It was five in the morning. My family was still asleep, my coffee was hot, and I had a gel pen I love and a blank planner page in front of me.
Not a task list. Not a content calendar. Just a question: where is this business actually going?
That morning was the first time I had ever set aside time just for strategic thinking. Not executing. Not creating. Not responding. Leading.
By nine AM I had more clarity than I had gotten in the previous three months.
That was my first real CEO Day. And if you are a mompreneur running your business in stolen moments, reacting to everything, never quite leading anything, this post is for you.
What a CEO Day Actually Is
A CEO Day is protected, intentional time dedicated entirely to thinking, planning, and reviewing your business at the strategic level. You are not creating content. You are not answering emails. You are not catching up. You are leading.
Most mompreneurs spend 95 percent of their time in execution mode. Doing the work, keeping the wheels spinning. But execution without strategy is just busyness. It moves you through the day without actually moving you forward.
The CEO Day is how you get back in the driver’s seat.
The Five Questions That Run Every CEO Day
I structure every CEO Day around the same five questions. Write these down.
- What is working right now, and why?
- What is not working, and what does that tell me?
- What do I need to decide that I have been avoiding?
- What does the next 30 days need to look like?
- What do I need to hand off or stop doing entirely?
That last question is where most mompreneurs find the biggest wins. There are tasks in your business right now that do not need your hands on them. They need a system and a handoff. The CEO Day is where you identify them.
What My CEO Day Actually Looks Like
I want to be honest with you. It took me a while to take my CEO time seriously. I felt like I had to earn it first. Build the audience, land the clients, then I could slow down and think.
That thinking was backwards.
Here is what I do now. Every Sunday evening, I sit down for my weekly CEO review. Once a month, on the first Saturday morning, I take a longer three-hour CEO Day for deeper planning.
My setup is simple. Clear desk, planner open, pull out what I need from my STORi desktop organizer keeping everything in its place so I am not hunting for anything mid-thought like a good pen. If you’re a writer, good pens matter more than you think. I use the Vanhench gel pens right now and the smooth write actually slows my brain down enough to think instead of just react.
I even change out of my pajamas before I start. Not for anyone else. For me. It signals that this time is different.
And I wear something comfortable. A chunky knit sweater on a Saturday morning with coffee is my version of a CEO uniform. Cozy, intentional, settled.
Your Six-Step CEO Day Framework
- Protect the time first. Block it before anything else touches the slot.
- Prepare your physical space. Clear the surface. Get your tools out. No phone.
- Start with a review. What happened last week? What were the results?
- Work through your five CEO questions. Write your answers longhand if you can.
- Set your three CEO priorities for the week. Only three. Everything else is maintenance.
- Close the session. Write one sentence about how you feel. Then close the planner.
What Happens When You Protect This Time
Your decisions get sharper. Your content gets clearer. Your team, even if your team is one VA and a podcast editor, runs smoother because you are giving direction instead of reactive instructions.
And at home? You show up differently. Less scattered. Less anxious. More present at dinner because you are not carrying that low-grade stress of a business that has no one steering it.
I think about my girls watching me build this. I want them to see that their mom took her work seriously and took her family seriously. Not as two things fighting each other. As one integrated life.
The CEO Day is how those two things coexist.
Listen to Episode 14
In this week’s episode of The Visionary Mom Podcast I walk through exactly how I build my CEO Day, including the specific questions I ask, how I structure the time, and the mindset shift that made this stick for me when everything else I had tried had not.
Listen to Episode 14 wherever you get your podcasts or click the link below.
Grab the Free CEO Day Planning Guide
If you want a structured template to run your first CEO Day, the free CEO Day Planning Guide is built exactly for this. It has the five questions, a weekly review section, and space to set your three priorities. Grab it below.
FREE CEO Day Guide: https://nicolevasco.squarespace.com/ceo-day-guide
Tools I Use for My CEO Day
A few things that make my CEO time feel more intentional:
- STORi SimpleSort Multi Organizer Set [https://amzn.to/4a217cv] — My desk setup. Everything has a place so nothing interrupts my thinking.
- Vanhench Gel Pens [https://amzn.to/3S2qa9d ] — Smooth, satisfying to write with, and somehow make the whole planning ritual feel more grounded.
- Tunic Top [https://amzn.to/4a5HkZz ] — Comfortable enough for a full morning at the desk, put-together enough for a quick Zoom if one lands.
- PRETTYGARDEN Chunky Knit Sweater [https://amzn.to/43z9sRg ] — My CEO Saturday morning staple. Cozy on purpose.
- Stelle Ballet Shoes for Kids [https://amzn.to/4ecGoFm] — Not a productivity tool, but a reminder of why I do this. My girls wear these while I work and that is the whole point.
Your CEO Day does not need to look like mine. But it does need to exist. Protect the time. Show up for your business as its CEO, not just its hardest worker.
Proverbs 31:27 says she watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Watching over your business means leading it on purpose. The CEO Day is how you do that.