When I wrote my recent article ‘Your Studio Lifestyle May Be Killing You - Here's How To Stop It Happening Fast’ it got a lot of interest, in fact, more than I imagined. It seems that many of those working in studios would like to have a healthier lifestyle. One question that was asked in the comments after my last article was ‘can you balance the high-pressure deadlines of a studio lifestyle and stay healthy?’
It’s a fair question. Only this week I’ve wished my clients would all talk to one another and work out when they all have deadlines rather than me having to hit three deadlines at the same time, does that sound familiar? Some days you don’t even have time to breathe, let alone think, eat or exercise.
I’m determined not to let a studio lifestyle kill me despite these pressures, so I’ve continued with my healthy diet, regular exercise, better sleep and all that improves the quality of my life as well as extending it.
But back to the question, surely to live a well-balanced life then deadlines have to be compromised, clients become unhappy, and income goes.
So I decided to run the numbers on my life to see what impact living a healthier life had on my business. I’m self-employed, work from home and have a busy life meeting deadlines for clients, and of course, delivering high-quality work. In addition to this, I have parenting duties. This includes preparing breakfast, several trips to take my daughter to and from nursery and also the preparation of dinner twice a week when my wife is working on her masters. One morning a week I do a Pilates class to help with back problems caused by sitting in studios leaning over desks for years. I also have to walk the dog several times a week.
The Numbers
I've decided to look at the numbers since I made the change to my lifestyle from August 1st - October 1st 2018.
Health Changes
First, let's look at the health changes;
I now run about 3 miles three times a week. I get up at 6am to do this, it takes me about 35 minutes. In total, I've run over 50 miles in two months.
I've continued to enjoy a healthy diet, you can see more here. This includes taking some time for lunch each day.
I now sleep from about 11pm to 6am most nights.
I try not to work weekends and ringfence this for the family.
I've lost 25lbs (1.79 stone, or 11.34 kilos)
I have virtually eliminated all back issues.
But What About Deadlines And The Income?
Then I decided to analyse business income and projects completed compared to the months before I started this new healthy lifestyle.
I've completed more work in the last two months than in previous months, in fact, the 'healthy' two months have had some seriously hard projects with unbreakable deadlines.
The average income for the last two months compared to the previous seven this year is 25% higher per month.
Summary
Perhaps there's been a spike in work that accounts for the higher income numbers. Even if that is the case, this answers the question posed 'Can you balance the high-pressure deadlines of a studio lifestyle and stay healthy?
The answer is yes. I've been busier than ever and still been able to make choices to improve my health. As you can see I not only juggle a busy life in the studio, I also have responsibilties with the blogs as well as a busy family life.
This isn’t written to make you feel bad, on the contrary, I hope this encourages you to try and improve your lifestyle too. If I’m honest I used every excuse in the book to avoid eating better, reducing my alchohol consumption and taking regular exercise. I blamed being too busy, in fact I used every excuse in the book… there came a point where I just had to face the fact and make the changes required.