How I balanced my 9-5 with starting a business

The past year has been a wild ride. I’ve been working full time while launching my copywriting career. And trying to be a present mom, wife, and friend.

I’ve had lots of people ask “How did you do it?” At first, I would reply that I didn’t know… I knew I had to, and I did. But looking back, I realized there was a method to my madness. Everything was deliberate and purposeful. 

There were plenty of days that I wanted to curl up in the fetal position, bang my head against the wall, or plain give up. But I didn’t. And when I look back at how far I’ve come, I’m pretty damn proud.

How did I do it?

1. Found work that energizes me, something that excites and challenges me
2. Established a clear why with specific goals
3. Became part of an accountability group 
4. Prioritized my to-dos
5. Scheduled everything 
6. Paid attention to and gave myself grace 
7. Leaned into my support system

Found work that energizes me. Something that excites and challenges me. 

I’ve been an educator for, well, a looong time. There are a myriad of reasons I no longer find this fulfilling, but had no idea what would spark that fire again. Then, last summer, I discovered copywriting and never looked back. 

Established a clear why with specific goals. (This is a big one.)

Two words: flexibility and freedom.

For me, flexibility means that I can focus on my family and myself when I need to. On my terms. And freedom, that’s about the opportunities I can create for myself. I control how many people I pitch, what projects I take, and ultimately how much money I can make. 

Money is expendable but my time is not. Which leads me to my specific goals. 

I know exactly what monetary goals I want to hit and when. And I know exactly where that money will go. So when I struggled to sit down and work in the evening or on weekends, I pictured coming home to the house that someone else cleaned. I envisioned myself on the shores of Cascais.

Became part of an accountability group. 

I know… I’m only accountable to myself. That being said, it sure helped to know that I had two people I had to update on my progress. There were days the only reason I crossed items off my list was because I had to answer to someone. The 3 questions we asked of each other every day: What did you do yesterday? What are you planning to do today? What’s blocking you?

Prioritized my to-dos. 

If there’s anything I love, it’s a list. Actually, it’s crossing an item off my to-do list. 

I don’t know where I’d be without my Trello boards. If it wasn’t on my list, it wasn’t a priority. But even lists can become overwhelming. There were times I found that I was crossing things off but not getting the big nuggets done. 

That’s where the mac daddy of lists came in - the quadrant method. I’d find myself staring at a blank screen, not knowing where to begin. Every item from my list went into one of the quadrants (labeled critical, not critical, do now, do later). As soon as it was all on paper, I’d let out the breath I didn’t know I was holding and felt my shoulders drop out of my ears. I knew exactly where to begin. 

Scheduled everything. 

When you’re short on time, there’s not a minute to spare. Looking holistically at my week and then each day, I figured out where I had larger chunks of time and where I had pockets of time. Then I used my to-do lists to schedule tasks. After trying lots of things that didn’t work, I found two strategies that were game changers. Ones I’ll continue to use when copywriting is no longer a side hustle but the main hustle.

Time blocking. Once I had those chunks of time scheduled, I assigned each block of time a specific task. And did nothing else during that time. That means no notifications. No distractions. I put my phone in another room. 

3/3/3. I don’t know the official name of this method. Basically, it’s 3 hours a day of writing, 3 smaller tasks, and 3 administrative tasks. And when I didn’t have time for that, I modified it and did 1/1/1. I'm not sure that's really a thing, but it worked for me.

I also took advantage of every extra minute. (I wrote this section while my son was getting his hockey bag ready and my husband was checking on the garden.)

Paid attention to and gave myself grace. 

Even with the lists, scheduling, and good intentions, some days are just hard. And I’m not a machine. So, every once in a while, I had to take a day off and be okay with it. This is a long game after all.

Leaned into my support system. 

I’d be remiss not to mention my incredibly supportive family who picked up a lot of my slack at home. While I know I could’ve still done this on my own, they sure as hell took away a lot of my stress. I have so much gratitude for them.

Even though I could’ve fallen off the face of the Earth for as much as my friends heard from me, I never received any grief for it. Only words of encouragement and texts checking in to make sure I was still alive.

And a pleasant surprise I wasn’t expecting were the relationships I’ve built along the way. I’ve met so many incredible women on similar journeys. Even though we’re scattered across the globe, we’re there to support and encourage each other.

Now here I am, at the end of a school year. I’ve successfully launched my copywriting business. My family and friends hung in there. There were a few casualties. I might’ve had to redefine what it means to have a clean house and my not all my houseplants survived the neglect. But again, I’m only human. 

When I look back on the past year, I know that none of this happened by chance. It wasn't luck. I’ve worked hard with purpose and intention to create this life for myself. I can’t wait to see what another year brings.