Michele Connolly helps people move from procrastination to action. She is the creator of 52 Weight Loss Missions and Get Organized Wizard, and her programs are used by tens of thousands of people worldwide.
Michele is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) and the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA). She has been interviewed on Sydney radio, spoken at conferences, and won awards for her psychology studies, including original research and a thesis on happiness.
Michele is interested in writing, books, simplicity, love, TV, productivity, and staying thin in a world of chocolate.
If you work for yourself it’s easy to get busy and overwhelmed, and neglect your health.
Here are 3 things you can do to help you stay healthy while you get down to business.
1. Keep a bottle of water on your desk
If you have to get up and get a glass water when you’re busy working, you probably won’t.
Make it easy to get your daily H20 by keeping a supply right there on your desk.
Not only will it help you stay nicely hydrated, but it can help meet your sipping need so you don’t overdo the caffeine*.
2. Schedule your appointments around your exercise program
Exercise is great. It gets you out of the (home) office, releases endorphins, clears your mind.
The problem for most businesspeople isn’t accepting that exercise is good, it’s making time for it.
You’ll be more likely to stick to your planned exercise if you enter your exercise sessions as commitments in your diary.
That way, you schedule meetings around your exercise, instead of trying to fit exercise in around everything else.
But, you say, I don’t want to tell a client I can’t meet them because I’m exercising. You don’t have to.
Say something like:
3. Take breaks
If you work for yourself then work can be like a gas that fills all the available space.
Now some people say you should have set hours and you should knock off at the same time every day.
If that suits your personality, motivation and work style, then good. You’ll naturally get your rest times at the end of each day and on weekends.
But what if you’re more of the work-whenever-you-feel-motivated school? Then you must deliberately allow yourself downtime.
If I want to work all weekend because I’m on a roll and loving the current project, then I do. But if I feel the need to take Thursday off to watch the entire series of Game of Thrones, then I do that, too.
However, if you like to work, make sure your productive times are balanced with relaxation times so you stay healthy.
Keeping water on your desk, putting exercise ‘appointments’ in your diary and taking breaks to balance your work are 3 nifty ways to manage your health.
*I’m a complete hypocrite for saying this, as I routinely overdo the caffeine. LOL
What time-out and care techniques do you use to cope with your busy schedule? Comment and share your opinions and help other women to find ways they can create some balance in their hectic schedules.