Let me start by saying yes, you need more self-care in your life. Whether you are new to working from home or have been doing so for years, I’m sure you’ll agree that sometimes it’s hard to be productive. Part of the reason is because the line that divides your home life and your business is invisible. That’s mostly because you’re always in the same location. That’s why self-care is more important than ever before.
And if you find yourself working a crazy amount of hours all the time, that is having a negative impact on your health on multiple levels. You may be finding it hard to focus, you may feel sluggish, and tired all of the time. Why? It’s because you’re always connected either on your laptop, tablet or phone. So what can you do to reverse these adverse effects of being “ON ” all the time?
The short answer is you need to set up some boundaries and you need to stick to them. But that’s not what I’m going to be talking about today. I know that probably surprised you since I talk about boundaries all the time. Now if you want some help setting and sticking to your boundaries, I have some blog posts that can help you with that. I talk about setting and communication boundaries with your clients in the blog post Business Boundaries You Need to Protect What’s Important to You and how to do the same with your family in this blog post, Summer Survival Tips for Working Moms.
I know you’re scratching your head wondering what I am going to talk about today. It’s nothing new, but it’s something that is often overlooked. And it’s an easy way to practice self-care every single day. You simply need to take breaks AND you need to enjoy some downtime. We’re going to talk about the difference between the two and why you need both of them in your life. That’s right, I said you need both of them and they are different which I will talk about later. Let’s talk about taking breaks first.
You Need to Take Breaks
Not taking breaks throughout the day is actually decreasing your productivity. Not to mention it’s a surefire way to end up overwhelmed and burnt out. Breaks give your brain a chance to rest and re-set. Plus your eyes need a break from the bluelight that is limited from the computer screens. With more people working from home and being on Zoom more than ever over the past two years, more and more people are having to wear glasses. And others are experiencing headaches and dry eyes. It’s all from too much screen time. Taking breaks can help with that.
So what you need to do is cultivate the habit of taking breaks. When you come back from a break, you will feel refreshed and ready to tackle the next priority for the day or to resume work where you left off. This starts by you actually planning out your week.
I time block my schedule every week. So I break down my time blocks into 2 hour increments. Every 1.5-2 hours I take a 10-15 minute break. Then every 4 hours I take a 30 minute break except I take an hour for lunch. But this doesn’t mean I sit in my chair for two hours. I try to make it a habit to get up every hour and just move around for a minute or two. My Apple watch helps me remember to do that which I love! If you want to know my step by step process for time blocking my schedule, check out this blog post.
No matter how you plan your week make sure you arrange your day so that you can enjoy regular breaks to eat, go to the bathroom and just to get out of the chair, away from the screen and to move around. My recommendation is that you take at least 10 minutes. Why not 5 minutes? Because 5 minutes or less really isn’t enough time for your brain to reset itself. But also be careful not to make your break too long. If your break is too long, you start to relax and then it’s hard to get your brain to re-engage. Then your break cost you more time and productivity than it actually helped with.
So this is an area you have to play with to see what works for you. Just be sure to write it into your schedule so you physically see it. And if there is a certain time of the day that you find your energy level starts to drop, then try to plan a break around that time. I know this happens for me around 2:30 or so. So I usually fix myself an afternoon coffee or get a light snack around this time which amounts to a 10 minute break. Do what works for you!
Now what you may have to do to create the habit is set alarms on your phone. I know that’s what I had to do for a while to create the habit. I had an alarm set to take lunch at the same time every day. Now my body is trained and I have an internal alarm that let’s me know when it’s time to eat.
Now let’s talk about the importance of enjoying downtime.
You Need to Schedule Downtime
What exactly is downtime? Simply put, it is time when you can relax without guilt. The great thing about downtime is it can be an hour, two hours, half a day, a week or a month. Basically, it’s however much time you decide to take to do something that refreshes you and allows you to enjoy the moment and add to your joy. You should feel refreshed when it ends.
Here’s an example. Fridays for me are designated for podcast tasks only. When I first started having guests on the podcast, my calendar was open for guest chats every Friday. After some time, this really left me drained. I would have 1-2 chats scheduled every Friday in addition to the other tasks I needed to complete. This was not sustainable but I didn’t know how to shift my schedule and still get things done.
Then I was a part of the Purpose Driven Mom summit. One of the speakers suggested we schedule unplanned time blocks in our schedule. So I changed my schedule and I only do guest chats every other Friday. The other two Fridays I work until 12 and the afternoon is open for me to do what I want. Sometimes I put my feet up and binge watch one of my favorite shows. Other days I get in a workout because I missed one during the week. Then I have days that I just let myself lose track of time while scrolling on social media. My point, I schedule unscheduled down time regularly. This includes weekends, holidays and vacations.
How is this different from a break? Well both are forms of self-care and both are the maintenance habits you need so that you don’t burnout. But a break is just a quick pause that doesn’t cause a big interruption in your productivity. Downtime on the other hand means you are deliberately not working. That way you can be in the best shape spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically and therefore are more productive. It’s how you are able to operate at your optimum capacity.
Think about this, we live in the tech age where tons of machines and computers are used to do a lot of things. But they can’t run without maintenance. So to make sure they are operating at it’s best. Companies schedule downtime when it’s a holiday, weekend or after hours so that productivity isn’t reduced. This is when they perform routine maintenance, install upgrades, and remove/replace any parts or equipment that aren’t working.
Now both breaks and downtime are important because our bodies need rest. But we tend to avoid downtime because we’re programmed into thinking that we’re wasting time. We may set out to just relax and binge watch something, but then that mean girl inside says you should be doing something else. And even if you ignore her, you feel guilty after the fact and think of all the things you could have gotten so much done, right?
So what you have to do to combat this self-sabotaging thinking is create your plan for the week, include some unscheduled down time and then plan what you are going to do during that time. But I don’t want it to be anything related to your business. I want you to look around the house and pick something that you have wanted to clean up for a long time. But you can’t spend more than 30 minutes on that task. Notice I didn’t say you need to complete that task. What you do is set a timer, work for 30 minutes and you stop. Then I want you to have a positive chat with yourself and acknowledge that you have made progress on that task. Now you can use the rest of your time to do whatever your heart desires.
The point is, you need to be adding breaks and downtime into your schedule every day and it doesn’t have to be a special occasion. The goal of you scheduling these rest periods is to create that boundary between work time and personal time. The lines don’t need to be blurred between work and home just because you’re working from home. You simply need to disconnect from one to be present in the other and that’s why you need to set and commit to your boundaries.
Being intentional about how you use your time will help you have the time and energy you need to reconnect to what matters most to you and that changes. But if you don’t develop the habit of unplugging, you’re going to burn out and I don’t want that to happen.
So starting tomorrow I want you to identify a time every day that you can just pause for 5 minutes without any technology. Try that for a week and slowly increase your time. Then you will look forward to those breaks which will prepare you to schedule and enjoy more downtime.
Now I want to know that you did this. So DM me on Instagram @the_shannonbaker and let me know what you did on your break. I can’t wait to see what you do. And if you need some ideas, I can help you with that too! I look forward to hearing from you!
