Inside My Calendar: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at My Weekly Workflow

Running a thriving $1,000,000-a-year business in less than 20 hours a week might seem like an impossible challenge. Throw in homeschooling two children and you have a modern conundrum most would shy away from. Yet, I find myself juggling these diverse roles daily. This week, we are discussing the strategies I use in my business to maintain an effective and intentional schedule that prioritizes time over money.  

Topics Covered In This Episode:

1. The value of time over money and the importance of being intentional with how time is spent.
2. My current schedule accommodates my roles as a homeschooling mom and business owner, highlighting the need for schedule adaptability as life changes.
3. Mastering your calendar can lead to more freedom, flexibility, and less stress, and requires learning to say "no" to unnecessary commitments.
4. Why I don’t use time blocking in my schedule, but I encourage batching days and finding a "magic time" for peak productivity, which for me is between 9:30 AM and 12 PM.
5. The importance of being clear on goals and priorities helps manage schedule commitments effectively.
6. Establishing systems, like creating social media content, can streamline processes and free up time.
7. Join support through our programs, such as "Conversions for Clients" and "Strategist Society," to help optimize your schedule and gain more time for personal time.

Find the full show notes at:  https://brandimowles.com/235

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Additional Resources:

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Transcript

Ep 235: Inside My Calendar: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at My Weekly Workflow

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Brandi: [00:00:00] Over the years, my schedule has changed so many times based on what season I was in my life, how many kids I had, what we were doing, where we were living. All of that is factored into my schedule. And one thing I've always been really honest about is what does my schedule look like? What do I have time for?

What do I not have time for? And if you've been here for a while, you know time is the most valuable asset. I value time over money all day. Long. So I'm always very intentional with where I spend my time and how I spend it. And how do I get so much done with also making sure that I'm only working less than 20 hours a week.

And I only have one person on my team and running a million dollar per year business. So I believe that schedule So I'm going to talk a little bit about what is a calendar and what is not a calendar. So a calendar is one of the most important assets in your business. And what does your calendar look like?

What does your schedule look like? And so whenever we have something that works for us in a different season, y'all always are asking, [00:01:00] what does this look like? How are you doing it? Where do you spend your day? And so So I want to share now that I've been in this schedule for a while now, I want to share behind the scenes of what my schedule looks like now as I've entered a totally different season of my life as a homeschooling mom now, as a mom with two and two that are like functioning, walking and all that.

And now that we're living in Georgia. So let's jump on into this episode and see what does my schedule look like now.

Welcome back to another episode of the Serve Scale Soar podcast. My name is Brandi Mowes. I'm your host, and if you're here, it's probably because you are either an ad manager, you are a launch manager, you're some freelancer looking to start, grow, and scale your [00:02:00] business. And this podcast is dedicating to help you do exactly.

I love sharing actionable tips that you can go implement right after this episode is over. And when it comes to our calendar, when it comes to scheduling, this is something that is so personal to each and every single one of us and what our life looks like, how our brain works, how we process. But one thing I know is when you can master your calendar.

Your whole business will change. You'll have more time. You'll have more freedom. You'll have flexibility, but also it comes with saying no. And I say no all the time. So let's talk about what does my calendar look like now? And before we really jump into that, I think we need to chat about What does my life look like right now?

Because depending on how our life looks will depend on what our calendar looks like. I'm in a completely different season in my life than I was two years ago, a year ago. And so as our life [00:03:00] changes, as we go through different seasons, our calendar also has to adjust and pivot and change with those. And so many of us are so So I'm going to talk a little bit about how I got stuck in trying to fit how our old calendar worked with where we are in our life.

And it may be a completely different place. And I remember being really stuck when Bodie was born and really not knowing how to adjust to my new calendar. I was so used to it. It's two, Riley going to school, me working from eight to three. And it was so great. I loved my schedule. I was not interrupted. I was able to get so much done.

And then once Bodie was born, I was breastfeeding full time. My business was very different. Our life looked different. We were now running Riley to and from school and like there was no time that was just mine. And so I really had to pivot my calendar. And then once Bodie stopped breastfeeding, I was able to get a little bit back to normal, but still not completely.

And [00:04:00] then we decided to homeschool Riley and pick up our life, move from Florida to Georgia, buy a new house. And now we have homeschooling. We have a six year old that's almost seven and we have a one year old that's like a little Tasmanian devil. I love him so much. He's wild y'all. Boys are a totally different animal than girls.

And so we're readjusting what is life look like now and with that meant readjusting my work calendar. And so we've really got in an amazing flow. Since I would say June, well, we were in an amazing flow and then we picked up our life and moved and decided to homeschool. And since July, we have been in such a beautiful flow.

We've really found what a great day looks like for us. And I want to share that for you. And remember. Yours may be different and that's okay. We're all adjusting and you have to be flexible with your calendar and find what works for you. Now one thing I do not do Is I do not time block. I've never been a time blocker.

[00:05:00] That's not what this is about I do encourage you to batch your days. We've talked about that before. We'll link up episodes I also talk about context switching and so we'll link up that episode as well And then on top of that You I am big on finding, this is something I started incorporating in January of this year, is like, finding that magic time that's just mine.

And that we don't schedule calls during that. And so I think I learned this from Dan Martell's book, and it was probably one of the biggest takeaways. And what that looks like is, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I do not take any calls. 12 o'clock because I know between 9. 30 and 12 is my sweet spot. That's when my brain functions, that's when I can get the most done, and so to be on calls, to have any of that was really ruining my day.

If I had a day where all my calls were in the front morning, then I'd get [00:06:00] to 12 and I wouldn't want to do anything, and then nothing would happen. Also, moving on. My q and a calls, my trainings, all that to one day. So Thursdays is my what on stage name. I think I got that term from Michael Hyatt. And that's when I show up and I'm on q and As and I'm doing calls and I'll take calls in the morning.

But Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, those are reserved for any calls that I have. After that is sales calls for Strategist Society. It's podcast interviews or it's calls with Janessa. So, and that's what that looks like. And then. Thursday is held for my students. That's when I'm doing their calls. That's when I'll do maybe sales calls in the morning.

I may have calls, but I know on Thursday it's all about being on camera. And then Fridays are completely blocked off. That doesn't mean I never work on Fridays, but we don't homeschool on Fridays. I say we don't homeschool, but it's like our fun activity day. Or our catch up day. It's like if we had some things go wrong, Friday's kind [00:07:00] of like our makeup day plus fun day.

And that also means with work, if I didn't get everything I needed done, Friday's like my catch up day. And so ideally I want to get everything done Monday through Thursday so then I can just enjoy Friday with my family. But that Friday is there. So pretty much in our homeschool and in our life and work, I try to work from a four day work week.

But that doesn't mean I'm not working on Fridays. Some Fridays I do have to work or I'm homeschooling. And so, with that being said, I batch out those dates. Now I get in my office each morning. I try to be in here by 9. It's usually 9. 30. So what we do is we wake up. The kids are usually up at 6. 30. They are super early risers.

Austin and I would sleep until 7. 30 if we could. But they're up at 6. 30 and so that means we're up at 6. 30. We start school at 7. 30. And so school starts at 7. 30. We do our history, our geography, we rotate through these, but these are like our family [00:08:00] studies. We'll do Spanish. Um, we focus on like those. And then once we finish those, usually around noon.

830, 820. Then, um, Austin takes Bodie and he like plays with him back in his bedroom and I do math with Riley. After math is done, then I'm either getting dressed if I haven't already, makeup if I haven't already. Usually I try to have that done before we start school. And then I'm in my office by 30. Then Bodie will take a nap and Austin takes Riley to do her Handwriting, harphonics, and on Thursdays, they do science together.

And then I'm working solid from 9. 30 till usually 1. 00. I take a lunch break at 11. 00 and by lunch break I mean I go grab my lunch which is already prepped. We meal prep on Sunday for that. And I bring it back and I will usually like if there's a training I [00:09:00] need to watch, if there's something I need to catch up on that's audio, I try to eat lunch at my desk.

I know that's not everyone's thing. This thing, but for me it just keeps everything nice and calm. I do help Austin grab the kids lunches while I'm heating up mine and stuff. So then I'm usually back in my office by 11. 30. 12, I get back into work and then depending on the day, I'm either working until one or two.

I usually am out of my office by two. Some days it stretches till 2. 30. Very rarely does that happen. And then at two, I go out, we do some reading, like I'm reading the kids picture books. Um, maybe we'll do some art, things like that. And then I'm done. Now if Janessa needs me or something on Slack. Up until she's done around four, then yes, I can slack, but for the most part, I'm out of my office.

No work. And then we do, you know, family time, dinner, kids in bed by seven, and then Austin and I have our time together, where we do whatever we [00:10:00] want. But my work day is done usually by two. Now, every now and then, once a month, I'll have a mastermind call. I need to jump on for my mastermind, cause it's, uh, most of the people are on the west coast, so I am in weird hours.

But that's what it looks like. And I get everything done in that time, because that's the only time I have. So, on Mondays, just to give you an idea of like, How all this happens because I know some of you are like, that's great Brainy, but that wouldn't work for me. It can if that's the setup you want. You just have to be flexible.

So on Monday or Sundays, let's start with Sunday. Cause that's like when we really Start our week. And so Sundays are what we call power Sundays. On Sundays we go to the library, we pick up books that I've already ordered, like sometimes we have time to go to the library, sometimes we don't. Some weeks it's just like crazy, we don't have time.

Other weeks we try to let the kids go in, pick one book that they want, but I've already pre-ordered all the books, so they're waiting for me. I just grab 'em on the shelf. I also bake [00:11:00] bread on Sundays, so the kids have bread for the whole week. Um, so I bake bread from scratch. We meal prep our lunches.

Austin and I make sure all of our lunches are prepped. Saturday night, I order groceries and have them delivered on Sunday. So then while we're prepping, we don't have to go to the grocery store. They arrive on Sunday. So we are ready to get into prepping. So we make the bread, we fix our lunches, whatever we're having, Austin and I go on and pre prep ours.

I make the kids some kind of baked good. So either like protein muffins or, um, usually it's muffins. So, uh, um, I make like breakfast or something like that. Like granola ball, bars, or something like that. I make that for them for a snack for the week. Then I do their yogurt drinks for breakfast. So they have protein yogurt drinks that we, uh, pre prepped those in the morning.

And then lunches, they rotate through the same amount of lunches. So like, we'll do either PB& Js. sound. Chicken nuggets, um, with [00:12:00] veggies, things like that. So all, we don't really prep the kids lunches. Those are ready. We do have ours prepped because we were finding if we didn't prep our lunches, we weren't eating.

And then we know exactly what we're making each night for dinner. So all of that's already planned. We have all the groceries for it. We lay out any meats from the freezer. We started ordering butcher box. So that makes sure that we have. Organic, hormone free, all that kind of stuff that's important to us.

And on Sundays we lay out whatever we're having, um, meat wise. So we take it out of the freezer, put it in the fridge, let that, um, fall. And so everything's just like so formulated. And then on Sundays I also plan our week for homeschooling. Usually I've planned the week coming up, but on Sundays I plan.

Not the week coming up, but the following week. So I'm always ahead one week ordering library books and all that. And then Austin will review anything he needs to with Spanish. He really helps with the Spanish. Spanish is not my strength. Um, and he reviews any [00:13:00] phonics he has. I review any of the things I'm teaching through the week, which I usually do the history, the geography, um, history, geography, math.

And then we have our, uh, like, Composer Studies, um, Shakespeare, stuff like that I handle. And so we all, like, get on the same page. We check our calendars. What are we doing? That's our Power Sunday. Like, it runs like a machine. And Sundays are really about how can we get the whole Family in the kitchen, getting excited about the week, we're all cooking, prepping, all that kind of stuff.

And then, Monday, we start our week. I'll be honest, Mondays are the hardest day of the week. It's my favorite day of the week with work. It is the most challenging with school and it usually It starts with like some challenges, but it is what it is. We got to keep moving. And so then I get in my office and on Mondays Janessa and I have our weekly meeting.

I make sure my whole week is planned out. So only three things on each day to get done. What is my most [00:14:00] important task? That's what I'm taking care of. I usually record some podcast on Monday. I plan out my social media on Monday, um, that usually takes an hour and I plan out all my posts, create them, everything that's done.

Then I prep for the week and then whatever's the biggest thing that has to be done, like through the week, if that one thing gets done and nothing else, my week's still good. That one thing I always make sure I get done on Monday. Tuesday is kind of just like whatever it is. It's on the calendar. I take care of it.

Wednesday is the same way. Like Tuesday and Wednesday are really strong, just working days. Thursday, I come in knowing that I'm going to be on calls all day and I'm mentally prepared for that. I'm showered for that. I'm ready to do the dang thing. And then Fridays, like I said, they're catch up days or they're like, I'm off and that's what the schedule looks like.

And it's one we, uh, people are like, well, that's great. But like, I have so much on my schedule and [00:15:00] conversions for clients. We actually have a productive weekly workflow where I show you exactly what you should be doing each day to work less than 20 hours. So that's in there. And then also in strategy society, we have the five standards of excellence.

And with those, it's like, these are the most important things that have to happen each day. And when you front load those you get them done. People also ask me like how do you get like social media right now This is a big thing in strategy society. How do you get your social media done so quickly? Well for one month I did three posts a day I'm going to post every day for 30 days and during that process, I created a system, I created a way to pump this out.

So now just posting once a day, seven days a week is nothing because I've already created a system. So sometimes you've got to create a system and that may take a little bit longer and you push yourself out of your comfort zone. But then on the flip side, you're like, wow, I have so much time. Of course I can do [00:16:00] this.

So sometimes we just have to stretch ourself to then be like, Oh, I just made this easy. And I'm always like, how could I make this easy? How could I make this fun? How could I make this simple? When we ask ourselves questions like that, instead of being like, I don't have time for this. I'll never get this done.

How do I do this? I don't know what I'm doing. Instead come from the place of how could I make this fun? How could I make this easy? How can I make this simple? Then we start to get different answers. And that's how I look at my calendar. And my goal is to have my calendar as empty as possible. Have my to do list as empty as possible.

And when I know that's my goal, then it's like, okay, when things come up, it's a no. Janessa will get podcast interviews for me and nine out of 10 of them are nos. A few of them come to me, but summits, those are a no. And people suffer from FOMO and they do this stuff. But I know what my goals are. Is it going to get me closer to my goals?

Yes or no. If it's a no, then it's a no. Like, no. Is [00:17:00] this taking away time for my family? Yes. Okay. Is it worth it? Probably not. So that's a no. We have to get really clear when it comes to calendar on boundaries, what your goals are and how much time you have. And when you can only fit things in that time, you will get it done.

That's why when people come to me and say, I'm working a full time job, can I do this? I'm like, heck yeah. You can, because you're actually going to use your time better than someone who has all the time in the world. And so, I can tell you. When you are set to only a certain time, you will only use that time and you will get more done than people who have all the time.

And so, when we look at our calendar, hopefully you can take some of these tips that I shared with you today and implement them. Hopefully it inspires you to find a calendar system that works for you. And if you're still like, Brandy, I need help, then Inside Conversions for Clients, we literally have the productive weekly workflow, which will show you how to set up your business for success working less than 20 hours.

And then, if you're like, I'm past I'm the one [00:18:00] that does the best conversions for clients. I need real support, one on one support. Join us in strategist society. You can go to, we'll link it up. You can go apply to see if it's the right fit. And one of the things I do as soon as you come in, is I look at your calendar and we do a time audit for two weeks.

And then I show you where you can optimize your calendar, where we can fill the holes, where we can cut things, where we can trim things. And we really optimize your calendar for efficiency and to get more time back because you are not. You did not start your business to work around the clock. You started your business probably to create more freedom and flexibility, but right now you're probably lacking that.

And I want you to have more of that. So hopefully this encourages you to go look at your calendar and my friends, I cannot wait to have you back next week. So until then, go out, serve your clients, scale your business and soar into the success you [00:19:00] deserve.