If you’re anything like most solopreneurs I work with, you’ve probably tried to solve your time problem by squeezing more into each day. Longer lists, tighter schedules, another productivity app.
The truth is, time management for solopreneurs is not about cramming more in.
It’s about one simple 30-minute ritual that helps you predecide your week, so you stop drifting, stop firefighting, and start working in a way that matches your real energy and capacity.
If we haven’t met before, I’m Moira Fuller, a business strategist and coach. I help established solopreneurs and small business owners step out of the constant admin swirl and into leading their business with more spaciousness, clarity, and calm confidence. This one ritual changed the pace of my entire week, and I want to walk you through it so you can try it too.
If you want to go deeper on freeing up time, my free Simplify Operations Audit Workbook will help you spot the bottlenecks in your business and the tiny tasks that are quietly draining you. You can get it here: free Simplify Operations Audit Workbook. It is a quick, practical way to pinpoint the few-minute tasks that are holding you back.
This 30-minute ritual will help you:
- Clear the mental clutter that follows you through your week
- Protect your deep, focused work from constant interruptions
- Match your plans to your real capacity instead of a fantasy week
Why Solopreneurs Need a Different Approach to Time
Running a business on your own often feels like spinning plates while someone quietly keeps sneaking more in. Client work, marketing, finances, tech issues, family life, all competing for the same 24 hours.
Most advice on time management for solopreneurs tells you to become more efficient so you can fit more in. The hidden message is often, “If you were just more disciplined, this would be fine.”
It is not a discipline issue. It is a capacity issue.
You have limited:
- Time
- Energy
- Attention
Good time management is really about honoring those three things and choosing where they go.
When you don’t, you end up in reactive mode, hopping between tasks, answering the loudest thing, telling yourself you will do your important work later when it’s quiet. And we all know “later” rarely comes…
I love talking about time and energy together, because your energy shapes how much you can actually get done. If this is landing for you, you might also like my article on energy-focused time management, which digs into why energy often matters more than hours.
The 30-minute ritual I’m sharing here is not about turning you into a robot.
It’s about creating a simple weekly container that protects your brain, keeps your important work front and center, and stops your week being run by email, DMs, and everyone else’s priorities.
Let’s walk through it, step by step.
Step 1: The 20-Minute Brain Dump
As your business expands, you find yourself juggling far more than your initial foundations were designed for. And when those foundations start to strain, it shows up in subtle but frustrating ways:
- You feel busy, and your attention blinkered to the most important / noisy task in front of you
- Everything feels equally important
- Decisions get fuzzy
- You hesitate or second-guess yourself
- Your to-do list never gets shorter
This is where small business / solopreneur burnout often begins – not because you’re slacking, but because you’re trying to run a bigger business on yesterday’s systems.
If you’ve been wondering how to manage your time better as a solopreneur or how to expand your business sustainably, this is the core of it.
The ritual starts with a simple, human thing – getting everything out of your head.
When and why to do it
I recommend you do this either:
- Before you finish on Friday, so you can properly switch off over the weekend, or
- First thing Monday morning, before you open your inbox
Set a timer for about 20 minutes. Then, empty your head.
Write down everything you want to get done in the coming week:
- Business tasks
- Client work
- Content plans
- Personal errands
- Phone calls and messages
- Life admin
Do this on paper or in a digital note, whichever feels best for you (I’m a paper gal). The key is to get it out of your head and into a place you can see.
Here is the important part: the goal is not to do it all, it’s to see it all.
When your brain is trying to hold your entire life in working memory, you carry a constant background hum of “I mustn’t forget…” That hum is exhausting. A simple list gives you:
- A clear map of what’s actually on your plate
- Less low-level anxiety, because your brain isn’t juggling it all
- Permission to stop mentally rehearsing your to-dos
It will also let you see what’s occupying brain space that isn’t a priority for the week after all.
How to make the brain dump actually helpful
There is one gentle rule here: be realistic.
This is not the place for “redesign entire website,” or “learn Chinese this week”.
Some tips that help:
- Write tasks in a way that is small and clear
- Instead of “fix marketing,” write “draft & schedule next week’s newsletter”
- Include personal life tasks that take time or brain space
- You don’t need to edit as you go, this is about getting it out of your head and onto paper. You can use discernment in the next step.
Once you’ve cleared your thoughts, pause. Take a breath. Even before you plan anything, most people feel a bit lighter at this stage.
Now we’re going to turn that list into a week that actually works.
Step 2: Use Your Calendar as Your Real-Life Map
This is where a lot of small business owners and solopreneurs go wrong. They plan for some imaginary open week with no interruptions, then feel behind by Monday lunchtime.
We build your week around your real life, not the fantasy one.
Map your existing commitments first
Open your calendar for the next week. Look at what’s already there:
- Client calls or other client delivery
- Group programs or commitments you want to attend
- School runs or childcare windows
- Regular walks, workouts, or appointments
- Lunch breaks!
If something is a real event that will happen, pop it on your calendar. If it’s not on there yet, add it now and block out the time.
I like to put my non-work things, like walks and lunches, in a different color. That lets me see at a glance:
- When my brain is likely to be “on” for deep work
- When I’m in more relaxed mode, like walking or doing chores
- Where I have genuine white space
These existing commitments are non-negotiables.
They shape your capacity for the week. When you can see that clearly, you stop building plans that require a 48-hour day to work.
And, you’ll naturally stop overpromising – especially to yourself.
Block one deep work window each day
Now that the essentials are visible, we add the heart of this ritual.
Aim to block one 90-minute to 2-hour deep work block per day for your most important work. I know that’s not always possible, but see what you can do.
Deep work means:
- No distractions, like your phone easily to hand or your inbox open
- Focus on one defined key task – usually something that’s important to deliver or significant for your business
If you can, place these blocks when you usually have more brain power. For me, that’s the mornings. For you, it might be after lunch when the house is quiet. Trust what you know about your own energy / wider life.
Everything else, like email, messages, small admin, and reactive tasks, fits around these blocks, not on top of them.
You’re drawing a protective ring around your most impactful work before the week even starts.
That single decision starts to shift you from “My week just happens to me” to “I’m leading how my week runs.”
If long-term planning is something that tends to slide, my quarterly strategic planning course can sit really nicely alongside this weekly ritual. The course helps you map out your next 3 months, then this Monday setup makes sure those plans actually get space in your calendar.
Step 3: Pre-decide What Goes In Your Deep Work Blocks
This is the part that changes everything for a lot of my clients.
You’re not only blocking time. You’re pre-deciding what you’ll use that time for.
This is where you shift from reactive worker to intentional CEO of your (small and lovely) business.
Shift from “never enough” to “this is enough”
Here’s what usually happens without this step. You sit down for focussed work, open your list, then spend 15 minutes deciding what to start with. While you decide, email pops up, a notification appears, and suddenly you’re back in the weeds.
By deciding ahead of time:
- You remove the constant “What should I do next?” question
- That reduces decision fatigue through the day
- You define what “enough” looks like for that day
This does something simple but powerful. It softens that nagging end-of-day feeling of “I did a lot, but somehow not enough.”
You’ve already pre-decided what “enough” looks like.
And, very importantly, you learn what’s actually realistic for you. For most people, 3-4 hours of the more focussed work each day is the absolute max (I recommend Cal Newport’s book “Deep Work” if you want to dig into this more, and you can see him talk about this here).
Fill your deep work blocks, step by step
Go back to your 20-minute brain dump list.
- Cross off anything that’s already in your calendar
- For example, client calls or events that are fixed
- For example, client calls or events that are fixed
- Circle the most important tasks for this week
- Ask, “If these were the only things I finished this week, would I be happy with how I spent my time?”
- Ask, “If these were the only things I finished this week, would I be happy with how I spent my time?”
- Place those priority tasks into your deep work blocks
- One main task per block is plenty
- If a task is big, split it into smaller, clear steps
Here is a real example from my own week. In my brain dump, I had:
- Prep new YouTube content
The tasks I had to do would take me more than 90 minutes. So I split it into specific tasks and placed them in different deep work blocks.
| Brain dump item | Deep work block task |
|---|---|
| Prep new YouTube content | Plan & keyword research topics for next 5 videos |
| Prep new YouTube content | Script “Time Management for Solopreneurs” video (this one!) |
In your calendar tool, add a short note inside each deep work block that says exactly what you’ll work on. For example, “Outline new sales page structure” or “Write 3 Instagram captions for launch.”
Once your key tasks are placed into deep work blocks, then:
- Strike them off your original list
- You can add smaller admin tasks into lighter gaps in the week – I usually group these together (eg, book boiler annual service, check zaps for upcoming bundle, review next reels for my Virtual Assistant to schedule)
At the end, you can throw the brain dump list away, because your week’s now inside your calendar. You’ve pre-decided and pre-prioritized your week.
A little reflection prompt for you: Which part feels harder right now, getting everything out of your head, or actually time-blocking it in your calendar?
If you know you’re already maxed out, my 1:1 work can help you create capacity for growth without burning out. That’s the deeper layer underneath time management for many small businesses and solopreneurs.
Step 4: Switch to One-Day View Only
Once your week is mapped, there is one final trick that makes it much easier to follow through.
Change your calendar view so you only see today.
A fully planned week can look intense when you see it all at once. All those meetings, blocks, and colors in one view can spike your stress before you even start!
When you switch to a one-day view:
- You only have to care about today’s decisions
- The plan feels bite-sized, not overwhelming
- It’s much easier to honor your deep work blocks
This ritual isn’t about turning you into a machine or filling every spare minute. In fact, you need to plan in breaks.
Coffee, walks, cuddles with the cat… it all counts.
Rest is crucial to functioning – and it’s part of what life is all about. It’s not a “reward” for being productive enough.
When you protect your deep work blocks and let admin and quick tasks flex around them, you remove a huge amount of decision fatigue. That alone changes how your week feels, even if your external commitments stay the same.
If you’re ready to go a step further and clean up how your business runs (even if you’re super-busy), my free Simplify Your Operations workbook pairs really well with this weekly ritual. It helps you identify the 1-2 release valves that will open up much more capacity for you.
Try This 30-Minute Ritual And Reclaim Your Week
Let’s bring this together.
Time management for small businesses and solopreneurs isn’t about squeezing more into your day. It’s about choosing what matters, protecting space for it, and working with your real capacity instead of pushing through every hour.
In just 30-40 minutes you can:
- Do a 20-minute brain dump to clear your head
- Map your real-life commitments in your calendar
- Block one deep work window each day
- Predecide what you’ll use those blocks for
- Switch to one-day view so it feels simple to follow
You’ll save so much more than 30-40 minutes back by pre-deciding in this way.
Try it for the very next week you have coming up. Set a timer, follow the steps, and notice how much mental space opens up when your week is pre-decided.
If you want support to keep freeing up time and energy, start with my free Simplify Operations Audit Workbook here: free Simplify Operations Audit Workbook. It will help you spot the biggest time drains in your business and create simple systems to handle them.
You don’t have to run your business in a constant state of rush. One small weekly ritual can be your first step toward a calmer, more focused, more intentional way of working.
