Getting back into the swing of things has been a bit of a doozy for me now that outside is slowly opening back up. I'm not sure where you live but all over the globe, I think that we can all agree collectively, that we are living in our new normals. Before the pandemic, I was a late riser, waking up around 11am, since becoming a full-time entrepreneur for almost a year now. My reasoning was that I didn't have to wake up at the crack of dawn anymore because my home, would now be my office and there was no such thing as rush hour traffic so I could sleep in every morning. So my initial daily schedule only consisted of a basic morning routine as a blogger that I shared here on the blog previously. Now that I've added photography to my workload full-time, I had to recreate a new daily schedule that works for me regardless of what I'm doing in my life, daily.
Before I share my daily schedule with you, please know that this schedule works for me and my availability, lifestyle and personality. Your schedule may be totally different from mine because your lifestyle will obviously be different from mine. So please don't think that I have a "perfect" schedule. Use my daily schedule as a template to help you create yours and make revisions as you go along, if needed.
I have the Luxurious Lifestyle Planner I call this planner my financial bible, and on one of the pages, it prompts you to describe a perfect day of the luxurious life that you've created. I never really thought of myself living a luxurious and let alone, perfect life but I do know the context behind the writing prompt. So I sat still, pondering on what a perfect day in my life would actually look like and created the following daily schedule for myself, below.
My Ideal Daily Schedule
8:30 AM ..... Complete morning skincare routine
9:00 AM ..... Pray, journal, meditate, coffee, etc.
10:00 AM ..... Review my to-do list for the day
10:15 AM ..... Check and respond to emails
11:00 AM ..... Social media marketing and engagement on all platforms
12:00 PM ..... Break and lunch
2:00 PM ..... Begin work day
4:00 PM ..... End work day
5:00 PM ..... Cook dinner
6:00 PM ..... Eat dinner
7:00 PM ..... Clean kitchen
8:00 PM ..... Shower and complete evening skincare routine
9:00 PM ..... Read a book
10:00 PM ..... Relax until bedtime
The overall goal with my daily schedule is to allow myself to enjoy doing what I love and maximizing my freedom of time. Some daily tasks will be adjusted periodically given my workload and/or on my off days. But again, this is a basic template of my daily schedule to get me back into a consistent schedule. The quickest example that I can think of for adjustmenting my schedule would be on some nights between 5pm-7pm. I don't cook everyday (we eat leftovers), so therefore I don't need three hours to cook, eat and clean the kitchen afterwards. During those days, I can work on other tasks that I didn't finish, prepare for the next day, etc. Bottomline, be open to adjusting your daily schedule, once you set it.
In case you're wondering why my work day is only two hours, let me explain. Blogging is not just about taking pretty pictures, it requires serious planning and work that needs to be done. I don't like to work on anything for long periods of time so, I created a two hour workday because that's typically all of the time that I need to actually do work. Think about your 9-5 for a moment, most people realistically only do real work per say, for one - two hours during their eight hour shifts. The other times are spent, on the phone, in meetings, hanging out with colleagues in the office, running errands, lunch and other breaks, etc. Therefore, I thought about that as I created my daily schedule.
Photography is the same way, I schedule up to four clients in one day because I know myself very well, I'll get worn out easily and my pictures have shown that in the past with my last set of clients when I used to book shoots all day long. But on average, I can spend from one to four hours total doing shoots and editing the pictures afterwards. Again, your daily work schedule is based on the actual job that you do, where you work and what you actually need to do to successfully complete your work assignment(s).
If you don't have a daily schedule for yourself, I highly encourage you to create one. It takes 30 days to create a habit so start now, consistently and you will be so happy knowing that daily you didn't waste idol time when you could've been productive. If you have smaller kids, a husband or partner, please add into your daily schedule, their activities that will require your time as well.
Do you have a daily, weekly or monthly schedule? Let me know in the comments.
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