Independent trainers have a great advantage: they can organize their day however they want!
Although self-employment represents for many an ideal of freedom and flexibility, it does not always allow for finding time for oneself. So, how do you achieve a good balance between work and private life?
Tip 1 Don’t work from home
When an independent trainer starts his/her activity, working from home is very tempting, both in terms of costs and for practical reasons (childcare, housework, etc.).
The good news is that there are a wide variety of options when deciding to leave home:
- Coworking or coworking spaces proliferate everywhere and, depending on the type of facility, they allow you to rent offices on an annual or hourly basis, depending on the agenda of each professional. They are usually the most economical and flexible option, mainly when a full-time office is not needed.
- ● If you travel a lot to provide training, you should know that there are spaces to rent by the day in almost all business centers close to public transport stations.
- ● Rent an office among several people: you can propose to other colleagues or independent professionals the joint rental of a large office to share resources.
- ● Working from a cafeteria: another alternative to enjoy a stimulating work environment at the lowest possible cost.
In addition, the time spent traveling between home and work is a good excuse to disconnect.
Tip 2 Know how to say no
Set office hours: As everyone knows, one of the main advantages of any freelancer is being able to decide his or her working hours. Whether you choose to work the usual hours of 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. or on the weekend, the important thing is to let clients and students know that you will not be available outside of your work day (remember to indicate the hours in the signature from your email or your website, for example).
Use a second phone for your work activities and, above all, turn it off outside of office hours. This way, you won’t succumb to the temptation of answering emails at night or on the weekend.
Assign yourself vacation days: employees have the right to vacation, don’t you deserve it? At the beginning of the year, allocate yourself several vacation days to take during the year. Analyze the situation several times throughout the year. If you have not used up your allotted days, plan days off or, if you have exceeded them, make an extra effort and work a few weekends.
Tip 3 Be well-organized
The above tips are difficult to follow without good organization.
Among the numerous organizational systems that exist, there is one that works especially well: dividing the day into thematic bands. This method adapts perfectly to the profession of the trainer, in which each week is usually different from the previous one, and administrative tasks, meetings with clients, training preparations, and personal activities are articulated around the sessions themselves. deformation.
How does it work in practice?
- Open your agenda (paper or online) and add all scheduled trainings if you haven’t already.
- Before and after each training session, add travel time stripes (use a different color).
- Incorporate the personal activities that you like most (sports, leisure, family time). If you participate in a weekly sports or cultural activity, reserve the corresponding slot each week.
- ● Don’t forget to shade weekends or rest days. Those days are sacred!
- ● Now that you have planned your training and personal activities, you can organize blocks of work in the remaining free slots.
By following this method, you can easily organize the following weeks based on scheduled training to focus on the right priorities.
As time goes by, you’ll likely try different methods to organize and find balance. The essential? Correctly define priorities in terms of professional activities and personal life, in addition to reaching agreements with oneself. If you worked for a company, you would surely always respect your commitments. In this case, you are lucky to have chosen to be your boss, so take advantage of it to take care of yourself.