Creating good work habits is all about building a smart schedule that works for you. Schedule your time, your client time, workouts, self-care – everything!
Scheduling done properly doesn’t put constraints on you; doesn’t limit you. Instead, an optimal schedule:
- Creates more free time
- Cuts down on exhaustion, strain, stress, and confusion
- Promotes clarity and focus
- Helps you be more productive
- Helps you develop good habits – and break bad ones
- Promotes goal-setting success
- Creates a strong structure and framework for life
You remember things better when you get into the habit of sticking to a schedule. You prioritize better. Sticking to a schedule becomes a habit, making it much easier to beat procrastination. It increases self-respect and self-worth. You feel productive, focused, efficient – and stress-free.
Life no longer consists of a mad scramble; of sleepless nights knowing you didn’t prepare for tomorrow’s meeting or wondering if you’re going to meet your launch deadline. And the more you stick to your schedule, the easier everything about your business gets.
Generally speaking, creating an optimal schedule and cultivating good habits is pretty hard for me. I have the self-discipline of a toddler. I’m clearly a work in progress when it comes to habits, but I will share my top 3 that will help you build a strong schedule – one that will keep you on track and on target.
This month’s theme is Destress Your Business and in today’s episode, I’m sharing the secret to developing good work habits.
Welcome to Systems Sunday, this month’s theme is Destress Your Business. I am Lisa Wells, your Virtual Assistant Trainer.
In the last episode, we kicked off our Destress Your Business series and in today’s episode we’ll go over the secret to developing good work habits
Creating good work habits is all about building a smart schedule that works for you. Schedule your time, your client time, workouts, self-care – everything!
Scheduling done properly doesn’t put constraints on you; doesn’t limit you.
Instead, an optimal schedule:
• Creates more free time
• Cuts down on exhaustion, strain, stress, and confusion
• Promotes clarity and focus
• Helps you be more productive
• Helps you develop good habits – and break bad ones
• Promotes goal-setting success
• Creates a strong structure and framework for life
You remember things better when you get into the habit of sticking to a schedule. You prioritize better. Sticking to a schedule becomes a habit, making it much easier to beat procrastination. It increases self-respect and self-worth. You feel productive, focused, efficient – and stress-free.
Life no longer consists of a mad scramble; of sleepless nights knowing you didn’t prepare for tomorrow’s meeting or wondering if you’re going to meet your launch deadline.
And the more you stick to your schedule, the easier everything about your business gets.
Full transparency, creating an optimal schedule and cultivating good habits in general is pretty hard for me. I have the self-discipline of a toddler. Suffice it to say, I’m a work in progress when it comes to habits, but I will share my top 3 that will help you build a strong schedule – one that will keep you on track and on target:
1. Use an electronic calendar for EVERY task, not just appointments. If you need to write a blog post, block off two hours. If you have a client call, even for 5 minutes, include it.
Color code (blue for phone calls, red for out-of-office events, green for clients, etc.) so you can see at a glance what’s coming up.
Any time a new task is added to your list, block off time in the calendar, even if it’s a month out.
Set up reminder emails or notifications so you get electronic nudges. (If something requires prep or travel, remind yourself several times, including a week or more in advance.)
If you have an off-site meeting, add transit time on either end.
2. Use the same calendar (or a coordinating/overlapping one) for your personal life. The danger of maintaining separate calendars is double-booking … or even forgetting to check the right one for a certain event!
If you’re very busy, you’ll start to allow self-care to fall to the wayside. If that happens, put it in your calendar! Block off coffee breaks, yoga classes, lunches with friends. Make them official so it’s harder to back out of them.
Use different color codes for your personal events
3. Check your work-life balance. Are you getting in enough relaxation and personal time each week? Are you spending more time on the phone than you expect?
Don’t just schedule your calendar, learn from it. The color-coding system we talked about in Number 1 should give you a snapshot of where your time is being spent.
This is where tracking your time also comes into play. Make that schedule, but for the first two weeks at least, track every minute of your time. I know that’s a pain, but consider, it’s only for two weeks – or even a week, if you must.
Be ruthlessly honest when you track your time too. The reason you’re doing it lies in creating a Reality Check between what you think would be an ideal schedule – and what a more realistic schedule might be.
You can also see where you are ‘bleeding’ time away: For example, perhaps you mean to spend fifteen minutes on Facebook, but in reality, you always end up spending close to two hours a day on it, because you’re using it as a way to procrastinate.
Being present in the moment is the greatest gift you can give yourself: And all of these new habits we’re talking about will help you do that – and cut down on stress. Significantly!
If you’d like a shortcut in ways to destress your business, check out my Business Building Action Kit: 7 Ways to Destress Your Business over in my shop. These action kits contain a full done-for-you action plan to give you guidance, resources, and keep you on track with checklists and worksheets.
In the next episode, I’ll tell you the biggest myth about saying No to clients. See you next week!
Catch up on other DeStress Your Business episodes:
Did you enjoy this episode and want to put it into action? Grab this kit!
7 Ways to Destress Your Business
$25.00
Stress has become part and parcel of being an entrepreneur these days – particularly if you work online.
It’s been estimated that people who work for themselves suffer from more stress than those who work for others. There are still bills to pay, time and people to manage, responsibilities to meet, and expectations to fill. The difference is, when you work for yourself, you can choose what to do about it, and how you are going to diffuse or eliminate that stress.
Life passes swiftly, at an increasingly frenetic pace. It’s easy to get caught up in all the drama involved with multi-tasking, responsibilities, and trying to be all things to all people.
Learning how to destress is as important to your business as learning how to make money, so don’t neglect it.
In this complete kit, I give you the step-by-steps as well as some tools, resources, and powerful strategies to put into practice today.
What you Get with Your Kit:
- 21-Page Guide giving you step-by-step, visuals, and examples of how to destress your business
- “21 Idea Blueprint” giving you twenty-one ideas
- 4-week done-for-you calendar
- Comprehensive action checklist
- Resource Directory with links to tools and resources
- Worksheet – Use this Worksheet to make sure you are taking consistent action to destress, gain clarity and focus
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