How I Design My Business Around My Life

It's all in there. And I have to say, having all these critical pieces mapped out gives me such a clear and transparent view of my capacity for the year ahead. It's also incredibly empowering because now I'm not just squeezing life around business. I can actually now build my business plan with complete clarity on my priorities, my goals, and my availability.

And over these last few days, I've been sharing this bottom up calendar planning approach with many of my clients, and they're absolutely loving it. Many of them have already said that it's transforming the way that they see the year ahead. Shifting from a, just another busy calendar, and oh my god, I've got so much to To a year that's actually designed with purpose and intention.

And I want to show you how designing a life-first business doesn't just make room for the things that matter. It actually makes your business stronger and more sustainable. Imagine setting up a year where you're fully present for the big moments where your energy fuels, your goals, and where your plans, your strategy, everything that you put in place, where profitability aligns with the life that you want to live.

But actually what ended up happening is it left me feeling exhausted and empty. Often I was running on autopilot. my business, my career was actually running my life and I was just going through the motions. And actually at worst, I've been missing out on those important moments in my life, the family commitments, the children commitments, the capacity in my calendar to actually do stuff for me.

And that's when I decided to flip it. Now, the first step to a life first business is really to rethink how we actually approach the calendar. And instead of asking, you know, how can I fit my life around my business? I want you to flip it and think about, I wonder how I can build my business around my life.

So the first thing I do is I plan around moments that matter. So I essentially wipe my calendar clean. And the first thing I put into my next 12 months are the moments that matter. Before I even think about projects or client work, I map out those moments, those non negotiable dates that actually make life meaningful.

I call these like my life anchors. They're the core memories. They're the heartbeat. They are behind why actually I'm doing the work that I'm doing. And think about it, you know, how many times have you been heads down in a project, you've been pushing through, things have gone into your calendar, and actually what you found is you've been missing out on those important family events or even those personal milestones.

You know, I've been there, I've missed school plays, I've missed I've been working on my birthday because of a client meeting that went in and you know what? It absolutely crushed me. So that was my wake up call and no more. These days, those dates, those important dates, the first thing I lock into my calendar.

They are almost like the natural rhythm, the natural cadence, the rest points in our lives that actually can help us recharge and reconnect with the people who matter most. And often because we forget to put these in our calendar, we're unable to take advantage of that natural cadence within our calendar.

So I always put in the public holidays. You know, these are the holidays that offer that chance to pause together as a community, as a family. And I think about how restorative these are, those extra days around the weekend, where you can take a break from routine, where you can connect with friends, where you can do things that aren't in your everyday.

I've only got one at school, but I still put in the school holidays because for me, they're the natural cadence throughout the year because you've got time on when they're in school and then essentially the time off when they're on holiday. So I still operate my work cadence around the school holidays.

Now, if you're a parent and you have the same commitments, think it's really important to build these in because these breaks can be that really essential family time, whether it's For a vacation to actually go on holiday or simply that freedom to just be more present and planning your business around these dates helps you avoid that constant tug of war between trying to manage school holiday, trying to manage family life, trying to manage work life.

And yet she's realized she hasn't taken any school holidays off. I suggested to her for this next coming year to, if there's two weeks of school holiday, To plan in 50 percent of work time during the first week. So instead of working from, I don't know, eight till five, put in that she is out of office until 10 a.

m. and finish at three. So shortening her time in those school holidays. Thank you. And the second advice I gave, was take one week fully off. So think about hybrid if you want to, but the most important thing is that these school holidays, you can plan in, this is where you can create those memories.

Imagine at the beginning of the year that you've highlighted these dates alongside important birthdays, anniversaries, personal development. So you're giving yourself that moment to be really present to the big and small stuff. We put that in first because we want our business to work around it. So action tip #1: blank calendar. And as you map out your calendar, start with the moments that matter. Lock them in first, because these are the time that at the end of the day, fuel our purpose and give deeper meaning to the work that we do. The second thing I then put into my calendar are my self care rituals.

Um, now know this term self care gets thrown around a lot. but this isn't about, Or it doesn't have to be about bubble baths and spa days, although all for that to self care is about taking care of the CEO of the business, the machine of the business. And that's you. It's about the self care to look after you because you are making everything else possible.

So for me, what goes into my calendar is I schedule in my fitness routine. I schedule in short weeks. I schedule in every 90 days reflection time, so I can reflect on the last 90 days and start planning out my next days. I schedule in. know, those moments to disconnect and recharge. And what also goes in here is my hair appointments for the year, my massages, and I put in dinners with friends.

You know, you wouldn't drive a car for thousands of miles without oil changes, without checkouts, without checking those tires. It's the same as you. So put those in. Think about, what you need to be your best. What is it physically, mentally, spiritually, that will ensure that you are your best at all times?

Maybe it's a 10 minute morning routine. Maybe it's one day off every quarter, so you've got a long weekend to yourself. Maybe it's a commitment to move your body, to go to the gym, to do your 10, 000 steps, whatever it is, put it in your calendar as if it were a client meeting, because actually the truth is you are your most important client.

So, We put in our self care, we put in our important personal dates. The third thing it's all about structuring my work to support my life.

So once I have my life and self care mapped out, then I look at my work commitments. It may be existing client work that I've got committed. It may be, conferences that I've already agreed to speak at.

If we don't put it in, it will never happen. So what are the rules for yourself? What is the space between meetings? What is the space when you travel and you turn up in another state or another country? At what time of the day are you going to travel? I create that space from the get go so that I add in the time into my calendar for preparation, for travel, if I'm on the go, for decompression.

And it's like I'm giving myself permission to breathe. You know, it can make all the difference. It's ensuring that I don't get to the end of the week exhausted, but I'm Planning my week with those hacks through the day and the week that are going to keep me, performing at my best. Keep me energized.

So actually by the end of the day, her to-do list had got way bigger and the only time she could actually do any work was in the evening or at weekends. So I suggested a change, and that was a simple one about scheduling meetings with a 15 minute buffer. And you know what? No one noticed the difference, but her energy skyrocketed, rocketed.

It's the same for you You've got to give yourself some margin some space in your calendar So before you start adding loads and loads and loads into your calendar look at your calendar think about those packs those spaces, those moments in your day and your week and put them in. Try adding a 10 minute transition time between meetings and tasks and see how it feels.

Maybe if you have a full day of meetings, or you've got a big strategy day, You start later the next day. Maybe if you're traveling interstate, instead of, kicking off the next day with early morning meetings, you put a rule in that you're not going to start meetings until 10 o'clock, whatever it is, put those buffers in your calendar now so that you can start becoming more aware of when those buffers are being eaten into.

This shift isn't just about where and when you work, but it's about how you work so that you're not only productive, but you're also profitable because we want to make sure that you are building a scalable and profitable business without sacrificing the life that you're working so hard to build. So step number four is all about making profitability a non negotiable and one of the biggest mistakes I see so many entrepreneurs making is they let profitability fall by the wayside. You can be busy, even wildly productive, but it's not profitable if it won't sustain you. Profitability isn't just a goal. It's a non negotiable part of running a business. A business that supports your life.

I look at how many days are left that I can sell. Now, once I know how many days I've got left that I can sell that can become client facing, I look at my target revenue for that year and I divide that target revenue by the days that I've got left. And guess what? That gives me my target day rate. This day rate becomes a game changing number because knowing your target rate means that you can confidently say yes to the projects that align with your goals and no to those that don't.

You know, I remember one of my early clients who was constantly underpricing her services, thinking that lower fees would help her gain clients, but actually totally backfired. She was overwhelmed with low paying work, and she couldn't keep up with her clients and her life outside of work. She was working every single hour, God sends, that she couldn't keep up.

And she was absolutely exhausted because she wasn't able to do the very things that, would fuel her herself. She was doing the long hours. She was working at weekends. And when we recalculated her rates based on this formula of taking your target, annual revenue and dividing it by the actual number of days you've got left.

If you check out the show notes, I'll put the link in there and that will help you get crystal clear on what you need to charge to reach your goals. So the key here is to start designing your life today. Start designing next year today. If you only take one thing from today's episode, let it be that.

This is about business and life by design. And here's my question for you. What could your life look like next year? If you could choose to build it that way. Thanks so much for joining me on this episode. I hope today's episode has given you some insight and some thoughts into how you can actually get back in control of your life and your business versus your diary being in control of you.

I'm Janine Garner. And as always, it's an absolute honor to be part of your journey. If you're ready to dive deeper, if you're looking for more support to make next year your best year yet, let's connect because I'm here to help you with any speaking engagements, team training, or even one to one via my Elevate or Inner Circle Mastermind.

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