As an entrepreneur, it’s likely that your life is always busy. Being in charge of your working life certainly has its advantages. However, it also means that you’re under continued pressure to keep winning new business to sustain a regular income. This often results in you working far more hours than someone who has an employed role. Having an intense workload and being under constant pressure can easily take its toll on both your health and your wellbeing. This makes it absolutely essential to be mindful of your health and to proactively manage your wellbeing. When your workload is super busy this can seem like an almost impossible task.
If your work schedule is constantly hectic and your workload feels overwhelming, your health and well-being may be the last thing on your mind. However, failing to protect these can have a significant impact on your ability to do your work. Getting into a situation where your work performance is affected and your health and wellbeing are suffering can send you into a constant spiral of falling ill and struggling to keep up with your workload. This makes your life as an entrepreneur so much harder than it needs to be.
Reframing your thinking can really help you to prioritise your health and well-being. Consider taking care of them as an investment in your business. After all, the better you feel, the more productive you can be. Now all you need to do is to take action and to start making your health and wellbeing a priority. Here are some tips to help you get started:
Take Breaks
When you’re extremely busy, taking a break may be the last thing you feel you should do. It’s certainly may feel counter-intuitive to take time out from work when you’re really busy. However, it’s worth being honest with yourself about your productivity levels. As an entrepreneur, it’s common to work extremely long hours. But when working long hours becomes a habit, you may find yourself spending time at work, but not necessarily using this time productively.
Taking breaks can help you to pause, gather your thoughts, and return to your desk feeling refreshed and with a clear idea of how you will tackle your workload. In contrast, spending hours at your desk feeling stressed can make it hard to focus and you may accomplish very little.
Taking regular breaks is important, but the type of break you take also matters. Staying at your desk when you take a break is unlikely to be deliver much benefit. However, getting up and stepping outside into the fresh air can be much more beneficial. This change of scenery combined with fresh air, is an excellent way to feel recharged and ready to work again with a new burst of energy.
Stop Multitasking
In the past, multitasking has been viewed as the ultimate way to get more done. Juggling multiple tasks all at once can seem like an easy way to do more in less time. Maximising every moment of your working day by working on a few tasks at once may seem highly productive. However, in most cases, the opposite is true.
Multitasking can have a really negative impact on both your productivity and your mental health. Attempting to do lots at once can send your stress levels soaring and cause you to feel like you’re constantly playing catch up. You may also find that each task takes you much longer to complete, meaning that your working day can drag on far longer than you would like.
Avoiding the temptation to multitask can help you in a few different ways. Firstly, you will reduce your stress levels by working on one thing at a time, meaning that your efforts are less scattered and you feel less overwhelmed. Secondly, you will feel a greater sense of accomplishment if you complete each task before moving on to the next. Finally, you will be able to manage your time more effectively if you’re working on one task at a time.
Choosing to stop multitasking should help you avoid the negative aspects it can cause to your mental health. Your stress levels should start to reduce, and feelings of anxiety and overwhelm should begin to subside.
Keep Moving
The affects of a sedentary lifestyle on health are well-documented. Sitting for long periods at work can make it challenging to sustain an active lifestyle, and can potentially lead to a range of health issues. Prolonged sitting is connected to high blood pressure, increased blood sugar levels, and a host of further health concerns.
When you are inundated with work, you may find yourself spending hours and hours sat at your desk without even realising. After a while, you may start to notice that your back and legs ache, and your shoulders start to become tight. As well as being uncomfortable, these aches and pains can also contribute to you feeling more stressed. This is due to your posture causing your muscles to feel tense and you may notice that your neck and shoulders feel knotty.
Making a conscious effort to stay active during the working day is an excellent way to help alleviate some of the pain and stiffness you may experience if sitting for long periods. Getting up from your desk to stretch intermittently can help. However, one much easier way to avoid long periods of sitting is by switching to a standing desk. Sit stand desks offer the best of both worlds. You can change between working in a seated and standing position to match your comfort levels and avoid being in the same position for too long. The beauty of this is that you can continue working, so moving positions won’t impact your productivity.
Don’t Be Afraid To Delegate
Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely way of working. When you’re your own boss, it’s up to you to make every decision yourself, and you may complete most tasks singlehandedly. This can put you under intense pressure, and severely impact your wellbeing.
If you find that keeping on top of your workload is causing you to spend excessive amounts of time at work, and leading to sleepless nights, looking for opportunities to delegate could be beneficial. If you have employees, training them up to take on some of your tasks can be an excellent way to continue their development while also reducing your workload.
When you’re used to doing everything yourself, it can be challenging to let go and ask for help. However, in the long term, this can be hugely beneficial for your health and wellbeing as well as your business.
Understandably, as an entrepreneur, hiring full-time employees isn’t always a viable option. The cost of recruiting a team member and then training them up to the required standard can be extremely expensive and time-consuming, which could cause you extra work rather than alleviating your workload. One alternative option to consider is outsourcing. Outsourcing some of your most time-consuming tasks to a professional can cost far less than recruiting a new team member, and allows you to benefit from their experience and skills.
Reducing the pressure of a heavy workload is a really helpful way to keep your stress levels low and prevent your work-life from impacting your health. So, if you are feeling overwhelmed by a heavy workload, taking action before it causes you harm is worthwhile.
Make A Plan
Finally, making a plan is really beneficial and can revolutionise the way you work. Being an entrepreneur can mean your workload is extremely changeable. You may go through periods when you’re inundated with work and left wondering how you will manage to complete it. Planning your workload as best as you can is an effective way to keep it manageable at all times.
Setting yourself fixed working hours and sticking to them wherever possible can help you to create that all-important work-life balance that so many entrepreneurs struggle to achieve. Assessing your workload and figuring out the best ways to get everything completed within your working day without spending every waking hour at the office can make a vast difference to your working life.
Writing a list of all the tasks you need to complete and arranging them into priority order is a helpful place to start. You can then begin to allocate time to each task within your working day, so you know precisely what you intend to do, and how you will do it. Allocating the final 30 to 60 minutes of the day to completing any tasks that have overrun and preparing the following day’s plan will ensure you don’t fall behind. This should also help you stick with set finish times each evening.
Having your evenings free means you can focus on relaxing and enjoying activities that support your health and wellbeing. Following the above steps and taking a proactive approach will enable you to enjoy all the best parts of entrepreneurship while at the same time protecting your health and wellbeing.