Recharging

Just are there are crunch times, it is also important to find ways to effectively recharge. Recharging makes it easier to be upbeat when stressful moments arise, increases overall productivity, and prevents burnout.

Regular recharging coupled with well-planned vacations have been good for me. Everyone recharges a bit differently. What’s important is to be effective, so that you’re not just squandering time and coming back to work with an empty tank. Here are ways I recharge:

• Family time. Great for getting priorities right, re-balancing, and putting  things into perspective. Dinner with family on a regular basis and quarterly getaways are ideal.
• Personal time. I get 60-80 minutes of personal time each day during my commutes. That’s the only alone time I get in my life, so I make good use of it and have come to enjoy it.
• Religious worship. Sundays are set aside for church and family. I try to avoid working at all on Sundays, though not perfectly. It sometimes mean I have to worker harder on other days, but the weekly consistency of a day set apart is great for me.

Startup work itself can be naturally recharging too. It’s invigorating to be challenged by building your own business. It’s a consuming thought stream and todo list.

Regular exercise is also great for recharging, but often easy to let slide due to time constraints. A great story on this topic is described in Mark Suster’s, “The Yo-Yo Life of a Tech Entrepreneur.”

How do you recharge?