When Enough Is Sometimes Too Much….
Having your own business is wonderful. Working at your own pace and within your own timeframes is also equally fantastic. There’s one small problem however. When you work at home you have no time boundaries. You can work for as little or as much time as you want. In your 9 - 5 job you eventually had to go home and leave the office/factory/store behind. When you’re working at home you never actually “leave”. Your job is always technically there - perhaps just a few feet away.
What’s the problem then? Forgetting to switch off. Power down. Walk away. Get rest. Many home office workers (myself included) have this really crazy habit of actually working more hours in their own business than they ever worked in the office! What? Yup! It’s not uncommon to find people working from home for 12 or 14 hours per day - you’d never dream of punishing yourself like this for a 9 - 5 boss yet you do it at home to yourself? Why? Probably because you enjoy doing what you’re doing and you have the added drive and ambition to truly succeed in your own business - after all you pocket all the profit from your work for a change right?
Be very careful though. You can burn yourself out doing this in just a matter of months and if you do it can be really tough to recover and find that drive and ambition that you had before. You could even wind up resenting the fact that you work for yourself and want to go back to a 9 - 5 job…….. yes really. It can and does happen.
The moral here is to take time out. Take breaks. Hell have some fun. Goof off. Watch some episodes of Lost or 24 (not too many mind!) and generally give yourself some headspace. You’ll be glad you did and your business will thank you for it in the long run (you are in this for the longrun right?)