Work - Life Balance
As a self-employed massage therapist
Welcome back to another Monday with the Mavens. We created the Massage Mavens blog to connect with and educate self-employed massage therapists working to grow as business owners.
It can be lonely working for yourself – and we’re here to remind you that while you’re in business for yourself, you don’t have to be in business by yourself.
While we cater our content to independent MTs, all massage therapists are welcome here; whether you run your own independent massage therapy studio, you contract in a clinic, work in spa, or you are still in school.
Work - Life Balance
How do you clock off?
This question, and the struggle to truly answer it is not unique to massage therapists – throw a stone at a crowd and you’ll hit an entrepreneur who was too busy worrying about work to notice a rock flying at their face.
But it is perhaps more important for massage therapists to solve this struggle than it is for others. We spend our lives working to help people establish peace and balance in their own lives – and it’ll start to affect the quality and longevity of work if we can’t figure out that peace and balance for ourselves.
These guys have the right idea. #closedbutstillawesome
Here are some tricks that help me step away from “work brain” at the end of the day:
1. Turn off my work phone number.
o I have a google voice number for the office, and while it’s an app that lives IN my personal phone, I set the app to Do Not Disturb before I leave for the night.
2. Turn off my work email.
Work email is a Gmail account, and I mute the heck out of those notifications.
I also have a clause in my email signature that states which days and hours I DO check my inbox. This means that if someone chooses to take offence at my delayed response, I can reference the stated hours, and I’m no longer a slacker, they’re just not using their eyes / respecting the boundaries I already made clear.
3. Listen to loud, colorful music.
Whether it’s the Mama Mia soundtrack, or a Rob Zombie classic, you better believe my car is playing anything but the peaceful, zen, pan-flute station that’s been on all day.
4. Go to the gym to hit the IR sauna
5. Change my clothes
I personally own 5 sets of the same outfit – black scrub bottoms and black shirt – to keep my life and laundry simple. When I get home, the uniform comes off, and the home sweats go on. (Admittedly, this is extra necessary if I hit the sauna on the way home, but part of the routine either way.)
What do you do to help yourself step out of your work brain at the end of a day?
Thanks for stopping by!
As always, we’d love to hear how our content has helped you improve either your studio, your mindset, or your revenue as a self-employed massage therapist.
Rachel Martin, LMT, is an independent massage therapist living in Denver Colorado. Having built her solo massage studio to capacity, she now spends her free time helping other massage therapists do the same. Check out Six Figure Studios, Queen Street Marketplace, and The Techy MT to learn more.
