Would you like to carve out more time to be consistent and productive?
I’m betting you said “Yes!” 😊 Surprisingly, I have found that there’s always a few tweaks, and in some cases some major shifts, that you can make to your calendar to have more consistency and productivity in your days. 5 BASIC DEFINITIONS & CONCEPTS Let’s start with a couple of basics that might help create a framework for more balance and consistency.
THE MINDSET BIT “Setting a schedule makes me twitch! I’m a creative and a schedule makes me feel caged. I like to do things when the spirit moves me!” “I have too many balls in the air, and I have to touch them all otherwise something is going to fall apart!” I’ve worked with plenty of entrepreneurs like you who have a hard time with setting a schedule. You want to be available to your clients. You might be hoping this is showing them that you’re available to them. You’ll see anyone pretty much any time. I get it. It’s how I started out, too. When you make an appointment with your dentist, doctor or hairdresser, you get a couple of options and because you want to see them, you pick one, right? Your clients and your business are no different. They come to you because they want to engage with you, therefore, giving them a few choices shows them you have other things going on. They will pick one. CREATING YOUR SCHEDULE Let’s create a first draft of a schedule for you to experiment with for a month or so, gather some evidence of what worked and what didn’t and then tweak from there. What is your START time and END time for each day? This creates the foundation to your productive work schedule. I can hear your resistance so here's a suggestion...if “schedule” makes you twitch then use the word “routine”. Feels better, doesn’t it? The point is having the intention to doing all that you want to do in a day begins with setting yourself up for success with a plan. And plans with boundaries are a great foundation. ADMIN DAYS Mondays are great for TIME ON. People are coming back off a weekend and “getting caught up”. TAKE A STEP: Create a recurring appointment on your calendar to repeat every Monday as Busy called Admin Tasks. BENEFIT: You’ll see it on your calendar as your reminder and by marking it as busy your client scheduling software won’t see it as available to client sessions. CLIENT HOURS Carve out blocks of time or days for client work. This is TIME IN. An example is Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. No admin work (cuz that was allocated for Monday) and no social media posting in between clients. If you have a few minutes, stand up, walk around your house, stretch, breathe. Be more centered for your next client. TAKE A STEP: Create a recurring appointment on your calendar to repeat every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as Free called Client Time. BENEFIT: You’ll see it on your calendar as your reminder and by marking it as free your client scheduling software will see it as available for client sessions. DAILY TASKS In this section, I’m talking about setting up routines for consistency. Carve out smaller blocks of time for activities like social media engagement. TAKE A STEP: Create a recurring appointment on your calendar to repeat every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday as Busy called Social Media Engagement. BENEFIT: You’ll see it on your calendar as your reminder and by marking it as busy your client scheduling software won’t see it as available to client sessions. Yes some of these are client work days but you’ll work on your social media first thing of your work day and the rest of the day will be available and focused on client work. Want help with setting up the next version of your schedule? Contact me to uncover what’s in your way of setting yourself up for more success. Janina Goldberg, www.CallWithJanina.com Comments are closed.
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AuthorJanina Goldberg has been a Process Management Master and Coaching expert for over 25 years! Over the past 8 years, she has refocused her expertise in helping entrepreneurs who want to up-level themselves personally and the productivity and success of their business. She really listens to your big goal ideas and helps you distill them into achievable plans with inspired actionable next steps. Janina transforms the “It’s all in my head” activities that business owners do week after week into organizable processes for ease in consistent execution. |