It’s not unusual for me to work over 100 hours a week given that weekends are no different to workdays (only less in-coming emails!), so I have learnt to find little ways to keep me going. It’s true that some simple pleasures can go a long way.
- Take a bath at the end of the day. Even if it’s for 5 minutes and even if you knod off. The feeling of weightlessness and flash of heat on your sore muscles does wonders.
- Instead of passing out hugging your laptop, make an effort to shut it down and plugging it in in another part of your room, mentally telling yourself its time for re-charging now. For both of you.
- Water. Drink loads of it.
- Treats. Whatever be your vice, be relaxed about it. Reward your good hard work, don’t be meaner to yourself than your schedule. That would be seriously mean! My thing is pork belly. In any form. With any sauce. And battenberg cakes, and pyjamas. Random pleasures.
- Exercise. And I mean proper focused exercise. I tend to take classes, especially uber tricky choreographed dance classes where I think I am beyonce and can’t think about work without totally losing the routine. It’s the only thing that switches me off for an hour. For me running or anything too repetitive or quiet like yoga; I find myself multitasking it with writing emails in my head. Whatever works for you; do it little and often to fit it into your routine.
- Chant something. I find myself talking to myself when I am tired, so I might as well say something positive and motivating. Something like ‘I am so lucky to have chosen my own path” “other would kill to do something like this” can work, even if you are just cleaning up! It stops me from feeling sorry for myself.
- Find some time for friends and family. And DON’T talk about work. Talk about silly things. Find out what they are doing at the moment and stay totally engaged with them. It’s easy to lose perspective and be thinking about yourself and your business all the time.
- Have someone to let off steam with; this might be a partner, a best friend or even a nominated coach or mentor. Wheoever it is, you can’t feel self conscious about brain dumping to them, or going into massive detail. If you have a team member, that’s great but sometimes having a different perspective really helps too.
- Laugh when things go wrong. And they do go wrong a lot at the beginning. Focus on the funny side and just get on with it!
- As you finally drift off to sleep, instead of going through the millions of things you need to do tomorrow and how annoyed you are at yourself for not having done it all today, focus on choosing 3 achievements that day; whether physical or mental achievements. This will help you drift off with a smile on your face.
I hope you find these tips useful – what do you do to keep yourself positive and strong during the start-ups pains?
Filed under: Work-Life Balance
