For a lot of people, the first few weeks of December can be a mad rush, a race towards a self-imposed finish line. If you’re feeling more than a little stressed about it, we invite you to remember that the finish line is, indeed, self-imposed.
You may have chosen to become an entrepreneur for a basket full of reasons, but as we mentioned last month, one of the most common reasons for many of us to stay on this wild ride is the freedom and flexibility.
Actually implementing that freedom and flexibility can honestly be really difficult. You have to stop and spend some time defining what that actually means to YOU.
Like you, slayers are also big fans of freedom and flexibility. We spend a lot of time and energy on creating working, flexible schedules for our team, ones that work with yours. Just like you, slayers often struggle in defining what that really looks like, often falling back on Monday to Friday, 8 am to 5 pm (was it ever 9 to 5?), with statutory holidays and two week vacations - because that’s what we’ve been taught is acceptable.
We’re all in the privileged position of designing our own lives and our own schedules, but we so rarely put the time and energy into doing it. This December, if you have taken some time off, or if you have decided to spend time working when it might be a little bit quieter (no judgement!), we invite you to carve out just a little bit of space to think about how great your version of a truly flexible schedule might be.
When it comes to that schedule, we talk about calendar management a lot at Admin Slayer. We’ve been asked if it really requires all that energy.
It can - if you’re doing it right.
Calendar management is the implementation of your life plan - and we think that’s a pretty big thing. It’s the reflection of the way you have chosen to manage your freedom and flexibility. It’s not a cage, as some people might think when we talk about time blocking, but an opportunity to create the life you’ve always wanted, which is the reason you’ve been doing all this business stuff to begin with.
If you’ve got some space to think about your year ahead right now, get out that calendar and start planning. Start first with blocking your holidays, your family time, and those invigorating non-work activities that keep you sharp for when you get to work. Several of our team members have these blocked years in advance.
Remember that this doesn’t mean you absolutely have to take your holidays at that specific time. Things change. Being flexible means being open to that. By blocking out your holidays and your down time and your family time, you’re able to clearly see, even if those times move around a bit, exactly how much time you have left for your business.
That information can help you design all kinds of great stuff from there, whether it’s how many meetings you need to have in a week or a month to create the revenue you need, how much revenue needs to come from each one of those meetings, and so much more. It’s a great way to imagine and design the life you want to live, instead of letting life tell you how to be. (Hint: Life doesn’t know what it’s talking about and often tells you how to be stressed).
We suggest that, while you’re doing this, you incorporate some of the recovery strategies we’ve been writing about all year long. Not only are these great for after a crisis, they’re also great for keeping those crises at bay. Our year-end round-up is a great way to kick off your plan for an extremely sustainable 2022.
Last and never, ever least, we are excited to introduce you to our very own Compassionate Slayer, Liliana! She’s been behind-the-scenes for a while now, working with clients, and even writing a few of our articles about other slayers. Finally, it’s Liliana’s turn to grab the spotlight - we know you’ll adore her as much as we do.
2021 is nearly done. 2022 is a blank page, waiting to be written. Whether you’re doing that alone, cribbing notes from our articles (we hope they’re useful!) or in partnership with us, as we help you build that flexible schedule you’ve always wanted, we wish you the very best in these last few weeks of the year, and a wildly successful new year!
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