A 25-year-old single mother running two seven-figure businesses has revealed her daily schedule – including getting out of bed at 4am and doing ‘deep work’ sessions.
Liv Conlon, 25, originally from Glasgow but who now lives in Marbella, runs a multi-award-winning property staging business that furnishes more than 300 homes a year, as well as a StagerBoss- a coaching business that teaches other women how to do the same.
On top of that, the TEDx speaker and bestselling author looks after her nine-month-old son Cash, along with help from a nanny, as well as finding time to workout most weekdays and drink ‘mean’ margaritas in the evening.
Liv was crowned The UK Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2019 after founding The Property Stagers at just age 16 – after leaving school where she was badly bullied despite her teachers warning her not to.
It quickly became the UK’s most recommended staging company, winning 13 awards nationally and internationally in six months.
Liv Conlon, 25, has shared a glimpse into her daily schedule that involves running two seven-figure businesses and being a mother to her nine-month-old son, Cash (Liv and Cash are pictured above)
Liv, who lives in Marbella with Cash, her mother Ali, and their dog Kevin, has also launched her own charity Too Big For Your Boots, which helps young people launch their own business.
Here, she reveals her typical daily routine…
4am
The alarm goes off and I make a conscious effort to force myself out of bed.
Almost 100 per cent of the time, I don’t want to get up, but I push myself to do it as I remind myself how I’ll feel at the end of the day by waking up to get ahead. Many people don’t understand that discipline equals freedom.’
4.05am
I brush my teeth, have my first shower of the day and put on my gym clothes. Even though I’m about to go into the gym, I need to feel ready to show up for my workout fully.
At the age of 16, Liv was crowned The UK Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2019 after founding The Property Stagers
While the mother-of-one has a packed schedule in the week, she takes two days off every weekend to care for her son Cash
4.20am
Feed my dog, Kevin (he must be the earliest rising dog on the planet) and I make my son Cash’s bottles for the day.
4.30am
Head to my home gym in the basement. My workout is already pre-planned by my online personal trainer. I plug in a podcast to listen to and begin. I work out consistently four times per week (every weekday, with a rest day on Wednesday), and it’s mainly strength training.
Joining Liv and Cash in Marbella is Liv’s mother Ali (pictured left), who also works in the businesses
5am
Wrap up my workout, put a light-up collar on Kevin as it’s dark out and we head out on our morning walk, leaving Cash and my mother Ali in the house.
5.40am
Arrive home and take my second shower. This is when I officially get ready.
Depending on what type of day it is – on or off stage – that controls ‘how ready’ I get: An on-stage day is when I’m on Zoom calls, being interviewed or recording videos for social media. This requires my hair being styled and a full face of makeup.
An off-stage day is when I’ve scheduled a day of working behind my screen, this requires minimum makeup and my hair scraped back in a bun.
6am
Meet mother in the lounge for coffee and protein shake. This is one of my favourite all-time daily non-negotiable rituals.
My mother and I work together (she joined the business when I was 18) and so our 6am coffee chats usually consist of a catch up of what’s happening across the businesses, or it’s a deep chat around personal development and insights around videos and podcasts we’ve both watched.
6.30am
Sit at my desk in my home office and work on my first deep work session.
Deep work is a term coined by Cal Newport in his book ‘Deep Work’. Put simply, it’s working distraction-free (no notifications or interruptions from anyone) for a minimum of two hours.
It’s the highest form of work you can do as you get into a state of deep flow and so you’re able to perform cognitively intensive tasks.
In the first time slot of the day, I check my emails, messages and socials for any quick responses required, usually this is minimal, and I’ll flag any bigger responses for later in the day to respond to.
Then I ‘eat the frogs’, aka I do the work that I want to do the least. This usually consists of chipping away at a bigger developmental project that I’m working on across one of my two companies.
8.30am
Cash wakes up. This again is my favourite daily ritual, getting my son out of his cot, changing him and giving him his first bottle of the day.
It wasn’t always like this, for the first seven months of his life I was up at all hours of the night and he woke up much earlier. Since sleep training him I’ve been able to plan my schedule as his sleep pattern is more predictable.
9am
Cash’s nanny arrives, she looks after him from 9am-3pm each weekday. When she arrives, my work day begins again.
If this is an on-stage day, I will travel to my office (five-minute drive) and work from there for the day. If it’s off-stage I work from my home office to save travel time.
This is my second deep work session. I always know the project I’m working on as I work a month in advance and my hour-by-hour diary is planned a week in advance. This is usually a continuation of what I’ve been working on previously in the morning.
The mother-of-one takes the whole of Saturday off to recharge, spend time with her son, and make the most of living in Spain
The entrepreneur maintains a busy schedule during the week, which involves light and deep work
Between 12 and 1pm
I’ll break quickly for lunch. This is usually something I’ve meal prepped at the weekend. I’m currently following a meal plan that was given to me by my personal trainer, so I’m focusing on hitting an amount of calories and protein, and I’m a vegetarian.
I eat a salad most days for lunch, so I prep all of the ingredients so these can be thrown together in five minutes. In the evenings I’ll eat a larger meal such as a vegan curry, chilli or stir fry.
12pm
If this is an on-stage day, this is the session in the day I’ll host calls or record content as I feel fatigued from being on a screen all day. If it’s off-stage, I’ll continue working on my action plan for the day.
During the week, Liv has hired a nanny from 9 am until 3 pm to care for Cash while she manages her hectic work schedule
Liv was badly bullied throughout school and teachers warned her not to start her own business. She started one nonetheless, and by the age of 16 she was crowned The UK Young Entrepreneur of the Year
3pm
Cash’s nanny leaves. Around this time, Cash will usually be going down for his second nap, give or take 30 minutes.
I use this time for what is called ‘shallow work’, these are tasks that don’t require your highest performance and deep concentration.
I’ll respond to messages or emails that I flagged that morning, deal with any personal admin such as booking appointments or online orders, and get ready for Cash waking up and spending time with him until bedtime.
4pm
My phone and laptop are off and I spend quality time with Cash, my mother and Kevin.
We will either take a walk by the ocean, go out for some early dinner, or just chill at home by our pool with dinner and a margarita in hand (I make a mean margarita).
7pm
I take Cash upstairs for his bedtime routine and he sleeps blissfully until 8.30am the next morning.
Managing her work schedule has gradually become easier for Liv after she sleep trained her son Cash
At around 3 pm, Liv completes shallow tasks that require less concentration while Cash has his afternoon nap
7.10pm
I chill on the sofa watching some Netflix to unwind from the day, I love watching a great series and totally zoning out.
I have two modes, you’ll either finding me watching ‘Dream Home Makeover’ or ‘Selling Sunset’ on Netflix (of course, I run a home staging company) or re-watching ‘Game of Thrones’ or ‘Ozark’.
9pm
I go to bed, and repeat again tomorrow.
Liv and Ali meet every weekday morning at 6 am while Cash is still asleep to run through the day’s plan
The mother-of-one dedicates her mornings to deep work sessions, where she turns all electronics off and focuses on important tasks
My weekends
From Friday at 3pm, our nanny is finished for the week and I’m back into being a full-time mother, which I love!
I like to have slightly slower mornings with no alarm, although I often wake up around 5am naturally.
I’ll get my dog walk in, and sometimes a little bit of work before Cash wakes up. When he wakes up, our weekend begins.
I take the whole of Saturday off and also Sunday until around 4pm and when Cash naps I will do my meal prep for the week and start to make a work plan for the week ahead.
I have recently outsourced my cleaning as I can be more productive working and I want to spend any free time I have with Cash. When Cash is awake he is ‘full-on’ and we have a lot of fun together, making the most of living in Spain.
Why she does it
On the weekend, Liv is a fully present mother and takes time off all electronics to spend time with her son
After joining Liv’s business in 2018, Ali enjoys life in sunny Marbella with her daughter and grandson
Liv said of her daily routine: ‘I work very purposely. I love the quote ‘What is done in the dark is seen in the light.’
‘At times I’m sure my life looks glamorous but people only see the light part: speaking on stages, being interviewed, staying in cool places. However, it has taken many years of working behind the scenes to get to this place.
‘I recognise that my schedule could be viewed as quite extreme and it’s not for everyone, but it works for me.
‘I’ve programmed myself this way for so long that I take joy in my schedule, and when I go on holiday and don’t follow it, I enjoy the break but also look forward to getting back into it.
‘I often get DMs on Instagram when I share my daily routine that I should take more time for myself, but by working this schedule, I am taking care of myself.
‘The first two hours of the day are putting myself and my wellbeing first. I spend the first two hours solely focused on my health.
‘I’ve struggled to carve that time previously and it took its toll, so I now make it a very conscious effort to put my health above my business.
‘Another reason that I work to this schedule is so that I can be a fully present mother. When I’m with Cash, I am never on my phone or kingslot96 laptop, I’m enjoying every moment. On the weekend, work doesn’t even enter my mind, we have two full days of fun.
‘Ultimately, everything I’m building is to create a life with no limits for us, and to change other people’s lives along the way, and I’m really excited to be a role model for him – that no matter what he wants to achieve, he can do it.’
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