How to Unwork Yourself into a Productive Routine as a Small Business Owner

Aug 15

Okay, I was walking along the lake shore this morning with my 2 dogs (Goose and Maverick, in case you wanna know), and I was thinking of my life as a Small Business Owner the past 8 months. Hi - they’ve been AH-MAZING, but also…let’s be real, stressful and overwhelming at times too.

We are the creators, the managers, the posters, the budget keepers and bookkeeping trackers, we manage HR, keep up with the trends.. you get it.

We do a lot of sh*t.

YOU do a lot of sh*t.

And whhhyyyy does it feel so stressful? Why is it overwhelming and when will it stop? Am I always going to feel in love but also freaking out with my business?

*Que Birds Singing*

Revelation time. We need to have a period of ‘UnWork’ before transitioning into working our OWN business. Hear me out:

When kids transition from public school to homeschooling, most parents will have a period of time (usually a month!) of ‘unschooling’. This looks like sleeping in, colouring, going for walks, playing at the playground etc. Just doing what you want, what THEY want, when they want to do it. It’s a form of breaking routine, getting out of the norm of what they thought schooling was, so they can transition into what their schooling will now be.

Okay, picking up what i’m laying down? Let’s continue.

While working at a gym for 3 years, we were in heavy productivity mode. Understaffed, high expectations, constant need for growth and development, ontop of wild work hours. I’m grateful that my transition out of this high stress job was maternity leave with my son, I entered a year of ‘UnWork’, where I gardened, learned to make sourdough bread, spent time at the beach, built snow forts - it was amazing to just BE. Once my maternity leave ended, I started Hey Sunny Studio. I would work while my youngest napped, my daughter would either be playing with the neighbourhood kids or I would put a couple shows on Netflix for her (any other Gabby’s Dollhouse Moms out there?!). When work was done, we would play, bake, go outside and adventure.

As this business has gotten busier, I find myself wanting to drift towards a ‘regular’ work schedule: 8-4, no interruptions, quitting time is quitting time - but it’s just not realistic for being a WAHM, nor do I want to be glued to work during the nicest parts of the day either. I can feel the friction in it.

So now comes the ‘UnWork’ - transitioning yourself out of a regular work schedule towards a schedule that works with you and the life you want to have. I’ve seen so many people talk about ‘building your days how you want them’ as a SBO, but HOW do you do that while still meeting targets and not starting to dread work?

Here’s what I’ve done and am currently shifting my mindset back to:

Flowing with the natural rhythms of the day: My kids are early risers, 6:30am is the standard wake up for them. My son naps at 11/12 and then bedtime is 7pm. The natural rhythms I’ve found that allow me to stay productive mean working while they sleep. When naptime hits, I hop on to get my priority tasks complete, my daughter will play with the neighbourhood kids or i’ll put on a show for her (not my fave, but I try to make it educational). I’ll work in the evenings on my second priority task, this also gives my husband time to go for a run, train and have some dude time.
Noticing my thoughts around work: Monday Blues? I think it’s a habitual thought pattern. I contemplated this for a while, and I when I ACTUALLY think about doing the work after a few days off, I’m excited! Likewise when it comes to evening work, you know much I would loooove to be reading my night time fantasy novel in the grass while the sun sets? Literally more than anything, and when I think about the work I have to do, I start to dread it…but when I actually think of being IN the work, doing it, designing, creating, I get jittery and blissful and pumped to sit down and hammer out a few hours. Habitual Thought Patterns —— how long have you despised waking up and going to work for someone else on a monday morning? How often have you dreaded the work you do? Even if you enjoyed your job (I loved working at the gym!), there are going to be aspects you didn’t love too much. We have to untrain our brains from these long term thought patterns, because if you love the business you’ve made, all the work is going to have a feeling of ease to it.
Knowing when to buckle down: I have deadlines to meet, end dates in sight for projects, and at times I need to say ‘no’ to hitting the beach with my fam and instead hitting my office chair and nailing down the focus. This is where some discipline is needed, because procrastination isn’t going to get you anywhere. When you pair buckling down with the shift in mindset I mentioned above, the need-it-done work doesn’t seem so overwhelming.
Planning and Having Foresight: A solid exciting thing i’m subtly announcing right now - I’m working on website templates for you to purchase if you have a lower budget or want to semi-DIY your own site! I’m STOKED for this, but also motha-effin overwhelmed. There are lots of steps to this, but spending time to organize and plan this out has helped me alot. If you have a new service/product you want to introduce, have some foresight to what that will actually look like for your schedule and business. You should think about your ideal launch date, your realistic launch date and work backwards from there. When do you need to start marketing? How will you start marketing? What about building the service? What does that look like? Materials you need to develop, where can you fit that into your schedule? Back that baby all the way up until today, what’s the task you are working on that’s going to get you closer to that new launch item? Bite size pieces friend, it truly helps reduce the anxiety.

Can I trademark the term ‘UnWork’ LOL. We started our businesses because we had a vision, a vision for the impact we can make with the products/services we offer, and a vision for a life that we get to control.

You no longer need to fit the standard working schedule into the business you are building with your own two hands. You get to shape it, you get to make it, you get to find joy in it.

Okay this is long, I know our schedules are busy, but I wanted to share because this reframing has helped with my overwhelm a great deal, I hope it helps you too. Spend some time thinking about what patterns, routines, habits you are still trying to make fit in your SBO life, that came from your past 8-4 working days, see what you can smooth out, friction wise.

If you find this post helpful, I would friggin love it if you could share it on the ‘gram.

Adios Amigos,

Cheryl