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My ‘Being Self Employed’ Journal #3 ~ Taking Regular Breaks to Recharge & Refocus…

Hello!   It's Sunday morning {still, just!} and I have woken up in the Lake District this morning, having had a whole day off the blog yesterday.  There are rare occasions that draw me away entirely from my commitment to Love My Dress, but my Grandpa's 90th Birthday is definitely one of them 🙂

We lost Grandma back in March this year, so this particular birthday was a really special time for us all to get together, spend happy times with each other, celebrate and forget about everything else for a while.

Forget being the operative word there. 

And as I was sat last night tucking into my delicious Morecambe Bay sea bass, I realised how very important it is to completely switch off every once in a while. I have got so wrapped up in work these past few weeks and I can't tell you the number of occasions I have stayed up late trying to cram in as much as I can before my fatigue finally beats me and my head nods forward heavily at my desk {this seems to happen more and more these days!}. When it gets to that point, my productivity is so low anywhere, there really is little point trying to fight the tiredness just to fit in a bit more work – a final spell-check maybe, an email here or there.  Mistakes will occur as my focus is poor. So really, what is the point?

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2011, My little Sister Camilla, at her home yesterday in Kendal

Grandpa

The choice to walk away from a secure job and work for yourself is often arrived at following some pretty deep level of life reassessment arriving in the conslusion that working for yourself will somehow offer a much better work/life balance. And yet as small business owners with young families, the search for a healthy work/life balance continues to elude us as. Almost all of the time.

We all know what the pressure feels like to have to work all day, every day, to be unable to truly switch off and channel our energies onto something non-business related for a few, let alone 24 hours – to give our family and friends the attention we know they so very much deserve.  And yet, at least I am finding, making the effort to do so is so incredibly important to help maintain my own sanity and well being – never mind the satisfaction of my Husband and children for actually having their Mother to themselves for once.

If there is one BIG lesson I have learned in my adventures in self-employment so far, it is that sometimes, work just HAS to wait, no matter what is going on or how urgent your to-do list is. The world will not stop turning.  The work will be there when I am good, ready and well rested enough to return to it.

Talking of taking a rest…

Learnora Rose

That's my youngest little girl Leanora Rose above, snapped resting in the shade today.

I hope you all have a lovely rest today, whatever you are up to – I'm off to have a lovely Sunday afternoon with my Grandpa, family and children.

Much love,

Annabel xXx

 

Also see:-
My 'Being Self Employed' Journal #1 ~ Working From Home

My 'Being Self Employed' Journal #2 ~ The Trouble With Twitter

 

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