Self-employed, you are in charge right?
With no boss, I am the boss of my life – I’m in control here.
Really?
When you get up in the morning, you say what to eat, what to wear, the hours and days you work, the work you do – when you do it, and who with.
That’s the theory, but sometimes it feels like you’re far from the boss of what you do with your time.
You might have a plan for the day, get up and then get a curve ball.
You react to that, and before you’ve dealt with it, you get another one.Then more throughout the day, eventually collapsing at the end of the day, exhausted, with the plan you had at the start barely touched.
One day merges into another, one week into the next, and it feels like constantly swimming upstream.
The impact – we get expert at dealing with urgent tasks.
The important, non-urgent stuff like planning, finances, and ‘well-being’ gets kicked down the road, until these also eventually become urgent, sometimes through unpleasant consequences.
We know this, and complain about being robbed of our time, but it’s difficult to know where to start to change this.
If this is a complaint for a client, I’ll start with suggesting a simple template inspired by the book The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod (your first hour sets the course for your day – and your week; 6 min summary).
This can be as simple or detailed as you want, but the starting point is making you think clearly – what would a 10 out of 10 ideal, perfect week for me look like?
Something like this;
And how this works – what mine looks like;
I’m now focusing on what I do want, as opposed to complaining about getting things I don’t want.
Copy this, or get to work on your own. It’s not meant to be a rigid straight jacket – more a framework that’s as flexible as you allow, and if it bends it’s because you say so.
Then try it on, and importantly share it with others – you might be surprised how people will fit in around what works best for you when you take control.
It works wonders for highlighting time thieves, and also allocating specific times for those important, non urgent jobs – which then get prioritised and done.
And be prepared for breakdowns – you will be tested! Get diverted when you say so, and then return to it when you want to.
Give yourself into some ‘personal time training’, and change the way you hit the ground running for when you get back to your ‘new normal’.
Take control of your life, by taking control of your week – and start simply by taking control of the first hour of the day.
