National Workaholics Day is a real thing. It’s celebrated on July 5th. The day provides everybody with the opportunity to examine their approach to being an entrepreneur and whether they have the right work-life balance.
As an entrepreneur in the tattoo business, you can find yourself working early and late and even skipping lunch. It feels like you have to be at your tattoo studio at all times to make the key decisions. Being busy all the time is not necessarily a good strategy for tattoo artist success or personal happiness.
Do yourself and favor and use National Workaholics Day to review your approach to work and life. Read on to learn the most important ways tattoo studio owners and entrepreneurs can achieve work-life balance.
Plan Breaks
If you have a full schedule of activities you may find you don’t have any time for breaks. As a studio owner or employee i’m sure your diary is booked from the start of your day to the minute you leave. A request for an appointment or an additional task means checking if there is an opening next month.
Given this kind of calendar pressure you can find that you are working all the time. This is not good for you. You are probably not working at optimum effectiveness.
You know taking breaks is important but how do you make sure you take them? You do it the same way other appointments are made in your schedule. Book regular daily appointments with yourself ahead of time for a short break.
Use the breaks to re-group. Relax, take a short walk or meditate. You’ll feel the difference and don’t cancel that appointment with yourself.
Do What’s Important
Spend a little time analyzing how you spend your day. Make a note of what you are doing against a time schedule. Include interruptions, breaks, and calls.
At the end of the day analyze what you have been doing. How much of your time has been spent on doing what you are there for? If you own or run the business you are there to build the business.
How much time is spent doing other people’s jobs? How much time is spent on reactive tasks like dealing with interruptions, questions, calls or paperwork?
You want to be an effective tattoo studio owner and not just a busy one. Take Stephen Covey’s advice and “keep the main thing the main thing”. The main thing is to achieve your tattoo business goals.
Schedule time in your calendar to work on your tattoo business. Fit the other stuff around that. Don’t try to do it the other way around.
Banish Time Bandits
Time bandits are things that rob you of time. The interruptions, phone calls, paperwork, and a hundred other things that steal your precious time. Do you ever feel like your whole day has been exhausting but you didn’t achieve anything?
You need strategies to deal with the time bandits otherwise you can turn into a busy fool. Working hard but getting nowhere. Try these tips for banishing the time bandits.
Schedule time for interruptions. Tell your people when you will be available for questions and queries, so they know when you’re not. This means you can concentrate on important tasks.
When people come to you for their scheduled meeting, they can ask all the questions together. This is much more efficient for you, and them. Also, you might be surprised how many questions turn out to be resolved without having to be answered by you after all.
Plan Exercise and Mindfulness
An important task for a entrepreneur and tattoo studio owner is to make sure all the assets of the tattoo studio are kept in good working order. Surprisingly, the most important asset is often not looked after properly. That’s you.
Keeping your mind and body in good shape is an important aspect of balancing life with work. Caring for yourself means you will be more productive at work too. Exercise at least three times a week and learn to meditate.
You should also check whether you are eating healthily. Take time for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Eat a balanced diet with plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit.
Develop a healthy bedtime routine that encourages restful sleep. Stop looking at screens before or in bed. By all means, read, but do it old school, from a book.
Have a Technology Break
Balancing work and life is difficult when smartphones, tablets, and laptops blur the work-life divide. Do you find yourself reading email at home or on vacation? Thinking about issues at your tattoo studio when you are supposed to be at home is not how to balance your life.
Have a technology break. You might need to do this gradually to wean yourself off the email. Switch off your smartphone for the evening or even for a couple of hours.
Distract yourself from the urge to check your phone by going for a walk or going on a bike ride. If you are wondering how to get more out of life, start by switching off your smartphone.
Be Realistic About Change
Balancing tattoo life and home life can be difficult. If you are a workaholic entrepreneur then you are addicted to being busy. The bad habits take time and effort to change.
Don’t give yourself goals that are too stretching. Have modest expectations about the changes you can make at your tattoo studio. Build on them as you make progress.
Reflect on the small steps you are making. Give yourself credit for the small victories. You are learning to get more out of life and that will feel good.
Make Time for Friends and Family
How important are friends to you? Is your family important to you? If you believe they are important does the effort and time you devote to them match their importance?
Balancing tattoo work and friends and family can be tough for an entrepreneur but it starts with deciding what is important to you. Schedule time for friends and family. Make some decisions about how to get more out of life with your family.
Be Effective at Home
When you get home after a busy day at the tattoo studio, does it seem like there is another list of jobs to do at home? There’s the grocery run, laundry to do, bills to pay, and more. It seems like you work all the time, whether at work or at home.
It’s time to get creative with home chores. Do the chores you loath first. This means the week gets easier as you work toward the weekend.
Set mini goals like 20 minutes to prepare a meal. Batch cook and freeze so healthy home cooked food can become fast food. Re-heating a delicious favorite dish in 5 minutes can be a great time saver.
An Entrepreneur Deserves a Life Too
You work hard but you can learn how to get more out of life by using these tips for workaholics. Be good to yourself by balancing tattoo artist life with home life. You’ll appreciate the rewards and so will those around you.
For more advice for small business owners and entrepreneurs, click here.
