Friend, I know you are an action-taking ninja, hustling your freaking face off to grow your business and you probably think you’ll never hit your goals if you take a break. When was the last time you added empty time blocks to your work calendar or took a day off?
Unfortunately, if you’re anything like I used to be, you’re burning yourself out trying to work your home business every spare minute you can find around your kids’ schedule and maybe even working into the wee hours of the night or waking up super early in the morning. You may even find you’re spinning your wheels & your business isn’t really taking off as fast as you’d like. Let’s talk about why…
If you believe not taking a break throughout the day doesn’t affect your business just as much as it does you, think again! As a business owner, it’s essential to listen to your body and take care of your mental health before it starts negatively impacting your home business productivity.
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5 crucial reasons why you should never skip taking breaks
- Reduces Stress & Optimizes your Health – Promoting mental clarity and happiness corresponds to making the right choices and decisions in your home business. Poor self-care can lead to mental health problems, such as depression, or affect your body with cardiovascular disease. (Yes, it’s THAT serious.) This can ultimately change the trajectory of your life, leading you on a path which you do NOT want to take (and leaves you not even able to enjoy the fruits of your labor).
- Increases Gratitude and Generosity – Mental clarity helps you appreciate the “little things” in life and makes you grateful for what you have, which in turn, increases happiness. When you hustle through life, you miss the little things.
- Inspires Creativity and Innovation – Studies have shown that spending a little alone time can greatly increase your creativity. I recommend doing a 20-30 minute “thinking time” session once a week. Grab your favorite drink, notepad, & a comfy chair & either let your mind wander OR give it a question to brainstorm on (“what are some things I can do to increase traffic to my landing page?”). When you’re constantly hustling, you don’t give your brain the space it needs to do it’s thing.
- To Maintain Energy and Focus – Taking breaks from your work ultimately IMPROVES your performance, communication, and engagement. That’s right! It actually INCREASES your productivity. But think about this… when your more creative & innovative brain has space to think, you you realize you’ve been burning yourself out focusing on things that don’t actually serve you or your business.
- You Deserve It… Duh! – You NEED to take a day off and treat yourself for one and the only reason (which is also the most important)… because you deserve it and you are worth it.
You might have a busy calendar and a crap-ton of things to do, but taking breaks is still possible. Here are 4 tips to help you treat yourself even when you’re busy.
1 - Schedule Time Off & Be Strict About Taking a Break
Adding short breaks, vacations, and essential appointments for your own self-care is a MUST. Don’t let something you perceive as more important in the moment allow you skip them. Just as they say that you should always pay yourself first, when you’re filling out your calendar or planner, time off needs to be accounted for FIRST. Remember that your health should be a top priority; otherwise, your business won’t be one either.
I’ll use my kids as an example. From the time they were born, my husband and I always respected nap time as ESSENTIAL (for them and us). If going somewhere was going to mean a missed nap or a late nap, we most-likely didn’t go. If it meant they were going to get to bed late, we didn’t go.
Why?
Because we valued their sleep as essential for their bodies to function optimally (brain development, mood, etc) and we knew that messing around with their schedule could throw them off for days. We prioritized our kids’ sleep for them of course, but we also knew it meant less cranky kids, which helped us to keep our own sanity as well.
What’s my point? When you value something highly, you put it into your schedule FIRST as a top priority & you don’t mess around with it because you realize there will be negative consequences.
Your body needs rest. Listen to it and schedule that into your calendar first.
2 - Commit to Taking a Break
Now that you’ve penned in some non-negotiable rest time into your calendar, it’s time to practice some self-discipline here and actually commit to doing absolutely no work during your down time. You have to commit fully, to reap the fullest benefits. Don’t use this time for chores or planning your next business moves.
I know I mentioned “thinking time” earlier and doing a little brainstorm. That is a block of time you should schedule to intentionally allow your brain to think creatively & potentially even solve business problems you’re having. But right now we’re talking about some serious do-nothing time. If you’ve been in full-on hustle mode, you need to go to the opposite extreme and give yourself some true “me-time”. Rest and commit to activities that make you happy.
3 - Release Guilt and be More Selfish with Your Time
There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a little self-centered when protecting your mental and physical health. No feeling guilty for binge-watching Netflix all day. You’re not resting to create a bad habit of laziness. You’re resting to recharge, so that when you do work hard, you don’t burn out. You NEED the rest in order to keep your balance. Learn to value your self-care and rest, so you stop beating yourself up for enjoying some time off.
4 - Establish Proper Time Management Habits to Take a Break
It goes without saying, that the more time you have, the easier it is to take a day off. So how do you create more time in your day? Establish the right habits that will allow you to get ahead or maximize your productivity in the shortest amount of time possible. A 90-day action plan and working in block schedules are great ideas and starting areas.
Stop neglecting your health and using the excuse that “I just don’t have time.” All you’re saying is that you don’t value yourself or your business enough to make time. We’re not about that life any more. In Slay Biz Overwhelm, you’ll learn how to identify what’s overwheming you, maximize productivity, increase efficiency, and beat burnout, so you can find joy in your home business again. Come check it out.
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About the Author: I'm Misty, wife to a handsome fella & momma of two amazing kiddos that I am so blessed to be able to stay at home with. I did a lot of struggling in home biz quicksand before I started researching, learning from, and invterviewing top earners to learn their exact systems for getting customers and recruiting... and began sharing their secrets. I quickly got overwhelmed trying to #DOITALL and realized home biz success boils down to having solid systems and implementing consistently. Now I'm peeling back the curtain for you so you don't have to waste time & mental calories (like I did) trying to create success while also saving your sanity. Come join the conversation in our Free Life Ninjas Community.