Solopreneurs are busy busy busy! The phones are always giving us a variety of notifications and the laptops are constantly fetching emails. The electronic world surrounds and bombards us from the time we wake up until we fall into bed at night, comatose.

When you’re a small business owner, taking the time to stop and take a break is challenging.  Forget about even smelling the roses.  And let’s face it – electronic addiction is a real thing. You don’t want to miss that next client phone call or a message from your most valuable employee because you fear that everything you’ve worked so hard for will fall apart. No one else can do it right.

Nope!

When you spend 24/7 in the electronic world, you’re neglecting many things and an important one is your health.  Second, you’re probably neglecting your loved ones.  Third, when you spend all of that time living and breathing your business, you’re not giving yourself a chance to rest and recharge your creative juices. There’s only so much a person can take before they become physically and mentally burned out —- even the superheroes.  Usually when a business owner has lost all their “drive,” it’s because they haven’t taken a break.  Our brains need breaks, even from the things we love.  Including your business, your spouse, and even your kids.

Today is a reminder to take at least one hour a day to completely unplug. This doesn’t mean you meditate with your phone in your lap! Shut it all off and spend one hour doing something that makes you happy. Maybe that’s knitting, getting lost in a really good book, or sitting at your son’s baseball game. Put the phone down, put the laptop down, and just unplug.

When you make unplugging a regular habit, you’ll find you’re more creative, you’re healthier, and you won’t feel like your business is consuming every single second of your life. Other things that might come from a daily habit of unplugging include losing a few pounds, a happier marriage, or the satisfaction of finally getting to put together that model car you’ve had sitting on your shelf for the last four years.

It’s good for the soul.

Don’t worry about losing money in that hour. There’s nothing you can lose in an hour that you can’t gain back in another one. If you’re concerned you’ll miss something, choose an hour at the very end of the day or an hour when you first wake up. A client with a successful business takes a nap during the middle of the day, every day!  Each person is different. You might benefit more from a break in the middle of the day to decompress and start over. Someone else will find it’s more beneficial to shut down a little bit earlier at night because it helps them sleep better.

Once you start taking a small break every single day, others will notice too. You’ll be more energetic, so think of the health of your business.  We all love our businesses, LOVE it, but if you have nothing left to give, your business will suffer.

If the thought of unplugging freaks you out, it will probably be more difficult at first, but I highly recommend that everybody gives it a whirl every day for two weeks.  Start with ten lousy minutes —  the end of the world probably won’t happen.  If this unplugging really doesn’t help, you can always stop doing it.

As always, there’s a little something extra to this, and that’s that if you really really really can’t find an hour in your day to unplug, get a strong virtual assistant to help you schedule and manage your day so that you do have time.  A trusty virtual assistant can simply take those frustrating and time-consuming tasks off your plate altogether. Even if you’re drowning and just don’t know what to do,  call me already. The AngCo team can help you find more hours in your day.

Thanks for reading.

Until next time,

Angie