How do you maintain work-life balance while building or working in a startup environment?
Trader BinQosim
9 replies
Building a startup is an exhilarating journey, but it can often feel like a juggling act between personal life and relentless work demands. How do you keep from burning out? How do you find time for yourself amidst the chaos? Share your strategies, tips, and real-life experiences to help others navigating this challenging yet rewarding landscape.
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Gurkaran Singh@thestarkster
Balancing work and life in a startup is like debugging code - it requires patience, strategy, and the occasional reboot (hello, self-care Sundays). How do you navigate this startup hustle without crashing your personal life server?
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Launching soon!
Working with a startup take up a lot of your headspace. You're working on everything from ground up. A startup can often demand more time that office hours.
"Getting a life"? Everyone has a different approach to that. A challenge I face is finding time to socialize with people outside work. when you interact with communities outside the office it gives you a break from the same kind of conversations and thought processes.
Then there are the more obvious ways, engage in activities that bring you joy that are irrelevant to work, hobbies, traveling, anything that helps you unwind.
I write for the AI powered knowledge hub DocXter .
@adeeb_malik has been working very closely with the product for a while, I'm sure you have a good answer to this question!
Launching soon!
@hitha_boorla Umm, first of all, good answer cause even after ~2.5 yrs, I still find it hard to create a balance.
Here's what I do instead, I just live it up as it comes:
- When it's time to roll up and get it done, I don't see the time.
- When it's time to play, just do that.
I find this whole (balance) thing to be misunderstood and not cool. If you're trying to achieve something, you don't compartmentalize, you just go at it, be it the next task, that next goal (football) or basket, or sleep.
In the end, when the effort pays, it'll all get balanced. Maybe...
I recently watched a movie, there was a dialogue "Gentlemen, Go mad."
That's what I feel, I hope it makes sense.
Just Scroll
I think a startup environment is generally hard to keep a good work-life balance because of its fast-paced nature. For me, just making sure I'm super passionate about the startup and the work I'm doing, and trying to set some boundaries -- such as turning off at midnight and saving some family time for the weekends help quite a lot!
I use time-blocking techniques to ensure both work and personal activities get dedicated time each day.
I maintain balance by working from a dedicated office space at home.
I set realistic goals and deadlines to avoid overcommitting and ensure I have time for personal activities.
I schedule regular vacations or staycations to completely disconnect from work and recharge.
Absolute game changers for me have been: 1) Blocking off 'me time' on my calendar for exercise, hobbies, etc and treating it like any other meeting - non-negotiable. 2) Setting clear boundaries around work hours and sticking to them as much as possible. 3) Delegating/automating what I can to free up time and mental energy. 4) Remembering the bigger picture - my well-being enables me to bring my best self to the startup, not the other way around. It's a constant balancing act for sure but totally doable and necessary!