My average week

I’ve often been asked how I fit it all in…. how on earth do I get things done or make it all work?!

In fact, people have told me that I’m the most productive person they know… or that I am always productive

But honestly, neither of those are true

Which is why I’m sharing my average week with you, so you can see how I get it done… but also how much non-work time there is. Because the reality is, I really don’t work a lot.

I spend a lot of time living my life. I spend my time looking after the kids, working in the garden, and even just watching Netflix.

Could I work more hours? Sure, probably. I could squish more work into evenings, I could do more work around the kids… I could do more hours.

But at the moment, I don’t want to. The youngest ones are still so little, and I’d rather spend my downtime doing other things.

I don’t want to work a 40 hour week. I’ve done that. I’ve worked full time, I’ve done shift work, I’ve done night shift…. and I’ve dropped my kids at day care at 6am, and rushed to pick them up at 6pm. That’s not for me any more…

I’ve always said, I would rather work a few, very productive hours… then spend 8 hours a day at my desk, faffing around and not getting anywhere.

So below, I show you just how many hours I have, and where it all fits… just in case you’ve ever wondered.

Note: this is my average week. Sometimes things change, sometimes kids are home sick… but this is the norm.

Monday, Tuesday and Thursday:

I baby wrangle. At time of writing (Aug 2019) I have 4 kids… 11, 9, 17 months and 4 months.

The eldest lives with my previous partner, but the other 3 are with me. These days are full of the school run, baby feeding, about a million nappy changes, and a whole heap of personal chores.

I will try and clear my emails once each day… and might do a little social media.

If I have a project that really needs some attention, then I’ll work on it between 8pm and 9pm once most of them are sleeping and hubby is home to help out. But this is rare, and it has to be really important for me to use this time for it.

Wednesday and Friday:

Oh glorious day care days.

These 2 days my tornado of toddler goes to day care and I have a little reprieve.

I drop him at day care, miss 9 at school and then head home to get things done.

I have between about 9am and 2:30pm to work… while also looking after the 4 month old. So while it looks like there are 5 1/2 hours here, while looking after him, there are probably 2 or 3 solid work hours in that day. A total of about 6 hours a week.

He will eventually go to day care for a couple of days a week too, but probably not until late this year or early next year.

6 hours a week

Yup, you read that right… in a normal week I reckon I have about 6 hours work time. If I use the evenings, then that could ramp up to 10 or so, but I don’t do that often.

So how do I get things done? I follow the following strategies:

• I’m selective with my tasks. That 6 hours a week is left for tasks that are of high importance, including client calls, creating content, editing client work etc.
• That 6 hours doesn’t include social media, which is scheduled in advance, or done from my phone in gaps through the day.
• I focus. I aim to have just one tab or file open at a time. I finish a task before moving on to the next.
• I work fast. I always have done, but with little ones, this is now even more apparent
• I work smart. Rather than creating from scratch, I’ll use templates or previous drafts to get projects started.
• I work collaboratively. Several blog posts this year are guest posts or interviews… which means I didn’t have to create the content, someone else did that for me.
• I limit my availability. Seeing as I have such limited time, there is currently no way for people just to book my time on my website. Instead, I can book selective clients in when I want to, and when they need it… but the offer isn’t open to all.
• I say no. I don’t meet for coffee (unless it’s for personal pleasure), I don’t let people pick my brain, and I’m very selective with answering the phone. My time is mine, and I’m choosy with how I spend it.

Of course, there are still times when that simply isn’t enough… so then I put aside a bigger block of time and batch create.

For example: I went away for a weekend in January. I used the weekend to finish a big client project, create concepts for every blog post for the whole year, and draft as many as I could.
This meant that through the rest of the year, I just had to expand on existing headings and bullet points, making the whole process a lot quicker.

It is what it is…

Yes, I’d love a couple more hours to focus on what I do…

And as the year progresses, I’ll get them… and then next year I’ll get a couple more. But at the moment, it is what it is.

And that’s the same for you too… rather than worrying about how much time you do have (or don’t have), or worrying about how much time everyone else has… focus on what you can do with what you’ve got.

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