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Let’s Talk a Week In My Life
Currently I am methodically making moves that will shift my business from freelancing to clear entrepreneurship. I’ve slowly eliminated tasks that I don’t enjoy doing and am working on amping up the things that I do enjoy doing.
One Year
It has taken about year of working for myself to get some clarity on what I would like to do moving forward. It has taken, awkward phone meetings, fun projects, annoying projects, negotiating on my own behalf, and basically growing a pair (metaphorically) in a way that I hadn’t even imagined.
I learned about what I do want and what I don’t want moving forward. As I transition into my second year of providing for myself I’m taking stock of what has worked and what hasn’t. That’s a totally different post. But, I thought it would be helpful for people to get a glimpse into what my weeks look like as I work on projects, find opportunities, and push myself to work harder.
A Week in My Life as an Entrepreneur
I try very hard to have a pretty balanced out week. But, as I move forward some sacrifices will have to be made to make more happen and that sacrifice will most likely be sleep. Recently I read a really interesting article shared by Inc.com where Randi Zuckerberg (Mark’s sister) talked about the Entrepreneur’s Dilemma.
Basically she said that there are four things most people are juggling: Work, Sleep, Fitness or Friends and that most entrepreneurs will end up being able to manage three of these fairly well but not all four. I’ve actually thought pretty deeply about this concept for the past week or so because deep down I wanted her to be wrong. But, it pains me to say that she’s right. If you’re really trying to kick a@@ at something that will be bigger than you: a movement, a business concept that you know in your heart will work, or rolling out a big project there is no way you can do everything-well.
Priorities Moving Forward
I have several very specific goals that I would like to attain by September 12, 2016. Yep, right before FinCon.
Those goals are:
- Payoff all unsecured debt.
- Grow The D.O.N.E. Society and the podcast.
- $10,000 Emergency Savings Account.
- Complete the switch to the business model that I’m rolling out at this time.
- Meet “The One.” I will admit that I met an amazing guy last week. Keep your fingers crossed for me! And, no, I won’t be sharing any of my social media/blogging details with him. I’ve started meeting some amazing guys so I’m starting to feel pretty excited about the future!!
- Lose the 20 lbs.
That’s it. But, these things take time and energy. It takes a lot of time doing projects for other people and myself. I will be honest and say that I have not been working as hard as I will be moving forward. What was I resisting? I wanted my sleep. I’m not going to lie. I have an electric blanket. It’s like being in a happy warm cocoon. My solid 8 hours of sleep has been something that I missed for YEARS. I used to average 5 or 6 hours of sleep for YEARS.
I was suffering from chronic exhaustion (I’m sure) and it took months for me to feel “like myself” again. In the back of mind I worried that by working hard on what I’m focused on that I would fall into that old way of living: grumpy, stressed, resentful. But, what I didn’t realize was that working for myself is completely different-I have the control. The lack of sleep won’t be forever, and I believe in what I’m doing. So, here is how my last week looked. Each week is a little bit different depending on side hustles/projects.
A Week in My Life
Monday
6:30 a.m. Wake up naturally. Do my Miracle Morning.
7:00 a.m. Eat breakfast, watch the Morning News-start working on the plan for the day
9:00 a.m. Leave house and go to co-working space. Am obsessed with this place. I am much more productive.
11:45 a.m Walk around the corner to my Toastmaster’s meeting (personal development).
1:00 p.m. Back to co-working space
4:30 p.m. Leave for home
4:50 p.m. I’m home!
5:30 p.m. Watch the National News-This is a long standing habit
Ate dinner
7:00 p.m. Continue working on projects
9:00 p.m. Typically I’ll finish projects around this time. This equals about 8 hours of work which I think is about 4 hours less than what I should be doing. I also cleaned sometime during the day.
I worked on:
- Freelance writing projects
- The D.O.N.E. Society
- My podcast
- The Shop My Closet Project
Tuesday
6:30 a.m. Woke up naturally.
8:15 a.m. Left to do fun side hustle.
12:15 p.m. Finish doing fun side hustle.
12:15 p.m.-3:00 p.m. Broncos Super Bowl Victory Parade.
6:00 p.m. Began working on personal projects and freelance projects.
**Basically very little work was done today as you can imagine.** I did get fitness in as I had to walk from my house from downtown. Don’t worry I do the walk a lot. I also cleaned sometime during the day.
Wednesday
6:30 a.m. Woke up naturally.
7:00 a.m. Eat breakfast, watch the Morning News-start working on the plan for the day
9:00 a.m. Began working
*Went to gym or walked around sometime during the day-not sure when.
3:00 p.m. Finish working
- Worked on several freelance writing projects.
- Worked on The D.O.N.E. Society
- Picked up D.O.N.E. Society apparel
- The Shop My Closet Project
- Social Media/Posts/Images
- Podcast
4:00 p.m. Met with friend from Up With People (we traveled around the world together for a year. He lives in Denver and we hang out from time to time)
Thursday
6:30 a.m. Woke up naturally.
7:00 a.m. Eat breakfast, watch the Morning News-start working on the plan for the day
9:00 a.m. Began working
3:00 p.m. Finished working * wasn’t feeling well that day.
4:00 p.m. Went to Boulder for friend’s birthday party.
9:00 p.m. Back to Denver
Worked on:
- Freelance projects
- Site audit
- Worked on plan going into Spring. See a seriously lack of sleep looming in my future.
*I think I watched a Marie Forleo video as well (education)*
Friday
6:30 a.m. Wake up naturally. Do my Miracle Morning.
7:00 a.m. Eat breakfast, watch the Morning News-start working on the plan for the day
9:00 a.m. Leave house and go to co-working space. Rocking and Rolling today.
11:00 a.m. Watched Amy Porterfield Webinar (education)
4:30 p.m. Leave for home
4:50 p.m. I’m home!
5:30 p.m. Watch the National News-This is a long standing habit
- Finished working on tons of freelancing posts.
- Edited podcast.
- Began working on Colorado Luv Hub again after MONTHS of not working on it.
- The D.O.N.E. Society
8:00 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. Worked on projects.
Saturday
6:30 a.m. Wake up naturally. Do my Miracle Morning.
7:00 a.m. Eat breakfast, watch the Morning News-start working on the plan for the day
9:00 a.m. Began working on projects
2:00 p.m. Went to the park for a nice walk (walked around once)
3:00 p.m. Went to my gym (it’s inside the park)
3:40 p.m. Back home
4:30 p.m. Watched the National News
5:15 p.m. Cleaned house.
6:00 p.m. Began working on projects
12:00 a.m. Finished working on projects
- Freelance writing
- SMCP
- Colorado Luv Hub
- Instagram feed
- Pinterest page-Actually worked on it.
- Editorial calendars
Sunday
7:00 a.m. Woke up naturally
8:15 a.m. Did side hustle at park near my house.
11:45 a.m Returned home at lunch
12:15 p.m. Began working on projects
6:00 p.m. Ate dinner
10:10 p.m Finished working on projects
Worked On:
- Site Audit-This is exhausting but very important. HUGE project.
- Blog posts.
- Pitching for podcast interviews.
There are several takeaways from what I observed from this past week.
- It was a lot of fun-I saw a ton of people beginning with a couple of my FinCon peeps on Sunday. We watched the Super Bowl together.
- I prefer to front load my work week and do the bulk of my work at the co-working space at the beginning of the week. I am easily three times more productive when I go there.
- No More Winter Funk-You know, you want to sleep all the time. I’m actually looking forward to the Spring forward so that I can start going to the gym first thing. It’s still a little too dark in the morning for me to and feel safe even though I live in a very safe area of town.
- I did a lot of writing.
- I could work more.
- I didn’t pitch!! This is terrible as I spent the week before putting together a fantastic list of 100 leads that I could pitch (that’s what I did at my so-working space the week before).
- I am focused on learning-I watched webinars by: Kimra Luna, Marie Forleo, Amy Porterfiled and I think one more. I also spent time listening to podcasts.
- Almost time to get a V.A.-It’s time to start writing down my processes so that I can hire a Virtual Assistant. I will be hiring locally and most likely from one of the Universities as I’ve had a very positive experience working with and supervising university students (for 10 years). I prefer to work with someone who is local and specifically lives in Denver.
- Prep is where it’s at-I stopped prepping my projects as much as I used to. That’s a disaster! Will be working on prepping: blog posts/social media/etc. So that I’m ahead of the game working offensively instead of defensively.
Weekly Snapshots Are Important for Your Business!
I write down what I do each day so that I can make adjustments to my week. Based on last week’s snapshot, I am implementing changes going into the following week:
- Doing a weekly goals list-Some people hate lists, I love them. A better way to look at it is calling it a “I got it done!” list. I am typically in the habit of doing this but I haven’t been doing this for the past two or three weeks.
- Social life is going well but I might ease off for a couple of weeks so that I can focus more on work related goals. Hopefully we will get some epic snow. But, the forecast is looking super warm for the upcoming week. Think Spring temperatures. Being more social was a huge goal of mine going into self-employment last year and I feel very happy with how that is going.
- Pitch, Pitch, Pitch-I put together an amazing list of organizations to connect with…and I still haven’t pitched. When I get going on my pitches I do really well with getting projects. I’m really annoyed with the lack o f movement on this and spent a lot of time pitching the Sunday before this post went live.
- The D.O.N.E. Society-This is my baby and marquee project. I will be amping up: publicity, outreach, etc. to really get this going. I got my t-shirts and mugs (just a few) and I love them!! It feels real now. Don’t forget to sign up for my Webinar! This Saturday, February 20, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. MTN
What Does A Week In Your Life Look Like?
For Information on The D.O.N.E. Society Click on the link HERE!
Join My D.O.N.E. Society Closed Facebook Group to Hang Out and Support Like-Minded People Working Towards Their D.O.N.E. Moment!
The 31 Day D.O.N.E. Challenge Begins on March 1, 2016
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I can’t believe how much I’m still studying and learning things. Luckily, I really enjoy that SCHOOL ROCKS! Congratulations on your first assignment. I have a pretty good feeling about dating and 2016-it’s starting to look good and I appreciate the well wishes. Thanks for subscribing!
I love reading these! I’m actually going a bit more opposite and putting more of a priority into slowing down and simplifying, and focusing on my health outside of work (well and inside too, but the damn work snacks are making that tough). It took a while (and in some cases it still is) to come up with a new routine, especially when it coms to working out.
I’m putting a huge emphasis on sleeping because without it nothing else goes right. I eat more, don’t want to work out, am cranky, etc.
I do agree that you can’t do it all like she said. I think you have to figure out what works best for you! I accept that I may not be able to blog like I used to or make the side hustle income I’d like, but I’m ready to slow down my life. 🙂
I think the important point about any entrepreneur’s schedule is the idea that the lack of sleep, etc. should not last forever. I have had the best sleep EVER for the past year but there are just some things that I want to make happen. I am unwilling to give up my social life (fun, family, and friends) which is rapidly becoming pretty fabulous, and I need to exercise more so I can’t let that go (nor do I want to). I also don’t want to give up on sleep forever that’s just not sustainable. But, I have things that I want to do so I’m willing to make some sacrifices for the short-term to make them happen. Also, the things I’m trying to do are for me which makes a big difference.
I wish I could have an awesome schedule like that! AND you’re a toastmaster – I used to be and it was an amazingly fun experience (surprisingly!) and I wish I could do it again, but my schedule is pretty rigid right now.
BTW, I’d totally love to sign up for your webinar, but I’ll be in Denver at that time for the Geek Bowl event. (simultaneous frowny face and smiley face). Good luck with it though, it sounds really interesting! 🙂
I’m going to be working a lot harder going into the next month. So, that schedule will change LOL! I’m not a toastmaster quite yet-the group I would like to join has a long waiting list. So, I will just attend meetings and listen to people’s speeches. I realized that the Geek Bowl was the same night but no worries! I will be running about 2 webinars a month moving forward so there will be chance to check one out in the future.
It looks like you got a lot of things done. After I get off my job, my day becomes sporadic. Some days I workout, some I don’t. I need to focus on doing more blog related activities each day after work. I usually go hard on the weekends.
I feel like I’m not doing enough work with the time that I have available in my day LOL! So, I am in the process of aggressively pitching more so that I can make more money and feel a lot more focused. I do better when I have more stuff happening.
I can’t believe that it’s been a year already!
I feel like the more that I get done, the faster my to do list grows. Ack. However, it means that progress is being made!
Anne, I’m a little shocked too! I need to start working on a couple of things that I would like to have happen. And yes, the more I get done the more epic my to do list gets. I seem to work better when I have more going on so I’ve begun working hard on working harder.