Solopreneur Health: Why and How To Recharge

T his was written by Jen Waak, who pens a monthly health column for The Solopreneur Life.

Do you remember back when summer used to be long, lazy days lying by the pool with your biggest worry being whether you were going to get sunburned and peel?

Me neither.

Well, I actually do remember those days, but at this point they are nothing more than a hazy memory. Growing up means that summer is busier than ever–long days, short nights, kids out of school, an overload of outdoor activities, and, let’s not forget, yardwork. Add to that an assumption that because as a solopreneur you work at home, that you must have unlimited availability. It can make even the biggest fan of summer look forward to the cold, dark nights of winter. (OK, maybe not.)

But, making time to recharge is critically important.

As we talked about in May, we all start our days with a relatively fixed amount of energy. How we use it is up to us. So, the additional obligations of summer–and, yes, having fun in the sun can be an obligation–can be tiring.

Why recharge? To get smarter, of course!

1. Recharging allows our brains to process information. Downtime is when we learn, process, and make room for more information. Like the rest of the body, the brain is only capable of doing so many things at one time, so when you’re constantly being bombarded with new information, tasks, and honey-do’s, the brain never gets time to catch up on the backlog. (Much like a solopreneur and paperwork.)

2. Lower stress levels. When we lower our stress levels, the entire body gets a chance to recover. Stress creates all myriad of physiological changes in the body, including decreased blood flow to the brain. So stress is, literally, making you more stupid.

How to Recharge?

Honestly, that’s up to you. But, here are three super-helpful rules that will help you make the most of your recharge.

1. Don’t make a plan. Set aside a day, half day, even a few hours, to do whatever strikes your fancy. You don’t get to work on a specific project, use it as a chance to “catch up,” or take your in-laws sightseeing. Activities must fall in to the category of, “ooohhh, that sounds like fun.” (think shiny object syndrome)

2. Go it alone. While we may love our friends and family, spending time with them is still a commitment. You need to make sure everybody’s having a good time, nobody is getting sunburned, everyone has food and drink. By going it alone, you truly have the freedom to execute on rule #1.

3. Make it O.K. Taking a day to recharge is only going to work if you embrace it for what it is. If you spend the entire time worrying that the lawn isn’t getting mowed, then taking a recharge day is only going to make the situation worse.

Making it O.K. tends to be the most difficult–as soloprenuers we already work too much (and always have too much to do), so to spend our precious free time ALONE and UNPLANNED, seems, well, wasteful–to ourselves and those around us. But, what if you framed it as: “You’ve got to believe me when I say that I will come back a much, much happier person.” I’m all about happy, so I highly recommend this mindset going in to it.

I just took a recharge day myself–taking Sunday of the long holiday weekend to do whatever I wanted. And, because I had no set agenda and used “shiny object syndrome” as my driver I ended up accidentally working through some nagging problems and clearing some stuff off my plate. The freedom from those items being “obligations” made tackling them fun, never felt like work, made me smarter, and allowed me to come at them differently. The results carried over to the next day as well–I returned to considerably happier, more focused, and monumentally more productive.

How About You?

When was your last recharge? What challenges do you face in making your recharge times happen?