After Christmas or holiday spending in December, January can be a rough month. Therefore, it is imperative that you plan and budget accordingly to make it to the next pay day. Creating a personal budget is one way to help keep your finances on track. You may choose to use a specific app to help, or you may rely on a more traditional spreadsheet approach.
I use an Excel workbook with a spreadsheet for the categories of savings/expenses and a spreadsheet for each month to help me manage my income and savings/expenses. First, this helps me to ensure that my planned savings/expenses do not exceed my income. Additionally, the categories help me to see exactly what I am spending on for further analysis later. This spreadsheet relies heavily on formulas to make the process of entering the necessary data as simple as possible.
Categories
The first spreadsheet in the workbook lists the categories I will need, as well as their descriptions. These can be modified, and up to 49 categories can be used here. These categories are used as a drop-down list to be inserted in the budget for the individual months.
Monthly Personal Budget
There are individual spreadsheets for each month. On the left is a list of the source of income and amount of the income. In the centre of the spreadsheet, you can list your transactions. This includes transfers to savings and expenses, the amount of these transactions, and the relevant category from the drop-down list. To the right of the spreadsheet is a list of the categories and the total amount of money budgeted for that category.
Download personal budget Excel workbook
You can download the Excel workbook with the template for a budget for the entire year below.
It is easy as an entrepreneur to feel guilty when you are away from work. We live in a workaholic culture, where we take pride in how long and how hard we work. The success of our business depends on us, right? The more passionate you are about your business, the more you want to put into it to improve its chances of success. While this is normal, it is far from ideal. Laptops, mobile phones, and smartwatches keep us connected, and we are more accessible than ever for remote work. Hustle culture can, however, have a negative impact on many aspects of your life. It can also have less obvious negative repercussions for your business.
How’s your mood?
As soon as someone asks if you are happy or in a good mood, you may wonder if this is an attempted intervention. Mental health is not a joke, though, and as an entrepreneur or leader your mental health is always of concern. If you are frustrated, unhappy, or moody, this may affect your product, services or interaction with people. This is not a good look. From a branding perspective, you have to protect your business from negative energy. If that energy is coming from you, it is a great indicator that it is time to take some time off. How do you prevent this from reoccurring, though? Be proactive and recognize the risks of overworking and the impact it can have on your life and the same business you are trying to advance.
Healthy choices
You may be familiar with the cliché “your health is your wealth” and struggle with the irony that your health doesn’t seem to put extra cash in your pocket. Unhealthy food seems cheaper and more convenient than healthier alternatives. Exercise sessions require an investment of time and effort that tests your discipline and perseverance. For anyone who is already pressed for time and cash, this may seem counter-productive. However, your health is your own personal intangible asset.
Living healthier does not have to be such a heavy burden. Yes, you may have to change routines and it may be uncomfortable at times. Nevertheless, you may actually find that you are more productive with less time to work due to lifestyle changes.
How to take time off to improve your health
Regular exercise can improve your brain health and lower your risk of contracting other diseases (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2023).
A balanced diet can help with your digestive system and boost your immunity (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021).
Less worrying about unhealthy choices can help free up your thoughts to solve other problems.
Work-life balance and your family
Work-life balance is another huge concern for entrepreneurs and business people. How do you put in the extra work that is necessary to succeed and still spend enough time with your family? They will understand why you’re making these sacrifices, right?
Everyone’s family dynamics are different, but communication plays a huge part in balancing work and family responsibilities. Simply explaining why you have to work a lot usually won’t cut it. You also have to listen, empathize, and compromise. Most entrepreneurs work hard to make a better life for themselves and their family. It’s important to not lose your family on that journey.
How to take time off to improve work-life balance
Having a regular cut-off time for work. As an entrepreneur, you may have to work irregular hours, but it is important to let your family know and be able to predict when you will be off the clock.
Setting boundaries and expectations with coworkers and clients. It is important that the people you work with, and work for, also know when you are off the clock and when it is an inappropriate time to reach out to you.
Setting light workload days can not only boost your productivity, but help you not get overwhelmed by work so you still have energy to do other things after work. Scheduling these strategically can help with planning other family activities.
Doing things that are completely not work related. This may seem simple, but some people are consumed by work and are always problem-solving, even when not physically at work. Disconnecting from the daily work routine helps you to focus on other things, and more importantly, other people.
Beware of burnout
Burnout is real, and it can be deadly. Burnout is defined as “a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress” (HelpGuide.org, 2023). No matter how strong or energized you feel, mental and physical fatigue can creep up on you. Sometimes the effects are temporary, other times it can be lethal. Falling asleep at your computer is less dangerous than falling asleep while operating heavy machinery, but both can be a consequence of pushing yourself too hard.
How to take time off to avoid burnout
Respecting your body’s cues – your body will usually let you know when it needs to recuperate. Too often we ignore these signs such as constant yawning or pains that are starting to creep up.
Use time tracking software to help track how long you are working and when you need to take a break or call it a day.
Disrupt your constant work cycle by taking time to do something you enjoy. Break the monotony and add some joy and excitement to your routine.
Conclusion
The pursuit of wealth and happiness is a great motivator, and many entrepreneurs devote a lot of time in trying to monetize their passions to achieve this. Time is one of your most valuable resources, so it is no surprise that you may be stingy with it. Nevertheless, a relentless work cycle is both unsustainable and ill-advised. You may make some progress at work but strain personal relationships and sacrifice your health for your goals. There is also the very real risk of burning out if you refuse to take some time off. Increase your chances of success by taking some time off and see how it benefits not just your mood, but also your productivity.
References
Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). Benefits of Healthy Eating. https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/resources-publications/benefits-of-healthy-eating.html
The risk of inaction may be one of the least obvious risks of doing business. Businesses may fail if we make the wrong decisions. They may run out of funds if we don’t spend wisely. We also understand the threat of competition. As a result, we plan, set goals and strategize to minimize these risks. Too often though, we do not fully grasp the magnitude of the risk of inaction.
We can take a variety of paths to start our career. It could start as a hobby or interest that grew into a business. Alternatively, it could be an opportunity we seized to make money. Yet still, it could also be a path that was chosen for us where we had little choice or input. Regardless of how we got to the career path we are currently on, there is one thing we need. It is what allows us to remain motivated and determined to press on. The source of our drive is a defining purpose that we may not have yet explicitly identified.
Entrepreneurs are no strangers to working long hours and having the lines between work and personal time blurred. Many times, the very success of our business correlates with how much time and effort we invest into it. This concentrated effort might be both necessary and sustainable in the short run but can be detrimental in the long run. A light workload day can help maintain some balance in both our work and personal life.
Bad days are inevitable for anyone doing business. Therefore, we may periodically feel the urge to let off some steam by venting to others. In stressful times having someone to relate to can comfort us and make us feel that we are not alone. There is also the relief of getting something that has been on our mind out in the open. Considering the emotion state that leads us to vent we must exercise caution and remember to vent responsibly.
Getting inspiration can sometimes seem like a daunting task, especially for creatives. It is normal to look for inspiration from others or seek enlightenment from those who have experienced things that we have not. There’s nothing wrong in that. This helps us to be better rounded individuals with a more diverse perspective. We should not ignore a source of inspiration much closer to home though – our past.
Ever get a great idea while doing something totally unrelated to work? Ever hesitate to make a note of that idea? How many times do we actually remember this great idea by the time we have finished our current task? Even a little procrastination can derail our train of thought and interrupt a spontaneous spur of productivity. This is not to say that we must drop everything whenever we get an idea. Nevertheless, we should be weary of how procrastination affects our productivity.
Some people think of design as strictly an artistic process where the primary goal is to make things look attractive. Design however, is as much about usability as it is about aesthetics. Designers use the various tools at their disposal to solve their client’s problems while creating solutions that look good. This could include creating compelling graphics or designing a website that meets a business objective. It could also be the creation of intriguing package design to encourage sales. While it ‘s easy to focus on aesthetics, creating the ideal experience through design is more complicated and more important.
Entrepreneurs, new business owners and even bloggers often pop up on the scene with vigour and motivation. Driven by determination to see our projects succeed we invest time, money and effort in the project or business. We strive to ensure that it has the best chance of success. This may include working extra hours or sacrificing other things to tend to our new endeavour. While this may be necessary, how we handle the inevitable slowdown may decide how successful we really are.
