If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you might remember that in November 2020 I made the decision to leave my clinic and move to my own office-space instead.
Until the pandemic changed everything, my practice was largely face-to-face, and I worked from a local clinic in Bethnal Green, east London, and a co-working space in the City.
At the start of Lockdown, I moved my practice to my laptop set up on the kitchen table.
A couple of months later, my clinic re-opened and I was very grateful.
By the end of October, it dawned on me that I needed my own space. A room where I could take client calls and prepare remedies.
Not a shared space.
My own space.
One day I decided to do a Google search for private offices and amazingly I quickly found somewhere I wanted to visit.
It’s a co-working community with desks and offices just a mile down the road from where I live.
My new room is completely private, and I have access 24/7, should I need it.
If and when I’m seeing people face-to-face again, I can do that there too.
It costs a little more than I was paying for room rental previously, but it’s worth it.
It’s been a big transition though.
We don’t have a car, so it took two Uber trips to move my client notes, books, remedies and other supplies.
I’ve had to purchase a desk and other items to get it set up the way I want it to be.
I haven’t had a work-space like this before, and I feel very lucky to have one.
Word For The Year: Boundaries
My ‘Word for the Year’ in 2020 was ‘Boundaries’.
Moving to the office was unexpected, but once I was there I realised it was a much-needed step towards my goal of better life-work boundaries.
In December, as I reflected back on my year, I felt that while my boundaries were better I had also been working much longer hours than I wanted to.
This led me to see that my ‘Word of the Year’ for 2021 needed to extend my life-work boundaries in a way that would enable me to work in a more sustainable way.
Choosing A Word For 2021
Choosing a word of the year is hard so I tried out a few words in my journal.
I came up with ‘Ease’ and ‘Clarity’ (both of which I love!)
But, in the end, I settled on a different word entirely.
It doesn’t sound very exciting or even that inspiring, but it’s the right word for me.
My word for this year is ‘Sustainable’.
By sustainable, I mean sustainable for my personal well-being, and also as a long-term way of working in my homeopathy practice.
Putting Boundaries In Place: Sustainable Practice
Perhaps like me, you have found many aspects of our current situation quite hard to navigate.
Even though I have an office, I still need to balance my work with taking care of my family.
Luckily, my husband can work from home, and my daughter is old enough to help ‘keep an eye on’ my 12-year-old and be around if I am out at work.
I also find there are ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ to practising online.
The main ‘con’ for me is that I find it quite draining.
Plus, the time it takes to prepare remedies and get them into the post really needs to be properly factored in.
So…
I’ve realised that I need to try and organise my schedule so that I have a bit more breathing space.
I want to have regular weeks where I don’t see any clients, so I can be around my family more and hopefully get ahead with planning, writing etc. not to mention staying up-to-date with book-keeping.
Forward Planning
In order to do this, I have done a lot of forward-planning in my schedule.
- Blocked out several weeks of ‘No Clients’ right through to the end of the year in both my personal calendar and my booking system.
- I’ve made sure these weeks are outside school holidays, as I want to have time to get ahead with planning, writing etc. and to stay up-to-date with book-keeping.
- To help me do this I looked back through my calendar to discover booking trends. I discovered the last week of the month generally has fewer bookings, and the weeks either side of ‘Black Friday’ were also quiet.
- January, September and December are the months which get booked out quickly. With this in mind, I’ve decided to only offer Radiant Business School once during 2021 – in April/May.
- A new thing I’m doing is a ‘Content Calendar’. This is a more focused plan for both Your Radiant Business and Homeopathy with Tracy. I want to be more organised so I can see exactly what I need to do and when.
- To protect my mental and emotional energy, I am also making sure I regularly look ahead at my schedule to count how many bookings I have each week. I know how long it takes for case-work and remedy preparation, and there is only so much I can do per week, especially with home-schooling at the moment.
Is This Relevant To Me?
If you’re an experienced and busy practitioner, you might be having similar kinds of thoughts to me. I have spoken to several homeopath friends who’ve needed to put in place measures like these to avoid burnout in the last year.
If you are less experienced and less busy, you might be thinking:
”Is this relevant to me?”
My answer –
Yes.
It really is.
Here’s something to think about.
If you are not super-busy with clients (yet), it is still worth scheduling blocks to focus on your marketing work.
Setting aside proper time to immerse yourself in research, writing and creating whatever content you are planning is a good habit and a very worthwhile thing to do.
Everything is easier when you batch it.
That’s what I plan to do during the weeks when I’m not seeing clients this year.
I’ll let you know how it goes. 🙂
What changes are you planning to your practice this year?
If you feel you’d benefit from a mentoring call to help you find some clarity, feel free to get in touch.
Just email me: hello@yourradiantbusiness.com
