Health Tips for the Self-Employed

Working for yourself often means your own health gets put to the wayside. Many may think that it’s easier to push through and work and deal with your health later, but this mentality can cause more harm than good. It’s crucial to keep an eye on yourself and your health to ensure you can continue to do what you love for a long time. If you notice you have reached a bit of a stalemate in terms of making healthy choices you can stick to, consider the following tips to help you navigate your journey to a better you:

Watch for burnout

Freelancing or being self-employed allows you the freedom to make your own schedule and thus work as often or as little as you would like. The former, however, breeds the potential for burnout. When you have unreasonable deadlines, are uninterested in the work you are doing, and are relatively isolated, it should come as no surprise that burnout will soon follow. Suffering from burnout will impact both your health and your job performance. Your mental, physical, and emotional health are at risk when burnout hits; you may suffer from increased anxiety and depression and have a poor diet and exercise habits. In terms of your work, you’ll become relatively unmotivated and hit a wall creatively. Recognizing the warning signs of burnout before your world turns upside down is important, and if that moment has come and gone, follow the tips located in this piece to help pull yourself out.

Maintain healthy habits

Being self-employed gives you a lot of autonomy when it comes to various aspects of your life; how much you work, how much you sleep, how often you take breaks for the sake of your sanity. With that said, ensuring that you develop a routine based on strong, healthy habits will help cultivate a schedule that works well for you. If you are working from home, getting dressed as if you are going to an office, or making your bed every morning can help put you in the right mindset for getting your work done. Additionally, your mental health can benefit from having a designated space for your work that you keep organized each day as clutter can negatively affect your mood, hinder your productivity, and increase stress and anxiety.

Make time for exercise

Incorporating exercise into your daily life will benefit you personally and professionally. Exercise is excellent for your health; it elevates your mood, sharpens your brain, enhances your quality of sleep, improves your heart and lung function, and so on. When you break up your workday by adding in a fitness regime, you can take a much-needed break from a task you may be stuck on or free your mind from writer’s block, for example.. It can be as easy as Including a run during your day to invest in the health of your most fruitful employee: yourself.

Learn to eat well

Developing a healthy diet is another key component of creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Nonetheless, it can also be an incredibly hard thing to do when you are working for yourself. It’s so easy to pick up whatever is convenient when you are racing to meet a deadline or to grab your comfort foods when a client is causing unreasonable stress. Having access to an individualized and interactive weight loss program can help facilitate a better relationship with your diet. Incorporating a nutrition regimen that lets you choose between plans and educates you on what foods will give you the most energy or the most nutrients will help you make more informed decisions regarding your food habits for the long term. This can prove to be a great option for the self-employed busy bees by taking the guesswork out of figuring out what you will eat each day and saving you time that could be put towards more pressing matters.

Practice self-care

Taking time to relax is sometimes easier said than done. However, there are many ways to escape from your worries and from your work for a little bit. Try to take time away from your phone and your computer when you aren’t working, exercise your mind by doing puzzles, pick up a hobby like painting or drawing—anything that will help you decompress. Self-care activities are a great way to reduce the stresses and anxieties that can accompany the busy lifestyle of the self-employed.

Nurture your relationships

Networking and creating relationships with potential clients is going to be a significant part of your life as a freelancer, but don’t let that be the only social interaction you have. Spending time with friends, family, and other loved ones will be helpful to your mental and emotional well-being. Taking the time to call or video chat a friend, a parent, a sibling, near or far, can help reduce the feelings of anxiety and stress you may be feeling.

Know when to say no

Being a part of the gig economy, the pressure to take any and every job that you can find becomes insurmountable. You need to take the jobs that you know you can do and you can do well. Taking on clients and content that aren’t in your wheelhouse may seem like a great way to dip your toe into new waters, but beware of getting in over your head. You know your limits, and you know when you have to take a break.

Know how to keep your schedule

Having a routine can help foster a sense of normalcy and structure while working for yourself. If you don’t have the luxury of an assistant or secretary, using calendars to manage your time will help organize your workload, which can help relieve the stress of not knowing what you should be working on when. Be sure to stick to your schedule when you make it; otherwise, it can be a very slippery slope from working just a little extra to working all night long.

Navigating the self-employment world is not always easy, particularly when it comes to balancing your work and your health. Give yourself some credit, though; you’re one man (or woman) doing the job of ten people. Just remember, to keep your business alive, you must, in turn, keep yourself healthy and happy. Making some tweaks to your life and implementing healthy habits wherever possible will make a world of difference.

Invest in health insurance
Investing in health insurance, including a vision plan from local brokers, is really important when you are self-employed because you are the only person who is responsible for your health, and that means you need to ensure you have access to the best healthcare you can afford when you need it most.