I was sitting opposite my doctor in her consulting room – a fatigue specialist at The Royal Free Hospital in London.

We were going through the results of my blood tests, and I was hoping for a conclusive diagnosis that would explain mysterious symptoms I’d battled with for the past year.

The specialist asked me hundreds of questions about my lifestyle, daily activities, my diet, sleeping patterns. The interrogation went on and on and on…

‘How many hours a week do you work?’

‘No more that 30’, I replied.

She looked at me over the rim of her glasses.

‘Is that because you don’t have the energy for more? Or is it your choice?’

‘It’s my choice. I don’t want to work more than that.’ Was my response.

She held her gaze on me for a little longer before referring back to her long list of questions.

I thought in that moment; how strange it is that the concept of running your own business and choosing to work less is so unusual to most people.

In a culture where we’re programmed to ‘work hard’, ‘slave away’, ‘hammer at it’, and ‘toil the daily grind’ – there is an expectation that work is something we SHOULD do. Not necessarily to be enjoyed but as a means to get by and build security for the future.

Many modern entrepreneurs wear their 50 hour work weeks like a badge of honour.

The reason for the long hours? Because they LOVE what they do. Great! They enjoy spending their time that way. To make your own success this kind of determination is a non negotiable requirement.

But realistically, is it something you can keep doing forever? I know from experience that it’s not…

We also don’t need to!

The disconnect between my vision and reality

When I started my business my vision of self employment looked something like this:

• Work when I choose
• Work on the projects that light me up
• Work with fabulous clients I adore
• Have flexibility in my day to run errands
• Have plenty of free time to spend how I choose

For the first few years, my life didn’t look like that at all. It was more like this:

• Work when I choose (10 hours a day, sometimes weekends too because I LOVE what I do)
• Say YES to everything because each opportunity sounds exciting and may be the BIG one
• Adapt my schedule to suit my clients’ time frames
• Have flexibility in my day to grab lunch from the fridge. Then eat at my desk (repeat at dinner)
• Have plenty of free time – to spend working on and thinking about my business

I have a feeling you may be able to relate to this?

My illness was my blessing

It took me getting sick with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (that’s the diagnosis I finally received from the doc) to help me get really clear on what was important to me and how I wanted to spend my time.

Lying in bed for days, unable to move from the fatigue but with plenty of ideas spinning around my mind, I took a microscope to my business and life, and analysed what was really important to me.

Who do I want to work with? How do I want to serve them? How do I want my working day to look? How many hours will that be? How will I relax? Where do I need the most help? What should I let go of?

At the peak of my fatigue, I could work for just a few hours a day. My client work has always taken priority – this is true now as much as it was then. Thankfully I had the systems in place that meant my business could continue with little additional effort from me, so I could focus on serving my clients and getting well again.

Once my health returned, I had adapted a much healthier work-life balance that consisted of a 25-30 hour work week and plenty of time dedicated to self care.

Here’s how I did it…

I use a strategy that I learnt from Jenny Shih, and below is my adaptation. It’s simple but does require discipline – that must come from you!

Having a plan for your day does make self discipline easier to maintain. Plus it frees up your head from a jumble of competing thoughts:

What should I be doing today?; I MUST just quickly do this; Eek! I forgot to reply to so-and-so; I’ll just check my inbox quickly (fire fighting); who’s liked my post on Facebook?; how long have I got before I need to hang out the washing?

Bla bla bla…

A plan gives you c-l-a-r-i-t-y. It creates a feeling of calm, you’ve got it handled, YOU’RE in control.

Step 1: Start with you

Grab a piece of paper or on your computer, brain dump all the personal things you want or need to get done in your week. Include how many minutes or hours it takes to make them happen.

Add school drop offs, supermarket sweeps, plus self care – exercise, reading, bubble baths. Whatever floats your boat.

Make self care as much of a priority as everything else in your life. It’s often the area we sacrifice, and that leads to feeling unfulfilled, frazzled, burnt out and bored. Worst case – it makes you prone to ill health, like it did me.

Step 2: Work comes next

Next, get specific about every task you need to carry out for your business, along with how much time you need to complete them. Similar to your personal tasks.

Chunking tasks is a productive time saver. For instance, you might want to spend one afternoon a week on your creative business writing: blogs, newsletters, sales pages, web pages, auto responder series.

You might want to limit the time you spend on emails to an hour each day in 30 minute slots. Same applies to social media. Actually, I’d 100% recommend that you do…

You may decide that you only want to work with clients on specific days of the week, leaving the other days for admin, prospecting and working on your business.

Once you have your list of personal, work tasks and your time allocation it’s time to get it scheduled in your calendar.

Be realistic. You will discover tasks and projects that you no longer need to do, or don’t need to complete as often, or can be handed over to someone else.

An online calendar is your best tool because your can set recurring appointments creating a template for your week that doesn’t need to be re-written each week (another time saver!)

Plot your absolutely-must-do tasks first. Then add the rest into your schedule.

That’s it! You’re good to go.

Create freedom for yourself

You don’t need to feel that your schedule is locked solid or set in stone. It’s your time, and you can bend and flex as much as you like, or until you find the perfect fit for you. I revisit and refresh my schedule every few months.

And, when you find yourself straying, doing something you probably shouldn’t? Remind yourself that what you’re actually doing is wasting your precious time. Instead, you could be generating more income or unwinding and celebrating your achievements.

Over to you

What do you think about having a planned schedule like the one I’ve mentioned above? Let me know in the comments below.