Growing up as a First-Generation Woman pushes you to focus on school, then college, then career—because of how important having a career is, an everyday routine is built around getting a degree so you can be ’employable’ and earn enough money to take care of yourself and your family. The pressure of cultural and societal norms to succeed makes you prioritize education and career over self-care. As a result, there’s hardly room to discover who you are or what you want.

The life of an entrepreneur is one of freedom and opportunities. You have the opportunity to set your terms, control your destiny, and create a life that you design. But sometimes, even with the right opportunities, we often feel trapped living a workaholic lifestyle while being unable to break free from it. We want to change our situation but don’t know the best way to make these changes happen.

The Biggest Challenge of First-Generation Entrepreneurs

The hustle is real, whether you’re just starting as a first-generation entrepreneur or have been grinding for a while. The biggest challenge that first-generation entrepreneurs face is building up their businesses while also building themselves as people and leaders. They wake up early because the morning hours are a quiet time where they can exercise, meditate, read books, or catch up on work without being distracted by random tasks or interruptions from co-workers. They go to bed early because it allows them to get more sleep while still having enough time to do the things they enjoy.

3 Essential Routine as A First-Generation Entrepreneur

Being an entrepreneur offers many opportunities to create a life for yourself that you design. The key to doing so is to establish routines that take care of your mental and physical health. Habits and routines are a very important part of organizing an entrepreneur’s life. That is why Morning routines, Night routines, and Lunch routines are essential to your energy levels, health, mental clarity, and effectiveness as an entrepreneur.

Morning Routine:

Start your day with a morning routine by waking up 15 minutes earlier to check in with yourself, pray, meditate and set intentions for the day. This gives you time to reflect on your goals and aspirations, helps you start your day with a clear mind, and has even been shown to impact health positively. Here are some suggestions:

1. Feel grateful for everything you have in your life. Think about all the good fortune that brought you to this point in your life and how it feels to be alive. Envision where you’ll be at the end of the day and how it feels to achieve that goal.
2. Meditate if you are so inclined, or lie there quietly without doing anything else.   This is also where you can do mental housekeeping
3. Reflect on what’s going well and what isn’t, make adjustments as needed, forgive yourself for mistakes, decide what matters most to you right now and what you’re going to do about it.  

We all know that we’re supposed to eat lunch, but how many of us actually do it? Also working through lunch is more common than ever. Eating with intention, without distractions is beneficial because not only does this allow time for attending to your body’s natural rhythm of eating on time, but also allows the brain and body to slow down and have time to communicate with each other. It’s an opportunity to make that mind-body connection, which we lose most of the day when we’re rushing all the time, and pushing our bodies past their limits. Whatever you do, don’t just shove food down your throat! And stop eating on the go! Stress impacts your stomach and ability to properly digest so take your time and be intentional. And this is a shame because the next hour or so after you finish eating is when you are least likely to overeat later in the day.

You probably know that if you eat an early dinner and then go to bed, you’ll wake up hungry a few hours later. To understand why, it helps to remember that your body has its own internal clock, one that’s separate from the clock on your wall or a computer. This is because your brain’s master clock sends out signals telling your body when to expect food again.

Finding an appropriate time for lunch is a lot like planning the proper time for a nap; ideally, you want to give yourself enough time in between meals to satisfy your brain’s expectations without giving yourself so much time that you end up lying awake in bed for an hour or two. Plus, you get a chance to catch up with friends or other loved ones.

Bedtime Routine:

A bedtime routine allows you to move from being an ordinary human being, stressed and tired, to be a calm and content person. Give yourself 30-60 mins before bed to:

1. Journal Gratitude: Write three things that happened that day that made you feel grateful, as well as three things that you’re looking forward to in the coming day. It’s almost like meditation as you focus on all these positive things. This helps you stay grounded and enables you to remember positive things throughout the day, making you feel good.
2. Check intention for tomorrow: Write down three intentions for tomorrow (usually work-related). This is great because it sets your mind up for success in the morning, so you’re already thinking about what you want
3. Read a book: Read a book (probably fiction) you are interested in stimulating your body to prepare for a restful night.
4. Meditate: This can help you wind down from work. Usually, 10-20 minutes of meditation is plenty. If stress is really high, sometimes more than one session is helpful. This can be in the morning and at night, depending on the day.

Conclusion

Creating time for yourself can be difficult when you are elbow deep in tasks and deadlines day to day. But creating small chunks of dedicated time for oneself is the best way to get back in touch with your needs and what you want to accomplish. Self-care is a practice! If you have a regular practice, create space in your schedule to practice it. If It’s a ritual, then make a small amount of dedicated time and space each morning and evening – even if it means clearing the decks entirely of other “things” that you need to do! Forming a routine helps your mind and body set aside appropriate space and time to be mindful.