an entrepreneur’s schedule

Business Builders Craft Their Own Schedules

We all know the joke
about business builders.

We’re lucky.
Business builders don’t have to work
from 9 to 5.
We can work any 24 hours
we like.

But many business builders,
especially those of us
whose careers
were started
by working for someone else,
often keep the standard
9 am to 5 pm business day
as our core hours.

We forget
we can work
any hours we want,
as long as those hours
are fine
with customers
and business partners.

For example,
I was having electrical work
done on my home.

The electricity had to be turned off
from 10 am to 4 pm
every day
for about a week.

At first,
I was irritated as f*ck.
How would I get any work done?

Then I realized…
I could sleep from 10 am to 4 pm
and work from 4 pm to 10 am.

My readers wouldn’t care.
My editor wouldn’t care.

I switched to that schedule
and it worked out well.

We are the masters
of our own schedules.

Remember that.

Don’t Schedule Work 7 Days A Week

We’re business builders.
We have a lot to do
and tend to work
7 days a week
attempting to get it done.
I understand that.
I live that life.

But I also understand
that unexpected things come up
during the week,
things we have to put
other tasks aside for
and tackle.

If we create a schedule
that has us working
7 days a week,
we won’t ever have time
to complete those set aside tasks.

We’ll fall further and further behind
and we’ll end up
missing critical deadlines.

That is why
I don’t schedule anything
on the weekends.
The weekends are spent
catching up on tasks.
They are used
to put me back on track.

If a miracle happens
and I AM on track,
I take time off
to recharge
and power up
for the upcoming week.

Don’t schedule work
7 days a week.
Give yourself time
to catch up on tasks.

Planning For Busy Times

When I am working
on the final pre-submission draft
of a story,
I can’t think about
much of anything else.

I’m holding the entire story
in my brain,
trying to figure out
all the gaps and issues.

I know this is part of my process
so I prepare for it.

I schedule blog posts,
for example.
I freeze meals
I’ll only need to heat up.
I pre-pay bills.
I see friends and family
right before
starting that final draft.
And I warn people
I’m going into the writing cave
and not resurfacing for a week.

This makes that busy time
MUCH easier.

Prepare for busy times
in your schedule.

And warn people in advance
you’re approaching a busy time.

An Entrepreneur’s Schedule

Whenever I tell people
I’m a writer
(a business builder),
they usually say something like
“It must be nice
to set your own schedule.”

I admittedly DO
have a little bit of flexibility
as to when
I’ll complete tasks that are
invisible to the reader
(customer).
But any task that the reader sees
is usually set.

Because I want to be
part of their schedules
and my readers’ schedules are set.

I also want to become
a habit
and habits usually happen
on a regular schedule also.

We get our coffee
at 7 am every day.

We start a new book
at the beginning of the week.

We wear casual clothes
to work
on Fridays.

If we want to be successful,
we have to align
our schedules
to our customers’ schedules.

For me,
that means releasing a book
every three months
on the third Tuesday
of that month.

It means sending a newsletter
around the same time
EVERY month.

It means starting the promotion
for that new release
the same number of days
before that set release day.

Most of my schedule
and most of every successful
business builder’s schedule
is set by the customer.

We don’t truly
do things whenever
we want.

That’s a myth.

Extreme Weather Days

When crafting my schedule
for the upcoming year,
planning my book releases
(project rollouts),
I’m accounting for
extreme weather days.

They’re becoming
increasingly common.

The rain is too heavy
to safely drive.

Blackouts happen
during heat waves.

It is too hot
to ask customers or employees
to go outside.

In my area,
I am currently planning
for 1 extreme weather
working day
a month.

If those extreme weather days
don’t happen,
I will have free days
to push ahead of schedule.

Plan for extreme weather days.
Then hope you don’t need them.