7 simple ideas to make your work weeks more enjoyable as a solopreneur

I used to have this problem that I’d plan my business tasks for days, weeks, months – and suddenly it felt like I had already “lost” that time.

Because I knew exactly what my next few days or weeks were gonna look like, I didn’t look forward to them as much anymore because they were already spoken for. I might as well fast-forward to that point in time that I hadn’t planned for yet!

That didn’t feel that great, and I knew that something had to change. I didn’t want to wait for something like a vacation to feel excited, right?

This is something I talk about with a good chunk of my coachees – because we have this amazing ability to imagine the future, when we make plans our brains often already feel like we’ve *done all the things* because we’ve imagined it. We have these imagined memories – but then we still need to do the things for them to actually happen.

So today I’ll share some things that I did to get back to feeling more excited about the days, the weeks, and the months – even if they were centered around everyday work weeks.

1 – reflection

Checking in with myself in the morning through journaling helps me catch how I’m doing, and what feels important that day. Sometimes it’s not any of the stuff that’s on my task list, and that’s when it feels extra important to incorporate that thing into my day.

Journaling might not feel right for you, but there are a lot of ways that you could check in with yourself, like taking a walk, doing a quick yoga practice, or just taking a moment to reflect on how you’re feeling and what you’d like your day to look like.

2 – plan time for fun

Making time for some fun things throughout your weeks helps you stay motivated to get through tasks, AND feeling good overall spills into the time you spend on your tasks.

3 – try to have some enjoyable things to do every day

Activities don’t always have to be “fun”, but I do believe every day needs to have some enjoyable elements. For me it’s good food, going for a walk, moving my body, and listening to music. It’s those little things that build up – you don’t need to chase something super indulgent or grand. Actually, often doing things that are in-the-moment indulgent don’t really give you a lasting high anyway.

4 - “work” towards something that matters outside of your tasks

Whether your tasks center around a business or your job or any other responsibilities, it’s important to have something outside of that to “work” towards. If you’re a creative person, maybe you plan to create something on a weekly basis to grow your craft. If you want to strengthen your relationships with friends, decide on a set of actions you take every week that will help you stay in touch.

5 – purpose

If you feel like there’s no purpose to doing the things you do, you either need to find the purpose in them *OR* chuck those out the window and find things to do that would actually feel purposeful to you.

6 – unplanned time

The best cure to feeling like your time is all spoken for is to plan for unplanned time. On a daily basis, you might want to have an hour or two of this, on a weekly basis it might mean a full Saturday or Sunday. I’m also debating doing a full week every two months, or a full month twice a year.

7 – people

Having deep connections with a few close friends brings my life a lot of meaning. You can’t even begin to measure how much other people can influence and enrich your life – and the time you spend with them isn’t that predictable.