CEO time and why Your Business Needs You to Stop Working In It

There’s a version of business ownership that looks like this: you open your laptop, dive straight into client work, respond to messages, create content, put out a few fires, and somewhere around 2pm you realise you haven’t eaten, you’re behind on three things and you have absolutely no idea if any of it is actually moving your business forward.

Sound familiar?

That’s what working in your business looks like. And most women in business do it on repeat, week after week, wondering why things never quite shift.

That’s exactly why I introduced CEO Monday into my own week, and why I teach it inside the Life Aligned Business® Mastermind. It changed the way my weeks feel, and it changed the results I see.

Working IN your business vs ON your business

Working in your business means doing the daily tasks that keep things running. Client delivery, content creation, admin, responding to DMs. It’s necessary, but it’s reactive. You’re responding to what’s already in front of you.

Working on your business means stepping back and looking at the bigger picture. Strategy, direction, finances, planning, reviewing what’s working and what isn’t. It’s proactive. It’s where growth actually happens.

If you only ever work in your business, you will stay busy but not necessarily move forward. You’ll always feel like you’re one step behind because you never gave yourself the time to get ahead.

So, what is CEO Monday?

CEO Monday is a dedicated block of time, ideally at the start of your week, where you step out of the doing and into the leading. You become the CEO of your business, not just the worker in it.

It doesn’t need to be a full day. Even 60 to 90 minutes of focused, intentional time can completely shift how your week unfolds. The key is that it’s protected. It’s not the time you squeeze in between client calls or use to catch up on emails. It’s specifically for working on your business with a clear head and a bird’s eye view.

Think of it this way. A CEO doesn’t spend every hour in the weeds. They check in on the numbers, they look at where things are heading, they make decisions, they plan. That’s exactly what this time is for.

What to actually include in your CEO time

Here’s what I recommend covering, and you don’t need to do all of this every single week. Rotate through what’s most relevant to your current season of business.

1. Review your numbers Look at your revenue, your expenses, and where you’re tracking against your income goal for the month. You cannot make good business decisions without knowing your numbers. Even a five minute check in here is better than avoiding it completely.
2. Plan your week with intention Look at your available hours and map out your priorities. Not your whole to-do list. Your top three needle movers. What would make this week a win? Start there.
3. Check in on your goals Where are you at with your monthly or quarterly goals? Are you on track? Do you need to adjust your approach? This is where you course-correct before you get to the end of the month and wonder where the time went.
4. Review what’s working and what isn’t What content performed well last week? What offers are getting traction? Where are people dropping off? You don’t need a complicated analytics system. A simple honest review of your activity and results is enough.
5. Content and visibility planning Decide what you’re putting out this week and where. Even a rough plan is better than winging it every day. This is what stops the Sunday night spiral of “I have no idea what to post tomorrow.”
6. Business development thinking Is there a new idea you want to explore? A collaboration, a new offer, a shift in your messaging? Give yourself permission to think about where your business is going, not just what needs to get done today.
7. Mindset check-in This one often gets skipped and it’s the most important. How are you actually feeling about your business right now? What’s feeling heavy? What needs to shift? Your mindset drives everything, and a few minutes of honest reflection here can change the energy you bring to your whole week.

A simple CEO Monday structure

If you want a place to start, here’s a straightforward structure that fits within a 90 minute block.

• 10 minutes: numbers review
• 20 minutes: weekly planning and priorities
• 20 minutes: goal and progress check-in
• 20 minutes: content planning
• 20 minutes: business development or mindset work

Adjust it to suit your season. Some weeks you’ll need more planning time. Others you’ll need to sit with your mindset first before anything else makes sense.

The reason CEO Monday works

It’s not just about productivity. It’s about how it feels to run your business.

When you have a dedicated time to think clearly, plan intentionally, and lead your business with purpose, you stop feeling like you’re always catching up. You start the week with direction instead of dread. You make better decisions because you’re not making them from a place of overwhelm.

And honestly? It’s a reminder that you are the one in charge here. You built this. You get to decide how it runs.

That’s what CEO Monday gives you. Not just a better week, but a better relationship with your business.

You are not your business

One of the most important shifts you can make as a business owner is understanding this: you are not your business. Your business is a separate entity. It is something you have built, something you run and lead, but it is not who you are.

This sounds simple. But for most women in business, especially those who have poured their heart, their time, and their identity into building something from scratch, the lines become incredibly blurred.

When your business has a slow month, you take it personally. When a post doesn’t land, you question your worth. When a client doesn’t sign, you wonder if you’re good enough. That’s not strategy. That’s what happens when you’ve fused yourself so tightly to your business that every result feels like a reflection of your value as a person.

And CEO Monday actually helps with this too. Because when you sit in that CEO seat, even for 90 minutes a week, you are practising the skill of looking at your business from the outside. You are reviewing it, assessing it, making decisions about it. You are the leader, and it is the thing you are leading. That distinction matters more than most people realise.

Your business has its own energy, its own seasons, its own growth curve. Some months will be slower. Some strategies won’t work. Some content will flop. None of that is a measure of who you are or what you are capable of.

When you separate your identity from your business, something really freeing happens. You stop making fear based decisions. You stop shrinking because of a bad week. You start leading with clarity instead of reacting from emotion.

You are the visionary. Your business is the vehicle. And like any vehicle, it needs to be driven with intention, checked in on regularly and adjusted when the road changes.

That is exactly what CEO Monday gives you the space to do.