To me, entrepreneurship is a fun game. I’m always trying to find that magical formula of “how to do the least amount of work without actually losing any money”.

Some call it laziness. I call it smart work. Efficiency, if you will. 🙂

And I’ve managed to increase my income and decrease my sweat equity for the past 3 years.

• In 2015 it was a result of hiring someone to run my social media. This was helpful because it freed up time to work on income generating activities.
• In 2016 it was a result of implementing systems (to grow my team).
• But this year, 2017, I didn’t want just more money, I wanted more freedom too.

But Maya how much time do you need before you consider yourself free?

Excellent question! I had time, but how I was spending my time didn’t bring me the level of freedom I truly wanted. So here are the three things I did to become a happier and more productive entrepreneur in 2017.

 

1. I upgraded my schedule.

Over the last few years my disinterest for talking on the phone has increased and my desire for meeting up in person has decreased.

But yet I still enjoy the live human interaction that I get from working with clients one-on-one or speaking at conferences.

So to balance my double personality disorder, I decided that being “anti-social” Saturday through Tuesday was really fitting.

I only did business calls Wednesday through Friday which conditioned my clients to finish their “homework” and be prepared to talk to me sometime between 9am – 3pm EST during the second half of the week.

The reason I created a work schedule was because I hated the feeling of being “tied to my desk”. I was starting to allow my business to run me instead of me run my business. If I was supposed to “make my own schedule” then I needed to actually make my own schedule.

Mondays are too fresh in the week for me to take on anyone’s business problems or confusion. Blocking my calendar allows me to mentally prepare for the week ahead. (Yes, that’s right. I don’t prepare for the week on Sundays. I relax on Sundays. A concept.)

By the end of Monday, I’ve probably come up with “the best idea ever” and that’s why team calls are every Tuesday morning at 11 a.m. We get to discuss goals for the week and all the ideas and projects I have in mind. Team calls are my favorite. The rest of the day is usually spent working on my new idea or relaxing while my team works on my new idea.

Wednesdays are usually my most packed days because my clients are anxious to talk to me. 🙂 This makes for more fun calls. They get to brain dump all their ideas to me, and since my head is cleared from my own early-week brain dump, I can take all their ideas and organize it for them without being overwhelmed. I known these calls take a huge weight off their shoulders and it makes me feel really good that I can show up and be present for them.

[Tweet “Preparation allows you to be present.”]

Thursdays and Fridays are pretty light. I’ll do some things working on my business or I may not work. Depends on what’s launching or not.

Not being tied to calls made it possible for me to travel more and have more meaningful human interactions. In 2016 I was traveling to “prove” to myself that I had freedom but I was still exhausted. Back-to-back travel is not as glamorous as the Internet makes it seem. Delayed flights, lost baggage, and turbulence are more frequent than not. It turns out that getting in control of my schedule was really the first step to my freedom.

[Tweet “Getting in control of your schedule is really the first step to freedom.”]

 

 

2. I upgraded my environment.

I had 3 major environment shifts in 2017.

• I left the country for the 1st time. (More about that here.)
• I left the country for the 2nd time for nearly a month.
• I got my own apartment.

Transparency moment:

When I first moved from Charlotte, NC to Atlanta, GA in 2015 my plan was to stay with my aunt for a couple weeks while I searched for a house or apartment that Ben (my ex) and I were going to move into.

She was so generous to let me, my dog, and Ben’s dog have a bedroom, an office space, and backyard. If it was up to her we would’ve all lived together happily ever after. But unfortunately, she started struggling financially as soon as I moved in. I felt obligated to stay longer to help. First, because she’s family. Second, because of her own generosity towards me. She’s like a second mom to me.

Long story short, there were just too many people in one house. It was me, my aunt, my cousin, and my grandma who watches my niece every day. And although I had my own room and office and the freedom to leave, being around people who depend on you (even if you love them) is super draining.

And along with feeling “trapped” in my physical environment, I felt trapped mentally too. I had a friend experiencing hard times and her problems were consistently weighing on me as well.

The truth was, I just had poor boundaries. It wasn’t until I read a book called Boundaries that I could experience freedom beyond time. I had finally learned to create safe spaces and environments where I didn’t feel a heavy burden.

  

When I finally did set boundaries (by declining requests to pay my friend’s rent and going to find my own apartment) I realized how supportive my aunt and grandma and friend actually were. I had made up a false narrative in my mind that they wouldn’t support me moving and spending my own money on traveling even if it meant i couldn’t help in the capacity that I had been for years.

After reading the book, I booked a 4-week trip to Mexico and signed the lease on my apartment that I was scheduled to move into the day after  I returned to Atlanta.

Going to Mexico was one of the most liberating experiences.

• Not because it was consistently 80 degrees.
• Not because it was the perfect place to eat fresh, vegan food.
• Not because I was around financially stable friends and entrepreneurs.

But because I could just enjoy Mexico for what it was. I didn’t have to think of anyone else’s problems. I knew that when I went back home, I had already created a safe space physically and mentally to live burden-free.

 

The truth was I needed to build a life I didn’t need a vacation from. Reading Boundaries (along with encouragement from the right people) changed everything for me.

[Tweet “Happiness is building a life you don’t need a vacation from.”]

 

3. Upgrade your quality of sleep.

Did I mention traveling is exhausting? When I had originally planned my trip for Mexico, I had packed one month’s worth of clothes and put the rest in boxes so I could be in a position to move the day I got back.

It turns out one month’s worth of clothes is really heavy. And it’s even heavier when you and your friends make an impromptu business trip to Las Vegas during the tail end of your trip.

  

• Central time. Beautiful humid weather.
• Pacific time. Dry ass weather. (I was ashy the whole time we were in Vegas.)
• Eastern time. Back to Atlanta where it was now winter.

I was jet lagged and ashy and arrived into Atlanta after 11 p.m. with my 50+ lb suitcase that was falling apart in 37 degree weather. I eventually made it back to my aunt’s house, slept on the couch, and woke up early to get moved.

I am so grateful that I had my calendar blocked out for the remainder of the week because getting acclimated to a new place required more sleep than I thought.

I’m not sure who came up with the quote “I’ll sleep when I die”, but I have a revised quote. “I’ll die if I don’t sleep.”

[Tweet “Old motto: “I’ll sleep when I die.” New motto: “I’ll die if I don’t sleep.””]

I was equally grateful that the new mattress and pillows I ordered from Tomorrow Sleep were ON time. (It took me 3 days to get the mattress out of the box but when I did!!!! Lol)

For the past few weeks my neck and back had been extremely sore and it was the first time I had slept on a mattress with pillows that didn’t make me feel like I was MMA fighting in my sleep. Soreness gone.

I can’t even describe how good it feels when my head rests in the memory foam pillows. I’m not gonna lie… I wish I would’ve had these pillows with me in Mexico because the other side of the pillow is LITERALLY cool. Who would even think to design a pillow to feel cool on one side and cozy on the other? I guess the creators of Tomorrow Sleep, lol.

I loved the question they asked on the box. “what do you wanna be when you wake up?”

Wow. That made me think.

Do i want to be sore, stressed, ashy, and resenting client work?

Or do I want to feel full of life, moisturized, and grateful for a freedom based business?

I’ll choose the latter.

Upgrade the quality of your life. Meet less, read more, sleep better.

What’s been the biggest change you’ve had to make in 2017 to experience more freedom, happiness, and productivity as an entrepreneur?