The Healthy Entrepreneur: How to Survive Working 60 Hours a Week

Being an entrepreneur can be exhausting. What happens when you’re in charge of a startup? How can you stay healthy and fit while working 60-plus hours a week and managing a team?

To take care of others and everything else, is to first take care of yourself.

Through the years, I’ve learned a lot about how to keep in shape while also working long hours and moving business ventures toward success. Entrepreneurship is a game of passion. But in order to maintain your hunger for your passion, you need to take care of yourself and your body.

The lessons I’ve learned through 25 years of starting and growing companies fall into 4 general categories.

1. Get Plenty of Sleep

Some entrepreneurs wear their lack of sleep like a badge of honor. But here’s a secret that many entrepreneurs fail to realize: Getting plenty of sleep helps them get closer to their peak potential. In fact, getting plenty of sleep unleashes a number of benefits, including better decision-making, improved memory, a reduction in mistakes, faster recovery from distractions and even the prevention of burnout. But how does a busy entrepreneur get more of it? Try these 3 things:

• Get to Bed Early: Studies show that morning hours are our most productive hours. If you’re staying up late and working, you’re killing your own efficiency. Consider getting in bed, getting quality sleep, and then getting back to work in the morning when you’re more focused.
• Unplug After Work: It’s hard to get good sleep when you’re checking your email into the evening hours. In fact, exposure to the light that emits from screens can limit melatonin production and make it harder for us to get good sleep. So consider unplugging when you get home, and make sure the sleep you get is quality sleep.
• Embrace Power Naps: Taking naps isn’t a sign of weakness, and it shouldn’t be something reserved only for toddlers. In fact, taking a quick after-lunch power nap can boost your productivity for the rest of the day. Find a good time and place to get just 20 minutes of sleep, and you’ll be your best self all afternoon.

 2. Find Ways to Eat Healthy

The hustle and bustle of running a business makes it hard to focus on eating right. You’re always in a rush, which means fast food is often the easiest option. Plus, you’re often ordering in on busy days, and it’s hard to find delivery food that isn’t fried and/or calorie-laden. Try these 5 things:

• Plan Ahead: When Monday morning arrives, it’s too late to think about meal plans for the week. That’s why you need to shop and cook over the weekend — so that you can have meals ready to go for the week.
• Embrace Meal Delivery: Don’t have time to shop? Try meal-delivery services like Blue Apron. You can find services that deliver cooked foods or ingredients that let you do your own cooking. Keep in mind that the time you save through using these services is much more valuable than a meal-delivery service’s cost.
• Avoid Eating Out: The real threat to your nutrition is eating out. Keep a frozen meal in the fridge for days when you can’t make a lunch. Also, keep in mind 2 or 3 restaurants near the office where you can get something delicious and nutritious — because you’ll eventually need to entertain clients or hold team meetings over lunch.
• Keep Healthy Snacks: Snacking can be a killer, too, but only if you snack on the wrong things. Almonds, avocados, raw fruit and vegetables and some granola bars can be healthy, filling snacks that get you through the day. Keep some at your desk or in the fridge.
• Drink Lots of Water: Did you know that hunger pangs are sometimes just a sign of dehydration? If you can drink lots of water, you’ll find that you stay fuller for longer periods of time — which also helps prevent snacking.

3. Emphasize Exercise

The best way to stay healthy as an entrepreneur is through a blend of dieting and exercise. We’ve already covered nutrition above. Exercise has to be a priority. Here are 3 ideas for helping exercise slip seamlessly into your work routine without affecting your productivity:

• Schedule a Time: Just like nutrition requires planning ahead, exercise requires a scheduled time. If you think: “Oh, I’ll just workout when I get the chance,” it’s not going to happen. Carve out an hour for a run or a walk or some time on the elliptical machine. And remember: It’s always easier to carve out time early in the day before your schedule gets off track.
• Workout Time as Productive Time: There’s no reason why you can’t workout and get things done at the same time. Some people can take calls while working out, others can read memos or reports. You may enjoy a work-related podcast — and working out is the perfect time to listen to it.
• Get Away From Your Desk: Just sitting at your desk is bad for your health. You can get a standing desk, which helps a little. But don’t be shy about getting away from your desk and walking a couple of laps around the floor or building. Simply walking around is good for your health, and it’s also a great time to check in with team members for project updates and progress reports. And here’s one last hack: Try taking the stairs rather than the elevator to get extra steps.

 4. Manage Stress

Running a business is stressful. There’s no way around that. So, instead of trying to avoid stress altogether, it’s important to find ways to limit stress — as well as ways to relax when you need to. Here’s a look at 4 things you can do to better manage the stresses of running your own business:

• Use Quick De-Stressing Routines: Even in the midst of a busy week, you can shut your office door and take 5 minutes to go through a quick de-stressing routine. What type of routine? You can try stretching, meditating, breathing exercises or others — whatever you find most effective.
• Unplug in the Evenings: This is closely related to getting better sleep. When you get home from work, shut off your email, turn off the television and stop surfing the Internet. Instead, enjoy a good meal and read a page-turning book until your eyes get heavy. You’ll find that this routine helps you relax and unwind in addition to helping you get quality ZZZs.
• Set Realistic Goals: There’s tyranny in a to-do list. As you cross one thing off, you’re adding 5 other things — so the list always gets longer until it feels completely overwhelming. Instead of keeping a running to-do list, focus on a manageable number of things you want to accomplish each day, perhaps 2 or 3.
• Take a break from work: You don’t get a medal for leaving vacation days on the table, so make sure you use them. When you spend time away from the office, you return more refreshed and more productive, which helps the vacation days pay for themselves.

What is Your Secret to Entrepreneurial Health?

Every entrepreneur is unique. Where meal-delivery services and breathing exercises may work for one business owner, home cooking and meditation may work for another. And there’s nothing wrong with that. If there were a one-size-fits-all solution for staying healthy and fit as a business owner, doing so would be easy.

So, I’m curious: What’s your secret to entrepreneurial health