How to Run a Business While Working Full-Time (My Real Weekly Schedule)

Building While Working Full-TimeSolopreneur Resources

Jun 5

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I record my YouTube videos before work on Mondays.

I wake up, make coffee, open the blinds (because I don’t have a ring light, we use natural light around here), and record. Then of course last week Oakley threw up on the floor and I had to clean that up before I left for my shift at the gift shop.

That's what running a business alongside a full-time job actually looks like. Not a highlight reel. Not a 5am morning routine. Just a real life with a repeatable system built around it.

I've been running my business for 10 years. Right now I work full-time at a gift shop, do contract work for Kit, and I'm building Weekend Empire at the same time. Two days off a week. And a dog with strong opinions about potty times. Everything you're about to read is what actually works inside that reality.

The System: Two Anchor Days

The thing that made everything click was stopping trying to work every single day and instead picking two anchor days where the heavy planning happens.

For me that's Sunday and Thursday. I found that the split days off from the store allow me to touch my biggest projects (client work and my own content), at separate times in the week instead of having two days off together and maybe not touching projects for 5 whole days. This way I have a 3 day split and a 2 day split and nothing goes untouched for too long.

Everything else, the recording, the editing, the posting, happens in the pockets around those two days. The anchor days set the direction. The rest of the week just executes.

Sunday: The Planning Anchor

Sunday is the most important day of my week. If Sunday doesn't happen, nothing runs clean.

I sit down with my Claude project and plan the week's content. YouTube topic, email, blog angle, the overarching theme gets locked in first. Then I plan Threads and Instagram content for Monday through Thursday. I go through Thursday on Sunday so that when I sit down on Thursday to make more content, I’m not having to create/schedule it for day of. I’m staring with the next day.

After content is planned, I do client work and anything else that has a deadline. Sunday is also when I do Kit contract work if something's due.

It usually takes 2 to 3 hours total to plan. Oakley is on the couch. Coffee is made. It's not glamorous but it's consistent.

Monday: Record Before Work

Monday I record the YouTube video before my shift.

This only works because the script is done from Sunday. I'm not figuring anything out Monday morning. I sit down, open the blinds, and read. 45 minutes, sometimes less. I don’t do any editing here, no thumbnails. Just record and save the raw video on my laptop and go.

If I need b-roll for an Instagram reel, I record that too. Then I finish getting ready and leave.

Tuesday and Wednesday: Edit Around the Store Schedule

Tuesday is a store day so I do a rough edit when I get home if I have the energy. Cut the obvious stuff like bloopers, dead space, and filler words. I just make it workable. I don't try to finish it.

On Wednesday I finish the edit. This is when I also do captions, thumbnail, YouTube description, and schedule it for Thursday morning. The email usually goes out Wednesday or Thursday.

Thursday: The Publishing Anchor

Thursday is my other day off and it does a lot of work.

The video goes live. The blog goes up. The email goes out if it hasn't already. (This is all scheduled before hand, but Thursday is the big content drop day.)

Then I switch gears and plan Threads and Pinterest for the rest of the week, Friday through Sunday. And I get Pinterest set up for the following week if I have time.

If there's still time after that, Thursday is when I check in on any clinet projects, then work on anything extra. Website updates, product work, whatever's been sitting.

The Real Insight

The system doesn't have to be beautiful. It has to be repeatable. And it has to fit your schedule, not mine or anyone else’s.

I'm not working every day. I'm not doing two hours every morning. I have two anchor days and everything else fits around a full-time schedule and a dog who needs her walk at 6pm whether or not the funnel is done.

The reason it works isn't discipline. It's structure. Batch the heavy thinking, then show up in the pockets. Don't start from scratch every time you sit down or you’ll find yourself trying to work through the same things every time and getting nowhere slowly.

If Your Tech Is the Bottleneck

A lot of people I talk to aren't stuck because of time. They're stuck because something in their tech is broken and they don't know how to fix it, so the whole system stalls.

That's what Fix My Sh*t Sessions are for. We get on a 90-minute call, you bring the thing that's broken or the thing you've been putting off, and we fix it together. You also get 30 days of email support after so you're not back to Googling the next time something breaks. If that sounds like something you need, apply here.

Friendly Reminder

You don't need a perfect schedule. You need two anchor days and a system that fits around your actual life.

Start there, friend.

chat soon,
Delana

P.S. Hey solopreneur! If you're ready to stop Googling and just get the thing set up, my shop has templates and mini-courses for exactly that. No fluff, no 40-hour course, just the done-for-you tools to get your business backend actually working. Check it out here! ✨