Scheduling your time efficiently and effectively can be a challenge for a massage therapist (helping professional).
Setting your schedule how you set up boundaries for yourself to prevent burnout and create a healing container for your clients.
One of the challenges is when you work for someone as an independent contractor or as an employee, who sets the hours and the time in between clients and when you start and end your day.  If you are an independent contractor and the business does not let you set your own day, it borders on being an employee position. When a business requires that you show up and work at certain days and times, it may make you an employee.
Another issue is whether or not you want to take same day appointments or not. Some think that taking same day appointments mean that the chance of it being someone looking for a “happy ending massage” increases because those people don’t plan ahead.
It depends on what your situation is but, I basically built my practice doing same day appointments. I started at a health club as an independent contractor and later rented from them but basically I went in every day whether I had an appoinment or not and ended up getting clients by just sitting at the front desk and talking to people.
Taking last minute clients when you are scheduled to work is a more appropriate way to set your boundaries. If someone is calling and it is 6pm and you are scheduled to go home – then taking that client may make you feel resentful.
So setting your schedule first – what time will you start and what time you will be going home and then fitting in last minute clients will serve you.
Another issue seems to be the amount of time you reserve in between clients. Some people like to schedule 15 minutes. I usually don’t do that and have people back to back but I do 50 minute hours and if people need to talk about something more, I do it in their session. If you allow an extra 15 minute space in between clients do your fees reflect that time?
Creating your day is also a mental exercise. Each day do you plan and see what you want to happen?
How you create your day is talked about by Joe Dispenza from the movie “What the bleep do we know” which is a documentary that starts the discussion about what we think about we create. You can see what he says at the movies website.
What you intend is what you get so if your schedule gets out of hand, how did you create that?
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