Why Busy Female Entrepreneurs Need to Stop Calling Rest Lazy...

As busy female business owners, we've all been there. That rare day with nothing scheduled, no urgent emails, and no client calls. What do we call it? A "lazy day." And doesn't that little phrase carry a surprising amount of baggage?

The language we use matters, especially when we're talking to ourselves. When we label our downtime as "lazy," we're subtly attaching judgment to our much-needed rest. It's as if we need to apologise for taking a break from being productive.

The Problem with "Lazy"
The word "lazy" implies a character flaw. It suggests we're indulging in something we shouldn't be, that we're failing to meet some standard. But is rest an indulgence?

Just like any high-performance tool, our minds and bodies need downtime to function optimally.

The Battery Metaphor
Think of yourself as a smartphone battery (stay with me). When you're constantly running multiple apps—managing clients, overseeing projects, handling admin tasks, not to mention personal responsibilities—your battery drains quickly. No one calls their phone "lazy" when it needs charging. They simply plug it in because they understand that's how it maintains functionality.

You wouldn't expect your phone to operate at 1% battery indefinitely. So why do you expect that of yourself?

Reframing Rest as Recovery

This isn't just semantic wordplay. Research in performance psychology shows that how we conceptualise rest affects how restorative it actually is. When we see rest as productive rather than indulgent, we experience greater benefits from it.

Permission to Recharge

As women in business, we often feel we need to prove ourselves by working harder and longer. We may have internalised the message that rest is a luxury we have to earn.

Consider this your official permission slip: You not only deserve to recharge—your business needs you to. Your productivity, creativity, decision-making, and leadership all depend on your energy levels.

The most successful entrepreneurs don't succeed despite taking time to recharge—they succeed because of it.