For the average person a certain level of stress has become the norm, but if you’re an entrepreneur starting or running a small business you are accustomed to dealing with much more stress on a daily basis.
Whether you’re trying to attract new customers while managing current customers, trying to keep your employees busy and happy, financing your business etc.–there are a lot of reasons why entrepreneurs battle more stress and anxiety than the average human being. But as a business owner, you’ll just have to bottle up all of that stress and keep pushing towards your goals, right?
No! A lot of entrepreneurs (myself included) have a very hard time trying to get their minds off their work. But you’ve got to learn that clearing your mind and focusing on something other than business is just as important as being 100% focused on work. Taking time for personal development can actually be an excellent way to reduce the stress in your life.
Of course, the best solution to this problem is to reduce your stress before you even become stressed. The first place to start is to change up the way you operate on a daily basis. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
With that being said let’s look at 5 ways that you can reduce stress or even prevent stress as an entrepreneur.
1. Automate daily tasks
Small business owners are extremely lucky that they live in this day and age. With the rise of technology advancements, there are many daily tasks that you, as a business owner, can turn over to an automated platform. Taking this one step can help make your daily routines more manageable and less time-consuming.
You can easily automate tasks such as:
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Creating proposals
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Invoicing
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Paying bills
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Proofreading
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Email marketing
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Scheduling meetings
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Posting on social media
There are many more tasks than these that can be automated through the use of software. I’ve found the tasks listed above take up the largest amount of time and can easily become big stress factors when you have other deadlines piled on top of them.
2. Delegate more tasks
Many small business owners and entrepreneurs tend to buy into the myth that it’s not realistic to hire on help in the early stages of a company, but this isn’t necessarily true.
There are many time-consuming and stressful tasks that could be outsourced to a freelancer, or hired out to a part-time college student who wants to gain industry experience.
Are you creating social media posts late into the evenings? This is just one example of a task that could be hired out to a college student who aspires to be a graphic designer and wants to create a portfolio to impress employers upon graduation.
3. Exercise more
Another way you can help reduce stress is by exercising more. A number of medical studies have proven that exercise is a great natural way to de-stress your life. This doesn’t mean you need to wake up 2 hours earlier each morning just to make it to the gym. It simply means that any type of physical exercise is healthy for you and will help you battle the stress in your daily routine.
Do you have 20 minutes before your next meeting? If so, go for a short walk or stretch to get your blood flowing and give your mind a break from thinking about work-related business all day. This will result in you feeling calmer, and less stressed out before your next meeting.
4. Maintain a healthy diet
I will be the first to say that one of the downsides of being an entrepreneur and always working is a low priority on a healthy diet which results in a lot of coffee and fast food.
While you might think you don’t have enough time to make meals, it doesn’t have to take a ton of time to maintain a healthy diet. It just takes a little bit of planning and attention before you go shopping. Not only will a healthy diet benefit your well-being, certain foods are known to help reduce stress including:
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Asparagus
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Avocados
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Nuts and seeds
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Green leafy vegetables
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Oatmeal
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Blueberries
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Turkey
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Fresh salmon
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Pure dark chocolate (snack size)
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Herbal tea (instead of coffee)
These are just some of the foods that can help you battle stress on a daily basis. Buy foods that are low in sugar and fats and high in fiber because sugar and fats are some of the main contributors to stress.
Moreover, always start your day with a healthy and balanced breakfast. This will ensure your body has what it needs to operate properly during the day. There’s nothing worse than trying to make it to lunch with nothing but coffee.
5. Make sleep a priority
Entrepreneurs are notorious for being chronically tired and living a sleep-deprived life. Whether you’re losing sleep from being overworked, or stressing about your business it’s extremely important to sleep an adequate number of hours each night so you can function properly and be productive.
Not only will a loss of sleep affect your decision making, and your ability to remember important details, but it will also bring about mood swings (which isn’t fun for anyone around you). Exhaustion makes the mornings tougher.
You can automatically reduce stress by being well rested. This hack can also prevent stressful situations as you tackle your day with the clarity of mind to work without making unnecessary mistakes.
Caleb Burley is the Co-Founder of Artiiseo, a digital marketing firm in Winnipeg Canada. He’s an avid reader of anything marketing and loves to share his knowledge of successful marketing strategies with business owners through writing.
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