A few weeks ago I hit my limit. Several last minute meetings had made it onto my calendar, I was booked full with clients, and nothing on my priority list had gotten done.
I sat there seething with frustration. Where had all the hours in my day gone? How did everyone wind up on my calendar with 20 minute bursts in between that weren’t long enough for me to do anything productive on my business? And, how was I going to fix it?
And, I was reminded of a very important truth.
If you don’t control your schedule, someone else will.
That someone else can look like the overbearing friend who always needs a shoulder to cry on; the client who always needs just a little bit more; the Facebook group that’s always got something new to say; even your email, filled with the seemingly important {but truly trivial}.
The fact is as a mom, a wife, a daughter and a friend, who happens to be running two very different companies, my time, literally every minute of it, is precious.
And, I have to take clear control of it…with some help from a few tools I come back to time and time again.
- Freedom: One day in desperation, I got on the computer and looked up ways to shut down any Internet browsers. I knew that every time I got onto my laptop something distracted me and down I went into a rabbit hole of the unimportant.
Freedom came up as one of the first apps to try and try I did. What I love about it, is the chance to choose what I can’t access. No Facebook or Google for now. Let’s turn off The Daily Mail and The New York Times. My favorite blogs…well, you’ll have to wait for a bit. Oh, and my email…I’m not even going to look at it.
The best part is that I have a time limit that I love to coordinate with my favorite must-have tool…my Pomodoro.
- Pomodoro Timers: Pomodoro timers are based on a simple principle. If you know when your next break is, it’s far easier to focus hard on the task at hand. So you set a time on the timer, in my case 45 minutes and choose a break length after that, which happens to be 10 minutes for me.
I adjust this as I need to. In peak creative mode, I might go up to an hour and a half, but I need to focus on. And, when I break, I totally relax and enjoy! For the exact timer I use, click here.
- Kill My Feed: Facebook, my friend and nemesis all at once. I use Facebook for business every day. Facebook ads and groups are part of my business plan. And, they work great…until I hop on and find myself scrolling through a feed of high school classmates and cute babies and miss 25 minutes of my day.
When a brilliant member of my Mastermind shared Kill My Feed with me I almost fell over. It’s a plug-in for Google chrome that literally removes you entire feed from your Facebook view.
All you’re left with is your notifications, your messages, your groups, and your ads. You can even still click on your friend’s profile and wish them happy birthday.
- Slack: I hate my email. I didn’t used to say this. I used to love when a new email would pop in and I had time to answer it. Now, I pray for the day when my inbox is at zero.
For me, about half my emails come from my team. We’ve always got our hands in a couple of different projects and, guess what…projects create questions.
A few months ago, my team created me a channel I ignored it, until the day that my email threatened to drown me. And, I finally hit send on my first Slack message. It’s the best thing I ever did.
If you’re building a team or working in one, take a peek and see if this streamlines your email and projects…it’s doing wonders for us!
With Grit and Gratitude,
Lise
