Mindfulness, Boundaries, and Rules

Emily Thompson 0:00
Hello, and welcome to being boss minisode number 17.

Emily Thompson 0:09
This minisode is brought to you by our sponsor fresh books cloud Are you trying to build a business but feel, you could do a better job managing your money. Trust me, you're not alone. Whether you're a service based creative professional trying to hunt down your client payments, or a maker trying to invoice your retailers and track your expenses. freshbooks is there to help you run your business and make you look like a pro while doing it. There's no reason you should be waiting weeks for payments, collecting your receipts in a shoe box or pulling your hair out over software not built for us independent business owners. freshbooks is the solution for managing your business's finances. In today's world, grow a business that's competitive, modern and profitable with a cloud accounting solution that's easy to use and pretty to look at. Sign up for fresh books and manage your money like a boss with no accounting degree required. Keep your hair and get paid faster. Try fresh books free today go to freshbooks.com slash being boss and select being boss in the How did you hear about us section.

Emily Thompson 1:21
Now, in today's episode, I want to share some thoughts tips and tricks on three little things in business that might make you squirm mindfulness, boundaries and rules. As a recovering control freak, you can bet that I can practically feel many of you squirming at the thought of mindfulness boundaries and rules. Most of us start our businesses to get away from boundaries and roles. Well let me correct you. You started this to get away from someone else's boundaries and rules to be successful, you still need them. It's just that now you get to make your own. Being mindful and creating boundaries and rules in your life and business will help you work better will help you like your work more, and it will help you enjoy your life too. Yes, life is great if business owners it is totally possible to have a life away from work. And getting some boundaries and rules in place will help you recapture that ever elusive life. First, though, a warning. This is going to be different for everyone. Today, I'll be sharing with you some of my own Get your shit together practices for being more mindful and setting up boundaries and rules. But it's your job to figure out what's going to work for you. For example, I don't do crazy workouts I try I swear I do. And I'll admit that it makes me feel better ish when I do but my self care techniques involve lots of yoga and steady hikes. However, I have several creative friends who cannot go a day in the office without taking a break for super intense cardio, or my creative pals who will stay up until all hours of the night coding or designing or hanging out or watching TV. And that doesn't bother them.

Emily Thompson 3:19
My kryptonite, though is not getting enough sleep. You literally do not want to know me if I get less than eight hours of sleep at night. The point here is that I won't be forcing you to do anything you don't want to do. You do you, but you have to do something. And this starts by being mindful of everything. So let's talk about mindfulness. Being aware of your surroundings, where you work, what you're eating, what you're doing is key to mapping out your own path. You have to learn things about yourself in order to position yourself in a place where you feel most creative and most happy. For example, it took me a long time to realize that I work best if I change my busy time seasonally. During the summer I work much better in the early morning between about 7am until just before lunch, and after lunch, I can't accomplish much of anything. However, during the winter, I am at my most productive in the late afternoon and early evening. figuring this out took a several seasonal rotations and lots of unproductive time. But being mindful of when I am the most kick ass in the studio lends itself to a lot less procrastination and a lot more getting shit done. So be mindful of everything. If you want more tips on being mindful, be sure to check out the previous minisode by Kathleen called mantras or if you would like some beginner help in mind fullness,

Emily Thompson 5:00
I love the headspace app. It's really great for introducing mindfulness but also practicing mindfulness if you are a little further along the spectrum. Alright, now I'm going to talk about setting boundaries and making rules. I sincerely believe that my bossiness began when I started setting boundaries, between my life and my work, we all try out this work life balance, and is different for everyone. It's kind of a curse of the creatives that we live our work, we put so much of ourselves into what we do that it's hard to separate the two. You can take me in my bestie, for example, we're both in technical fields. I'm a web designer, and he's an IT guy, I work for myself, and he works for a large manufacturing company, our days tend to look pretty similar. We sit in front of a computer, we do a lot of coding, we have meetings with clients, the difference is that he leaves work. And he leaves work, he clocks out, he goes home, and he doesn't think twice about what's going on. While he's not there. I on the other hand, we work and I'm occasionally checking my phone email for the excitement of a new client inquiry. Or maybe I'm working on client projects in my head. And I'm almost always brainstorming some sort of design or marketing idea. My brain almost never leaves work is the curse of the entrepreneur. And at a time in my creative life, when I was working 60 hour weeks, taking on too many jobs and really kind of hating what I was doing. I started to set hard boundaries in my life and work. I've blogged about this before over at Emily Thompson calm, and I cannot stress enough how much rules in your business can help you live a better life and work better. And here are just a few more that I've created to help me enjoy some creative sanity.

Emily Thompson 7:11
The first of which is traveling at least once a month, I have to travel for the wellness of my soul. And it's easy in my work to get all tied up in projects and back myself into a corner where I can't leave for a little destination happiness. So this is one of my biggest rules, I have to allow myself a bit of time every few weeks for a little getaway. Even if only for a night, I have mastered the art of the overnight getaway. And it makes me not only appreciate my business more for allowing me to do this. But unplugging also makes me a better person and a better business owner. Even now, I am on my biggest soul feeding adventure yet. I'm literally recording this podcast from a sleeping bag in a cabin. On a 40 day road trip with my family they were calling Indy goes West. If you'd like to follow along, you're more than welcome to come find me on Twitter and Instagram at Emily m underscore Thompson. You can also follow along via hashtag Indy goes West. Another one of my role is never being too hard on myself if I have a down day. This one is an easy trap to fall into. So you have a day when you get absolutely nothing done. I've been there, you've been there. Their procrastination monster comes in just sits on your brain not allowing you to focus on much more than that horrid right sidebar of related videos in YouTube. I make a point to allow that to be a part of my process and either hop to it the next day trading that crap day as fuel, or legitimately taking the next day off to really get my head in the right place. Being hard on myself or not being able to focus doesn't allow me to focus more. So giving myself the permission to have a down day is a rule that helps me love my work and be more productive too. So begin thinking about ways to create barriers between your life and work, make rules and set boundaries that will keep you happy in both life and work. And also in the crossover. Because as a creative entrepreneur, there will be crossover and that's not a bad thing. So over the next week, I would like for you to make a point to be mindful about when you are the most productive. Take some time at the end of each day and record what your day was like. Hopefully this will help you pull patterns that can help guide your boundary setting.

Emily Thompson 9:57
For example, if you find that you suck at getting your work done on Tuesday. And thats the only day that you decided to go to a local coffee shop, then maybe you should consider making it a little rule that you only save the coffee shop for socializing. Or the end of the week, look back on this sheet and start to develop some rules and boundaries. Maybe you decide to focus on housework until noon, because your creativity doesn't start flowing until after lunch anyway. Or maybe you're having a hard time doing your invoicing every day, at which time it may be a good idea to start thinking about never invoicing again and hiring someone to help out. Or maybe simply having one day where you do all of your invoicing. Recognizing the patterns is a huge first step and finding that lifework balance you need and totally getting your shit together. Because once you get your shit together, you can enjoy the creative business that you're building all the bore. Today's minisode comes directly from my Get your shit together email subscription, but I have a special Just for being boss listeners. You see Kathleen and I have bundled up her DIY coaching for creatives email subscription with my Get your shit together email subscription for a jam packed subscription bundles spilling a ton of our best tips, tricks, tactics and even worksheets including an awesome day tracker for helping you be more mindful and did 22 emails that will land in your inbox over the course of four weeks. We created our subscriptions to help aspiring creatives live the creative life that you want, which will make building your business all the easier. You can find out more at lovebeingboss.com/bundle. Do the work. Be boss and we'll see you next week.