I Run My Own Business. These 7 Post-Work Habits Help Me Unplug And Reclaim My Time.
While every person in the working world has job challenges, business owners often have a different set of issues that don’t end when the clock strikes 5 p.m.
For most entrepreneurs, their livelihood is in their own hands, which makes it much harder to just ignore a late-night client email (which could result in a new signed contract) or stop working during a family vacation. But, like all people, business owners still get stressed and anxious, making it crucial that they switch off and spend time with loved ones or create habits that allow them to take some stress off their plates.
Doing this isn’t exactly easy, but entrepreneurs from across the country shared their tips for after-work (and some before-work) habits they follow to keep their lives in check.
They do a review of their day.
“I do basically a brain dump at the end of the night, because if not, I will sit in bed and I will overthink all night,” said Emmalee Bierly, a licensed marriage and family therapist, co-owner of The Therapy Group in Pennsylvania and cohost of the “ShrinkChicks” podcast.
For her review, Bierly writes out the things she got done and any work-related thoughts that she needs to take a look at tomorrow.
“That, weirdly enough, helps keep me organized,” she said. Additionally, it helps Bierly maintain some work-life balance. The brain dump helps her release the workday and any things she was hyper-fixating on.
Without some sort of end-of-day review, you can easily ruminate on what you need to do or forgot to do, which can be paralyzing and can take away from time with your pets, children, partner or even just watching TV, she explained.
They create an auto-reply email to take away some stress.
Casey Scieszka, the owner of the Spruceton Inn in West Kill, New York, created an auto-reply email that goes out to everyone who emails her — this has helped her take her time back and feel less “on” at all hours.
She changes the auto-reply depending on the season, but it generally has frequently asked questions, a way to get in touch with her, and when folks can expect to hear back from her. This habit “has saved me endless time in tasks that were otherwise the ones that bled into home,” Scieszka said.
Think about it: Have you ever been tempted to reply to a “quick” email from the couch just to find that it totally pulled you away from the show you were watching or time with your partner?
Scieszka’s auto-reply email rid her of the desire to refresh her email after hours. Instead of replying to folks with date availability or pricing information, for instance, her auto-reply handles that.
They block off time to get necessary, non-work-related tasks done.
After a full day of meetings, client calls, hiring, training and, well, working, it can be hard for business owners to make time for the administrative tasks in their personal life. In fact, Jennifer Chaiken, a licensed marriage and family therapist who co-owns The Therapy Group and cohosts the “ShrinkChicks” podcast with Bierly, said some of the hardest to-dos outside of work are tedious tasks like tax matters and paying bills.
“When I was thinking about having to do those tasks and what I do in order to get those things done, I have to create physical boundaries and time boundaries in order to separate myself from work or the other things I’m doing,” Chaiken said.
I know it’s better for my life to have balance. So I create it. I don’t hope for it.Emmalee Bierly, licensed marriage and family therapist
“I will physically put it in my calendar, and I will block out time specifically for those things,” Chaiken added. “And in that blocked-out time, it’ll say ‘pay bills,’ ‘pay parking tickets.’”
She said it’s also helpful for focus to get out of the space that you were working in. “I will go to a coffee shop with all of my bills and parking tickets and get all of that done,” Chaiken noted.
Even better, she’ll sometimes couple these boring tasks with something enjoyable like a good cup of coffee. “That gives me more motivation to focus on those more mundane, tedious tasks that I like to avoid,” Chaiken added.
They set clear communication expectations for day-to-day needs and emergent situations.
In addition to the auto-reply email, Scieszka has signs and papers throughout the hotel that clearly set communication expectations with guests and potential guests. As someone who operates a hotel and bar (so a 24-hour business), this has done wonders for her own time off from work.
“Setting expectations of how you’re going to communicate back with people is great because I feel like one of the great fears of contemporary business owners, especially self-employed people, is that you’re going to miss out on the hustle. Someone’s going to lose interest in you, or you’re going to seem irresponsible or not in the know if you don’t get back within lightning speed,” Scieszka said. This can pull at your emotional well-being as you try to create time off from work.
To combat this, “I basically do the in-person equivalent of the auto-reply FAQ, where everyone has an FAQ in their room, and it explains pretty clearly ... the frequently asked questions,” she said. It also lists her contact information and suggests physically walking to her house and knocking on her door in an emergency.
But if it’s not an emergency, “it’s just gotta wait until tomorrow,” said Scieszka. Establishing clear communication expectations gives Scieszka peace of mind and allows her to fully enjoy her off hours.
“Then I know that if I am with my family and the bar has closed, and we are hanging out, and someone comes to the door, I need to pay attention — there’s an emergency,” she added.
They create routines and boundaries for the fun stuff, too.
Both Bierly and Chaiken said it’s also helpful to establish boundaries and routines for the aspects of life that have nothing to do with work. This way, you’ll actually get to the things that matter — like your daughter’s soccer game or a night out with friends — and not just work through them.
Bielry said she has to have routines to get to non-work-related activities. “I have to go work out at the same time every single day ... I have to make a routine to see my friends. If I am left to my own devices, I would just work all hours of the day.”
“I know it’s better for my life to have balance. So I create it. I don’t hope for it,” Bierly continued. For you, creating this balance could look like putting a hold on your calendar every Friday night for family game night, or it could be holding every other Monday afternoon for lunch with your neighbor.
Chaiken considers the values in her life — family, friends, her health and her career — and looks at the amount of time she’s allotting to these things. If she notices that she’s only pouring time into one or two of those buckets, she holds herself accountable and focuses on spending energy on the other buckets, too.
It’s important to be intentional about this because “it is very easy to fall back on [working] 24/7,” added Chaiken.
They rank their to-do list.
“When you own your own business, the work is literally never done. You will always have a to-do list, and every item on your to-do list cannot have the same amount of weight, or you will just feel confused and stressed,” Scieszka said.
Scieszka has multiple to-do lists and recommends this for other business owners, too. You could create one to-do list for today, one for this week and one for this quarter, for example. This helps take away some of the overwhelm that can come from a packed to-do list full of things that actually don’t matter right now.
Instead, when tasks are categorized and weighted, they feel more manageable, Scieszka added. It also serves as a reminder that you don’t need to make time for everything today or even this week. Some tasks are meant to get done in a few months’ time.
They prioritize a healthy lifestyle.
According to Taylor Phillips, the owner of Jackson Hole Ecotour Adventures in Wyoming, sticking to a healthy routine allows him to stay motivated and inspired each day.
He puts a lot of focus on eating well, getting enough sleep and taking time to read, which he finds to be therapeutic. It’s well-established that behaviors like consuming nutritious foods and getting enough sleep are linked to better focus.
Additionally, he prioritizes movement nearly every day, with a focus on skiing since he lives just a short distance from some of the country’s best mountains.
“I feel like all that kind of gives me that energy to ... put my head down to get the work done,” said Phillips.
Research shows that aerobic exercise is linked to better learning and memory, according to Harvard Health, which only helps someone running a business with all of its moving parts and demands. Not only will a healthy lifestyle allow you to focus better on your work, but it will keep you energized for all the things you want to do outside of work, too.
