As a business owner, self-care is something that we should never overlook.
So, you did all the planning.
Year-end review? Check. 2026 strategy with quarterly goals? Check. Content calendar mapped out? Check.
You’re organized, prepared, and ready to make next year incredible.
Now let me ask you something: where in that beautiful plan did you schedule rest?
I’m sitting here with my morning coffee looking at business plans from past years. Every single one has launches, content themes, revenue goals, and marketing strategies.
Not one of them has “take a week off” or “lighter workload this month” or “days when the goal is just maintaining, not growing.”
Want to know which years I actually hit my goals? The ones where I accidentally built in breathing room because life forced me to.
The years I followed my ambitious plans to the letter? I burned out by Spring and spent Summer recovering instead of growing.
Your strategy for next year is probably solid. But if it doesn’t include taking care of the person executing it, you’re setting yourself up to abandon it by March.
Today we’re talking about the missing piece of every business plan: the part where you protect your ability to actually show up.
The Planning Trap No one Warns You About
You know what’s wild?
We spend hours planning launches, mapping content, setting revenue goals, and organizing our business operations.
Then we treat our own wellbeing like an optional bonus feature that we’ll add later. IF there’s time.
And I’m here to tell ya: there’s never time.
Because we don’t make time. We make time for client calls and content creation and admin work and strategy sessions. But rest? Boundaries? Actual self-care?
Those get pushed to “when things calm down.”
And things never calm down.
I watched this happen to a business owner last year. Gorgeous annual plan. Quarterly launches. Weekly content. Consistent marketing.
All mapped out.
Beautifully.
By February she was crying over her laptop because she hadn’t taken a full day off since New Year’s.
By April she was seriously considering quitting her business.
Not because the business wasn’t working. Because she was.
Her plan didn’t fail. She just didn’t include herself in it.
What Self-Care Actually Looks Like in a Business Plan
Forget bubble baths and meditation apps for a minute.
Real business owner self-care looks like building sustainability into your actual strategy, not hoping you’ll remember to rest later.
Scheduled Downtime
Open your calendar for next year right now. I’ll wait…
Before you schedule launches or content sprints or networking events, block out REST.
Not “I’ll rest when this is done.” Actual scheduled weeks where the only goal is maintaining what you’ve built, not adding more.
I take most of August lighter every year. Not because I’m lazy, but because Q4 is intense and I need to be ready for it. That rest makes October through December possible.
My December is mostly maintenance mode. I’m not launching new things when everyone’s distracted by holidays. I’m preserving energy for January.
These aren’t optional breaks I take if everything goes perfectly. They’re scheduled like any other business activity because they ARE business activities.
Your ability to show up consistently matters more than your ability to hustle intensely.
Energy-Based Planning
Stop planning like you’re a productivity machine.
You have high-energy days and low-energy days. Creative mornings and administrative afternoons. Weeks when you’re on fire and weeks when you’re just maintaining.
Your yearly strategy should account for this.
I don’t schedule launches during weeks when I know I’ll be managing other life stuff. I don’t plan intensive content creation during months when I historically have less energy.
And I definitely don’t stack all my high-energy activities into the same quarter and wonder why I crash.
Look at your quarterly plan. If Q1 includes launching something new, creating a content library, starting a podcast, AND building out a new service, you’ve just guaranteed you’ll be exhausted by Valentine’s Day.
Spread it out. Give yourself quarters where you’re growing and quarters where you’re maintaining. Both are necessary.
The Maintenance Mindset
Your annual plan probably focuses on growth. New offerings. More content. Bigger reach.
But where’s the plan for maintaining what you’ve already built?
Some months, your biggest accomplishment should be showing up consistently to your existing business without adding anything new.
That’s not failing. That’s sustainability.
I learned this the hard way. One year I planned something new every quarter. New service. New course. New platform. New revenue stream.
By Q3 I wasn’t maintaining any of it well because I was too busy chasing the next new thing.
Now my planning includes “maintenance months” where I’m not launching or creating anything new. I’m making existing things excellent. Improving delivery. Gathering testimonials. Refining processes.
These months feel less exciting on paper but they’re what make my business sustainable.
The Boundaries Your Strategy Needs
Your annual plan needs boundaries built in, not added later when you’re already overwhelmed.
Working Hours That Actually End
When does your workday end?
Not “whenever I finish everything” because you’ll never finish everything. An actual time when work stops and life starts.
Mine is 5 PM. Some days I work later by choice, but the default is stopping at 5. This means my daily planning accounts for realistic work hours, not fantasy “I’ll just work until it’s done” hours.
If your 2026 strategy requires working nights and weekends to execute, your strategy is broken. Fix it now before you spend a year resenting your business.
Off-Limits Days
Which days are completely off-limits for work?
I don’t work Sundays. Ever. Even when a launch is happening or a deadline is approaching. That day is protected.
This forces me to plan better the other six days instead of counting on Sunday as my catch-up day.
Pick your off-limits days and treat them like client appointments you can’t cancel. Because they are. With yourself.
The Response Time Boundary
How quickly will you respond to emails and messages?
I respond to emails during business hours, usually within 24 hours. Anything sent Friday night gets answered Monday morning.
This is stated clearly in my email signature and onboarding materials. Clients know. They’re fine with it.
The ones who aren’t fine with it? Not my ideal clients anyway.
Your 2026 strategy should include your response time boundaries so you’re not teaching clients to expect instant replies at all hours.
Building Recovery Into Your Execution Plan
Every launch needs recovery time. Every intensive work period needs a lighter period after.
This isn’t optional. It’s how humans work.
Post-Launch Recovery
You’re planning launches in 2026? Great. Schedule recovery time after each one.
Not “I’ll rest when I feel like it.” Actual calendar-blocked time where you’re in maintenance mode, not growth mode.
I schedule at least one week post-launch where my only goals are fulfilling orders, supporting new customers, and not adding anything new to my plate.
This recovery time is when I actually process what worked and what didn’t instead of immediately jumping to the next thing.
Quarterly Resets
Between quarters, build in reset time.
A few days to review what happened, celebrate wins, adjust what’s not working, and mentally prepare for the next quarter.
I take the last week of every quarter lighter. I’m not launching or creating. I’m reflecting and resetting.
This prevents that “I’ve been working nonstop for three months and can’t remember why” feeling.
The Mid-Year Pause
Halfway through 2026, you need a real break.
Not a working vacation where you check email from the beach. An actual pause where you step away from your business completely.
Mine is usually late July. A full week where I’m offline. Not creating content, not serving clients, not thinking about business.
I come back refreshed instead of dragging myself through the second half of the year on fumes.
What Actually Happens When You Ignore This
Let me tell you what forgetting self-care in your business plan looks like.
You start January energized and excited. You’re executing your strategy, hitting milestones, making progress.
By March you’re tired but pushing through. By May you’re wondering why everything feels so hard. By August you’re fantasizing about quitting.
Not because your business isn’t working. Because you forgot you’re not a machine.
The business owners who make it long-term aren’t the ones with the best strategies. They’re the ones who execute good strategies sustainably.
You can’t sustain what doesn’t include rest, boundaries, and energy management.
Your Self-Care Strategy Audit
Pull out your 2026 plan and answer these honestly:
Where did you schedule rest? If the answer is “I’ll rest when things slow down,” things won’t slow down. Schedule it.
Which months are lighter workload months? If every month looks equally ambitious, you’re heading for burnout.
“According to a recent report, nearly half of small business owners have experienced burnout. The plan wasn’t bad. I just forgot to include myself in it.”
~Durable.co
What are your non-negotiable boundaries? Working hours, off days, response times. Write them down and build your strategy around them.
When do you recover from intensive work periods? Every launch, every busy season needs recovery time after.
What happens if life throws curveballs? Where’s the flexibility in your plan for being human?
If your answers reveal a plan with no breathing room, no boundaries, and no rest, you just found the flaw that’ll sabotage your entire year.
Fix it now while you still can.
Your Action Plan
This week, before December planning starts, add self-care to your 2026 strategy.
Block out rest weeks throughout the year. Not because you’ve “earned” them but because your business needs you functional.
Identify lighter workload months where you maintain instead of grow.
Define your boundaries around working hours, off days, and response times.
Schedule post-launch recovery after every major initiative.
Build in quarterly resets and a mid-year break.
Then treat these like client appointments. Non-negotiable.
Your year-end review taught you what worked in 2024. Your 2026 strategy gave you direction. Now this self-care planning gives you the sustainability to actually execute it.
All three working together mean you build a business that grows without destroying you in the process.
Grab your coffee. Open that plan. Add the part where you stay healthy enough to show up.
Because the best business strategy in the world means nothing if you’re too burnt out to execute it.
Your 2026 success depends on including yourself in your business plan, not just your business goals.
Make it happen.
You’ve got this!
Your annual strategy needs you healthy enough to execute it. Grab my Self-Care Journal for Entrepreneurs and start tracking your energy like the business asset it is. Because you can’t run on coffee and ambition alone. Staying power is how you actually make it through the year still loving your business.
