What if your most productive, balanced year didn’t start in January?
September has always felt more like a time of new beginnings: of wrapping up the past year’s growth and laying the foundation for the next cycle.
It’s more traditional too, based in the agrarian lifestyle most of us in this post-pandemic world are longing for.
Our school systems still use a fall-to-summer annual cycle.
This system was based on the fact that farming families needed all hands on deck during the peak growing and harvest season. There was no point trying to hold classes in the summer because nobody would attend. But the kids had time to study once farm work came to a standstill during the winter, so school became an off-growing-season thing.
Why January, anyway?
It’s a historical fluke that our Gregorian calendar begins with January. (The older Julian calendar began with March and had only 10 months.)
Eastern Byzantine traditions used September as the start of the administrative or fiscal year, and the modern day Orthodox church considers September the beginning of the liturgical year.
Benefits of a school year cycle
Working on a "school year” schedule has a lot of benefits:
1. Aligns with the natural rhythms of the seasons.
Fall’s bounty allows you to take stock of your current assets, gathering up what you have and preparing to make the most of them.
Winter is a time of storing up energy. It’s space to withdraw from the world and dig deep, work on your skills, learn new concepts, and let them incubate.
Spring is when new buds burst forth with the “overnight success” of winter’s preparation.
Summer is the maturation of that growth and the fruiting of the harvest that lays the foundation for the next fall’s bounty.
2. Follows mental and emotional energy cycles.
I’ve always loved the thrill of fall, the spiciness of the air and the comforting coolness. In Florida, September is the beginning of the growing season and it feels exciting, like it’s time to get started on all the projects I’ve been too hot and lethargic to do during the summer.
Each year has a main focus and everything done that year is guided by the “True South” of my annual goal.
The cold of winter (yes, it does get cold-ish in Florida) encourages introspection. I always feel more like learning, and staying cozy in my chair with a mug of tea is perfect for studying. 😉 Plus it’s the perfect time to plan the next growth cycle.
By February / March, I’m ready to get this party started and buckle down. All the planning is complete and it’s time for some elbow grease. Lent encourages a season of focused, intense work with the promise of Pascha at the end.
Throughout the summer, I’m continuing to water the project that I started in the spring.
3. Allows alignment with family and community.
Plus working on a school year is ideal for families with children - especially if they’re in a school system.
Homeschoolers can follow whatever schedule they want, but most of us still follow a typical school year.
4. Encourages more sustainable planning.
A school schedule encourages more cyclical planning, allowing for longer vacations around holidays, and, ideally, a longer break in the summer.
If we plan our labor-intensive improvement projects for the spring and fall, that gives us the ability to just do maintenance work during the summer and winter, which means we have more free time to spend with family. (Which is the point of having your own business, right?)
5. Encourages cycles of rest.
When things are done in a cycle rather than a sprint, you don’t have to worry about being done or whether you’ve “earned” some relaxation. Rest comes just as inevitably as work.
One follows the other just like the seasons do.
You don’t have to decide “if you’re taking a vacation this year,” vacation time will come anyway. (But you do get to decide if you want to take a big trip or not!)
On a smaller scale, cyclical planning hinges around the Sabbath. Humans were meant to rest as part of their everyday life. We sleep about ⅓ of our day (assuming 8 hours of sleep). We also need rest at least one day a week - no “servile work” as Judaism says.
5. Spiritual and physiological alignment.
This schedule puts me more in line with nature. Everybody says they want to “get back to nature…” this is probably the easiest way to do that.
The seasons and weather affect us physically, mentally, and emotionally. Working on a school/agrarian schedule puts in alignment with those changes instead of in opposition to them.
How to Design Your Own School Year Schedule
1. Choose a start date.
When I was being homeschooled, the first day of school was always the day after Labor Day (even when public schools started going back mid-August.) So I keep the day after Labor Day as the first official day of my work year.
You can pick whatever day you want, and it can change from year to year. If you have kids in school, it may be wise to set your start time a little after theirs so you’re not trying to get them ready and begin your projects at the same time.
2. Set your annual goal or theme.
No fancy projections, spreadsheets, or crystal balls necessary. What do you want to accomplish this year?
Do you need to grow your audience because so far only 5 people know you exist? Or do you need to monetize with a product or service because you have hundreds of people eager for the next thing you drop?
This will be your True South for the year: the overarching goal that all your projects, campaigns, and content will support.
3. Schedule your terms or semesters.
You can do this completely from scratch (follow along with the free instructions 👆), or you can use the framework of an existing system’s schedule.
If you have kids in a school system, it’s probably most strategic to use that schedule.
If you don’t have kids (or homeschool your kids), you can find your district’s schedule by Google searching “filetype:pdf 2025-2026 school year schedule your county your state” This lets you be in sync with the people in your physical location (bonus: you’ll feel more like a part of the community).
The American school system uses a two-semester, 4 quarter schedule, with about a week and a half for Christmas break, a week of spring break, and a couple days off for Federal holidays here and there.
This is the schedule I grew up with, but I always felt that it wasn’t evenly balanced.
These days, I use a British term schedule (Google search “filetype:pdf 2025-2026 term schedule great britain”) with a few minor adjustments for American things like Thanksgiving. It fits the way I like to work much better, and feels more natural to me.
3. Schedule your holidays
Another thing I like about the British schedule is that they get a week off in the middle of each term (“half term holiday”), two full weeks off for both Christmas and Easter, and a 2 month summer holiday. I add half a week off for Thanksgiving and generally work through the smaller Federal holidays (like Martin Luther King Jr Day. No disrespect to Dr King 😅).
Once the holiday time is blocked off, I can decide if I’m up for planning a trip during my vacation time - whether I have the budget, what other big life things are happening at the same time, etc.
But vacation time happens, trip or no trip.
4. Communicate the bones of your schedule to family and direct reports.
If you work with a team (even just one other person), let them know what times you’ll be available for work and make sure they know what your expectations are for them during the times you’re out of office. (Make the most of Parkinson’s Law 🔗)
Similarly, a general family meeting at the beginning of the year (so, late August) to discuss the big picture will help everyone be on the same page and give all family members a chance to let you know about the big things coming up in their lives.
🤓 PRO TIP: you can always add more to your schedule later. Keep it very open and big picture-y for now so you have wiggle room and plenty of downtime. DON’T schedule yourself within an inch of your life - you’ll just get “schedule rebellion” and then guilt-trip yourself for not sticking to it.
Design a work + life schedule that works for you completely from scratch! Step-by-step instructions here 👇
Let's get your finances off the back burner and into a system that actually works.