The best methods for preventing overlap in your personal and professional lives

There are a lot of mistakes to be made when you’re new to the business lifestyle. Some will be small and just a bit awkward, like forgetting to answer an email. In the long term, if you answer as soon as you remember and offer up a little apology, no harm done! 

But there are plenty that carry genuine, long term risk with them to be made too. Forgetting to protect your intellectual property is one such mistake, but so is blurring the lines between your personal and your professional life. 

When there’s no clear distinction between the two, you’re never going to be able to take a break. You’re never going to get time to yourself, away from professional responsibilities, and your personal life will regularly impact on your business’ success. 

That’ll soon lead to burnout, which can have knock on health effects for years to come when you don’t take care of it. 

Instead, set boundaries for yourself in each side of your life. This will ensure your work/life balance stays where it needs to be, and you’ll have far less of a struggle adapting in the early days of getting up and running.

So, without further ado, here’s a list of the best methods for preventing impactful overlap in your personal and professional lives.

Have a non-negotiable start and end to your working hours

If you’re working from home, this is essential to ranking your personal life just as importantly as your professional needs. Otherwise you’ll be there at your desk all day long while dust grows over every part of the furniture. 

So, if you want to get started by 9 in the morning, make sure you’re not at your desk before then. Similarly, if you’d like to finish at 5, make sure you’re wrapping up by 4.45 in the afternoon. 

Maintaining these standard professional working hours will make it easier to get into a proper business routine. You’ll have a lot more time to yourself in the day, and you’ll have a consistent business period to ensure work gets equally done day by day. 

Buy another phone

This will enable you to turn off your personal phone and keep any interruptions to a minimum. If a friend calls for a chat, you can set your voicemail message to let them know when you’ll be available again. It’s a small boundary, but seeing as you’ll get back to them as soon as you’re able to, it won’t have any room to impact your relationships. 

Either that or put on your ‘do not disturb’ setting, which will allow any incoming messages to be screened, responded to with a similar pre-banked message, and allow you to get on with work. 

You can also use this setting to allow only important messages through, from contacts you’ve approved to be let through the wall. A working parent, for example, may want to ensure their teenager can contact them at all times. 

Buying another phone for work purposes only will also mean your main phone isn’t overladen with business apps. This will preserve your battery life for longer, making it much easier to get through a busy day on just one charge! 

Get a separate business bank account

A separate bank account for the revenue you earn will ensure you never thin out your profit margins without realizing. Many new business owners make the mistake of going without a dedicated business account, and in doing so, spend money on the wrong side of their life. 

This could lead to spending investor’s money on personal items – even completely accidentally, this could constitute a criminal offence. That’s not a mistake you want to make, especially when it’s an easy thing to avoid! 

On the other hand, you don’t want any of your personal funding to go toward your business bills. That could make it harder to afford your mortgage payments or rent, or you may go to pay for groceries and find the cash isn’t there. 

It’s also easy and very simple to set up a professional account. Once you have, make sure anything financially related to your business takes place in there, and keep the card safe outside of your usual wallet or purse. 

Set up your office somewhere you can shut the door

If it’s possible for you to do so, set up your new business’ main hub somewhere you can shut the door behind you. When the door is shut, you’re not to be disturbed. It’s a simple rule, but it’s a very effective one. 

This is perfect for work from home setups, but even if you’re relying on co-working spaces here and there, it’ll help you stay on task. You can then exit out of your private room when you’re ready for conversation, and meet with other entrepreneurs with the same mindset. 

Keep anything professional out of your bedroom

Finally, remember that your bedroom should be for resting and sleeping only. Don’t take your work phone to bed with you, and never let your laptop come upstairs with you either. 

Instead, leave these devices in your work room, and only use them when you’re in there too. Of course, they can grace the kitchen and living room, but your bedroom door should have a firm boundary line across it. 

Respecting your own time as a business owner

Separating your personal and professional lives is a good thing. It might seem a little complicated, or even unnecessary, but it’s essential to draw this line to respect your own time. 

Set boundaries for yourself and stick to them, and make sure everyone around you is well aware of them too. Plus, make sure your personal savings and your professional income are kept in accounts best suited to them, and never take work to bed with you! 

But above all, by maintaining a strict overview of your work/life balance, it’ll soon become second nature to respect your time and use it to your best advantage.