Its easy to say “just one more hour then I’ll shut down” or “today is my work day, I have to work on the business”, but it is also so important to listen to your body’s signals. Because my Master P only has 2 full days in daycare (as of this week 3!) I often feel the pressure to fit as much of a 40-50 hour week as I can into those 2 days, and I also work around his afternoon sleeps on the other days – but let’s face it that does not add up to 40 hours, nowhere even close. I’ve gotten better at listening to my body and that sometimes involves disconnecting in order to reconnect. What do I mean by that? Anyone who knows me will know that I love the internet, I love online games, social media and I love connecting with others via the net. But, even I know that it is possible to overload on too much “connecting” with others. Because the consulting and blogging I do are online based, there is often an overlap in my schedule of work and play (i.e I tweet for fun and work) but when I feel that I may be getting a bit overwhelmed, I try to implement these Guidelines for Disconnecting in order to reconnect with yourself. I recommend trying this especially if you have a home based business where the overlap with work and home often becomes blurred.

1. Shut the computer down early for the day. Take out a good old fashion pen and paper – make a to do list starting with the items you would have done first should you have continued working on the computer, then continue on with a list for the next day. Remember pen and paper? When you have finished the to do list, grab another piece of paper and let your mind wander – doodle, create, draw sketches. I’ve had some of my best brainstorms for blog posts and campaign ideas with pen and paper. SUPER TIP: yesterday when I left work I took my laptop but left my power cord there. That way I knew Iwas limiting myself to the 2 hours battery time for the evening.

2. Go walkabout. No better way to disconnect than to get up and take a walk, even if it is only around the block. You’ll get your blood pumping and return to the computer with a renewed energy. Take a leaf out of my son’s page: jump in puddles, roll in leaves and go sprinting up the sidewalk. Its a quick way to get renergized.

3. Shut those tabs down! I am very guilty of having 20 tabs open at once in Firefox. They are there daunting me cause I wonder all day long, when will I ever get the chance to look at them! Put aside 10 minutes to bookmark them with tags so that you can find them easily later on. And rather than using your computer’s normal bookmarking system why don’t you try bookmarking via a web social site like delicious, that way if you are ever away from your personal computer you can access your bookmarks from any computer via the internet.

4. Limit “socialising” to certain times of the day. It is becoming increasingly hard for us mums to separate social media networks like Twitter, Facebook and Ning sites from everyday business tasks. Social media has becoming an integral part of how alot of us are growing our businesses, so I don’t think their has to be a sharp separation. What I suggest is that you be true to yourself and set aside different parts of the day for different tasks…and stick with it! If you decide that the first 2 hours of your day are to be spent on Facebook, emails, Twitter and a coffee – that’s fine, but stick with it! Don’t let yourself get dragged into a full morning of tweeting when you should have been able to finish your stocktake or sent out invoices instead. It takes discipline, but it is so worth it. Not everyone needs to work this way, but for someone who is finding the online world overwhelming or daunting this is definitely the way to go. Start with 2 separate time slots in the day to check your online spaces and emails. With less interruptions, you’ll be more productive. As it become less overwhelming, you may want to keep Twitter or another network open all day and check it every hour or so.

5. Don’t login. Shock horror, I know, but have you ever thought about not loging into every single space you have online every single day. I’m asked to join alot of networks and frankly their is alot of overlap with some of them and some that I am asked to join do not really hold as much interest for me as others. I find it easy for me to catch up with important business contacts and friends on a few key sites, so I check those daily while checking the periphery networks only a few times a week.

Do you ever feel you need to disconnect from the internet in order to reconnect and be true to yourself? Tell me your secrets to keeping your online life in check.