Category: video

Messy desks. They’re a distraction that you want to clean up, but it feels like a HUGE project.

And honestly, it probably is, or you’d already have cleaned it.

A couple of years ago, my desk was in quite a state. It has a large surface area, and every bit of it was covered.

I wanted to clean it up because I knew it was distracting me, but I felt these things stood in my way:

• I needed a system for the business cards that were piling up on my desk so they wouldn’t start piling up again.
• I needed to remove old papers from my file cabinet to make room for the new ones.
• I wanted to update how I filed things in the file cabinet.
• I needed to make decisions about where I was going to store some larger items.

The list goes on and on.

To sum it up, there were systems, processes, and lots of decisions that needed to be made in the process of cleaning off my desk.

Cleaning off my desk felt important, but all those other things didn’t.

In a fit of frustration one day, I grabbed a laundry basket and put everything that I didn’t want to stay on my desk into the basket.

It felt so good!

My desk was clean in under 10 minutes.

Yes, basically, I had moved my mess to a different location, but it worked for me. The main problems where addressed: my desk was clean and I didn’t spend 2 hours cleaning it that I felt would be better spent elsewhere.

For the next month or so, the basket sat behind me. If I needed anything, it was easily accessible.

Then, one Sunday afternoon, I spent a couple of hours going through the basket and putting things away. 

When I’ve shared this story with people who have told me they’re frustrated with the state of their desk, it’s like a weight has been lifted from their shoulders. Or a big project they felt like they should do, but didn’t have time to do, was removed from their to-do list.

Sometimes we need permission to do something imperfectly and still enjoy the result we wanted!

If you need this, I give you permission!

In this example, cleaning my desk perfectly involved lots of time and decisions. Yet, I was able to get the ultimate result I wanted in a fraction of the time by not being tied to the way I thought it had to be done.

Yes, I still did that work over the next couple of months, but I was able to do it without the guilt and give myself time to figure out systems and processes that worked for me.

Is there an area in your business or life that keeps nagging you? How might you more quickly get the result you want by doing it imperfectly? Share in the comments! 

PRODUCTIVITY FOR SOLOPRENEURS: INSIGHTS TO GETTING THINGS DONE #127

Maybe you’ve recently thought something like the title, or “I should be spending more time doing x,” where x is something outside of work.

If this hasn’t come up for you recently, it probably has at one point or another.

The word to notice here is should.

Notice the “I should be spending more time…”

There’s probably one of two things going on when you think or say that.

One thing is a knowing inside of us, our intuition, telling you that maybe it’s time to adjust how you’re spending your time and reset boundaries around your time.

If you need to reset boundaries, there are a couple of things to ask yourself.

The first one is: What blocks of time are absolutely, without a doubt family time, self-care time, or whatever it is that you need to set boundaries around.

Some of the blocks are one-time things. They’re special events or occasions that you want to make sure you’re there for. You put them in your calendar, and they are untouchable.

There are also more routine things. What are the times you’re there every single week or day? Maybe Thursday night is family night, and you watch TV or a movie together or play a game or have dinner together.  

There isn’t a right or wrong way to do this. It is about finding what works for you.

The second question is: What blocks of time are absolutely, without a doubt business time?

Like family time, this might be one-time special events: maybe there is a networking event one evening that is important for you to attend or some other activity. Or it might be something like “I’m working from 10-3 every weekday” That doesn’t mean that you don’t work before or after that, but you know that this time is reserved specifically for business.

Again this is about what works for you.

Here’s the thing about working for yourself: YOU get to set your hours. 

And it might be that you work 30 hours or you might work 50 or more. It’s about what works for you. And it probably changes from week to week or depending on what’s going on in your business.

This leads us to work-life balance.

Some say work-life balance does not exist. It’s a mythical unicorn that simply doesn’t exist, so don’t waste your time searching for it.

But it’s all about how you define work-life balance.

If you’re expecting to have equal parts work and life like a perfectly balanced teeter-totter (see the image below), then yes, that doesn’t exist.

Now, think of that triangle as your expectations of what your work-life balance should be. 

If you shift that triangle to the right, it allows one of the circles to be larger, and everything is still balanced.

However, if you think of the triangle as your expectations and you shift it a bit to the left because you know you’re in a season where you want or need to spend more time in your business.

Work-life balance is more about your expectations than it is about finding some equal balance.

When you shift your expectations for work-life balance, it allows it to balance.

When looking at your work-life balance, what are your expectations?

We all go through seasons in our business and personal lives where one area needs more time and attention. And that’s okay.

If there are people in your business or personal life that are affected by this shift, you’ll want to make sure that they’re on board with the change.

And if you’re spending more time with your business, make sure you’re still taking care of yourself. This includes getting enough sleep, spending time with the people you care about, and that you’re still doing the things in your personal life that are important to you.

Again, decide what work-life balance looks like for you right now and work toward that. There is no one right way to do it. It’s about what’s right for you right now.

I share a little bit more about this in the video below.

One thing is a knowing inside of us, our intuition, telling you that

PRODUCTIVITY FOR SOLOPRENEURS: INSIGHTS TO GETTING THINGS DONE #126

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve talked with several business owners, and I’ve noticed a subtle trend.

They’re feeling behind or feeling like they should be further ahead of where they are.

The side effect of this is feeling like they need to do more or be more NOW.

They’ve come for help on how to get more done faster to get to where they feel like they should already be.

There generally are things everyone (including me) can do to be more efficient with our time and efforts.

The thing about feeling like you’re behind or should be further along is you can make improvements, but you’re probably still going to feel like you’re behind.

The problem isn’t that you’re not already doing enough. My guess is you are doing a lot.

The problem is you don’t recognize how much you’re doing and how far you’ve already come!

In one conversation, in particular, I listed back some of the things she mentioned she’d already accomplished and pointed out that those things were a lot of work.

Once she could take a step back and see it, she laughed and agreed. She had been accomplishing a lot!

She was so focused on her incomplete tasks and where she felt she should be, that she didn’t notice how much progress she had made.

That progress needs to be noticed and celebrated!

When you focus on where you think you should be and feeling like you’re not doing enough work fast enough to get there, you can end up beating yourself up and running yourself into the ground. And you start sacrificing time with family, with friends, and for self-care in an effort to do more.

Instead, take a step back and notice how much progress you’ve made!

And give yourself space to breathe.

PRODUCTIVITY FOR SOLOPRENEURS: INSIGHTS TO GETTING THINGS DONE #125

The other day I was on my way to a networking event contemplating what I wanted to share in my 30-second elevator pitch.

It’s something I recently added to my yearly planning that changed my approach to this year.

What is that thing?

Looking at what skills you need to improve or create.

Take a look at the goals you set for this year or quarter (later you can do this for your year, quarter, AND month goals, but for right now, just pick one time frame).

What are the skills that you need to achieve those goals?

If you’re planning on hosting a workshop some skills you might need are: speaking, selling from the stage, how to smoothly transition from content to selling, promoting, or marketing.

Beyond that, you might need skills around having a sales conversation, asking for a sale, or doing any of those things in a way that feels natural to you.

In your 2020 planning you might have missed looking at what skills you want to improve to reach the goals you’ve set with a bit more ease.

To identify those skills, look at your goals and think about what skills you need each step of the way.

Another way is to look at your goals for last year. Think about what goals you didn’t hit and which ones where the near misses or just barely hit.

What skills would have helped you achieve those goals or achieved them with more ease?

One last thing to look at is there a step in reaching goals or completing projects that you regularly find yourself avoiding, procrastinating, or just not doing?

What skills might you develop or practice that would make that step easier for you?

Knowing what skills you need to develop are gems of insight into your business that can make a huge difference in your results.

PRODUCTIVITY FOR SOLOPRENEURS: INSIGHTS TO GETTING THINGS DONE #124

“I read it, but I didn’t put it in my brain.” – Faye Burke

This is something my mother in law said the other day that I LOVED.

In the video below I share what happened that led to that comment, why I love it so much, what it means, and what it might mean for you.

PRODUCTIVITY FOR SOLOPRENEURS: INSIGHTS TO GETTING THINGS DONE #123