Running your own business means there is almost always something else you could be doing. An email to answer, a post to write or decision you’re pondering over. Even when the laptop is closed, part of your mind may still be planning tomorrow or reminding you about something unfinished.
Switching off from a busy day isn’t the same as closing your laptop, and especially for entrepreneurs it can be hard to draw a line between work and rest. You may have finished your work for the day, but your mind can still be inside your business, and if you work from home, the boundary can become even less clear.
Enjoying time off isn’t about clearing your mind of any work related thoughts or pretending things don’t matter after 5 o’clock. It is about being able to step away from work for a while, become involved in the rest of your life and have time to relax and recover properly.
The importance of recovery
Time away from work isn’t simply the space between one working day and the next. It gives your mind and body a chance to recover from the effort, pressure and decisions that work has required.
In one study, psychologists looked at employee’s ability to mentally leave work during non-working time, and found those who were able to do so, experienced better sleep, less fatigue, greater wellbeing and more satisfaction with life outside work than those whose work continued to occupy their mind during their time off.
Another study of small business owners found they reported fewer opportunities than employees to mentally leave work, relax and feel in control of their time outside work. Something you might just recognise in your own experience. But for those who did allow time for psychological and physical recovery experienced greater wellbeing and less burnout.
This doesn’t mean that every evening must be perfectly relaxing or completely free from work. What is does mean is that regularly spending your time off still thinking, checking, planning and worrying may prevent you from getting the recovery time you need.
The problem is that running a business rarely gives you a satisfying point at which everything is finished. You may stop because it is time to make dinner, walk the dog or simply because you have been sitting at your desk for far too long. The clock can tell you when to stop, but it cannot always make your work feel complete.
Your mind is likely to return to things that matter, especially when they are unfinished or uncertain. Sometimes that thinking is useful. You remember something important, see a solution you had missed or realise what you need to do next. At other times, you simply take another lap around the same problem.
We can sometimes get stuck in thoughts, perhaps you’re replaying a conversation but learn nothing new, or trying to work out what someone thought of your proposal when they haven’t replied yet. Thinking feels active and can seem as though you are doing something useful, but the honest answer is simply, I don’t know yet. Sometimes being able to switch off partly is about allowing that uncertainty to just be there for now.
When your mind goes back to work
Mindfulness can be particularly helpful for noticing when our mind has sneaked its way back to work. Although mindfulness is often seen as a relaxation technique, that’s not what it’s really about. Mindfulness means deliberately paying attention to what is happening here and now. That includes what is going on around you, what you can feel in your body and what your mind is doing.
For example, you might notice when you’ve opened your email app again when you meant to be enjoying your evening. That moment of noticing gives you a choice. The email may need an answer right now, or it can wait. The noticing allows you to decide deliberately, rather than finding yourself halfway through another hour of work without quite knowing how you got there.
Mindfulness will not prevent thoughts about work. Minds naturally wander towards unfinished tasks, possible problems and things that matter to us. The practice is noticing where your attention has gone and bringing it back to the present.
That is how mindfulness can help you switch off. It doesn’t force work out of your mind. It helps you recognise when work has taken your attention again, so you can decide whether to act or return to the part of your life you meant to be in.
How to switch off when the work is never finished
There will always be more to do each day, your business will feel completely ‘finished’, but your working time can be. When you notice that your mind has returned to work, you can begin by simply acknowledging it, my mind has gone back to work again.
An urgent practical problem may need action, but an idea can usually be written down for tomorrow. A worry may not have an answer available tonight, however long you spend thinking about it. This is where one particular attitude of mindfulness, letting go, becomes important. Letting go does not mean forcing the thought away or no longer caring about your business. It means allowing something to remain unfinished without insisting that it must be resolved now.
A notebook or a note on your phone called Not for now can give ideas, reminders and unfinished tasks somewhere to go without beginning another working session. Writing down the first practical step you need to take can also make the work easier to return to. Being specific helps to, sort out the website leaves an entire project open in your mind. Check the contact form tomorrow morning gives you a clear place to begin.
A visible change between work and the rest of your day can help too, especially if you work from home. As a way to mark the point at which work has finished for now and help you turn towards whatever comes next. You might put your work out of sight, change rooms, take a short walk or make a cup of tea without bringing your phone.
You could also create a short transition at the end of the day:
- Look at what remains unfinished.
- Write down the first thing you need to return to tomorrow.
- Close what you are working on.
- Bring your attention to what is happening next.
Your mind will probably return to work, particularly if it is used to staying switched on all evening. Each time you notice, you can begin again without criticising yourself. Bring your attention back to the meal, conversation or person in front of you. You are not deciding that work no longer matters. You are allowing something else to matter too.
Mindfulness in the middle of an ordinary day
Mindfulness does not have to involve sitting cross-legged, clearing your mind or adding a long meditation to an already busy day. Formal meditation can help you practise directing and returning your attention, bou can also bring mindfulness into things you already do:
- Pause before starting a task and decide what you are working on.
- Take a breath before answering the phone.
- Give a conversation your full attention.
- Notice what you can see, hear and physically feel while making a drink.
- When your mind returns to work, acknowledge it and bring your attention back to what you are doing.
These small moments help you practise moving your attention deliberately instead of automatically following wherever your mind takes you.
You will still become distracted. You will still react sometimes. There will be evenings when work follows you around despite your best intentions.
The aim is not perfect mindfulness. It is noticing where your attention has gone and practising bringing it back. Over time, closing the laptop can begin to mean that the working day is actually over, because you are better able to leave work where it is and become present elsewhere.
Not everything has to be productive
When you run a business, it is easy for the logic of work to spread into everything else. Rest becomes useful because it will make you more productive tomorrow. A walk becomes an opportunity to listen to something educational. A hobby begins to feel as though it should lead somewhere. Even mindfulness can become another thing to practise properly, improve at or add to the list.
But parts of your life are allowed to matter without having to produce anything, not just trying to get away from work. You are choosing to give your attention to a conversation, a meal, a walk, a hobby or a gloriously unproductive bit of television.
You can make a cup of tea without using the time to solve a problem, spend an evening with someone without mentally preparing for tomorrow or enjoy something without wondering whether you could turn it into content.
None of this requires you to become less ambitious. It simply means allowing yourself time so you can rest, recover and be involved in the rest of your life.
Switching off is not something you achieve by forcing work out of your mind. It grows from repeatedly discovering that you can notice a work-related thought without having to follow it, leave something unfinished without losing control of it and trust yourself to return when the time is right.
Work still matters. You are simply allowing something else to matter too.
Learn mindfulness in a way that works for you
Mindfulness is a skill and like any skill, it’s something that takes a little time to understand, practise and explore how it fits into your life.
Through one-to-one mindfulness coaching, we can look at where your attention tends to get pulled, what makes it difficult to switch off and how mindfulness could support you in your everyday life.
You can also learn in a friendly group alongside other people who also want to be more present and make more room for life beyond work.
