Taking time OFF

[dobermann lover]

How do you manage it? When I started this massage path, I never anticipated doing the work full-time. I intended to work a job that paid well so I could go to work 3 days a week and make 3x the money I was making as a nanny.

Imagine my surprise when I found I LOVED it... and also to find that I will work 5 days a week, not to mention paperwork and self-education, which takes up additional time.

But...

I've been having troubles with my wrist, I have had a ganglion cyst for 3-4 years in my left wrist, right in the center, dorsal side. After the first year it never caused me any problems except in the very end range of wrist extension. Last week it deflated on its own. This week I had terrible aching and pain in the area. Tender to palpate, tender to move the wrist, etc.

So I did what any sensible :?: :roll: LMT would do, I crammed 15 clients (one is a 3.5 hour corporate gig,) into 3.5 days and blocked off a full (extra) day. (Something tells me that's not what my body means when it says "take a day off, Stace!" :

Anyways, does anyone with a full schedule ever just randomly block out an entire day, just because? Or when you're hurting?

(btw, I went to the acupuncturist yesterday. She stuck a needle in my wrist. It hurt like mad. Hurt all the rest of the day, last night... I woke up this morning completely pain-free with full ROM restored. :shock: )

 

[Sea Of Love]

My situation is a little different, since I'm only part time MT, as I have an additional thriving business. Sundays are my day off, period end of story... Monday is supposed to be, but right now I'm doing some chair massage promoting myself... (long story)

How I do my schedule is that the first people to make appoints pick what days I'm the "MT" I usually massage 3 days a week, 2 days in the "office", 1/2 day chair massage, and 1 day completely off. Once I have a couple of days booked for the week, I block the rest of the time off. There is no reason you can't do that. Besides its good to say, sorry I have nothing available that day, what about next week?

And yes, I now do randomly block of days so I can take time off and do stuff as well, especially if I want to do stuff on Saturday.

If you need the time, take it, you deserve it! Besides if you don't take care of yourself, how can you take care of your clients?

 

[Tofu]

Stacey, I don't work on Wednesdays and schedule small blocks of time during work days to rest. I have diffuse OA with areas of more intense pain. I'm beginning to be concerned that I may be developing bone spurs in rotator cuff area, based on what used to be intermittent pain, and has now become chronic very localized pain. I also become so stiff during the day, I use these rest times to stretch and refresh between clients.

Working this way, is what's keeping me working. I think it's a wise thing to do. My husband thinks maybe I should quit, but I just can't. In 18 years of being an MT, the last 5 have been the most successful for me. I'll will only quit when I'm not serving my clients well.

wellnessgarden

 

[H.E DUBBLE HOCKEY STICKS]

Stacey!

Sorry about your wrist. Hope all is getting better now.I try to block off chunks of time during the week for rest,relaxation,and running errands and getting massage and bodywork and/or Reiki for myself. I have been very fortunate to have had a large part of the last few Fridays off, because I have had no appts.,so I have relished the time.I work a 4hour block on Saturdays from 12N-4PM,that if I have no appts.,can also be used as more time off. NO Sunday work at all,no matter what!

Love and Light-
Johnny

 

[Jig]

Make that 17 clients. I have no brain. Seriously. I am doggedly holding onto my Thursday open day this week. I don't ever work on Sundays or Mondays, but usually book up on Thursday. (Actually I have one evening outcall on Thursday, so it's not quite an entire day off.)

I'm going to get my hair cut and go back to the acupuncturist. I currently have the WORLD'S WORST HAIRCUT, and I have to go have it fixed. (I cheated on my regular stylist, shame on me, Does that qualify as an injury? 'Cause it's sure painful to look at! :evil: )

 

[the only dode]

i schedule health days for myself, about every 2-3 weeks where i don't do anything labor intensive. i may do my accounting, marketing, or the infrared wraps,but i don't do massage/reflexology those days.

good luck and GET SOME REST!
amanda

 

[Ann-G]

Taking time OFF

I never anticipated doing the work full-time. I intended to work a job that paid well so I could go to work 3 days a week and make 3x the money I was making as a nanny.

Ah, so YOU were that evil person "in it for the money" that those students love to hate! t077

Seriously, I have no advice for you as my practice is currently not as many days/clients per week as yours. I do occasionally block off a regular workday when I am just exhausted -- not as much now as when our son was really tiny.

Is this an issue because of regulars, or is it just difficult to justify? (The rest, the lost income, whatever . . . )

Glad your "bible cyst" is on the mend -- what a pain!

 

[Danabell]

Hey, Breathe!

My vote is with taking off the time when you need it. You have a highly successful practice, and you need to take care of yourself! I will just block out a whole day for ME whenever I feel I need to. (And don't spend it catching up on paperwork, doing sheets etc. -- do something for YOU!) As discussed in another thread, we all wear many hats as MTS- promotion, paperwork, accounting, cleaning . . . on and on.)

When I block out a ME day and enjoy it -- I come back so refreshed and ready to work!!! It makes me appreciate even more what I do. My clients are constantly asking me, "How do you have the stamina to do this all day? Or how many clients do you see every day?" I tell them that I do for myself what I recommend they all do -- take a day off and do something special for me.

I constantly give this advice in my stress workshops -- so it looks better if I follow it myself! :

Take a breather, Breathe!

Keep us posted, Muscle Squisher!

Sherry

 

[The One Known As Anthony]

Taking time OFF

Ah, so YOU were that evil person "in it for the money" that those students love to hate! t077

heehee, I was! Well, it took me the first two hours of my first class, (Shiatsu,) before I realized I had made the luckiest decision of my life. But up until then, the decision was mostly $$ related.

Is this an issue because of regulars, or is it just difficult to justify? (The rest, the lost income, whatever . . . )

I can be quite income oriented... I like to make more per hour so I can work less hours. : Taking time off has never been an issue if I could work it out without being "irresponsible." My problem right now is that I have regulars, some of whom are receiving massage for treatment of injuries. I feel like if I take on a new case, I need to make sure I have room in my schedule for them to come in often enough to make progress. I have enough other appointments in my schedule (non-MVA, non-injury, just good ol' reliable, regulars : ) that fitting in the injury work is tough.

 

[stupidone!]

Taking time OFF

So I did what any sensible :?: :roll: LMT would do, I crammed 15 clients (one is a 3.5 hour corporate gig,) into 3.5 days and blocked off a full (extra) day. (Something tells me that's not what my body means when it says "take a day off, Stace!" :

That is funny! When I do schedule random days off to give myself a "break" I always overload on the other days to make up for my off day...what kind of craziness is that?

Thankfully I have not been forced into taking days off because of illness or injury. It seems, though, that I am constantly juggling my family/work time. Sometimes it seems like my schedule is meeting everyones' needs but mine! A few weeks ago I was pulling my hair out needing a break so bad but as I looked at my calendar I realized it would be nearly another month before I could cross off a day (and even then it was after my early morning appointment). But I did mark it off and started filling all the other days before it to financially justify it. But I also decided to stop taking appointments 6 days a week as well. So I crossed off Saturdays after the last scheduled Sat appointment. And I am looking forward to having two full days off in a row. As it stands right now, once I get 16 scheduled, I start scheduling for the next week. And truly my limit is 18....well.....definitely no more than 20 a week. I also break up the week by taking a shift at our other business....it's a great chance to read.

 

[RachelS165]

I schedule most of my clients Monday - Thursday because on Fridays, I drive to Columbus to teach an energy healing class in the afternoon at a holistic health clinic run by a dear friend of mine.

That leaves my Fridays open until I have to leave town to go teach class. UNLESS, there are no classes scheduled, then I have a total day off! Use it to get my hair done, lunch with friends, get bodywork done, sit on my butt and do virtually nothing but "veg" in front of the tv..... don't even answer the phone in my office on Fridays, for any reason. The answering machine gives my hours as Monday - Thursday 30am till 7pm with all other times by special arrangement, so, it never bothers me when the phone rings and I don't answer it.... that's my only real day off during the week [or even partial day off when there are classes].

Saturdays and Sundays are for running errands, spending "hubby time" when he's not working over time, participation in health fairs, holistic expos, etc.

Both clients and friends know my schedule and don't abuse it. They know I need down time to stay on top of my game.

 

[The Jenz]

Taking time OFF

I've been having troubles with my wrist, I have had a ganglion cyst for 3-4 years in my left wrist, right in the center, dorsal side. After the first year it never caused me any problems except in the very end range of wrist extension. Last week it deflated on its own. This week I had terrible aching and pain in the area. Tender to palpate, tender to move the wrist, etc.

Breathe, this has been my experience. Your body starts to send you signals that you need to take a break and give your body some "rehab" time. If you follow these signals then everything works out fine. If you ignore these signals and continue on then your body will take matters into it's own hands (so to speak) and force you to take time off, which is usually a lot of time.

In my case I had started to have shoulder pain that was unlike my "normal" traps, levator muscular pain. What did I do? I ignored it. Afterall, I'm Superwoman!!!!!!! I can do anything!! So, I continued on with my normal 25-30 massages a week. So since I ignored the pain signals, the next thing that happened was that I lost most of my ROM in my shoulder (could only raise my arm to maybe a 45 deg angle) and the pain level got ramped to to unignorable levels.

So, after 2 surgeries, many months of PT and losing a combined total of 9 months of income (thank God for work/comp) I now listen to my body.

If your body is telling you to take a day (or 2 or what the heck even 7) then you need to make it happen. You can't help any of your clients if you're unable to massage at all.

Angie

 

[MelkyForPrez]

You guys are so smart. I think I'm going to take a week off in April. I deserve it, and it's about time.

 

[leah5302003]

t023 t041 : :beerchug: :dancingparty: t038 :woohoo: t026

Translation: Way to go, Breathe! Clear that week NOW!

Sherry

 

[Eris]

A friend of mine sugested I start writing my name in the appointment book so energeticaly that time "as taken" and when a client would call I would glance at the book and not see any empty spaces. That kind of educated my mind to not overbook myself.
I got very sick from overworking and it took a long time to recover. Not worth it. Now I don't do more than 4.5 hours of hands on in a day and I'm never in pain!

 

[Jonathan]

Woo-hoo! Take a trip up the coast and I'll put you on my books! :

 

[ano]

You guys are so smart. I think I'm going to take a week off in April. I deserve it, and it's about time.

Youn definitely should. If you can afford 9 days (throw some weekends in there), I highly recommend it.

You'd be amazed at what 9 days will do for you. Especially if you can go away from where you live. It doesn't even have to be an expensive vacation. Get a hut in the woods, or something cheap if you like - but, coming back off 9 days, I have found, works better than coming back off 7.

Now, of course, if you could take 3 weeks...........................

 

[IrredeIncarve]

Along with everyone else's sound advice, remember its hard to take care of others if you're not well. I take a 1 -2 week vacation (either relaxing at home or actually going somewhere) three or four times a year. I think that has really done wonders. Also, I no longer work 6 days a week, either. For a little over a year I was working 6 days a week on about 30-35 clients. No more, I finally cut it down to Mon-Thurs about 16-18 clients weekly (20 if I'm feeling like going shopping!).

By doing this I have definitely taken a cut in finances but I finally realized that my health and wellbeing are too valuable. Now I can't even imagine how I worked that much. Although, I wasn't suffering any physical pain from working so much, I was beginning to show a couple early signs of burn-out.

 

[STUPID IDIOTZ LOLZZ]

A friend of mine sugested I start writing my name in the appointment book so energeticaly that time "as taken" and when a client would call I would glance at the book and not see any empty spaces. That kind of educated my mind to not overbook myself.

That's a great idea! I'm going to borrow that one

Lisa

 

[Aziz]

Make that 17 clients. I have no brain. Seriously. I am doggedly holding onto my Thursday open day this week. I don't ever work on Sundays or Mondays, but usually book up on Thursday. (Actually I have one evening outcall on Thursday, so it's not quite an entire day off.)

I'm going to get my hair cut and go back to the acupuncturist. I currently have the WORLD'S WORST HAIRCUT, and I have to go have it fixed. (I cheated on my regular stylist, shame on me, Does that qualify as an injury? 'Cause it's sure painful to look at! :evil: )

Is that the hair in your picture?? Just kidding.

I think you need to take 3 days off, and come get a MN massage. Then you'll have to move here and work with me in my businesss. What a great idea. How soon can you be here?