Taking the leap into self-employment is pretty exciting—but sooner or later, even an entrepreneurial lifestyle becomes routine. What should you do when “setting your own pace” starts to feel humdrum? How do you keep yourself from hating your work? Here are a few tips for staying fresh.
1. Create an Enjoyable Work Environment: Your physical environment can be crucial to improving your daily work life. So make your work environment a space you enjoy. Whether that means setting up an attractive home office or finding the best coffee shop in town, do what you can to create an enjoyable place to get stuff done.
2. Break Up Your Routine: Where do you normally complete your assignments? Your home office? Your living room? The kitchen table? Wherever it is, try mixing up your routine by changing your workspace from time to time. And what hours do you work? Do you stick to a traditional nine-to-five? If so, try switching up your hours instead. When you look for tangible ways to break up your routine, you clear mental space in the process.
3. Stay Physically Active: It might sound counterintuitive to find more energy by exerting some, but staying physically active is as good for your mind as it is for your body. If you exercise regularly to protect your overall well-being, you benefit your work life, too.
4. Connect with Fellow Entrepreneurs: Solopreneurs spend a lot of time alone—away from colleagues and their supportive feedback. But just because you’re self-employed doesn’t mean you can’t create a community. Connect with fellow entrepreneurs and freelancers in your area by asking someone out for coffee or suggesting a work date at a local café. Sometimes just being around other people who are also working on their own is enough to get you back in the game.
5. Make Time for Play: When you work from home, it’s easy to blur the lines between work and free time. For this reason, many entrepreneurs end up overworking—a sure recipe for burnout. Protect yourself by protecting your time. Make non-working time a priority: Put play time in your schedule. Set up relaxing social events in your calendar. Ensure that work is not all you do.
6. Turn Off Tech: Make a habit of turning off technology. There’s no clear law as to when and how you do it—maybe at nights, maybe on weekends or vacations. But whenever you do this, you must really do this. Getting breaks from technology will give you time to recharge.
7. Delegate When Necessary: If you run a marketing business but hate accounting, why bang your head against the wall trying to keep the books? Delegate the aspects of business that overwhelm you to free yourself up to focus on what you do best.
In your current work life, do you find yourself getting worn out and discouraged? If so, it’s time to incorporate the above tips. By being proactive about responding to the potential downside of entrepreneurial life, you set yourself up to overcome it.
Do you do any of these? Did we miss something? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
