3 practical tips for a less hectic working week

Photo by Sanni Sahil on Unsplash

In 2023 my theme for the year was trusting in simplicity.

After a couple of years filled with the complexities of navigating lock down with a new born baby, small toddler and starting a business, my body and my mind were calling out for a different approach. 

I have to say that simplicity doesn’t come naturally to me. Or at least not when life is full and moving quickly. I readily shift into overthinking and overdoing when I’m tired and under resourced. There’s a part of me that thrives on piling more things on when there’s already a lot to do.

But I realised that the pace I was setting wasn’t sustainable and moreso, wasn’t the way I wanted to experience the early years with my kids and my business. I wanted to be more present and more appreciative of all the things that are meaningful to me rather than always focussed on the items on my to do list that still weren’t ticked.

And so began project simplicity. 

Almost two years later, it’s still an ongoing theme in my life. But these days, it feels like a mode I can access. And that’s been the best bit - building range. So that I can hold the complexities and fullness when required and also have the ability to whittle things down when I want to or need to. Like many things in this human life, I don’t get it right all the time, but I thought I’d share three practical steps I took when I was just getting started and have lasted to this day. 

Three very practical ways that I support myself in bringing more simplicity to my working life are as follows:

1, Weekly planning: I’ve been doing this every Sunday or Monday for nearly two years now. I sit down for 15 - 30 mins and review the week ahead. I take out my To-Do list and figure out whether I actually have time in the week to get the things done in the free spaces that sit between the regular scheduled chunks (see below). If I don’t, I postpone it or let it go. For me, this really frees up a lot of the nagging to be on top of things that I otherwise feel.

2, Chunking out my calendar: Not the most endearing way to describe this! But it basically involves scheduling in all of the regular activities in my life and business. The things that I want to do on a weekly or monthly basis. This might be regular client calls or other meetings, or it might be individual time with each of my kids, or a weekly yoga sesh. I would highly recommend this step. It’s a really good eye opener as to how little ‘free’ time there actually is and for me, really helped recalibrate my expectation on what I could achieve in the in between times.

3, Review and revise: If you are an employee, or ex-employee, as well as an entrepreneur then I suspect you will be familiar with GANNT charts, setting priorities, checking in on KPI’s, or something similar. All intended to keep your project on track. I’ve found that often when people have experienced with these in their employee life, it puts them off using them in entrepreneur life. However, the principle is still really important. I’ve tried and tested lots of different ways to help measure my ‘progress’. I don’t think it matters how you do it, but I think it’s really important to find some way of continually checking in on the goal to see if what you are choosing to do on a week to week basis is actually in support of what you want to achieve.

I appreciate that these are small steps, but I’ve found that making small changes and then sticking to them is what really helps in the long term. The bonus of them being small is that they are things you can get started on right away.

I’d love to know how you get on and what you think. Let me know in the comments below.

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