How I structure my weeks to work 30 hours or less
If we rewind back to me in my 20s, I was grinding in corporate America, hustling through 40+ hour weeks, working through lunch & constantly reaching burnout.
Truthfully, it took me having my son at 32 that basically forced me to slow down, especially as we went into a pandemic my time was capped with having a baby at home with no help. Those times were tough, but I look at that time as a blessing that allowed me to shift my priorities and realize it wasn’t time I needed, it was efficiencies to get the work done I needed to in a shorter amount of time.
Work Smarter Not harder.
We all know this saying. But the truth is written in these words. Do you ever feel like if you work more hours, you’ll be more productive?
I read a book last year called At Your Best. In that book it states that brain research shows that we only really have about 3-5 hours a day where our energy is at our peak. While sure, we can work more than 3-5 hours a day but we don’t necessarily do great work during more hours than those.
Finding your magic hours (those 3-5 hours) where you feel your best energetically and locking those in for your work are a great place to start. For me the hours of 8-12 are PRIME for me.
The behind the Scenes
The reality of this situation is that I work for myself. Time flexibility exists for anyone doing their own thing but it’s actually allowing yourself to use that flexibility and not filling it with more things to do.
For me here is the kind of work I’m managing on a monthly basis:
I’m running my OBM business.In a typical month I have 5 retainer clients and I usually perform 5-10 a la carte Services in some capacity. I’m a solopreneur in this business & mange all the behind the scenes tasks required for running a business by myself
I contract as a consultant for about 40 hours per month at my previous full time job in payment processing.
I am a content creator & founder for CEO in the Know, a digital publication & monthly membership for entrepreneurs.
No matter where you are in business, you can take the next steps to build your business YOUR way.
The Steps
Pre Planning
At the start of each week, I plan out the coming week and everything I have to get done. Sometimes I even do this on Sunday evenings when I’m feeling the stress creep in. Having the plan helps me visualize what’s ahead and where my time will be focused.
When pre-planning, I review all my project management tools, brain dump any additional tasks and get them added into my project management tool (hey ClickUp, love you girl), and tie deadline dates to the tasks.Time Blocking & CEO Time
Time blocking helps you to improve your focus because it keeps you from being distracted and context switching, which can really suck our energy.Based on my to do lists, I create calendar events for each task & give myself a time limit. I even block out time for workouts and lunch breaks, and I’ve even been known to block out tasks like “clean the bathroom”. If it’s on the calendar I can’t avoid it!
I recommend closing your email, messengers, and putting your phone on airplane mode while you are working through tasks to avoid distractions. I set time blocks for email responses so I’m not constantly hoping back and forth.
I have my calendar blocked on Fridays to prevent client meetings from being scheduled, which gives me the flexibility to tackle any tasks that overflow or come up throughout the week. I also schedule at least 90 minutes of CEO time every Friday. During this time, I get caught up on any admin tasks, clean up my task management tool, and tackle any ideas that I have throughout the week.
Utilizing Systems & Automation in my business
My project management tool, ClickUp is my BFF. I track EVERYTHING, including:
Client Projects & To dos
Content Creation Ideas
Admin / CEO Tasks
Launches & Projects
The other gal in my girl gang is Dubsado, my client management tool. This is where ALL of my automations live. Dubsado manages my calendar, scheduling, lead management, contracts, proposals, invoicing, and more. I have elaborate workflows built out so that I don’t have to manually send out invoices, or send out scheduling reminders, etc. It saves a lot of follow up time!
Another thing to note, is I’m very strict about client communication. Clients can only communicate with me via email or Slack. I dropped Voxer earlier this year as I would listen to messages on the go and action items wouldn’t get captured. I love having requests come in, within writing so I can transfer them right over to my tasks in ClickUp.
Content Batching
Following on point number two, I always set aside time to batch marketing content since social media is a huge time and energy suck for me. I will leak hours away unconsciously scrolling and if I have to come up with content each day, an hour could get burned easily.
Every month, I will sit down and batch a month’s worth of content. This includes coming up with concepts, creating the content, and scheduling it out. If you’re interested in batching your own content but creating a month of content at a time feels overwhelming, start by batching content weekly or bi-monthly and working your way up.
Here’s a look into my typical content schedule:
2 - 3 blog posts per month
2 Newsletters per month
3-5 Instagram posts per week (this includes Reels)
Pinterest Posts, which is usually repurposed from IG & blog posts.
Daily Instagram Stories
How I spend Extra Time
As I’ve worked to have more free time during the week, I’m constantly asked how I spend my extra time. To be honest, it’s nothing crazy, I just focus on resting and having fun! We spend so much of our lives working sometimes when we aren’t doing just that it’s hard to do other things that bring us joy. The more we add joy into our lives, the more creativity that will flow to us for running our business.
I hope this article has been helpful. If you aren’t sure where to start with creating a shorter work week, reach out! Let’s schedule a strategy session to build out a plan for you!
