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Do you dream of more free time, only to find yourself completely lost when you actually have it?
If you’ve ever experienced this, you’re not alone.
Enjoying time off is a skill, and chances are it’s one that you may be a little rusty at as an overworked entrepreneur!
Taking time off is essential for refreshing our creativity, warding off burnout, and having a healthy sense of identity.
You are more than the sum of what you create or achieve, and taking days off will only help you come back stronger.
So how to maximize your days off if you’ve been in constant hustle mode for longer than you can remember?
Here are some tips.
GET CLEAR ABOUT WHEN YOU’RE OFF
When you work for yourself, it’s easy to let the lines blur between when you’re working and not.
If you love your work, it may not even feel like work!
But setting aside defined times that you’re off duty is important for your well-being.
When are you off work? Do you even know?
Currently for me, I work pretty long days between my day job and business, but I take Saturdays and Sundays off at least three out of every four weeks of the month.
Yours may be different–maybe you work half-days on Fridays, or maybe you’re done by 5 but only take Sundays as a full day off.
I’m not here to tell you what your perfect schedule is–only you can define that. But please do define it!
IDENTIFY WHAT YOU NEED IN YOUR DOWN TIME
This will largely depend on whether you’re an introvert (draw energy from being alone) or extrovert (draw energy from being with people), or somewhere in between.
Pay attention to what makes you feel refreshed, and then be sure to include those in your days off.
It’s also worth asking yourself if you feel more balanced after doing a lot of fun activities or after having a blank canvas of unstructured time that you get to play by ear as to what you feel like doing.
I find I do best with one planned outing or activity and the rest of my weekend unstructured.
GET SMART ABOUT CHORES
If we’re not careful, we can easily fall prey to spending our entire days off on all that other stuff we have to do as adults–paying bills, getting groceries, running kids around.
Just like setting defined time off, anticipate chores and plan accordingly–whether that means tackling one project each day throughout the work week or dedicating a chunk of your weekend to knocking off those to-do’s.
If you live with a spouse or significant other, it’s also important to get on the same page about expectations around chores–who’s doing them and when–while still leaving time to enjoy each other.
(Otherwise this can lead to major resentment!)
Automating as much as you can with chores will also minimize the amount of your free time you have to spend on them.
For example, I use the Amazon Subscribe and Save feature and Honest Bundles to automatically ship the household items we use on a recurring basis, from laundry detergent to toilet paper to vitamins.
This way we’re less likely to have to run to the store because we just discovered we ran out of something crucial (like toothpaste).
I also grocery shop and batch my meals once a week using my Meal Planning Mastery system, so I’m not constantly running to the store or stuck in the kitchen.
MAKE A WEEKEND BUCKET LIST
We put big things on our vision boards–fancy vacations, hobbies we want to take up, books we want to write.
So how come when we get a day off, we’re either running around doing chores or else find ourselves so oddly bored?
Because we don’t plan for fun!
Now, as I mentioned earlier your perfect balance of scheduled activities vs. downtime is entirely up to you, but I suggest keeping a running list of those things that pop in your head when you’re racing from one project to the next and you think wistfully to yourself, “I’d love to do that if I ever had the time.”
This could be as simple as wanting to check out your local theater or something more ongoing like learning French.
Keep a running list of those things you’d like to do, learn, or experience, then commit yourself to a handful of them.
Buy the tickets. Book the appointment. Set the date.
DON’T OVERCROWD YOUR SCHEDULE
I’m notorious for biting off more than I can chew, and overestimating what I can get done in a weekend.
I’m going to organize the garage and host the in-law’s for a homemade gourmet dinner and take a 3-hour hike and give the dogs a bath and finish that book I started last week.
Then even my weekends feel like a failure!
Get realistic about how quickly our days off go, and set reasonable expectations so you’re not disappointed when you only get to one-third of what you wanted to do.
With a little strategy and intention, your days off can be a well-deserved celebration of all the reasons you’re working so hard in the first place!
Want a little more help managing your time?
Snag my quarterly personal planning retreat agenda to get clear on what you want to do, achieve, and enjoy in the next 90 days!
