Why Taking a Mandatory Lazy Day is Self Care

Emily Thompson: [00:00:00] Look, I get it as a business owner, you're busy. Not only are you running your business and performing your job duties within that business, but you're also balancing all of that with the inner work of creating boundaries, developing helpful habits and routines and juggling it all with your life. As a business owner, you do a lot, and it's easy to fall into the trap of doing a lot every day, especially if you're a type-A passionate and driven entrepreneur type.

[00:00:34] But the truth is that you can't go full speed ahead all day, every day. Even if you love it, you need to pause and take a break. And in this video, I'm going to share with you my favorite tactic for doing just that.

[00:00:51] Welcome back to 10 Minutes to Being Boss. A bite-size show, offering up tips, tools, and tactics for helping you do business. I'm Emily Thompson. And in this video, I'm going to be sharing with you the how-to and benefits of embracing a mandatory lazy day. A day of your choosing when you take off every single hat that you possibly can and just chill the F out.

[00:01:15] But before we dive in, here's a word about our sponsor Podia. The best kind of mandatory lazy day is one in which you make money while you laze about. And with Podia, you can do just that. Podia is an all-in-one digital platform that makes it easy for you to sell courses, memberships, downloads and webinars all in one place.

[00:01:33] Sign up now for a free 14-day trial and get 15% off for life by going to podia.com/beingboss. So let's start out with why you need a lazy day. I see mandatory lazy days as a way, just a little way of coping with the stress of day to day life of a business owner. When you're living a boss life and running a business, you are running on full-blown, passion and purpose.

[00:02:06] Whenever that is the case, you have to take measures to recharge on the regular. And mandatory lazy day allows you to do just that. But what is a mandatory lazy day? A mandatory lazy day is a day in which you are doing absolutely nothing. You block off a one whole day on your calendar, where you are lazy.

[00:02:29] Unapologetically. The idea is that you do as little as possible. You make as few decisions as humanly possible to give your brain and to give your body the chance to rest. Oftentimes we do give our bodies the opportunity to rest, but when's the last time you allowed your brain to do the same thing. A mandatory lazy day is a day in which you are allowing

[00:02:56] both to happen. I came up with mandatory lazy days a couple of years ago, whenever I was hustling through a holiday season, I was running a business. I had tons of social engagements. I had lots of responsibilities for things that I needed to take care of as well. And I was feeling myself get to the end of my rope.

[00:03:15] So I decided to host for myself my first mandatory lazy day. It was a day. It was a Saturday that I, I chose relatively arbitrarily. I guess I had nothing on my calendar for that day and I did nothing. I stayed in my PJ's. I watched TV. I did not move as much as possible. And it was medicine for me. And it's something that I started doing more and more regularly.

[00:03:45] I have a mandatory lazy day, every two or three months. Occasionally there will be a season where I need to squeeze two, three or four of them within about a month or two. It all depends on what my life and work looks like at any given moment. And a mandatory lazy day is a day. It's a boundary I set around a day when I just

[00:04:11] am lazy. And I let my brain and my body are recharge and recoup so that I can keep ongoing. So a mandatory lazy day is just a day where you are unapologetically and mandatorily lazy so that you can recharge and recoup. So, how do you host for yourself? Cause it's like a party it's like a party for yourself.

[00:04:39] How do you host it for yourself and mandatory lazy day? Well, the first thing you have to do is put it on your calendar because this is a day where nothing can touch. No lunch with friends, no meetings, nothing can touch this day, put it on your calendar and hold it as the most important thing on your calendar for the foreseeable future.

[00:04:59] I personally find it easier to do these on a Saturday or a Sunday. Another day, may work really well for you, whatever it is, mark it off on your calendar and don't let anything touch it. Another pro tip for you is to prep some food for yourself beforehand. Remember, the idea here is that you are doing as little as possible and a little bit of prep can go a long way.

[00:05:22] So a day or two before prep yourself some food, or know what it is that you are going to be ordering in and you will be set up to just laze about all day. Now, whenever the day actually comes, tip number one, stay in bed as long as you physically can. I know sometimes, especially for us, very driven, active people

[00:05:45] it can be really hard to do this. And I'm here to tell you that mandatory lazy day isn't easy. It's not easy for people like us, but it is very important to do it. So, stay in bed, extra long, stay in your PJ's. Don't worry about taking a shower cause no one's going to see you anyway. However, this is a place where a nice long bath or what I call a self-care shower, those long ones

[00:06:09] when you like do your extra body scrubs and give yourself a hair mask, those sorts of things, those sorts of, of showers and baths do well for a mandatory lazy day. But the idea is that you are not doing much. Once you are up and about turning the TV and unapologetically, binge, whatever it is you would like or open a book and read the whole thing in one day

[00:06:33] if you'd like you can also just stare out the window. I know that that one is kind of a weird one and probably the most difficult. But just stare out the window. I literally done this before, where I've taken an hour of my time. I've sat my butt on my couch and just forced myself to stare out the window, go sit on your porch or on your patio go.

[00:06:59] You can take a leisurely walk outside if you so choose. I do recommend though, as you are watching TV or you have your book or you are staring out the window, whatever it may be. To carry around a notebook to have a notebook near you, because even though you were allowing your brain to rest, what this actually means is you might end up having some really great ideas along the way.

[00:07:22] I don't want you to lose them. So carry around a notebook as you are lazing about. Now, there are a couple of things that you are not allowed to do on a mandatory lazy day. One of those for me is not turning on your computer. Or especially checking your email. Whenever you turn on your computer and all the notifications start coming up, or you check your email and see all those conversations happening, it can be easy to turn your brain on and we want to keep our brains powered off as much as possible.

[00:07:56] Also, I don't recommend that you leave your house as much as possible, except for an easy walk. Don't go anywhere. The idea here too is that you're not making decisions. And when you leave, there are so many decisions that have to be made and you're giving your brain a rest. Also, you're not allowed to do anything overtly productive.

[00:08:19] Like if you can help it don't even do the laundry. Just slides your dishes easily into the dishwasher if you need to, but don't do anything. And guys, this is hard, which actually gets me to my last thing that you can not do. And that is you cannot flake out early and end it before you're supposed to. I often find that by mid afternoon, I am getting incredibly itchy to do something. Like let me go do some yard work or like that stuff needs to be put up or whatever.

[00:08:51] Can I just answer my email this one time? No, the idea is that you're really forcing yourself through an entire day of laziness so that you are giving your brain and your body a full day to recharge. It doesn't work if you ended early. Now, there is a little bit of extra points here for your mandatory lazy day, and that is for you to absolutely not have your phone in your hand at all.

[00:09:23] So the night before your mandatory lazy day, go plug it up in another room and then don't touch it all day. This one I find to be extra invigorating and you can get back on it the next day. It is perfectly fine. Before one day you are staying unplugged, you are making as few decisions as possible. You are exerting yourself as little as possible.

[00:09:43] You are letting your brain and your body rest. It's going to be difficult. I'm not going to lie, but I think you'll find that by the end of it, you're more excited and inspired and motivated to go out and do whatever it is that you need to do the next day. So with that, you have everything you need to know to host your own mandatory lazy day.

[00:10:06] Don't get carried away. I'm not trying to make everyone totally lazy here, but for the kinds of people that I know are probably here listening to this, you need a mandatory lazy day. And remember a keyword here is unapologetically. No shame, no guilt. Take care of yourself and make it a family affair.

[00:10:26] PJ's all day. And with that, go for it. Post your own mandatory lazy day. And that, let me know how it goes. Head down into the comments or wherever. Send us an email, hello@beingboss.club. If you posted your first mandatory lazy day and want to know how you enjoy it, and maybe some amazing creative juices started flowing.

[00:10:48] And you had like your next biggest idea, I love it when that happens. Now, until next time do the work, be boss.