Are you floundering?
Have you reached that point where everything seems hard? You have a mountain of stuff to do on your new home-based business or project, and all of it seems like actual work.
What happened to all the fun stuff?
We’ve all been there. So much of being a home-based entrepreneur involves working on things we enjoy – but a good portion of it can suck. It has to be done though. That’s part of running a business.
Unfortunately, it can make us drag. It slows us down, and makes it hard to move forward.
So what can you do?
Back to the Fun
Make a deal with yourself. On Monday, you’ll do the hard stuff. This weekend (and if you’re launching your own home-based business, I’m going to assume you’re working weekends) you’ll get back to the fun stuff. Here’s how…
- Only work on the things you enjoy.
- Work on the fluff – things that need to be done, but aren’t too hard.
- If you’re the type that loves planning, take the weekend to organize and strategize your next steps.
Or… Take this weekend off. Do something non-business related that you enjoy…
- Spend time and have fun with your family.
- Take your better half out on a date.
- Go out with your friends.
- Catch up on the novels you’ve wanted to read.
- Spend the day in your easy chair in front of the TV.
- Play video games.
The idea here is you’re taking back your fun. Starting and running a home-based business is hard. You have to let yourself recharge.
But here’s the thing – it only works if you keep your promise.
You must do the crappy stuff you’ve been putting off on Monday. This is what separates slacking with recharging. You make a deal to get it done, so you can take some time for yourself.
You have to keep your deal. You have to do it. Otherwise next time you’ll know you’re just slacking. And that will make it harder to truly relax and recharge.
One of the things you’re working for is personal freedom. So take a little of it on loan this weekend.
Just be sure to pay it back. By working hard on Monday.
Have a fun weekend!
I am way ahead of you.
I took Friday off. Went for a drive in the country with my wife, had a lovely picnic lunch and ended up spending the evening with friends.
Not a computer in sight.
Wonderful.
I’m loaning myself total freedom this weekend and charging 100% self-interest.
Haha Shane! I hope it’s tax deductible!
Trevor – That sounds awesome.
Shane – Good one. It’s important to keep track of your self interest :).
Alex – Wouldn’t that be nice!
Tony, Part of me wishes I’d seen this post earlier. Unfortunately I was called in and had to work a total of 24 hours of overtime this weekend for my “day” job.
I was just thinking in the shower how we humans were designed for peak performance with a rest day for each 6 work days.
It’s not a good sign that I can’t remember the last time I had a whole day completely off.
Thanks for the timely reminder. I need to fix that problem before I burn out!
Tony,
Ever since I took my weekends off, I’ve been working more productively during the weekdays – I don’t push things to the weekends anymore. Weekends are no longer workdays.
The “Wanna play on weekends? Work on weekdays!” is a great strategy! 🙂
Kian Ann, my moto is one better then yours… everyday is the weekend 😉