The ultimate time management strategy for online business builders
Taking on a new business is no small task, and anyone that tells you otherwise is sugar coating it. Before having kids people think they have no time for them, but after kids they can’t remember life without them- and wouldn’t want to. Before starting a business, people think they have no time as well, but in this case it’s not the same storybook ending. Some people NEVER find the time for their business while others do. And not only do they find the time, they thrive in it.
So what’s the deal?
People today are chronically busy and rarely have any breathing room. In fact, many of us are run so ragged that we fall into bed each night feeling exhausted....yet very few people feel fulfilled. We've forgotten how to fill our cups and take care of ourselves. We live our lives pleasing everyone around us and often neglect our own needs. After burning the candle at both ends for so long, it's no wonder we feel like we can't take anything else on!
We’ve forgotten how to fill our cups and take care of ourselves
Luckily, we can take back control WITHOUT giving up what is most important to us. Balance is possible. It just takes some dedicated thought and intention to find it.
The bottom line is that your life may be 100% packed, all day, EVERY day...but if someone close to you died tomorrow or needed emergency surgery, you'd clear your calendar and handle it. So busy IS a choice - it's PRIORITIZING that's the issue. So let's break down what you can do to understand what keeps you busy:
Busy is a CHOICE. It’s PRIORITIZING that’s the issue
STEP 1: CONDUCT A TIME AUDIT
Take a time audit of your life for at least 3-5 days. Jot down what you're doing in a notes file on your phone. INCLUDE work activities at a high level (sitting in meetings 4hrs, emails 2 hrs, etc) as well as home activities (cooking dinner 1 hr, eating dinner 30 minutes, clean up 30 minutes, kids bath time 30 mins, etc).
Be sure to include and be HONEST about time suckers like social media and games. To find proof look at your phone in settings --> battery --> battery usage for the last 24 hours and the last 7 days and look at the percent and the hours. This is likely another truth bomb for you so prepare yourself!
If you see social apps, make sure you jot down “scrolling” time vs. “work time”. It’s important to distinguish between the two because many business owners tell themselves they are working….when really, they are scrolling.
I’m not going to check on your audit so there’s no point lying. Be honest with yourself.
Is Candy Crush on there? Instagram? Twitter? YouTube? Look at the last 24 hours of battery usage each day for 3-5 days and compare what your phone says to what you wrote down.
Know how you spend your time so you can identify how to rebalance it
STEP 2: CATEGORIZE ACTIVITIES
Categorize each activity as either "energy giving", neutral, or "energy draining". Look at how many fall into each category. Circle the "energy giving" activities that you enjoy the most and circle the "energy draining" activities you hate the most.
It’s not that we have too MANY activities, it’s that we have too many ENERGY DRAINING activities and not enough ENERGY GIVING activities
STEP 3: BALANCE ACTIVITIES
Protect your energy giving activities. If you don't have any, or don't have enough, identify ones that you'd love to add to your list. This could be self care items, things that "fill your cup", or things that are aligned to your passions or interests. HINT: Energy giving activities are either aligned to your natural talents and purpose or they will lead you towards it. These are IMPORTANT.
Not enough energy giving activities? This is a problem! Many people (especially women and moms) neglect themselves in order to take care of others. That’s not ok.
I repeat, that’s not ok. If you’ve been waiting for permission to take care of yourself, I’m giving it to you right now!
Everyone’s list of energy giving activities and self care activities might look different but some examples include quiet reading time, drawing/painting, taking a bath, exercising, enjoying a quiet cup of coffee/tea/wine, reading to your children, cuddling with your significant other, taking a walk, playing with pets, or (yes) even staring blindly at the TV and allowing your mind to wander...although I strongly recommend other activities that allow you to be alone with your thoughts and not just in a weird haze.
With energy giving activities, ADDING one can feel like you took 10 things off your plate.
Too many energy draining activities? This is a problem too. People are chronically guilty of assuming they are stuck with these. In fact, I used to be one of them so don’t think I’m getting preachy over here! It took me YEARS to shake out of it but here’s how to start.
ASK OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS WHAT THEY THINK OF THOSE ACTIVITIES. Ask them if they view them as energy giving, neutral, or energy draining. Don’t tell them what YOU think and taint their perceptions, just ask and then be quiet. Let them answer.
Novel idea right? I assumed that everyone hated vacuuming as much as me and that I was just stuck with it. As it turns out, my fiance actually likes it. He gets a weird satisfaction out of seeing the fresh vacuum lines in the carpet. Well maybe he doesn’t LIKE it per se...but it’s certainly neutral for him.
With energy draining activities, REMOVING one can feel like you took 10 things off your plate.
And this is just one example. I ended up finding multiple activities that I hated and others didn’t mind. There were quite a few that my kids were eager to do in order to earn a special privilege or earn some extra money. Go figure!
STEP 4: OUTSOURCE ACTIVITIES
Identify energy draining activities that you could look to reduce or outsource. Can you quit or walk away from any of them? PSA- you don't HAVE to be on every committee or do all the things all the time. You can say no. It's a complete sentence.
Can other family members take them?
Can you hire them out? Are there neighborhood kids looking to earn a few bucks on simple things? For repetitive business activities, can you hire a virtual assistant or use automation tools?
Can you barter with your significant other to get some off your plate in exchange for picking up something that is less draining to you from their plate?
If you absolutely cannot quit or offload these items, can you time stack them (example: listen to an audio book while cleaning the house, write the grocery list while getting a pedicure)?
Example 1- Groceries & Meals
One of my big energy drainers was writing a grocery list, doing the grocery shopping, and being in charge of cooking every. darn. night.
Seriously? Do I have to be consumed by feeding everyone all the darn time? I hated it!
Well, I found a few really neat resources to make this easier. The first, www.plantoeat.com, allows me to upload recipes in seconds. I then drag and drop meals into a calendar to plan my week, and it automatically creates my grocery list for me based on what meals I’ve selected! Then, I simply plug in the items to my local grocery store’s Click n’ Go service so that they do the shopping and I simply select a pick-up time. I also make sure that there’s at least 1 “fend for yourself night” where everyone can just eat frozen pizza or make peanut butter sandwiches and one “leftovers” night. Additionally, I make sure that 1-2 meals can be made in my Instant Pot.
And guess what? Because of that balance, the handful of meals that I cook from scratch outside of those “easy nights” have become energy giving activities for me! I do enjoy cooking - just not every night.
Example 2- Repetitive Business Activities
When people are looking at starting a business for the first time, the minute they feel fear they tend to jump to the “I don’t have time” mindset and assume that 100% of the business related activities will drain them. That’s just not rational and is entirely fear based.
There are definitely parts of my business that give me energy and parts that drain it, and you’ll likely find it’s the same for you. There are a handful of time stacking, outsourcing, and automation tools that I use to balance my energy and have a thriving business at the same time.
Assuming that all business activities will be energy draining is entirely fear based and is preventing you from experiences that could be amazing for you.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
First, I automated the repetitive parts of my customer service platform. For example, I’ve built a rather large customer base and I learned early on that when it comes to notifications on upcoming shipments or sales, they prefer a text or facebook message to an email. I mean, let’s be honest, only 20% of emails are ever opened whereas over 80% of texts and messages are opened. So in order to give good customer service, I promised that I would text or message them.
But this led to me sitting there for 60+ minutes at a stretch sending the same message, over and over, to my 20+ people who had upcoming shipments and 80+ people who wanted to be notified of upcoming sales. Talk about energy draining!
Instead, I now use an automated messaging service for text messages as well as for Facebook messages. I can plug in one notification and in less than 5 minutes that message can be delivered to dozens or even hundreds of people. Not only do they receive the messages from me in a more timely manner, but on the Facebook message version I can embed links to websites if they want to “browse” or look around themselves. I can also provide choices such as “I’ll handle my account myself” vs. “Please help me with my order” so I know who to give more of my time to.
To grab my swipe file on how to implement this yourself, just click here to learn more. Again, there are no easy buttons, but there ARE shortcut buttons!
There are no easy buttons, but there are shortcut buttons!
CONTENT CREATION
Second, I hired a virtual assistant from UpWork to help with content creation. As you get further into personal branding and creating content, you’ll find yourself creating everything from social media images to blog posts. My assistant creates professional images for me on Canva so every week I have a fresh batch of 7-14 images to use on my social platforms and websites. And she’s from Singapore where there are tons of highly qualified virtual assistants with college degrees who offer high quality services for as low as $3-4/hour (which is a great rate for them). That’s a win-win!
To grab my Canva instructions that I use for my own virtual assistant, just click here. They include written instructions (for you and your assistant) as well as video tutorials so you can be 100% sure they are doing it right. Enjoy that shortcut, friend!
PROSPECTING AND RECRUITING
I personally found prospecting and recruiting to be exhausting, and frankly the rejection wasn’t much fun either. So I developed a system to fix those problems, allowing me to focus on the part of recruiting that I do actually enjoy - talking with interested people and finding the best way that I could help or serve them.
So now, instead of getting ignored and rejected, people literally hunt me down and seek me out!
This system automates attracting interested people, automatically separating the curious from the serious, and driving seriously interested people directly into bookings on my calendar. In this way, I set up my system and then literally sit back and watch the calendar bookings roll in! It’s not uncommon for me to be sitting at work (for my day job) working on something completely unrelated to my business, and see leads and calendar bookings popping up on my personal calendar. This allows me to focus on my day job during the day, and to only talk to the most serious business prospects in the evening or on the weekends.
I call it the Magnetic Business Machine, and it’s completely changed my business.
If you’re interested in business but don’t want to be “that person”, then this is for you.
If you’re in business but haven’t been consistent because you don’t like being “salesy” and don’t like constant rejection, this is perfect!
Busy professionals and busy families don’t have time (and frankly aren’t interested) in the energy draining, repetitive, non-value added activities that most companies teach. Which, of course, is why here at Build a Life by Design, our motto is “there is a better way”.