Elevate 2023: Schedule Your Personal Life FIRST

November 6, 2022/Mary Cravets/5 Comments

When I first committed to putting my personal life on my calendar first, I remember the questions that popped into my head:

  • What if something comes up?
  • How do I know when to go on vacation if I don’t know what my clients need?
  • What if I get it wrong?

So much of this came from years of working a job where other people dictated my time off. And here’s the truth about the answers to these questions.

  • If something comes up, you can change your schedule.
  • Let your clients know when you’re going on vacation.
  • You will get it wrong sometimes, but no one besides you will notice.

All good? Ready to start planning your wonderful life?

Here’s what I put on the calendar each year, to get things started:

1. One 3-day weekend per month (last Friday of the month off)

2. One planning day per month (last Monday of the month)

3. Speaking events

4. Travel for work (conferences, speaking)

5. Vacations

One last thing: while I live and die by my google calendar, I highly recommend getting a wall calendar so you can see everything at a glance for the year!

Step 6 – ask your cat for feedback (this step is optional and actually not recommended)

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Mary Cravets

Founder Mary Cravets started Simply Get Clients because she saw small business owners complicating growing their businesses. Or falling victim to the "build it and they will come" myth. So she developed the simple structure to cut through all the noise of social media, "experts", online funnels, advertising and more to focus on the central problem of business owners: getting more clients. And you know what? There is NOT a one-size-fits-all solution.

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Comments

  1. Teresa Jurgens-Kowal says

    Actually, I believe the cat is onto something! Keeping our attention to the things that matter most (furry family members included) can guide our business decisions and “decluttering”.

  3. Patty Ross says

    TOTALLY! I used to use that same wall calendar..but less wall space these days..I use a Jumbo Grid month to month to write out my calendar as well as online. But agreed..it helps to have it out “on paper” as well! Love the idea of scheduling a 3 day weekend. Of course that means I have to NOT work on Saturday/Sunday..getting to that more and more! I already had learned years ago from you when you shared the story of a client that told you “someday she would block off a day on her calendar” and you told her why not now? I said..yeah!! Why not! So I do..no one can schedule calls with me on Monday or Friday unless I want to schedule it. So that was new!

    And although my cat population has diminished down to only one really reclusive one..probably best to keep all paws off especially on dry erase! 😛

    Thanks Mary!

    • Mary Cravets says

      I love that you took a pause and really considered this. Sometimes we just keep going and going and going without questioning.

      Take weekends off, my friend!!