27. Empowered CEO Part 3: Get More Done with these 5 Productivity & Time Management Hacks

We’re wrapping up our Empowered CEO Series with a must-listen episode on taking action in your creative business! If you’re looking for time management strategies, productivity tips, and ways to take intentional action in your calligraphy business, this episode is packed with real-life, practical strategies to help you stay consistent and scale your business like an Empowered CEO.

We share five productivity strategies to help you structure your workdays for maximum efficiency—without burnout. Whether you're running your calligraphy business full-time or balancing it as a side hustle, these tips will help you take intentional, strategic action to move your business forward.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Develop a Weekly Plan: How to break down long-term goals into daily actions to stay on track.
• Time Blocking for Success: The best way to structure your day so you’re focusing on high-impact tasks.
• Batching Your Work: How to maximize productivity by grouping similar tasks together.
• Setting Boundaries to Protect Your Time & Energy: Why having clear business boundaries helps you work smarter, not harder.
• Hosting a CEO Day: The importance of setting aside time to reflect, strategize, and make data-driven decisions.

These productivity hacks for creative entrepreneurs will help you stay consistent and take action in your calligraphy business—without feeling overwhelmed. If you’re ready to work on your business instead of just in it, grab a notebook (and your favorite latte) and tune in!

🔗 Links to resources mentioned in this episode:

• Transform your business with Shaochen's 1:1 Mentoring Program (or DM the word "PARTNER" to @monstera.gold to learn more!)
• Join the waitlist for Alane's Group Coaching Program, Flourish in Biz (or DM the word "FLOURISH" to @writeprettyforme to learn more!)
• Check out the Full Focus Planner (Alane's favorite!)
• Check out the Golden Coil Planner (Shaochen's go-to!)

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction: Taking Action as a Creative Entrepreneur
• 1:46 Developing a Weekly Plan for Business Growth
• 6:35 Time Management for Creative Business Owners: Time Blocking Your Day
• 17:31 Productivity Hacks: Batching Your Work for Maximum Efficiency
• 21:54 Setting Boundaries to Protect Your Time & Energy
• 29:40 How to Plan & Execute a CEO Day for Strategic Growth
• 34:18 Final Takeaways: Building Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
• 35:17 How to Work with Us in 2025!

Transcript

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 0:32

Hello and welcome back to Calligraphy Biz Corner. I'm Elaine.

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 0:35

And I am Cha Chen, and we are so excited to bring you part three, the final episode of our Empowered CEO series, which is all about showing up and taking action in your calligraphy business.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 0:47

If you haven't yet listened to episodes 23 and 25 for parts one and two, be sure to go back and do that first. In episode 23, which is part one of our series, we shared four key mindset shifts that will arm you with the right foundation for thinking like a CEO. And then in episode 25, we shared four key strategies that will help you plan like a CEO.

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 1:11

So now that you've developed the right mindset and strategy for your business, it's time to get to work. Just remember that mindset and strategy alone aren't enough if you're not taking the actions to drive your business forward. So today we're gonna share five ways to design your days. Productively and efficiently. And whether that's working on your business full-time or just a couple hours a week, we think that these tips will be really helpful for you. So we hope that you walk away from this episode with some ways to structure your workday in a way that allows you to achieve your goals efficiently and effectively without the burnout.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 1:46

So our first tip for taking action in your business like a CEO, is to develop a weekly plan. One of the most important things that you can do as the CEO of your business is to stay focused on the things that matter most. So now that you have an idea of what your short-term and your long-term goals are, how do you actually break them down into day-to-day action? And we believe that it is about creating a routine that really aligns with your mindset as well as your strategy to make sure that you stay on track.

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 2:16

In episode 25 where we talked about CEO strategy, I referenced my quarterly planning roadmap and how that planning method starts at the quarter level for goal setting and then breaks down those goals into what you're going to focus on for each of the three months of the quarter, and then the specific actions that support those goal areas. when we're talking about weekly planning, we're taking that one step further. So you wanna look at whatever goals you prioritize for the month and decide what actions or tasks you're going to accomplish in a specific week to support those big picture goals. So I like doing this at the beginning of each week. That's just something that I've kind of like built into my schedule. So either on Sunday or Monday, whenever you kind of start planning for your week. Before you actually dive headfirst into any to-dos, because if you are clear on the most important priorities for your week, then it's easier to focus on those rather than tackling like a lot of random tasks, and you're more likely to basically stay aligned with whatever your bigger vision is rather than getting sidetracked.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 3:21

Yep. Yeah, I do the same thing. I like to take time on Sundays, even though like I try not to work on the weekends, which doesn't always happen, but I. I love setting the tone for the week ahead on Sunday so that I have a really clear picture of like, what is it that I'm focusing on this week? How my days are gonna look. And so what I use to do this is I really like my full focus planner. I just started using this at the beginning of last year. And I will say it is like the one and only planner that I've actually stayed consistent with. I feel like every year I'm like, I wanna be a paper planner, girly again. And every year I fall out of the habit very quickly. But this one has helped me stay on track and I think because of the way that it's designed. There's a weekly preview page where I'm able to like kind of review what works the previous week, what I accomplished what wins were, things like that. And then it also helps me identify like, okay, what are my top three priorities for the week ahead? So I love filling that out on Sunday nights and just kind of recapping, like, this is what worked really well. This is what didn't go so well. This is what I wanna change. And then this is what I need to be focusing on starting tomorrow. And then we're gonna get into planning out your days as well. But what I love about this planner specifically is in addition to those top three priorities for the week, there's also then big three priorities on each like day within the planner. So then I can take my weekly big three and break that down like day by day. So for example, if one of my big goals for the week is to say it's gonna be like wrapping up wedding signage for a client or something like that, then I can decide what do I need to focus on each day in order to make sure that I'm hitting that goal for the week.

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 5:02

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I have a similar process. So my quarterly and my monthly goals are outlined in that quarterly planning roadmap.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 5:10

Okay.

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 5:10

do my like weekly and daily planning prioritization in a physical paper planner. I'm kind of. Of picky about my planners because I do love using mine daily. I think this is my fifth year, but I've um, been using the Golden Coil Planner and it allows you to choose from a bunch of different layouts for what works for you. So that's probably the thing I like most about it. I, ironically though, I use like a really simple layout, so like. My annoyance with most, planners out there is that they're actually like a little too complicated for me. There's like a lot of like features and sections that I don't use, so I end up picking like a really simple, simple layout that doesn't have like fields that like distract me that I don't use, you know? But basically I think the most important thing is like find a method that works for you. If you'd like to do weekly planning, daily planning in a. Like online in a system like Clickup, like notion, a Google spreadsheet, a I don't know, like a notepad. Whatever works for you. Just kind of find something, experiment a little bit, and then find something that you can stick with.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 6:13

Yeah. I always say like, pick whatever feels easy and natural to you, because if you're met with any resistance to doing it, you're not actually gonna stick with it as a habit. So, yeah, I love that reminder to find what works for you specifically. We're just sharing what works for us. We can also include links to both of our planners in the show notes. That way if anybody wants to check either one of them out, they can. So once you have your weekly priorities planned out, however you choose to do that, next it is time to plan out your individual days. So that leads us to our next tip, which is time blocking your days. I am such a big fan of time blocking. I have, I. Done it, I feel like for multiple years now. And I kind of changed the way that I do it sometimes and I have been leaning big into it this past year with literally like putting time blocks on my calendar. But I really do feel like this is one of the best tools for staying productive and staying on track. So the way that I approach this is, again, I like to plan out my weeks, either like at the end of the day on Friday or on Sunday, just so I kind of have a roadmap for the week ahead and I know what to expect, but I will literally block off chunks of time for client work or for coaching work, for podcasting work. And then also add in my own personal things, like if I want to take. For a long walk or if I'm gonna go work out, things like that. So by assigning specific like chunks of time for specific tasks, I don't waste any time deciding on like, what am I supposed to work on right now? Or where would my time be best used? I kind of already have that totally mapped out. And then it also, like I said, helps me stay on track with the amount of time that I'm actually spending on something. And what I've been doing is in my time blocks on Google Calendar now, I've been making notes of like, what did I actually accomplish during that time? Which has come in really helpful for things that are a little more I don't know what you wanna call it. It's not like up in the air, but like,

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 8:15

ambiguous.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 8:17

Yes. That's a perfect word for it. Yeah. Things that are a little more ambiguous, where you're like. Okay, plan content for next week. It's like, okay, how the heck long does that actually take me?

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 8:27

Yeah.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 8:27

So I'll, you know, put the time chunk on my calendar for however long I wanna spend doing that on whatever day of the week. And then after I come to the end of that time block, I will write down just in the description of that Google Calendar block, like this is what I actually accomplished during this time. So that way I can also start to track like, how long do things really take me? In my business.'cause sometimes we have a good idea, but sometimes we don't. And it's important to know where our time is going.

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 8:55

I love that tip. And I think it's also helpful this time blocking practice is also helpful for like, make such long to-do lists, so it's really helpful for us to be realistic on how much time it actually takes us to get through that to-do list. And then if we cycle that feedback back to help us make more realistic to-do lists as well. Because every time I look at my to-do list and start actually time blocking, I'm like. There's probably five things I'm not gonna get to on this list today. So I need to adjust because once you actually start adding time in your calendar, you realize most things are probably gonna take you a little bit more than 30 minutes. You know? And actually this kind of leads to this concept that I like to talk about with um, this analogy of like rocks, pebbles, and sand, if you understand this concept, it helps you to get really good at time blocking. So the analogy is basically like, imagine that you're trying to fill a vase and you have rocks, like large rocks. You have pebbles and you have sand, and your goal is to put. Everything in the vase, if you put the sand in first and then the pebbles, you don't have any room left for the bigger rocks because the sand and the pebbles fill up all the space. But if you put the big rocks in first in the vase, then the pebbles in the sand, they're gonna kind of like fill out and trickle into the pockets where there naturally is space. And so that's kind of the same concept with your time is like if you go and start doing all the random tasks, all the sand on your to-do list first, which often is really tempting because those things. Tend to be more like quick, easier, don't take as much brainpower. Then you might find yourself running out of either time or energy or both to actually tackle the bigger projects or like the rocks that require more of like your thinking and your brain power, your time. the, my suggestion when you're doing this time blocking exercise is like block out the time first for your most important priorities for the rocks that are gonna take up bigger chunks of your time. Maybe it's like blocking a solid two hours to work on updating your website if you're going through like a refresh or something. Maybe it's blocking like an hour and a half to work on all the client proposals that you kind of have on your docket, then you can kind of go through your calendar and slot in like 30 minute breaks. 30 minutes for emails, 30 minutes to reply to dms in the remaining openings on your calendar, which, you know, to continue that analogy is kind of more like your pebbles or your sand work.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 11:17

I love that analogy so much.'cause one, it's very visual, so I feel like we are visual people, so it's very easy to picture inside of your head. But, it also just always makes me think of that like saying where, you know, if you don't stay in control of your schedule, your calendar, your time, et cetera, somebody else is gonna take control over it as well. And I feel like a lot of the smaller things, like the pebbles in the sand tend to be tasks that are like reactive tasks. Right, like answering emails or checking dms or whatever the case may be, where it's like we're reacting to things that are coming into us, but by making sure that we are prioritizing the things that we actually want or need to get done or that are most important to us, we stay in that proactive mindset when we're approaching our to-do list or. Our schedule, our calendar. Like even if it is things like, for me, it's important for me to get to my workout class, at least, you know, I aim for at least three times a week just because I know it helps me relieve stress, it helps me clear my head. But if I don't schedule those workout classes in, they don't happen. So like even that is like one of my important rocks I feel like. So, you know, it can be for your business, but again, we're also big proponents of aligning your business with your personal life. So even thinking about if you're starting to feel like your business is taking over certain personal things or whatever the case may be, like realign those priorities and think about those bigger rocks and how you can put them back into your calendar. So I love that. That's such a good analogy. I.

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 12:48

Yeah. I feel like a lot of times when we're like, what did I even do this week? I didn't feel like I get anything done. That's probably a sign that those pebbles and sand are leading the way versus like you prioritizing some of the bigger rocks that are really gonna move the needle for your business. So that's why I think this concept is so important.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 13:05

Yeah, absolutely. I feel like I wanna put like an emoji of a rock next to all of my big cast.

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 13:11

The cover of our episode,

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 13:13

Yeah. Exactly. Another tip that I wanted to share when it comes to time blocking is to pay attention to how you kind of operate, so. Again, kind of tying into like, when you're developing your weekly plan, you wanna make sure that you find a routine and the habit that works for you and that you're actually gonna stick to. So same idea when you're time blocking your days, pay attention to, you know, maybe you are really focused and productive in the mornings and that's when you wanna do your deep work. And then maybe in the afternoons you find yourself dragging a little bit or something like that. That is my personal scenario. So, so it's like, I like to keep. Kind of admin tasks or cleanup work, things like that for the second half of the day, or things that I can like kind of just mindlessly run through like a to-do list style in the afternoon versus doing things like. Content planning or actual, you know, in studio creation, if I'm working on a wedding, things like that, I know that I show up better in the morning. And then same thing with like, the amount of time that you're trying to block.'cause I've recently realized that I'll set like a three hour chunk for something. Like if I really need to get some focus on something done. I lose focus in those three hours. I'm finding that I'm actually more productive when I give myself like an hour block at a time and then stop, give myself some buffer to take a break and then go back into it if I need to. But I don't do well with just like the never ending three hour time block.'cause I'm like, oh, this is just so much time for me to fill in. I can take my sweet time.

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 14:52

Mm-hmm.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 14:52

So just

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 14:53

Yeah.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 14:53

like. What actually works for you or how you actually like feel on a day-to-day, you know, hourly basis, but even just like days of the week too, like maybe Wednesdays are your most productive day, or Fridays you really love to get stuff done. So take that into account while you're time blocking.

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 15:12

Yeah, that's a great tip. And Elena and I are opposites. She is like mourning. person. I'm a night owl, so I always do kind of like my admin, miscellaneous tests in the morning, and then after lunch is where I'm like really focused. I feel like for me it's between like two to four or something where I can like really get focused.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 15:32

Yeah, it's so, it's so funny how different everybody is, but that's why it's so important to like figure out what's gonna actually work best for you, because we're all very different.

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 15:40

one last tip when it comes to time blocking is that you can add kind of a recurring calendar invite at the end of your day, 15 to 30 minutes to kind of take inventory of what you accomplished that day and help you plan for the next day. So, similar to what Elaine was talking about, like planning the week ahead of time. This is to help you get a head start and hit the ground running when you show up in your business the following day and really like tackle your priorities right away without having to remember like, oh, what was it that I needed to do? I find that when I don't do this, what happens is I go into my inbox first thing, and then I just get kind of stuck into that vortex of like and reading everybody's newsletters and whatever else, instead of actually focusing on what I need to prioritize for the day.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 16:28

Yep. Exactly. I love this tip too. So even if you just take an extra five minutes at the very end of your workday to just brain dump, you know what you accomplished or what your big to-dos are for tomorrow, things that you have to remember. And then the next morning you can come in and at least then time block like, okay, these are my tasks, but you're not wasting time spinning your wheels like you said, like remembering, oh, what, what was it that I.

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 16:55

Yeah, I'm surprised at how bad my memory is because I'm literally always like, what did I do yesterday?

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 17:01

Right. Well, I mean like, but we hold so much information in our heads, so like it makes sense. So that's why I'm just such a big fan of being able to get it out of your head and whether it's on paper or onto a Google Doc or whatever the case may be. Again, whatever works best for you, but it's just taking that little extra time to be. Proactive about things versus again, versus just being reactive about what your tasks or your calendar, your schedule, et cetera, is. So this kind of leads us to our third tip, which is batching your work. So in addition to time blocking, we both recommend batching your tasks for a maximum focus. So for example, when wedding season hits, I have days that I dedicate to client work in the studio. And then even within my client work, for example, if I have like three mirror signs to create, then I will batch them for the same time block. That way I'm not wasting time pulling out different materials and supplies. Like I know that okay, I am pulling out. My pens, et cetera, for mirrors specifically. So I'm gonna focus on these for like this four hour afternoon batch or whatever the case may be. When I have podcast tasks on my to-do list, I try to do them all at once. So that way my focus is solely on this podcast, and I'm not necessarily thinking about, you know, podcast content and then switching over to coaching content and then switching over to wedding content. I try to keep my brain. Focused on like the one specific category task that is at hand.

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 18:34

I truly feel like Elena's, like the batching queen, obviously working with her on this podcast and she'll time block it and she'll tell me tomorrow I have. One to three blocked to work on podcast tasks, and she'll like, create all the social media content, create the blog, create the, I'm like, oh my goodness. Like I, I need to learn how to be as efficient as you.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 18:56

I'm just like there. I think by the end of last year with just like having my feet in multiple things, it was just like, I feel like I was feeling like I was being pulled in too many different directions. So that's why like this year I've gotten very kind of almost like back to base. Time blocking and batching my work and literally putting it on just like a Google calendar rather than anything else. But yeah, that way it's just like I can stay focused and I have like my two do list for the podcast for that specific time block, and I can just like run through it again as instead of feeling like, oh, what am I supposed to work on next? What do I have to do next? It's like, no, you have your list, you have your time in your calendar to get it done, and then you just bang it out.

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 19:41

Yeah, I mean it really, really helps with productivity. We wouldn't be able to produce a podcast on our own without editing support if we didn't do it this way.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 19:49

Yeah, absolutely not.

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 19:51

So similar to Elaine, I basically do the same thing. I separate my like admin computer days from production days. And those are days where I like. We'll rarely look at my computer. I'll put like, an autoresponder or a note in my emails that say like, please allow two to four business days or something if I'm deep in production. Elaine kind of mentioned batching within production itself. I love this too. I'm all about maximizing efficiency. So just to give one more example on how you could do this, like. If you're writing a hundred, 200 placecards on, let's say agate shells, anything where you actually need to like clean the service beforehand, I always will clean everything at once before I start writing rather than like clean each one and then writing on it. Because if you do it that way, then you have to keep like putting down your pen, picking it back up and yeah, it seems like nothing, like a couple seconds here and there, but when you're doing the a hundred or 200 plus, you know, the quantity of it that time really adds up. So, you know, those are just like. A few examples, but think about it in your own personal workflow or whatever task you might be working on, how can you kind of like batch your tasks in a way that you don't need to context switch as much? Because ultimately the key takeaway here is that anytime you are context switching from that you're doing or a type of task, there's a cost in terms of your time and your attention, like your focus. And so when you're structuring your day. Think about how you can minimize your context switching. So even if it's not like an entire day dedicated to an admin and an entire day dedicated to production, maybe it's all admin in the morning, in production in the afternoon, right? Just think about how you can structure that day in a way where you can minimize context switching so that you maximize your focus. I.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 21:33

Yeah, I love that reminder.'cause I have definitely felt the negative effects of context switching before, even if it's like, oh, I'm just gonna check my email for this one thing, or I'm just gonna open up Instagram for this one thing, and then 30 minutes later you're like, what just happened?

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 21:52

Too many rabbit holes.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 21:53

Exactly. So all of that kind of brings us to the idea of being able to protect your time and energy, because these three tips that we just shared, which are creating a weekly plan time blocking your days and batching your work, They aren't gonna have the maximum potential impact on your schedule and your business if you don't put parameters in place to protect your time and your energy. So our fourth tip is all about setting boundaries, and we both feel that this is absolutely crucial for actually staying focused and putting these three previous tips into action. But I have just found that when you don't have boundaries in place, then again, going back to this idea of like, you are gonna operate from a more reactive state rather than a. Proactive state and staying in control of your schedule. So a few ways that I like to set boundaries in my business to better protect my time and my energy is of course, number one, I use systems. I always have an autoresponder on, on my email, and this just helps take the pressure off of having to feel like I always need to be in my inbox and spon responding to new inquiries and emails right away. And I especially love this for when wedding season hits. And like you said, like sometimes we're just in the studio producing for an entire day and we're not necessarily opening up our computer. And so it's really nice to be able to have that autoresponder on that just says like. I got your email. I am, you know, in the studio because it's the height of wedding season. Please allow two to three business days for a personal reply from me or however you wanna phrase it, whatever your timeframe for response is, but I love that it sets the expectation for my clients, and then, like I said, also takes the pressure off of me so I don't feel like I constantly need to be replying immediately. Every time something comes in, I know that the clients are being taken care of, and then I can get back to them when I said I'm gonna get back to them. Another kind of boundary that I like to set in my business is I aim to have no calls and no meetings on Fridays. So what I really love is being able to use the scheduler in HoneyBook because I can actually like, set my call availability, but I know that whenever I have calls on my calendar, I need time before. The call to prep for it. I need time after the call to do some wrap up. So like even if it's just a half hour call, I feel like it usually eats up at least an hour of my time. Again, kind of going back to that context switching, like I think we also underestimate the amount of time that our brains sometimes need to like refocus ourselves on something else.

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 24:37

Yeah.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 24:38

I try to keep Mondays and Fridays absolutely clear. That way I can use those days to focus on some of my bigger rocks in my time block and my priorities. So even if you don't use HoneyBook or if you don't have a CRM, you can also use programs like Calendly and I think even like Google and Zoom are starting to integrate some like scheduling tools. So you could look into that as well. But I remember when I first started my business, I felt like I had to be available to everyone all the time. And so I think one of those CEO Mind shifts and then putting it into action is realizing that. Your schedule is yours to protect, and if you don't protect it, other people are gonna come in and take over. And so realizing that, no, you don't need to be available to everybody at all times. You also need to be available to yourself and make your own business a priority. So having Mondays and Fridays blocked off has been really helpful. And then I also use the Do Not Disturb on my phone all the time. Like if I really need to be focusing on something, I set my phone to do, not disturb. That way I am not getting inundated with any texts or calls or whatever the case may be. And then you can also create different settings. So like, if you're worried about missing an important call from somebody, you can always like let one person come through. So like, I think I have like my mom and my dad and my sister as like they can fly through. Pretty much anything. Just God forbid there were ever some sort of emergency.'cause that's always like my nightmare. That's like, I was too busy working on this and I missed this really important call.

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 26:10

Yeah. I love those examples. I use some of those as well. I don't have strict, like Monday, Friday, no meeting rules, but I do try to schedule my meetings on the same day because, like you said, there's the context switching time, but also like the time getting ready, like if. Especially if it's gonna be a video call, making sure I look presentable, like all of that. I mean, honestly, the days that I'm not taking meetings, I just look like a scrub. So yeah, so today is a meeting day for me. But I think the best boundary that I set for myself was that I don't have work email notifications come through on my phone and I know that might seem. Scary to people, but it's kind of like what you were alluding to, which is like we have to take care of ourselves first and our sanity and our mental health and everything if we wanna be the best that we can be for our business. And I used to get anxiety in the evenings or the weekends when I would see a work email come through, but that just means like I would just never turn off. For my business. And so it's been a huge game changer for me to disable those notifications on my phone, which means that I only go in and check my email when I want to check my email and when I wanna see what's going on. and it's just allowed me to like actually respect my own boundaries and be able to fully disconnect.'cause otherwise I'm not able to fully disconnect. And people, like a lot of times when people are planning their weddings, they're doing it on the evenings and the weekend. So a lot of times the leads for. weddings are coming through outside of like typical business hours, and I think the expectation should be, especially if you have an autoresponder of some sort, that you reply within a few business days. Not that you reply that evening or that weekend or anything like that. And so what's the point of me having to be disrupted on my evening or weekend if I'm not gonna be responding anyway? It just means my brain's gonna be thinking about that. Until I actually do respond. You know? So I think it's just been so, so helpful for me to disable those notifications. I do the same thing for my Instagram too. I just don't allow any Instagram notifications on my phone. I mean, it's not, also not a channel where I feel like I have like a, service level agreement, an SLA, attached where I have to reply within a certain amount of time to people. So it just helps protect my focus because again, if I'm like working on something and I see all these Instagram dms come through, I'm gonna be really tempted to, if not reply to them, at least read them. And so again, this is me being intentional about when I have a little block of time and just go through all those messages at once.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 28:42

Yeah, I love that. I also have turned both of those notifications off on my phone'cause I used to have them on again like a couple years ago. I, I just feel like when you first start your business, like I said before, you have this like feeling like you have to be on all the time and you have to be showing up and you have to be responding. I think that the shift happens. When you realize that that's actually not the case, and again, like you have to protect your own mental health, you have to protect your own time, and so whatever that looks like for you or whatever feels best for you, we're both giving you permission, whoever's listening to this episode that you can turn your email notifications off, you can turn your CRM notifications off and you can turn your Instagram notifications off,

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 29:27

Mm-hmm.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 29:28

and your business will still continue just.

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 29:31

Yeah. I mean, don't like wait a week to respond to your emails, but like,

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 29:36

Right,

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 29:37

there's a balance, you know?

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 29:39

exactly. So our fifth and final tip for taking action like a CEO in your business is to host a CEO day. This is probably one of the most valuable actions that you can take because these are days that are dedicated. Solely to stepping away from client work and focusing on your business. So doing things like strategy, planning, reflection, maybe some long-term planning, goal setting. I personally am trying to get better at this myself this year, and I am planning on bringing back my quarterly CEO day to reflect on my goals, the progress that I've made, and plan out my priorities for the next 90 days. But I'm also bringing this back. Monthly, making sure that I schedule an end of month review at the end of every single month because that way I can, again, what worked well, what didn't go well, what did I accomplish, what didn't I accomplish? And then take all of that to say, okay, what do I need to focus on for the next month ahead? But this just helps you stay grounded. It helps you stay focused and ensure that what you are doing is actually aligning with your bigger picture. You know, in episode one we talked about. your why and revisiting it often, and I think it's really easy to get lost in the weeds of running your business. So by taking this time for intentional reflection and planning, it's gonna help you make sure that you're constantly staying in alignment with what that bigger picture vision is for not only just your business, but also your life.

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 31:09

Yeah, I do something similar, also, same cadence, like end of month, end of quarter. And I use that like quarterly planning roadmap that I've been talking about. I haven't blocked out like an entire day, but definitely like. A chunk of time, you know, to kind of do that. You can also use this concept of a CEO day for like big projects that you're working on. So again, it doesn't have to be a whole day, it could be like a half day, a couple hours, but just like dedicated focus time without distractions. Maybe put your do not disturb on where it could be like planning out a new website, brand redesign or maybe a new service offering and really giving yourself time to think through all the aspects of that service offering from like who's your audience, your messaging, your pricing, your launch strategy, your marketing, like all these different aspects of it, and just sitting down and like giving yourself the full permission to brainstorm freely. I feel like we don't give ourselves enough of that space to just like let our imagination go when it comes to like. Things in our business. And I think that's what a CEO day or a similar thing like half day, you know, allows you to do.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 32:16

Yeah, absolutely. I think that it just gives you, like you said, that permission to. Focus on whatever, like even just things that maybe have made it to the very bottom of your to-do list because time got away from you that month or that quarter and you're like, I need to tackle these things, like, however that looks for you. I also like to do a Friday review. I kind of call it like my Friday CFO slash CEO time, and I like put an hour and a half in my calendar on Fridays to just like go through my numbers, review my finances, and then that's also where I'm trying to do, you know, wrap up my week and also look ahead to the next week of like, what are the priorities that I need to be focusing on. That way by Sunday, I'm like, okay, I just need to now put this into a little map for the week, but I have everything written down.

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 33:01

So one other tip for planning a CEO day, that kind of goes back to like how Elaine was saying before, she's less productive if there's like a really big chunk of time on her calendar is when you are blocking a half day or a whole day, break that into smaller chunks of time. And kind of time block within that day. So maybe let's say you're launching that service offering, like give yourself 30 minutes to brainstorm about like your messaging and then 30 minutes to figure out your pricing or whatever each of those little components are. Make yourself an agenda of what you're gonna do during that day. And then start to like chunk out how much time you think you need for each of those tasks. and also add in some breaks for yourself. You know,'cause you're gonna need fuel to keep that like critical thinking going. So when you're actually planning out a big chunk of time for your CEOJ, make sure that you're breaking it out into those smaller pieces for yourself.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 33:53

Yeah, that's such a good reminder.'cause it also ties into, I forget what it's called, but there's that like law where it's like we fill the amount of time that we're given for something. And I feel like that's one of the arguments that I've heard too for like four day work weeks and whatnot.'cause it's like when you constrict the amount of time that you're given for something, you're actually going to be more productive because you're like, oh, I have. One hour to get this done. I gotta go.

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 34:17

Mm-hmm.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 34:18

Okay, so that brings us to the end of our empowered CEO series. So we've armed you with the mindset, the strategy, and now how to take productive action in your business. So we hope that these tips that we've shared are going to help you work smarter, not harder. They're gonna help you show up proactively within your business. And just to recap the five tips that we shared today. They were number one, developing a weekly plan. Number two, time blocking your days. Three, batching your work. Four, setting boundaries. And then number five, hosting a CEO Day.

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 34:55

Yeah, we don't want you to have to work more in order to achieve your goals, especially I know a lot of you are side hustlers or have lots of other parties going on in addition to your business, so we hope that these tips can help you work more efficiently while making sure that the actions you take are intentional and aligning with the long-term vision and strategies that you set for yourself. And if you would like a partner to help you in designing your business strategy, in building out your own quarterly planning roadmap that's personalized to you, wherever you are in your business, whether you're just starting or you're a couple years in, I do have. Two spots left in my one-on-one mentoring program, your CEO partner. And we start by designing that customized strategic roadmap together. And then we work together really closely over the next 12 weeks to prioritize your weekly actions with me coaching you on any like day-to-day questions or decisions that you have. So we really focus on the implementation piece of your strategy. So not only the strategy, but also the execution. So it's like having a coach in your pocket working with you on your business. If this sounds perfect for you, then DM me the word partner on Instagram. I'm at Mon Gold and I can tell you all about the program.

alane_1_02-11-2025_144534: 36:15

Yeah, I feel like we all always have the very best of intentions when we're setting our goals and our priorities for ourselves. But the truth is that just sometimes life and business get in our way. So I love that you're offering this like coach in your pocket to help with the strategy and the planning and the accountability. Piece of it, because I know that that's always something that I need. I am a, I'm a girl who thrives with accountability, so, and if you enjoyed this series and you're thinking, I need a structured plan to run my business smoothly without feeling overwhelmed and without the burnout, then that is exactly what I help calligraphers do. Inside Flourish and Biz, which is my 12 week group coaching program, we focus on mapping out your entire client workflow, automating admin tasks, and really refining your messaging so that you can attract high end clients. Confidently charge what you're worth. You will get hands-on coaching templates and a supportive community to help you finally build a business that works for you. And I'm super excited'cause doors for the April group are gonna be opening soon. So I have a wait list ready to go. It'll be in the show notes if you want to join there. Or you can DM me the word flourish on Instagram at write pretty for me to learn more.,

shaochen_1_02-11-2025_124534: 37:27

So thanks so much for tuning into the Empowered CEO series. This is the first like series we've done, so we would love to hear any thoughts or feedback. Just send us a DM at Calligraphy Biz Corner or leave us a rating or review wherever you're listening.