Therefore, I have decided that I need to practice what I preach and review my week.

We are entering the last quarter of the year when you start seeing everyones joy and successes on social media and you feel like you are behind again.

So, in September I am going to start again. Not in the January, new year, new me, buy a notebook and completely reinvent your life kind of way. I mean something much more practical than that.

The kids are going back to school, summer is coming to an end, the days are starting to feel a little more structured again, and I suddenly find myself looking at my own life and thinking: Right. What are we actually doing here? Do I actually want this to be my life?

I’ve realised that, for quite a while, I’ve been living day to day, In survival mode and not doing the work I actually want to do.

And while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with getting through a busy season of life, there comes a point where “getting through the day” starts to become your entire strategy.

I’ve been doing things. Lots of things, actually. I’ve been working, responding to messages, dealing with whatever needs dealing with, getting a couple of important tasks done and moving things along. My health has also been effected, I have put on weight, got spotty again and not taken care of myself.

But when I look at some of the goals I actually care about, I haven’t been getting as close to them as I want to.

It’s that slightly frustrating feeling of being busy without necessarily feeling like you’re making progress.

You have things you want to achieve. Maybe it’s growing a business, writing a book, starting a podcast, getting fitter, making more money, spending more time with your family, or simply having a bit more breathing room.

So I have taken it upon my self to reset, something I used to do every 3 months when my business changes and adapts and I have let that go.

So, rather than deciding that I need to become more disciplined, more productive or somehow find another five hours in every day, I’m trying something much simpler.

I’m rebuilding my week.

I like to think of it as putting a puzzle back together.

First, I put in the pieces that aren’t negotiable.

The school run. Life admin. Family commitments. The things that have to happen whether I feel like it or not.

Then I add in the things that I know make me function better: exercise and actual downtime. When I first designed this years ago I forgot it takes time to shower, eat, wash up, put my kids to bed, all the life things we need to do.

This bit is important because I’m not interested in creating one of those beautifully colour-coded schedules where every minute of the day is accounted for and I’m apparently supposed to optimise the three minutes between brushing my teeth and making a cup of tea.

I want a week I can actually live in.

And, ideally, I want Fridays off. I have been promising myself this for quite some time. Every so often I think, This is it. This is the year I’m going to have a four-day working week. And then Friday arrives and, somehow, I’m working.

So this time I’m doing something radical. I’m putting Friday in the diary as a day off. Not “if everything else gets done” off. Actually off.

Because that’s another thing I’m beginning to realise: if you leave the things that matter to you until there is spare time, you might be waiting a very long time.

Once I’ve put the non-negotiables into my week, I can see what space is actually left.

And that’s where things get interesting as when you look there isn’t alot of time to work, therefore my techniques in time block and effiencies have to kick in. I don’t like wasting time I want to get an action done as quickly as possible.

I’ve gone through my businesses and started categorising the work into three simple buckets.

The first is what I actually want to do.

This is the work that moves me towards the things I’m excited about. For me, that might be recording podcast episodes or creating something I genuinely want to build. The creative side of my business.

The second is what needs to be done to keep the business going.

These are the things that aren’t necessarily exciting, but they matter. House inspections. Viewings. Admin. The operational stuff that keeps everything moving. These are the businesses that give me the cash flow to live so I cannot let them drop and we are not in a financial position to hire at the moment.

The third is what needs to be done to grow the business into what I actually want it to become.

For me, social media falls into this category.

And this distinction has been surprisingly useful.

Because not all work is equal.

Some things maintain what you already have. Some things grow it. And some things are the reason you started in the first place.

If I don’t deliberately make space for that third category, the maintenance work will happily consume the entire week.

There will always be another email. Another viewing. Another thing that needs sorting out.

The growth work is rarely shouting at you. That’s precisely why it gets pushed aside. So I’ve colour-coded everything. Obviously. I love a colour-coded system.

Each category has its own colour, and I’ve started allocating actual blocks of time to each one. Maybe three hours for something, an hour for something else, depending on what needs doing. Even better if the stuff I don’t like takes quicker time and this is the list I outsource when I can.

And then I’ve gone one step further.

Instead of writing something vague like “work on podcast” into the calendar, I’m breaking those blocks down into the actions that actually need to happen.

Because “work on podcast” sounds productive, but it’s not really an action.

Email guest.

Choose episode topic.

Write questions.

Record episode.

Edit.

Create clips.

Schedule.

Those are things I can actually do.

This is the bit I think I’ve been missing. I haven’t necessarily needed more motivation. I’ve needed a clearer container for my time. And when you see those actions ticked off you can see the progress, one rung of the ladder at a time so to speak.

This week is still about getting the kids settled back into school and finding our rhythm again. I’ve actually really enjoyed the lazy days of summer, but I’ve also realised that I’ve missed having a routine.

So I’m going to start properly next week. Then I’m going to leave it alone for a while. I’ll test it. I’ll see what works. I’ll notice what doesn’t. And at the end of September, I’ll review it. Not Did I follow my timetable perfectly?

That’s not the goal.

I want to ask better questions.

Did I make progress on the things I said mattered?

Did the business get the attention it needed?

Did I spend enough time on growth rather than just maintenance?

Did I protect my downtime?

Did I actually take Fridays off?

And perhaps most importantly: does this feel like a week I want to keep living?

That feels like a much better goal.

And maybe your version of this isn’t a four-day working week.

Maybe you want one afternoon for yourself.

Maybe you want two mornings to work on the business instead of in it.

Maybe you want dedicated time to write, create, exercise or finally start the project you’ve been talking about for two years.

The point isn’t the timetable.

The point is deciding what deserves a place in it.

Because if you don’t decide, your inbox will.

And I’m not sure I want to spend the final four months of this year letting my inbox decide what I achieve.

Want to do this with me? Here is my process below

I’ve turned my process into a simple Model Week Reset you can use to rebuild your own week.

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Painting and house sets up flare my Fibromyalgia up and I pay the price afterwards.

Saturday (today) was one of the days I blocked out, I thought I would make my life easier for the following couple of weeks, however I checked in with myself, along with being reminded by my husband.

Is this how I actually want to spend a child free day?

Will it make much difference to the project end dates (we are still reliant on other trades timelines also)

How will this impact my personal time and energy?

So I decided to stay home, sleep well and rest, not set an alarm and start the day with a coffee, my candle on and a book.

Then I spent a couple of hours doing meaninful work I needed to catch up on, the things that will really make a difference to my business, my personal life and that of my children.

At first I felt guilty and I don’t like changing my diary, but on reflection I feel better that I reflected, really thought about the work I needed to do and what work I enjoy the most.

I feel much better now and although I have created systems, guidance and calenders I stick to, sometimes I make the wrong decision and need to be reminded of what is important, hey we are all human.

Whats is Ironic is that at the beginning of the year I wrote a couple of motivational paragraphs, a daily reminder of where I want to be. I revised them at the beginning of the summer holidays and added some rules, one being ‘I Don’t want to feel like I am been run ragged’. And today thats exactly how I would have felt. Its important to write your own commandments and live by them.

I recommend writing your own commandments, what would your first one be?

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I’ve found a much simpler approach.

This week, I’m away from my emails because I’m out of the house setting up serviced accommodation. I knew I wouldn’t have much time to deal with everything, so I allocated myself one hour to get organised, deal with anything genuinely urgent and create some space for the rest of the week.

I even set a timer.

The important thing is that the hour has a clear purpose. You are not trying to clear your entire inbox or finish your entire to-do list. You are trying to regain control and decide what actually needs your attention.

Here is my 5 step guide to a clearer day below

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Structure your week to make progress on your goals, habit stack and find the balance in every day life

Upgrade to get a template or video like this on Mondays. Annual members get a free coaching session with me.

There is just something about a tent and nature that just does something for me.

Unfortunately in the business we are not in a position where we can fully switch off or give the phone to someone else, we used to be but the nature of our business and finances have changed, so we had to adapt.

The type of work we are doing this week it just simply keeping an eye on important emails, I am selling one of our flips and entering legals and also supporting one of our tenants with a mental health crisis.

Chris is seeing if there are any urgent repairs that may crop up.

Prior to this we have communicated to 3 clients that the projects we are doing for them have paused, everyone else is still able to communicate with our assistant.

So the world isn’t going to combust or stall as we are camping we have simply slowed down and going to rest and have a break with the children.

Elsie and Eliza have been patient this summer holidays, they have come to work with us on occasion and understand that sometimes we need to be on the phone or in meetings or we all need to go and buy something for a project, we are all in a team and we all go.

But this week for us is, swimming, ice cream, playing and discos and thats ok, one week isn’t going to set us back and everyone will understand.

It is ok to pause, reset and rest, finding shifting the balance.

I don’t know how you feel about goal setting for the year, but I absolutely love it. One of the things I do is come up with a list of goals that I want to achieve throughout the year.

I break them down into different areas: business goals, financial goals, property goals, family goals, health goals and personal goals. For example, with property, it might be acquiring a certain type of property or reaching a particular monthly cash flow. Financially, it might be putting a certain amount into my pension each month.

Then I put everything onto a spreadsheet. Now, not everybody likes a spreadsheet, but I bloody love a spreadsheet. I have a tracker where I put the goal, the outcome and then January through to December. Every month, I make notes about how I’m getting on.

And I think the tracking bit is really important because sometimes you look at a goal and think, I’m nowhere near where I wanted to be. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you haven’t made progress.

I’ve had a really good example of this myself this year. One of my goals was to find and purchase a certain type of property deal. I thought it was going to be massively achievable. I’ve looked at the deals, done the viewings, contacted agents, put offers in, had an offer accepted and nearly instructed solicitors. And then the deal went wrong.

That one deal took months. Genuinely, about seven months. So here I am, coming up to September, and I’m looking at a goal that was based around purchasing one of these properties this year and thinking, we’re nowhere near achieving that now.

But actually, when I look back at everything I’ve done, I’ve done the actions. The outcome was outside of my control. And I think that’s an important distinction.

Sometimes we don’t achieve our goals because we haven’t done the work. Sometimes we haven’t got the knowledge. Sometimes we haven’t asked for help. Sometimes we haven’t networked. Sometimes we simply haven’t taken the actions. But sometimes you’ve done absolutely everything you can and circumstances have just got in the way.

So, as we’re coming towards the end of the summer holidays, I think it’s a really good time to stop and look at where you actually are. September to December gives us another quarter of the year. Whether you work in quarters, half terms, months or something completely different, whatever works for you, use that as your reset point.

Ask yourself: Are you happy with where you are? Have you achieved what you wanted to achieve? Is there something you’ve completely forgotten about? And perhaps most importantly, what can you still realistically achieve before the end of the year?

Because not everything needs to be abandoned just because you’re behind.

Take one of my personal goals. I wanted to stretch every day because I live with pain and stretching is something that is good for me. Sometimes I do it. Sometimes I don’t. So I track my habits as well as my goals using a couple of apps.

That gives me a percentage each month and lets me see how consistently I’m actually doing it. And sometimes that is much more useful than simply saying, I haven’t achieved my goal. Maybe I haven’t done it every day, but I’ve done it 60% of the time. That’s progress.

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We set targets, break them down, review progress and work out what support is needed to get there.

But what about family goals?

In between school runs, work, dinner, homework and everything else that fills family life, do we ever stop and ask: What do we actually want to achieve together?

And perhaps more importantly, do we decide those goals as a family, or do we help each individual family member work towards their own?

For us, it is a bit of both.

One of my children’s goals has been to do a flip on the bar in the garden. Rather than simply saying, “Practise until you can do it,” we talked about what the goal actually involves.

What does she need to practise?

How can I help?

How often should we practise?

What feels achievable without turning something exciting into something pressured?

It becomes less about achieving the goal and more about understanding the steps towards it.

Our other child is almost seven and still can’t ride a bike. It would be very easy to see that as the goal: learn to ride a bike.

But we’ve broken it down further.

For her, it isn’t just about riding. It’s about confidence and balance first.

So we’re working on those things separately, at her pace, rather than making the bike itself feel like a measure of success.

And then there are the goals that belong to all of us.

We’re currently talking about what we want to do on our upcoming holiday. What do we each want to experience? What would make it memorable? What are the things we’re excited about?

I like the idea that family goals don’t necessarily have to be big.

They can be learning something new, trying something that feels scary, becoming more confident, spending more time together, or simply making sure everyone gets to do something they genuinely enjoy.

Perhaps the biggest difference between family goals and business goals is that there isn’t always a deadline.

There doesn’t need to be.

The point isn’t to create another list of things for our children to achieve.

It’s to teach them that they can have something they want to work towards, that they can break it down into smaller steps, ask for help, change the plan and celebrate progress along the way.

And maybe that’s one of the most useful lessons we can give them.

Goals aren’t just for business.

They’re for life — and family life is a pretty good place to start.

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The kids are at holiday club. Their activities are organised. I have five precious hours where I can focus on my business without the usual juggling of childcare, school runs, snacks, arguments and “Mum, where’s my…?”

Five hours.

And when you run a business alongside having children, five uninterrupted hours can feel like gold.

So naturally, my first thought was:

I need to be super productive.

I need to make these hours count.

I need to get through the work that’s been piling up, deal with the challenging things at work, catch up on the things I’ve been putting off and probably squeeze in a few extra things while I’m at it.

Except this week hasn’t gone quite as planned.

I’m in more pain than I expected to be.

There are a few challenging things at work that need my attention.

And there are a few people who have been chasing me for things that, honestly, I haven’t been able to get to.

And I’ve had to do something I’m not always particularly comfortable with.

I’ve had to be honest.

I’ve had to go back to people and say, I’m sorry, I need to change this.

I’ve had to say no.

I’ve had to reset expectations.

And I’ve had to accept that just because I have five hours available, it doesn’t mean I have five hours of unlimited energy.

Five hours doesn’t always mean five hours of capacity

I think this is something we don’t talk about enough.

We look at the calendar.

We see an empty five-hour block.

And we automatically assume that’s five hours of productive capacity.

But we’re not machines.

Our energy changes.

Our bodies change.

Our circumstances change.

Some weeks you can sit down and fly through your to-do list.

Other weeks, something as simple as concentrating on an email can feel like a much bigger task than it normally would.

And this week, I’ve had to acknowledge that.

I’ve planned my week.

I’ve organised the childcare.

I’ve made space to work.

But my wellbeing still has to come first.

I’m learning that saying no is part of looking after myself

There have been a few things this week where I’ve had to go back and change what I’d previously said.

And if I’m honest, that’s uncomfortable.

You don’t want to let people down.

You don’t want someone thinking you’re unreliable.

You don’t want to have to explain yourself.

But sometimes the most honest thing you can do is say:

“I thought I could do this, but actually I can’t.”

Or:

“I need more time.”

Or simply:

“No, I can’t take this on right now.”

That’s not failure.

That’s knowing your limits.

And sometimes protecting your wellbeing means disappointing someone else.

That’s a difficult lesson to learn.

So what am I actually going to do with my five hours?

I’m still going to work.

There are things that genuinely need my attention.

But I’m changing the way I’m approaching these five hours.

I’m going to focus on what really matters.

I’m going to deal with the things that need me.

I’m going to make decisions where decisions need to be made.

I’m going to communicate honestly with the people waiting for me.

And I’m going to stop trying to prove that because I have five hours, I should be able to achieve five hours’ worth of work.

Maybe I only have three good hours in me today.

Maybe I have two.

Maybe I get the important things done and then I stop.

And that’s okay.

Because the purpose of having the kids at holiday club isn’t to create five hours where I have to work relentlessly.

It’s to create some space.

And that space needs to include me too.

Productivity isn’t the only measure of a good week

I think sometimes we can become so focused on making the most of our time that we forget to make the most of our wellbeing.

Yes, I want to run my business.

Yes, there are things that need doing.

Yes, I have responsibilities.

But I also need to listen to my body when it’s telling me that this week is harder than I expected.

I need to stop feeling guilty for changing plans.

I need to stop thinking that saying no means I’ve let someone down.

And I need to remember that protecting my energy today might be what allows me to show up properly tomorrow.

So, yes.

I have five hours.

I’m going to use them.

But I’m not going to use them up.

And maybe that’s the difference.

Sometimes looking after your wellbeing isn’t about finding more time.

It’s about giving yourself permission not to fill every minute of the time you already have.

If you’re ready to make life and business a little easier, my paid membership gives you practical support you can actually use. Every Monday, you’ll receive a new template, tool or resource designed to help you save time, get organised and take action — no fluff, just things you can implement straight away. And if you choose an annual membership, you’ll also receive 30 minutes of coaching with me, giving you the opportunity to talk through what’s happening in your business, where you’re feeling stuck and what you need to focus on next. Think of it as having practical tools in your corner, alongside a little extra support when you need it.

But knowing about it and actually doing it are two very different things.

It’s the Do, Delay or Delegate method.

And if you constantly feel like your to-do list is getting longer rather than shorter, this might be exactly what you need.

Start with a brain dump

Before you start working through your to-do list, get everything out of your head.

I’m a big believer in the brain dump.

You might do it every morning. You might do it on a Monday when you’re planning the week ahead. Or perhaps Friday is your day to clear your head and prepare for the following week.

It doesn’t really matter when you do it.

What matters is that you get everything down.

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Before the holidays started, I planned as much as I possibly could. I spoke to my team, I let customers know my availability would be a little different and I set expectations early. I’ve learnt over the years that communication solves a lot of problems before they even happen. People are usually very understanding, but only if they know what’s going on.

Of course, life doesn’t stop just because you’ve planned your diary.

New projects appear, customers need help, people ask favours, deadlines change and suddenly the carefully planned week starts looking very different.

That happened to me recently.

I had someone contact me on a Friday afternoon wanting something done by the following Monday. If you’d looked at my diary from the outside, you might have thought, “You could probably squeeze that in.”

And maybe I could have.

But what people don’t see is everything else that’s already committed. Time with the children. Other customers I’d already promised my time to. Plans I’d made weeks ago. Moments I’d intentionally blocked out because I’d promised myself I wouldn’t spend the whole summer glued to my laptop.

For a split second, I felt guilty.

It’s a customer. I like helping people. My instinct is always to say yes.

Then I stopped and asked myself a question I think we should all ask more often.

Just because I can do something, does that mean I should?

The answer was no.

Saying yes would have meant saying no to everything else I’d already committed to. It would have meant rushing around, feeling stressed, letting myself get overwhelmed and, ultimately, not being fully present anywhere.

I’ve realised over the years that so much of our guilt comes from thinking we’re disappointing someone else, but we rarely stop to think how often we’re disappointing ourselves.

Every time we ignore our own boundaries, we’re telling ourselves that our wellbeing comes second.

That our family comes second.

That our plans don’t matter.

And eventually that catches up with you.

One thing I’ve started doing before agreeing to anything is taking a moment to check in with myself. I ask myself a few simple questions. Do I actually have the capacity? Do I genuinely want to do this? What will it cost me if I say yes? And what really happens if I say no?

They’re simple questions, but they’ve changed the way I make decisions.

Not long ago I was offered some paid work that, on paper, looked like an easy opportunity. A few years ago I’d have accepted it without thinking because paid work is paid work, isn’t it?

This time I looked at what it would actually involve. The time. The energy. The headspace it would take. And I realised it wasn’t worth it for me. So I passed it on to someone else.

There was no guilt.

There was no overthinking.

Just the understanding that not every opportunity is the right opportunity.

I think that’s something a lot of business owners struggle with. We convince ourselves we have to say yes because we don’t know where the next opportunity is coming from. But if we’re constantly saying yes to everything, we leave no room for the work, the people and the experiences that actually matter most.

Boundaries aren’t there to keep people out.

They’re there to stop you burning yourself out.

The funny thing is, most people respect your boundaries far more than you think they will. The people who matter usually understand. The people who don’t... probably benefited from you having no boundaries in the first place.

So if someone asks you for something this week, don’t feel like you have to answer immediately.

Pause.

Think about what you’ve already committed to.

Think about yourself.

Think about whether saying yes is genuinely the right decision, or whether it’s simply the easier one because you don’t want to let someone down.

Sometimes saying no isn’t letting someone else down.

It’s finally choosing not to let yourself down.

And I think that’s a boundary worth protecting.

From the moment we wake up, there’s something demanding our attention. Notifications, emails, social media, work, family, the news, podcasts, music. Even when we’re driving somewhere, we fill the silence with something. We’ve become uncomfortable with simply being alone with our own thoughts.

I used to be exactly the same.

I’d jump from one task to another, convincing myself I was being productive because I was always busy. But what I eventually realised was that being busy isn’t the same as being present. In fact, the busier I became, the less I seemed to hear what my own mind was trying to tell me.

Now, one of the most important parts of my day is also the simplest.

I sit.

• No phone.

• No laptop.

• No television.

• No music.

• No distractions.

Just me and my thoughts.

It sounds almost too simple to be worthwhile, but that’s exactly why it works.

When you remove all the noise, something interesting starts to happen. At first, your mind races. You’ll think about the emails you haven’t replied to, the shopping you need to buy, conversations you’ve had, things you should be doing, and all the little worries you’ve been carrying around. It can feel quite uncomfortable because, for the first time all day, there’s nowhere to hide from your own thoughts.

Most people stop there because they think they’re doing it wrong.

They’re not.

That’s the process.

If you stay with it, those surface-level thoughts begin to settle. It’s a bit like shaking up a snow globe. At first everything is chaotic, but if you leave it alone long enough, the flakes slowly fall and you can finally see clearly.

That’s when the important thoughts tend to arrive.

Sometimes it’s a problem I’ve been trying to solve for weeks, and suddenly the answer seems obvious. Sometimes it’s a conversation I know I need to have. Sometimes it’s the realisation that I’ve been worrying about something that doesn’t actually matter. Other times it’s simply recognising that I’m tired, overwhelmed or need to slow down.

The point isn’t to force an answer.

The point is to create enough space for one to appear.

I think so many of us spend our lives reacting. We react to messages, deadlines, people’s opinions and whatever is happening around us, but very rarely do we stop long enough to ask ourselves, “What do I actually think?” or “What do I actually need?”

That quiet time gives you the opportunity to check in with yourself before the world checks in with you.

It also helps you separate what’s genuinely important from what’s just noise.

Not every thought deserves your attention. Not every worry deserves your energy. But you’ll never know the difference if your mind is constantly being fed more information.

I’ve found that after sitting quietly, I almost always feel calmer. Not because all my problems have disappeared, but because they seem to fall into perspective. My mind isn’t fighting for attention anymore. It’s organised itself. I can see what’s important, what needs action and what I can simply let go of.

The interesting thing is that this isn’t about meditation or following a particular technique. You don’t need an app telling you when to breathe or a guided voice in your ear. You don’t even need to sit cross-legged in a perfectly quiet room.

You just need to be willing to spend a little time with yourself.

I genuinely believe this should become part of everyone’s daily routine. We schedule meetings with colleagues, catch-ups with friends and appointments for almost everything else in our lives, yet we rarely make time for the one person we’ll spend every day with for the rest of our lives: ourselves.

Even ten or fifteen minutes can make a difference.

Leave your phone in another room. Don’t set yourself a task. Don’t expect to have some life-changing breakthrough every time. Just sit, breathe and let your mind do what it needs to do.

Some days you’ll walk away with clarity. Some days you’ll realise you’ve been carrying stress you didn’t even notice. Some days you’ll simply enjoy the peace.

All of those outcomes are valuable.

In a world that constantly encourages us to consume more, scroll more, listen more and do more, choosing to sit quietly with your own thoughts almost feels rebellious.

But I think it’s one of the healthiest habits you can build.

Because when you reduce the noise around you, you finally get to hear yourself.

And more often than not, you already know the answers you’ve been searching for. You just haven’t been quiet enough to hear them.

If you find this difficult to begin with, go for a walk or practice whilst in the shower.’

• “I’m working harder than ever, but I never seem to get ahead.”

• “Every day is spent putting out fires.”

• “I know I need help, but I can’t afford it yet.”

...then this framework is for you.

This isn’t another productivity hack or motivational exercise. It’s the exact process I used to systematically remove myself from the repetitive parts of my businesses, build systems around them, and create more time to focus on growth.

It’s simple, practical and something you can start implementing today—even if you’re a solo business owner.

Paid members get the complete framework below, including the step-by-step process I use to identify bottlenecks, create systems, justify new hires or software, and gradually build a business that doesn’t rely on me for everything.

This process has saved me countless hours over the years, and if you implement it consistently, it can completely change how you operate your business.

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How are you doing? Like really doing? Not how are the kids or the business. YOU!

Not whether you have managed to answer all your emails, keep the clients happy, make the money, feed everyone, entertain everyone, and remember where you left the school shoes. Don’t forget to unpack the children’s bags, I suspect people sti…

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I am learning to say no. Not because I don’t care.Not because I don’t want to help people. Not because I have suddenly become selfish.

Actually, perhaps I am learning to be a little more selfish — in the healthiest possible way.

For a long time, I…

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For children, they’re filled with excitement, freedom and the expectation of endless fun.

For parents, they’re often a balancing act between work, family life, appointments, household jobs and trying to create happy memories along the way.

If you’re working during the h…

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It’s a phrase we hear almost every day. Sometimes we say it with frustration, other times with pride, as though being constantly busy has become a measure of success.

Somewhere along the way, productivity became confused with being occupied.

We celebrate packed calendars, overflowing inboxes and long to-do lists, believing that the more we a…

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It’s tempting to assume they have better discipline, more motivation, or some secret productivity hack.

The truth is usually much simpler.

They don’t manage time—they budget it.

Time Is Your Most Valuable Currency

Think about how carefully you manage your money.

You know how much you earn each month. You understand that if you spend more than you have, you’ll end up in debt. Before making a significant purchase, you often ask yourself, Can I afford this?

Yet when it comes to time, many of us don’t ask the same question.

We accept meetings without checking our calendar.

We say yes to projects without considering the workload.

We fill our evenings with commitments before leaving room for rest.

Imagine doing that with your bank account.

If you had £500 left for the month, you wouldn’t casually spend £700 because someone asked nicely.

But many of us do exactly that with our time every week.

You Have 168 Hours

Every week, every one of us receives exactly 168 hours.

Not 170.

Not 200.

Just 168.

Those hours are your weekly budget.

The problem isn’t that you don’t have enough time.

The problem is that you’ve probably never decided where those 168 hours should go before other people start spending them for you.

Create Your Time Budget

Instead of asking, How can I fit everything in?

Ask yourself:

Where do I want my 168 hours to go?

Start by allocating the non-negotiables.

Sleep

If you aim for eight hours each night:

56 hours

Work

40 hours

Exercise

4 hours

Meals

14 hours

Personal Care

7 hours

Family and Relationships

15 hours

Already you’ve allocated 136 hours.

That leaves 32 hours.

Those remaining hours aren’t “free.”

They’re your investment fund.

How you spend them determines whether you build your business, improve your health, strengthen relationships, learn new skills—or simply react to life.

Where Does Your Time Go Now?

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My Daily Reset

Today is a busy one.

This afternoon I’m volunteering, so I only have this morning to focus on meaningful work. Instead of panicking about everything I need to do, I rely on the same planning method I’ve used for years.

Last week, I planned my week from Monday to Friday. I use a spreadsheet, but you could just as easily use a notebook or planner. I take everything from my master action list and allocate it to each day of the week.

Of course, life happens. New tasks appear every day, so I add them in as needed.

This morning I had around ten tasks on my list and just three hours available to complete them.

Rather than staring at the list and wondering where to begin, I use a simple filtering system.

Step One: Divide Your Tasks

First, I split everything into two categories:

• Business or work

• Personal

This instantly clears some mental clutter because I’m no longer looking at one long, overwhelming list.

Step Two: Decide What Matters Most

Next, I ask myself a simple question.

Is this an income-generating task, or is it a quick win?

Income-generating tasks are the things that move my business forward. They bring in clients, build relationships, create products or generate revenue.

Quick wins are the smaller jobs (under 5 minutes) that still need doing but don’t directly create income.

The order depends on how I’m feeling.

Some days I want to clear lots of little jobs and enjoy ticking things off.

Other days I know I’ve been avoiding an important project, so I make that my priority.

Today, I chose to tackle the income-generating work first before moving on to the quicker tasks.

Step Three: Estimate the Time

Now comes the part that most people skip.

I estimate how long each task will actually take.

Not how long I’d like it to take—but realistically.

Maybe one email is two minutes.

Writing an article might be an hour.

Recording a video could be twenty minutes.

Once I know the timings, I fit them into the time I actually have available.

Today, that was three hours.

This simple exercise stops me from overloading my day and helps me stay realistic about what I can achieve.

Step Four: Work Without Distractions

Once I’ve planned my time, I get started.

No checking emails every five minutes.

No scrolling social media.

No jumping between tasks.

I simply work through the list.

You’ll be amazed how much you can achieve when you stop context-switching and focus on one thing at a time.

Why This Works

This isn’t just about productivity.

It’s about reducing the mental load.

Instead of carrying every task around in your head, you’ve made decisions before you begin.

You know what’s important.

You know what can wait.

You know how long you’ve got.

That clarity helps calm your nervous system because your brain isn’t constantly trying to remember everything at once.

Try It Tomorrow

Tomorrow morning, before you dive into your inbox or start reacting to everyone else’s priorities, spend just three minutes doing this:

• Write down everything you need to do.

• Split it into Business/Work and Personal.

• Decide which tasks are income-generating and which are quick wins.

• Estimate how long each task will take.

• Work through them one at a time, without distractions.

It’s a tiny habit that can completely change the way your day feels.

People often ask me how I manage to fit so much into my week.

This is one of the biggest reasons.

It’s not about doing more.

It’s about making better decisions before you start.

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Reply to that email.

Book that appointment.

Take the children here.

Pick up the shopping.

Support a colleague.

Help a friend.

Remember a birthday.

Organise the household.

By the time we’ve reached the bottom of the list, we’ve often spent the entire day looking after everyone else—withou…

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The school bags are looking a little worse for wear, jumpers have mysteriously disappeared, the calendar is filling up with sports days and assemblies, and your child suddenly announces at 8.30pm that they need a gift for their teacher tomorrow.

The last few weeks of the school year can feel surprisingly busy. Between celebrations, admin and preparing for September, it’s easy for important jobs to slip through the cracks.

To help make life a little easier, here’s a handy checklist of everything worth remembering before the school gates close for the summer.

🎒 School Essentials

Before everyone switches into holiday mode, take a few minutes to get ahead for September.

• Order new school uniform.

• Check whether school shoes still fit.

• Replace any worn-out PE kit.

• Buy a new school bag if it’s seen better days.

• Order name labels for clothing, lunch boxes and water bottles.

• Check whether any stationery needs replacing.

• Return any library books or school resources.

• Pay any outstanding school meal, trip or club balances.

• File away your child’s end-of-year report.

• Pop the first day back in September straight into your diary.

Your future self will thank you.

🎁 Saying Thank You

Teachers, teaching assistants and school staff work incredibly hard throughout the year, and while gifts are never expected, many families like to mark the end of term with a small thank you.

Ideas include:

• A handwritten card.

• A bunch of flowers.

• Chocolates or biscuits.

• A book.

• A voucher for a local coffee shop.

• Something homemade from your child.

Remember, a heartfelt message often means more than an expensive gift.

🎉 Don’t Miss the End-of-Term Events

The final weeks are packed with memorable moments.

Keep an eye out for:

• Sports Day

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