When you worked as a hired employee, you soon adapted to a routine when coming to the office, going for lunch or a coffee break, and getting prepared for the end of the day. Being self-employed is no way any different.
One of the greatest advantages of being self-employed is not having a daily routine. You can be flexible to run your errands, go on appointments, holidays, do house chores, take a nap. You are the boss of you, and no one is looking over your shoulder.
One of the biggest disadvantages of being self-employed is not having a daily routine. You get distracted, procrastinate, confuse your priorities, and send a message of constant availability to your family and friends.
So, it is important to keep up a routine of some level that allows flexibility to a certain extent.
How can you achieve that? Here are my 10 tips on habits and rituals for the solopreneur lifestyle:
1. WEEKLY ACCOMPLISHMENT GOALS
Spend 10-20 minutes at the beginning (or end) of every week to list your accomplishment goals for the next week, be specific and use bullet points to break every assignment into smaller assignments.
2. DAILY ACCOMPLISHMENT GOALS
Spend 5-10 minutes every morning listing your daily accomplishment goals, and spread your assignments throughout the week. Pay attention to assignments that should be batched together like content creation assignments, operational assignments, admin assignments. Spread out assignments that involve getting responses from emails correspondence and follow up assignments.
3. HAVE REGULAR HOURS FOR BREAKFAST, LUNCH AND COFFEE BREAKS
Keeping your body on regular working habits will automatically serve your need to focus on a regular basis. You get to decide how often and how long your breaks are, but keep them on regular hours. Know when you are hungry beyond work, and never get to that point of being totally famished. If possible, get your meals ready for the next day or whole week up front, spend little time on cooking during your work day, as you wouldn’t be stirring pots if you were working in an office, right?.. When is your coffee-pick-me-up time? When is time for something sweet? - Prepare all your snacks in advance and keep them separated from your family’s pantry. Make everything handy and accessible, for example, if you're a fruit person, have some fruits washed and prepared to eat before starting your day. Don’t spend time on wondering what you crave, or preparing your next meal or snack.
COFFEE BREAK
4. AVOID OUTSIDE TEMPTATIONS
This might be the hardest one. Your best friend is in town and wants to get together for lunch. Your partner is sending you cute videos from TikTok. Your dog pleads to go on a walk. What do you do to keep your daily goals in reach and keep your temptations away? - make sacrifices, compromises, and prioritize. You want to have lunch with your best friend? Sacrifice your lunch + one coffee break, and let them know in advance that your time is limited. Alternatively, work non-stop until lunchtime and meet your friend for a longer time, after you tick most important daily goals off your list. Act the same way with other temptations, including your full laundry hamper or the new movie on Netflix.
5. THINGS JUST HAPPEN
Similarly to dealing with temptations, we also have unexpected surprises that are less pleasant for us, and cannot be a rewarding prize for our efforts. For instance, the plumber came to fix your leak and stayed longer than you anticipated, your kid needs to come home earlier because they don’t feel well, you need to take an unrelated call, or your house is on fire. When planning out your day, always secure 1-2 hours of ‘things just happen’. So, Prepare for the unknown and be sure it will always happen once you are finally in such an amazing flow at work, and you will get totally frustrated, for sure.
6. CAN’T FOOL THE SYSTEM
When we work for others there are ways to measure our productivity. We are pretty much used to working on autopilot or proving our productivity in different ways even when it’s not the best reflection of our abilities. However, when it’s your business, you can’t fool the system, simply because you are the system. Did you write a piece of content that you're not happy with? Are you working on a client project that doesn’t spark any creativity? Make yourself a mood ritual that helps get your engine working again, whether it’s a workout, a meditation, putting on your special playlist and dancing around, practicing some automatic writing, anything that can get you back in the game.
WHEN IT’S YOUR BUSINESS, YOU CAN’T FOOL THE SYSTEM, SIMPLY BECAUSE YOU ARE THE SYSTEM.
7. FIND YOUR MAGIC HOUR
Speaking about productivity, it is very helpful to be reacquainted with your productivity hours now that you are free to make up your own schedule. Perhaps you are not a morning person but you had to work 9-5 until now? Here’s your opportunity to change a habit that doesn't serve you well. Think about your most creative time of the day (or night) and plan your biggest assignments around it. Save short and simple tasks to moments when your concentration is less than perfect and if you have any auto-pilot tasks that will be great to save for times you are feeling low in energy.
MAGIC HOUR
8. ADMIN WORK
Perhaps it gets you excited, or if you're like me, turns you off completely, but admin work has to be scheduled and addressed on a regular basis. What is admin work? Anything that has to do with your business, but not with your product or service. So, on the numbers side this means bills, invoices, and the infamous quarterly tax report. Non - numbers side, this may include your time to answer clients inquiries, do customer service work, work on your marketing and organize your working space to create a more efficient work flow. Even something as random as rearranging your folders on your desktop or changing the layout of your studio can have a major impact on your work process.
9. CLOSING TIME
What do you do to wrap up your day? Or your week? Start by ticking off your daily/weekly accomplishments off your lists of goals. Any work you didn’t get done will be transferred to the next list. Leave yourself a clear desktop/desk/work environment to give you a clean and fresh start for the next day.
10. TIME OFF
I am always in favor of maintaining your business life separated from your private life as much as possible. Whether you work from home or not, it is very easy to let the two mix together, answering emails from your bed, or trying to finish one last thing while your child is sitting on your lap. You might even be tempted to get some work done over the weekend or take your laptop on your next vacation. It is very normal to have that sense of responsibility 24/7 when you are a business owner, but you should keep in mind that one of the most popular reasons that brings people to start a business is their desire to spend more time with their families, and work on their own terms. So, work as much as you want, but on your own terms. Meaning, when you work - you work, and when you're off - you're really off.
Think of a small ritual or habit that can symbolize your switch from work to personal life mode. Like changing your clothes, turning off your computer, muting your phone, or anything else that comes to mind. Out of respect for your own piece of mind.
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