Amazon Work-Life Balance: How to Have a Better Life as an Amazon Seller

By Erik Mathes

This post delves deep into how eCommerce sellers can find Amazon work-life balance. We hope it inspires you to take active steps to plan, schedule, and organize your life so work doesn’t monopolize ALL of your time. Thanks for reading!

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When you started your eCommerce business, you knew it wouldn’t be easy. But it felt right. You wanted more money, control, and time, and starting an Amazon store was your key to success.

Upon starting, you had some serious goals in mind:

• Take control of your career

• Improve your finances

• Have more time to enjoy life

Little did you know that managing your own Amazon store could turn into nonstop work.

And, while being a “workaholic” might sound like the right way to build your business faster, research shows it isn’t. Putting work ahead of your personal life is terrible for your health, and we’re talking physical, mental, and emotional health.

Without the proper planning, insight, and infrastructure, you might be able to meet those first two goals. But meeting that elusive third goal of having more time to enjoy life…that’s going to be tough.

Before you can achieve true work-life balance as an eCommerce entrepreneur, you need to do some soul-searching.

Thankfully, we’re here to help point you in the right direction.

Keep reading to learn more about how you can get on the road to achieving complete Amazon work-life balance.

Figure out what makes you happiest—outside of work

While it doesn’t sound like a difficult exercise, figuring out what makes you happiest outside of work can be stressful. (Especially if you’re already in “work beast mode.”)

It’s possible that you may have conditioned yourself to derive most of your satisfaction from work-related tasks.

But that’s not going to cut it in the long-term.

A side-effect of overworking yourself is the inevitable feeling of burnout. When it hits you, chances are you won’t even see it coming, and the consequences of burnout can be dire.

That’s why nailing this step is vital to the process of making time to have a better life outside eCommerce.

Sit down at your desk and clear your head. Open up a fresh Google doc. (Or Word doc if you’re into that—heck, even a pen and pad will do for the truly old-school.) Then, ask yourself what truly makes you feel the happiest—but don’t count work.

Your list might include things like:

• Spending time with family

• Going out with friends

• Hitting the gym and feeling healthy

• Having time to pursue creative projects (art, music, writing, cooking)

• Traveling, hiking, boating, etc. (It’s healthy to have hobbies!)

The most important part of this is not to hold back; this is your life we’re talking about, after all.

I hate to get morbid, but people die, you know. It’s obviously sad, and we don’t enjoy writing about it. But it’s even sadder when people devote most of their waking lives to tedious work without ever even thinking about what fulfills them.

We don’t want that to happen to you.

So go. Make that list. Think about what makes you happy. And then understand that those things are within your reach.

Once you do that…

Set goals—outside of your Amazon business

If you want to live a truly successful life, you need to set goals. Some people are naturally good at doing this; others, well…not so much.

Goal setting is crucial because it allows you to visualize not just what you want to achieve, but also a clear path to getting there. Mapping out the process from defining a goal to meeting a goal takes practice, but it’s something you can learn to do in relatively little time.

For those who need some help working through their life goals, allow me to introduce you to Zig Ziglar. If you don’t know Zig, he’s been considered a goal-setting guru for decades. The Zig Ziglar link above leads to one of his live motivational speaking seminars where he outlines his 7-step goal setting process.

To make things even easier, the Zig Ziglar goal setting method is outlined below:

1. State your goal

2. List the benefits of achieving it

3. Identify the obstacles

4. List the skills you need to meet your goal

5. Identify the people, groups, and organizations that can help you reach your goal

6. Develop a plan of action

7. Set a deadline

Some places list Zig’s steps in a different order, and that’s okay. As long as you clearly and objectively go through the seven steps for each of your goals, you’ll have a vivid map to guide you until you hit your targets.

Develop a strong schedule, positive routines, and healthy habits

After you’ve set your goals and fleshed them out by following Zig’s 7 steps, create a schedule. Within it, build in positive routines to help form healthy habits.

For instance, if you want more time to get things done, consider setting a goal to wake up earlier. That way, you’ll get a better jump on your day to meet other goals.

To make it easy, you can start as simple as setting your alarm clock just one minute earlier for each consecutive day. You can also put your alarm clock out of reach, forcing you out of bed to silence it. After a month, you’ll be waking up a half-hour earlier, giving you 30 extra minutes to exercise, brew coffee, and start your day.

Having a strong schedule also means allowing for flexibility. A flexible schedule will allow you to move things around without fear you’ll miss doing something.

An example is if you have an important morning meeting that will conflict with your workout routine. If you plan ahead for this, you can build exercise time into that day’s schedule in the evening by leaving a 20-minute block for cardio and crunches.

The more you can add your day-to-day activities into a calendar app (we like Google Calendar), the easier it will be to follow the schedule you create. On top of that, you can use project management tools like Trello to help create to-do lists for both your business and personal life.

If you’re uncomfortable writing things down, maybe that’s a good thing.

Many self-improvement gurus think being uncomfortable can be beneficial because it forces you to change and adapt. Some people even let discomfort be their compass—they understand that when feelings of resistance or fear creep in, it’s a normal reaction that they have to wrangle.

Identify when you’re behaving like a workaholic

Sometimes it feels soooooooo gooooooood to keep working. You’re building your company, your brand, and your bottom line into something that can sustain your family forever.

Congratulations, that’s really great.

Unfortunately, the family you’re working so hard to make a better life for doesn’t get to spend nearly enough time with you. You know, because you always work, work, work, and have no time to relax, play, and plan vacays.

After a while, it’s very difficult for people to sustain relationships with workaholics. Which is why we’re warning you right now to get a jump on any potential workaholic tendencies you may have.

If you’re looking for inspiration and motivation on how to stop being a workaholic, look at the entire nation of Denmark. Danes are some of the most productive people in the world, and that’s thanks to Denmark’s strong work-life balance beliefs. The basis of Danish beliefs about work are:

• Trust your fellow colleagues to perform at a high level while you’re not around

• Value family to the point where employees are comfortable prioritizing it before work

• Understand that rest and relaxation are key to being more productive at work

By incorporating these values into the way you run your Amazon store (and your life), you’ll feel much less stressed.

If Denmark doesn’t offer enough inspiration, France is also getting in on building work-life balance into its culture. To do so, the French passed a law that allows its citizens to ignore work emails outside of office hours. This helps enforce the divide that should exist between work and personal lives, and France’s workforce is better off as a result.

Even renowned hustler/workaholic Gary Vaynerchuk balances work and life by setting aside weekend time for his family. That means you definitely can, too.

Automate the most time-consuming parts of your online business

You already know that running an Amazon business is a handful. But thankfully, eCommerce is an industry with an abundance of automation tools that can make work much easier.

From inventory management platforms to email automation, software can boost productivity and save time by handling your biggest pain-points. There are even entire platforms built for automating and optimizing your prices, helping you constantly stay competitive to boost sales and lock in profits. (That’s our thing at Appeagle, in case you didn’t know  ).

The best way to know if automation technology is right for your business is to first identify your weaknesses and bottlenecks. From there, you’ll move to the most important step:

Determine how much your time is worth.

Only then can you properly weigh if an investment in automation is right for you.

In the case of repricing software that costs $150/month (if you don’t currently use any repricer), you’d have to assess:

• How much time or money do you spend on performing/outsourcing manual repricing each month?

• How much happier would you be if you didn’t have to do it yourself, contract someone, or use a salaried employee’s time?

• Is your current repricing process effective enough? Could it be improved with strategic automation?

• How much do you value your time?

Here’s a quick example of deciding if automation is right for you

In this example, let’s say you currently spend 2 hours each week (about 8.5 hours/month) on manual repricing.

You typically do it yourself (two employees sometimes help), but you’d much rather be spending time with your family.

You’re confident that your competitors are using automated repricers, which means your process is not working effectively enough.

And, you currently value your time at a very conservative $30/hour.

In that case, paying $150/month for a repricer would instantly save you money.

Think about it:

Your time is worth $30/hour and you typically spend 8.5 hours on sub-optimal manual repricing each month (8.5 hours x $30/hour = $255/month).

In this scenario, switching to a $150/month automated repricer would automatically save you $105/month—and that’s before factoring in performance.

By having a tool that adjusts your prices strategically and continuously throughout the day (and night), you’ll be able to make more price changes than ever before—and without having to be hands on.

The effects of this will be:

• Increased Amazon sales

• Better margins, and

• More than 8 hours of tedious work removed from your schedule each month

Now, imagine if you valued your time even more.

At a value of $75/hour, the 8.5 hours you spend on manual repricing would equal $637.50/month. The case for moving to automation is even more clear for people who put a high price tag on their time.

But enough about running your business; let’s get back to the fun!

Require yourself at least one epic vacation a year

Here’s something that everyone (except the die-hard workaholics) will want to hear: Taking vacations is a good thing for business!

This relates to both owners and staff.

When it comes to your employees, having a rigid minimum vacation requirement can help:

• Retain your best hires and foster company loyalty

• Keep your staff happy, healthy, and inspired

• Open up serendipitous networking opportunities

If you’re a business owner, it’s even more important to force yourself to take long vacations.

That’s because travel helps recharge your batteries, invigorate you with a new sense of purpose, and clear your head. You’ll also get to build bonds with those you travel with, be it your family, friends, or even colleagues.

After a long trip, you might be inspired to take your business in a new direction. Maybe you’ll even find new products to source (unintentionally, of course; the goal of any vacay is to disconnect from work). And maybe you’ll come to even more powerful realizations about what you want in life based on where you travel.

There are even scientific reasons for taking vacations. According to Inc., vacations can:

• Reduce stress

• Decrease your risk of heart disease

• Improve productivity

• Help you sleep better

Even Appeagle has a minimum vacation requirement, so now you know that we do as we say!

Give yourself some credit (and rewards)

The last part of the process—giving yourself some credit—starts right now. After all, you’re nearly finished with this suuuuuuper-loooooong post about bettering your life, so credit is certainly due.

I’ll wait while you pat yourself on the back.

Seriously, though: Congratulations on taking a big, bold step in improving your work-life balance.

Change always starts with consuming information, so you’re clearly on the right track. As you continue making changes to restructure your work-life balance, make sure to acknowledge when you reach milestones.

And, if you receive help and support along the way, remember to give credit to others when it’s due.

For each big change, new routine, and healthy habit you adopt, make sure to reward yourself in some way. It shouldn’t be with rewards that spit in the face of your progress (like rewarding yourself with cookies and cake because you started an exercise plan). Nor should it be a reward that doesn’t match the level of achievement (creating your first Trello board clearly doesn’t warrant a trip to Australia).

Creating a reasonable reward system for yourself is all about understanding what motivates you to keep going. It’s also about having fun without being excessive.

Consider treating yourself to dinner, a relaxing spa treatment, or something else that will boost your spirit, health, and wellness. Or, if the timing and context are right, let your reward be the vacation you know you need to take.

The point is to push hard at work, but not to be a jerk to yourself by withholding rewards. You owe it to yourself to celebrate achievements, and striving toward healthy work-life balance qualifies as significant.

So, give yourself some credit!

Having a better life as an Amazon seller: The bottom line on Amazon work-life balance

Work-life balance for Amazon sellers starts with clearly defining what you want out of life and business. After all, making boatloads of money online is not as awesome without good health and a loving, supportive family.

Aiming for wellness in your personal life is key:

• Don’t overwork yourself

• Keep your life organized with a calendar and time-management/productivity tools

• Focus on your health by exercising and eating right

• Take at least one loooooooong vacation each year

Lastly, don’t overlook the prospect of using automation software to streamline your processes.

Not only could the right automation tools save you invaluable time, they can also skyrocket your sales. A small initial investment in learning how to use automation right can result in weeks worth of free time in the long-run.

If you want a real-life example, check out how Rob Anderson used automated repricing to gain “lifestyle freedom” so he could stop losing hours to manual repricing every week—and triple his sales. Rob now enjoys epic surfing trips to Costa Rica regularly, and he can spend more time on high-ROI endeavors, like strategic sourcing.

There’s plenty more that can be said about improving work-life balance for Amazon sellers, so this is just the beginning. We hope this inspires you to start thinking about where you can make positive changes to how you schedule things.

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