Your private oasis

Posted on June 27, 2009 by Tom

Freelancers, small companies, start-ups,…  It’s not unusual they work over 80 hours week.  Their livelihood depends on their success, they don’t have anything else to count on.  If they don’t do it, no-one else will.  So they work, every minute of the day, 7 days a week, just to be sure they’ll be fine.

You have to do it, you’re responsible for your own success, if it all goes wrong, there’s nobody else to blame but yourself.  So you put in every possible hour.  I know freelancers who haven’t been on a holiday for over 8 years!  People who call in the weekend and act like it’s any other day in the week.

But it brings a lot of stress, because many can’t let it go.  They plan their day at the breakfast table, eat lunch while working, finish some calls while they fetch the kids from school and do some paperwork in bed, get up in the morning, same ritual.  Over and over again, wondering why they can’t relax, never feel like they’re ‘done’.

People need a real place, not just a time or a mindset, where they are really free from work.  It doesn’t work when you try to relax in the same room where you worked just a few hours ago.  Subconsciously you’ll always link the place to work, just like some smells take you back to a certain place in time.  If you don’t create that place, you’ll never feel like you’re done.  Even if you’re not doing anything, you’ll still think if there’s anything you can do.

You may want to read:

• Learn what you can control
• How we waste time and do nothing
• How to stay focussed and gain time