This post is about your personal work life balance; keeping yourself together. The next will explore work life balance and relationships.
Your Body
Walking is a natural part of the working day, if you do it! Unsplash / Pixabay
Keeping fit is essential for any self-employed business owner and you have many options. If you have a sport or exercise regimen, use it. You may need to cut overheads and so gym membership may be a luxury for the first few years, so think about how you can keep fit.
One simple way to keep fit is to lose your car. Cars are very expensive and if your business does not depend on carrying huge amounts of stuff around, you may find you can manage without. This saves money but also opens up opportunities to walk. Walking is good basic exercise and easily taken into your daily routine.
Walking is not empty time, it is an opportunity to work on problems away from your desk and often brilliant insights will occur while walking.
When employed full-time I did not take opportunities to exercise and this made me ill. If you use self-employment as an excuse to sit in front of a screen all day, your health will suffer and ultimately, so will your business.
So, schedule physical exercise into your day.
Your Mind
It is important to understand how your mind works and it doesn’t work to its capacity whilst in front of a screen, day in and day out.
Your subconscious works on problems even during times you are not aware of it. Taking a break can make a big difference. Exercise allows the conscious mind to rest and if you are alert, new ideas will pop into your head.
So, get to know how your mind works and what it feels like to come up with a solution. Many people get stuck because they don’t know how to listen to their own mind! Create spaces during the day for your mind to work on problems and then listen to it.
Most people find they know a lot more than they are aware of and the aim should be to cultivate confidence in your personal knowledge and insights. You may feel stuck this evening but in the morning the solution may present itself modestly and without fanfare.
How do you keep body and mind fit?