How I’ve created what I call a Life-Affirming Body-Based Work Schedule (and why my brain also still has issues with it).
Hey fellow founders! It’s been a minute, well more than a minute. I moved to Turkey on March 1st, 2022 and today (yes, woo hoo, today!) I’m finally back to a ‘productive’ work life. Was a month off a total dream? You’d like to think so but my brain had other ideas for me.
It’s almost like we live in a society that wants us to think about work 24/7. Like to the point where we also think about it at night and in the shower and while we’re having sex and all the other times where we just don’t want to be……thinking about work.
There are a million (I haven’t counted, though) productivity apps, planners, courses, podcasts, methods and more to help us spend our time more efficiently in an effort to, I guess, create the best result of our time spent at work and out time spent in our non-work lives.
Well, my pandemic schedule was a total shit-show, I’ll be honest. For a while at the beginning I actually felt ok being less productive than usual, but that was only because I was joined with a ton of other humans who also had ‘no choice’ and I could sort of drop the whole ‘everyone is doing it better than you / why are you not working right now / um you haven’t finished everything on your list’ set of thoughts.
That wore off, though, and pretty soon I felt behind. I didn’t feel rested or even abundant with my newfound time. It was filled with worry and anxiety and wondering if I was pandemic-ing properly.
But, let me get back on track. This post is 2-fold. It’s about how to set up a new schedule after a major change. That change could just be you deciding to create something different, or it could be when something happens TO you, as well. And it’s about why our brains both want a new more gentle schedule and why when they get it they might freak out (like mine did).
THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR IN MY SCHEDULE IS MY BODY, NOT MY BUSINESS–
This is going to sound controversial, but eating and sleeping have become more important to me than work. I’m not saying it hasn’t been a battle– my fearful brain is set against the theory instead favoring to work at all hours to ‘avoid disaster and ruin.’ Wowzers. See below how I set a Body-Based Schedule that also works for my biz 😀.
1. PATIENCE AND OPENNESS TO BEING A WATCHER–
The amount of weird thoughts my brain hurls at me during downtimes is really obscene. It’s almost like that’s its job. Because it is. It’s here to ‘keep me safe’ and it’s somehow decided that me having time off or open space not filled with work (or people-pleasing clients / followers) is dangerous to my survival. So it packs this time off with some pretty scary thoughts that just makes being super uncomfortable. Phew. I had to just breathe through this. I had to be patient while my brain tried tactic after tactic to scare me back into action. I knew I could not create a good work schedule from that mindset.
2. THE RIGHT TIME TO SET A SCHEDULE–
The right time to create a schedule is NOT when you feel panicked, stressed, overwhelmed. It’s just not. For me, the right time to set a schedule was after a few weeks of physical adjustment to a new country / time zone / culture / setting and then also during a time when I felt positively connected to myself, not when I was worrying about work. I think it was probably when I was just feeling so grateful and blessed to be here on this earth, not when I was looking at a to-do list.
3. FIRST UP, WHAT BRINGS ME JOY ABOUT MY PLACE IN THE WORLD?–
From this place, I grabbed a pen and listed all the life-affirming amazingness I wanted to have In my daily moments. Walks. Seeing the sunset. Hugging the children in my life. Making food for my loved ones. Making sure I go to the farmer’s market. Etc. It was not about work just yet, except for considering my existing clients who I love very much and love connecting with.
My new daily life can include my friends and their 3 kids, if I want, and I usually do! They live a 10 minute walk away and I actually love building in time for spontaneous walks to the beach or dinner.
My clients are all (at this point) in the US / Canada and so are at the very least 7 hours off of my schedule. And since I speak to many of them 1-on-1, I had to find a time that made sense for all of us.
I live on the sea, like a 1 minute walk. So, for me, that means I want to take full advantage of this big change and true blessing.
Here’s what my brain had to say about that initially– “So, you’re going to prioritize LIFE instead of WORK?? That sounds like a really risky idea. How are you going to support us? Aren’t we going to lose it all and be on the street and then have to move back home???”
So, you can see that even being in an entirely new place, right next to the more beautiful sea I’ve ever seen didn’t stop that fearful thought from trying to steer me back into working more than living. And ‘disobeying’ that brain has not felt great. It’s required me to process a lot of fear. Fear that I was making a big mistake by not working working working from sun up to sun down.
I know it must sound crazy, but my brain has become certain that being really productive is how I stay safe. And also, I think that being really busy with ‘work that matters’ makes me feel safe, too. It’s distracting. It’s numbing. It’s easy to just slip into a schedule of work hours that bleed into time that I’d said I wasn’t going to work.
If I had to pick a word for this new chapter in my life, I’d probably choose discipline, or if it was a phrase it’d be life-affirming boundaries. The next version of me requires me making peace with (not numbing or running away from) this scared brain. It’s there. No amount of gorgeous life or work will banish it. Only conversation with it will lesson its effect on my life.
So, weirdly enough I had to do all this internal work before I was able to just put the logistics in place for my new schedule.
4. WHAT BRINGS ME JOY ABOUT BUSINESS?
Then it was time to think about work in a dreamy way! I love writing and content-creation. I love coaching. So, I wanted to prioritize what I enjoy and love most and what I’m good at. And then there is also of course ‘stuff to get done’ that I don’t hate or love it’s just stuff and honestly I do a good job of loving all the things (they all contribute to my own contribution in the world and that’s amazing, actually).
5. BUSINESS & FINANCIAL GOALS–
That stuff came L A S T. Hey, for me, most of my life has revolved around work and so I needed to be honest about that and conscious of not falling back into an old ‘comfortable’ (read: familiar) pattern. Getting a chance for a re-set is a blessing (yes, I just used that word who am I?). But these goals used to be #1 in my life at the expense of my life and I’m no longer willing to make that sacrifice. Who knows how many days we have here on earth. I want my business and financial goals to be in service of my life, not the other way around no matter how much or little money I have. This shift right here has been the hardest to undo. We have some serious terror stories that keep us convinced that having less money is a death sentence. And I’m not saying it’s not harder to have less money in a capitalist society. But the immediate internal catching of the breath is a strong force. I was sick of it controlling my body. And that emotional freedom did NOT come with more money, it actually came with much less then I’ve ever had. It’s why I created this business right here. So, I’ll be touching on this more and more.
SCHEDULE HELPERS–
Working in multiple time zones has been easier with the help of a few tech besties.
World Clock App on my laptop so that I easily see what time it is everywhere that matters
Voxer App so that I can send my thoughts via voice message (instead of just writing which doesn’t feel as connected to me) to my clients and they can send back to me
Monday Hour One– this coaching program / product by The Life Coach School is a great helper to get my own weekly schedule out of my brain and into a format I can actually work with
Coaching– having access to coaches from Self Coaching Scholars every week is a non-negotiable for me. Again, my brain can look at anything on a to-do list and give me 100 reasons it doesn’t want to do it, haha.
Asana for Project Mapping / Management. I love Asana as I’m doing the planning part of my job. I can
SO, WHAT’S MY NEW SCHEDULE?
My schedule is a set of life-affirming value propositions first and foremost, then it’s about the numbers.
Generally, I work 10am-3pm Monday - Thursday. I leave Friday, Saturday + Sunday for life and travel. I have a snack around 11, and often just eat one bigger meal a day.
I use Monday Hour One to establish priorities / schedule each week. If I cut out early or take a long lunch the rule is that I have to find a place to put the tasks back into that day or the next day (in my off time) OR I can be more efficient at other tasks and ‘make’ more time for the one I moved.
I do not pack every single hour with work. I used to do that. It sucked and then there was no space for anything taking longer than expected or life to get in the way (I was sick last week).
I am not rigid, but I am disciplined. I respect what is on my calendar and the self that created it, so I try to do my best by this human ;)
Life is ALWAYS more important than work for me.
My body is ALWAYS more important than work for me.
I prioritize creating and creativity EVERY DAY.
I walk out in the sun EVERY DAY, even if it’s just for five minutes.
I love myself regardless of if I get anything done or not, regardless if I have more than enough money or less than enough. It’s a non-negotiable.
I pause EVERYTHING to process emotion– I don’t push it off until later. I’m not perfect at this and I never will be but for the most part what I realize has stood in my way of actually getting done what I want AND feeling good in my body is this– processing emotion. So, it’s vital.
Having a schedule that allows flexibility and trusts me to make a good decision on behalf of life / work / clients / my body is the key that makes it all work– and THAT has nothing to do with calendars and everything to do with a nervous system-meets-coaching relationship.