Making You A Priority

So many entrepreneurs start businesses with dreams of taking back control of their time, working fewer hours and enjoying work again. You know the sort of thing, it’s almost a mythology – working in your pyjamas, from the beach or for just a few hours a week. If that has worked out that way for you already, congratulations!

But let’s face it, I know only too well for many entrepreneurs the dream takes a little longer to materialise than we hoped. Indeed, it’s easy to find ourselves working for an even more demanding ‘Boss from Hell’ (AKA yourself) who doesn’t stop nagging for attention 24/7. Trying to keep up with the orders, networking and a ‘to do’ list that seems to have no end, can make it hard to squeeze in time for family and friends too.

Of course, we cope for a while but there comes a time when we have to stop. You see, we’re designed for short sharp bursts of energy and need time to recover. If we keep on putting off that recovery time, our health, enthusiasm and creativity can be impacted negatively. In effect, we ‘burn out’. And if you are the key person in your business, that’s going to lead to problems.

So if this is sounding familiar, I suggest you might review how you plan your time and prepare yourself better to cope with the ‘long haul’.

You see, usually when we plan the week or month ahead, we look at all the activities we want to cram in. Maybe we schedule in the meetings, the deadlines and so on too. It probably doesn’t fit, so already we’re putting ourselves under pressure and potentially setting ourselves up to fail. If you’re lucky, maybe there’ll be some time left for you.This week, why not start the other way round and make taking care of you a priority? Decide what might be some of the activities you want to make time for because they help you relax or re-energise you in some way. Make these a priority to include in your schedule.

You choose these activities – maybe it’ll be a regular appointment with yourself for exercise (my dogs make sure that’s in my calendar), time to relax at a spa for the afternoon, read your child a bedtime story, catch up on food shopping, the dental appointment you’ve been putting off because you’re so busy, or just a great night out with friends.

Build these chosen activities into your calendar first and then organise the other tasks around them. You might decide some tasks can be delegated – if so, do it. Other tasks judged lower priority will have to wait – maybe this awareness will help you be more realistic with your estimates next time.

Experiment with adding some ‘me’ time back into your life. Perhaps it’ll just be a few hours over the month, maybe it’s a couple of days. You know what will make a difference without causing problems in your business.

When I started doing this, I found these precious relaxation hours quickly helped me regain perspective, enthusiasm and more energy to tackle everything else.

Be a little kinder to yourself and prioritise some of the things that are being left out of your life more highly. I think you’ll feel better and your family , friends and business will thank you for it.

Give it a try this week, and let me know how this works for you.