Quick question: Did you design your work week, or did you just accept the default?
Since I resumed work in mid January, I rearranged my entire schedule. Consolidated clients and my shifts into four intense days. Gave myself Fridays off.
Not because I had permission. Because I took charge.
Here’s what happened.
Today in 5 minutes or less, you’ll learn:
✔️ What to retire this year (the power of subtraction)
✔️ The unquestioned belief about yourself that might need examining
✔️ Why I redesigned my work week around batching—and what it taught me about rest, creativity, and “balance”
Doable ideas 💭
In case you haven’t, try to list three things you’re officially retiring this year.
Not adding. Subtracting.
Commitment that drains you. Habit that doesn’t serve you. “Should” you’re tired of carrying.
Subtraction creates space. Addition often just creates overwhelm.
Reflections 🪞
What’s one belief I hold about myself that I’ve never questioned? Where did it come from, and is it still serving me?
Mindfulness 🧘🏻♀️
I’ve been running an experiment for the past three months.
Rearranged my entire work week. Moved clients around. Changed my shifts.
The goal was to have Fridays completely off.
Three months in, here’s what I’ve learned about context switching, rest, and why “work-life balance” might not mean what we think it does.
How it used to work
My schedule was scattered. Clients spread across Monday to Friday.
Some days I’d have a 3-hour break midweek. I usually would head to the park, do some calisthenics, and go to see more clients (after-school hours are popular).
It felt productive. Felt like I was managing my time well.
But looking back, I was constantly switching between modes. Work → life → work. Multiple times every day.
The cost I didn’t see
Every switch between contexts takes energy.
That 3-hour break? About 30 minutes to rewire my brain from work mode. Maybe 2 hours actually relaxed (if I’m not exercising). Then another 30 minutes getting back into client headspace. Not to mention the commute in between.
So the real free time was closer to 120 minutes, with 60 minutes spent just… transitioning.
And getting back to work afterwards was sometimes hard (especially knowing in an hour or two you’ll be really finishing off). My brain had shifted gears. My body had relaxed. It would take me 30-45 minutes to feel properly focused again.
Do this 2-3 times a week, and that’s 3-4 hours every week lost just to switching gears.
Those scattered breaks never felt fully restful. Not gonna lie, there was always this low-level work anxiety in the background.
What changed
I didn’t like how things were. So I took charge.
I consolidated everything. Work happens Monday through Thursday now. Fridays are protected—no clients, no work.
The trade-off
I’m not going to pretend weekdays easy now. They’re longer. More intense. Back-to-back sessions.
But I’m already in work mode when Monday starts, so I just… stay there. Lean into it. Get through it.
What I gained
Friday through Sunday: completely off. Every single week.
Not scattered hours here and there. Actual full days.
I get most life admin stuff (laundry, going to post office, seeing my hand therapist, you name it) on Friday morning and I can truly enjoy the weekend with people I care about.
Three-day weekends have become my normal in 2026.
What this made possible
Travels.
Road trips, overseas trips… none of this would’ve happened with my old schedule. You can’t exactly book international travel with short notice and leave on a Thursday afternoon.
Full days off create possibilities that scattered free time just doesn’t.
The creativity piece
Here’s something I didn’t anticipate: my work quality has actually improved.
Turns out, I need proper rest to be creative. Real rest—not 90-minute breaks with work thoughts still floating around.
Music therapy needs me to be present. Creative. Emotionally available.
When I’m tired from constant context switching, I can be functional. But I’m not particularly creative. Not as present as I want to be.
Now? Mondays are hard, but I’m genuinely rested from three full days off. My client sessions are better. I’m more engaged. More creative.
Those scattered breaks never gave me that. They were too short, too fragmented. I never felt truly off.
It is also easier for me to schedule “deep work” (uninterrupted blocks of time for important tasks) during the weekend so I can work on my creative projects – like this email you’re reading.
Rethinking “balance”
We’re often told that balance means spreading work and life evenly throughout the week.
A bit of work, a bit of life, every day. That’s supposed to be healthy.
But I’m not sure that’s the right framework.
Balance isn’t necessarily about even distribution. It’s about designing something that actually works for you.
For me right now, that looks like: concentrated work Monday-Thursday, fully off Friday-Sunday.
It’s not evenly balanced. It’s deliberately batched. And it works better for how I function.
You can design this too
The thing about “work-life balance” is it assumes there’s one correct formula. But there isn’t.
There’s just what works for your current season, your work style, your values.
If you’re self-employed like me, you might be able to batch your week similarly.
If you’re in a corporate role, maybe you can’t take every Friday off. But perhaps you could batch all your meetings into two days instead of spreading them across five. Or protect one morning each week for uninterrupted deep work.
The point isn’t to copy what I’m doing. It’s to stop accepting default arrangements and start designing deliberately.
You’re allowed to design differently
Here’s the thing: you don’t have to accept the default setup.
Working 40 hours spread across 5 days isn’t a law of nature. It’s just convention.
You’re allowed to design your work week around what actually serves you. What helps you do your best work. What gives you the rest you need.
Maybe that’s batching. Maybe it’s scattered. Maybe it’s something else entirely.
But it helps to design it actively rather than just accepting what’s been handed to you.
Look at where you’re losing time to context switching. Notice what the cost is. Then see what you might want to redesign.
You’re not looking for some universal “balance.” You’re looking for what works for your life right now.
And those two things aren’t necessarily the same.
Ideas Worth Pondering 🧠
The key to performance is preparation. Obviously, preparation lets you become more confident and prevent many setbacks in advance. But it’s also the ticket to a regret-free life. I want to be able to say, “I have done everything I can to make the most of this moment. Let the chips fall where they may.” Then I’m ready.
– Chris Sparks, on Interview with Justin Peters on The Struggle is Real
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