One of the things I focus on a lot when coaching is getting my clients to think about when they are most productive. It’s really easy to slip into the mentality of sitting at your desk for a designated number of hours (or your kitchen table, like I am right now – more on that in a minute), being busy, but not actually achieving very much.
I have a small messenger chat group of a few clients where we check in on each other each day to find out how things are going. We share ideas, we share wins, we share the days when being an adult seems far too difficult, and we share support & chat. Running your own business can be a lonely place sometimes, and that little group is just one of my support mechanisms.
And it also helps me with my own productivity.
Ollie (hubby) & I have just recently been away for a week of winter warmth in January, and for the second year in a row I took my laptop. It’s the only time I take my laptop away on holiday. Why? Frankly, because the weather isn’t hot enough for me to sit outside without several layers of clothing on (a wonderful legacy of cancer & chemo is still never being warm), and I get bored. But the playoff when I said I wanted to do this for the first time was Ollie, quite rightly, saying he didn’t want me to be sat at the laptop for 6 hours.
So I said I would set a timer to do 2 hours of laptop time each day. And I did. And it was liberating.
I got more done in that focussed time each day than if I had been prepared to sit in front of that laptop for 6 hours.
Why? Because it made me concentrate on getting things done with the reward of the rest of the day to do something else.
This year, I decided to bring that mentality home.
So today is a day I have no coaching clients booked in. I have several of those each month. It’s deliberate – it gives me time to work on my business instead of being in it all the time, it gives me time to do things for me, and it is the whole reason I wanted to be my own boss 23 years ago – freedom.
I have a new product (one of many) that I will be launching at the end of April, and I have a few things to do to get that launch ready.
Instead of sitting in my office, on this wild, windy & wintery day, getting cold feet & getting a bit miserable, I’ve brought my laptop into the kitchen & am sat in front of the Aga. It’s currently 10:15am. As soon as I finish writing this, I’m setting an alarm for 12:30pm. When it goes off, I’ll stop, pack the laptop away & do something else for the rest of the afternoon.
You see, productivity isn’t always about being busy. It’s about creating a balance. When you find that, you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve with a little focus, some time boundaries, and, of course, a carefully crafted list of tasks that encourage you to get things done, rather than plunge you into overwhelm about how much you have to do.
One of those new things I’m working on? An online class to help you find that balance. You heard it here first – keep your eyes peeled on my website for launch dates & offers for that, and the other exciting stuff coming later this year too.
Take a look around, and while you’re at it, why not join the Heroes Hub, it’s completely free & full of great tips & guides to get you started.