Time Sovereignty

I’ve realized that about every 4 months I lose control of my calendar.

This means I start working according to other people’s time schedule and not on my own.

In my daily life it looks like this:

1. I respond to emails at 11pm at night.
2. I agree to do meetings that end up absorbing the entire day, because they are either spread out geographically or not scheduled back-to-back.
3. I wake up on Sunday morning to check my emails in case anything urgent came in from overseas that needs responding to.
4. And here’s my favorite… I allow a client to reschedule a conference call with me 4 times over 3 days and I accept it.

If I’m not in control of my time, somebody else is.

My business will swallow me up and I’ll end up working myself into an early grave.

So every 4 months I revert back to the concept of “sovereignty”…sovereignty over my time and my business.

What does this look like?

1. I’ll do business when I want, with whom I want, and where I want, if at all.
2. I’ll put in place a structure so I can treat each customer in order of importance in my business. Not all customers are the same and my responsiveness, flexibility, and accessibility for each one will differ based on the business agreements we have and the fees they pay me.
3. I have defined boundaries around email, meetings, and my time, so I can work during the most effective times, on the most important things for me each day.

By implementing sovereignty into my business, I have freed up more time and made more money than anything else I could have done. It also makes working fun.

This begs the question: “Why do I allow myself to lose sovereignty in my business?”

It happens subconsciously. The more successful I become, the more my business grows and the more challenges I face.

It all comes down to having ‘time sovereignty’…being in control of my calendar.

Can I create boundaries each day to work on my business, while at the same time also work in my business?