💡 The Solopreneur Shift from Managing Time to Managing Energy (Issue 150)
An unnatural 9-to-5 rhythm can kill your lifestyle business dream
What if your business tapped into your energy instead of your time?
Decades of living our lives around 9-5 jobs have trained us to manage our work by the clock and calendar. Even when I was a VP, I didn’t have much control over my day.
Early-morning conference calls from my car as I commuted to the office.
Back-to-back meetings all morning, fueled by donuts and terrible coffee.
A working lunch meeting with unhealthy food (and probably more stale donuts).
Back-to-back meetings all afternoon, with hasty bio breaks here and there.
More conference calls from my car as I crawled home in heavy freeway traffic.
A quick dinner and then back to work with late-night calls with my remote teams.
I lived with an unnatural working rhythm, day after day, month after month, year after year. I certainly wasn’t able to tune my day to my natural energy to optimize my working style.
But when you become a solopreneur and build your lifestyle business, the rules change. You have the chance to design your business around who you are, how you want to live, and when you do your best work.
Step back and track your natural highs and lows during the day and night. Heck, you should even notice your weekly, monthly, and annual rhythms. For example, I recently embraced that I just don’t want to push as hard during the time from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day. I want to unwind, enjoy the holidays, and spend more time with family and friends.
Take some time to note your rhythms and determine when you prefer to do different kinds of work for your business (or no work at all).
When do you want your working day to begin?
What kind of work do you enjoy doing most in the morning?
What activities are best for your afternoons?
Do you have some types of work that fit your evening energy?
Are there days of the week that are better for certain tasks?
I’ve mentioned before how I use time blocking and day theming to manage the work I do for my business. I did that because I paid attention to when my energy ebbs and flows, and when I feel best doing specific types of working activities.
For example, I set up recurring time blocks for:
Morning journaling with my coffee (I need slow morning starts).
Daily exercise, which I’ve been doing consistently for 16+ years now.
Recording and editing my podcasts.
Writing newsletters and articles.
Marketing activities on Substack, LinkedIn, and social media.
Time with my private online communities.
Strategically working on my business (instead of always in it).
Meetings with my 1-on-1 clients.
Time with my family and friends.
Over the years, I’ve moved away from letting anything be scheduled on my calendar at any time on any day. Now, I’m doing a lot more day theming and time blocking. This ensures I have large chunks of time to write my books, collaborate with my clients, work on my business, invest in my health, and spend time with my family.
Here’s how I theme my days:
Mondays - Community office hours (for premium subscribers) and research for my newsletters.
Tuesdays - Writing newsletters and producing my podcasts.
Wednesdays - Spending the entire day with my wife (e.g., hiking, skiing, dating).
Thursdays - Calls with 1-on-1 clients and my complimentary calls.
Fridays - Business tasks, calls with 1-on-1 clients, and more complimentary calls.
Saturdays - Some business tasks and personal life activities.
Sundays - A few business tasks, personal life activities, and some writing.
So, take a look at your energy and how you want to run your solopreneur business. For example, if you’re sharpest in the morning, protect that time for creative efforts (e.g., writing, brainstorming, strategy work). If you feel more social in the afternoon, schedule your discovery and sales calls then. If you tend to feel burned out by Friday, consider making it a shorter working day or taking that day off to enjoy a 3-day weekend every week.
You’re in control now! Design your business around your ideal life and how you want to spend your days. What would your ideal rhythm look like if you no longer let yourself be bound by the old 9-to-5 rules that someone else controlled?
Would you like to brainstorm some ideas with me? You can schedule a complimentary call.
Larry Cornett is a business coach who works with ambitious professionals to help them reclaim their power, become more invincible, and create better opportunities for their work and lives. Do more of what you love and less of what you hate! Check out his Invincible Solopreneurs Daily Journal!
