As a business owner, the final months of the year can be a whirlwind. The combination of professional and personal pressures can quickly leave you frazzled, frantic, and running on fumes as you limp towards the new year. Then guess what … it’s a new year and it all starts again with a new pressure.  

It is a common problem where the solution seems to be just throwing extra hours in. But ultimately if you are burning out those extra hours are nowhere near as effective as your hours when you have a clear head.  Think QUALITY rather than QUANTITY.  At a certain point every extra hour becomes a diminishing return.

We are big advocates for taking regular breaks to keep from reaching that point.  For example, we recommend to business owners that they take leave every quarter rather than the normal answer of taking no time off at all.  It doesn’t need to belong times away.  For instance, taking a long weekend or going away for a few days rather than weeks of annual leave is often easier to manage and gets the same result.

But it doesn’t just need to be leave.  By scheduling short breathers into your days and weeks, you give your mind a break to refocus and process everything happening around you. Purposeful Pauses give you a chance to grab your second wind rather than pushing yourself into the redzone until you're running on empty.  You can use them for personal recovery or to just focus on high value things for the business rather than churning out work.

How to build in Purposeful Pauses… while it sounds simple in theory ultimately it won’t happen unless you make it happen. Guarantee you will be worried that everything will fall down around you while you do it.  But the truth is it won’t, and your team ultimately need to learn the skills to make sure it doesn’t for the sake of your sanity.

Tie your team in on your plan so that they know to leave you alone.  It can also be a great idea to have pauses with them too.  It helps build a bond and you can still be doing work planning that value adds to the business or saves time later in the day.

Make sure your team are taking breaks too and avoiding burnout as they are no use to you if they burn themselves out.  If they aren’t taking leave, it not only creates a financial risk of if they leave you need to fund a large payout, but it also creates the burnout risk.  So, itis a win-win to encourage them to take leave and their leave balance can be a great warning sign if it is out of kilter.

So, start thinking about what high value to you and your business is if you were to take pauses and breaks.  Then start scheduling and make it happen!

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