Entrepreneurs are the only people who will work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40 hours a week for someone else

Ask any self-employed person about work-life balance, and they’ll likely laugh at you. “Work-life balance?” they’ll say. “What’s that?” The chances are, even if they do take a day or two off, they’re not really absent.&nbsp;This constant need and knowing that there could be a problem happening without your knowledge can be crippling, and is what leads so many entrepreneurs to be glued to their desks or smartphones. It’s what causes stress dreams and often leads entrepreneurs to do nothing but go to work, come home, and sleep.

The Work-Life Balance Myth

<ul><li>From the moment someone first buys your idea, you’re hooked. Knowing that you have made something from nothing and made it a living is what leads entrepreneurs to sell one business and immediately start their next.</li><li>Knowing that you’re at the root of your success and you’ve changed other people’s lives with what you’ve created is something worth all those long hours.</li><li>Of course, your mental health will always fluctuate in how good or bad you feel, but there are a number of things you can do to ensure we don’t feel unable to look away from our businesses, as if we’re awaiting disaster.</li></ul>

The Highs and Lows of Entrepreneurship

<ul><li>Set working hours</li><li>Build in breaks</li><li>Make sure you have a hobby</li><li>Take time for yourself in the mornings</li><li>Keep your workspace and your home space separate.</li></ul>

How to Protect Your Mental Wellness as an Entrepreneur

<figure><img alt="" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/500/1*pdYVa_7FgbM27TfPkFOC5g" width="680" height="472"><figcaption class="hw hx cs cq cr hy hz bp b fu br fb" data-selectable-paragraph="" dir="ltr">Photo: <a href="https://medium.com/r?url=https%3A%2F%2Felements.envato.com%2Fuser%2FProstock-studio" class="bv ia" rel="noopener" dir="ltr">Envato Elements</a></figcaption></figure>Inspiration and the excitement of creation are addictive feelings. As a creator and entrepreneur, it’s easy to find yourself chasing them (and the desperate need to see your creations succeed in the real world) tirelessly.Of course, this is why so many entrepreneurs succeed. It’s because we’re willing to go back a step and rework something until it works for our ideal audience or customer.But that’s also why Lori Greiner, of Shark Tank, said<BLOCKQUOTE>“Entrepreneurs are the only people who will work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40 hours a week for someone else.”</BLOCKQUOTE>It’s that need and desire to see our creations succeed and take on a life of their own that can lead us to use our own life energy to fuel it.It might sound dramatic, but the entrepreneur that burns the candle at both ends isn’t just common, it’s a rite of passage. If you’ve not worked every day for long hours, bending over backwards to make your business a success, are you really an entrepreneur? And this lifestyle raises the question: can our mental wellness survive the entrepreneurial journey?<h1 data-selectable-paragraph="">The Work-Life Balance Myth</h1>Ask any self-employed person about work-life balance, and they’ll likely laugh at you. “Work-life balance?” they’ll say. “What’s that?” The chances are, even if they do take a day or two off, they’re not really absent. They’re checking their emails, replying to DMs, and otherwise ensuring no client is having a crisis or that their employees are keeping things ticking over.It has been argued that work-life balance is a myth for anyone working a full-time job, because the majority of your day and your thinking time (usually 40 hours a week, often more) are taken up by your job. If you’re lucky, you’ve got the kind of job you can leave at your desk, and when you leave at 5 pm on a Friday, you don’t have to think about it again until Monday morning.That’s simply not how the birth of a business works. At least, it’s not without some serious boundary-building, and ideally, clients that also want to go home for the weekend and not think about work until Monday. If you have anything else, however, it’s almost impossible to escape.This constant need and knowing that there could be a problem happening without your knowledge can be crippling, and is what leads so many entrepreneurs to be glued to their desks or smartphones. It’s what causes stress dreams and often leads entrepreneurs to do nothing but go to work, come home, and sleep.This is a routine no one’s mental health can survive, and the only way to “fix” this has to come from within. When you’re the brainpower behind a startup, no one is going to tell you to take it easy or that they’ll take care of anything that happens for the next few days. That can only come from hiring well, and having established systems that allow you to relax.<h1 data-selectable-paragraph="">The Highs and Lows of Entrepreneurship</h1>So, why do we put ourselves through it? Because the highs are high. From the moment someone first buys your idea, you’re hooked. Knowing that you have made something from nothing and made it a living, breathing business is what leads entrepreneurs to sell one business and immediately start their next.Knowing that you’re at the root of your success and you’ve changed other people’s lives with what you’ve created is something worth all those long hours.So, is there a way to protect your mental health as an entrepreneur? Fortunately, yes. Of course, our mental health will always fluctuate in how good or bad we feel, but there are a number of things we can do to ensure we don’t feel unable to look away from our businesses, as if we’re awaiting disaster.<h1 data-selectable-paragraph="">How to Protect Your Mental Wellness as an Entrepreneur</h1>Set working hours: This goes for your day, but it goes for your tasks, too. By blocking out your time for tasks, you’ll find that how long things take you to complete shrinks. Tasks take the time allowed — so if you know you can get something done in 15 minutes, give yourself 20 to do it. Give yourself the entire day, and it will take the entire day. Say that unless there’s an emergency, you’re stopping at 5 or 6pm.Build in breaks: If you’ve never tried using the Pomodoro method of time management, give it a try. This is where you work for a certain amount of time and then take a break. Traditionally, it’s 25 minutes on with a 5-minute break, but I find 30 minutes working, 5 minutes off, and repeated 3 times before a 15-minute break is the most productive cycle for me — so experiment with what’s best for you.Make sure you have a hobby: If all your projects are centered around your business and your job, you’ll never feel like you can escape and it will lead you to burnout. Sometimes, burnout will feel like exhaustion for a week or two, and sometimes it leads people to fall sick or have to throw in the towel entirely. Protect yourself by giving yourself things you do and/or create just for fun.Take time for yourself in the mornings: You don’t need to have a whole miracle morning routine, but if the last thing you do before bed is reply to emails, and the first thing you do when you wake up is the same, your mind won’t ever get space just to exist and process. Set your do not disturb time on your phone and spend half an hour in the morning waking up. If you feel the need to check for emergencies, do, but then take your half-hour (or more!) to look after yourself.Keep your workspace and your home space separate: Even if you work from home (as most of us have through 2020!), keep your workspace and home space separate. Don’t work from your sofa, and splash out and have a couple of computers or a tablet that you use just for relaxing. When the day is done, put your work computer to sleep (no notification sounds) and don’t come back to it until the morning after your “me” time.Creating something new is addictive, but it can lead us to abandon all other aspects of self-care and being social in the name of “finishing”. The thing is when it comes to business — there is no finished. There’s no final deadline for your project, and so you will rush from one “last minute assignment” to the next.The only way to combat this and protect your creativity over the long term is to put space between you and what is currently your main source of income. This space is difficult to create, but crucial to our mental health and to the quality of what we produce.

Inspiration and the excitement of creation are addictive feelings. As a creator and entrepreneur, it’s easy to find yourself chasing them (and the desperate need to see your creations succeed in the…

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Career

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Mental Health

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Entrepreneurship

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Inspiration and the excitement of creation are addictive feelings. As a creator and entrepreneur, it’s easy to find yourself chasing them (and the desperate need to see your creations succeed in the real world) tirelessly.

Of course, this is why so many entrepreneurs succeed. It’s because we’re willing to go back a step and rework something until it works for our ideal audience or customer.

But that’s also why Lori Greiner, of Shark Tank , said

“Entrepreneurs are the only people who will work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40 hours a week for someone else.”

It’s that need and desire to see our creations succeed and take on a life of their own that can lead us to use our own life energy to fuel it.

It might sound dramatic, but the entrepreneur that burns the candle at both ends isn’t just common, it’s a rite of passage. If you’ve not worked every day for long hours, bending over backwards to make your business a success, are you really an entrepreneur? And this lifestyle raises the question: can our mental wellness survive the entrepreneurial journey?

Ask any self-employed person about work-life balance, and they’ll likely laugh at you. “Work-life balance?” they’ll say. “What’s that?” The chances are, even if they do take a day or two off, they’re not really absent. They’re checking their emails, replying to DMs, and otherwise ensuring no client is having a crisis or that their employees are keeping things ticking over.

It has been argued that work-life balance is a myth for anyone working a full-time job, because the majority of your day and your thinking time (usually 40 hours a week, often more) are taken up by your job. If you’re lucky, you’ve got the kind of job you can leave at your desk, and when you leave at 5 pm on a Friday, you don’t have to think about it again until Monday morning.

That’s simply not how the birth of a business works. At least, it’s not without some serious boundary-building, and ideally, clients that also want to go home for the weekend and not think about work until Monday. If you have anything else, however, it’s almost impossible to escape.

This constant need and knowing that there could be a problem happening without your knowledge can be crippling, and is what leads so many entrepreneurs to be glued to their desks or smartphones. It’s what causes stress dreams and often leads entrepreneurs to do nothing but go to work, come home, and sleep.

This is a routine no one’s mental health can survive, and the only way to “fix” this has to come from within. When you’re the brainpower behind a startup, no one is going to tell you to take it easy or that they’ll take care of anything that happens for the next few days. That can only come from hiring well, and having established systems that allow you to relax.

So, why do we put ourselves through it? Because the highs are high . From the moment someone first buys your idea, you’re hooked. Knowing that you have made something from nothing and made it a living, breathing business is what leads entrepreneurs to sell one business and immediately start their next.

Knowing that you’re at the root of your success and you’ve changed other people’s lives with what you’ve created is something worth all those long hours.

So, is there a way to protect your mental health as an entrepreneur? Fortunately, yes . Of course, our mental health will always fluctuate in how good or bad we feel, but there are a number of things we can do to ensure we don’t feel unable to look away from our businesses, as if we’re awaiting disaster.

Set working hours: This goes for your day, but it goes for your tasks, too. By blocking out your time for tasks, you’ll find that how long things take you to complete shrinks. Tasks take the time allowed — so if you know you can get something done in 15 minutes, give yourself 20 to do it. Give yourself the entire day, and it will take the entire day. Say that unless there’s an emergency, you’re stopping at 5 or 6pm.

Build in breaks: If you’ve never tried using the Pomodoro method of time management, give it a try. This is where you work for a certain amount of time and then take a break. Traditionally, it’s 25 minutes on with a 5-minute break, but I find 30 minutes working, 5 minutes off, and repeated 3 times before a 15-minute break is the most productive cycle for me — so experiment with what’s best for you.

Make sure you have a hobby: If all your projects are centered around your business and your job, you’ll never feel like you can escape and it will lead you to burnout. Sometimes, burnout will feel like exhaustion for a week or two, and sometimes it leads people to fall sick or have to throw in the towel entirely. Protect yourself by giving yourself things you do and/or create just for fun.

Take time for yourself in the mornings: You don’t need to have a whole miracle morning routine, but if the last thing you do before bed is reply to emails, and the first thing you do when you wake up is the same, your mind won’t ever get space just to exist and process. Set your do not disturb time on your phone and spend half an hour in the morning waking up. If you feel the need to check for emergencies, do, but then take your half-hour (or more!) to look after yourself.

Keep your workspace and your home space separate: Even if you work from home (as most of us have through 2020!), keep your workspace and home space separate. Don’t work from your sofa, and splash out and have a couple of computers or a tablet that you use just for relaxing. When the day is done, put your work computer to sleep (no notification sounds) and don’t come back to it until the morning after your “me” time.

Creating something new is addictive, but it can lead us to abandon all other aspects of self-care and being social in the name of “finishing”. The thing is when it comes to business — there is no finished. There’s no final deadline for your project, and so you will rush from one “last minute assignment” to the next.

The only way to combat this and protect your creativity over the long term is to put space between you and what is currently your main source of income. This space is difficult to create, but crucial to our mental health and to the quality of what we produce.

Work-Life Balance: Can it Exist for Entrepreneurs?

The Work-Life Balance Myth

The Highs and Lows of Entrepreneurship

How to Protect Your Mental Wellness as an Entrepreneur

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