Taking Time To Recharge
Its Sunday evening, and I’m sitting in my favorite chair, watching TV while the aroma of dinner flows in from the kitchen. I’m just relaxing, I haven’t done anything for “work” since Friday afternoon. I consider myself a creative, and I’m also very die hard. However, my partner is my fiancée, we co-own the business so the work, well, its always there. Between the two us, we have three kids and we agreed sometime ago we had to work more 9 to 5, to be fair to our family. Since we made the agreement of working restrictive hours (which took some time to implement) we found a great by-product…creativity. When you take time off to do no work at all your brain has a chance to calm and you step back from the daily grind. When you reapproach you see things in a different light. I have found I have my best ideas when I’m taking down time, that’s when the sparks fly…then I can jot down a note so I don’t forget. Ocassionally, such as now, my tablet is close by so I just do a bit of work while the iron is hot. When you do creative work, you almost have to do something when you feel inspired, but its important to give your body, mind and soul time to recharge so those sparks can come.
So yes, I’m sitting here on my tablet on a Sunday night writing about not working all the time 🙂 My point is, don’t forget to take time out for yourself, step away from work and just chill out, enjoy your family. Those ideas will come when you least expect it. For a guy that was accustomed to working 90+ hour weeks, this change of pace was a welcome relief, but initially hard to accept. However, as a result, I think I do better work and I’ve made better business processes and policies that allow me to work 9 to 5 and take time off when I want. My family is happier, my work is better and I am happier. Whats the point of working for yourself when you don’t take time off for to enjoy the benefits of the lifestyle?
Do it, take the time off and restrict yourself somewhat, you and your business will be better because of it. Don’t answer the phone, leave those emails til Monday and just relax.