Tips for better work-life balance as a tradesman

Being a tradesman can be a lot of work including things like sorting admin, scheduling deliveries, making sure your crew shows up on time, to providing a high-quality service time and again. But, few talk about how tradesman can improve their work-life balance to increase happiness levels and job satisfaction. 

We’ll cover what work-life balance is and how you can improve it to spend more time doing the things you want! 

What is work-life balance?

The term is a term to describe how you divide your time between working and family or leisure activities. The term, work-life balance has seen an increase in popularity in recent years due to people feeling they have to work more hours than their stated contract to keep up. 

Essentially, many workers in numerous work surveys say they feel like they’re in a perpetual state of stress involved in modern work and business practices that creates an “always-on” working culture. 

You may have experienced the feeling of needing to be by your phone every second of the day even if it’s after normal working hours. Now, if you work as part of a small business or run your own business it may feel like you need to do this more than, perhaps, someone working for a large corporation. 

But, the truth is, this feeling and situation is happening across all workers in the UK.

So, if you want to have more time for your hobbies, spending time with friends or family, or catching up with everyone down at the pub — here’s what we recommend. 

Decrease your admin 

May sound like a no brainer, but if you’re a small business you’ll want to think about and consider different billing, invoicing, and accounting solutions to help reduce the amount admin you’ll need to do later. 

Happily many banks now offer some app tools to help small businesses, like yours, to keep control of their accounts, billing, and invoicing all in one place. 

Life happens on the go, and so should sorting your business invoicing! We recommend you shop around for the right solution for your business. 

Unplug

This one might prove to be the hardest for a busy and often overworked tradesman. Unplug your technology and turn off your phone. 

We don’t mean during business hours. But, maybe consider turning your phone completely off during meal times with your family. Or on Saturdays during sports events either on TV, in person, or if you’re attending your kids games. 

Setting clear and manageable “off-hours” can help create clear boundaries between “work” and “leisure” so you can enjoy both more! 

Exercise 

Last but not least, you can improve your work-life balance by making time for your own health. Part of this includes exercise! Now if you’re a tradesman that’s lifting heavy bags of cement or large timber every day you may not need or want to exercise during your free time. 

But, even taking the kids to the pool or playing footie in the garden can be a nice way of getting exercise without the need to go to the gym.

Having a good work-life balance just means setting clear boundaries between your “work hours” and the “family or leisure hours”. This will help you manage stress a lot better and may even result in you getting better sleep! 

And, if you’re ever in the need for a new ladder to get your job done properly we’ve got plenty for you to choose from!  You can explore our range of extension ladders and step ladders right here at Browns Ladders, and if you have any questions, or you need any help or advice, we’re always happy to help – just give us a call on 01282 615517!