Often, it’s an afterthought. You add all business tasks to your calendar before finding free time slots for personal care and spending time with friends and family. Of course, it seems like there is never enough time! Or maybe downtime and self-care are typically a reaction to recognizing burnout symptoms in team members or leaders in the business.
Business ownership and entrepreneurship provide freedom, responsibility, and opportunities. Every entrepreneurial journey includes a critical challenge that reveals itself immediately to those with unhealed hyper-productive tendencies. The conflict between the freedom of business ownership and the demands of hustle culture constantly pulls at entrepreneurs. Often, hustle culture dominates the business world. However, the strategic use of rest can promote business success and personal well-being and fulfillment.
Our society’s emphasis on productivity creates mental and physical exhaustion that produces illness and deep life dissatisfaction despite reaching business targets. Most people adopt this work-intensive lifestyle because they aim to achieve success through nonstop effort according to the traditional “American Dream.” In real life, this type of approach to work typically results in burnout, deteriorated relationships, health problems and personal regrets (Whyatt-Nichol, 2011). There is another way. You can include rest as a strategic component of your business. Rest is not the opposite of work, it is a critical part of the process. There is power in downtime.
There is a reality that in certain industries like healthcare and finance, downtime can be very expensive for large companies (Flower, 2024). However, small and growing businesses in other industries are not in the same position. Small businesses may find it rewarding to enhance mental clarity and reflection through intentional rest periods. While periodic planned rest may seem like a financial risk, it also provides business leaders and team members space to come up with new ideas and envision the company’s future. As so often, the risks and benefits need to be weighed based on the business size, industry and current financial needs.
Downtime in business can show itself in daily breaks, certain hours during the week, or quarterly days. These breaks are in addition to standard leave and holidays. Downtime could be structured or unstructured. Most importantly, during downtime, the business runs at its lowest operational level. Sales, profit and progress are deliberately de-prioritized. When downtime is part of the planned business schedule, several benefits become available, including increased creativity, stronger relationships and a more sustainable work process.
Creativity
Most businesses can benefit from downtime to support creative problem-solving abilities and generate new ideas while maintaining confident direction for the next steps of the business. A well-rested mind leads to better decision-making and a healthier company culture, which results in good business. This is especially true for taking breaks throughout the workday to step back from a problem or project and see it with fresh eyes (Lu, 2017).
In addition, creativity in problem-solving and other business-related tasks is best fueled by a brain that is not stressed. Cortisol, the infamous stress hormone, can make it difficult to absorb new information or generate new ideas. When team members are more relaxed and have time for their minds to wander, there is room for the brain and body to be out of survival mode and make new connections between concepts (Jabr, 2016).
Relationships
Business success is defined by multiple outcomes. While hustle culture prioritizes profit as the most important outcome, there are others. Many businesses prioritize their relationship with their community and the well-being and personal fulfillment of their team members. Businesses with these values can use downtime to focus on the health of their employees and community members to establish sustainable, meaningful relationships.
A business that values human needs can express this value by ensuring that team members can nurture their relationships with each other at work and nurture their relationships outside of work as well. Building relationships requires time and space. Creating opportunities for shared experiences and for casually spending time at neighboring businesses and community spaces can lead to deeper trust in the business. The purposeful allocation of time for connection helps people maintain emotional health while developing a sense of community and strengthening their dedication to core values. A company culture built on connection can create a foundation for a resilient and purpose-driven future.
Sustainability
Planned, deliberate pauses in the workday, during the week, and in regular intervals could slow the speed of growth and the increase in profit. However, “Not all speed is movement” (Toni Cade Bambara,1970). A slower pace, especially for small businesses, can be more sustainable. It promotes the long-term health of owners and team members, thereby contributing to the long-term success of the business. A slower pace can be a powerful tool to prevent burnout, allowing people to rest and recharge before it is “needed”. This proactive approach to downtime can increase the loyalty of team members and overall satisfaction with work-life balance. Rest prevents burnout while enabling teams and leaders to recover mentally so they can tackle challenges with fresh energy and new perspectives.
Practical Ideas
- Plan regular breaks and downtime and perhaps consider a 4-day workweek, even if it’s not for the entire year.
- Business owners are encouraged to model this slower pace by taking time for themselves and managing their own workload with rest and scheduled downtime.
- Create a work culture that values mental health and wellness (e.g., offering paid time off, promoting mindfulness and creating quiet spaces).
- Every business owner is also a consumer and customer of other businesses. As a consumer, make efforts to stay loyal to other small businesses as they figure out their best downtime schedule. Consider engaging with those businesses with a little extra compassion because once they figure out their ideal rhythm, you and other customers will greatly benefit from a business that can sustain and nurture their community.
Your business should not dehumanize you. Rest is a vital aspect of being human.
