Let’s start with your life and your needs. Figure out the things in your life that are non-negotiable and plug those in first. Perhaps it’s going to an exercise class 3 days a week, or dropping your kids off at school. Maybe you have a part-time job or contract that you need to take into account. Be sure to also plug in the days/times that you’ll take off entirely, too.

Whatever time you have left over is how much time you have to work on your business.

For example, I block out time for exercise 4 mornings a week, I take weekends off, and I don’t plan anything after 1pm on Friday. I know that I can’t function without a solid 8 hours of sleep, and I know that I’m not productive for more than about 6 hours a day. So typically I’m working with about 30 hours each week for my work to get done.

You may have only 15 hours to work on your business, or as many as 60. But it’s essential that you plug in “life stuff” first so that your total time is realistic.

Next, spend some time actually tracking what you DO with your time. Did you think a task was going to take 5 minutes but it turned out to be 30? Did you realize that you spent an hour scrolling on Instagram throughout the day? Did you plan to write a blog post in 20 minutes when 3 hours later you’re still perfecting that last paragraph?

Tracking your time isn’t a moral judgement or competition. It’s simply information. Once you know how you’re spending your time and how long tasks actually take it’s much easier to plan your day accurately.

Start by tracking your time for a week (use the sheet below or something like Toggl). Be super specific about what you were actually doing (without judgement!) so you can make better plans going forward. It’s hard to predict how much you can get done if you don’t know how long things take.

Then you’ll need to get clear about how to use the hours you do have most effectively. No matter how many hours you have to work with, you’ll need to plan for a certain number of tasks. Here are the general categories I like to use:

• 40% Client Time (service businesses) or Production Time (product businesses)- the time you’re actually doing the work you get paid for!
  Note that when these hours aren’t filled with client projects, they then turn into “client getting” time (marketing stuff directly focused on getting new clients)

• 30% Marketing & Sales (everything from networking, to being of service on social media, to having sales calls, to writing sales emails, to creating new programs and products)
  Note that when you’re just getting started these hours will likely just be focused on foundational activities like getting your website built.

• 20% Admin & Bookkeeping (emails, ordering supplies, invoicing, etc.)

• 10% CEO Time (big picture planning and strategy)

So, let’s say you have 20 hours to work on your business each week. You’d plan to spend about:

• 2 hours on CEO time

• 4 hours on Admin

• 6 hours on Marketing

• 8 hours on Client/Production time

Keep in mind, these percentages will probably vary for each business. This is simply a starting place for you to be able to understand the breakdown of everything that needs to happen in your business so you can plan for them.

It’s also worth mentioning that early in the business building process, you’re going to have to do more tasks that don’t get “results” right away. They’re foundational activities. You have to build websites or create opt-ins. You have to figure out shipping programs or create wholesale forms. It takes time.

If you’re farther along, you might not need to dedicate so much time to those foundational activities, so you’ll have more time to put towards activities like marketing and client time or product development.

The reason you’ll need to be clear on where you’re at is so you can appropriately budget for what needs to be done now, and have the awareness that your schedule will shift over time.

Then figure out how you’ll make it happen each week!

You could do that with a simple quota system where you just ensure that you get those hours for each category done each week. I’ve had clients just use checkboxes to keep track.

Or you could schedule it into your calendar so that, for example, you work on marketing and sales tasks every day at 10 am.

I’ve found that for most people it takes a few months to really dial in a schedule that works for them. Furthermore, it may vary from season to season. For instance, if you’re a parent you might use a set schedule during the school year where you plan each task at a certain time each week, and then shift to a quota system during the summer when your schedule is less predictable.

The idea here is figuring out what works best for you. If you resist a set schedule, try the quota system. If you get overwhelmed by too many choices, scheduling each task at a certain time might work best.

Up until this point, all of this is just information and best guesses about scheduling. Where the rubber meets the road is in the weekly plan and review process. The template below helps you brainstorm all of the things that you might want to get done (the dividers are for different categories like personal, marketing, errands, finance, or whatever suits you), then you can plug in your priorities on the next sheet.

Spending time reviewing what got done, what didn’t, and where you might be stuck is KEY for making better plans for the next week.

Make a copy of the doc and give it a try!