So you’re either working full-time on your home business, or are working part-time on one and aspiring to make it a full-time gig and you want to get the absolute most done with the little time that you’ve got. So whether it’s the 24 short hours in the day, or the 2 hours per week that you have to put into your business, you’ve made a personal pact with yourself to get as much done as humanly possible, to be a workaholic robot until you reach success…
So you start chugging away at your life’s work… and then something incredibly unexpected happens.
You get burned out.
Suddenly you find yourself browsing around the internet when you should be doing more productive tasks, and you justify it to yourself by saying, “this is expanding my knowledge and will only help my business”… but deep down you know that’s not the case. Procrastination is becoming more and more, and suddenly you realize that all week you got only a fraction of what you had originally planned to do. Once you break free from denial and realize this, you either give up, or do something about it.
Most people run into this when first venturing off to start their own businesses but unfortunately most give up at this point, and blame other circumstances for their failures. But some pull through it, and no, it’s not because they are an “elect few”, but they do know something that most don’t realize.
The big secret?
Stop working! Yup, that’s right, take some time ever now and then to stop working and clear your mind. In other words, take a break every once in a while. Your breaks will act as mind refreshers and enable you to keep doing productive work for longer periods of time. Some people think that because you stop working during breaks, that it’s counter-productive, but that’s not the case when refusing to take breaks results in a much lower productivity level.
Taking breaks isn’t without flaws though. Sometimes breaks cause people to procrastinate when “break time’s over”, and instead of feeling refreshed and “ready to go!”, sometimes a break may cause you to avoid returning to work because you are now “out of the zone”.
If you take a break and catch yourself feeling that way, then perhaps you should try meditation during your breaks instead. Setting aside anywhere from 15-30 minutes to meditate will not only help clear your mind and “reset”, but it’ll also allow more ideas and creativity to flow through you, which could raise the quality of your work.
So the next time you begin to feel burned out, that may be your cue to stop working for a little bit and take some time for yourself. But don’t always wait until you feel that way, because your aim should be to take breaks often enough to not ever feel the onset of burnout. It’s just like with water. If you’re feeling thirsty, you’re already dehydrated.
I challenge you to try this for at least a week, then contrast your productivity levels with previous “non-break” weeks, I think you’ll be amazed at what you discover.
About the Author
Jonathan Beebe is the author and creator of Develop Minds, a Personal Development blog dedicated to providing free content aimed at helping you improve you life by increasing your consciousness, intelligence, and teaching you to fully develop your mind in a positive way.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Igor,
I’ve learnt this the hard way.
You do have to give the mind a break every so often; and you have to make sure you don’t find yourself, hours later, still surfing around the internet doing nothing.
You’ve got to have some focus and single mindedness – which means you have to plan properly.
Thanks for reminding me how important it is.
Andrew.
Thanks for this great article. You give very handy tips!!
Sometimes we don’t realize that working without a break is not effective at all. I recommend Laughing Yoga as a refresher
Justyna´s last blog ..to succeed in business ? what if the key to success really existed ?
I have never heard of Laughing Yoga, what is it?
Igor