Business Owners: 10 Tips for Recharging Over the Holidays
Recharge, Set Boundaries, and Prepare for the New Year
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Business Owners: Tips for Recharging Over the Holidays
As we approach the holidays, I’ve got 10 tips for business owners to help you recharge, set boundaries, and prepare yourself to kick off the New Year!
Make a list. Dump your list of everything you still need to accomplish into a Trello board or good old fashioned notebook. Just getting the endless list of tasks out of your head will help your brain. The list will be there waiting for you when you are ready to return.
Pray. Ask God to help you rest and prioritize. Slow down and fill more time with prayer and silence.
Rest. Some of my best creative ideas have come when I’ve allowed myself to rest. Allowing yourself to completely step away from work actually makes space for the right ideas to surface. There is something about pausing from work that helps me to stop thinking about the long monotonous to-dos and start thinking about the fun, creative work I’d like to be doing more of in the future.
Set boundaries. Put up out of office and autoresponders. Refrain from checking emails. Delete apps. You might think it doesn’t hurt to check your email just once on Christmas, but what happens when you get an email, whether positive, negative, or neutral, that you can’t get out of your head? An email that you start drafting a reply to in your head? That distracts you? So determine in advance your black out dates and don’t let yourself be tempted on those days.
Do something fun and creative… for the sake of being fun or creative. Do a puzzle. Paint a picture you have no plans to sell. Browse through your favorite section of a bookstore or library to get inspired.
Reflect and recompose. What about last year do you wish you could do more of in the next? What went well? What didn’t? What things would you change? This doesn’t have to be a detailed plan. Just give yourself space to plan and dream.
Work on the tasks that energize you. Carve out time to actually work on the parts of your business that you enjoy and would love to spend hours doing.
Reward yourself. Think back on the last year. What was your biggest achievement? How can you reward yourself for this? Whether it’s big or small, free or paid, how can you show yourself gratitude like you would show an employee who had a big win?
Streamline. What’s one thing you can do more efficiently in the New Year? Are there projects you need to say no to or cut back? You don’t have to start making drastic changes now, but be mindful of how you will protect your time moving into the New Year.
Remind yourself of your why. Why did you start your business? Why did you write a book or create a product? Are you moving into the New Year on the right path or do you need to make some course adjustments?
I’m wishing you all a Merry Christmas! I pray this time is restful and gives you the peace you need to hit the ground running in the New Year!
This post is so timely! I'm taking this week and next week off from meeting with people. I plan to enjoy some much needed rest and relaxation, while spending one hour a day working on items on my To-Do list for my ministry/business that still need to be completed. Thank you for sharing some ideas that will provide to my recharge that is so necessary!!