One of the struggles that newly minted entrepreneurs face is how to manage their schedules. If you’re anything like me, the corporate setting where you came from was so rigid and limiting, that once you escaped its grasp, you wanted absolute freedom to do your own thing on your own time.
The only problem is that not everyone is self-motivated or self-disciplined enough to do the things that need to be done without someone holding them accountable. When it’s YOU that has to keep you accountable, what do you do?
I heard a client once say that they now had, “Too much freedom.”
Most entrepreneurs that make it through the statistics of small business failure eventually find their way back to some sort of structure. Even though we may have snubbed our noses at schedules and SOPs, in truth, they are the building blocks to a healthy, sustainable business. ????????
The key distinction here is to find the schedule and structure that works for you.
When do you do your best work? Schedule your productive time around that.
When do you need a break? Build in time for an afternoon siesta or an energy-boosting morning workout.
When I hear clients say, “I don’t have time,” I ask them who is in charge of their time. You get to play this game as you see fit.
Once you establish a system that works, keep doing that. I can’t tell you how many clients I’ve worked with who say something like:
“I was doing this and it was working great, but I stopped doing it.”
“Why did you stop doing it?”
“I don’t know.” ????
Steven Pressfield talks about this in his classic on overcoming resistance, The War of Art. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to find that balance of freedom and structure.
Let’s compare energy and structure to water and a vase. The purpose of the vase is to contain the water—otherwise, it would just run all over the place.
Your energy is similar. It needs structures to maintain it to fulfill its purpose—otherwise, it just leaks out all over the place without getting anything done.
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