How to Find More Time in Your Business

Do you ever say those naughty words? 'I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TIME'

Guilty as charged. 

Finding more time needs to be a combination of the correct mindset and planning/organisation. There is always an excuse, right? The world is full of so many distractions. If we want to build and grow our own business, we need to be laser focused on what we need to do and why we do it. 

Downtime 😴

We all have different responsibilities and therefore need to find our own balance between being productive and having downtime. After all, having some downtime allows you to recharge your batteries and reset ready to go again!

For me personally, I am either 100mph or doing absolutely nothing. If I watch a TV programme, I will reflect and feel like I've wasted my time being unproductive. Due to this inability to have some guilt free downtime, I have adjusted the way in which I carry this out. 

I now listen to podcasts whilst doing puzzles! Yes, I am so 'Rock 'n' Roll'!

I learn and gain lots of ideas when listening to other people's business ideas on podcasts. This enables me to still feel productive and inspired but diminishes the feeling that I've wasted my time!

Social Media Marketing ⭐

Let me guess...you don't have time to market yourself? WRONG!

I'm calling you out here. Pick up your phone and look at your daily screen time. On average, how much time per day do you spend on social media? Are you falling into the scroll hole?

It's so easy to get stuck in this hole. Ask yourself what you are actually doing on social media? You may be watching reels, tips and life hacks. They're probably really valuable and interesting, but are you taking the information away and actually doing something with it? Are you actioning it?

If you're spending an hour a day scrolling, then lack of time to market yourself isn't the issue here. If you have time to scroll, you have time to create your own content. People sometimes avoid self marketing as they're feeling uninspired, repetitive or quite frankly, just don't have anything to say. I use Trello to help with this. When I'm feeling creative or I have ideas popping into my head, I will record them on my Trello board...et voila, a ready made bank of ideas for when I am feeling uninspired! 

The 1% Rule 👌

I have been rereading Atomic Habits by James Clear - a highly recommended read! It focuses on the 1% rule. It is not advisable to dramatically change habits and routines overnight. Think of going on a diet...you can't just change your eating habits straightaway. Well, you could but it would quite frankly be miserable and not very sustainable. The 1% rule encourages you to make tiny changes that you can build and build to create better habits. 

For example: What does your morning routine consist of?

Wake up - get coffee - scroll social media whilst eating breakfast?

Make that little change and plan to 'scroll' during the evening when your focused work has been completed. Get your own content out though of course! Even better...schedule it!

Time Blocking ⏳

Good old time blocking! Create yourself a calendar that acts as your boss or your PA. 

I tend to look at my calendar for the following week on a Friday or a Sunday. Everything (I mean absolutely everything!) is blocked out. I block out time for client calls, for 1:1 sessions, for marketing, for walking the dog and even for cooking dinner! 

When I wake up, I know exactly what I'm doing that day. It's all planned and colour coded within an inch of it's life! It helps me massively with accountability. If I know I've only got an hour to do something, I will make sure it's done as I can see that I have X amount of tasks planned after that hour and wouldn't be able to fit it in. 

It's so easy to sit at your desk and feel overwhelmed. Have one tab open at a time, put your phone on mute and embrace that focussed work time. It's amazing how much we can get done when we're in that focussed zone. 

Why ❓

Above all else, identify why it is that you are doing what you are doing with your business. 

Why do you want to grow your business? Why did you set yourself these goals?

Goals can feel shallow without a deeper meaning behind them. Not everyday is a good day and there needs to be something deeper driving us through and pushing us to succeed. 

For me, I have high income goals for this year. Let me explain why...

It's not an ego thing. I have health issues and I want to have surgery in the future. I want to do this under private medical care as I don't want to have to wait years. This is my huge driving force. I also want to reduce my mortgage payments and travel without having to be back for 'work'. Money is a by-product that will enable this stuff!

Sit down and have a think about your real purpose and overall aim...

🟡 Don't beat yourself up if you haven't achieved as fast as you'd like. The whole process is like climbing a mountain, it's not a stroll in the park.

🔵 What is that 1% change that you could make to stop you feeling that you haven't got time?

Grab a photo and re-introduce yourself to the world, telling everybody what you do! If you're on Instagram, tag me in the post @lovemondaysclub, I'd love to see what you do!

 Click below and listen whilst I bust those myths that you don't have enough time!