My New Work Schedule

Two weeks ago, I realized that I was forever and always chasing self-imposed deadlines, working at all hours, and dreading doing the busy work of being a solopreneur, but never actually getting anything done.

Not only was my work suffering, but my rest was too.

When I was supposed to be resting or taking time "off," I was distracted and stressed about the work I hadn't gotten done.

When I was supposed to be working, I was tired and uninspired, and it took hours to crank out one piece of viable content.

I was really over it. So I sat down and created a new "work" schedule for myself that include massive breaks, and gave me only a certain number of "working hours" a week.

Guess what? It's working.

Why It's Working

To tell you that I was shocked is kind of an understatement, but I shouldn't have been, because I tell my clients ALLLLL the time that rest breeds productivity. It's completely counterintuitive and also completely true.

Somehow, by telling myself that I HAD to rest at certain times, and almost limiting the amount of work I "allowed" myself to do, it reset the message my brain was sending me about what the expectations were.

It helped me to rest when my schedule said to rest and work when my schedule said to work. I can't go against the schedule, right? Ha! I almost got to a point where I was impatiently waiting for my work time slots! WHO EVEN AM I?

Since the pressure of "I have so much to do and I don't know when I'm going to do it" was off, it left my brain free to focus on other things, namely, to recognize when an idea for a great piece of content came up.

I've been dropping ideas in an app on my phone. Then, when my work time slot comes, I have a wealth of ideas to look through and don't feel stymied if I don't have any ideas at that moment.

This works so well for a few reasons:

I have specified times for all the things, and I stick to them.
I have a system for catching the things that might come up for work when I'm not working, so I don't have to worry I'll forget about them. This eliminates the temptation to sit down and work immediately.
I am giving my body and my brain copious amounts of REST (or non-work), which is allowing my creativity and stamina to rebound so that when I do work, I can do so at longer stretches, and create great content that I am proud of, even if I am "out of ideas" on that particular day.

Why It's So Hard To Take Breaks (Spoiler Alert - Societal Conditioning)

So why did telling myself I could only work at certain times flip some switch in my brain? Because it is so hard as a human (and especially an American human) to tell ourselves not to work.

This is exponentially true in the world of solopreneurs. We always have something we could be doing. ALWAYS.

We've been told that we have to work hard to be successful. We've been told that we have to hustle to achieve our dreams. We've been told that if we don't work hard we are lazy.

Our entire self-worth tends to be tied up in our career because America is completely backwards, and so if it looks like we aren't doing all we can to be successful, or if we are comparison shopping ourselves to others, OR if we feel like maybe we could be doing just a tiny bit more EVEN WHEN WE ARE 1000% content, we push ourselves.

It's complete bullshit, and it's why so many are experiencing burnout and anxiety and depression and all the things.

We are humans, not machines. We need rest, and breaks, and to feel relaxed on a regular basis, and we need a lot of more of all that than we are currently getting.

Why Built In Breaks Are Vital

Most of the time, we work to fit in breaks around our work, and it becomes harder and harder and work piles up and one things comes up and then another.

I think the revolutionary thing I did for myself with this new schedule is fit my work in around my breaks. I know! It scared the shit out of me too.

Think about this though, how much work do you get done on those days that you just can't for whatever reason? You feel like shit, mentally or physically, but you have no PTO and no sick days, or you feel like you have to do the thing for your business, so you drag yourself work and do what?

Stellar, top-notch work? I doubt it.

Usually, I push paper around on my desk or tackle a few of the easiest and most mundane tasks and hope I haven't screwed anything up.

If I'm making a valiant effort, I may try to draft something and get a title on a page and then sit and stare at the screen until I give up.

THAT, right there, is why built-in breaks are so vital. The quality of your work, whatever kind of work it is, suffers mightily when you push and push and push and don't rest. These are the nightmares that burnout is made of.

Breaks allow you to reboot your brain and your body. They allow you to come in and look at things with fresh eyes, and a new perspective.

Problems you've been struggling with may not seem so impossible, new ideas may pour out of you, and you can reprioritize with a refreshed body and brain.

Once you've done that, you may be surprised by how much more productive you feel.

Why Rest Ups Productivity

A friend related to me recently that her therapist had told her that there was a reason that sleep deprivation is used as a torture tactic.

Humans cannot function well when they are exhausted - mentally or physically.

When you can't function well, you can't be productive in a way that moves you forward.

This was the thing that made me finally realize that I had to do something about how I was approaching my work and my rest.

I felt like I was always doing something, working here, doing this, drafting that, and then feeling immediately like I was behind again. I was working and working and never getting anything done.

I was so tired that I was struggling to keep up, instead of using my productivity to get myself to a point where I felt organized and on top of things. Yet I was ALWAYS busy.

When you rest, your brain rests, too, and when I finally let myself have a break and really look at what I needed from a work perspective, I realized that I only needed so many hours a week to x,y, and z done. But, because I was tired, I was wasting way more time than that TRYING to work. If I would devote time to resting AND working, I may be able to find a balance that worked.

I did find a balance that worked, and let me tell you. My productivity has never been higher.

How to Give Yourself Breaks and Still Get Shit Done

So, how do you stop chasing your tail, get some rest AND get stuff done? Here's how I did it. It has worked for me, and as always, with all self-care, you need to take this and make it yours.

Figure out exactly what you need - how much time do the things you want to accomplish ACTUALLY take to do, and do well?
Look at your days and decide when you feel most productive - for me, it's early morning and mid-afternoon, so that's when I work.
Sit down with a weekly planner on PAPER and write out what times you'll "work" and what times you won't.
Assign a place for work to happen. This was a big one for me. I put my computer in my home office and that's where it stays unless I have it out to do something creative or just for me. It doesn't get moved so I can work elsewhere, and I have to go to my office to work.
Experiment to see if it works. Make any changes that need to be made and experiment again until you find a schedule that works well for you and is easy on your brain and body.
STICK TO IT. Do not work on off-hours. Do not scroll insta during work hours. Devote equal time to diligently working and diligently resting.

Needs ideas on what to do while you rest? Get my 10 Beginner Steps to Self-Care for a smattering of ideas that can help you spend your time NOT working AND leveling up your self-care.