Over the years in building business, I worked for the typical Director salary which is around £1000/month but was putting in 80+ hours a week. That's less than £3/hr - much less than minimum wage with no quality of life as it's a series of eat, sleep, and repeat working on the business. That wasn't quite what I signed up for.... demanding clients, demanding staff & I missed out on valuable family time. It was not the business was hoping to achieve, but that's the reality I created.

Taking a moment to reflect, I asked myself - How can I change my actions to create a different outcome? That's why I've focussed on working smarter not harder so that I could get my time back, have boundaries and time to make memories with my loved ones.

For years my clients & business always came first - before family time, friendships, relationships, and holidays weren't even on the radar! I would put my clients first because they were paying. I was run ragged with not much time to give anyone else after I'd finish my 12 - 15 hour days.

Then I got smarter. I learned about pricing for profit, the importance of time management & boundaries, and I actually took a vacation!! I started to plan my calendar differently and booked work around my personal diary rather than schedule my personal commitments around work. I was such a people pleaser it was at the expense of my own needs. I literally would land back from time away running a marathon and go straight to work off of the plane. That's not a life of freedom both timely and financially.

Yes part of that grit and determination has contributed to my success and what I have achieved in my 25 year career in the beauty and wellbeing industry. But I've also learned the value of time, not just a price per minute, but actually that you can't get it back and everything needs its own allocated time - work, admin, my family, my husband and our relationship. The time to be a present mom, attentive wife and all of the other things that fall into our busy schedules. 

I now have time blocks set aside for each item and my stress has reduced immensely because I've allocated time to achieve my goals, daily tasks and to nurture relationships. That said I am also far more picky on whom I spend my time with and a natural life laundry has occurred as I've elevated how I spend my time. I actually get much more achieved in far less time because I'm not trying to do everything at once and please everyone.

Time blocks and organising my calendar is something I revisit on a daily basis and is now part of our family life. Glowgetter Beauty Entrepreneur Podcast Episode 28 about how to create time blocks in your calendar. This has been a game changer to me and that's why I'm sharing it with you!

My calendar is planned throughout the year to achieve big goals, then it's broken down into quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily blocks to ensure there's goal getter time to productively produce results. Each quarter I write myself a letter about what I would like to achieve and I re-read it each month. It's like a message from my future self of what I can and I will achieve. We create our calendar and we design our destiny. If we are proactive rather than reactive to situations it enables us to stay in our own position of power.

Thank you for reading, if this was useful please 💖 and share if it could help someone in your network. 

Book a business strategy session www.dianarichardson.uk

Thank you ~ Diana x