Founder reset: Admit One

I'm writing this to you from the land of sugar cane and bird spiders:

Far North Queensland.

Over the past week, I've taken a week away to enjoy a reset.

I've prioritised:

• catching up with family and friends

• swimming, hiking and wandering around the tropics

• unplugging devices and leaving my headphones at home

• breaking rhythms, habits and patterns to jumpstart a reboot

I got a DM yesterday about a potential client relationship and the best reply I could muster was:

"...my brain is scrambled from the sunshine but I'll reply on Friday"

It took me about five minutes to formulate that sentence.

Why am I sharing this?

I didn't reset anywhere near enough when I was a founder.

I would get sick or have a few extra beers to take the edge off.

My half-assed version of downtime was to walk to the local cafe with my laptop on Saturday morning, gulp down an extra-strong coffee and mash my keyboard for three hours.

The point?

As a founder, your company's problems take up a remarkable amount of rent-free space in your head.

In time, you manage to mute the ever-present background hum of things to do, but in the interim, here's your permission slip to take a breather.

Find a space to reset.

Put it on your calendar.

I recommend this Friday afternoon.

Unplug and see what flows through.