In order to be a success in any field, or most any task, you have to work hard. Even the task of pregnancy, the nine-month span where our mothers lovingly care for us and then deliver us, is a great deal of hard work. So as we can see, anything worth having is going to take effort.
But that doesn’t mean effort should come before your wellbeing at all costs. This is especially true if you’re a business owner or entrepreneur trying to succeed to the next level. Sure, it might seem as though working 20 hour days and only heading to bed when you physically can’t stay up any more is the best way to stay productive, but not only will this severely reduce your wellbeing and health, but also leave you committed to poor work and lacking productivity.
Sometimes, the best thing any professional can do for themselves is to stop working for a few days while they recover from illness, visit ENT specialists, or consider their own needs. In this post, we’ll discuss what the signs of this need may be:
Sleeping at your desk
Sure, this might sound comical, as if you were caught sleeping in class. But you’d be amazed at how easy it is to drift off when you’re overtired, digging through CRM software, and responding to emails. If you find yourself nodding off in your chair, sleeping in your home office, or having periods where you feel like dropping off to catch a few Z’s, then odds are, you’re not sleeping enough. Take this as a sign, and don’t reach for the coffee pot again.
Difficulty focusing
If you find that you’re starting to have trouble following conversations in meetings, all the statistics on your balance sheet blur into one another, or you’re finding it hard to feel as enthused and passionate as you once did, this is all a sign that you’re burning out and require some good rest. This is ultimately why working so hard is never really a good idea, because it doesn’t make you a better worker, it just makes you someone who will perform inadequately for a longer time. As such, make sure you give yourself enough time to have that mental break you need. It may just save you from burning out.
Mood swings
When you feel tired and burned out, it’s oh-so-easy to become irritable. All of a sudden, the smallest setback can put you in a foul mood, which isn’t exactly the best frame of mind to have when you need to manage people, network, negotiate with suppliers, and promote your business with a sense of excitement. It’s easy to think you can hide all this behind professionalism, but you’re a human first and a business owner second, sooner or later this can slip. That’s not to say you can only work and be productive when on a high and utterly satisfied with everything in your life, but you do need to be stable and healthy to be productive.
With this advice, you’re sure to work less, listening to those sure signs your body is telling you.
