Being a Yoga Teacher and building your yoga business is more work than many of us at first realise. From marketing your yoga classes, liaising with your students, planning classes and doing your accounts there’s a lot to do and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or burn out. But the good news is with a few mindset shifts, a sprinkling of productivity tools and some self-discipline you can build your yoga business with ease, flow and grace.

1) Slow down to go further.

Building your yoga business is a marathon, not a sprint and you want to be in this for the long term. So slow down to go further you don’t have to achieve everything immediately. If a sprinter approached a marathon at their usual pace they would soon burn out and not complete the run; they know they have to slow down to go further.

2) Be project based.

You can’t work on building all your classes and yoga offerings at the same time. So think about the different aspects of your yoga business as individual projects. If you teach more than one class, don’t focus on filling them all up at the same time. Pick one class to focus on and then when the numbers improve refocus on the next project.

3) Be tasked based.

There are so many different types of activities when growing your business and it’s easy to flit from task to task but this creates the feeling of overwhelm and reduces productivity. Group similar tasks together and only do one thing at a time. For instance, set aside a limited time each day to respond to emails, then move on to the next task such as writing a newsletter, try not to dip in and out of different tasks.

4) Have an ideas book.

Yoga teachers are often very creative and ideas come to use freely. This can lead to starting lots of new projects but not seeing them through. When you get a new idea it doesn’t have to be actioned immediately, remember we’re being project-based. So keep an ideas book, note everything down and when you have completed a project and honestly have space to take on something new return to your ideas book and see what is still resonating with you.

5) Reuse, & repurpose

Look back at the yoga courses, workshops, classes you have delivered previously and repeat them! Reuse your lesson plans, playlists, course materials and marketing. You will have new students who want to do this offer, students who didn’t do it before and students who would gladly repeat it! You don’t always have to start afresh!

6) Pre-book time off in your diary

If you leave blank space in your diary it is easy to fill it up! Pre-book weekends off, days off, weeks off in your diary for the whole year. Make this non-negotiable time!