Entrepreneurial women: Tips for avoiding burnout
Too many women who run small or home-based businesses get caught doing double duty. They're continually balancing work and family, weekdays and weekends, while the borders between the two keep shifting. Working from home has many perks, but with those perks come the reality that you're never away from your business. The result? Tasks and responsibilities spin round the clock and women business owners don't allow themselves any true breaks or vacation - a lunch break is too often cleaning the kitchen or folding washing.
In this time-pressed equation, technology is both a blessing and a bane. Anywhere-anytime technology helps companies of all sizes stay on top of rapidly-shifting priorities and needs. Yet, always-on access also means women never quite shut down. And taking phone calls during dinner or checking email while out with the kids usually means someone gets short shrift, whether it's the family or the client. Here are some tips on how to avoid burnout:
- Create backup before it's critical. Build support structures and safety nets before you actually need any, whether that means childcare or having a virtual assistant on tap who can handle some of your more routine tasks. Or, partner with other businesses or women who can ‘watch the shop' while you're away. "
- Learn to say no. Practice in the mirror. Shout it in the woods. Don't sacrifice your personal calendar for work tasks.
- Announce your plans. When you do take time off, let clients know exactly when you'll be away and when you'll return, including when you expect to respond to email and phone calls.
- Set boundaries. Schedule regular free time that you can maintain and that everyone will understand.
- Stay focused and efficient during work hours. Rather than being driven by the day's crop of email and phone calls, check your messages two or three times a day, such as first thing in the morning, at noon, and in the late afternoon. That will give you greater freedom to focus on the bigger picture of growing your business.
- Take short breaks. If you can't make time for a few days away, break up the week with a long afternoon walk, lunch with a friend, or go to a local event.
- Request help when you need it. Partners, significant others, relatives, and everyone else may have become accustomed to the fact that you simply do everything all the time. Stop. Ask for support.
- Give yourself small rewards. Go to the gym, the cinema, dinner with a friend or book a half-day at the spa (OK: a one-hour manicure) before you're worn out. The idea is to remember why you work so hard.
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