How to Avoid Deadly Stress When Growing a Cleaning Company

Growing a cleaning company comes with a lot of stress. Here’s how you can avoid becoming too stressed out.

If you’re growing a cleaning company, you know the meaning of stress. It creeps up on you. You feel the tension in your neck. Your eyes are red, blurry, and tired. You feel a migraine approaching.

Long-term stress is very bad for you, in case you were unaware. A lifetime of chronic stress will kill you, and who wants to live like that anyway? When asked as a child, “what do you want to be when you grow up,” no one has ever responded, “stressed!” Yet stress is chronic in our culture.

It doesn’t have to be. Sure, there will always be difficult situations and events that don’t go our way, but feeling stressed is not mandatory. Consider a few ways to avoid stress:

1. When Growing a Cleaning Company, Delegating can be Hard

You’re an expert. You know your standards and you work your fingers to the bone to make sure that standard is never compromised. You can do the job better and faster than anyone else. Here is the rub. As you work on growing your cleaning company, you may find yourself increasingly overwhelmed by doing everything yourself. You will not effectively be able to continue at the same pace.

Finding the right people for your organization is no easy task, but it is absolutely critical. In order to feel confident in delegating responsibilities, you need to know that the work will be done correctly and punctually. Once you have the right people, delegate the work. Get things off your plate so you can focus more effectively on critical tasks.

2. Busy Work

Remember in high school when you had a substitute teacher? Sometimes they wouldn’t have anything to teach so they would hand out meaningless busy work? It was great if you wanted a break from whatever you were supposed to be learning and frustrating if you were really into the subject matter.

When I was in college and things would get stressful, I had a bad habit of conveniently finding something else to do. Basically, I would create my own busy work. My roommate and I called it study procrastination. It was amazing the creative projects we could invent just to avoid studying. Sometimes it was reorganizing the apartment or working on an important project like building a better water balloon launcher.

Years later when I was running my cleaning company, I sometimes felt the same impulse to engage in the same type of procrastination. Often times this took the form of busy work which wasn’t terribly important but was easier or more enjoyable than what really needed to be done.

These days distractions are myriad. We are constantly surrounded by media in a hundred different forms constantly tempting us away from our work. One can easily waste immense amounts of time on social media or watching YouTube videos (not that I know anything about that).

3. Get Away from Your Cleaning Company

One of the hardest things you can do when you’re feeling overwhelmed is to stop for a minute and do nothing. So many demands, so many problems that only you can solve! How will anything get done if you don’t do keep going?

I’m not even talking about vacations here, although those are also very important for your health and well being. Instead, I mean taking short, intentional breaks from the chaos. This could include a few minutes to breathe and stare out the window at the clouds or taking a walk around the block. Heck, even just taking an actual lunch break away from your desk at a nearby restaurant!

Frequent breaks from work have proven to be essential for both your mental and physical health, increasing productivity and creativity. Sometimes a short break is all you need. Sometimes you need something more drastic.

Recently I’ve decided to periodically change my work location to the woods. I know that maybe this sounds weird, but it’s actually been amazingly productive for me. I found a spot where I can get a clear cell signal. I set up my hammock, break out the laptop and enjoy the peaceful, quiet of nature while I work. The absolute absence of distraction is amazing.

Understandably, not everyone can pack up and go work in the woods, but some kind of change in location can be incredibly beneficial if you can pull it off. Maybe there is an unused office in your building that you can sneak away to and lock the door? How about a picnic table in a nearby park? Or, you could try the roof of your building or a nearby café.

Whatever the case, challenge yourself to take frequent breaks. Make it a part of your organization’s culture. Encourage employees to take these small breaks too. You will see an increase in productivity and overall wellbeing of your staff.

4. Practice Peace

Do you ever experience anxiety at work? Demands, deadlines, expectations, they pile up and the tension builds in your neck and shoulders. Living your whole career in this state is unhealthy in every way and absolutely counterproductive to your success.

It’s unlikely that you can eliminate all the sources of stress in running your cleaning company, but you can mitigate their effects with the right stress-reducing activities.

Stretching

Stretching is a great way to reduce stress. Set a reminder or wear a smartwatch to notify you when it’s time to stand up and stretch. Learn a handful of stretches you can do at work in your office. Then make them a habit.

Exercise

Physical activity is good for many reasons, but one of the best outcomes is stress reduction. Whether it’s a brisk walk or intense cardio, you will feel less stressed after. A lifestyle of activity and exercise will not only alleviate the stress of the moment but also reduce overall stress and increase job performance.

Hobbies

Take up painting, carpentry, or knitting. You don’t have to be good at it, you just have to enjoy it. Engaging yourself in an activity other than work is a great escape. Find something that makes you feel peaceful, content, and fulfilled. Watching TV doesn’t count as a hobby!

Sleep

The importance of sleep cannot be overstated. Quality sleep can profoundly improve your state of mind as well as your performance at work. For quality sleep, experts suggest going to bed early, avoiding phone screens right before bed, cutting out caffeine after lunch, and making the bedroom dark and cool. Figure out the optimal combination for you to sleep deeply and wake up well-rested and refreshed. Consistent good sleep decreases stress and increases a sense of peace and wellbeing.

Wake Up Early

It can be a struggle to wake up early. It’s a hard habit to start and make stick, but think about how much stress you could eliminate from your day if you didn’t start it by running behind. Consistently waking up even 30 minutes earlier will allow you to take your time to get ready, enjoy a nice healthy breakfast, and start your day peacefully.

It’s Not Impossible

Believe it or not, you can have both a successful, growing cleaning company and a peaceful, relatively stress-free life. Don’t think of it as adding yet another thing to your already long list. Rather just pick one thing you can do today to reduce some stress and do it. Do it again tomorrow, the next day, and the next, until stress reduction becomes a habit.