How to Create Your Ideal Day
Many of us become entrepreneurs so we can have more freedom in our life: financial freedom, work freedom, and time freedom. We dream of working on what we want, when we want, and making the money that lets us live our dream life.
There's no right or wrong answer to what these freedoms look like for you. But understanding your goals and how you want your life to look are powerful tools to keep you motivated during the hard and lonely days of business.
The ideal day exercise serves as a way to let you start to live that dream life.
There are four steps to build and start living your ideal day.
Understand your energy levels
Priorities first
Map your ideal day
Make moves towards your ideal day and continue to perfect
1. Understand your energy levels
The first thing to understand is how your energy changes throughout the day. Are you a morning lark or a night owl? What about a third bird? If you're not sure, ask yourself the following questions:
- If you were on a vacation with no plans, what time would you go to bed and wake up?
- What time of the day do you feel the most creative?
- Are you a 'get up and go' person in the morning?
- When do you hit a wall during the day?
- What time of the day would you prefer to go to the gym or take a test to see the best results?
Once you've done an inventory of your energy throughout the day, add your ideal wake-up, bedtime, and any other standing times you'd like to the ideal day schedule below.
2. Priorities first
The beauty of your ideal day is that you can set your priorities however you want, but, in order to do that, you have to understand your priorities. In the space on the next page identify the top priorities for your life (I'll give you a clue - one of them should be you!). Make sure that there is time for family, self-care, and fun in addition to the type of work you want to do each day.
Some examples of priorities to include may be:
- Time with your kids and/or partner
- Reading
- Long walks with your pup
- Building your business
- Providing high-quality service to clients
- Hobbies
3. Map your ideal day
Now that you know when you're day is going to start and end and what your priorities are, you can begin to plan out your ideal day in the template below.
This is where you can have fun and dream!
Do you want to wake up at 5 am when the house is quiet with a long morning routine and get your workout in right away? What about sleeping in without an alarm clock and taking a mid-day break at the pool? Do you want to spend evenings with your family and then jump back to work before bed?
Close your eyes and picture the perfect day, that allows you to spend time on all the most important priorities, builds in self-care, and allows you to continue growing your dream business.
4. Make moves towards your ideal day and continue to perfect
What can you do right now to start living that ideal day? Can you wake up a little earlier each day to build in a morning meditation? Can you plan the night before so you can sleep in later in the morning? What about having a day a week with no meetings so you can take a long mid-day break?
Start looking for opportunities to make small changes towards this ideal day!
Your life is going to change. Your business is going to change. And your ideal day is going to change. That's OK! I recommend you map out your ideal day every quarter so you can continue to refine the time you need for your priorities.
Some seasons may require more focus on your family or more focus on your business. But keeping the vision of your ideal day in front of your mind allows keeps you motivated, keeps you prioritizing what's most important, and enables you to live your best life!
If you’re looking for more resources on how to create your ideal day as a business owner, check out my FREE How to Create Your Ideal Day guide and training here!
