Do you think you need a vacation? After a whole year of hard work, the day to day begins to weigh and you wonder if the time has come to take a well-deserved rest.
But doubts assail you.
You are an entrepreneur: you don’t want billing to suffer and you have a lot of things to do.
You don’t even have time to think about whether you need a vacation!
Today we are going to let science speak and explain to you why leaving your work routine parked is more a necessity than a desire .
Go ahead, scientific evidence! ?
Table of Contents [ hide ]
- Why do you need a vacation?
- 1. You live in a state of permanent tiredness
- 2. Altered mood
- 3. Lack of attention and concentration
- 4. Hungry at all hours
- 5. Strike a balance
- 6. Release stress and reduce anxiety
- 7. Increase creativity
- 8. Health problems
- How to face the holidays when you are an entrepreneur
- 1. How long should the holidays last?
- 2. You need quality vacations
- Why do you need a vacation?
Holidays are more than just leisure and recreation.
As the writer John Steinbeck said, “The art of rest is a part of the art of working . “
Being an entrepreneur does not mean that you are condemned to live by and for work. In fact, rest times are essential to improve your productivity and prevent you from getting burned .
Keep in mind that the main value of your business is yourself . If you are not well and in full swing, your project will not be either.
Have you thought about it?
You are the most important resource of your business #emprender
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Let’s see what science has to say about overwork and the need for vacations .
1.1. You live in a state of permanent tiredness
It doesn’t matter how many hours you sleep, the fact is that there comes a time when the mind literally can’t take it anymore.
So even if you sleep well at night, you wake up tired and not even a few brown coffees get you fully awake .
Or worse: lately you experience episodes of insomnia , you get up easily at dawn and the first thought that comes to mind is related to work. You may even dream of it.
This is a sign that your body is telling you that you need a vacation , disconnect and break the work routine to replenish energy. You are not a machine, so don’t try to behave like one.
You are an entrepreneur, not a robot #emprender
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1.2. Altered mood
Entrepreneurship is hard and being at the head of a one-person business creates stress.
Stress, in small doses, is good, because it maintains a positive alert level. The problem comes when it exceeds healthy limits and becomes part of your usual frame of mind.
Fatigue and excess stress directly affect the mood and cause decline, apathy, lack of motivation, irritability, frustration and, in many cases, depression.
Have you stopped enjoying your usual hobbies? Don’t feel like doing anything? Have you lost your sense of humor?
It is indicative that stress and fatigue are taking its toll on you and you need a vacation .
Until you plan them, try meditation . You will be surprised with the results you can get.
1.3. Lack of attention and concentration
No one can maintain high levels of concentration for long periods of time. Not even entrepreneurs. ?
So you need a vacation.
When the brain is saturated and overloaded, the attention, concentration and memory capacity decrease , because the hippocampus (which is the brain area related to information retention) is affected.
Have you forgotten a meeting?
Has your anniversary day passed you by?
Lately do you look like Dori, the forgettable fish from Finding Nemo ?
You definitely need a vacation .
Look at one thing.
Your goal is to be as productive as possible and optimize your performance. However, the lack of attention and concentration, what generates?
Just the opposite!
It takes longer to do each task and you make more mistakes ( mistakes that affect your productivity and the business as a whole).
Do you see how you need a vacation? ?
1.4. Hungry at all hours
Have you noticed that when you are tired and stressed you want to eat more?
It has an explanation.
Work pressure and tiredness block satiety hormones, which is why addictive behaviors such as smoking, alcoholism and food consumption increase.
Also, because the body demands fast energy , you often crave unhealthy foods, which in turn influence intellectual performance.
To make matters worse, insulin resistance occurs, so increases the risk of diabetes.
1.5. Strike a balance
When the work rate is very high, you are stressed and your productivity falls, the professional part ends up absorbing your personal sphere.
Total, that your vital wheel is unbalanced and you lose your balance.
Starting a business or preparing new launches of courses and services are very demanding tasks that require great dedication. We agree on that.
But everything has a limit.
It is one thing to have a month or two to the fullest and another to fall into a routine of living to work.
And, possibly, it is what is happening to you now: you work infinite days, you hardly spend time with your family and friends and even to go buy bread you have to do bobbin lace over time.
What’s more: the few moments of the day that you don’t spend in front of the computer you experience as stressful, because you feel guilty for not working .
You know what I mean and so you can’t go on.
You need to stop, free yourself from the pressure of work, reconnect with yourself and recover the balance between personal and professional life.
If your wheel of life is unbalanced, stop and reflect #emprender
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1.6. Release stress and reduce anxiety
Long periods of work and complete disconnection from professional activities increase stress and produce anxiety.
One of the common symptoms is the feeling that everything is beyond you and you find it difficult to analyze situations clearly.
What happens is that stress activates the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for many of the alert reactions. In addition, it stimulates the hypothalamus and the pituitary, which are 2 small brain areas that in turn stimulate the adrenal glands (responsible for producing adrenaline and cortisol, the main transmitter of stress).
To top it off, stress produces anxiety, so the ills multiply.
Conclusion: stress fuels stress and you enter a vicious circle bad for your health (as you will discover a little below).
Holidays can be the most effective solution to reduce stress, regain perspective and make better decisions in your business.
1.7. Increase creativity
Fatigue directly affects your creative ability.
Ideas do not flow, it costs you to do things twice as long as usual and you can not awaken your genius.
If you feel like this, calm down. You are not losing faculties, but your body is telling you that you need vacations .
When you escape your routine and clear your mind, creativity is triggered . By stepping out of your usual scenario, it’s easier to have new ideas, find new solutions to problems, and discover opportunities or perspectives that you never thought of.
1.8. Health problems
As if everything you have read so far was not enough, you should know that lack of rest, stress and pressure can seriously affect your health .
These conditions reduce the capacity of the immune system , so your body cannot fight enemies effectively and becomes more vulnerable.
This translates into a higher frequency of colds (and of those that take longer than usual to recover), herpes reactivations, a 32% greater chance of having a heart attack and a 21% increased risk of dying! ?
Fatigue increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases #emprender
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- How to face the holidays when you are an entrepreneur
Have you already convinced yourself that you need a vacation?
Well, before planning your destination and buying your plane ticket (remember that in a previous article we helped you find cheap flights ), let’s see how that vacation should be so that it involves a real recharge of batteries and you return renewed and with force.
2.1. How long should the holidays last?
This question will also be answered by science. ?
Although it takes at least a week to forget the work routine, experts recommend taking two weeks in a row or, ideally, three .
How long should the holidays last? #undertake
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2.2. You need quality vacations
Are you thinking of taking your laptop in your suitcase? Maybe check email from your mobile when you’re at the beach?
Try to avoid it.
Going on vacation does not mean changing your work scenario. For your days off really feel good, you have to completely disconnect from your professional activities.
I mean, it doesn’t just have to look like you’re on vacation. You have to feel that you are.
Holidays serve to prevent you from ending up exhausted #emprender
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During this time, in addition to visiting new places, seeing your family and friends calmly, you can take advantage of reading, training or doing nothing (which is also healthy).
Clearly, you need an entrepreneurial vacation . And you know what? For many things you have to do and many urgent matters that you have pending, you can take a few days off. The world will keep spinning and the sun will keep rising every morning.
