Work-Life Balance in Start-up Culture

Working in a traditional 9-5 job provides people with a clear schedule. Go to work, and log off to go home. Working in a startup, on the other hand, is almost a 24/7 job. Work anytime, from any place. Send emails while you eat dinner, hop on a Zoom meeting early in the morning to adapt to an investor’s timezone, the list goes on. Working in a start-up blurs the line between work-life balance, and it can quickly lead to burnout. 

It’s easy to think that long hours are directly related to the level of commitment. The idea of constantly working especially in the early stages of a company, makes sense in order to exceed investor expectations and keep up with competitors. However, there’s a fine line between working hard and overworking. It’s easy to fall into the latter category, working late into the night and sacrificing sleep, nourishment, and overall health to launch the company. Yet, overworking can actually reduce productivity in the long run, hinder creativity, and lower self-esteem. These factors imply that, in fact, exhaustion could actually lead to worse decisions for a start-up. 

Prioritizing space and time away from work can be beneficial at times. It leads to more sustainable growth, stronger company culture, and stronger decision-making. Emphasizing balance isn’t a privilege, but should be a tenet of a start-up, and is ultimately a competitive advantage. Founders can consider time blocking, stronger boundaries, and encourage no-tech breaks, such as exercise during the time between meetings.

For example, the co-founder of Unwrapit, Linsay Moran started her company during the pandemic while raising two young children. She worked over twelve hours a day trying to organize everything herself before eventually coming to the realization that she was creating an unsustainable lifestyle for both her business and family. Ultimately, she shifted her strategy to plan out her work time more intentionally and explained how she is most effective when she has time for family and doesn’t let her work “spill over” permanently. It led to Unwrap it having a healthier mindset to lead as well. 

It’s definitely easier said than to emphasize balance in a schedule than to actually implement it, but tools like April are able to help. April is a voice-powered AI executive assistant that helps busy professionals achieve inbox zero and master their calendar—completely hands-free. Just speak naturally, and April will summarize long email threads, flag urgent messages, reply for you in your voice, reschedule meetings, and prep you before calls. April learns your executive style so that you can take control of your time, inbox, and calendar.

By saving time on smaller tasks, one can make space away from work and take time for themselves. April is able to take care of the action items on a to-do list that accumulates to saving hours. Working in a start-up doesn’t need to equate to constant burnout and sleepless nights. In fact, the narrative should be reframed so that start-ups create a culture of emphasizing balance. It’s simple to get the easy work out of the way using April, and it’s that easy to become one step closer to an ideal workplace environment.