Copyright 2005 Deborah Carraro
Vascorp VA Services
http://www.vascorp.com/va
One of the biggest challenges faced by solo-entrepreneurs is
scheduling personal time - time away from the business. It's
particularly challenging when you're first starting your
business. Your natural impulse is to throw everything you
have into your business - time, money, energy - but that may
not be the wisest course of action.
Spending your entire day living, breathing (and if you spend
that much time in your business - dreaming) your business,
you're bound to burn out - or at the very least, not be as
effective as you want to be.
Consider these tips:
Out To Lunch:
Whether you work in an office or at home, you need to take breaks
and recharge your batteries. You're not going to be able to concentrate
on closing a sale, writing a proposal, or crunching numbers if
you forgot to eat lunch and sugar levels are scrambling your gray
cells.
Post Your Business Hours:
Sounds pretty obvious but establishing work hours even if you
work at home, sets boundaries and helps you pace yourself. I'll
admit it, this is the hardest tip for me to follow in my own business.
I love doing what I do and have a strong workaholic tendancies
and probably a slight addiction to e-mail :-)
I've learned, however, that it's crucial to set business
hours and not give in to the temptation of being available
24/7. Most days I can stick to the hours I've posted and
some days I can't - the trick is learning that the to-do
list will always be there and prioritizing your projects and
deadlines.
Take A Break:
Don't be afraid to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Take a break
and make sure you not too tired to play with the toys you've bought
with all that money you've earned. I regularly take myself offline
for a few hours once a week and just catch up on housekeeping
(invoicing, billing, writing my newsletter) and schedule time
off one day per month and spend the day singing, or writing, playing
tourist in my hometown or enjoying a day at the spa.
Why not take a mental health day now and then? In school,
you didn't think twice about playing hookey. Now that you're
a grown-up, why not take a day off for fishing, surfing,
shopping, or reading.
For some reason, now that you're the Boss, it's harder and
harder to get away and take time for yourself. Try this tip:
schedule a regular appointment with yourself. Block time off
in your calendar and don't make that time available to
anyone else (clients, family, friends).
Remember: Set your hours and take a day off. All that work
will still be waiting for you in the morning!
© 2005 Deborah Carraro
