How this social entrepreneur manages pressure while maintaining her health

Social entrepreneur Daizy Maan knows all too well the pressures of a busy career. And so her advice on managing it all while maintaining your health is, simply put, to follow your energy.

Maan is the founder of the entrepreneurship course, the Australian Digital Job Accelerator, as well as co-founder of the community group, the Australian South Asian Centre. She also leads entrepreneurship programs at Deakin University and hosts her own podcast show, The Daizy Project.

And while having multiple jobs can be rewarding and fulfilling, it can also sometimes be overwhelming. But Maan has a way of keeping her health in check, starting with stripping away those pressures, listen to her body and inner voice, and working around energy levels.

Read Maan’s profile below.

Most mornings I:

I usually wake up after I’ve had 6-8 hours of sleep. It really depends on what time I slept the night before depending on my energy levels. I don’t try to get up at 5am or early, rather I work around energy levels — this can be tricky because it’s easy to confuse energy with motivation. I decide based on hours of sleep, how much work I’ve been doing or whether I’m heading towards burnout. There’s too much pressure to wake up early and seize the day, I spent half my life thinking I wouldn’t be successful unless I did that and the guilt was just not worth it. So now I work with my energy flows.

My exercise routine includes:

Well lockdown really changed this. During lockdown I only went on long walks. As of last month I’ve found it useful to do a WhatsApp call with a personal trainer in India — I feel like I’m supporting someone with work and keeping myself accountable. Actually, it’s my friend’s personal trainer, I just join in for now until I can build up the momentum to do it every day again like I did once upon a time before one and a half years of lockdown.

I generally prefer a HIIT (when I’m working out) with a friend or dancing like a free spirit at home.

I find balance in:

Being free, not judgemental and aware of my inner voice. If I’m not able to achieve what I set out to do that particular day, I used to judge myself but now I just accept that next week will be better and get on with it. The guilt isn’t worth it — we deserve to feel good about ourselves and catapulting into action out of guilt isn’t my way of doing things. I prefer to take a loving and kind approach to myself after spending so many years doing the opposite. I also work on various things because variety is important to me. Whether it’s my day job at Deakin University leading the entrepreneurship program (SPARK Deakin) or working on my business Australian Digital Job Accelerator or our charity Australian South Asian Centre or trying to finish my memoir Quarter Life Crisis — having a variety of things to do means I never get bored and I quench my thirst of curiosity through learning.

On health, I encourage women to:

Take their mental health seriously, connect in with a community of people who love you and make you feel good about yourself (for me I’m close with a group of friends who are like sisters) and be more free. Freedom is your birthright. Stress has a lot of impacts on our body and mind, and often it’s over things that won’t really matter at the end of our lives or even in five years time. I say this as someone who is ambitious, passionate and always starting new projects so I usually have to stop myself from heading to burnout — most entrepreneurial folks I’ve met are this way, so take break you deserve it.

This article was first published by Women’s Agenda.