When you love what you do for a job it is so easy to forget to add some downtime into your schedule. 

Forgetting to include downtime into your daily, weekly, monthly and yearly plans is something that many entrepreneurs and creatives can easily fall into the trap of; myself included.

When you are on the go and loving what you do with and within your chosen career, you can easily justify not setting aside some downtime as you feel that you are fulfilling what you love and what is important to you, so you keep on going, day after day, then week after week, then year after year, ad infinitum.

And while you can certainly succeed by adopting a work comes first attitude (as there are many examples of successful people who do just that) and while at times it may even be necessary to focus one-hundred-percent on what you are involved in, I don’t believe it is the best way to approach your business life over the long term.

Work and business are one aspect of life. And for many it is one of the most important aspects of life; it is for me. But failing to include other things into your schedule is a recipe for burnout and exhaustion and depression and the creation of imbalances in your personal life that affect not only you, but everyone that is around you, or involved with you.

While there are many examples of workaholic success stories, there are also many, many more stories of people that have achieved incredible success that live big full lives that include lots of downtime.

Everyday I love to walk with my headphones on listening to a good book. I love to watch frivolous and unproductive television shows about people renovating houses or moving to live in another country. I love going to the gym and pushing my body hard with the weights. I love going away to visit new places and meeting new people and doing new things.

What do you like to do in your downtime? 

Well whatever it is, keep it up. And if you aren’t allowing yourself the essential business practise of regular scheduled downtime, then perhaps you should. 

If you need help with this; contact me.