It’s day 4 of these Joyful 2016 challenges! How are you doing? Have you wholeheartedly accepted them and 100% stayed true? I’m rooting for you, friend!

Day 4 may not apply to everyone out there…but for those of us who own our own business, it will speak directly to your over-tired, over-worked, over-committed heart! How many of you creatives (or really anyone who owns their own business), forget to schedule days off each month? *raises hand* I’ll admit to this 100%. At the beginning of 2015, I promised myself I would schedule weekends off and certain days each month to have more family time and to keep my sanity. I probably stuck to about 20% of those “scheduled weekends/days off” and instead, when someone wanted to schedule a session, I’d just schedule it regardless of it was a day off or not because in my business mind (that was shaped so hardcore from being in the corporate world for 8 years), I figured some money was better than no money. But this isn’t always the case. When I’m 80 years old, will I think back and say “man, I’m sure glad I took extra work instead of extra family time back in my twenty’s or thirties”… NO! These are the DAYS you guys!! My daughter is 2 and our family is making memories every second of the day! Now I feel guilty thinking about all of the scheduled days off I put on my calendar last year that I ignored and took work anyway. It wasn’t fair to my family :-(

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my job, and I absolutely LOVE my clients! When you think about it though, we went into business for ourselves for a reason, right? Part of my reason was to create more work-life balance since I had almost NONE when I worked in the corporate world (I mean, my Blackberry rang during dinner and I took the call if it meant more money in my pocket – yikes! ZERO work-life balance there), SO, now its time to work on making that actually happen! :)

Schedule days off.

I just bought my Simplified Planner for 2016 as well as some stickers off of Etsy that read “DAY OFF” and a few others that read “DATE NIGHT” and I’m thrilled to have them come in!! My plan is to sit down one day and go through my Simplified Planner and mark weekends and days off with these stickers. If its STUCK on there, then there’s no way around it, right?! :) LOL. Last year in iCal I would just delete “day off” and replace it with “____ Family Session”, but not this year! Those little stickers are going to save my life. I’m determined for them to! I have promised myself to mark ONE weekend off a month with a week day or two here and there (thats the kicker for me) to just catch up on house work and to just be. 

Keep them scheduled.

I know you guys, it is SO HARD to take days off. It wasn’t hard for me when I was in the corporate world because I LOVED not being stuck in that tiny cubicle with no fresh air all day. I LOVED not having to be at the office at 7:30am until 5:30pm, and I loved not having anyone to answer to. Taking time off was easy and turning that company issued blackberry off was the highlight of my LIFE, haha!! BUT– now I own my own business, and my boss is pretty cool (LOL). I love what I do with such a passion and I love the PEOPLE even more. What I do allows me to be home with our daughter and create memories for others to cherish for a lifetime…its a meaningful and fulfilling job and taking a day off sometimes really breaks my heart. But I never want to look back and think to myself that I missed major moments with my daughter or my family because I was glued to a computer screen or always gone. So next year, when I mark a day off, its staying that way :) I will never mark more than 12 weekends a year or more than 2-3 week days a month off, and in the grand scheme of things, that is NOT a lot of time off… so why have such a tough time sticking to it?

Schedule date nights.

I love the little Date Night stickers I bought to go in my planner!! That amazing husband of mine deserves for me to put everything aside to spend time one-on-one with him. We loooove us some date nights and next year I am determined to make them happen more often! Not only are these stickers super cute and fun, but again, if its “stuck” on the planner page, it MUST happen, haha!!

So I challenge you…

To take that step with me if you feel overwhelmed by MORE work and LESS life. Schedule days off. Stick to those scheduled days. Have lots of family time or whatever means the most to you. Let’s turn it around to LESS work, MORE life! If you accept this challenge, comment below letting me know you accept and let me know how you plan on sticking to those scheduled days/weekends off! I’m always up for hearing how others successfully do things :)

Cheers to a joyful 2016! Another tip + challenge is coming tomorrow, xo!