There are a dime a dozen ways to plan and manage your week. I’m curious to learn yours 👀 Here’s what I do: 1. I use several Outlook calendars that overlay each other: 2. At the start of the month, I set up my weekly template (image attached). I drop in non-negotiables first (school runs, workouts 💪) and then add blocks for deep work, admin, and free-choice work. 3. Before each week begins, I replace template blocks with specific tasks. For example, a “Deep Work” block becomes “VJ project work.” 4. My main calendar is the work one, so everything goes in there (including personal) to avoid double-booking. 5. For in-person appointments, I add buffer time before and after (I call it b/out 🚗). I'll also add in prep time if needed for virtual appointments. 6. The personal calendar is really just for my kids’ activities. If it only needs me to remind them, it stays on personal. If I have to pick them up, it also goes on my work calendar. 7. Everything is color-coded (same colors and categories across all calendars) so I instantly know what type of appointment it is. 8. I adjust daily as things change. So bascially, the flow looks like this: - Monthly: plan the big picture - Weekly: pre-plan details - Daily: adjust as needed And repeat... Things I DON'T DO: - Duplicate recurring commitments in both calendars (too cluttered). - Beat myself up if it doesn’t go to plan. Life happens 🤷‍♀️ - Waste time making my calendars “pretty” or "perfect". These are tools that need to be functional, practical, and easy to maintain. Real-talk: if you need 'pretty', then have at it, but don't fool yourself thinking you're doing actual IPA (income producing activity). Now that I’ve shown you mine 😉… your turn! What tool, routine, or proecess do you use to plan your week?

If the results are in your data, why make life harder? I was at coffee with two business friends the other day and one of them was alluding how she’s got so many voices and opinions around her… do this, try that. I could be wrong, but I got the sense there was a lot of confusion and angst around it, all leading to decision fatigue. So I literally asked her “What’s working for you?” and her answer was attending in-person events (like markets) since that’s where a larger portion of her sales come from. My response? Do more of that. I suggested she look at the last few years of events and sales (her data set) and figure out which events were the most fruitful. With that info to power her decisions, she can fill up her calendar with more of those events. It’s not sexy looking at data; it’s rinse and repeat, but it works. I get that, especially for creatives like this friend, rinse and repeat feels boring. But you can save yourself a lot of decision fatigue and being pulled in different directions by letting your data make the decision for you. Which in turn frees up more mental bandwidth to do more creative stuff! Here’s my question for you: where in your business could you lean more on what’s already working instead of chasing all the new advice?

Running a small business can feel messy, complicated, and isolating. I’ve made more mistakes than I can count while figuring it out. A bit about me: I’m Lena Gallagher. Before launching my consulting business, I worked in corporate, and later I founded Free Run Gym, a 10,000 sq/ft obstacle course & functional training facility. It wasn’t your run-of-the-mill gym where we specialized in obstacle course race training and Ninja Warrior-style fitness. After running the gym for years, and learning the hard way what happens when operations aren’t smooth, I shifted gears to helping other business owners set up the backends of their businesses in practical, real world ways. This community is here so we can share what’s worked (and what hasn’t), swap ideas, and support each other in making business easier to run. Full disclosure: this group is free to join right now while I build it out. Over time I’ll be adding mini-courses and group workshops, and there will be paid tiers for those who want deeper access. For now, come join the conversations and help shape what this becomes. 👉 First step: head to the Introductions thread and tell us who you are. https://www.skool.com/free-run-readyops-hub-1336/lets-get-to-know-each-other?p=9fb394bc