Here's how you can conquer the guilt of taking personal time as an entrepreneur.

As a business owner you are always on. I have learned that taking time even 30mins on your own is good for your clarity Late in my career I realised not taking time away from the business has a negative effect

Thoughts, Ideas and Resolutions are bound to come when one is outside of Box, this adds to lateral perspective. Periodic time off adds zest in the efforts. So time off is as good as one is in in the process. This complements each other So one should stay guilt free!!

1. Recognize importance: Understand that self-care is crucial for productivity and well-being. 2. Set boundaries: Allocate dedicated personal time without work interruptions. 3. Plan efficiently: Schedule tasks effectively to maximize productivity during work hours. 4. Delegate responsibility: Trust capable team members to handle tasks in your absence. 5. Focus on quality over quantity: Prioritize work-life balance to avoid burnout and maintain long-term success. 6. Reflect on achievements: Acknowledge accomplishments to validate the need for personal time. 7. Remember the bigger picture: Balanced entrepreneurs make better decisions and contribute more effectively to their ventures.

Entrepreneurship, like most difficult things in life, is like a marathon, not a sprint. Taking time off and prioritizing self-care is an essential part of enduring this long and difficult journey. You might think you are compromising results by taking time away from work, but you're really making sure you can play the long-term game.

As an entrepreneur in law, I've always known what I need to do. I realise that being switched-off was detrimental to my well-being. I actually don't see a difference between work and my personal life anymore. I love work and I love my team and most of my clients. I'm completely available for work-related matters every day including a Sunday and after 7PM on weekdays. Don't over think it. Else it'll consume you. The only boundaries I have are that after 8pm I'll probably be in bed. I remained disciplined and get up around 4am, always have. My team and clients respect me enough not to trouble me if its not urgent. I love exercise and being outdoors and I find time for both. This allowed me to truly enjoy my life. I'm a high-energy person.

We need to train ourselves, and create and inculcate a switch, for setting times for Rest, Recreation and Health, For personal learning and for our family. If we remain immersed in the work throughout, then we create unbalance in our lives. And our schedules gets disturbed and therefore our ecosystems and environments as well, which might create lots of noise and this can cause sickness and stress. However it is easier said than done, while this may be true up to managerial level and below, same cannot be said to CXO and Executives, having global responsibilities managing various diverse workforce, and operating in multiple time zone. Key here is still maintain the discipline and delegating the tasks by creating sub-stakeholders.

In the past, time boundaries were not respected. However, I now make it a priority to preserve my own boundaries as well as those of my employees. In the rare event of an emergency that requires contacting someone during their designated personal time, I always begin with an apology for the intrusion and express gratitude at the end for their willingness to accommodate the situation

Advice from my parents: You're no good when you're dead. You'd better look after your body...you have to live there the rest of your life!

Life lesson learned - again: It doesn't matter how much you have to do... Or how urgent it is... Unless your the body is your first priority! If it isn't - if you keep neglecting the basics - your body will make itself your first priority. And when that happens... It's rarely a pleasant experience (and often means weeks to months away from what you enjoy doing). The choice is yours 🤗

Sensing a vacation and time off ahead, gives some spring to our feet to work even harder to complete the work, accomplish some goals. You can delegate certain tasks to your trusted managers and team members, this will be also a test time, as how the things go when you are not present. One cannot be always present in real time, so a good entrepreneur must distance himself time to time away from business, this also gives additional responsibilities to next gen leaders. Good for the business. Anyway one cannot be omnipresent. So train yourself and others to run business flawlessly with less intervention.

Planning ahead is certainly crucial in ascertaining smooth service. In order to plan time-off ahead and can actually enjoy it, we must ensure we are fit daily so as not to have to use emergency rest as that will disrupt the service flow. It all boils down to a balanced, well-adhered-to schedule of work and personal maintenance. And it boils down to personal discipline.

Team should navigate unexpected happening when the number one in the organization is busy with his personal tasks. No one is indispensable while dealing with situations.

Planning and the precise use of time is extremely important for success. Set goals and stick to them ! I recommend a stretch goal and an absolute minimum one. In the past I have had people tell me that they did not know if they could achieve a certain sales goal . The work ( client contracts) would be so tiring . I asked, if making phone calls to prospective clients would be difficult - they answered yes. I then said you may feel drained making those calls and that will be painful . However if you don’t make the calls and do not achieve your goals, which you set for yourself and your family you’ll feel the pain of regret . Accordingly you are going to feel pain in either senecio. So make the calls feel the pain but experience success !

Delegation speeds up tasks, it fosters a strong sense of empowerment to juniors and fellows, even one can delegate a task to his/her boss and management. A task can be delegated to even 3rd party, and consultants too. Somewhere we have read that a good manager should create an even a better manager, and render himself/herself redundant and them move to the next level either in strategy/ diversification/ management/ philanthropy. etc . One can read Jack welch management style. Delegation frees up one’s mind to think broader and think out of dimension to bring more ideas and concepts vital for the company Delegation will always create a 2nd and 3rd rung of leadership important for organizations sustenance and succession.

The only way to be productive doing what really matters is through effective delegation. This helps you focus on what only you can do while you empower others to take on tasks that equally important but not of priority to you as an executive.

every entrepreneur has a 'team' or support around them, even if it is family or fiends. it is important to balance matters. empowerment/delegation is a powerful tool and it needs to be used. i adopt delegation wherever i can, and it builds the team capability.

Delegating tasks makes sure that you don't have too much on your hands. Shifting a task to the right team member can ensure that your team gets involved and further develops them to build projects collaboratively.  It can also allow you, as an entrepreneur, to focus on one task while the team works on different aspects of a project, further reducing stress and overproduction in the long term. Trust your team and work together to build new products or improve innovation!

This is quantity Vs Quality and both will count in their own sense. Occupied and wavering mind engrossed in work where you have left will jeopardize the concept of time off. A time off must invigorate oneself, rejuvenated with energy, focus, joy and happiness, else it become chorus and insignificant with no benefits at all. At the same time, time off should also be sufficient enough to achieve a short enjoyment/ peace/ health benefits/ etc.

I make it a point to disconnect every 6 months and take personal time out, go for short vacation, trekking or the activity I enjoy and I myself can feel the difference in the enthusiasm and energy I have and the work I can finish once I am rejunevated after short personal break. In my personal experience taking short break actually helps you get more work done and much smoothly after spending personal time in activity you enjoy.

It is essential to have quality personal time; otherwise, you drift back to work issues. Sunday night is typically spent finding a movie on Netflix and just settling down for a couple of hours. No phones, no thinking about the next day. I need some mindless zombie time, and Sunday movie night works for me.

Quality over quantity! Even brief breaks can be revitalizing if spent intentionally. Disconnect from work completely by switching off devices and avoiding email checks. Engaging in activities that truly rejuvenate you ensures you return to work with renewed energy and focus, underscoring the importance of these breaks.

When it comes to taking personal time, it's definitely about quality over quantity. You only live once, and the most important thing in life isn't work, but your loved ones. As Cody Johnson says, "If you're gonna love somebody, hold'em as long and as strong and as close as you can, 'til you can't." Trust me. Embracing this mindset and cherishing time with your loved ones will leave you rejuvenated and much happier when you return to work.

Inclusiveness, periodicity of Time off is crucial for no only one’s benefit but also to one’s surrounding including family, friends and surrounding. You create bonding during time off mostly. Memories are getting created which lasts one’s life. Work and productivity can not be enhances unless one is also happy and satisfied on personal front. Personal and professional parameters at times become blur. We are what we are and not different in personal or professional. One can evaluate what kind of time off, what frequency and duration is improving his/her endurance, mental strength and energy level and thus it can be modified at later stage to suit one’s schedule.

In my experience, reflection is critical to ensure you’re on the right path. Sometimes you get so bogged down with day to day activities as an entrepreneur that you don’t get a chance to pull your head up to see the direction in which you’re headed. Personally, reflection serves that purpose for me, to understand my direction and control where I’m headed and why.

« Qui veut voyager loin ménage sa monture ». L’adage et la sagesse populaire ne sont pas que des mots. Au-delà, savoir déconnecter, le droit à la déconnexion est aussi un devoir qui permet à l’entrepreneur de prendre du recul, de mûrir certaines réflexions et finalement, tout en se ressourçant, de réfléchir mieux et out of the box à son business et à sa stratégie… Mieux réfléchir à son business et mieux réfléchir son business en somme! Enfin et surtout, prendre vraiment du temps pour soi au travers de toute activité génératrice de plaisir et d’épanouissement permet de s’équilibrer, de donner du sens à sa vie, d’avancer sur les sentiers du bonheur. Et pour le business, de se régénérer, de se renouveler, de durer et de ne pas s’abîmer!

Como fundador y líder, puedo decir que planificar con anticipación ha sido fundamental para poder disfrutar de tiempo personal sin sentir culpa. Programar mis descansos durante los períodos menos ocupados o después de completar hitos importantes ha reducido significativamente la ansiedad por estar ausente en momentos críticos. Además, esto refuerza la idea de que el tiempo personal es esencial y no negociable, tanto para mí como para mi equipo. He aprendido que cuidar de mi bienestar y que no solo me beneficia a mí, sino que también mejora mi capacidad para liderar y tomar decisiones correctas. Las vacaciones son clave para una productividad sostenible y un liderazgo efectivo!

If you became an entrepreneur for time freedom, why aren’t you cashing in? We must first do, secondly master, and then teach by example!

Running a bootstrapped startup for 7 years and making payroll each month from accruals meant that I was simultaneously two opposite people—egoless, as I had my hand out all the time to banks, clients, prospective investors, and a big ego that nothing could kill having survived crisis after crisis, external and internal. This dichotomy was and will be stressful for any entrepreneur. The three things that saved my sanity & kept us all on even keel was: 1. surrounding myself with good people, who kept me honest, were kind and supportive 2. recognizing this was a journey, (that may not end well) so better enjoy it along the way 3. focusing on relationships whether suppliers, customers or employees which great goodwill & luck.

Your success in leading a business depends on the quality of your decisions and how you allocate resources, especially your time. Maintaining consistently high-quality decision-making requires dedicating time to stay close to customers, understand key issues, inspire your organization, and ensure clarity of thought. Never feel guilty about prioritizing the time and space needed to make sound decisions.

Being able to give your time, attention, and energy to others requires you to have time, attention, and energy to give. If you on;’t take the time to invest in recharging your own batteries, motivating yourself, and inspiring yourself, you’re very unlikely to have the capacity to drive others.

I think what we often lose sight of when serving others is ourselves. When we choose to lead and do what we do we must prepare others to do exactly what we do. We become so afraid to leave the helm for one second in fear the ship may go off course that we obsess with work life balance. Our journey should be for financial freedom and stability which too often leads to over exertion and self abuse. Mentally, physically and emotionally. Occasionally letting go of the steering wheel may bring about a balance of work life and existence that may be a profound revelation.