My business is ramping up. It’s exciting and invigorating. And it’s ramping up because I am spending lots of time attending networking events, intake meetings, and planning and managing events. Basically, I’m spending hours every day talking about what we do and why it matters.
I start my week with admin work on Monday morning, it’s labeled “Warm-Up” on my calendar. And then starting Monday afternoons I’m out there talking to people. Until I collapse.
Do you know when I collapse? Thursday afternoons. For three weeks in a row, I have gotten to lunch on Thursday and realized I can’t go on. I can’t go to that training I signed up for. I can’t attend another seminar. I just can’t. If I did, I would not be able to speak coherently. I would probably do that thing where I’m really awkward. Instead, I have to do something else.
I’m an introvert. Who does a nice job pretending to be an extrovert. Because that’s the world we live in.
But I would be remiss if I didn’t admit that all that networking gives me a high. Meeting new people, hearing what they are doing, telling them about my business, saying “Oh, you have to meet so-and-so!” I love it all.
In the moment. And even for a few hours afterwards.
But what I’ve realized is that networking is like eating sugar. I get an energy spike. And then I crash.
And that crash has been on Thursdays.
Maybe I should eat less “sugar” and cut back on the networking to manage the crashes. However, that doesn’t make sense for where my business is.
Instead, I’ve added a new repeating event to my calendar for every Thursday afternoon. Monday morning is a “Warm-Up” and Thursday afternoon is a “Cool Down.” Sometimes I take a nap or read a book. Sometimes I go for a walk or catch up on housework. But I do something that doesn’t involve me sharing my business’s mission statement.
And then Friday, and even Saturday and Sunday, I can get back on the horse and continue to grow my business.
There’s lots of different work flows, energy levels, successful ways to work. What are some of yours? If you aren’t sure, I can recommend using Productive Flourishing’s Heat Map to track it. But don’t be afraid to look beyond days into weekly, monthly, or even yearly trends.
I’d love to hear ways you manage your schedule in relation to your productive times. How do you work best?