When you become an entrepreneur, TGIF may not hold the same meaning it once had when you had a 9-5. Many business owners find themselves working weekends in order to keep up or get ahead.
Running a business can be rewarding but also stressful and time-consuming especially if you have a lot of responsibilities on your plate. I’ll admit, I used to use weekends to keep my business afloat by catching up on assignments and working on side projects that were on my long to-do list.
Working every day can lead to serious burnout after a while. Plus, if you are your own boss you should be able to enjoy the freedom or setting your own scheduling and taking time off to relax and refuel.
Here are a few things you can do to manage your time better manage your time and workload so you can add more freedom and flexibility to your weekends.
Wake Up 1 Hour Earlier During the Week
It’s no secret that waking up earlier can do wonders for your productivity. Simply said, it’s a sure way to have more time in the day to get stuff done.
You can kick off your morning routine earlier and be ready to crank out work by the time you would normally just be waking up. If you want to work fewer hours over the weekend, this is one of the best solutions to try although it may not be easiest at first.
If you get up one hour early Monday – Friday, you’ll be adding 5 hours back into your work week. This will likely make you less stressed and overwhelmed by the time Friday afternoon rolls around.
Adjust Your Daily Schedule
Your to-do list isn’t a schedule. It’s simply a list of stuff you have to get done. You create a schedule when you organize those tasks effectively. Smart business owners create clear and realistic schedules to follow each day. If you’re looking to add more freedom and flexibility to your weekends, you’ll likely need to adjust your schedule to accommodate that. This often means becoming more efficient so more gets accomplished during the week.
Determine how much time you have to work on your business during the week and what amount of limited hours you’d like to put in on weekends if any. Then, consider block scheduling tasks or knocking out the most mentally challenging tasks on your list during the work week.
If you only have to do something small like social media posts or sending follow-ups for an hour on Saturday morning, it probably won’t really ruin your entire weekend and you’ll still have the freedom to take a step back from your business.
Start Being Unavailable For Business Tasks During the Weekend
Have better control over your calendar and set expectations with customers and clients that your availability will be limited during weekends. This way, no one is expecting you to respond to their email they sent on Friday or Sunday afternoon.
I always set my calendar as unavailable during weekends and specific days. You would think most people wouldn’t be doing business on those weekends anyway but you’d be surprised. I try not to agree to specific deadlines for tasks that fall on weekend days either because it’s better that I don’t have anything business-related scheduled and can just work if and when I please.
One of the most common reasons why business owners end up working and adhering to strict schedules on weekends is because they fail to determine a stop time for their work. It’s great to love what you do but working and sticking to a schedule 24/7 won’t help you out as much as you think in the long run.
It’s important to dedicate time to unplug and scale back especially if you have an online business as it’s often so easy to just log on and start working anywhere and at any time.
Theme Your Weekends
You’re likely reading this because you want to have more freedom and flexibility to do what you want to do on weekends instead of just tending to your business. Creating a loose theme around what you truly want to do during weekends can help seal the deal.
Just like you set goals for your business and create themes, theme your weekend based on what you truly want to spend your time doing whether that’s spending time with family, catching up with friends, taking day trips etc. It’s simple to do but it really works.
Sometimes, any free time we have can get spent doing unproductive work that doesn’t add any value to our lives. Just like you want to schedule important meetings and deadlines, schedule family days or time to read or plan. Establishing a loose theme will provide direction but also leave you with the freedom and flexibility to divvy up your time.
Weekends can fly by quickly and if you don’t manage your time and priorities well during the week, you’ll pay for it during the time when you truly want to relax and unplug.
The best thing an entrepreneur can do is put themselves on a schedule and set boundaries. Having a schedule doesn’t mean being glued to work 24/7. You should be sure to schedule in downtime and theme your weekends so you don’t let the opportunity to create memorable moments outside of work pass you by.
How do you create more freedom and flexibility during weekends?
Choncé Maddox
Choncé Maddox is a professional writer who recently left her job in the web design industry to produce killer content and manage her own writing business full time. She is passionate about helping entrepreneurs be more productive and create a life they love by doing fulfilling work. On the side, she runs a podcast and blogs about getting out of debt at MyDebtEpiphany.com.