Since I’ve been writing about me, how I take care of myself in the cold weather, and what I like about the change of seasons and what I focus on in the fall, I thought I’d just keep it going and write about the daily life of a health coach. I’m sure not every health coach has the same daily routine, but this is a glimpse into my life.
Because I have my own business, and because I love what I do, I really could work 7 days a week, but I have to mindfully put limits on my work time, and plan in the personal family time, volunteering, social, hobbies, and the time it takes to manage the household too with gardening, cleaning, shopping, cooking, maintenance and repairs.
I have a lot of freedom at this point in my life. My husband is still working full time in his career, and my son is away at college, so I just have to worry about the cat and myself!
I’m a scheduler, so everything goes in my calendar. I not only schedule appointments, meetings, and daily physical activity, but I also schedule in time to take care of the garden, grocery shop, clean, etc. There is no typical week for me, but there are some activities that are repeated in the schedule that I don’t like to miss such as the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning spin class and the Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday morning yoga classes. Having these in the calendar first thing in the morning gets my day going. Once the morning activity is completed, I feel good; I feed myself some healthy nutrition, and start my workday.
I aim to work for 6 hours a day on my business each weekday from at least 10-4, and then work on personal tasks from 4-6. Business items always include social media, blog posts, research, meeting with clients, writing up client notes, following up with potential clients both individual and corporate, or community, developing new programs, recording my nutrition series, and networking.
Typically a weekly walk with my friend Mary is figured in around 4:00, as is an hour of tennis one a week. Generally one or two evenings a week are work related meetings such as a networking event or a weekly diabetes prevention program meeting that I run for the local YMCA, and one or two, or three evenings with hobbies (singing) or volunteering (mentoring, political activism, organic coop), or getting together with friends.
Working from home means not having a commute and that is amazing, especially after years of long commutes on subways, trains and by car. I never felt badly about commuting by public transportation, but I really did not like having to use a car to do my work due to the environmental impact. Now, most of my meetings out of the house are really local, even walkable, and most of my work with clients is virtual, over phone or computer.
Weekends usually involve some work, but I love to start Saturdays with a trip to the local farmers market, and hopefully get a hike in with my neighbors.
I am so fortunate and grateful for every day. How do you spend your day? If you are a health coach, I’d especially love to hear from you!