I help clients learn how to take time off. I would guess you are just like them; you want a thriving business, but you also want a life. But you don’t know HOW to have both!

Do you want a thriving business that ALSO incorporates balance? This is simple and short:

Look at your schedule for the upcoming week and determine now what day you’ll take off and schedule it in, right now.

That’s it!

Now, if you find that you do not have a full day open for next week, what half day do you have?

Imagine that your business depended on this one step of taking time off. Would you THEN do it?

For me, my day off each week is Friday. I try to keep Tuesdays open, and occasionally Thursdays. But Fridays are NOT negotiable!

Sure, sometimes that ‘non-negotiable’ turns into work. Yuck! And I kick myself, because I STRONGLY believe in practicing what I preach. But it doesn’t happen that often, actually. Today I went on a train ride through the Verde Valley in AZ. And tomorrow, which is Saturday, I will go hiking. And since I took Thursday off, too, I will do some work on Sunday.

That’s the joy of being my own boss.

Your day off is not a day to spend time cleaning house or running errands. It’s a day just for you; maybe meet a friend for breakfast, coffee or lunch. Or maybe to go shopping or even just window shopping. Or maybe to go see a movie or sit down and read a book.

For some of you, this will be really hard. How can I ask you to just do nothing! However can you grow your business if you do this?

How will you EFFECTIVELY grow your business if you DON’T!!

For others of you, you’ll say, no, there’s no way you could do this and ENJOY it. You haven’t taken a day off in… well, probably YEARS! Yea, all the more reason.

New habits have to be learned. It’s time for you to learn this new habit if you really want to take your business to the next level. Trust me; I get it about having to LEARN to take time off and not always think about business. But believe me when I say that it WILL happen. And your business will benefit as a result of it.

We have to take time off, totally off, in order to rejuvenate, renew, and be able to maintain our passion for the work we do and in order to be able to create new services, programs and products for our clients. We can’t do that if we are overworked, overwhelmed and  cluttered emotionally.

So, schedule that day off. And then look at the following week, because this will be the START of something new for you. And let me know how it goes!

Margie

MEG Enterprises

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I just took almost a week off to play in the Grand Canyon. And I have to say that because I let myself go, I am the best boss, ever! Afterall, a big part of what I preach is balance. Vacations are part of incorporating balance into life.

My plan with this ‘trip report’ is to also apply it to how we all should incorporate play into business, in order to keep ourselves creative, passionate and balanced.

We got there Tuesday and it rained all day, but we went to the Backcountry office and got a permit to go down for Thursday and Friday night. We hiked down the South Kaibab trail Thursday morning (started at 6am). Our packs were heavier than they should be. Won’t make THAT mistake again! The trip down was a killer. But we took LOTS of breaks.

It took us 6 hours to get down. Just before getting to the campground, we passed a sign next to the creek that said (I should have taken a picture!) stop here and put your feet in the creek. I told Don that if I took my pack off one more time, it was NOT going back on! It was so heavy he had to help me put it on each time. The limit should be 25% of your body weight. I think we were more at 40%..

Bright Angel Campground at the bottom is beautiful, and camping in a canyon like that is really cool. I can NOT believe I never took pictures of our camp! Then the Phantom Ranch is right down the path from the campground. We ordered dinners for both nights before going down, so we enjoyed a group seating with different people each night. It was interesting to talk to people who had ridden down on the mules, those who had come from the north rim, and to people who have used the service that will take your pack down and up the canyon. 

On Friday, we just hung around camp, checked out the trail we would take out the next day and spent a LOT of time in the creek. No showers for campers, so we ‘bathed’ in the creek. Weather was high 80s-low 90s. Hot to sleep, but with the creek, ideal. It was tough to sit too long in the creek because our muscles tightened up.

Saturday morning we got up at 3am, cooked a good breakfast, packed up our packs, and headed onto the trail by 5am.

Bright Angel Trail is BEAUTIFUL! Granted, all uphill, but gorgeous. We hit Indian Garden, the mid-way point (4.8 miles) at ~7:30am. Longer than I expected, but we weren’t in any race. We stopped for quite awhile, replenished our Gatorade and water, and headed back on the trail about 8. We thought we’d hit the sun shortly after that, but most of the trail was actually in the shade! But, yea, all uphill.

Oh, did I say that?

Seriously, though, with the breaks we took, it wasn’t as bad as the one going down! But about from the 3 mile point (from the top), we encountered TONS of people. I now know why they say the uphill traffic has the right-away. I had my hat on, and unless I lifted my head, I couldn’t see uphill traffic.

By about the 1.5 mile stop, I was ready for ‘express’ to come get my pack. Where were they??? Even the mules had passed us by! But, seriously, we finally made it to the top by 1pm. We immediately went to the Bright Angel Lodge, checked our ‘baggage’ and went into the restaurant and ate lunch. But then we had to put the packs back ON to walk to our car. Still couldn’t find that ‘express’ service…

I’m pleased that we are in better shape than I gave us credit for. Although Don aches a bit here and there, and my calves are sore, we recovered rather quickly. In fact, we’re ready to go again! Next week we’ll head up for a day trip down to Indian Garden, and maybe we’ll make a few more trips before the snows start to fall.

I am just the best boss ever!

Margie

I’m heading off for a week of fun. And, not taking my computer with me! And, heading to the Grand Canyon for some fun hiking.

And, with that, I’m practicing what I preach on here so often. Take time off and play. This increases your creativity, allowing you to stay fresh and passionate about what you offer.

See you when I get back!

Margie

One huge theme I hear these days is how overwhelmed people are. They don’t say, “Oh, I’m so overwhelmed!” They say they don’t have time, they wonder why they’re bothering with their business, they have no life, and they are exhausted.

Sound like you?

Well, how do you overcome this overwhelm? Here are three simple steps. Yea, really, as simple as this:

Step 1 – Removed from your daily planner, print up a generic schedule that gives you a grid of every hour in a full week. Print it up and do this manually. Computers still don’t work for EVERYTHING. Shade out all of your personal time, such as sleeping, eating, caring for kids/family, etc. Shade out self-care time, such as exercise or relaxing (yea, it should be on there). Then shade out any work/client time – this is the time you actually work on bringing revenue in. This can also include time spent charting, etc.  The time you have left over is the time you have to work ON your business. Perhaps NOW you can see why you’re so stressed! You’ve been trying to work on the business with time you don’t have! Just by being aware of the time you have available can put it all into perspective and help relieve some of your stress.

Step 2 – Learn to say no. It’s a simple suggestion I give ALL of my clients. When an opportunity comes your way, always, always, always ask yourself this question: Does this help me achieve my goals right now? If the answer is no, then kindly refuse, BUT keep the door open by saying, “I’m sorry, I can’t do this right now, but please contact me at another time.” You’ll be surprised how that keeps the door open.

Step 3 – Write down your goals for the week, and then break it down into your goals for the day. Keep it simple, keeping in mind the time you’ve learned you actually have (as opposed to the time you IMAGINED you “Should” have). Then prioritize your goals for the day. And then stick to it. If you get distracted easily (email, Facebook, Twitter, the phone) turn these things off. Imagine you’re in school, in class. Distractions are NOT an option. Try this just once and see how productive you are!

These really are three simple steps to move you out of feeling overwhelmed and into feeling in control of your time. Give it a try and let me know how it works!

Ok, my distraction is over. Time to get back to work!

Margie

Marjorie Geiser, MBA, RD, NSCA-CPT

Chair, Nutrition Entrepreneurs Dietetic Practice Group, ADA

MEG Enterprises

Just Jump

What does it really mean to say, “I am doing my best”, or “she is doing her best”? Honestly, to ME, it’s saying, “well, I’m SORT OF doing my best, although I deep-down know I could do even more/better.”

Do you hear the top names in your industry saying “I’m just doing my best”? No, because they’re too busy DOING than talking about it!

I’ve had others say that to me, but it’s always felt like they were trying to give me an excuse for NOT doing what I KNEW was my best. Compare that with someone who has asked me, “Do you feel you have done your best?”

This week, how can you do MORE than your ‘best’? How can you excel at what you strive for? Take just one project and put your all into it and see what develops. And then let me know if you did ‘your best’, or if you totally went for it! OR, as I tend to say in my book, you decided to JUST JUMP!

Margie

Marjorie Geiser, MBA, RD, NSCA-CPT

MEG Enterprises