A few weeks ago, a discussion about days off and vacations sparked a lively debate in our group. In particular stress seemed to be a topic on everyone’s mind. Hearing this, I reached out to Dr. Dan Blum, a licensed clinical psychologist, and expert in stress relief, sleep therapy, and general wellness.

During our conversation Dan shared several tips for relieving stress as a business owner. Among his suggestions are keeping balance in four quadrants in your life and taking mental health breaks. Our full Q&A is below.

Square (SQ): Starting a business is incredibly stressful. There are a million things you have to do every day and a million things on your mind when you go home. What’s your advice for helping someone to unwind after a particularly long or stressful day?

Dan Blum (DB): Everyone has their own techniques that help them. In general, I suggest  people try to keep the balance in four quadrants of their life:

1) Sleep

• Get enough sleep every night. A new study by the National Sleep Foundation found adults need 7-9 hours per night.

• A lot of people have stress which makes it hard to fall or stay asleep. One key is to keep a consistent bedtime.

• Add a buffer zone of 30-60 minutes before bedtime: No work, no electronic screens, and especially don’t do any of that stuff in your bed.

2) Exercise

• Make sure you get enough exercise every week. A 10 minute walk in the morning, 10 minutes at lunch, and 10 minutes after work. If you do that five days a week you’re done.

• Then do two days of push ups or sit ups. Weight training like that with just your bodyweight is enough.

3) Diet

• Visit choosemyplate.gov. You can find out what diet is best for you. Everyone has their balance. I usually recommend 45-65% complex carbs, 10-15% fats, 10-15% protein.

4) Water

• You need to drink at least half your bodyweight in ounces every day. However many pounds you weigh, divide that in half and that’s how many ounces you need.

The Energy Project has a lot of good information about balance as well. They use energy buckets, with each bucket divided into quadrants: emotional health, physical health, mental focus, and spiritual purpose. I like the language that they use, it’s very accessible. The categories are based on the science around elite performers and athletes. Stay in your performance zone in each one.

Another study I saw recently talks about maximizing your output during the day by taking breaks. This is a tough thing for business owners. But if you’re able to take a break between your work, even a short one or by doing something less strenuous for a bit, you’ll be better off.

SQ: What are small, specific things business owners can do to help better manage or reduce stress? Do you recommend specific tactics for before the day starts or during the day?

DB: The best tactics for reducing stress are individual and unique for each person. This is what I’ve found in my practice:

Beginning of the day

• Give yourself a buffer and a couple deep breaths before embarking on what you’re doing.

• Do a short meditation. Even as short as one to two minutes before you go into work.

• Other people want a buffer that’s more physical, like walking around or a short exercise.

During the day

• Stand up, change rooms or your environment from time to time if you can. Our bodies are good at picking up subtle clues from our environment. If you change rooms you can reset and calm your body before settling back into your work

Another thing you can do is drink a cold glass of water. That can slow your breathing and lower your body temperature, which helps to slow your mind down. If you’re feeling agitated then everything in your body’s elevated and our brain will interpret that as stress. You can short circuit this by drinking water and slowing the physiological process.

SQ: What’s the best way for a busy entrepreneur to recharge? Do you recommend taking at least a full day off each week? A full night’s sleep?

DB: The best way to work most productively for years is to take regular breaks each day.

Other methods for recharging include:

• Designating at least one day per week to not do work

• Getting a full night's sleep (which can be improved with regular exercise, good nutrition, and regular sleep schedules on weekdays and weekends)

• Adopting a regular centering practice (e.g. meditation, yoga, or other ways of being mindful in the moment).

• Constructive worry time. 

Many people worry about a lot of things, especially at night. This type of worry is often unproductive. So a good way to counteract this is to set aside a time during the day (~20 minutes) to write down all of these worries.

• Once you have a list, write one thing you can do about each one. If you can't think of anything, write down "can't do anything about that now."

• Afterwards, you can fold the piece of paper and put it away (or close the application or window if you’re using technology).

• This exercise should take no more than 20 minutes total and should be done at least 1-2 hours before bedtime to keep enough of a temporal buffer.

SQ: How about vacations? What’s the advantage of taking one? How long should they be? Should they be spaced throughout the year?

DB: Vacations for small business owners can be both helpful (they need the distance from their work to reduce cumulative negative health effects of sustained stress levels) and stressful (still thinking about the business).

If you don't feel like you have the time or funds, it’s then even more important to reserve weekends as “mini vacations.” Activities that relax and rejuvenate you depend on what you like but some common activities include:

• Massage

• Acupuncture

• Socializing with friends

• Being in nature

• Making or eating a delicious meal

• If you have kids or pets, try taking an hour or two where you don't have to think about them at all (daycare). It’s not always possible but never underestimate the benefit of freeing your mindshare even for an hour

Planning your stay-cation can take some thought but doing one will help renew you for the next work sprint. In psychology they call it "think of self as tool," which means that your therapeutic presence is only as effective as your current emotional, physical, spiritual health. Self care will allow you to continue to show up as your best self more often.

SQ: To wrap up the conversation I’d like to dig into the repercussions of staying consistently stressed out. How does the stress affect those people physically and mentally? What steps can they take to handle it?

DB: Stress puts you at risk for cardiovascular disease, stroke, obesity, morbidity, depression, and a range of unhealthy outcomes. Some people will continue to go until they’re burned out. When they physically can’t do any more that’s their sign that they need to stop.

Here are some of the best ways to handle overwhelming stress:

• For some people, physical exercise or regularly getting out of the office or shop, helps to combat stress each day.

• Maintaining good mental health can also be very helpful in managing stress. You need to talk with a professional, someone who’s unbiased and separated from your job.

• Meditation, or the mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) eight week course on meditation, can get you out of your head and your anxieties and get you back into the present. It’s not even about now. It’s going to be the next thing. You really need to be able to roll with that and let it flow with your life.

When you manage stress you feel more relaxed, get sick less often, heal from sickness more quickly, sleep better at night, you’re more present in your relationships, and happier in whatever you’re doing in school, work, and retirement.