{"id":5519,"date":"2026-02-18T07:08:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T07:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/training.thevirtualhub.ph\/sandbox\/t9\/?p=5519"},"modified":"2026-02-18T07:08:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T07:08:33","slug":"ariane-glaire-layese-why-systems-matter-in-scaling-a-business-ten-tips-for-a-better-work-life-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/training.thevirtualhub.ph\/sandbox\/t9\/2026\/02\/18\/ariane-glaire-layese-why-systems-matter-in-scaling-a-business-ten-tips-for-a-better-work-life-balance\/","title":{"rendered":"“Ariane Glaire Layese – Why Systems Matter in Scaling a Business.” Ten tips for a better work-life balance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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1. Step away from the email<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Earlier this year, a report circulated that a French law banned employees from checking work emails after 6pm<\/a>. It wasn\u2019t true but fitted with our notion of the French as a nation of slackers favouring long lunches, five-day weekends and plenty of slap and tickle while les rosbifs<\/em> carried on working through the night. But maybe there should<\/em> be a law against after-hours fielding of bosses\u2019 emails? \u201cIt would be impossible to enforce,\u201d says Leeds-based life coach Melanie Allen<\/a>. \u201cBut companies should think about productivity. Is this incessant checking of emails and social media by their employees adding to productivity or just pointless stress?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Just say no<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re available 24\/7 to your boss\u2019s \u2013 with all due respect \u2013 increasingly loopy and unremitting demands, and you\u2019re the kind of person who as a result gets overloaded, try harnessing the power of no. Allen advises: \u201cIf you tend to say yes without thinking when you\u2019re asked to do something extra, stall. Don\u2019t answer straight away. Say you\u2019ll get back to the person asking, then use that time to think clearly about whether to say yes or no. If you want to say yes, fine. But if you want to say no, say no and keep saying it. Don\u2019t justify your actions or give excuses. There\u2019s no need to be nasty or rude.\u201d The Mental Health Foundation recommends that when work demands are too high, you must speak up. Your role model here might well be Eric Cantona: in the Ken Loach film Looking for Eric, he instructs a dithering Englishman on the power of saying no<\/a>. Or rather \u201cnon\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Work smarter, not harder<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There is a body of opinion that you should work more and sleep less<\/a>. It often takes Margaret Thatcher as a role model: she only needed four hours sleep and look what she did to the country! These days they call it sleep hacking<\/a> \u2013 training your mind and body to need less sleep. But that trend is all wrong, argues US academic Matt Might in his work-life balance blog<\/a>. Think of it this way, he suggests: \u201cThe equation for work is: output = unit of work \/ hour \u00d7 hours worked. \u2018Work more, sleep less\u2019 people tend to focus too much on the hours worked part of the equation. The unit of work \/ hour part of the equation \u2013 productivity \u2013 is just as (if not more) important.\u201d In its advice on work-life balance, the Mental Health Foundation counsels: \u201cWork smart, not long.\u201d<\/a> What does that mean in practice? \u201cThis involves tight prioritisation \u2013 allowing yourself a certain amount of time per task \u2013 and trying not to get caught up in less productive activities, such as unstructured meetings that tend to take up lots of time.\u201d We\u2019ve all been there, wishing we weren\u2019t stuck in the same room as a bunch of fatuous blowhards \u2013 or, as Michael Foley puts it in his superb book The Age of Absurdity<\/a>, \u201cthe colleagues who speak at length in every meeting, in loud confident tones that suggest critical independence, but never deviate from the official line\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly, though, many of us are not working smart, but \u2013 and there\u2019s no easy way to put this \u2013 stupid. British productivity remains low<\/a> while the number of hours we work exceeds that of some of our European neighbours<\/a>. One result of this is the dismal array of statistics set out by the Mental Health Foundation: when working long hours 27% of employees feel depressed, 34% feel anxious and 58% feel irritable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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4. Leave work at work<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Imagine you\u2019re just about to leave your workplace, possibly for cocktails at TGI Fridays, even though it\u2019s actually Tuesday. Before you do, write a note to yourself listing outstanding tasks or any work things that are on your mind. \u201cThen shut the diary, turn off your PC, store your message and leave it.<\/em>\u201d counsels Allen. \u201cFocus on the image of shutting the diary, saving the message or turning off your PC.\u201d If this is not possible, she recommends what she calls a stop-breathe technique. What does that mean? \u201cTake a slow breath and acknowledge that you\u2019ve left. If you can\u2019t do that at the office door, when you\u2019re getting a train or bus and the door closes, imagine that\u2019s the end of your working day. Or if you\u2019re in your car, sit at the wheel for a short while before you start the engine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Closure is a big theme among those offering tips to a healthy work-life balance: the Mental Health Foundation says that if you do happen to take work home with you, you should try to confine it to a certain area of your home \u2013 and be able to close the door on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Forget about perfection<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The injunction to put work away for the day sounds fine, but hold on. It\u2019s surely not as simple as that. As you leave work, you realise you haven\u2019t done something as well as you could. You turn on your heel and go back to do it right. Is that so very wrong? \u201cWell,\u201d says Allen, \u201csome people find it very hard to let things go. I call it \u2018good enough versus fabulous\u2019. Sometimes, if you\u2019re overworked, you need to explicitly tell yourself that what you\u2019ve done may not be perfect, but it is good enough.\u201d She cites the example of a woman who goes back to full-time work and finds that her partner doesn\u2019t do the laundry as well as she used to; he just piles mangled T-shirts with their sleeves still inside out on the radiators. \u201cBut she has to let that go because the alternative is she takes on more work when she\u2019s already stressed out. What I\u2019m saying is, don\u2019t put extra pressure on yourself when you don\u2019t need to \u2013 at work or at home.\u201d As Netmums tells working mothers in its top 10 tips for work-life balance<\/a>: \u201cGive yourself a break. It doesn\u2019t matter if your home\u2019s not immaculate and your children aren\u2019t fed super-nutritious, cooked-from-scratch food every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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6. Don\u2019t be a martyr<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is also the tendency I come across where somebody will say, \u2018I have to do everything round here,\u2019\u201d says Allen. \u201cTo feel like a martyr gives some people a great deal of pleasure \u2013 they feel they\u2019re powerful and busy.\u201d And what\u2019s wrong with that? \u201cIt\u2019s worth thinking about how infuriating that is for other people. The reason most people are martyrs is that they want the approval of others; if they realise martyrdom \u2013 just doing all the work \u2013 is exasperating to be around, they might stop behaving that way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. Ease off the adrenaline<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you need the rush of adrenaline all the time, whether it\u2019s at the gym, in the sack or at the coalface of paid employment? \u201cYou really ought to monitor that,\u201d says Allen. \u201cYou need to ask yourself how well your life is really going. What happens often is that those hooked on adrenaline hop from one rush to another \u2013 from one task to another, from work to gym. What\u2019s that like for your family and friends to be around? Not much fun, especially when you crash \u2013 which inevitably you will.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. Think about retirement<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome people are wedded to work, especially if they\u2019re self-employed,\u201d says Allen. \u201cBut I get them to ask themselves: if work is the only thing you do, then what happens if you lose your job or if your business fails? I don\u2019t underestimate the difficulties of putting work back in its box at a time of austerity, but I try to encourage my clients to think of it this way: for most people there will be gaps in employment. What do you do then? And what about when you retire? Sure, you may well carry on working in a part-time capacity, which I think is a good thing, but you will need other interests in life when work becomes less important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is she talking about hobbies? Stamp collecting, perhaps? \u201cNo, that does sound old-fashioned. But we all need interests we can fall back on. We all need something we can fall back on that isn\u2019t work.\u201d The Mental Health Foundation reckons that overworked people should try to reduce stress through exercise, relaxation or hobbies. Throwing darts at a picture of your boss is a satisfying way of cultivating all three de-stressors at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. Make \u2019em wait<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One way to avoid being incessantly available is to make it clear to your colleagues that you will reply to emails within 24 or 48 hours. \u201cAs long as you\u2019re reliable about replying in the end, it\u2019s surprising how little this bothers people,\u201d argues Oliver Burkeman, author of Help! How to Become Slightly Happier and Get a Bit More Done<\/a>. Quite so, but texting is based on different parameters \u2013 to send a text is to expect a quick, even immediate reply. But fear not, remember point two – just say no. You need to make it clear that you\u2019re not endlessly available for work queries outside working hours. Admittedly, that\u2019s easier said than done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. Set your own rules<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou really need to find your own work-life balance, probably with the help of others,\u201d says Allen. \u201cThe important thing is to ignore the shoulds \u2013 the shoulds that comes from other people or from you internalising others\u2019 mindsets. You have to rely on your own intuition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are witnessing a generational shift in our attitudes to work. Millennials (those born after 1980) are more likely than their elders to blur the lines between work and home. Some 81% of them think they should set their own work patterns. For some, that might involve virtual meetings (by Skype, for example) rather than real ones, the opportunity to work from home when they want to and, ideally, a no-recrimination clause in their contract that would be activated when they tell their boss to shove it when she asks them to work next Sunday. Well, we can all dream. What\u2019s workable is, of course, another matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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