Hello Balanced Babe readers! I’m Erin Bassett, the blogger behind Color Me Styled, a Windy City Blogger Collective co-founder, and a full-time,? blogging and content marketing consultant with Erin Marie Marketing by Design. Needless to say I live and breathe and love blogging.
In the last 6 months my life has done a 180. I went from working 50+ hours a week with a consulting firm and blogging on nights and weekends to working from home and starting my own business. No day is the same but that was a pretty big shift for me. So an exercise that helped me to build everything that needs to get done into my new routine was to imagine my ideal workday.
A few years ago I did an ideal day exercise and I blogged about it… (you can read the article here) but that was like a dream day. Oddly though, in my dream day, I included work!! I’m just too practical I think. I highly encourage you to record your dream day so at least once a year you can create that perfect day (mine is a crisp and sunny fall day in the city). But the ideal workday exercise I’m going to go through with you today is a bit more grounded.
When I say grounded I don’t mean that you shouldn’t dream big and be an idealist but you do have to respect that you only have 24 hours and keep in mind the everyday things you need to do (eat, sleep, shower). My ideal workday strikes the right balance of work and personal time and gives me a guideline for tomorrow if today got off track!
Erin’s Ideal Workday:
8 AM: Wake-up
8-9 AM: get dressed, coffee, breakfast, personal time on iPad (instagram, pinterest and bloglovin)
9-10 AM: personal emails, WCBC emails & Admin
10-11 AM: WCBC Posting, Color Me Styled posting/drafting
11-12 noon: Color Me Styled posting/drafting
12 noon – 1 PM: lunch & instagram surfing
1-2 PM: client work/meeting or Admin for Marketing by Design
2-3 PM: client work/meeting or Admin for Marketing by Design
3-4 PM: Color Me Styled post shoot or DIY Project
4-5 PM: Color Me Styled shoot wrap up and clean up
5-6 PM: clean & tidy around the house, prep for dinner
6-7 PM: dinner with Danny
7-8 PM: go for a walk outside, enjoy a glass of wine on our patio
8-10 PM: movie, hockey game, reading (sofa vegging time)
10 PM: get ready for and go to bed!
I was in an online course recently taught by Kari Chapin and she created a template for this exercise so I am sharing her template for you to download and fill out here.
It might make sense for you to have 3 or 4 ideal days. One can be your total fantasy day, the next your ideal Saturday, the next your ideal Tuesday. If you do an ideal weekday post I would make it as realistic as possible so if you work full-time you should include your work hours but you can build in ideal moments at lunch hour or around your caffeine schedule. Then create an ideal workday post that is centered around your dream job if you’re not at your dream job right now. This is NOT supposed to stress you out or be a To Do list or make you feel bad about how you spend your days. Be nice to yourself and design a day that will really make you happier on a daily basis!
Did you include too much in your ideal day? Maybe add a slot that just says “MISC” and decide what to do during that time based on what is happening in your life.
Do your ideal days align with how you actually spend your days? What can you do to bring the two closer together?
Once you outline your ideal day, share an instagram of an Ideal Workday moment with the hashtag “MktbyDesignIdealWorkday” because I want to see what your ideal moments are!
