Work, work, work…
This season my business has been running me into the ground. Of course, as a one-woman show, I’m the boss making all the decisions, so I really only have myself to blame. It’s so easy to overcommit! I say yes to every feasible inquiry that comes my way then often end up scrambling to follow through. I cram too many tasks into one day and am constantly running behind because things always takes longer than anticipated. I’m glued to my phone fielding calls and emails from customers throughout the day, barely making any headway on essential garden tasks. I’m operating in this steady state of anxiety from the moment I wake up to the moment my head hits the pillow at night; constantly feeling like I have to get a handle on things before I can allow myself to relax. But that never happens. I never get to a point of being able to unwind.
My business becomes especially stressful when I get inundated with customer inquiries. Recently I realized that responding to customers in the moment was taking up so much time, it was causing me to fall behind on garden work. So I had to establish dedicated ‘office hours’—morning and evening times when I’m available to return calls and emails. I set up an auto reply email and voicemail message telling customers about my new office hours so they know when to hear back from me. I often feel that I have to reply to clients in the moment, even if it means dropping what I’m doing to respond. People driving by my garden must wonder if I actually work there or if I just stand in the field talking on my phone all day. It seems like there’s been a spike in demand this year for flower arrangements and events, which is great! But it just hasn’t been fun for me working in the garden, getting pulled away so much. Hopefully having office hours will help set customer expectations, allow me to focus on my farm work uninterrupted during the day, and relax in my downtime later in the evenings.
As a sled dog, I need to constantly stay busy with productive tasks in order to feel satisfied. If I’m not pulling on the harness, I get restless and anxious, which is a bad combo. It’s hard for sled dog types to fully relax, enjoy a vacation, or even make time for fun activities in our daily lives. Whenever I am doing something non work-related, my brain keeps either circling back to the laundry list of unfinished tasks waiting for me in the garden, ruminating on unresolved issues (in business + life), or planning for future things coming down the pike. When I’m working, my brain and body feel more at ease.
Work to me is fun, especially running my own farm business and wearing all the hats. I don’t even think about physical labor as being unpleasant or something other people don’t enjoy. I love the feeling of exerting my body, staying tidy and organized, taking care of business and checking things off my to do list. I like buzzing around like a bee during my work day to stay engaged and interested in the task at hand. When I get tired of one thing—depending on how urgently it needs to get done—I switch gears and do something else for a bit, then come back and pick up where I left off. When my energy starts waning in the evening, then I know it’s time to quit and I’m satisfied.
I prefer to work 90% of my waking hours and throw in short micro breaks here and there to stay refreshed and balanced. Going to an old time music festival for a weekend, checking out book stores or libraries, day hikes, saunas, traveling to visit flower farmer friends, campfires, shopping at plant nurseries, getting creemees.
Farming is full on in the summer here and I’m looking forward to traveling abroad this winter when I have a couple months of downtime.
What do you do to maintain a good work/life balance?
