Running your own business is hard, especially if you’re a one man band. It can be easy to fall into a trap of working every waking moment, and putting yourself on a fast track to creative burnout.
Whilst we’re all for dedicating your heart and soul to your business, a little self care is important too, so check out our tips to help keep your work life balance in check, and avoid overdoing it!
- Learn your boundaries + how to say no. We all have our limits, and having a good understanding of yours can help you keep your schedule manageable. Learn what is feasible for you to achieve in a week, and learn to say no to anything that pushes you over that limit. Remember, it’s okay to say no to things – no one is superhuman, and there’s a limit to what you can achieve, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
- Schedule your workweek around your flow. If you are at your most productive on a Monday morning, schedule your business critical tasks for then. If you always hit a slump on a Thursday afternoon, schedule something fun, or an out of office task for that time. Rather than forcing yourself to adhere to a strict work schedule, make your work schedule work for you.
- Make time for yourself. Your business doesn’t work without you! Your drive + passion for your work is your USP, but if you’re overdoing it and not feeling the business love, it’ll come across in your work. Take time for yourself, because the better you feel, the better your work will be. There’s a lot to be said for taking time out from work to spend time with people you love, and do things you enjoy.
- Stay inspired. It’s easy to get bogged down in the day to day minutia of life, and forget what inspired you to start up in the first place. Experiment with something new, go explore somewhere different, even spend twenty minutes on Pinterest! Creativity breeds inspiration, so keep creative activity on your schedule.
- Plan work-free days regularly. No meetings, no phone calls, no email, no work chat. Allow yourself space from your business to breathe and refocus – you’ll find you’re more productive when you’re back at it!
- Stay organised. Take the stress out of the day to day details by creating a weekly schedule and sticking to it. Assign time for all the little tasks, so you don’t look at your to do list and feel overwhelmed, because you know exactly when you’ll get it done!
- Assess your business processes. Having step by step processes in place for the different business eventualities you may come across, takes the stress out of unexpected situations. For example, if you’re an Etsy Seller, put together a process flowchart for what happens if an order doesn’t reach a customer, or a customer complains. If you have a procedure to follow for any eventuality, it’ll take the stress out of unexpected scenarios.
The moral of the story here is that work is as stressful as you make it, take a little time out to make things easier for yourself in the long run.
How do you avoid business burnout?