3 Tips to Help You Balance Work and Family During the Holidays

They say entrepreneurs are the only ones who will work 80 to avoid working 40, but during the holidays, that simply shouldn’t be the case. This past decade there’s been a huge increase among forward-thinking companies, encouraging employees to spend more time out of the office, and some going so far as to sponsor paid sabbaticals.

So is this just a bunch of hippie talk? Not according to several scientific studies quoted by Inc. which include: stress reduction, heart disease prevention, improved productivity, and better sleep.

Now that you’re convinced it’s beneficial (and frankly more enjoyable) to have a healthy work-life balance, here are a few tips to enjoying the holidays as you try to juggle answering emails and building snowmen.

1. Block Out Time

If you’re half-way hanging out with family, and half-way doing work—your work will suffer and you will be unable to fully enjoy your time with the family. Block out time over the holidays to achieve work tasks. We suggest a little bit of time in the morning, one around lunch, and maybe one after dinner (where you can take time to check and respond to emails or do whatever other task you might need to).

2. Set Goals

It’s easy to just lounge around during the holidays—which let’s be honest, is part of the whole reason we love them so much, time to just unwind and do nothing. But let us suggest something that might make your holiday experience a little bit more fulfilling—set goals. If during your off time you can set just a few things you really want to “do” as a family, maybe a sledding trip, or a trip to the movie theater—you will have a well of memories that will carry over with you when you have to head back to the office. After all, these are the things that motivate us to keep working.

3. Automate

Automation is key not only during the holidays, but throughout the year. If you want to achieve the ultimate work-family life balance, you need to learn how to automate lower level tasks. In fact, that’s the whole idea around our online bookkeeping service, Bookly. Once you sync up your bank accounts, one of our accountants does all of the work for you.

Of course automation, need not only apply to your accounting tasks. You can automate your marketing, research, analytics, reminders and just about any other task needed.

No entrepreneur starts a business to become beholden by it, they do it to gain personal and financial freedom. Consider automating some of your tasks this holiday to spend more time with your family.

Austin Miller is Head of Content Marketing at the premiere online bookkeeping service, Bookly. When he’s not helping entrepreneurs modernize their accounting solutions, he’s writing about all things pop culture at Pop Ramen News.