Give Me A Break! How to Take Care of Yourself As a Business Owner
“This job is never ending.”
Ever thought or muttered this to yourself after a long day of work? Being an entrepreneur or business owner (or both) is special because there is no end to the limit of what you can do, which means there is no limit to the amount of work, either. Before becoming a business owner, I was frustrated if I found myself not finishing my list of to-do’s. But then as I became a business owner, I noticed the list of to-do’s grew larger and larger with each passing day. There was no way to keep up.
Also, being a creative means that the ideas are always flowing. It’s not unusual for me to stop and pull over to open my notes app after driving or running out of the shower with a big new idea and needing to write it down somewhere. I even have a temporary sticky white board near my bathroom mirror, in my kitchen, and by the door (but that one is mostly so I don’t forget things when I leave). Many tout “if you love your job you’ll never work a day in your life”. My two experiments with burnout would prove otherwise, but I digress. Work is work, but I do hope that you love what you do, because it does make a huge difference.
Even though we love what we do, there are a few non-negotiables that we have found really help you to take care of yourself on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Most of them don’t cost anything monetary, but a time cost or scarcity mindset may be something that arises at first. We urge you to keep an open mind about how these may help to improve your wellbeing.
Here are 3 of our most proven ways we’ve used to take care of yourself as a business owner.
Boundaries. We know this is a buzzword, but sometimes the words that are repeated, are repeated for a reason. They work and they are necessary. Boundaries are crucial to your success, whether they are towards your outside or inside world. Examples of successful boundaries are setting designated hours that you respond to emails and work matters, ours are 9a-5p on Monday-Friday. You will not hear from us on the weekend or after hours. It’s a firm boundary. A few more are:
No working during vacation
Social media breaks (weekly), we do 24 hours offline
No tech after 8pm
No tech before 8am and especially upon waking
Making time for a lunch break and for taking care of ourselves through fitness, eating well, and getting outdoors
Communicating with the team when we feel overwhelmed, or how long a task will take to set expectations
Taking regular time off, bonus points for it being unplugged. In our opinion, time off is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. Time off is for us as much as it’s for our clients, because when we take time off away from work, we come back refreshed and full of new ideas that help our clients (and ourselves) to succeed! Refreshed, relaxed and ready to work is our motto after vacation. If we were to answer emails or work on vacation, it would defeat the point, but then again that’s a boundary that we adhere to.
Making time for creativity and fun. It’s hard when you are a business owner to get over the idea that “time is money”. Ugh. What a horrible saying. Time is life. It’s not money as far as consumerism, but rather gold that we can use to spend our lives. It’s always a good reminder to think about why we are even here (just don’t take it too far…). Is it for work? Or to live? Yes, we love our work, but we love other parts of our lives too! Making time for creativity and getting out of our normal working space can help us think in new, innovative and solution oriented ways. This can look like taking up a hobby, getting outside for a hike, a half day trip, or just a stroll around a new area of town.
Making the above three tips a habit can go a long way and be a great start to giving yourself the care that you need to be successful, in whichever way that means the most to you. Setting boundaries can be tough at first, but become very rewarding once they start to become a regular experience. We hope that you will try these and let us know which works best for you, or give us your favorite suggestions!
-SB