Life as an entrepreneur

I have been an entrepeneur for 17 years. It is, of course, a big part of my life. The line between work and other personal life is thin, especially in those days, when I work from my home office.

During these years I’ve come to know myself better. To avoid stress, I need to remember three things:

1. I need time to think.
2. I need means to detach myself from work.
3. Concentrate on one thing at a time.

Here are some of my methods to keep my mind healthy.

Westie and time to think

We have a 5-year old Westie, Eino, who really is a sweet character. Usually my day starts like this: I start work at 7:00 AM. I work for half an hour.

At 7:30 AM, Eino wanders to my office and pokes me in the leg. It’s amazing how punctual he is! We go for a nice walk in the woods for about half an hour. During this walk I go through everything I need to do that day. Half an hour of thinking, without computers and mobile phones.

I often take Eino for his evening walk too, we walk an hour and a half. I usually ponder something during this walk, for example, the idea for this post I had during my walk Wednesday evening.

I like to listen to webinars, as they work fine as listen only. Usually there are many distractions, so I’m finding hard to find time to listen to webinars, but walking with the dog I can really concentrate. I’ve listened to dozens of webinars this way.

Get a break with the 90’s

Friday evenings from 8:00PM to 10:00PM there’s a show called “Best Before” on YLE radio. Two hours of music from the 90’s, hosted by Matti Airaksinen.

So, on Friday evening we go for a “Best Before-Walk” with Eino. Listening the beats from the 90’s is a great way to detach myself from work for the weekend. “Know that song- quiz” is a must, and I’m always amazed how the true fans know the songs from few notes.

Sometimes on Friday evenings there are other things to do and go. But no worries, YLE Arena ensures that we can do our “Best Before-walk” on a Saturday. I haven’t missed a show in two years.

Electric rabbit

At the beginning of summer, I sometimes feel like an electric rabbit. Holiday is on its way and everything needs to be ready. But, like I’ve witnessed many times before, doing multiple things at once is not effective. Of course you can do them, but getting things finished isn’t that easy. I feel much more refreshed after a work day, if I’ve gotten the chance to concentrate on doing real things. When I’ve done too many things at once, I feel completely spent. Luckily, little evening rampage with Eino is always refreshing. I’m sure people with Westies know what I’m talking about.