Entrepreneurship has many advantages, including setting your schedule and working in fields that meet your passions. However, this can easily turn into having no time for yourself and quickly burning out on what will inevitably become a very demanding schedule! As the founder, CEO or head of any business, that person will need to have the final say in all major company decisions while still working on fundraising, hiring new employees, and overseeing new projects. Therefore, just like the employees they hire, entrepreneurs need a healthy work-life balance to keep themselves sustained, rested, and with a clear mind for high-level decision-making. This is an essential piece for any entrepreneur, as their schedules can quickly start to bleed into their time. And this is a symptom of entrepreneurship that unfortunately doesn’t necessarily go away. The reality is, work will seep into your personal life as the head of any business, and that means that entrepreneurs need to take extra steps to make sure they are making enough time for themselves to feel rested and clear-headed to follow their greatest ambitions! Let’s explore a few ways that some entrepreneurs have found helpful to make time for themselves during their busy lives.
Self-Care
These days, self-care is becoming not just a luxury but an essential part of our daily lives. Employees and employers alike are paying closer attention to their overall health and how lack of rest and self-care can have debilitating consequences. “Self-care is especially important when you're your own boss,” said Matt Rubright, Head of Growth at
Candidate. “The benefits of being an entrepreneur are that you are your own boss, but that means that your schedule can quickly fill up and the line between work and life becomes extremely blurry. Creating a block of 'me time' in your day can help you organize that time into your daily routine. Make an event on your calendar, and stick to that time every day.” But making time for yourself isn’t always so easy, and sometimes we almost need to trick ourselves into setting the time aside naturally.
One idea to ‘trick’ yourself into some needed downtime is to cook for yourself daily. “Make time for yourself by purposefully making yourself home cooked meals. This inherently takes time, and is often the first thing that goes out the window when we get busy,” says Matt Woods, Co-founder & CEO of
SOLD.com. “Getting something on the road or while at work is just easier. However, you risk giving yourself less than ideal nutrition if you eat out every day, plus it jams your schedule up even more by setting a precedent for eating on the go to make it on time. If you set this time aside, it will automatically be meditative 'you' time.” Not only will this help make more time for yourself, but it will also encourage healthier eating habits.
Hobbies
Another way to carve out time for yourself as an entrepreneur is to adopt a new or old hobby! Hobbies are a great way to break up your week with something you can look forward to. “Committing to a hobby is a great way to give dedicated time to yourself as a business leader. It helps clear your mind, and flexes the parts of your brain that need flexing to remain a successful entrepreneur,” said Remon Aziz, Chief Operating Officer of
Advantage. If you used to have a hobby that you loved, but haven’t made time for it in a while, consider picking it back up! “Spend some time exploring activities and hobbies that you haven’t had a chance to explore in a while,” said Schuyler Hoversten, Co-Founder and President of
Swoopt. “Picking up something just for the sake of it, whether it’s an old or new interest, is a great way to exercise your brain without making big decisions or doing any busy work. This will help you relax and make you motivated to set time aside for yourself.” Especially for hobbies that someone might already have experience in, this can make it very easy to get back into the swing of things as opposed to starting something new.
They also help us flex important parts of our brain out of the context of work or daily life. Practicing creative thinking and experimentation is a great skill to cultivate as an entrepreneur. “Hobbies are a great way to flex important skills that you’ll need as a leader,” said Dan Lewis of
Convoy. “Being passionate about something is important in and of itself, and doing something creative helps business leaders explore their imaginations and promotes more interesting and innovative ideas. The most successful entrepreneurs are those who value and nurture the creative side of their personalities.” Practicing hobbies like painting, model building, music, or anything else that requires creativity will help entrepreneurs think on their feet and outside of the box when they return to their ambitious business endeavors!
Adopt an Exercise Routine and Know Your Limits
Exercise is one of the best and healthiest activities you can do to set time aside for yourself. This gets your body moving which helps the mind clear any cobwebs that might be getting in the way of focus. “Exercise is a great way to create automatic time for yourself as an entrepreneur. This forces you to do something that brings you into your body, and keeps you grounded,” said Daniel Osman, Head of Sales at
Balance Homes. “Exercise is not just physically healthy, but mentally as well. It helps us meditate and expel unused energy that builds up throughout the weeks and days we spend working.” Even something as simple as running or long walks can help you meditate and release stress.
Cardio is an important part of any exercise routine, but you should also adopt something that works your core and stretches your limbs. A great exercise for that is Yoga! “Certain exercises like Yoga are great ways to break up the energy of a hectic schedule. It’s important that we stay relaxed even in times of stress, and to do so we need to develop those tools outside of work. Then we can apply those principles to the way we conduct ourselves in our daily lives,” said Gabrielle Conforti of
Outdoor Voices. This is why simple exercises like walking, running or yoga are so important. They help us bring a more positive and relaxed energy into the other parts of our lives that require a calm and focused attitude. It’s also important to realize your limits with not only the exercise you do, but also the social activities you engage in. Realizing your body's limits is an important part of keeping a collected mindset day to day. “Social time and networking is important, but it's also important to know your body's limits and say no when you need to,” said Hector Gutierrez, CEO of
JOI. “If you go to every event, but you're exhausted the entire time you won't be bringing your best self to the table and risk making a poor impression on potential business partners.”
Organize Your Time and Get Plenty of Rest
Your time as an entrepreneur is valuable, and no one will be able to give their attention to every issue or project at all times of the day. Entrepreneurs need to be extremely organized and on top of their schedules. This includes being realistic about what you can take on, and actually scheduling time where you purposefully don’t take meetings. “Organizing your time is one of the biggest ways you can improve your daily schedule and actually block off time for yourself,” said Matt Miller, Founder & CEO of
Embroker. “There are many ways we can trick ourselves into doing something relaxing, but there is definitely something to be said for physically saving yourself an hour on the calendar, and not booking it for meetings or anything business related. This is not only ok, but might be the only way for some to start dedicating real time for themselves.” We’re taught to believe that staking time for ourselves is either lazy or secondary, and that simply isn’t the case. Your time to think and relax is just as much a priority as your rest time.
The question remains, however, how do entrepreneurs carve out that alone time with so many emails to answer and so many company issues to deal with? The answer is delegation! This is why it’s important to have a solid team you can rely on. “Delegate as many tasks as you can to other people on your team so you can prioritize the most important tasks while also creating downtime for yourself. The truth is, business never really stops. So you need to have systems in place that can pick up the slack when you're not available,” said Brandon Amoroso, Founder and CEO of
electrIQ marketing. Entrepreneurs and company leaders can delegate tasks using online workspace tools, automating and outsourcing certain tasks like payroll. Vino Jeyapalan, CEO and Founder of
Kabo said, “Technology is a great way to automate certain tasks that are mundane and time consuming. For example, making sure you have an optimal payroll system will save you months of headaches over time spending time figuring out payment issues for your employees and vendors.”
It should go without saying that entrepreneurs need one thing more than all others: sleep! Sleep is the most important thing for us because it recharges our batteries and too often business leaders are sacrificing a restful night's sleep. “Get enough sleep!” said Lauren Kleinman, Co-Founder of
The Quality Edit. “This can't be stressed enough, your sleep is the key to feeling rested every single day. Even one day of poor sleep can offset your entire schedule and will have you making up for lost sleep for days afterward. Give yourself a reliable end-of-day routine that prepares you for a restful night of sleep every night.”
The bottom line is that entrepreneurs are busy. There’s no way around that. It’s all about adapting positive and healthy habits around exercise, extracurricular activities, eating, sleeping, and time management. Some entrepreneurs might have some of these skills already, but in any case, it’s important to understand that changing and adapting habits takes time. Implementing a few of these ideas will help you begin the process of making more time for yourself and being more successful because of it!
