One of those mornings today.

Woke up late, tired (and a little grumpy to be fair). Child was disorganized and consequently we were late out the door and late to school which makes me stressed. I hate being late for anything, I think it’s rude, but for school especially as I know that it’s disruptive to the classroom and I feel that it’s disrespectful to the teacher.

Made it home again in a bit of a flap to find that I had missed 2 phone calls which are important, although not super urgent, to my business. I needed to phone them back and my first instinct, given their importance, was to do so immediately. But I also recognized the importance of allowing myself some time to chill the F out before I did that. I was probably not in the best frame of mind to be making those calls. I needed to be in the right Headspace.

So I decided to reset and restart my day. I crawled back into bed for a little bit (bliss), got up again, had a leisurely breakfast and coffee, and now I feel much more relaxed and happy which will undoubtedly lead to a much more productive day than had I not done that.

I had the luxury to do this today as I’m working from home and my time is my own (no appointments and few commitments today). This will not always be the case of course.

However, back in my corporate working days I would often do something similar. No, I didn’t go home to bed or crawl up in the corner of my office, but I would often stop and reset. If things started to get a bit chaotic – deadlines, paperwork everywhere, demands of me and my time, a lengthy to-do list – I found that if I took the time to stop, despite the deadlines and workload, and organize the chaos, whether that be the chaos in my mind or the physical chaos in my office, that I could proceed in a much more productive and efficient way than had I not stopped at all. That’s another form of reset and restart.

You know, we try so hard to please our customers and colleagues and to live up to their and our own expectations, but we are not doing anybody any favours, especially ourselves, when we push ourselves too hard.

Sometimes it might just take 5 or 10 minutes of closing your eyes and breathing deeply, or getting out of your chair and making a cup of herbal tea. Sometimes those small spaces in between are all that is needed for a mental reset. At other times it might be the half an hour to do your filing so that you’re not drowning in paperwork and can easily put your hands on something when you need it.

Whatever it is, try to recognise when it’s needed and allow yourself the luxury of a reset and restart. I’m sure that you’ll see that it’s worth it.