My Ideal Work Routine

What I’ve Learned From 12 Years of Working for Myself

Hi there,

As someone who works for myself I have been very lucky that I’ve been able to create my own work schedule and routine. And over the years it has changed massively depending on my life circumstances. All of the different versions of how I organise my work week and my life over the years have led me to really getting to know myself in terms of how I best work. So I wanted to share some of the things I’ve learned, maybe you can relate to them, maybe not (and that’s kind of the point because we all really do prefer to - or need to - work differently but aren’t always given the opportunity!)

🌄 I am a creative morning person - I added “creative” here because actually there is a lot of work that I am good at doing in the afternoon/evenings. My brain can handle a lot of admin tasks - emails/calendars etc. in the evenings, and weirdly it’s also when I do some of my best big picture thinking about what I want to get out of work and life. But if I need to film a video, record a podcast episode, do some video research, write a script or anything that is directly linked to me doing creative content output - I am best in the mornings, before lunch. I think my least productive hours are 2-5pm.

👪 I value time with loved ones over getting work done - this might seem like a no brainer but it was in fact a conscious decision I had to make. Before I met Dan my work routine was way more sporadic - I would often find myself working evenings and weekends because during “normal” work hours I’d gone to the cinema by myself or met other youtuber friends for lunch and I still had deadlines, or I simply had nothing on in the evening and I figured I might as well get some work done. NO MORE! My evenings and weekends are precious to me, and it’s been that way even before Rowan was born. I quickly learned that if I had to work evenings and weekends then I’d never see Dan or other friends who worked traditional 9-5 jobs. So I made a point to give myself a Mon-Fri 9-5.

🏓 I love skiving off work to do fun things - all that being said! If I can, if I am super duper on top of my work and have a spare morning or afternoon (never the case at the moment but before Rowan was born, I definitely had a lot more of these!) I love to take advantage of not having a boss and go do something for myself. It might be a hobby, some exercise, reading, going to the cinema, meeting up with friends. It’s honestly one of the most joyous things about being freelance, the flexibility and those moments of pure freedom from the grind. I remember on a hot summer’s day in my first year of living in London making the spontaneous decision to go to Hampstead Heath ponds with my housemates. Work could wait, but a lovely day out in the sun and swimming - that was special. I miss those more spontaneous activities.

📅 I want to work less - even though my routine hasn’t always been a strict 9-5, total hours I’ve usually worked during the week have been full time hours. But since doing my 4 Day Work Week experiment and now since having Rowan and coming back to work part time after mat leave and gradually increasing my hours, I have discovered I love the part time life. Granted the trade off is a massive pay cut (and thankfully I have business savings and Dan’s income), but turns out I find myself a lot more at ease with myself, a lot less stressed, generally happier, more on top of things and in control of work and life when I’m not working full time. (Is this really a shocker? Wouldn’t most people, if they didn’t have to worry about money, work less?)

With my current childcare set up and the work projects we’ve got on at the moment it’s not possible for me to act on some of these things. But it’s good to know so that when I am in a position where I can make some changes, I roughly know what they should be.

Figuring out your work values or your ideal work routine isn’t just something freelancers and the self employed should do. This is something that everyone can think about and see if there are ways in your current work set up that you can change things - remote work, flexi time etc?

If you could dream up the ideal work routine for yourself, what would it be? (let’s chat in the comments!)

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Doing It Podcast Season 7: Deep Dives IS COMING SOON!!! I am so excited that I can officially announce the next season of Doing It Podcast will be launching on Wednesday 11th October! 🥳 It’s been a long time coming but it is finally here! Make sure you are subscribed wherever you get your podcasts so you’ll get the new episodes straight into your feed. We’re calling this season Deep Dives and I’m so excited (and nervous!) to share with you what we’ve been working on. Every fortnight from the 11th there will be a new episode exploring a topic and how it relates to sex and relationships. The topics we’ll be covering are… sex therapy, disability, money, porn, and parenting! LET’S GO!

🎤 Sex Talks - these are a series of live events in London hosted by Emma Louise Boynton with amazing guests and great discussions on loads of different topics around sexuality and relationships. I’m going to be at the next one which is a conversation with Laurie Nunn, the creator of Sex Education, all about making the show.

(I haven’t had a chance to watch S4 yet but I HAVE to watch it before this event in case I get spoiled aaahhhh!! There is no time!!)

📚 Lex Croucher’s books! - I’ve just finished listening to the audiobook of Trouble and once again Lex has just smashed it. They are such a good writer. So funny, so brilliant at creating really thoughtful, interesting and unique characters that don’t feel like stereotypes. So far I’ve loved all of their regency romcoms - Reputation, Infamous and Trouble - and I also really loved their YA historical queer jousting fest, Gwen & Art Are Not in Love. I can’t quite believe how many books Lex has written and published in such a short space of time, but I love getting sucked into an author’s world and I can’t wait for more!

We’re back with the #content after a 2 week break for my holiday (did you even notice? lol.) Bryony from Precious Star Vlogs came to the studio to talk about being an ace solo parent and I finally shared my baby to toddler breastfeeding update!

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If you'd like to support what I do, get early access to content, a private community discord server and a secret playlist of over 100 old cringey videos then check out The Common Room over on Patreon!

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Thanks for reading, hope you're well!

All the best,

Hannah xxx