ASLU 068: The Importance of Scheduled Downtime In Your Creative Business
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This week we have a short, solo episode with a few housekeeping items to catch you all up on as well as a short chat about how important it is to schedule prolonged downtime (more than just a weekend!) for your own mental and physical health as well as the health and profitability of your business.
When you run your own business, scheduling time off is often one of the lowest priorities on your list of things to do. But it should be right at the top of your to do list, if you haven’t already done it.
Working for yourself - especially as a creative - often means that your body is a big part of your business. If it’s not functioning properly - mentally or physically (or both!) - then your business won’t function properly either.
I often compare what we do to what a professional athlete does. They also rely on their body for their living and they spend every waking hour protecting their biggest asset: sleeping properly, eating properly, getting coaching where it’s needed - both for the physical skills of their sport and the mental aspects - as well as practicing and training. The three periods, nine innings, four quarters, 10 seconds, 42 kms - those are moments of performance - the other hours, days and weeks are the behind the scenes that we all know so well.
But… professional athletes also take prolonged, scheduled breaks. Every sport has an off season. All athletes take advantage of that time to heal nagging injuries, address other health concerns, take time to relax, spend time with family and friends, enjoy other hobbies - all before the next season is upon them so they come back focused and refreshed. If they practiced and played hard 365 days a year, their performance would peak much sooner and would quickly trail off until they were no longer performing at a high enough level to keep their jobs.
You need to do this too. We all need extended downtime to unwind, refocus and refill our creative wells. And all businesses are cyclical - we have times where it’s slower and we can ensure we put a break on our calendar. Take advantage of the benefits of allowing yourself to be bored. Let travel and new experiences inspire your next product line or your next series of artwork or your next song or novel. Spend time with your family (and now friends too!) and be in the moment with them!
If you just want the links to the resources mentioned in this episode, scroll down to the bottom.
Listen To the Episode
Here’s a direct link to Episode 68 . You can also listen via the player below or on your favourite podcast app (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher, and more). Just search for And She Looked Up!
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Mentioned In This Episode
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