Smart Strategies for Solopreneurs Balancing Work, Life, and Sanity

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Feeling overwhelmed? You’re not alone! It’s easy to get buried in the chaos. But what if you could actually plan your week in a way that keeps you productive and sane? 

In this short episode, Carly Ries and Joe Rando break down strategies for prioritizing tasks, staying flexible, and avoiding the dreaded to-do list burnout. Plus, the simple mindset shift that will have you ending each day feeling like a rockstar! 

Hit play and let’s get your week under control!

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Episode Transcript

Carly Ries: Between launching products, writing a book, and keeping our businesses running, we've got a lot on our plates. Does this sound familiar? In this episode, we're breaking down how we structure our weeks as solopreneurs, prioritizing what matters, balancing flexibility with focus, and making sure our to do list don't run our lives. So if you ever feel like you're drowning in tasks, tune in because this episode is full of practical strategies to help you stay on top of it all and plan your week successfully. You're listening to The Aspiring Solopreneur, the podcast for those just taking the bold step or even just thinking about taking that step into the world of solo entrepreneurship.

My name is Carly Ries, and my co host Joe Rando and I are your guides to navigating this crazy, but awesome journey as a company of one. We take pride in being part of LifeStarr, a digital hub dedicated to all aspects of solopreneurship that has empowered and educated countless solopreneurs looking to build a business that resonates with their life's ambitions. We help people work to live, not live to work. And if you're looking for a get rich quick scheme, this is not the show for you. So if you're eager to gain valuable insights from industry experts on running a business the right way the first time around, or want to learn from the missteps of solopreneurs who paved the way before you, then stick around.

We've got your back because flying solo in business doesn't mean you're alone. Joe, suffice to say we have a lot going on right now. Would you agree?

Joe Rando: Yeah. You know, launching products, writing books, keeping everything else going. That whole thing.

Carly Ries: Yeah. Well, so something that I've been thinking about a lot recently is how to plan my work week. Because at any given time, it's should we be focusing on this launch?

Should we be getting our chapters in for our new book? Like, you were just saying, and it it's kind of ever evolving, what we've talked about what is urgent and what is important. And we talked about getting things in on time and getting things in correctly. We were just having this conversation five minutes ago. And so I thought it'd be helpful to kinda talk through what we do as solopreneurs to plan out our week to crank all this out because we are far from alone in this juggling a million things at one time scenario.

So, let's kick things up. how do you plan out your week when you have so many balls in the air?

Joe Rando: Well, first thing I'd like to do is have a short list of priorities because, everything's important. But if you have, you know, 50 things on your list of priorities, then

you don't move the ball forward on any of them. So I like to have that kinda short list,

And when I'm doing it right, and I'll be honest. I don't always do this right because sometimes you just go, but it's one of those things where I kinda try to have some for work and then some things for personal, you know, health and you have that list.

And so, I could for work right now this week, it's the book. I mean, it's really my short list of work stuff this week is the book and just the basic things I have to do to keep the business moving. And for health, I have two things. I wanna either row my rowing machine or lift weights. So I just have that list of things that I wanna get done every day.

Doesn't always happen every day. Stuff happens. You know? And you have just these different aspects of your life, and you try to have a high priority item or two on each of them and work toward them. And it can shift over time, you know, different week to week.

But that's how I like to work because otherwise my brain just melts, because there are too many things. So that's one of them. So that list and then making some clear goals. Obviously, if you don't know what you're trying to do, you know, what finish looks like, then you can just work away.

And I've seen a lot of people that work really hard but don't have a clear end goal. And sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's a little harder to think through what is the end goal of this. And

if it isn't doable to come up with an end goal,

should you be doing it? Maybe not. You mentioned the important but not urgent tasks.

Right? We spend most of our time hopefully on the important and urgent things, but it's always good to carve time out for the important things that aren't urgent. Those usually make your life better. You know, you take the time to automate something that you're doing manually.

Okay. It cost you half a day, but guess what? Within a month, it saved you two days and that kind of thing. Time blocking, obviously, I don't need to say that. Everybody you ever heard that one?

But, planning for flexibility. You know, some people like to schedule their lives to the point where when anything goes wrong, anything comes up, something unexpected, it ruins their plans, and then it all falls apart. So it's really good, in my opinion, to only schedule if you're doing time blocking. Don't go too far in the future because then you won't trust your calendar. You can time block little pieces in the future, but don't kind of block out the entire week.

And then when you do block out today and tomorrow, don't block it off. Leave 25% of your time available for stuff because it always happens. It always happens. And so that's that's my approach. That's kind of soup to nuts how I think about it.

Carly Ries: I mean, you hit the nail on the head with the flexibility thing. Even today, I'm in Colorado. It's 65 degrees today. One of the first nice days we've had in a really long time.

And the way my schedule was set up, it was just writing and figuring out childcare so I could do more writing and this and all that. And then finally, I was like, if I don't take advantage of this beautiful day for at least an hour or half hour,

that will just reenergize me to just crank things out. So I think as a solopreneur, your to do list, you do often think of the to dos for your business. But thinking about the to dos for your mental health to further your business is equally important.

Joe Rando: I totally agree.

Carly Ries: So, forget about that aspect of things. You talked

about time blocking. We were saying that time blocking, doing that not too far in advance, but to do it I try to do it every night, like, kind of review what's coming the next day, what I didn't get done.

Joe Rando: Yeah. I think that's smart. that way, the next day, you got the next day planned out. But, you know, when I did at one point in my life, I time blocked out, like, weeks in advance.

I'm gonna do this here. I'm gonna play out all the stuff I had to get done. I was like, I felt so good when I finished because I just had this great plan, and then something would happen. And you know, one of the killers was now, something happens, and now your entire time blocking plan out the window because you've gotta adjust everything. And number two, would miss meetings because I would have a calendar full of to do items, and I wouldn't necessarily always look at it.

And then all of a sudden, it's like there's a meeting, and I didn't see it. because you don't trust your calendar to be a calendar anymore when you make it into a full blown to do list.

Carly Ries: Exactly. And who were we just talking to? Will Christensen like, do not turn your calendar into your to do list.

Joe Rando: Yep.

Carly Ries: And it's so true. to piggyback off of your list for the day, I try to have three must get done things. Must get done because that's so small that it's easier to achieve. And then once you get them done, you're like, you have the momentum because you're like, man, I'm a rock star. I completed these tasks.

I'm gonna conquer a few more as opposed to if you had 10 things on the list, you got three done, and then you're a failure. Touche. That is so right because, sometimes and I've done this I did this early on. This to do list that looks you know, it's just like a mile long and just working down the list, but, end of the day comes,

Joe Rando: and you're like, oh, well, I checked off six things, but there's 67 more. You're not feeling that feeling, and yet if you make a shortlist for that day, and then do that every day for the week, the end of the week yeah. At the end of the day, you feel good.

At the end of the week, you feel great. You know? And you still might have a bunch of stuff.

Carly Ries: Yeah. And it's a mindset thing. I mean, your tasks are the exact same either way no matter what you assign to yourself, but just how you view it can can make or break how you feel and can improve your mood and your your motivation.

Joe Rando: I'm gonna date what's his name? David Allen, who wrote Getting Things Done that we always talk about. I think he was kinda making a joke or, kind of making fun of people that he saw that would get something done and then sit down and put it on their to do list and check it off. And he kinda thought that was goofy, and I'm like, I kinda get that. I kinda get that.

You know? It's like, it's something that feels good about just going check. And if you forgot to put it on your list, but you got it done, I don't know. I didn't have a problem with people doing that. think that was as goofy as he did.

Carly Ries: No. And my last recommendation would be find a tool that works for you to stay organized. Everybody's different, whether it is calendar blocking and actually putting your to do list in your calendar, which, again, we're not huge fans of, but, if that works for you, great. If it's a tool like an app that you use great if it is a Google Doc that you just keep a running list of things post it notes, whatever just find what works for you everybody's different and stick with it because that'll keep you going

Joe Rando: absolutely

Carly Ries: Joe, if you told me to do a spreadsheet of to do list and I told you to do a word doc, we'd be all over the place. Yeah.

Joe Rando: That would yeah. Where do you mean word doc could work? Yeah. I I could I could see that. I just I would definitely go to a spreadsheet.

Carly Ries: Exactly. Well, listeners, thank you so much for tuning in today. As always, please leave that five star review. Recommend the show to a friend. We love getting the word out.

And subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, and we will see you next time on the Aspiring Solopreneur.

Closing: You may be going solo in business, but that doesn't mean you're alone. In fact, millions of people are in your shoes, running a one person business and figuring it out as they go. So why not connect with them and learn from each other's successes and failures? At LifeStarr, we're creating a one person business community where you can go to meet and get advice from other solopreneurs. Be sure to join in on the conversations at community.lifestarr.com.