3 Ways to Conquer Your Day EC CEO
Have you ever felt like your day as an Early Childhood business owner/manager is spiraling out of control and there’s no way to get it back on track? If so, you’re not alone.
Many preschool, play cafe, childcare, enrichment program and other EC business owners/ managers experience days where they are struggling to stay motivated and organized amidst all their responsibilities. But the good news is that there are strategies you can use to take control and make sure your days are productive and energized. So how can you manage your day successfully as an Early Childhood business owner/manager?
As an experienced Early Childhood business owner I know first-hand how challenging it can be to stay productive and energized throughout the day. After years of trial and error, I have developed a few strategies that have helped me manage my day with a little more success. It is never without chaos, but with some strategies in place, I know how to control that chaos instead of letting those daily fires burn me out!
I understand the physical and mental demands of the job, and I know how important it is to stay energized throughout the day. I am excited to share with you a few of these effective, but simple strategies so you can make sure your days are productive and that you maintain your energy levels throughout your day.
Cultivate Your Growth Mindset
Practice Self Care
Prioritize Task Management
Cultivate Your Growth Mindset
I am a huge believer that operating any business, your own or one you manage is 80% mindset and 20% strategy, the how to.
Cultivating a positive and growth-oriented mindset is crucial for success as an Early Childhood business owner/manager. Having a growth mindset means that you view challenges and failures as opportunities for growth and development, instead of as setbacks.
This mindset can help you approach your work with a sense of optimism and resilience, and enable you to find creative solutions to the challenges you face. Additionally, a growth mindset can foster a positive work culture and improve relationships with your team and the families you serve.
Having a morning gratitude routine is an effective way to support your growth mindset and set the tone for a positive and productive day. When you start each day by focusing on what you're grateful for, you shift your perspective from a negative to a positive one. This shift can help you approach challenges with a sense of optimism and resilience, and increase your overall sense of well-being.
My Morning Gratitude Routine
My favorite thing to do to start my day is to listen to one of my Deepak & Oprah meditations. They are only 10-20 minutes and it inspires me for the entire day. I have pages of journaling I do as I listen and reflect on the daily message. Now being a difference maker means that I don’t get to do this every day. But how it lights me up is why I try my best to fit it in somewhere in my day.
Another thing I do is recite my daily affirmation:
“I expand in abundance, awareness, creativity, success, loving, and kindness, and I Inspire those around me to do the same. I am grateful that I can help others control the chaos, achieve more happiness, and find more positivity throughout their day. In doing so it allows me and my family to live a life that is financially secure, worry-free, with more success and abundance than we could ever imagine.”
By viewing challenges and failures as opportunities for growth and development, instead of as setbacks and embracing a growth mindset, you can:
Improve your performance
Foster a positive work culture
Increase resilience
Enhance creativity and innovation
Practice Self Care
Two simple ways you can practice self care, sleep and exercise. Sleeping a little bit later and getting some physical exercise can help keep the morning grogginess away and keep you alert through the whole day, according to new research from UC Berkeley. If you feel sluggish when you first wake up and have to drag yourself out of bed, or if you often hit that infamous afternoon slump, it's worth giving a few suggestions a try.
The researchers conducted a detailed study of 883 people over two weeks, during which time the subjects recorded everything they did, including what time they went to bed and woke up. Participants were given different daily breakfasts to track how different foods affect alertness. And since the study included both fraternal and identical twins, researchers were able to show that genetics accounts for only 25 percent of your morning alertness, or lack thereof.
"There are some very basic and achievable things you can start doing today, and tonight, to change how you awake each morning, feeling alert and free of that grogginess," said Matthew Walker, UC Berkeley professor of neuroscience and psychology, and senior author of the research, in a statement released by the university. He called these small changes "a relatively simple prescription for how best to wake up each day."
If you can't make all three of these changes, even doing one of them will make a big difference, according to postdoctoral fellow Raphael Vallat, also an author of the study. "All of these have a unique and independent effect," he said. Here's what the researchers recommend.
Prioritize Task Management
One of the most important strategies for managing your day is to learn how to prioritize your tasks. This means taking a moment at the start of each day to follow a plan and make sure you are focusing on the most important tasks to help you achieve your annual and quarterly goals. Planning ahead can help ensure that you have time for everything on your list and that you don’t get overwhelmed with too many tasks.
It is extremely important to take the time to create a weekly plan first and focus on the most important tasks so you don't miss anything or get overwhelmed with too many tasks or those little daily fires that are going to come up.
A weekly planning routine involves setting aside dedicated time each week to review your priorities and schedule, and plan out your tasks for the upcoming days. This routine helps you stay organized and on track, ensuring that important tasks are not overlooked and deadlines are met.
By using a weekly planning routine, you can:
Improve time management
Increase productivity
Foster a sense of accomplishment
Task management is crucial for you and the business you lead. Using a weekly planning routine can help you stay organized, increase productivity, decrease stress, and foster a sense of accomplishment. By setting aside dedicated time each week to plan and prioritize, you can ensure that you are making the best use of your time and making progress towards your goals.
Find more details about how my Ideal Week planning routine is a major part of my planning process. It is where I plan out a typical week with specific action steps that I take from my Quarterly plan that I already mapped out. Included are Ideal Week Weekly Strategy Sheets to guide you through the entire process. That is ECBME podcast episode #65.
Resources
To help you get started on cultivating your growth mindset we created a free resource, The 5 Minute Gratitude Journal. If you are telling yourself you do not have time, start here! Just take 5 minutes each day and start training your mind for the success you deserve. Click the link below to download it for free!
Work + Life Planning Bundle
This Work+Life Planning Strategy Bundle helps you Reduce Chaos, Break Free From Overwhelm & Take Back Hours Of Your Time every single week!