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How do you run a successful business in just 15–20 hours a week as a mom? For me it comes down to three things: a short, protected daily work block (I sit down around noon and clock out by 5), hard boundaries (I never, ever work Sundays), and planning my business around seasons instead of forcing the same pace all year. I work heavier in winter—that’s when I build offers, plan launches, and rebuild funnels—and I intentionally downshift in summer to be outside with my girls, sometimes to just two or three focused hours a day. No 4 a.m. alarms, no copying someone else’s morning routine. Because the business runs on recurring revenue, it keeps moving even when I step away. Here’s exactly what a day looks like—season by season—and why there’s no perfect formula you’re supposed to force yourself into.

In today’s episode, I’m pulling back the curtain on what my day-to-day schedule actually looks like as a business owner, wife, and mom of two little ones. This conversation was inspired by discussions during my Austin Mastermind Retreat, where we started talking about how different entrepreneurs structure their days, manage their workloads, and plan for various seasons of life and business.

I’m sharing everything from my typical workday schedule to how I intentionally adjust my workload throughout the year. If you’ve ever wondered how to balance running a business while raising young children—or if you’ve felt pressure to follow someone else’s productivity formula—this episode is for you.

In this episode, I cover:

• How I structure a typical Monday through Friday workday as a mom and entrepreneur
• Why I intentionally keep my workweek around 15–20 hours
• How motherhood has taught me to build flexibility into my schedule
• The difference between my summer and winter business seasons
• Why I plan launches, offer creation, and major projects around specific times of year
• How to identify the work schedule that fits your personality and productivity style rather than following someone else’s formula

How I run a successful business in just 15–20 hours a week (and plan around real life)

The short version: I protect one focused afternoon work block, I hold firm boundaries around family time, and I flex my workload by season. That’s it. It’s not a productivity hack—it’s a structure I built on purpose so I never have to choose between growing my business and actually living my life.

A few weeks ago during my Austin Mastermind Retreat, I overheard a conversation that I absolutely loved. A group of entrepreneurs started talking about how they structure their days, how many hours they work, and how they navigate different seasons in both life and business. It was one of those conversations that immediately pulls everyone in because we’re naturally curious about how other people make it all work.

It also got me thinking about my own schedule. While I share bits and pieces of my routine here and there, I’ve never really laid out exactly what my days look like or how I approach planning my business around the realities of life. So today, I want to pull back the curtain and give you an honest look at how I structure my days, how many hours I work, and why I’ve intentionally built my business around seasons instead of trying to maintain the same pace all year long.

My typical workday schedule at a glance

Here’s what a normal weekday looks like for me (summer shifts this—more on that below):

• ~7:00 a.m. — Wake up (no 4 a.m. alarms here)
• 7:00–9:30 a.m. — Breakfast with the girls, get ready, workout at our shop
• 9:30–11:30 a.m. — Time with the girls, yard and garden, husband works
• 11:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m. — Ease into work (then break for lunch, if I’m honest)
• 12:30–5:00 p.m. — Main work block: content, clients, and projects
• 5:00 p.m. onward — Clock out, make dinner, family time. Never on Sundays.

My typical workday

For the most part, I work Monday through Friday. I never work on Sundays. Never, never, never. That’s been a non-negotiable boundary for years, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Saturdays are usually reserved for family as well, although occasionally I’ll spend an hour or two catching up on something important if I wasn’t able to get it done during the week.

As for mornings, I’m definitely not someone who’s waking up at 4 a.m. to start the day. My ideal wake-up time is around 7 a.m. If I’m sleeping until 8 a.m., it’s usually because I didn’t sleep particularly well the night before and my husband is graciously letting me catch up on some extra rest. I’ve learned that trying to force myself into someone else’s productivity routine doesn’t serve me nearly as well as simply working with my natural rhythms.

When I get up, I make breakfast for myself and the girls while my husband gets in about an hour of work. During that time, I’m cooking, feeding everyone, getting myself ready, and preparing for our workout. Once that’s done, we head out to our shop and work out together before officially starting the rest of the day.

The reality of working out with young kids

Our workout block is technically about an hour, but anyone with young kids knows that schedules on paper and schedules in reality are often two completely different things.

More often than not, that hour turns into an hour and a half. Not because we’re doing some intense 90-minute training session, but because parenting tends to insert itself into every activity. There are snack requests, bathroom emergencies, crying children, kids climbing all over us, and countless interruptions that come with having little ones.

Sometimes I’m taking a break to breastfeed. Sometimes I’m breastfeeding while actually working out. Sometimes it feels like I spend more time managing tiny humans than exercising. The workout itself might only be 45 minutes, but the rest of the time is spent handling everything else that’s happening around us. Honestly, that’s just part of the season we’re in right now, and I’ve learned to embrace it rather than fight it.

By the time we’re finished, it’s usually somewhere around 9:30 or 10 a.m. My husband will often work for another hour while I spend time with the girls. Depending on the day, that might mean playing together, getting ready for the day, or heading outside to work in the yard.

During the summer especially, this is one of my favorite parts of the day. I’ll spend time in the garden watering plants, pulling weeds, or tackling the endless list of outdoor projects that somehow never seems to get any shorter.

Easing into my workday

Most days, I officially sit down to work around 11:30 a.m. or noon. And if I’m being completely honest, I’ve realized that’s a slightly funny time to start because it often means I work for 20 or 30 minutes before realizing I’m hungry and need lunch.

As I was thinking about my schedule before recording this podcast episode, I actually found myself questioning why I do that. It usually results in me settling into work, getting focused, and then immediately stepping away to make food.

Not exactly the most efficient workflow.

Lunch itself can take anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes, especially if I’m cooking. Between preparing food, eating, and feeding the girls, it’s rarely a quick process. Because of that, I’ve learned not to get too deep into anything before lunch since I know I’ll be stepping away shortly afterward anyway.

Once lunch is done, that’s when my main workday really begins.

My primary work block

After lunch, I typically work until around 4:30 or 5 p.m. That’s my main work window and where the majority of my business activities happen. Whether I’m creating content, supporting clients, working on projects, or handling the day-to-day responsibilities that come with running a business, most of it happens during those afternoon hours.

When five o’clock rolls around, I try to clock out and transition fully into family time. I’ll make dinner, and then we spend the rest of the evening together.

What that looks like depends entirely on the season. Sometimes we’re hiking. Sometimes we’re boating. Sometimes we’re simply spending time outdoors and enjoying where we live. The specific activity changes, but the priority remains the same: being present with my family.

Now, does every single day follow this exact schedule?

Absolutely not.

My love-hate relationship with structure

I would love to tell you that I’m one of those easygoing, go-with-the-flow people who effortlessly adapts to whatever life throws my way.

I’m not.

I genuinely love structure. I love schedules. I love knowing what my day looks like. If I tried to convince you otherwise, my husband would immediately call me out on it.

At the same time, having young children has forced me to become more flexible. There are days when the girls need more attention. There are days when unexpected things come up. There are days when I only get an hour of work done because that’s simply what life requires in that moment.

When that happens, I adjust. Sometimes I make up the work another day. Sometimes I don’t. The important thing is that I’ve built enough flexibility into my business that those situations don’t create unnecessary stress.

While I love structure, I’ve also learned that successful entrepreneurship often requires a willingness to adapt.

Why I work less during the summer

I intentionally work less in the summer—and it’s completely by design. During the summer months, one or two hours of my afternoon work block get traded for time outside with the girls, so some days I’m only putting in two or three focused hours. I don’t feel guilty about it, because I built my business to flex with my priorities.

That afternoon work block I described earlier doesn’t always stay intact during the summer. There are often one or two hours during that window when I’m outside with the girls instead of sitting at my desk. As a result, my actual working time may only total two or three focused hours on certain days.

I love being outside. Idaho summers are incredible, and I want to enjoy them. As I’m writing this, I’m literally looking outside and thinking about how excited I am to get outdoors once I’m finished.

For me, that’s not a distraction from life. That is life.

Rather than feeling guilty about working less during the summer, I’ve intentionally built my business around the reality that my priorities shift during certain times of the year.

How I plan my business around seasons

I match my workload to the season instead of forcing the same output all year. Winter is my heavy build season—offers, launches, and funnels. Summer is maintenance mode. Here’s the difference at a glance:

Season	What I focus on	Typical workload
Winter	Creating offers, planning launches, rebuilding funnels, updating systems, redesigning websites, big projects	Heavier—more capacity and more focused hours
Summer	Maintenance mode—clients still supported and projects still move, just with more grace on timelines	Lighter—sometimes only 2–3 focused hours a day

When I talk about seasons, I’m not only referring to major life transitions like pregnancy, postpartum, or motherhood, although those absolutely matter. I’m also talking about the actual seasons of the year and the way they influence my energy, priorities, and capacity.

Over time, I’ve realized that trying to maintain the exact same workload year-round simply doesn’t make sense for me. Instead, I’ve learned to lean into the natural rhythms of each season.

During the winter, I tend to have a much heavier workload. That’s when I’m creating offers, planning launches, rebuilding funnels, updating systems, redesigning websites, and tackling larger projects that require significant focus and energy. Winter naturally gives me more capacity because I’m spending less time outdoors and fewer opportunities are competing for my attention.

Summer, on the other hand, becomes more of a maintenance season.

The business still moves forward. Projects still get completed. Clients are still supported. But I give myself far more grace around timelines. Something that might take one week during the winter could take four weeks during the summer, and I’m perfectly okay with that.

If my dad texts me on a Tuesday afternoon and says they’re taking the boat out, I’m saying yes. If my mom wants to go for a walk through the canyon on a Thursday morning, I’m saying yes to that too.

I’ve intentionally structured my business so I don’t have to choose between building a successful company and enjoying my life. A big part of what makes that possible is building recurring revenue so the business keeps earning even when I step away.

The reality of my 15–20 hour workweek

These days, I typically work somewhere between 15 and 20 hours per week. It’s actually been quite a long time since I’ve consistently worked more than that.

Of course, those hours don’t always happen during my standard noon-to-five schedule. Sometimes I work in the evenings after the girls go to bed. Sometimes I shift things around depending on what’s happening in life or business.

And there are absolutely seasons where I work more.

A few weeks ago, for example, I was running Rich Live while simultaneously building parts of it in real time. Looking back, I probably wouldn’t recommend that strategy. There were several nights when I stayed up until 2 a.m. working while everyone else was asleep.

The house was quiet. I was in my zone. And honestly, I got an incredible amount of work done.

Those periods happen. Launches happen. Big projects happen. Offer creation happens. Entrepreneurship isn’t always perfectly balanced.

The difference is that those intense seasons are temporary rather than permanent.

There is no perfect formula

If there’s one thing I hope you take away from this, it’s that there is no perfect schedule for success.

You do not have to wake up at 4 a.m. You do not have to follow someone else’s morning routine. You do not have to copy the habits of a successful entrepreneur on Instagram simply because they work for them.

During the mastermind retreat, one of the women shared that she wakes up at 4 a.m. every day. I remember hearing that and thinking, “Holy crap.”

Because for me, 4 a.m. is when I’m getting some of my best sleep.

But that’s exactly the point.

There are countless ways to build a successful business. There are countless ways to structure your day. What works for me won’t necessarily work for you, and what works for you might sound completely impossible to someone else.

The goal isn’t to find the perfect routine. The goal is to find the routine that works for your life, your responsibilities, your energy levels, and your goals.

Pay attention to when you’re most productive. Notice when your brain works best. Build your schedule around those realities instead of fighting against them. (If you want the systems side of this, I broke down exactly how I protect a 15–20 hour workweek as a mompreneur in an earlier episode.)

Because at the end of the day, success doesn’t come from following someone else’s formula. It comes from creating a business and a life that genuinely work for you.

FAQ: Running a business in 15–20 hours a week

How many hours a week does Mya Nichol work?

These days I work about 15–20 hours a week, and I have for a long time. Most of it happens in a single afternoon block from around noon to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and I never work Sundays. During launches or big builds I’ll put in more, but those seasons are temporary—not my normal.

What time does Mya wake up?

Around 7 a.m., sometimes 8 if I didn’t sleep well. I’m not a 4 a.m. person, and I don’t think you need to be. I get far more done working with my natural rhythms than forcing myself into someone else’s morning routine.

How do you plan a business around seasons?

Match your workload to the season instead of forcing the same pace all year. My winter is a heavy build season—offers, launches, funnels. My summer is maintenance mode, sometimes just two or three focused hours a day so I can be outside with my kids. The business keeps moving; I just give timelines more grace.

Do you have to work full-time to build a successful business?

No. There’s no perfect schedule for success. You don’t have to wake up at 4 a.m. or copy anyone’s routine. The goal is a schedule built around your energy, responsibilities, and goals—mine happens to be 15–20 hours a week, planned around real life.

Resources & Links:

• Scalability
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• Learn how to run successful paid ads

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More about the Radical Disruption podcast: 

Are you wanting to make waves in your industry, push the envelope, and change the way things are done in a radical way? Are you looking for tangible, tactical, and actionable steps that will help you build a sustainable business that stands out? You’re in the right place!

Radical Disruption is home to the disrupters. Here, you’ll learn how to take your business to the next level, break the status quo, and build a disruptive business.

Nursing student turned business and social media expert and host Mya Nichol (hey, that’s me!) shares the real and raw of the crazy journey of entrepreneurship and building a multi-six-figure business.

Through solo episodes and special guest interviews, you can expect honest conversations about throwing out the traditional way of business, scaling in a sustainable way, and becoming the go-to expert in your industry. It’s time to build a disruptive business. See you on Tuesdays!

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