Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
This month, July, has five weeks, and so I’m mentioning the fifth-week hack again, as I do from time to time. This is to emphasize how you can take significant time off every year, four whole weeks!, without disrupting your cashflow or client schedule in big ways.
I think it’s worth mentioning that many, perhaps most of us, were raised in institutions that gave us schedules. That there were very of few of us who had the freedom to create our own schedule.
This was true from childhood, through our education, and into careers and work.
As a consequence, very few of us have much practice in choosing/creating a schedule that really works for us. It’s one of the reasons Scheduling is a major topic in our Sustainable Self-Employment module in our Learning Community.
Today, I want to give you what some might call a “hack.” In truth, it’s just seeing more deeply the freedom you have to create your own schedule, to use the calendar and time to support you, your heart, your business, and your life.
Because of the way the Gregorian calendar marches out, four months out of the year have five-ish weeks.
So, for example, this month of July, 2026 started on Wednesday, July 1. Even though Monday was in June, that week was really the first week in July, due to the fact that June had a full four weeks through June 26. Look at the calendar, and you’ll see what I’m describing.
Now, for this approach to work, you need to be conscious with how you schedule your clients.
If you see clients or run groups weekly… don’t. Instead, set it up so that you see them four times per month.
Similarly, If you see clients or run groups every other week, again, don’t. Instead tell them that you’ll meet twice per month.
This change means you will have consistent client payments and flow, every month, 4 times per month, or twice per month. it’s true you don’t get an extra week of payment, but you’re not losing revenue this way.
The next step is to look out across the calendar year, and when you see a five week month, block out one of those weeks.
You’ll still see your clients or run your groups the promised amount, but now you’ll have an entire week off during the month. You can use it for vacation, stay-cation, creative projects, internal business stuff, goofing off, anything…
We used ours by going on a family vacation last week.
This is a relatively simple thing to do, but the deeper lesson is what I mentioned above: allowing yourself to see the calendar as malleable. That you can create your schedule in ways that truly support your heart, your body, your connection to loved ones and community, and still show up for your business.
The next five week month is September, 2026. Monday, August 31, through Sunday, September 27, is four full weeks. If you treat the week of Monday September 28 through Sunday October 4 as a fifth week, you’ll still have four full weeks in October, Monday October 5, through Sunday, November 1.
Are you willing to take 15 minutes, or 30 minutes, or an hour, to sit down and work out which week in September you want to block out, so you can have a full week off?
Even more, are you willing to take that time and look at the average week’s schedule as a blank slate? And then to make changes that truly support you and your business?
with love,
Mark Silver, M.Div.
Heart of Business, Inc.
Every act of business can be an act of love.
Leading Groups starts a week from Thursday
Our next course, Leading Groups in Your Business, starts Thursday, July 30.
In that course, one of the things we do is similar to what I was discussing in the fifth week hack article, and that is that you design groups according to your intentions, your strengths, your gifts… and, surprise surprise, what you actually enjoy.
Too many people just copy/paste other people’s group/class designs. And certainly, there are elements to learn and model from.
But for your groups to be successful, one of the things needed is that the group fit your heart and your intentions, not someone else’s.
That’s part of what we’ll be doing in this course, in addition to so much more.
Take a look
It’s priced at pay from the heart, and it’s immediately practical, full of healing and deeply kind.
