Why I’m Scheduling Daily Nap Time In My Entrepreneurial Journey

Remember your first day at a new grade school???You didn’t know your teachers, most of your fellow students or even where to find the bathroom.??What you did know (hopefully) is where you had to be each and every minute.??Math class at 8:30, check, English class at 9:45, check, lunch followed by recess at noon, double check!

Back then schedules were simple to understand and made logical sense. We stuffed a lot of learning into a day, yet there was never confusion about when things would happen, where we needed to be, why we needed to be there and who would be there with us.??The school schedule was our friend.

Have you noticed how that simplicity and logic has disappeared in the workplace???One would think that with more sophisticated scheduling tools we would have a better handle on managing our daily workloads.??The opposite is in fact true.??

Workplace calendars were bad pre-COVID and they’re exponentially worse now.??Triple booked at noon, check, mysterious last-minute all-hands at 2 check, infinitely recurring daily hourlong touch-base with fifty people at 3, triple check!??That schedule is nobody’s friend.

With that in mind, I’m keenly aware of how important it is to own my schedule.??That ownership means I no longer need to attend meetings that don’t:

·???????Have a clear purpose and intended outcome

·???????Require my specific knowledge and input

·???????Provide value in exchange for my time

Those seem like bare-minimum expectations, however more than 90% (rough guesstimate) of my work meetings never met these requirements.??Now that I’m an entrepreneur, I don't have the luxury of spending my time in value-less meetings.??Every minute of my day needs to further my pursuits and ambitions.??That means scheduling time to think, plan, do and yes, rest and recharge.??

I’ve heard from multiple people that one of the keys to success as an entrepreneur is to instill discipline in your approach.??Every day is a grind, but if you pursue it with intention and purpose you give yourself the best chance to succeed.??Also, since there’s no such thing as multi-tasking and task-switching is expensive, it’s important to dedicate solid blocks of uninterrupted time to the activities that require the most concentration and effort.

So here’s my new crazy daily work schedule:

·??????6:00 – 7:15 – Exercise and Shower

·??????7:15 – 8:15 – Breakfast and time with daughter before school

·??????8:15 – 11:15 – Work the business (complete the day’s necessary work tasks)

·??????11:15 – 12:30 – Walk the dog and eat lunch

·??????12:30 – 3:30 – Train Skills (close my knowledge gaps)

·??????3:30 – 4:00 – Nap (that’s right, nap or at least meditation)

·??????4:00 – 5:00 – Pick up daughter from school

·??????5:00 – 7:30 – Family dinner & bedtime routine

·??????7:30 – 8:30 – Planning time (set priorities for next day’s to do’s)

·??????8:30 – 10:00 – Date night with wife

·??????10:00 – 11:00 – Write (journal entries, content)

That’s a pretty packed day, but this is how I’m going to eat this entrepreneurial-training elephant, one daily bite at a time.??

So why nap time you ask???Aside from family-time, a nap is the single biggest reward I can give myself for devoting the rest of my day to this journey.??It’s also a great way to reset my brain into a different set of priorities in the evenings.

How healthy is your relationship with your schedule these days???You know where the bathroom is, but do you actually have the time to go?