Reverse Engineer Your Ideal Weekly Schedule (Here’s Mine)

Designing your ideal weekly schedule for work starts with imagining how you want to spend your time outside of work.

When I am entering a new season that requires a new schedule, I take the time to think about how I want my day to day to feel.

Then I can reverse engineer what my ideal work days look like, bringing together my desires and spaciousness of my ideal day with the work that has to get done.

This is where the rubber meets the road between your goals and your lifestyle.

I'm entering a new season of creating regular content and audience growth. My schedule reflects the priorities of the season I'm in, so I encourage you to think about how you can take these principles and apply them to the priorities of the season of business you're in now too.

You may have seen my video from a few months ago when I was in a season of experimentation and no two days were alike. I did a full breakdown of my daily activities over the course of 90 days to show you exactly what types of things I do (and don't do!). You can check that out here.

My 2023 ideal weekly schedule was a little different, you'll see how I've updated it to suit my 2024 plans.

Don't Be a Perfectionist

Your ideal schedule isn't meant to be followed perfectly. Don't go into it thinking you have to stick to this or any schedule to be successful (you don't). It's a loose guideline, a tool to help you get focused if you need a few bumpers on the bowling lane to get going.

Creating an ideal schedule shouldn't stress you out or make you feel trapped, it should just give you confidence that you can reach your goals in the time you have.

During and leading up to certain events, your ideal schedule usually goes out the window! Leading up to a big launch or virtual conference, your schedule will be fuller and less standardized.

Sometimes, unexpected things come up and your whole day gets messed up. It happens!

But on a regular week, it's nice to know you can do what you need to do in the time you've given yourself.

Set Your Parameters

We're reverse engineering your schedule from the parameters and "creative constraints" of your lifestyle.

In the same way that I tell my clients during annual planning (using my Map Your Model system, which is inside Monetize ) to put their vacations and time off on their calendar first, and then add in the work events like launching and projects, we're going to do that on a daily and weekly basis too.

You put your lifestyle "creative constraints" first, then fit work around it.

For example, some of my lifestyle goals are:

• Go for a walk outside every day (1-2 hours)

• Time for hobbies in the afternoon between work and cooking time - reading, recreation, music, crafts

• Go to the farmers market and then cook elaborate recipes for dinner each night (2 hours)

• Time to rest and chill

• Going to bed early

I've also noticed certain things about myself, like that my brain is most creative in the mornings between 8 am - 12 pm, which factors into my ideal design. You might be more of a night owl or a morning person, so take that into account.

That translates into some parameters, like:

• 3 day workweek

• <20 hours/week

• Focused work between 8 am - 12 pm

• All async = no calls

Lifestyle > $ Goals

I personally choose to put my lifestyle goals and creative constraints above my revenue goals. At this point in my journey, my free time is the most important thing to me. As long as my "enough" number is covered, I don't add more to my plate than I need to.

That means that when I put things on my schedule, if it doesn't fit, it sometimes gets cut and that "leaves money on the table". I'm fine with that. I "leave money on the table" in exchange for my free time and spacious schedule.

Turn Your To-Do's Into Recurring Tasks

Now you have your lifestyle parameters in place, you know your ideal day, we need to fit in the work tasks around the good stuff!

Make a list of everything you need to do each week on a recurring basis. Try to estimate how much time you'll set aside for each item or category.

• Outline email content (1 hour)

• Record podcast or video (30 minutes)

• Upload and format blog post (30 minutes)

• Schedule social media posts (1 hour)

• Etc, etc

We'll also leave room for just general "projects" and block categories, like:

• Admin + Email

• Client Work

• Content Creation

• Etc, etc

Then puzzle it all together on your calendar, like this!

You can see here, I work mostly in the mornings, 3 days a week, and like to wrap up around 2 pm in the afternoon to shift into personal activities.

My Schedule Breakdown

Let's look at each day in detail.

Monday:

I don't like to work on Mondays (such a rebel!), so I make it "CEO vision day" which really means time to plan and dream, rest, let my mind wander and do whatever. It's a good time to get inspired (read an article, watch a video, journal). I also do a lot of cooking on Mondays for the week.

My only thing is that by the end of Monday, I have to *know* what that week's content theme and topic is going to be. I don't have to do anything about it, I just have to DECIDE. As long as I know exactly what the content theme/topic will be for that week, I can hop into the "doing" on Tuesday.

Tuesday:

This is the big content day. I'm most well rested from my always 4-day weekend, and most ready to CREATE!

I know what this week's content will be, so I open up my OCM (Organic Content Machine) template for that week, and write in it! (I'm literally doing it right now… writing this article in my OCM template doc).

I spend 1-2 hours writing the content first. Then I record the audio podcast version of that content. For you, this might be recording a Youtube video or making reels.

After the podcast recording, I always have some tweaks to add to the final written content from verbally processing so I add those. I finalize the content template with SEO keywords, URL slugs, summaries, all the things. You might need an editing block if you do video or other media.

At this point, my part of the content publishing process is done, and I'll hand it off to my Operator to take it from there.

The OCM template doc makes it super easy to delegate the publishing process (I'll be sharing more about this soon, subscribe to the Creator Confessions newsletter so you don't miss it).

Since I know what the content topic is going to be this week, I can post on social media teasing the upcoming newsletter and post, linking to my opt in page, so people can opt in before it gets sent (which helps me gain email subscribers).

At the end of my workday (usually sometime between 12 pm noon - 2 pm), I'll check in with my private clients, respond in my student groups, and do any emails or admin.

Wednesday:

Full disclosure, my Operator does all the content publishing process (uploading, formatting, scheduling it to go live, etc), so that block is delegated to my team member. However, I thought including it here would be helpful if you're a solopreneur.

It's worth it to take a few moments to post on social (wherever that may be for you) teasing the next day's newsletter and content, so they can make sure to subscribe (to your emails, youtube channel, podcast, etc) before it goes live so they don't miss it.

Then I have a "creative work" block, time to do whatever needs to get done that's more project-based.

That can be anything like:

• Creating new course curriculum

• Being a guest on another podcast

• Client work

• Working on a new funnel

• Preparing launch assets

• Whatever projects you've got going on!

Then I check in with clients, students, and admin - and head off to spend the afternoon as I please!

Thursday:

Thursday is my Friday, so I treat it as a wrap up day and "prep for next week" day. I try to make my future self's life a little easier :)

All of our content gets scheduled on Wednesday and goes live on Thursday morning (at the time of writing this, maybe that will change!)

As soon as it goes live, I like to make sure it all looks good, so I check the links and make sure everything is published correctly.

As soon as the email goes out, I schedule the Resend To Unopens to go out the next day.

At this point, you can do a social post in real time promoting your new content.

If you have the process for it, now would also be the time to go ahead and schedule a week or months' worth of social posts promoting this content in your scheduler. I don't personally do that now, but I added it to the calendar as I know many of my clients use social media more than I do.

Then it's another creative work block to make progress on any projects or one-off things.

I wrap up the week with any lingering admin tasks, make sure to check in with my clients and clear out the inbox, close the open loops.

Then I prep for the following week to make sure everything for the following week is in my planner doc (you can see my weekly task moving process in the video here ).

Then it's off for another long weekend!

Fill Your Free Time With FUN Stuff

I recently helped one of my private consulting clients completely restructure her business to get her time back. She was making millions a year, revenue and profit was great, but she wanted more control over her time.

We made a lot of shifts during our time working together - reworking her org chart, establishing communication cadence, resetting boundaries, clarifying roles, etc.

But the most important advice I gave her was this:

"As soon as we make these shifts, you will suddenly have tons of free time and it will be very tempting to find ways to work more. Until you learn to get into the habit of just BEING quietly and hanging out and not feeling weird about it, we want to fill your free time with FUN time stuff so you don't slip back into working just because you can."

She knew that was exactly what she needed. So she signed up for some fun language classes, outdoor activities and booked some trips. If you have to be at horseback riding lessons or art classes every Tuesday and Thursday at 2 pm, you are forced to keep your work in the time it belongs.

So if you struggle with falling into work habits, schedule some extra fun and stick to it!

Design Your Ideal Creator Schedule

It's time for you to create your own ideal week schdule.

• Write down all your lifestyle "Creative constraints" - these are the priority!

• Write down your recurring work tasks and project blocks

• Puzzle it all onto the calendar

• Use "Parkinson's Law" to your advantage - don't let work seep into all the personal time you've created for yourself!

You can run a successful creator business in 3-4 days a week, with free time for personal hobbies.

Creating an ideal weekly schedule is an ever-evolving process that will change with the season of life and business you're in. It doesn't need to be perfect, and you won't stick to it 100% of the time, but I hope it gives you some clarity.