[00:00:00] Katy Ripp: Hey, my friends. Welcome back to #ActuallyICan, the podcast for female entrepreneurs. Before we dive into today’s conversation, I just wanna let you in on a little something. I’m gonna take a little break from the podcast now because I don’t love it. I do recording episodes and connecting with guests, talking through all the ways we can ditch the hustle culture and build a business on our own damn terms.

[00:00:23] Katy Ripp: It’s totally heaven to me, but you know what else is heaven? Watching my dogs sprint across the yard and while the goats bleed and the alpacas act entirely ridiculous and obnoxious. Breathing in the fresh air, sitting in the sun instead of in a closet with acoustic panels. That’s what’s calling me a little bit louder then recording podcasts for the summer.

[00:00:44] Katy Ripp: So it’s just a pause, not a goodbye, and I just wanted to leave you with something meaningful while I’m off doing some barefoot in the grass thinking. Today we’re gonna be talking about reinventing your schedule. As an entrepreneur. We’ve all inherited the same dusty schedule template of [00:01:00] nine to five, or more likely seven 30 to four.

[00:01:03] Katy Ripp: But these back-to-back meetings, maybe a frantic workout wedged in between two commitments. And this is so not working for entrepreneurs. So let’s talk about what does,

[00:01:17] Katy Ripp: Hey there. Welcome to #ActuallyICan. This is a podcast where US female entrepreneurs are gonna ditch the hustle culture, build value-based aligned businesses, and finally charge what we’re worth. I’m  Katy Ripp, a serial entrepreneur, business mentor, rule breaker, and your go-to guide for building a profitable business on your own terms around here, we do things differently.

[00:01:39] Katy Ripp: No hustle for hustle’s sake. No playing small and definitely no more following antiquated business rules that, um, clearly were not made with midlife women in mind. Each week I’m here to ask the hard questions, share the advice that’s actually worked for me and bring on a guest or two who decided to say, fuck it.

[00:01:56] Katy Ripp: Actually, I can do this my way. Expect bite-size, [00:02:00] high impact episodes ranging from about 25 to 45 minutes packed with real strategies. Mindset shifts and rule breaking business insights. If you are tired of business, feeling like an endless to-do list and you’re ready to make more money without burning out and feeling guilty, you are absolutely in the right place.

[00:02:18] Katy Ripp: Let’s go.

[00:02:23] Katy Ripp: So the nine to five was never really meant for us, so. Why don’t we stop worshiping that right now? We have been so conditioned to believe that if we’re not working during quote unquote business hours, we’re somehow doing it wrong. But where did that schedule even come from? Spoiler alert. It wasn’t designed with creativity, caregiving, or cycles of energy in mind at all.

[00:02:46] Katy Ripp: It was built for factory efficiency. If you’re listening to this podcast, chances are you do not work in a factory. So my challenge for you is I really want you to spend just one week noting when your brain is actually on. [00:03:00] When do you feel the sharpest? When do you dread working? When are you most creative versus most focused on administrative tasks?

[00:03:08] Katy Ripp: Maybe the answer to that is never, in which case, then we hire out for that. So pick one day this week and schedule your top priority task during your prime brain time, even if that’s 7:00 PM or 10:00 AM or god forbid, 3:00 PM after a snack and a nap break the belief that it has to happen before noon.

[00:03:27] Katy Ripp: Some people are wired to be very productive in the morning. I am one of those people. I like to get up at five o’clock, have a little coffee, and I immediately hop on my computer, but I also take a break in the middle of the day. Sometimes for kindergarten nap time, but other times I just take a break because my brain does not work.

[00:03:46] Katy Ripp: Basically between one and three. Okay. Number two, track your energy, not just your time. You’ve heard of time blocking, right? Great. But what if instead we energy blocked? We all [00:04:00] have natural rhythms for me. Like I said, mornings are for moving a little bit slower, drinking my coffee, taking in the view, but also I love to work on my money.

[00:04:09] Katy Ripp: In the morning. Late morning is golden hour for thinking and writing for me, but after lunch, I need a rest or a walk. But late afternoon or more likely evening, I get a second wind. For instance, right now it’s 6 25 at night. I used to think that I couldn’t do anything after five o’clock. Mainly because I was drinking too much wine, but now I have a second wind of creativity in the evenings.

[00:04:34] Katy Ripp: I never actually even knew I had it until I gave myself permission to really look out. How I was spending my energy. So take one action this week. Once you’ve got a pattern restructure just one day a week to match your energy flow instead of fighting it, it could be as small as moving a meeting to your low energy time and blocking off creative work during your peak time.

[00:04:56] Katy Ripp: Even that small shift can change everything. [00:05:00] Number three, guilt is not a business strategy, so let’s drop it right now. I used to feel guilty if I was glued to my laptop from nine to five. Guilt if I took a nap, guilt if I worked at night, guilt if I worked in the morning, I. But guess what? Guilt isn’t a reliable metric for success.

[00:05:18] Katy Ripp: It’s simply just a feeling and it’s usually taught, not earned. I have told this story before. I’m gonna tell it again. This is the most immature thing I’ve ever done and really obnoxious. But when I’ve told this story, I have had people reach out and be like, oh my God. I know exactly what that feeling is like right after I.

[00:05:38] Katy Ripp: Quit my full-time job and was a full-time entrepreneur. I changed my schedule and I always had a little bit of time in the afternoons. Usually between 12 and three I. Before I got the kids, after I did a whole bunch of work in the morning when I was super energetic, but I had this time in the afternoon from about 12 to three that I would nap, or I would watch [00:06:00] Netflix or I would read a book, or I would just basically lay on my bed and scroll.

[00:06:03] Katy Ripp: My husband also is self-employed, so sometimes he doesn’t have work from nine to five because. Again, we don’t work a nine to five job necessarily during business hours, so my rude dogs wouldn’t give me a warning that he was coming and all of a sudden he would. Fly in the door, and I would like bolt out of my bed, turn off the TV and like act like I was doing something, like folding the laundry or making the bed.

[00:06:33] Katy Ripp: Or I’d come out onto the landing, we have a two story house, and I’d be like, oh, hey, what’s going on? And he’d be like, Hey. After a while he figured out that I was like, napping. And he came in one day and he was like, listen, I know you’re napping. I don’t give a shit. If you wanna nap in the middle of the afternoon, I don’t care.

[00:06:54] Katy Ripp: But what I don’t want you to do is continue to get up and act like you’re doing something else. [00:07:00] Or like, I didn’t just bust you in. Not so many words. He said, I’m not your dad. And I thought to myself. He’s not my dad. I don’t have to justify my time to him at all. I get all of my work done, I make money. I can do all of the things that I wanna do.

[00:07:17] Katy Ripp: I also get up super early and I go to bed early, and I also have quite a few hours in the day that I’m working smarter and just not harder. So time is really not the. Productivity measuring stick that we used to use. Unless you’re getting paid by the hour and you’re getting paid every single second of the hour, it doesn’t make sense to do that.

[00:07:42] Katy Ripp: So if you nap in the afternoon, kudos to you, take a freaking nap. My challenge to you this week is to write down all the things that make you feel guilty as a business owner, and then ask yourself, who told me that was wrong? Is it actually true for the business I want to build? And [00:08:00] then pick one guilt inducing habit that works for you and do it unapologetically this week.

[00:08:06] Katy Ripp: Maybe it’s starting work at 10 o’clock after your workout and coffee, or skipping your morning emails in favor of journaling, or maybe you leave early to pick up your kid without explaining yourself. And if your brain whispers to you, you’re falling behind, remind it. You’re building something better, not faster.

[00:08:25] Katy Ripp: Okay, number four is communicate your new rhythm with clarity. Not apology. You don’t have to disappear, but you do have to communicate clearly when you’re shifting things around. Here’s the deal. If you don’t set your boundaries, your business and your life will fill in the gaps with everyone else’s urgency.

[00:08:44] Katy Ripp: So think about the people who need to know when you’re available, your clients, your collaborators, maybe your partner or your kids, especially your staff. How clear have you been with this? So that. They know when to not disturb you. [00:09:00] For instance, before I started this podcast, I’m at home right now. I sent a text to the family group and said, I’m recording a podcast.

[00:09:07] Katy Ripp: Don’t bust into the bedroom. So maybe one of your actionable changes this week is writing an email or recording one Loom video, which is just basically a screen recording that says, Hey, I’m trying something new with my work rhythm, so I can show up better for the people and projects I care about most.

[00:09:25] Katy Ripp: Here’s what that means, and then share your new hours and availability or set expectations about what you expect from those people during that time, or offer flexibility where it makes sense. This is not about overexplaining, it’s about self leadership. Lead your people well and they will follow your example.

[00:09:45] Katy Ripp: You can take a look in the show notes and also download my Please do not disturb, sign that I hang on my door. It’s a little kitschy, a little funny, but it actually gets the job done really well. And number five, reinvention is a sign of growth, not [00:10:00] failure. So let’s be clear here. Taking a break does not mean you’re inconsistent.

[00:10:05] Katy Ripp: It means you’re paying attention every time You give yourself the freedom to change course or pause or shift focus or redesign your life, you’re practicing something that most people are too afraid to do. It’s called evolution. So what is one area of your schedule or business that feels really heavy or possibly outdated or just plain wrong?

[00:10:27] Katy Ripp: You can just identify it. You don’t have to judge it, you just name it. And then a change you can make. Create a trial week. Give yourself permission to test a new rhythm. More outside time, shorter work days, longer, walks longer. Coffee. Less time checking emails or scrolling social media, whatever feels aligned.

[00:10:48] Katy Ripp: Write it in your planner. Name it as a new experiment and treat it as sacred. You’re not meant to stay stuck in the schedule that works six months ago if it really just doesn’t work for you today, and [00:11:00] possibly you are still working on a schedule that you had when you started kindergarten. Think about that a little bit, depending on how old you are.

[00:11:08] Katy Ripp: It might be 40 or 50 years ago that you are still working on a seven 30 or eight o’clock to four o’clock, or how about you empty nesters that are still running on a school schedule even though your kids have long been out of school? So just think about that. In closing, I just really wanna thank all of you for joining along and listening throughout these last 50 episodes, which is crazy to even think about.

[00:11:32] Katy Ripp: But we’re gonna let this next season of the show and my life take shape this summer. I’m gonna come back when the time is right and the air smells like inspiration. I. In the meantime, I want you to try it to rethink your schedule for this summer, reclaim your energy, reinvent your schedule with intention, and if you do, please send me a DM or an email, tell me how it feels to stop forcing and start flowing.

[00:11:56] Katy Ripp: You’ve got this and I will see you so soon. Well, that [00:12:00] is a wrap on today’s episode, but the conversation doesn’t have to end here. If this episode resonated with you at all, come hang out with us inside. Actually, we can. This is my private community for midlife women entrepreneurs who are just done with the hustle and ready to build businesses that actually work for them.

[00:12:16] Katy Ripp: Inside, you’ll find support and strategy and a whole lot of real talk from women who get it. You can join us at  katyripp.com/community. We can also stay connected on socials. You can follow me on Instagram at  Katy Ripp for behind the scenes extra insights and plenty of business wisdom. But most importantly, make sure you follow the podcast so you never miss an episode.

[00:12:37] Katy Ripp: If you love today’s topic, please leave me a review and share it with another badass woman who needs to hear this. As always, thank you for being here. Now go do your thing and I’ll see you next [00:13:00] time.