The Time Blocking Method That Protects Your Week From the Unexpected | Ep 291

Please note: This transcript was generated using automated transcription tools and may contain typographical errors or inaccurately captured words or phrases.

Dr Steve Day: Last week, one of my regular coaching clients was late for a Zoom call. And this was really unlike him. After 10, then 15 minutes went by, I got a little bit worried. And so I actually just picked up the phone and gave him a ring. Now, he answered the phone, and he was immediately, I could tell, stressed.

He was driving his car down to an unexpected site visit. Where he\'s had to deal with an urgent problem that had come up. Where he\'s just helping somebody out who\'d got themselves in a fix. And he just felt because, that\'s the kind of person he is. And this is someone he knew as a friend, he just needed to deal with it.

The challenge was this has also come at a time where three of his best regular clients had also given him work as well. And he was trying to get that done and had promised them that they were gonna get that work back on that day. This meeting that he was going to was gonna take over half a day. And he was now completely stressed.

He said to me, \"Steve, I don\'t know how I can manage.\" This was a moment where it wasn\'t time for giving coaching and advice. He was obviously stressed and didn\'t need more to think about.

But it was a time to make him reflect on this moment and say, \"Look, is this the opportunity that we need to actually address this? Can we use this as the catalyst to change the way you are working so that this doesn\'t happen again? So that we build into your life, room and capacity to take on the unexpected, and the good work when it comes in. Without it costing you in terms of stress and taking over your personal time.\"

That is the work that we\'re gonna be doing together. And today I wanna share the plan that we\'re gonna go through, which I\'ve worked with many clients in the past. I\'ve applied this to my own life. And as a result, have increased my enjoyment of work. Increased my ability to deliver the highest value work I can to my clients. And have more time to do all the stuff I love to do each day.

If you run a small business, then I\'m sure you\'re aware of these times when everything seems to happen at once. Maybe you get a new client instruction, or an existing client chucks you some extra work, or a crisis happens. This could be a crisis in work or outside of work. Maybe you get ill, or your kids get ill. Or you have to just help somebody, or one of your friends out who\'s in a fix. Or somebody passes away in your family and you\'ve got to deal with that grief.

Like, all of these things happen to us on a regular basis. But most people don\'t factor those into your working week. We fill our weeks with chock-a-block with work and more work and stress and more stress. So when these extra things happen, there\'s nowhere to put them. And that in itself is incredibly stressful. It can cause a huge amount of disruption. It can lead to us not delivering on our promises. And that can have a detrimental effect on our mental health and also our relationships.

And I\'m no different from any other business owner. That was exactly the life that I was leading. I was working far too many hours anyway. And so when problems arose, there was nowhere to fit in this extra stuff.

Today, I wanna walk through the steps that I\'ve taken over the past few years to fundamentally change that. To remove those crisises in my business and in my life by actually factoring in time to deal with them. And setting real expectations on my capacity and also my expectations on what I can deliver and when and how.

And if you\'re sat there thinking \"There\'s no way I can do less. I\'ve got far more work than I already can cope with. I need the money. I\'ve got to keep these clients on.\" Whatever those blockages or those barriers are to you thinking this can work for you, then do stick around to the end. Because I\'ll be covering exactly how I overcame that. And how we help clients do that as well.

So the real problem here is that the type of issues we\'re talking about is stuff that is unexpected. And if it\'s unexpected, you don\'t know when it\'s gonna happen simply by the nature of it being unexpected. And so it can seem impossible to be able to factor in these type of events into your life and into your work. So that they don\'t cause stress. However, there is a way, and that\'s what I wanna get into today.

But if you\'re sat there thinking, \"Look, I can\'t possibly do less. I\'ve got to keep all these clients on. I can\'t say no to a new client coming in.\" Then I wanna challenge that in this episode as well. And to maybe look at other ways to view your, the expectations you have of yourself. And how you can actually increase or keep maintain your revenue. Without actually increasing your workflow.

And in doing so, create a business which actually serves you at a higher level. And allows you to serve your clients at a higher level as well.

In the case of the client I spoke to last week, the challenge was that all the people that had arrived on with the stresses in this particular week. The deadlines for his existing clients, this particular friend who he was doing a favor for. Like, all these people are people he did not wanna say no to. They are regular clients he\'s worked with for years. He didn\'t wanna lose them. And this particular friend he didn\'t wanna let down.

So how do we maintain who we are as a human. That helpful, nice person that you wanna be. And how do we do that without it actually costing us in terms of increased stress and overwhelm, and overtaking our personal life?

If these people knew the effect it was having on this particular client. If they knew about the stress that it was causing. And how in this conversation I could just see he was at breaking point. If they knew that, then they probably would understand completely about, yeah, okay, there\'s gonna be a delay in this for whatever reason.

But we\'re trying to avoid that. We\'re trying to say, like, how do we create a world where that doesn\'t need to even factor into it? That we actually do have capacity to deal with the unexpected and all the expected stuff as well.

So over the years, I\'ve tried many ways to resolve these problems. I\'ve tried working harder and longer hours. I\'ve tried getting up earlier and creating more time to be able to do stuff. I\'ve just tried to convince myself that it\'s just now this is the problem. That like, I\'ll get onto how to deal with this later once I get over this current crisis.

The challenge with that is that crisis just keep on happening. Life gets in the way for whatever reason. I\'ve got two young kids who are ill very regularly, I have a business to run, I\'ve got a wife, I\'ve got family. All of these things like throw up issues and crises all the time without us being able to predict them.

Sometimes we can have nice peaceful periods. But then something will go wrong. And then everything, seems to go wrong at once. If we\'re not actually be mindful of that is reality, and we try to convince ourselves that we can just schedule a week that\'s full of 40 hours a week. And we\'re gonna work every single hour and it\'s all gonna go swimmingly. Nothing\'s gonna go wrong, everything\'s gonna go to plan. Then we end up in a situation where we get stressed if anything else does go wrong, or anything else gets thrown at us.

Now, I am by nature incredibly bad at predicting how long things are gonna take. So if I was to schedule all the tasks I think I\'m gonna get done. And allocate specific time to those, then I would just end up, as I have done many times in the past, with a task list just getting longer and longer and longer.

Because if I sit down to do something that I think is gonna take 10 minutes, it inevitably takes half an hour, two hours, half a day, or even the whole day sometimes. Because I procrastinate about it or don\'t get it done right or fail to do it.

Even like just now recording this podcast, I\'ve been recording a batch of podcasts today. The first one, for whatever reason, it should\'ve taken me about half an hour. It took me about an hour and a half. That\'s an hour of my day I\'ve lost. So if I hadn\'t factored in some extra time, then I would now be in a state of being pretty stressed. Whereas now I\'m feeling okay. I\'ve still got time to catch up and get all the batch done that I need to today.

So as I mentioned, the reason that none of these techniques work is because if you haven\'t built slack into your day and into your week, then anything that\'s thrown at you causes amount, huge amounts of stress. Which actually can lead to more procrastination. Getting less stuff done, like deciding, trying to juggle like X, Y, and Z tasks at the same time. Which means nothing gets done right. We have to go and redo stuff. And it all just compounds to create more and more stress.

So before we get into the five steps to actually fixing this very common problem, I just want to define a couple of terms to make sure we\'re on the same page.

Firstly is the term capacity. What I mean by capacity is what you actually have time to achieve on a weekly basis. When we factor into everything else that happens in life. When we\'re realistic about the actual number of hours on any given week on average. That we actually have time to do the work that we\'re meant to do for our clients or with our business. Not simply saying it\'s a 40-hour week, then I\'ve got 40 hours to do work. Because reality often throws us a curveball, which means that isn\'t actually true.

The second term is something I call the default diary. And this is about creating a calendar which is full before you even start the week. It\'s not full with tasks. It\'s full with time blocks that make sure you have time to do all the tasks you need to do that week. It also gives you a really clear indication of what your capacity is. So we\'ll come into that a little bit more later in this episode.

So let\'s get into the five steps to actually creating this default diary. To understanding how to manage your time better. And actually serve your clients at a higher level. Keep your income the way, where you need it to be without it becoming overwhelming. And having time to deal with all the crises, of course.

And do stick around for the last step. Because that\'s the one which has made the biggest change in my life with regards to stress. But also the ability to earn more income as well.

Okay, so the first step is probably the most challenging one for many business owners to admit to and to actually deal with. And that\'s being honest about your capacity. It\'s about looking at your actual time. About what you actually spend your time doing each week. What you actually want to spend your time doing each week. And what you need to spend time doing your week.

So for example, you know you have to serve your clients, that\'s the business part. But you also have a family or friends, and you have yourself. So you need to take care of your mind, your spirit, and your body as well. So if you don\'t actually factor those things into your capacity for work, then the reality is you\'re not gonna get it all done.

If we believe that everything is going to go perfectly each and every day. If we factor in an exact amount of time to deal with a particular project and don\'t have any buffer, the likelihood is that\'s gonna overrun. Which will then mean we have to take time away from other things. So the first step is just being honest and real with yourself. To understanding what is an average amount of time to do each thing that you need.

And I\'ll tell you one little example that really helped me was I used to plan an hour to go for a run. But the fact is that it takes me typically 15 minutes to actually get out the door in the first place. And that\'s if I don\'t do any stretching pre-run. I then need to actually go for the run.

So that\'s typically an hour for me during a lunch break sort of run. And then when I come home, I need to spend 30 minutes stretching. I\'m nearly 50 now, or 47 this year. And so I need to actually stretch, otherwise it means that I actually can\'t run if later in the week. Because I\'m really sore and I pull muscles and things. And I\'ve also gotta have a shower and I\'ve gotta eat obviously afterwards as well.

And so what I now schedule in for an hour run is two hours, and that is a realistic time that it takes me to actually run. So I\'ve got to fit everything around that reality rather than my dream of it takes me an hour to go for a 50-minute run. Which is just nonsense. So being really realistic and actually looking at what you\'re committing to and what your actual capacity is, the first step in making a change.

So it\'s that admitting you\'ve got a problem is the only way to actually deal with a problem. And that is often the hardest one. But it\'s the fundamental one to then be able to move on to step two.

So step two is about actually building your default diary. This is where we start taking a real honest look at everything that you do in life. This includes all of your family commitments, your personal commitments. That includes your hobbies, your mindset, your mental health, your physical health, your spirit. Making sure there is capacity in the week to be the best person you can be. So when you are working, you\'re working with the highest energy, concentration.

Being able to actually deliver on your promises because your mind\'s on the job. It\'s not distracted by other stresses going on. And to do that takes time. Without the time scheduled in, that gets pushed aside. And our stress level goes up. We often become less productive. And therefore, the things we were meant to do take longer than we expected. And it just compounds and adds to the problem.

So the default diary is yes about work. But it\'s also about diarising everything in your life. That\'s not to say you have to put in like weeks ahead, every single thing you\'re gonna do. It\'s just saying, no, this is my family time. This is my exercise time. This is my reflection time or my self-care time.

Like you don\'t have to define exactly what you do in those blocks. And those blocks can move around and be flexible. But once they\'re diarised in, they become commitments that you can then try to keep to. And hopefully then have the capacity to deal with all of the things in your life in a holistic way, rather than just focusing your diary on your work.

When it comes to work, it\'s not just, \"Hey, I\'m gonna work for six or eight hours today.\" It\'s what does that working day look like? Like when do you have meetings with your staff? When do you support them, when do you review work they\'ve done, when do you give them feedback? When do you schedule time to accept incoming calls, when do you schedule time to make outgoing calls?

Whether that\'s sales calls or client support calls or for me, coaching calls, for example. When do you schedule time to do your deepest work? The work that you actually get paid for, or the work to actually increase the ability to get paid more. So that can be things like creating new frameworks or intellectual property. It can be about learning and expanding your ability to serve people at a higher level.

When do you actually have time set aside to make sure that you\'re improving your own business, the leadership, the strategy, et cetera. So that your capacity goes up in terms of your capacity to earn more. Without it meaning an increase in capacity to work more.

And there\'s two fundamental blocks I think most people miss out when I do this with them. But they are, in my opinion, the biggest stress relievers and also the biggest ways to start enjoying your work more.

The first one is a pre and a post-work block. The pre-work block is that getting into the mindset of work. So how do we start the day by clearing our mind? That could be through meditation, breathwork, yoga. Something that allows you to get grounded, to clear your head of the stresses of the day before.

So when you start that day, you start it with purpose, with intention. And actually dealing with the right problems of the day, rather than dealing with the problems you carried over from the previous day.

And then the end of the day, it\'s the opposite, if you like. It\'s unwinding. Before you go and see your family or your loved ones. It\'s how do I detach myself from work in order to meet the next challenge of the day, which is my family? How do I meet that in the best state I can be?

If I carry over the stresses of the day, it can affect the family. And that then in turn makes me feel guilty for not treating them in the way I want to or being the best dad I can be or the best husband I can be. And that then compounds to make things worse as the stress level goes up and carries on throughout the whole day.

That can then cause me to have reduced sleep. Because I\'m then worried about stuff, I\'ve said the wrong thing or I\'ve overreacted. And so allowing me to get into a good state before I see my kids and my wife means that that actually has a compounding effect on meaning so many other things become better as a result.

This can be something as simple as, I walk to pick up my son from nursery. So that\'s a 15-minute leisurely walk through a nice park. I\'m very lucky that I can do that. And it allows me to then unwind when I get there. I\'ve thought about the things I need to think about on the way. And maybe have taken in some nature. I\'ve just appreciated the birdsong, the trees in the forest, in the woods that I walk through.

And it allows me to just reconnect with myself before I go pick him up. And doing that rather than jumping in the car and picking him up because I\'m stressed, because I\'m late. Because I\'ve finished, I\'ve overworked, and I\'ve not had that block of space in there, means that I arrive and I\'m often in a more stressed state. And he gets the worst of me. And kids, well, everybody can, but kids, just like animals, they have a great way of feeling your energy.

So if your energy\'s in a positive state, they\'ll react to that. If it\'s in a negative or a stressed state, they\'ll react to that. And therefore it can actually spiral down. Whereas having this break in the day allows me to de-stress. And I\'m not gonna say I never jump in the car because I\'m late. I\'m just saying this is what I schedule in to make it actually happen far more often than if I didn\'t ever schedule it.

And the last part of the default diary, which is probably the one I see missed the most out of everything. And that is factoring in the unknown. It was the prequel, if you like, to this whole episode or the big intro to this whole episode, is how do we actually deal with the unexpected?

So in your diary, in your default diary, if you don\'t have empty blocks with nothing scheduled in. If you go back-to-back client calls, back-to-back meetings, there\'s no time to deal with the unexpected, the crisis that happen. And I\'m gonna talk about in a second about taking this one step further to make this into something that is truly life-changing.

But for now, this is about scheduling in enough time to deal with your admin, to deal with, the unexpected staff member goes off sick today. So therefore I\'ve got to do a little bit more than I would\'ve done otherwise. About dealing with that crisis phone call from a client. The fact that the school rings you up and your kid\'s sick and you\'ve got to go and pick them up. And that\'s basically your work day screwed.

Like, all those things happen on a regular basis. So if we don\'t factor them in, then it causes a huge amount of stress. Because suddenly the problems compound as we miss one deadline, then another, then we feel guilty. And then we try to chase stuff and juggle stuff. It eats into our evenings, our weekends. And the whole thing compounds into something that\'s not where you want to be.

So factoring those things in, the windows for different types of work, the deep work blocks, the blocks to get into the day well, to end the day well. And also to deal with the unexpected are all things that we need in our lives. We have to have them in there. The challenge is actually admitting to yourself these are necessary things. And just trying to fit in too much, and therefore it becoming more and more stressful. That\'s step two.

Step three is about setting realistic expectations. And these come in a different, couple different ways, I think. Firstly, it\'s about setting expectations with your staff. Then it\'s about setting expectations with your clients. And then it\'s about setting expectations with yourself. And the last one is probably one of the hardest. We\'ll come to that last.

So firstly, with your staff. It\'s like how available are you? Are you just literally available for them to ring any time of day, which would just interrupt you in the middle of your deep work blocks? Or just put you on a skew that you\'ve set time aside to do something, a different default block in your diary. And then it\'s interrupted by a crisis of a staff member having an issue that needs your support.

So the way that I deal with this is I have daily meetings with my team where we deal with all of this stuff. And the vast majority of problems can wait till the next day. If it is a truly urgent thing, then I will factor in time. So I\'ve got a little bit of a buffer in my day that if I do get a call off one of my staff, I need to give them 10, 15 minutes of my time, that\'s okay. It\'s not actually gonna interrupt with anything else. If it\'s truly urgent, of course they can ring me and they can interrupt me. But that literally never happens. So I don\'t even factor that in anymore.

The second thing is about clients. This is the one that I think that most people have the hardest time in actually diarizing or creating policy about. But if you went to a solicitor or a lawyer, if you\'ve ever used one, the very common for them to have a expectation about how long it will take them to get back to you. And so they may say like, they return emails in three days or letters within a week, whatever. But the phone calls, they\'ll phone you back when they\'re free.

They have got it very well defined. They know that if they don\'t leave enough time for them to actually do the legal work that you\'re paying them to do. Because they keep on taking and getting interrupted by various clients phoning them. That they\'re not gonna get paid, that people are gonna go elsewhere.

I think it\'s a really good lesson that we can all take note of. In that if you clearly set expectations so clients know that you\'re not available 24/7. That you say, \"Look, I don\'t take incoming calls, but I ring people back at this particular time every single day.\" And then you have a receptionist or an AI or an answerphone that someone can phone in. They can say, \"Hey, can you phone me back?\" And then you will phone them back in a set time.

If you set that out and clearly explain to people that\'s your working practice, then people accept it. What they don\'t like is when their expectations are different, and then you don\'t meet those expectations.

So simply by stating whatever your availability is, your actual capacity to deal with client incoming calls and incoming crises. And the timeframe to view to actually respond to things or get work done. State that clearly and then stick to it. Because then you\'re setting expectations and your clients\' expectations are then met. Everybody\'s happy, and you don\'t get interrupted on a daily basis.

So the default diary is about factoring in everything. And I\'ll just share one more anecdotal story from one of my other clients. And this was that he created this new way of selling, which was brilliant for his business. He would go to a client and he would sit with them. And they would talk through the design process he was going through, for the build work he was going to do. He\'s a kitchen fitter or kitchen designer.

And he would do this, and it would take him a couple of hours to sit with a client, understand their needs. And then he\'d go away and then he would then draw up a proposal and some rough designs to actually get that work. When he got these calls, he simply booked the calls in and then went and did them.

He didn\'t, in his default diary, factor in that every time a sales call was booked, there was half a day or four hours roughly of work needed to then go through. Document that, make the proposal, do the designs. And then send them over to the client. So each sales call he had or sales meeting he had, which was two or three hours in itself, he could factor that in because it was getting booked in his calendar.

But he didn\'t factor in the other half a day. So every sales process he was actually doing was a day\'s work. But he was underestimating that by half a day for each call. That half a day then took over something else he\'d already committed to. And therefore it was just a compounding problem. The more work he got, the more stressed he got. Because he hadn\'t actually factored in that extra four hours.

So simply by seeing the reality of his capacity and the needs of his business to deliver the service at the level he wanted to. He then understood what his actual capacity was. And factored in all of the work he really did. So that there was no, nothing was unexpected in terms of not having time to actually do the things he needed to do.

Okay, so, so far we\'ve talked about being honest about your reality. About creating a default diary. And about setting expectations. The next step is about reviewing and iterating this process.

When you first sit down to do this, you are not gonna get it exactly right. You\'re gonna underestimate certain things, overestimate other things. Not factoring things that you just didn\'t remember when you were creating it. And that\'s totally fine and totally normal. Any good thing takes work. Anything that\'s gonna be, like, fundamentally changing your entire existence, you can expect not to get it right first time.

So being honest with yourself. Setting clear expectations that this isn\'t gonna go right the first time. And then factoring in some time to work on it on a weekly basis. This could be something you do, say, on a Sunday evening or a Friday, the last thing you do before the end of your working week.

That\'s the way I like to do it, before I actually finish for the weekend. Because then I\'ve actually consolidated my thoughts. I don\'t carry them through till Sunday. Is to actually look back and say, \"Look, where did I miss on this? Which of those meetings with myself, for exercise or for de-stress or whatever, did I not actually meet? Which of the meetings with clients overran? Or where, what work did I not factor in?\"

And constantly iterating and improving this. And expecting this to take a number of weeks to get anything like usable and actually something you can stick at. Because I think what many people do, and I\'ve spoken to this clients, and I introduce the idea. And they say, \"Yeah, I\'ve tried that in the past, it didn\'t work.\" Is that they set this once, and then they miss all the things they\'ve said they were gonna do.

They didn\'t get early every day to do their meditation, they didn\'t do their runs when they said they were gonna do. They missed this and this. And then they feel, \"Oh, it\'s not working,\" and therefore it doesn\'t work. The fact is that it\'s not working because you didn\'t have the knowledge and expertise to get it right first time.

You\'ve gotta be patient with this, you\'ve gotta let this become what it needs to be. You\'re gonna make the mistakes. Just like anything new you try. It\'s not gonna be something that you get right on the first attempt. So give yourself a bit of leeway. And let this evolve over time to become something that really, really does make a difference in your life.

Okay, so the final step in this is the big one. This is the big payoff that once you start factoring in all of this stuff and actually creating a default diary. Understanding your capacity, setting expectations, factoring in everything that you do is then take the bold step. And actually creating real space in your diary, in your time, in your life to actually deal with the unexpected. But also have time back. The reward that you typically most people have set out their business to create is freedom.

However, if you\'re not creating from freedom, I don\'t think you can create freedom. So what I mean by that is that if your week is chock-a-block and you keep deferring freedom, you keep deferring having that better quality of life. That taking that three-day week or whatever it is you want. If you keep deferring it, it\'s very unlikely to ever happen.

If, however, you go, \"Okay, from this day forward or from this week forward,\" or maybe you roll ahead a few weeks. So from three months from now, I\'m gonna block this in my diary. I\'m gonna take an entire day out every single week. And the capacity I\'ve got left is only four days, not five.

Suddenly you\'ve created initially a challenge. How do you then fit in what you need to do within that four days? And then you\'ve got another challenge, which is how do I not feel guilty for not working on the fifth day? Here\'s how I did it.

So I decided, living in Sweden, that I wanted to go skiing. It\'s one of my highest passion activities. But I hadn\'t done that for many years of working here. I\'ve talked about this many times on the podcast, so forgive me if I\'m repeating myself. However, that in itself was the drive I needed. I was felt almost ashamed that I hadn\'t been skiing when I lived in Sweden. So I blocked out every Friday in one ski season. And decided that was the day I was gonna go skiing.

After the ski season ended, I had this day blocked. I had no client meetings, I had no staff meetings, I had no work booked on that day. And so it was a free day, and so I decided that was gonna be my deep work day. It was when I was gonna be able to do the work I felt I needed to do to get the business forward. To do the innovation, to create the new things, to create a new course, for example, for my coaching business.

Or to go on a long run. I mean, I\'ve done a lot of ultramarathons in my time. And so there\'s a lot of training that needs to be involved in that. And so I was able to then have this day where I could catch up on the work I really needed to do. I could go and do some big blocks of exercise, which I love to do.

Or it was a day that if the whole week went to pot, you know, my kid\'s off sick, or I was off sick on a couple of days. Or a massive crisis happened, I needed to fix something, like my whole server went down, I was there, trying to fix it all, whatever. I had this capacity day.

So that day, which initially felt like a guilt to actually have off, became something that allowed me to do more of the stuff I love to do each day. Allowed me to do the deeper work which I get great joy from. I get great fulfillment from actually creating new stuff and giving that to my clients. And serving them at a higher level so they continually get the new stuff. Which if I just fill my day with coaching calls and there\'s no space to create, then I would never actually be able to serve them at a higher level.

But also, it allowed me to, yeah, deal with the unexpected. Now, my life has actually moved on beyond that now. That I did many years ago, I think about six years ago now. Now I actually have four days of work booked every two weeks. And what I mean by that is that I have created an entire week, which I call my deep work weeks. And I only work four days on the other week.

So every other week I have a deep work week. And then I have a week when I have four days of availability. That means I do all of my coaching calls, all of my one-to-one calls, and most of my staff calls during those four days. That has massively limited my capacity in terms of the hours that I\'m actually, like doing the monetary creating work, if you like.

That\'s meant I\'ve had to become creative about how I generate income in the business. It\'s meant that I\'ve had to increase my prices. But it\'s meant that I\'m able to serve my clients at a higher level. So those price increases actually are justified. And so therefore, I\'ve created by creating this freedom and then creating from freedom, I\'ve had to figure out how to create a business that allows me to do that.

It\'s meant, though, that I have these big blocks of time off. Which means I can easily move things around if I need to. If a client needs extra support call, I can choose if I have it in that extra week. If I need to cancel a day because my kids are off sick, I can move people into that free weeks.

So it gives huge amounts of flexibility. So it\'s not to say it\'s written in stone that nothing can ever happen on those days except for my deep work block, which I have got booked. It actually means that those deep work blocks are available for me to use. But when needs be, when these unexpected crises, which is the whole point of this episode, happen, I have got huge amounts of flexibility.

That\'s basically mean I get the same stuff done that I need to do regardless of all the stuff that happens in my life. I also like traveling back to the UK, and I like going away with my family at weekends. And so having time to actually be a little bit flexible, like Fridays and Mondays off, for example, when I need to and move things around, means I get to actually live the life that I want to live. Without it affecting negatively against the work that I\'ve agreed with myself that I\'m going to do.

The biggest challenge I think I face in this is the one I mentioned before about taking a day off is actually overcoming the guilt of not working. If you feel that your conditioning or most people I should say, most business owners, including myself for many, many years, felt like. If I felt that if I wasn\'t working, then I wasn\'t being productive. I wasn\'t actually doing the thing that I was here on this planet to do.

That work was where I, it\'s about like saying that I work like a badge of honor, hard work like a badge of honor. It\'s just conditioning that we have in our brain that is how we or how I found my self-worth. That the more successful the business was, the harder I worked, then that\'s actually how my identity was linked to.

And it\'s that shift, that mindset shift to actually move to a place where actually the service I give is the thing that is the highest like value to me. The person I am with my family, the ability for me to actually see my extended family, for example, and my friends, that is also where I derive self-worth from. Then that allows me to do this in a guilt-free way.

I\'m not saying that I have days and it\'s up and down or whatever. I\'m a human. And this is a continuum and a journey of self-improvement. But that shift of being able to literally work every two weeks for four days or eight days a month in effect. That I\'ve actually got booked for work in inverted commas, that has taken a long time to get to.

But it all started with thinking about default diary. About then eventually putting in that one day off, then eventually then moving that to a few days off. And then eventually into what it is now. So that\'s my reality today. That I fit the work I need to fit in to those four days every two weeks.

I get creative with how we generate income in the business so that I can do that. And that gives me a massive amount of time to learn, to create, to do all the fun stuff that drives my business. And deal with the unexpected and be around and be a better person for my family as well. So that\'s the journey that this can take you on. And that\'s the big payoff.

And it all starts with actually being realistic about what it is you actually do on a weekly, daily basis. Creating some sort of structure around your time so you always have time to deal with everything, including the unexpected. And then incrementally increasing that time when you\'re not allowing yourself to be accessed by your team or your clients. And therefore creating more capacity to do the highest value work you can possibly do, and also to serve at a greater level.

So to close, let\'s just go back to the scenario again. The client that I spoke to that, I spoke to in the car, he was stressed out, on the verge of tears. Like, \"I can\'t cope with this, Steve. How do I even, like, how can I make this work?\" Now, he had three deadlines that week for his trusted clients he didn\'t want to let down. This crisis happened.

If he knew that on that Friday, for example, he had nothing booked, or maybe he had his day off on a or his deep work day on a Thursday. If he had that booked in, absolutely nothing on that day, he could take this crisis that he was supporting his friend with, go to that site, deal with that problem. And maybe just say to those other three clients, \"Look, something\'s come up. I\'ll get the work over to you tomorrow instead of today.\" If that\'s the case. I can\'t remember the details of his deadlines.

But the point is, by factoring in that cushion day, if you like, that I use as my deep work days or my exercise days, it allows you to deal with the unexpected. He would have then not been in this panic state, knowing he\'s got work booked up till, God knows when. And he\'s now got to actually find this extra day. Because he\'s had to take this crisis call off.

So that is what I hope I\'m gonna be working with him over the next few weeks. This is something we\'ve started with him. He\'s made vast improvements. For example, the setting expectations with his clients. Blocking time out so people can\'t phone him directly. He\'s put a vA in place to take his incoming calls, take messages. And he phones people back at a set time. So we\'ve done loads of stuff already.

But now I want to take it to the next level with him. Because I can see what a massive difference this will make to his life. And it\'s just a shame, I think, that so many people, my clients, and myself included, had to get to a point of it being unsustainable. To get that massive realization that if I continue on like this, I am walking towards an early grave. Or my health is gonna get impacted. Like my stress levels are just going to a point of no return. And it\'s a shame it takes many of us to get to that point before we take action on it.

I hope that by listening to this, to my stories, the stories of my clients. To having some tools in place that you can actually start thinking about working towards incrementally. And then iteratively improving that over time. It gives you a map to see there is a possible future. Where you don\'t work quite as much. That you can cope with the unexpected. And that you continue to serve your clients, earn money and have a better lifestyle all at the same time.

Hope you found this episode useful. If you have, please do hit subscribe. So you can hear more stuff about living with more presence and purpose and peace. And please do share it with anyone else you know who you may find, who you may think find it useful. Thank you so much. See you next time.

The Time Blocking Method That Protects Your Week From the Unexpected | Ep 291

If you're not creating from freedom, I don't think you can create freedom.

KEY TAKEAWAYS: How to Make Time Blocking Work in Real Life

BEST MOMENTS: Time Blocking Insights on Capacity, Boundaries and Freedom

TIMESTAMPED OVERVIEW

Episode Transcript

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The Time Blocking Method That Protects Your Week From the Unexpected | Ep 291

If you're not creating from freedom, I don't think you can create freedom.

​KEY TAKEAWAYS: How to Make Time Blocking Work in Real Life

BEST MOMENTS: Time Blocking Insights on Capacity, Boundaries and Freedom

TIMESTAMPED OVERVIEW

Episode Transcript

VALUABLE RESOURCES

LINKS TO CONNECT WITH THE HOST

ABOUT THE HOST

For more articles related to time blocking, calendar management, and strategic focus, you may also like:

SYS 071: 2 Million Virtual Assistants!? Meet John Jonas, founder of Onlinejobs.ph

SYS 084: Small Business Security: How To Safely Share Logins With Your Team

SYS 137: Everything I’ve learned from hiring over 160 Filipino Virtual Assistants (PART 2)

How Small Business Owners Leverage The SixR System To Achieve Time Freedom In Under 90 Days

Free On-Demand Masterclass

KEY TAKEAWAYS: How to Make Time Blocking Work in Real Life

How Small Business Owners
Leverage The SixR System
To Achieve Time Freedom
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