Starting and running a business can quickly take up all of your time if you’re not careful. Many people dedicate all their time to their new startup, ignoring their own needs and seriously putting their health at risk because of it. When numbers are growing, it does show that your company is becoming successful, but it’s never as important as your mental and physical health. That’s why we decided to share a few tips and tricks for all of you out there who are hustling and having a hard time organizing your time and taking care of yourself first.
By some studies, starting and running a business is much more stressful than raising a child, so many business owners feel anxious and stressed out even when they don’t know why. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle and taking care of yourself is the number one thing you need to do. After you create a healthy eating and exercise routine, you’ll feel much better about yourself and your daily tasks will become much easier.
The amount of work and dedication one must have in the first year of running a business can be overwhelming. Even if you manage to keep it up for some time, you can experience a nasty burnout that will cause all your motivation and enthusiasm to vanish. This is actually a common reason why people give up on their businesses and startups after only one year. To ensure this doesn’t happen to you, keep on reading.
Get 7-8 Hours Of Sleep Every Day
When starting a business, you’ll feel you never have enough time and that there’s always something more to do. It’s usual for new entrepreneurs to work hard when starting their own company, but you have to be careful. People forget how important a good night’s sleep is. You should aim to get 7-8 hours of sleep every night.
If you don’t get enough sleep and create bad sleeping habits, after a while, it will affect you as you will be tired all the time. You’ll be far less productive and have less energy to do your daily tasks and run your business. Being energized and enthusiastic about what you do will give you the motivation to keep on grinding. Although, if you feel tired all the time, you won’t feel like doing anything, let alone building a successful career.
Have A Healthy Diet And Exercise Regularly
Needless to say, starting and running a business takes a lot of your time. However, that’s not a good enough reason to eat junk food all the time. Just like people ignore the fact that having a good night’s sleep is crucial for their body and mind, they also ignore the fact that a healthy diet can be extremely helpful in stressful situations.
When people start their new business, they invest every moment they can in improving their business. That’s a great thing, but only if you take care of yourself first. Having a healthy diet that includes consuming enough protein, good fats, vitamins, and minerals. Healthy eating habits are crucial for you to tackle any challenge your new business might throw at you.
When you think about it, nutrition is actually the fuel that helps your body function properly. Soft drinks and beverages such as Red Bull might give you a short-term boost, but will quickly wear off and make you feel terrible right after, so avoid them at all costs.
Drink water instead to stay hydrated during the entire day.
Maintaining a healthy diet doesn’t need to take up a lot of your time. In fact, if you dedicate just a few hours a week to meal prep and planning, you can prepare meals for the entire work week and just grab them from your fridge on your way out to work. Making this a habit will make life much easier and you won’t have to eat unhealthy, processed foods.
Exercise is an essential part of keeping your mind and body healthy. You might not realize how exercise helps you stay focused on the things you need to do, but if you exercise every other day for 3 weeks, you’ll see just how much more energy you have. Eating healthy and doing something for your body will significantly improve your focus and energy level throughout the day! Being active will also help you avoid the burnout we’ve mentioned before because it will take your mind off of things while you push your body!
During your workout, you can listen to music, audiobooks, or even TedX talks. You can also use this time to improve your business skills and learn something new that will help you run things more efficiently and make better business decisions.
Don’t Forget To Spend Time With Your Friends And Family
Networking is another way to ensure you’ll run a successful business. Even if you can’t think of a reason why socializing may help you in the long run, just remember that your closest people are your support system and they all want to see you succeed. When you start a new business, your closest friends and family members will recommend you to their friends and acquaintances. When you ask a small number of people to help you get more customers, you’ll get hundreds of recommendations quickly, and from the people you trust.
You shouldn’t use your family and friends only for the purpose of getting new leads and finding new clients. This can quickly lead to them avoiding you because business is all you talk about. You should know that friendship is a two-way street and you need to be there for the people you care about, even if you need them more than they need you.
Go on a picnic or get a drink with your friends and maintain a network of people that don’t have anything to do with your business. This way, you’ll get to take your mind off of daily tasks and it will help you relax and build strength for new challenges. Meeting new people is also something you should do, no matter how old or young you are because the more people you know, the better for your business.
Create A Routine You’ll Stick To
If you create a morning routine, for example, you’ll spend a lot less time showering, picking out clothes you’ll wear that day, or just spending time on unnecessary things. All successful entrepreneurs have a routine and it’s something you should do as well. Being strict with your routine will make you much more responsible and determined, so the chances of success will be much higher. Also, if you maintain your routine, you won’t be as stressed out as usual.
Set A Time Just For You
Even if you accept all the tips we mentioned here, you still need to have some time for yourself. Spending some time with friends and family might be enough for you, but most of us need some time to be alone and do the things we want to. You can take an hour or two every week for yourself to do what you feel like doing. You can meditate, read a book, listen to music, or play video games if that’s what makes you feel relaxed. This will most definitely help you avoid burnout and it will give you the energy to tackle every challenge you might face in the future.
If you love traveling, make sure you take a vacation as often as you can and travel somewhere where you won’t think about your business and other things that make you anxious. Going to the seaside might help because being near water has a soothing effect on almost everyone.
If you run an online business, you might even consider renting out a house at the seaside for a month or longer so you can still run your business and be somewhere relaxing. A lot of freelancers do this and for a good reason! Changing your environment can boost your creativity and productivity. You’ll get to rest, relax and do much more than you usually would if you stayed home.
Make Sure Your Business Can Run Without You
This is something that can’t be applied to all types of businesses, but if you can do this, you should. Not only will this give you an opportunity to go on vacation without losing money, but it will help you feel more secure.
One of the things people overlook when they decide to start their business is insurance. When it comes to entrepreneurs, lawsuit funding companies can be of great help, especially in the first few years. You can never know if you’ll get injured at some point and, therefore, unable to run your business. This type of insurance will help you overcome the difficulties that may arise due to an injury or emergency.
Finding a great company that will help you overcome hard times is essential for business owners because they usually work alone in the first couple of months or even years. Having someone cover your living costs while you recover and get back up on your feet is of great help and is something every business owner should think about.
On the other hand, if you have the resources to hire someone to help you with your workload, you should do it right away. Sometimes people get carried away and don’t think about the possibility of scaling their business. Having an employee do things for you and help you keep acquire and retain clients is priceless.
Get Organized
The last thing that will help you live a healthier lifestyle while running your own business is being organized. When you start your company, you have plenty of things to do in a day so without a plan, your workday will get hectic very quickly. Being well-organized is essential because it will help you be more productive and effective. Knowing exactly when you need to do something and how much time you need to do it will reduce the amount of stress you’d usually feel if you started doing a couple of things at once.
Not only does this affect the success of your business, but it affects your personal life as well. When people feel stressed, they look for someone they can accuse of their own failures, and you should try to avoid that as much as possible. By being well-organized, you’ll feel happier, you’ll have more time for your friends and family and you’ll get to do more things during the day.
