Freelancing, from home, kind of “happened” for our family, due to the price of childcare and having small children (in 2012), when my company downsized my position. I eventually decided to do what I love (relating to people and being creative), as a business and stay home with those little bitty’s that I loved so much, as part of the process. I didn't get much “Me-Time” as a result. In fact, I didn't relax much, at all. I played with the kids. I fed them. I worked. Relaxing? Not so much.
Today, as I continue to juggle responsibilities and fit it all in, I crowd all my responsibilities into a shrinking day, shifting and adapting to a constantly changing playground. As a result, I experience a lot of stress. I end up feeling extremely tired, my enthusiasm for the business sags, and my energy (and patience) for my lovely children fades.
Until I realized how much playing and relaxing matters. Because:
If I always function INSIDE of stress, time resists and my energy is wasted
I am always more creative when I am calm. I am not calm when I am stressed; therefore I am not creative.
I cannot evaluate my progress or an account, properly, if I cannot just “watch” for a while
If I don’t have time to celebrate my accomplishments, I don’t have the drive to achieve more
Things that help me get to a place where I can relax or play are:
I automate anything that I can. I use a great time clock for tracking time and billing my clients and that has helped me focus and bill, properly. It has also helped me create new proposals, fairly.
I created automatic replies for most of my clients (and myself). Of course, this took some planning and action. Automatic emails differ for every business and in order to do this for your business, you will have to analyze your present system, document the way you handle specific issues, and see if they lend themselves to automation, but it is my opinion that you need to quickly get back to a prospect (and that is the hardest thing to do, if you are busy and successful).
I have created routines. For instance I review my calendar at night. I rarely make a list, but if I do need to remind myself of something, I leave it on the chair or on my keyboard. I always do the tasks that will actually make me MONEY when I first sit down (it is so easy to get sucked into the wrong things with so many shiny things on social media!) I have a routine for handling my other tasks (I have a running list (in priority of money, again; I am magnet for busy, nonsense work, so I have to take care).
Many things have fallen off my great big ToDo list, from 2012. I don’t do even a third of the busy work I used to do. I don't do lots of the tasks that I used to sell as part of my packages, because they take too much time and I don't enjoy them, so I no longer sell them. I let go of a lot of things in order to do what makes me money and gives me more time with my family. Being proactive about identifying areas for optimization and then putting that system into place leaves me and my stress out of the picture.
Relaxing breaks in my house look like a game of chase or tickle or going swimming or riding bikes around the block. We also have 3 or 4 'playdates' built into every week so we can count on them and look forward to them.
What does relaxing look like in your home business?