Stop what you’re doing. Step away from the desk. Open the door. Go outside. Breathe.

Simple.

So why aren’t you doing it?

OK, you might be waiting for a client meeting. Or the dentist. Or facilitating that all-day off-site meeting.

But assuming you’re sitting at your desk at home making your business run, with no particularly pressing deadlines, what’s stopping you?

It’s a recurring question for me. Why aren’t I out there enjoying the sunshine, taking a walk, refreshing and revigorating myself, and making the most of the fact that I work for myself and sometimes I CAN DO WHAT I LIKE?

Because you can get sucked into working every minute of the day when you work for yourself just as easily as when someone else is paying you a salary. Sometimes more easily, since it’s your business and it won’t succeed without you. And you care about it. A lot.

But it won’t succeed with you, if you’re burnt out, or stressed, or stuck in a rut with your thinking.

And surely part of the point of working for yourself is the upside of being able to take a couple of hours off in the middle of the afternoon, not least to compensate for slogging away on that client proposal in the middle of the night?

So give yourself a break. You have the time, the autonomy, the freedom, to enjoy the world around you. Appreciate it.

(First published 31 July 2012)