Could Self-Care be the Key to Productivity?
By Jody Bell
As a young woman with huge dreams, you have a lot on your plate. You’re constantly juggling your studies, your venture, and so many meetings it probably makes your head spin. But in the midst of all this, have you taken time to care for yourself?
Trust me. I used to be in your exact shoes.
I was 16 years old, preparing for the SAT, keeping up with my classes/sports, launching my venture with Girls With Impact, and trying my best to have some semblance of a social life. My start-up was called In Case of Deportation, which aimed to support children born in the United States who had parents/guardians who were at risk of deportation. The more I looked into ways I could support this large demographic of children who constantly live in a state of uncertainty and fear, the more I prioritized my venture. I poured myself into entrepreneurship, losing both the fun of high school sleepovers, and also sleep itself, to chase my passion. Truthfully I never felt better. I had a successful press release and my venture was receiving international attention; I had become so intertwined with my venture that its success alone left me feeling fulfilled despite the fact I wasn’t well-rounded personally.
And then I hit a wall. I got a cold and was so worn down that it took me months to get over it. I was sleeping 8-9 hours a night and still woke up feeling exhausted. My appetite was noticeably lower as I wasn't as physically active as normal. Once I noticed a few of these changes in my body, I began picking up on others. This awareness alone was like a lightbulb - my body had been telling me to slow down for weeks, but I was so consumed with my passion I didn’t listen.
After taking a few days off school, and about a week away from my venture, I started to feel better. I reprioritized my sleep and social life while creating more intentional and strict boundaries for myself and my venture. At first, this felt selfish and counter-intuitive - I genuinely missed pouring myself into my venture and seeing insanely fast progress on my goals. However, I settled into a routine, I found that despite spending less time on my venture, my productivity skyrocketed.
Self-care is not selfish – it’s an investment into the most valuable asset that a start-up has: its CEO. Thus, when pouring your passion and attention into a venture and hoping it will succeed, you must match this same effort when it comes to your well-being. So many entrepreneurs will overlook this, becoming intertwined with their venue, and feeling sustained when their venture does well - despite the fact they might have been neglecting their personal needs for that outcome. The flip slide of this is of course being so intertwined that it may feel like a personal failure when you experience inevitable setbacks with your venture.
So how could I embrace self-care in my everyday life?
For entrepreneurs maintaining a healthy separation between personal well-being and the well-being of their ventures is arguably the most crucial part of self-care. This is a mentality change but can be worked towards by embracing work-flow habits that are based around taking breaks. Using these breaks to text friends, go on a walk, or practice a hobby will not only boost your well-being but these mental switches are proven to increase your productivity!
See here for a brief list of some work-flow habits to explore
Time Blocking: Time blocking involves breaking your day down into blocks of time and dedicating each block to a specific task. This helps you stay focused on one task at a time and can help you avoid distractions.
The 52/17 Rule: This productivity hack entail working for 52 minutes and then taking a 17-minute break. This can help you stay focused during your work period and give your brain a chance to recharge during your break.
Pomodoro Technique: Very similar to the 52/17 hack, this technique argues you should work for 25 minutes, and then take a 5-10 minute break. You repeat this 2-4 more times, but then after 4 repeats you should take a long break of around 15-30 minutes.
The Eisenhower Matrix: helps you prioritize tasks based on their importance and urgency. It involves categorizing tasks as urgent and important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, or neither urgent nor important.
The Two-Minute Rule: The Two-Minute Rule states that if a task takes less than two minutes to complete, you should do it immediately rather than putting it off. This can help you clear small tasks from your to-do list quickly and efficiently.
The 90-Minute Focus Session: This productivity hack involves working in focused 90-minute intervals and then taking a break. This can help you stay focused and avoid burnout.
What do these techniques all have in common? They argue that breaks lead to better productivity and thus outcomes. You can take this same principle, and the theory behind each of these techniques, and use them on a larger scale to shape your work-life balance. For example, if you normally work on your venture every day, maybe take one day off a week where you unplug from your CEO status and just be a high school student!
Self-care and productivity are huge topics, and implementing them into your life can be pretty tough. Coming from a girl who ate, slept, and dreamt of my venture, I hope you take away a few things:
While it may feel counterintuitive, take breaks to boost productivity.
Create space between you and your venture - you can be passionate, but avoid making your entrepreneurial endeavors extremely personal.
Be aware of your body. Understand when you may be feeling burned out, and try to be hyper-aware of changes you are feeling mentally or physically as your workload picks up.
If you have any questions or just want to chat, feel free to shoot me an email at jody.bell@girlswithimpact.com. I would love to hear from you!
Jody Bell, 21 is Girls With Impact’s Editor in Chief and a program graduate from Greenwich High School. Girls With Impact is the nation’s only online, business and leadership program for girls 14-24, turning them into tomorrow’s leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators.