How’s your week going? Feeling like there’s never enough time, like you’re bouncing from one thing to the next, always busy but not really getting anywhere?
I used to think that being free to do what I want, when I want, to take off to the beach at a moments notice was something to aspire to.
(And I’m not saying that I don’t sometimes still do that. I do live on a Greek island that hits 40 degrees in the shade during the summer, after all!)
But when I left my job, the sense of freedom, of my time being my own to manage, was exhilarating.
After all, hadn’t I decided that one of the big dreams was to set my own schedule?
But what I didn’t realise was that I still needed to have a schedule.
A routine to work to.
Because if I didn’t, it was too easy to let days, weeks and even months drift away.
To let the events in the world take over the day, curl up under a duvet and bing watch Netflix.
Client work always gets done but my own projects, well, when you’re only accountable to yourself, it’s too easy to let things slip!
The lack of routine led to procrastination, to beating myself up and then getting busy, trying to cram too much in, panicking because I hadn’t done enough, I wasn’t working on the right things and leaving room for self doubt to thrive.
Exhausting. Debilitating. Unproductive. Again and again and again.
And mindset on its own, all the gratitude, the joy, making time for self care wasn’t enough to change it!
What saved me was creating a routine, an ideal week where I set aside time to work on my own projects.
When you can look at your week and realise that you really only have a couple of hours on a Monday and Friday to get things done, it focuses your mind on what you actually need to do!
So, create your ideal week by looking at the time you have available and getting intentional about when you’re going to work on your own business, offers, marketing, planning, all the things that we have to do each week to move us forward.
Break your day up into half hour time slots and put in the big things first. When you’re working with customers, when you need to walk the dogs, have lunch, exercise (don’t forget to put in time for yourself!)
Then block out time for the other projects or work that you need to do.
Make it the same every week – it’s not like you can’t change it if you want to, it’s your schedule, after all.
But if you have a routine to work to, life becomes a lot simpler because there are less decisions to make every day.
And less decisions leads to a simpler life. And business!
Let me know how it goes!
Cheers,
Karrie
