Client meetings, content creation, emails, keeping up your social media accounts… Sound like you? And, that’s all likely before noon. Creating your dream job is hard work. I’m sure you’ve heard that before. But, at the end of that dream is the promise of financial, locational, and mental freedom. Would you believe me if I told you that you don’t actually have to wait until your business is booming to add some freedom to your life? And I’m not talking about picking up the winning lottery ticket (If I could, I would. No shame).

There are systems that you can build into your daily routine now to take some of the stress off yourself and allow you more freedom AND get closer to making your dream a reality. Every free moment you earn yourself goes a long way mentally. Coffee with some of your badass babe bosses? Some extra time with the dog and family? Let’s make our routines about working smarter, not harder (I know you’ve heard that before). Let’s see some simple systems you can start applying today.

One: Centralizing Your Information with Systems like Asana

Have you ever started your day, or opened your inbox and thought “where do I even start?” I can guarantee, we all have. Looking at the whole picture can leave you feeling somewhat overwhelmed and lost. There is a way to manage this. Centralize all of your information. Build systems. This is going to save you stress and time in the long run.

In apps like Asana or Airtable, you can arrange all your deadlines, projects, content release calendars, and more. All while collaborating with colleagues and clients. Rather than spending your time hunting for that email thread or project idea, you jotted down quickly, trust that you have moved everything over to one platform where you can easily manage tasks. You can categorize your projects and tasks based on your business needs and easily track what areas might need more attention. Or, maybe you’ve got too much content and need help scheduling what platform your posting to and when it’s ready to be released. By having everything centralized on one platform you can see your big ideas come together piece by piece. You can easily link to social media accounts, websites and blogs in Airtable to see what content you’re ready to post next. All your systems working in harmony!

With your phone always at arm’s length it can be distracting and easy to get caught in the dreaded scroll. Instead, harness that little machine into working for you. There are many apps like Asana and Airtable out there to increase productivity and organization. They all break down into pretty similar strategies.

Two: Make Your Freedom Non-negotiable

The online world doesn’t take weekends. If you wanted to, you could work around the clock all week long. But, I’m guessing that’s not what you were hoping for when you started your online business.

With your never-ending to-do lists, you may be overreaching yourself trying to get everything done each day. Start organizing your time so that each day’s task is reachable and manageable. This also includes scheduling time for your freedom. It’s easy to overlook your freedom and see it as a negotiable time when you’re starting up a busy online business and easy to experience burnout if you don’t prioritize your time.

The best way to do this is to start dedicating your time each day to one business function. You can start your Mondays off by focusing on your business marketing strategies. Get your mind in gear for all things marketing by launching new campaigns or email marketing strategies. On Tuesday, focus your time with your clients, either reaching out to current clients with complimentary calls or responding to emails or developing your strategy to find new clients. Create a clear communication channel with your clients if you only respond to client emails Monday through Thursday or what day you host calls. Wednesday, focus on business development. These are all examples, of course. The point is, create a schedule that makes sense to you and stick to it. Each morning you’ll wake up knowing what you have on your plate. Whatever freedom looks like to you, make sure it’s part of your routine.

Three: Batching With Scheduling Apps

It can be hard to tap into your creative pulses for a short period each day. You might be creating content for a marketing campaign on Monday, and working on social media content on Friday now that you’ve made your Freedom Schedule. Content creation can be hard. Start scheduling one day of the month for creating batches of content. Get yourself in your creative vibe and start going. Decide how much content you need to publish a month to satisfy your business demands. Once you have a batch of content that will last you the next month you can start to relax. Buffer and Later are very good options.

From here, it’s easy. Using content marketing software like Later and Buffer you can create a content schedule for when and where your content will be published. These content marketing apps are easy to use and save you valuable time. Valuable time that you can channel into focusing on where viewers become buyers: engagement.

This freedom you’re creating will leave you time to reach out to more clients and new subscribers who are your potential clients to build genuine relationships. Find out what services you can provide to make them happy and grow your bookings.

Did I mention it’ll bring you more time to actually enjoy your life too?

Ladies, your online business is the key to your freedom. Keep focused on your goals and visions and you will change your life! Just remember this crazy journey is all part of it. Don’t allow yourself to get buried under stress and apply these strategies to create more freedom for yourself now.