Earn Your Work Time
"Come on Mom! Come play with us!" I’d love to meet the working parent who doesn’t feel guilty when they hear their kids say that. Much less, a business owner who works from home.
On this particular day, when my son asked me to play, I had a lot of resistance. Of course I love my kids and I love playing with them. But this time, for some reason, I really didn’t want to play. I couldn’t figure out why. I wasn't particularly tired, but I was pretty stressed.
Then it hit me-Even though I had plenty of work time scheduled for later in the day, I didn't want to relax before doing the work. I had an idea that I didn’t deserve play time yet because my work wasn’t finished.
When I realized what the underlying story was, I almost laughed. This play time wasn’t going to take away from the work time. NOT playing wasn’t going to make the work I did later go better. But somehow I was letting the work interfere with playing with my kids.
I'm the type of person who sets goals, but when I meet them, I move the bar. So I might set the goal to write 5 social media posts, before I read or watch TV, but when those posts are done I think "well I'll just fold this laundry real quick."
Except that it's not really quick because I add something else on when I'm finished with the laundry. Before I know it, my free time is gone and I didn’t use any of it freely.
So when I realized the strategy of "earning play time" was messing with my head, I switched it up to earning my work time. This reminds me that work and chores will always be there. They’re not any worse if I put them off for 10 minutes. However, taking those 10 minutes to myself will matter to my nervous system.
Parenting involves an endless to-do list. Entrepreneurs can “grind” their way to burnout. From a Mind-Body view point, this constant stress means our body never gets a break to recover and heal. This creates a loop of more stress, more fatigue, more physical pain.
More than that, I have found that letting myself enjoy something gives my brain a break so when I go back to work, I can concentrate better, have better ideas, and enjoy my work more. It seems counter-intuitive, but playing more makes me work better.
So since then, I’ve been watching myself to make sure I take breaks throughout the work day and that I let myself ENJOY those breaks. To earn my work time, I need to take a little me time by playing with my kids, reading a book, taking a nap before my scheduled work times.
What about you? How did you earn your work time today?
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to treat, diagnose, cure, or prevent any disease.
