LITTLE CROW MARKETING

Running a business and working for yourself can, understandably, end up taking much of your time – if not most of it. It’s not a job where you clock out at 6pm and can forget about it until you go back the next day. It’s bound to have a bigger effect and invade much more of your life because you’ve created it, and it relies on you to succeed. This is no small task. But, it’s equally important that we don’t let it take over our entire lives. While I’m sure most of us are incredibly proud of our businesses and love what we do, we work to live, not live to work. There is a lot more to life than our job, whether you are employed or a CEO.

We need sleep, food, FUN. Time to clean our house, look after kids, exercise, relax and so many other things! I’ve found that for myself, and most of my clients, a typical work routine simply does not work. That’s why I am so passionate about making systems SIMPLE and SUSTAINABLE. Here are a few things to consider:

• Your own time restraints – how much can you actually do?
• Your comfort zone – if you’re not ok with constantly being on camera then using TikTok or YouTube will probably fall flat for you
• Your budget – certain platforms are fantastic for marketing but if you can’t afford them then that doesn’t help you
• Your goals – what you may want to achieve might be very different than the next person

One of the main benefits of being self employed, is the ability to completely change up that work/life balance and mentality, but I think most of us are still not using it to the full advantage. Typically we have these two individual things – work and life, separate entities that sit side by side. But the way forward is a true blend of the two. We don’t need to think of them as one or the other. It impedes flexibility, socialisation, the change of the seasons, and more.

I’m guessing you currently think of it as ‘work hours’ and ‘the rest of life’. While we might be more adaptable than employed folks (say for example if your child is ill you could go fetch them from school without a second thought) we can take it even further!

It’s all part of our life and it all needs to fit in somewhere. So instead of thinking about it as ‘work time’ and ‘home time’, why not try mixing them and seeing how it improves things for you. Go for an adventure in the woods in between meetings; pop your laundry on and then answer some emails; make some bread dough and while it’s rising schedule some posts; take a nap! You’ve certainly earned it.

As much as we may love our jobs, we all want a break sometimes, right? Find a way to enjoy the finer points of life (and keep on top of the boring stuff) ‘during’ work. Don’t tell yourself that it’ll have to wait until that evening or the weekend. Your business is tailor made by YOU, so weave it through your life in a way that makes you wake up each morning with something to look forward to.

I’m still working on this myself, it takes practise and adapting constantly. But as of right now I’ve made one big change – I no longer have a ‘work to do list’ and a ‘home to do list’. I have one list for the day. I take into account how much I can practically get done (especially with my health conditions that mean I need more rest), consider any timed tasks such as meetings and go from there. So my week may look something like this:

MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY
Admin Meeting Laundry Nap Scheduling VA Work	Client Meeting Walk Client SMM Read Blog Post Nap	Make Bread Dough Marketing Campaign Nap Email Campaign Coaching Call Tidy Bedroom	Bake Bread Admin Networking Client SMM Study Hour Nap	See A Friend VA Work Send Invoices Prep Dinner Nap Journal