s important to schedule time for family, rest, and entertainment. This helps maintain balance and avoid burnout. To make these rules work, it’s important to use the right tools – which I will discuss further. Tools for Increasing Efficiency Tools are a crucial element of successful time management. They help optimize work, making it more productive and manageable. Here are a few tools that help me: Time Doctor: This software tracks the efficiency of work time usage. It records how much time you spend on various tasks and websites, helping identify distractions and improve productivity. Time Doctor also provides reports that can be used to analyze and enhance the workflow. Business Booster Platform: This is an IT development by my company. The platform is designed for task management and time planning. Employees can set tasks for each other, plan the workweek, and report on completed work. This not only increases transparency and control but also fosters self-discipline, as employees see their tasks and deadlines. One important aspect of successful time management is the ability to adapt to remote working conditions. The remote work format offers unique opportunities for maintaining harmony between business and family. It allows for flexible work time distribution, significantly easing personal affairs planning and participation in family life. Working from home eliminates long commutes to the office, freeing up additional hours for spending time with loved ones and engaging in enjoyable and fulfilling activities. The challenges that may arise when transitioning to remote work and how to solve them will be discussed in the next chapter. Challenges of Transitioning to Remote Work and Their Solutions Transitioning to remote work isn’t always smooth and without losses. The main challenges are related to managers not knowing how to manage people remotely. In the office, they can observe employees, intervene if necessary, and adjust their work on the spot. These tools are lost in remote work. Therefore, it’s important to: Build a Management System: Define the company’s functional structure so that it’s clear who is responsible for what and who reports to whom. Teach employees to interact with managers and colleagues according to specific rules. Implement a Planning and Reporting System: Give employees clear instructions and require weekly reports on results. Hold regular coordination meetings to adjust plans and coordinate team actions. Organize Working Conditions: Not all employees can effectively work from home. Provide them with all necessary equipment or organize co-working spaces. Real-Life Examples US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO): Under the Telework Enhancement Act Pilot Program (TEAPP), employees were allowed to work remotely. They used a regular reporting system and tools for remote activity monitoring. These measures increased productivity by 4.4% and added $1.3 billion to the US economy annually. Prodoscore: Prodoscore used its system to monitor the productivity of remote employees. The Prodoscore tool analyzes employee activity data and displays it in an easy-to-understand format. This allowed the company to identify the most productive periods of the workday and optimize workflows. As a result, employee productivity increased by 5% compared to the pre-pandemic period. Balancing work and family requires discipline and time management skills. By following my advice, you can achieve harmony in both business and personal life. If you want to learn more about building effective management systems and improving your productivity, join our free masterclass and take the first step towards achieving harmony in work and family. How to Strengthen the Team, Strengthen the Business Foundation, and Reach a New Level
