Originally posted on March 12th, 2015.
If you are anything like me, you are constantly juggling all the “stuff that has to get done” with the balance of your life. I’m a single mom of 2 young girls with a rocking biz BUT I refuse to work 24/7.
Here’s how I structure my schedule so that I only work about 30-35 hours a week, have weekends off and ample time to spend with my girls.
First, I book off time throughout the year for:
- Vacations – this comes first! (if I don’t book these in advance then months will go by without me getting a break, and I get grumpy… just ask my team)
I also book off the weeks when my girls don’t have school – ie: spring break– when they have a week off we like to head down to our family cabin for some downtime. - Events you are leading – if you do events, conferences or retreats as part of your business go ahead and book those out for the year in advance
- Events you are attending – pop these in your calendar now, including any masterminds you are a part of (assuming you know the dates already)
- Non call weeks – I spend A LOT of time on the phone, it’s part of my work… and as much as I love connecting with people it takes a lot of energy. One of my mentors suggested making the last week of every month a “call free zone” so that I have a bit of breathing room, time for thinking and bigger projects. Since implementing this I’ve loving come to call this my sanity week. 😉
Now, let’s look at my weekly schedule:
- My official work day is Monday to Friday 9am to 3pm when the girls get home from school. My non-working hours are the weekend – I will work until midnight on Friday if I need to (I rarely do this anymore but Friday nights are a strangely productive time for me) and after that I 100% unplug until Monday morning.
- Monday are team meetings & open/project time – we meet as a team Monday morning to set the stage for the week and lay out what each of us is working on (myself included). I keep Monday afternoons open for biz building, to work on projects, write marketing copy, do interviews or sneak in a call with a client or JV connection.
- Tuesdays are a mix of writing, coaching and teaching – I try to keep Tuesday mornings open to do writing and the afternoons are either 1-1 client calls or leading a training for one of our programs.
- Wednesdays are client days – I’m either leading our CEO & OBM Mastermind groups (twice monthly) or doing 1-1 client calls.
- Thursdays are a mix of strategy, 1-1 client calls and teaching – I have a call with my Business Manager Tiffany on Thursdays re: bigger picture strategy and projects. After that I might be leading a Q&A call for our OBM Certification, leading a training or have open Coaching “Quickie” time for my clients.
- Fridays are flex days – I like to do any promotional/launch webinars on Friday mornings and will also book VIP planning sessions there as well. My girls are done school at noon on Friday so I try to keep the afternoons open.
- Sales calls and JV conversations are mostly on Tue/Wed/Thu between everything else going on those days.
- I’m totally fine to work evenings if need be on projects – because I spend so much time on the phone or teaching all day I sometimes need to use this quiet time to get thinking/strategy/writing work done (I’m writing this article at 10pm on a Wed night.) I NEVER do client calls, interviews or anything “external” in the evenings.
That’s it! Curious to know what your week looks like? What have you found works best to keep you productive and focused?
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Single most important change for m: batching my work. Sunday afternoon is pre-weekly planning, Monday morning is sliding slowly into the week while the afternoon is for reconnecting with others. Tuesday am: project work, PM: 1 on 1 calls, Wed. AM: coaching f/u PM: 1 on 1 call time, Thurs AM: sales work or personal appt time, Fri AM:connecting with others PM: writing. Weekends are for personal relationship building and selfcare & is non-negotiable. For now I’m settling into the routine and it’s working well..for now! ?
love it! how long have you been following this schedule?
This is super-helpful, Tina, particularly the weekly schedule breach-out. (Love the image of your Google calendar: mine has lots of colors going, depending on whether I’m scheduling client work — purple –or self-care — turquoise, etc. I make sure there’s at least one turquoise thing going on every day… 🙂 Thanks for the peek behind the scenes!