Dear Entrepreneur, you can take a day off — Lionesses of Africa

by Brigette Mashile

Many of my peers struggle with taking a day off.  There are many reasons why, but it’s taboo to just not work for 24 hours. We fail. Especially in an era where all communication is tied to the phone, we keep it with us every minute of the day.  You would have to switch it off the entire day to have a day off. And then, find a way to switch off your brain. Then, you need a day or two to actually get over the constant anxiety of wondering how it is really going without you!

A lot of us are ‘one man’ head offices, or at best we have one assistant. Some are lucky to have a bigger team, but they still have their nails in every detail of the business. So much so that they cannot let the team work without them; they want to know that everything is churning as it should. You live in fear that it will all fall apart in your absence. The same team you have tirelessly trained for months, would fail you!? Rest my love. Here are your options:

1. You can take the day off, yes there is a cost and a risk

It really is just logic. If you make a cup of coffee, then you have a cup of coffee to drink.  If you don’t make it, you don’t have a cup of coffee to drink.  Then you have to consider your options, for example getting someone to make the coffee for you so you have a cup to drink. Or even better, get a machine to do it. Both of these have a cost.

The risk is the business you MIGHT miss if you don’t go to work that day. I said MIGHT. And this is what creates the anxiety all day. You know your business better than all of us, you know which days are new business opportunities, therefore you can plan around this. You can even go further and automate responses for new business to say you will attend them on a certain day.  There are ways.

2. If you don’t take the day off…. there is an even bigger cost and risk

This cost, according to me is much BIGGER. If you are aware that you are exhausted, which we all know you are, you need to REST. The cost of not resting is possibly the end of your business. No jokes. Think about it. The risks of where the exhaustion will influence most in your body is the anxiety you should prioritize.  Exhaustion manifests in may different ways, it can be in blood pressure, weight gain/loss, hair loss, brain damage, mood swings, etc.

If you don’t rest, you could just get a flu that demands you to nap for 10 days like me.  This is the least problematic way your body could communicate its exhaustion with you; I mean after all the yawning and body pains. We ignore the body pains huh…everyday. We take pain medication, everyday to numb the reality.  If you are unlucky, you might collapse.  All because you don’t want to rest.

The risk? If you are napping for 10 days, you are not productive for 10 days.  The one day off looks better now doesn’t it? I have lived this, there is nothing you can do when you have cold chills, a blocked nose, a soft headache, and dry throat for 7 days.  All your clients annoy you; all your business seems like a hindrance, and you just want your mommy.  And, my friend, should you attempt to cut the ten-day flu rest to 6… you shall pay with 10 extra days from day 7! Imagine a 16-day anxiety fest from forceful rest!

3. You can plan ahead

That word. PLAN. Look, planning is challenging. Things happen everyday that challenge your perfect plans, and sometimes we fail at our own plans. The truth is your plan has to keep evolving with life.

In this situation, you need to plan to rest. Find a day or week at BEST and plan your work in a way that allows you to be off for a week. Pull work into the weeks before or after to open that one week for you. Notify your business partners about the plan ahead, make them comfortable about your absence. Notify all active order clients that you will not be reachable that week, make them comfortable that your absence is not a disturbance to the success of their order.

The cost of this action is the time you have to invest in catching up or pushing forward on work to be able to have a free week. You might even have to give more responsibilities to your assistant for that week you are absent.

The risk? I honestly cannot think of one. The result of effective planning is effective risk management.

Lastly, you can be like me. Just sleep for an entire day and take each challenge while in bed. NO lies. There are days where I know I need to stay in bed. Days where I know I need silence. And I take it. How? My phone is on vibrate, my text message notifications are off, email notifications are off. The only notifications that are on are bank app payments to ME. Choose happiness LOL! This way, I can spend an entire day without seeing work communication. I can just be quiet. Sounds extreme right? Yes, because I have lived the other side of being in hospital due to exhaustion, stress, and excessive anxiety.

Choose you always.  If you need a reason why, your business does not exist without YOU!

I hope you decide to rest for an hour, a day, or a week…if possible, for a month soon. I hope you decide to invest in you by doing nothing for a bit. I hope you choose to be a better asset to your business by adding to your strength. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.