What my simple & spacious workweek looks like this week

How I run my business in 3 days a week...

I talk a lot about building and running a simple and spacious business and one of the best ways I think I can show this approach in action is by sharing with you the specific behind the scenes of what my workweeks actually look like.

Because a simple and spacious business always comes down to my workweek for me.

Am I working within my capacity? Am I able to live more than I work? Do I have space to rest and breathe and recharge?

The general boundaries of my workweek are: I only work on Monday’s, Tuesday’s and Thursdays, I rarely work more than 8-10 hours a week, and I only have client calls one day a week for one month a quarter, with eight months a year with zero calls in my schedule.

As a working parent living with a chronic illness this is what’s sustainable to ask of myself in my business without burning out or bypassing my humanness in the process.

If you’d have told me just a few years ago when I was working 25+ hour weeks (and even more years ago when I was working 40 hour weeks in my business) that I’d be able to make my enough number working very part time hours in my business I’m not sure I’d have believed you - or believed that I was allowed to choose that for myself - but after the reality of my health demanded I find a more spacious way to run my business I’m now oh so passionate about talking about intentionally shaping our business model to honour our humanness each week.

This week is a little more task heavy than usual for me as I’m about to head into a launch window for my group program - it’s a very rare week where I may work a couple of hours more than usual - but I still have breaks built in and my days off as always are protected too.

Monday: The first morning of my workweek always follows the same pattern: I check in with my clients on Voxer for the start of the week and I record a private podcast for YS&SB members and check in with them in Slack too. I usually then record that week’s public podcast episode for the week but I took April off so hoping to get back into the swing of things this week.

Then I have my next monthly free mini workshop to work on (you can catch up with the previous ones over on my blog) and I want to schedule a Substack post with the free office hour recording I recorded last week and maybe record a short intro to pop it on the LFAHC feed too.

And then as always I wrap up my day replying to any voice notes from my clients and any emails and messages in the YS&SB Slack too.

Tuesday: As always I’ll start my day off in Voxer and then Slack and then my plan is to record, edit, and schedule the blog post for the free mini workshop that I would have prepared the slides for the day before. And then my next big task is writing and scheduling the early-bird sales emails for this weekend as waitlist subscribers will get early access to this enrollment of YS&SB from this Friday before doors officially open on Monday.

And then my plan is to take a break in the afternoon and then check back in with Voxer and Slack before I sign off for the day.

Wednesday: I don’t work on Wednesdays - I have brunch planned in for the morning with a good friend and then I’ll spend the afternoon with my husband and son hopefully soaking up the good weather we’re finally having here in England for the spring season. I really cherish taking Wednesday’s off after pouring into my business at the start of the week and having this time with my son and husband too.

Thursday: I’ll start the day again in Voxer and Slack and then my big work task for the day is to  write and schedule 3 launch emails for the upcoming YS&SB enrolment - I’ve scheduled an hour for this but it may take a little longer, it depends how much I want to write fresh from past sales emails as my starting template.

Then I also need to get everything set up and ready to go as early-bird enrolment for YS&SB opens on Friday and then I’ll wrap up my workweek by checking in with clients in Voxer and YS&SB members in Slack and zeroing my inbox for the week too.

I’ve also put write and schedule a newsletter here but that won’t actually go live for a week the following Monday so this is a task I can push to the next week if I want and need to energy wise.

Friday: I love signing off on Thursday’s and having a three day weekend every week - though because early-bird enrolment opens on Friday I will keep my eye on my inbox a little throughout the day just in case any questions come through from people thinking about joining us inside YS&SB!

This week will probably come in around 10-12 hours for me, a couple more hours than usual as I’m heading into a launch window, but still feels very sustainable for me and all tasks I’m excited to dig into too.

Also: the mini workshop can be movable if needed, as can working on the newsletter and the podcast - I’m not afraid to move non-essential tasks around in my workload if my health or the demands of being a working parent ask me to! But my hope is that I’m able to get to everything on my to-do list this week and feel nice and prepared heading into my launch next week.

And how am I spending all of the non-working hours of my week? Mostly with my husband and 3 year old having adventures at the park or the bookshop, also resting when needed alongside the realities of my chronic illness, and when possible soaking up time for reading through the big pile of books on my bedside, spending time with friends, and I’m currently rewatching Sweet Magnolia’s too.

I am so damn grateful that this is the working life that I’ve been able to create for myself - this is my tenth year of running my business and it’s taken experimentation, patience in the early years to stabilise my business, courage to evolve a business that was then working but not truly working best for me, and belief that I am allowed to live and work in a way that honours my humanness every step of the way.

And I share all of this to say: you’re allowed to want to create for yourself whatever type of workweek feels truly aligned for you, even if it goes against industry norms, even if it doesn’t look like everyone else’s version of ‘productive’, and even if it’s going to take time, patience, and experimentation to make it your reality too.

My free deep dive kit is a great resource to start to explore what a simple and spacious business looks like for you and how you can make it your reality too.

And if you’d love to never do business alone again and feel deeply supported through a library of resources, monthly office hours, a gentle community and more my group program Your Simple & Spacious Business is opening for enrolment again next week and waitlist subscribers will get early access plus an awesome 1:1 bonus and early-bird discount too.

What’s your workweek looking like this week? What does choosing simplicity and spaciousness for yourself look like this week?

Until next time,

Jen