I have clients who struggle with an impossible and ever-increasingly workload as they run their lives. In fact, some of them hire me as a coach purely because they want to put the handbrake on their life, push it back into balance and stop being an “everything-doer”.

I too suffer from times when I am over-busy and this is how I respond:

Delegate. If you have too much on your plate, it is essential to look around you and pass some of your responsibilities over to someone else. Ask your other half to cook just one meal next week. Share the school run with another mum. Get colleagues to take turns in replenishing the stationary cupboard.

Stop over-booking your diary. Come on, you know who you are. One more night out with friends won’t matter – you feel should make it out to that network meeting in case you meet your dream client. Stop. Why not leave one whole day blank with no plans at all.

Have you ever tried to read the name of a station when you are speeding by on a train? If your life is going by too quickly, you might be missing essential signposts to where your life could be going.

Run Away. Now I do not mean escape forever, but shut your PC down, put your phone on silent and take a walk. This can give you some essential breathing space. Come back calm and collected and it will help you prioritise the essential and take control of the small stuff again.

Sub-contract time. It may be that your business needs another pair of hands. Do you really need to stuff all those envelopes? Would you be servicing your business better by focusing on developing new clients and get someone else to follow up on old clients?

This applies to the running of your home as well – if you hate ironing, contract someone else to do it. Although contracting work out will cost you money, what could you do in those extra couple of hours a week, can you earn more than this cost?

Know when to stop. Sometimes we can try too hard to make things happen now. If you feel that it is taking blood, sweat and tears to get something moving, ask yourself whether your timing is right. Please do not use this as an excuse to give up before you have even tried, rather you should pick the right time to act so that you use optimum effort.

Get back to your values. What is important to you about what you do? If you have forgotten what your core values are, then it is time to take a break and get back to basics. May be now is the time to dust off your business plan and update it?

Stop feeling guilty. If you are saying to yourself “I should be doing this”, take this as a warning signal that the guilt monster is sitting on your shoulder. So what if something does not happen – just ask yourself “what is the worst thing that could happen by not getting this done?” If it is not life threatening – is it worth the headache and stress of getting it done?

If you follow these simple habits, you work and home life will stay in balance and you will enjoy work once more.