Let’s look at 2 familiar scenarios and how to harness your brain
Today, this beautiful fall day, our topic is less sexy than the fall colors: time and tasks. This cake slice lives on the third layer of the Productivity Success Cake -in the productivity layer. It’s important because there are sometimes false ideas that to do a task, you just write down ‘Jones Project’ and you get ‘Jones Project’ done in your to-do list. NOT TRUE!
I am going to show you two different methods to do this. Pay close attention.
Method One: “Okay, today I want to do the Jones Project. I want to exercise, I want to make client outreach calls, and I want to figure out my health insurance”. I would say that this isn’t bad because you’re actually doing something to plan your day.
However, a better way to do all this is to dial it down to specifics….see below.
Method Two:
6.00am, get up
6.00am – 6.15am Coffee and stretch
6.15am to 6.45am Shower and dress
6.45am to 7.00am Breakfast
7.00am to 7.20am Drop off son
7.20am to 7.45am Meditate and set intentions
8.00am Jones Project
Notice I didn’t add, “check my email.”
Pro tips:
Within the Jones Project, start a new list. “Jones Project” is not a task. It’s a project. There are many situations like Jones. Maybe it’s a client proposal, maybe it’s a letter or letters you have to send out – it’s more than just a simple ‘pick up the phone and call somebody’ and you already know who you’re going to call. For each PROJECT, there are multiple steps. Those multiple steps come with their own unknowns and their fears behind the unknowns, and that’s what causes procrastination.
In Method Two, notice that I’m adding the preparation to my day. You may want to add things like affirmations and whatever you want to do to get ready for your day. Once you look at your PROJECT, start with an outline. Scope of work? Timeline? Gather materials? Each one of these is its own little list.
Ask yourself, “to start the Jones Project, what do I need for that?” Stuck? Many times just gathering the materials will help you get going. I have worked a lot with salespeople who might, for example, want to call four prospects or four clients every single day, but it just never gets done. What I suggest is to pre-think about that list of people that you are going to be calling, the phone numbers and all the information so that when you get down to doing the task, you’ve already got the list, it’s already set up. You don’t have to wonder “Who am I going to call?”. Lets face it, nobody wants to pick up the phone anymore.
To sum up, planning ahead with steps may not feel sexy, but it sure helps to remove procrastination. How about you?
One of my community members has reached out to me about managing your time so that you have the best income within the time that you have.
They write, “I have a problem with giving my time to the projects that will bring me the income now”. What I’m hearing: this person knows that they need to change their time management, such that they are being very deliberate about how they spend their time, so that they have the best income for the smallest amount of time. This person is a parent and has a lot of responsibilities outside of their business.
As a reminder, time management falls in the 3rd layer of the Productivity Success Cake, (the Productivity layer), above health and environment. Therefore, before we do anything on our time management, we want to make sure that our health is in a “good enough” place, (doesn’t have to be perfect), and that our environment is in a “good enough” place (doesn’t have to be perfect!). You can complete the Productivity Success Cake quiz here, completely free, and see where you rate (for your own purposes) on that cake.
Now, when we dug a little deeper and the writer went into more detail about this issue, they said that they had tried different things, but that they believed what was getting in the way was:
believing that ‘everything is valuable’
The person writing in with this issue knows that time needs to get slotted to a certain kind of work (where money comes), and yet this belief ‘everything is valuable’ is preventing it. And if this is valuable, then it all has to get done. What I know about having everything needing to be done at the same time, is this is a recipe for overwhelm. When we’re in overwhelm we don’t do anything. We become stuck; we become stagnant. In flight or freeze, that’s freeze – what we don’t want to do. So going back to the beginning, we don’t want to believe that everything is important. When we believe that everything is important and therefore needs to get done, we don’t do anything.
Here’s where prioritization becomes really important.
Then there are some other things that this person wrote to me. This person found that what they know to make money (albeit inconsistent), it felt boring, repetitive, & unfulfilling. This person was thinking, ‘building my business requires many things working together in a set routine, but I can’t make myself do the same thing every day. I get bored and gravitate towards tasks that feed my creativity’. What it takes to create that momentum and build on that momentum is known, and yet there’s this yearning, this boredom, this lack of dopamine, this lack of creativity.
Behind this, there might be a belief that it’s all or nothing. Here is what it may sound like: “either I do these boring things and I make money, or I have fun and I’m creative and I don’t make the kind of money I want to”. So do you see how these beliefs start to really impact what’s going on?
Now let’s address ‘inconsistent income’. Money was coming in, but it felt inconsistent. When the inconsistent money came in, this person realized, “hang on, I need to do some automation to get more consistency.” That automation was probably pretty boring. So now we’re back to the real problem: “It’s boring to make money. I really want to be creative”.
Well, I have some really beautiful news for you. It does not HAVE to be that way.
The way I teach things and the way I run my own world, my own life and my own business is that fun, joy, and creativity are not mutually exclusive to earning an amazing living. Not just a good living, but an amazing living. These things can and will and do (and actually I believe must) coexist. Joy and income are not opposite sides of the spectrum.
I recommend that your first step to get to a joyous place and really dial in to be able to earn the income you deserve is to download your Unscatter My Life guide. What you’ll find is that there’s a roadmap.
The Roadmap: Decide, Discern, Discover, Practice, and Celebrate. The person who wrote in with their conundrum is in the “Decide” step, because the decision must be made. “Do I really want this? Why do I really want this? What do I have to gain? What do I have to lose?” Lack of decision slowly kills us and will completely put a cap on greatness. We can only operate in that kind of a situation for so long.
So- say this person decides “You know what? I’m done with this crap. I’m going to go ahead and do these steps”. The step after Decide is Discern and that’s where we really dig in to what we love, what we’re good at, what the world needs, and what we can get paid for.
Before we ever get to that Productivity Success Cake (which is Discover), we really dial in on the Discern step. When we’re so deeply discerning, then that serves as our north star. The problem is not being able to focus on the things that make us money, as that’s the presenting problem. The real issue is some beliefs that are behind here, and therefore actions that then support those beliefs (i.e. when I make money, it has to be boring. It has to be the same thing all the time, and it has to be unfun). guarantee you that you’ll stay in that loop until you die. So we don’t want that. We want you to turn that around, make a big decision, a big bold decision.
Download the guide, do the exercises and make your decision, and from there you can go into the discernment.
That was a lot. I can’t wait to support you. Once you download that guide, there’s a place where you can have a free call with me so that you get your own roadmap and should you decide to take that step now, you’ll be on the road to deeply discerning and therefore acting in your own best interest. And that’s why I exist in the world. So I will hopefully see you on that call. It will blow your mind and change things for the better. What do you have to lose?
It’s summer of 2023 and…we’re back! There’s essentially no (that I can see) leftover pandemic-shut-down things that affect us. Hooray! We have a lot of pent up desire to do a lot of things, and especially to have a lot of fun. I want that for you: to have a lot of fun! I want you to enjoy your summer, enjoy your life, and to do the things that really matter to you – and to be the person that you really want to be. However, sometimes because we want to do all these things, we can over commit and then we dance with overwhelm.I love dancing, and I don’t love dancing with overwhelm. How about yourself?
Today we are focusing on avoiding overcommitting and dancing with overwhelm in the context of creating a summer that you want.
Now that it’s July, here are some tips for a No Overcommit Summer.
Remember that you get to decide to have the summer that you want. You are allowed tobelieve that you have all the time you need. My mantra: “What if I had all the time I need?” can be shared freely! From that mindset and from that perspective, I think automatically we’re more grounded. When we’re more grounded, we make far more rational decisions. We make decisions from our gut, from our heart and from our soul, and not from a place of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) and feeling as though we have to commit to everything.
Be grounded with lists. Making sure you’re grounded means different things to different people. It may mean creating a ‘not-to-do’ list. It may mean creating a ‘nice to-do’ list. The other day, I did that: I wrote down what I wanted to do for the week, and as I was doing this I realized I could pull out a “nice” (not necessary) list. So I made a line at the bottom of my to-do list and created the Nice To Do list. This was so empowering!
Continue reading or watch the video
Be grounded with Sleep. When you look at your schedule, make sure the first thing you do is say, “okay, this is my sleep time”. That sleep time could be different in the summer, and you still need sleep, right?
Be grounded with Focus time. Ask yourself “when am I best?” or “When am I at my best focus?” Make sure you’re clear about that.
Be grounded with deciding: One overarching thing to remember about being grounded is being totally at peace with deciding. You may know about the five step UNSCATTER process starting with 1) Decide; 2) Discern; 3) Discover; 4)Practice; and 5)Celebrate. That first step, DECIDE, is in RED because it’s a really big deal! In my group programs, that ‘decide’ is in a big red ball. In fact, if you go to my website, I’ve got an entire 10 page guide to help you DECIDE (just enter your name and email). When we keep our options open because we’re “not sure” and there’s too many options and too many ideas, and we are thinking to ourselves “maybe I’ll make this plan, but maybe I’ll cancel, or maybe I’ll make these reservations and maybe I’ll cancel, or maybe I’ll buy something and then I have to return it” that is so much scatter and so much energy wasted. However, if you just take a moment, get grounded, and then make a decision from that grounded place, you can avoid all that back and forth and get a ton of time back. You get a lot closer to the truth: you have all the time you need (see tip number one!)
BONUS TIP: When you’re looking at your calendar and you schedule your vacations, you schedule your sleep, you schedule things that you’re already completely committed to, and one final thing. Go deep into your value system and say “what is my most outlandish desire?” Find a place in your schedule for THAT!
In fact, I did that yesterday. I had this outlandish desire that -in truth -I didn’t believe I could actually get. I would like a whole weekend completely and totally to myself, where I had no phone calls, no friends, no family members, no work, just absolutely, positively, for me and no else but me to do as much or as little as I want to. I have scheduled that, and it is the third weekend in September. I can’t even believe I’ve done it, but I have. So that is my most outlandish desire.
I wonder- what is yours? Let me know. What is your most outlandish desire that you’re almost afraid to say out loud? I’m going to have you say it and or type it below. And then- as a bonus – put it on your calendar. It took me 15 minutes to try to find this one weekend. It wasn’t easy. I’m a busy person, and I am so excited that I found this because the truth is that you have all the time that you need overcommitting, committing and dancing with overwhelm is a habit that you can break.
Have fun and stay in Whelm!
Warmly,
Carol
PS: I will see you again in two weeks. I’m on vacation starting Monday, July 3rd. My next blog/video will be sent out on Sunday July 16.
In our last blog post, we talked about the reasons why you should say NO sometimes and how that little word can help you gain clarity in your own goals.
In this post, we’re going to look at key ways that you can say no and mean no, but do it kindly, too.
1. No excuses.
It’s often the prevarication around the word NO that causes all the
problems. Because we feel uncomfortable
in refusing a request, we often feel we need to provide excuses or beat around
the bush, rather than plainly saying “no”.
It’s this evasion that provides the window of opportunity for others to
mistake our NO for a YES and, before we know, we’ve agreed to the request we
were hell-bent on refusing!
Instead, just be straight. Don’t stall or hesitate. Your refusal is enough. You can offer a brief explanation if you wish, but don’t feel duty-bound to. Be assertive, yet courteous. A response along the lines of, “I’m sorry, I can’t right now, let me come back to you when and if I can” resets the power dynamic in the conversation, putting you in control.
2. Boundaries are there for a reason.
Your personal boundaries are set by you and give you the best compass of whether you should say yes or no to a request. How will the other person feel if you say no? By looking at, and understanding, the dynamics of your relationship with them, you will see that a good relationship can withstand your refusal to one task. If you feel the relationship will suffer by your refusal, then surely that says more about your relationship than anything else?
3. Put yourself first.
Be firm in your refusal. Don’t feel compelled to say yes simply because the other person won’t like a refusal. It’s essential you put your needs first. If you constantly try and please all of the people all of the time, you’ll simply end up pleasing no one! In order to be the best version of yourself, you need time and space to grow and this means having the wherewithal to say NO when that request takes you too far off your own track. Besides, in order to give to others, you need to have something to give, so feel comfortable in saying no.
In summary, remember that YOU come first. Don’t feel bad about furthering your own success by saying NO to others.
You’ll often find that a firm, polite NO will increase the other person’s respect for you and allow them to see things from your perspective.
In our last blog, we looked at the power of leveraging more than one mind in your business success. Now, following on from that, let’s discuss ways to put that success into turbo drive in 2019.
The power of hyperfocus.
Big picture thinking is usually where we start with any new idea. The mind maps, the brain-storming sessions, the “getting it all down on paper” phase is great. It allows all our thought processes, our ideas to come together; a visual representation of what’s been milling around in our brains. But, what then? How does this translate into the steps needed to succeed?
The answer is hyperfocus. This is the ability to focus on one thing, to the exclusion of all else for an extended period. Use your time to focus on one point at a time, without distraction, and then move on to the next. By working in this way, you can avoid distraction and maximise productivity, which in turn leads to a focused to-do list of tasks that you can work to, rather than a vague idea.
Be selective about how you spend your time.
The interesting thing about being productive is that it is about becoming selective in what you do, not trying to do everything. The truth is, the more work we must do, the more “frazzled” our brain becomes and we end up working on counter-productive tasks, simply because they are in front of us.
It’s okay to say “no” to certain opportunities, for example. Don’t go down the route of stacking more demands on your already laden plate.
Remember from our October blog, we discussed how free time is vital time? That free time, time to dream, time to rest, recharge, reenergize and regain perspective is vital.
We see productivity as getting more done, which to most of us, translates as spending more time and effort on tasks. In fact, it is just the opposite. In order to achieve more, we need to focus on less. Spend our time on the goals that matter, and work in a way that brings maximum value to our time.
Leverage your Mastermind Group
How much time do you spend marketing your business? It’s possibly the biggest time-suck of all. Keeping up to date with social media, with networking, with lead generation; it all takes time.
But this is where your Mastermind Group is invaluable. Your group peers all have their own personal networks, just waiting for you to explore! You know the saying, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get”? Well, ask for referrals, ask to be recommended to potential leads, really leverage that group – an be prepared to reciprocate.
So, in conclusion, although you may be self-employed, that doesn’t mean you have to be isolated. How good would it feel to have a group of compatriots there who have got your back and who, you, in turn could support? A win-win situation for all participants. New friendships, new collaborations, new encouragement. What’s not to love?
Is there a honeymoon period when running a business?
You know the deal. You start your business; you don’t miss the water-cooler politics, the commute, the endless meetings for the sake of it. The rosy tint on those self-employed glasses leads to a romantic vision of what self-employment means… but, at some stage, reality bites! You miss the camaraderie with colleagues, the feelings of “we’re in this together” and you find yourself overwhelmed with plans, ideas, lists. Not to mention the headache from wearing all those hats. CEO one minute, office clerk the next.
So, what can you do about it? Where can you go to bounce around those ideas, while obtaining valuable feedback from like-minded individuals, all the while making valuable progress towards your end-goals?
The answer is a Mastermind Group. A group of individuals striving for a common purpose and supporting each other along the way. Not convinced? After all, won’t this all take valuable time? Time that you could have dedicated to working on your business? Sure, you’re going to have to commit to regular meetings (either in person or “virtual”), you’re going to be held accountable for your actions. You’re going to have to realize that “it’s not all about you” But, what about the benefits? Let’s look at how you can leverage your impact with a Mastermind Group:-
Business Idea Support
You’ve got a great business idea, right? Everyone thinks it’s a winner… except the “everyone” in this case is your partner and your mom. Not exactly objective opinions, then? This is where a Mastermind Group comes into its own.
There is a real synergy of energy, commitment and, dare I say, excitement that emanates from a good Mastermind Group. Members support each other with total honesty, respect and compassion. After all, the group should be made up of people in a similar position to you, so whilst it may not always be plain-sailing in terms of pitching your ideas, you know that any criticism will be constructive and aimed to challenge, rather than destroy. We all love being Devil’s Advocate sometimes, don’t we?
Your peers are there to give you feedback, help you brainstorm new possibilities and set up accountability structures to keep you focused and on track.
Use your members to gain a different perspective and iron out any wrinkles before you take your idea to market.
Social Support
Sometimes your self-employed solitary efforts can feel like solitary confinement!
Remember your employed days, when you were surrounded by others and could regularly tap in and out of human interaction? Wouldn’t it be nice to have some compatriots to celebrate your success now? Commiserate with your failures (we all have ‘em!) and to just, well, listen sometimes?
With a Mastermind Group, you’re part of an exclusive community (and, hey, there’s no admission charge!) The feedback you receive can transcend just business issues and extend to your own self. It can be so liberating to review yourself and get impartial input. Being around those you feel comfortable with stimulates the “happy hormone”. The result? Better mental and physical health.
Referral Partners
Members of a Mastermind Group all come with their own “tribe” – their own network of contacts. Over time, as you build your relationships with your peers, they will generally share their contacts with you. This gives you access to a greatly-extended personal network – no elevator pitch necessary – the recommendation has already been made for you.
In our next blog, we will look at how you can put your success into turbo-drive with focus, productivity and those Mastermind Groups, too.
