Did you just finish a project or make a sale? Reward yourself and take a day, or a week, off. Go see a movie, take a hike, visit a friend. Do whatever is relaxing to you and will recharge your batteries. Taking time off will let your subconscious know that success is rewarded with some fun time, and not just more work. This will make it easier for you to find work because you will have a positive attitude about work and know that it offers more rewards than just money.

You may feel guilty about taking time off. It just doesn't seem right to you to take a day off when all of your friends are stuck in an office somewhere working. Well, isn't being able to set your own schedule one of reasons you started your own business? Breaking out of 9 to 5 rut was a big reason for me to start my own business, and I have no problem taking time off. If my friends are jealous, well, let them start their own business like I did. When you're self-employed you need to be a little more concerned about yourself than what others think of you. The reason for this is that you are responsible for your businesses success or failure. It's one thing to work for a company and know that there is a president, financial officer, marketing and sales department and everything else needed to run company. It's something entirely different you know that you are wearing all of those hats, and it's up to you to make whole thing work.

You may also not be taking time off because somewhere in your mind is fear that you will never get another assignment. Hogwash! You've made it in your business so far, so why wouldn't you keep getting clients and assignments? You will, and deep down inside of yourself you know this to be true. One of reasons I started my own business was to have control of my work schedule, so my life would be less crazy.

How many times has your work schedule at some company been thrown into chaos because someone above you dropped ball and dumped their problems onto you? It happened to me a lot. I had to skip lunches, stay late or come in early. At one company, it got so bad that I hung a sign over my desk that read, "Poor planning on your part doesn't necessitate an emergency on my part!" Everyone thought it was funny, except for unorganized disaster-makers that were above me on corporate ladder. Since I've had my own business, this kind of problem is a rarity. Unfortunately, there are still some crazy times, thanks to a few, uhh... interesting clients.

The effects of conflict in workplace are widespread and costly. Its prevalence, as indicated by three serious studies, shows that 24-60% of management time and energy is spent dealing with anger. This leads to decreased productivity, increased stress among employees, hampered performance, high turnover rate, absenteeism and at its worst, violence and death.

Conflict in workplace is result of a variety of factors. Perhaps most significant cause is when someone feels taken advantage of. This might happen when a perfectionist boss demands same dedication and commitment from employees as he or she exhibits, but does not compensate them for late or weekend hours.

Other scenarios include employee having unrealistic expectations of what their job position really is, or of being misunderstood in workplace. Conflict also arises because of values and goal differences in company. The company may not have goals or not adequately express goals and values to their employees. Conversely, employee may have personal goals and values at odds with those of company.

There are four specific steps managers can take to reduce workplace conflict. The first is for managers to look at communication skills, both in terms of how they communicate and how they’re teaching their employees to communicate with each other. This, of course, includes using ‘I’ statements instead of ‘you’ language. Owning your own feelings and your own communication is a much more effective way to communicate and even more, teaching your employees to communicate that way with others, goes a long way toward reducing conflict.

The second part of communication is for managers to beef up listening skills. Active listening involves things like actually trying to understand what other person is saying, and then communicating to other person that you do indeed understand what they’re saying.

The second way to decrease workplace conflict is to establish healthy boundaries. Without boundaries, there will be conflict and squabbles, power struggles and all kinds of circumstances that make for messy situations.

You can be professional and be empathetic and compassionate toward your employees, without crossing line of becoming their friend. This is especially important when there’s a power difference between two people in an employment situation.