The last two weeks have been H.A.R.D. Here's what's helped me.
The last two weeks in my house have been H.A.R.D.
After some dodgy meat at dinner a fortnight ago my eldest son, myself and my husband experienced the worst food poisoning I’ve had in my full 40 years. Almost 40 hours of non-stop hurling. We then (foolishly?) decided to head away to the Grampians which was lovely...for about 24 hours. It was then that we realised our youngest (who had escaped the meat fiasco) wasn’t well, coughing constantly and experiencing high temperatures. We left our regional holiday earlier than we had wanted, having to pull over a few times on the long drive home to wipe up spew from car seats. #SahFun!
After some negative Covid-19 tests, we have fought out a cold virus, spread from our youngest to all of us. But now, as this week commences, we look, finally, to be coming out the other side. Needless to say I’ve had to move quite a few clients around (thank you for being SO understanding!) and adjust work schedules.
So, why am I telling you all of this?
Apart from the obvious “poor me” venting (and serious #FirstWorldProblems), it’s because it’s become apparent, yet again, that health really is EVERYTHING in life. If that drops, nothing else really matters.
So what are YOU doing to look after your health as you run your own small business?
Are you putting in enough buffer time between meetings, campaigns and events or are you scheduled up to the max?
Are you making time for health — not just exercise and eating well, but for sleep, moments to be completely mindful and dedicated relaxing time without screens?
Are you planning some getaways even if, right now, it feels impossible to think that way? And, if that "getaway" is actually just a "stayaway from your computer"?
Are you sticking to the boundaries you set or are you letting others' needs creep in and overshadow your own?
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Are you prioritising time for YOU?
Remember, it's YOUR business and you most likely started it to have, to some degree, control over the way you spend your life.
I realised, after getting so sick lately, that I hadn’t been prioritising my downtime and that some of our own business systems still need work to run smoothly (aka without me involved). I usually work Monday, Tuesday and Thursday between school hours and never usually see my clients on Mondays. That is my “ease into the week” day and also the day I work ON my own business (admin, staff needs, planning, strategy and marketing). I realised that I had been slowly letting things creep back into my Mondays and I had said yes to working on a Friday and not taken off another day in place of it.
None of this is anyone’s fault but my own and I’ve since used that lesson to plan out enough buffer time in my weeks going forward, to turn down some opportunities that I wasn’t feeling totally aligned with and to schedule time into the months coming up to really take in the learnings from a coaching experience I’ve recently joined.
I’ve also mapped in my time for all three 2021 school holidays (as those seem to come around sooo quickly!) and also scheduled two more short holidays in — we may not go anywhere at all, but knowing that time has been “booked out” of my work calendar provides a sense of calm.
This recent episode of illness also reminded me HOW much I need the team around me (and massive shout out to them for holding things down and getting on with stuff without much direction from me!). If you are someone who has been thinking about hiring someone to help with your biz, even part time or casually, I would suggest you start now. You don’t want to leave it until you absolutely NEED someone to make this happen. (Need help with this? Check out my free video training How to Hire a VA in the Good Business Group).
Now, I know that I am incredibly fortunate to be able to hire staff or consider holidays (even staycations) — but more than the financial side of all of this is the time factor. I love what I do and I am someone who could easily fill my time with work 24/7 but I also know that having time for other things (including time for myself) is part of the reason I quit a corporate role and started my own thing.
We can all consider ways to get more time back, for free, in our lives and use this time to work on our health.
· It may be turning Netflix off in place of an earlier nights sleep.
· It could be saying no to people who consistently ask for help without wanting to pay us.
· It could be putting a campaign or project on hold for now, until we have got through X, Y or Z.
· It could be checking in with our team to see if our processes could be better to help everyone feel more efficient and valued.
· It could be pulling back, reducing or even removing areas of the business that don't make us feel good and have no great impact on our business goals.
· Or, it could just be setting a lock on our phones for apps like social media (mine is set to 30 mins per day max) so we aren’t spending time on things that aren’t necessarily great for our health.
If you would like to start doing more of this, a good place to start is to map out a week in your life (honestly) as you go, then after it's finished, study your notes and look for ways to reduce or cull things. You can use this free Weekly Planner to start.
Look, we can’t always avoid things like food poisoning or kids bringing home viruses from the cesspool of germs that is childcare, but we can aim to schedule our time in a way that when the unexpected does hit, it doesn’t impact — too greatly — on our business and on our lives.