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Time To PlayTime To PlayCopyright 2005 Deborah Carraro Vascorp VA Services http://www.vascorp.com/va One of the biggest challenges faced by solo-entrepreneurs is scheduling personal time - time away from the business. It's particularly challenging when you're first starting your business. Your natural impulse is to throw everything you have into your business - time, money, energy - but that may not be the wisest course of action. Spending your entire day living, breathing (and if you spend that much time in your business - dreaming) your business, you're bound to burn out - or at the very least, not be as effective as you want to be. Consider these tips: Out To Lunch: Whether you work in an office or at home, you need to take breaks and recharge your batteries. You're not going to be able to concentrate on closing a sale, writing a proposal, or crunching numbers if you forgot to eat lunch and sugar levels are scrambling your gray cells. Post Your Business Hours: Sounds pretty obvious but establishing work hours even if you work at home, sets boundaries and helps you pace yourself. I'll admit it, this is the hardest tip for me to follow in my own business. I love doing what I do and have a strong workaholic tendancies and probably a slight addiction to e-mail :-) I've learned, however, that it's crucial to set business hours and not give in to the temptation of being available 24/7. Most days I can stick to the hours I've posted and some days I can't - the trick is learning that the to-do list will always be there and prioritizing your projects and deadlines. Take A Break: Don't be afraid to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Take a break and make sure you not too tired to play with the toys you've bought with all that money you've earned. I regularly take myself offline for a few hours once a week and just catch up on housekeeping (invoicing, billing, writing my newsletter) and schedule time off one day per month and spend the day singing, or writing, playing tourist in my hometown or enjoying a day at the spa. Why not take a mental health day now and then? In school, you didn't think twice about playing hookey. Now that you're a grown-up, why not take a day off for fishing, surfing, shopping, or reading. For some reason, now that you're the Boss, it's harder and harder to get away and take time for yourself. Try this tip: schedule a regular appointment with yourself. Block time off in your calendar and don't make that time available to anyone else (clients, family, friends). Remember: Set your hours and take a day off. All that work will still be waiting for you in the morning! -------------------------------------------------------- ) 2005 Deborah Carraro Deborah Carraro is the Founder and Owner of Vascorp VA Services. Vascorp VA Services is the virtual support specialty company for solo professionals and entrepreneurs. We work late so you don't have to! Vascorp brings you the very best in virtual assistant services: shopping cart integration, affiliate program management, web design,ebook design, desktop publishing, business consulting services and more! She publishes a monthly newsletter Vascorp VA Advantage. To subscribe or find out more, please visit http://www.vascorp.com/va.
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