How to find free time in your crazy entrepreneur's schedule
In sixth grade, the “invite your whole class to your birthday party” type birthday parties are starting to die out. But none the less, I found myself invited to a classmate’s “swim pool” birthday party.
At twelve my complete focus was on my competitive swimming career. I was swimming twice a day, working on technique and aerobic conditioning.
I walked out onto the pool deck and saw all the other kids playing on the waterslide, diving boards and floaty mats. I stood there frozen, not knowing what to do.
It was that moment I realized, “I’ve forgotten how I used to have fun”.
I’ve found myself in that feeling a number of times. Launching a business and working evenings every night for months. Then when I had my first free evening, that “what now” feeling would pop up. It was like I had finally come up for air and forgotten what the sky looked like.
Do you ever feel baffled with what to do with your free time because it’s such a rare occurrence?
Do you ever have that sinking feeling that you’re life is passing by so quickly because you are spending every single moment you can working on your business?
There’s no shame if you have, I’ve been there along with many, many other entrepreneurs.
The problem is that we have so much to do and can fill up our time because we’re our own bosses. But we are entrepreneurs because we wanted to be our own bosses, right? But would you go back to a nine-to-five to work for someone like how you’ve been treating yourself?
As entrepreneurs we can so often be our own worst bosses.
How do you start treating yourself like the business leader and entrepreneur that you are or want to be?
Treat your time like gold.
Here are some suggestions:
Hire help. Then hire more.
Hiring help can feel like a huge step, but it doesn’t have to be. Start small. Hire a cleaning person, a meal delivery service, a monthly bookkeeper. There are so many small tasks within a business that don’t require a huge investment in personnel.
Once you’ve got the small things covered, you’re going to find you have more time to grow your business and in turn hire people for the bigger tasks.
Schedule in your free time, weekends and vacations.
Open up your calendar and block off time for your loved ones each week. Block off the week you want to take for vacation in the fall.
This may sound simple, but I’ve found that adding these things to my calendar helps manifest them. When I couldn’t afford that trip to Hawaii, putting it on my calendar and seeing it there every time I tried to schedule things out helped make it a reality.
It is so easy to fill up your calendar, and it will fill up. Add the things that you want for yourself first!
Focus on what’s going to move the needle in your business.
Do you fill your day up with little tasks, trying to get everything perfect?
It doesn’t have to be perfect to begin with, because you know what - It never will be perfect.
I want you to make this intention right now - if it’s not moving my business, it’s not going on my to-do list.
Especially when you’re starting, it’s easy to get sucked into a million free opt-ins, social media or google “research”.
I recommend focusing on two or three things at a time. If you find an opt-in that will help you with one of those things, great! If not, save it for later. Keeping your attention focused and focused on what will grow your business is one of the hardest and most important skills to cultivate as an entrepreneur.
Stop using busy or your business as an excuse to not hang out with your friends and do the things you want to do.
A friend asks you to meet her for happy hour tomorrow, but you were planning on working a long day to finish up a project. Can any of that be done tonight? Could you wake up an hour earlier so that you can finish early? What can you arrange so that you can celebrate finishing that big project with the friend?
Our businesses should give us the ability to say “yes” to our lives more often. Because that’s why we’re entrepreneurs, right?
