Bipolar Business

One of the first things that I mention about myself as a business professional is not usually the fact that I suffer from Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia and PTSD. Being Bipolar is something that affects my life everyday as a mom, as a person and quite often as a business owner.

Even today, as I write this blog for my website, I am undergoing a manic episode. So, how do I do it? How do I balance my own mental illness while managing a full time company? The truth is, now I don’t. That was a major decision for me. To step away from being a full time agency owner and stepping back down into freelance work. The truth of the matter is though that I did it for three years and I learned tips that I am going to share with you today to help you manage your business while also managing your own mental health.

One of the most important things that I can tell you about being a business owner and managing your mental health is your sleep schedule. A proper sleep schedule can look different for different people. I was never the person that could manage getting eight hours of sleep in a row every night and to be honest, I found that I did not need it. There are many different kinds of sleep schedules that may work for you. The idea here is to get consistent sleep, not necessarily more sleep. A triphasic sleep schedule ended up working the best for me. I always have gotten a rush of energy late at night and scheduling your work around your mental health is so important. We are going to discuss just that further down in this blog.

A triphasic sleep schedule for me looked like going to bed when my son does around 7:30 PM but only for two hours. Then I will wake up around 9:30 PM, drink an entire bottle of water and usually I leave editing for my nights. I would go back to sleep around 3:30 AM and then I would wake up around 7 AM to get my son up and ready to catch his van to school. Then I take another nap usually between 11 AM and noon. This accomplishes six and a half hours of sleep per day. This also allows me to feel more rested when I am working in shifts and with the balancing of my son’s mental health, working at night allows me more time to take care of him during the day.

The next thing that I want to discuss is how I manage my task management around my mental health. This was very important and the first thing I did was take the time to write down what affect my mental health had on me on a day to day basis. Being honest with myself about how much I could take on and where I needed to make compromises was vital to accomplishing my goals. My PTSD caused random episodes and I knew that I could not create my schedule around it. I started to plan around my Bipolar Disorder and My schizophrenia. One of the first things that I had to do was get on a healthy medication schedule. For this I used Talkspace. Talkspace allowed me to choose a provider on my own and meet with them on my own schedule. Finding mental healthcare coverage is not always easy and Talkspace gave me an affordable way to manage my mental health that I still use today. (Talkspace does not sponsor this blog.)

I knew that the major things that I had to manage were manic episodes, depression episodes, paranoia and hallucinations. Isn’t that what every prospective client wants to hear from the person handling their business. Block scheduling and time blocking were major for me when it came to managing my time in a way that helped me balance my mental health. I watched many YouTube videos on time blocking, scheduling and ironically procrastination. It did not happen overnight. I learned to be fair with myself. I learned that some days I had to allow myself a mental health day. I also made sure my staff knew that if they ever asked for a mental health day, no questions would be asked. They could simply give me as much notice as they could and take a day for themselves.

Mental health is not widely talked about when it comes to business owners and I think that the conversation needs to be held in a big way! I learned how to manage my time. I learned that I did editing better late at night and that when I am manic, I get all of my writing done. I learned to do human resource work when I was in a depressive episode and I learned that taking a day to myself was the most important thing that I could do at certain times. You are the most essential tool in your business. Never forget to take care of your mental health.

Talkspace: https://friend-referral.talkspace.com?refid=1986627

Youtube channels I use to learn to organize my self care and time management:

https://www.youtube.com/user/Sepharoth64

https://www.youtube.com/user/themattragland

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-ga3onzHSJFAGsIebtVeBg

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ24N4O0bP7LGLBDvye7oCA