Running your service business shouldn’t feel like you’re constantly chasing your own tail.
If you’re exhausted, inconsistent, or stuck in a pattern of overworking, it might not be your motivation that’s off, it’s your energy alignment.
Let’s talk about how to create a schedule and business rhythm that supports you, instead of drains you.
🌿 Why Working With Your Energy Matters
Research shows that over 60% of women business owners experience burnout, often because we design our weeks around productivity, not wellbeing.
Men’s energy typically follows a daily rhythm (thanks to testosterone cycles).
Women’s energy is more cyclical, flowing through monthly highs and lows. Add in family and emotional responsibilities, and it’s easy to see why a “go hard all year” approach doesn’t work.
It’s not always about pushing harder, it’s about recognising the season that we’re in and adapting.
🌸 The Four Seasons of Business
Your business moves in natural cycles just like you do:
- 🌱 Growth: outward energy, marketing, launches, visibility.
- 🌾 Stabilise: onboarding, refining systems, supporting clients.
- 🍂 Maintenance: slower pace, delivery focus, family or rest.
- ❄️ Reset: reflection, strategy, creative renewal.
When you expect yourself to live in Growth Season all year, burnout follows.
Start by asking:
“What season am I in right now — and what does my energy actually need?”
☀️ How to Design a Schedule That Supports You
Here are four simple tweaks that will help your energy and business stay in sync:
1️⃣ Protect your high-energy hours.
Notice when you feel sharpest and use that time for creative or strategic work.
2️⃣ Batch the low-energy tasks.
Group admin, emails or bookkeeping together so they don’t leak into every day.
3️⃣ Add an off-grid block every month.
Even half a day for CEO time or reflection can reset your clarity.
4️⃣ Identify your biggest energy drain.
Misaligned clients? Endless meetings? Set a boundary, delegate or phase it out.
Your energy is the most valuable resource you have so treat it like the limited asset it is.
⚖️ Aligning Capacity and Decisions
Once you understand your energy flow, the next step is capacity planning.
You can’t design an aligned schedule if your offers or hours don’t match the time and energy you actually have.
That’s where my Capacity Planner Spreadsheet comes in, a simple but powerful tool that helps you:
- See exactly how many clients or projects fit into your real working hours.
- Make data-based decisions about pricing, hiring and time off.
- Anchor every business decision in clarity instead of guesswork.
🎁 Grab your Capacity Planner here: https://olivier-consultancy.co.uk/plan-your-capacity-for-success/
A life-first business grows sustainably because it honours your energy, your seasons, and your capacity.
When you plan around what fuels you, not what drains you, your creativity, confidence and results all expand naturally.
So before you plan another week, pause and ask yourself:
“Is my business working with my energy, or against it?”
Start with clarity. Start with capacity.
Your energy, and your business, will thank you for it.
