Fighting time and how to get shit done…

Photo by energepic.com

I met with my coach today and I was talking to her about finding time to do some things that are directly related to growth in my business. Stuff that if I invest time in now, it will have a long term impact. 

I noticed I was having the same conversation I have with my coach as I have with many of my own entrepreneurial clients - talking about that ongoing fight between operational and strategic work. Sharing with my coach some of the frustration I have around time. Smiling a bit to myself as I certainly know I’m not alone in these feelings and this struggle! I’ve yet to meet a business owner, entrepreneur or founder who doesn’t spend time on trying to sort this balance of types of work out.

I see this rub come up again and again in conversations. Business owners trying to find the time in amongst all the busyness and day-to-day tasks to do some of the work that will make a real difference! The stuff that is about growth and building rather than what might feel more like firefighting or pin-balling for one busy thing in the schedule to the next! Wondering when we might find the moment to get into the deep work?

Part of the answer to the challenge I was talking with my coach about is a reality check on time. Accepting that I can’t do it all - a wrestle with the high-standard-recovering-perfectionist-finisher-completer parts of me. Facing some hard facts around time not being elastic and that yes, I can do it all - but not right now! 

We got talking about habits and change and how what I’m trying to do in my own business is start some new activities that I want to embed regularly, ideally each day, but perhaps to begin with (small steps) each week. The things I want to do could be thought of as types of ‘habits’, and between my coach and I we know a thing or two about building habits.

We talked about what’s getting in the way just now for me and building the new habits I want to build? Time and how I’m using time are definitely part of this picture. A reality check on time, combined with time blocking and diarising will help. But like most business owners the schedule is busy and it’s not just about diarising stuff! 

I needed a bit more of a push to take the action I want to take. I needed to come at this not just from a logistics perspective (making time) but also a bit more of a mindset perspective. So I thought about motivation - the ‘why’ behind the things I wanted to do? And then, with a big strong ‘why’ in mind, the ‘how to start?’ and then ‘how to keep the momentum?’ needed answers too. The answers to these questions will be different for us all as we are individuals. 

But from a personal perspective I got thinking a little about an experiment I want to do tapping into some parts of me that can both help and hinder change… I really like to feel progress. I love ticking something off on a list, seeing something visually achieved in that little change of colour in a progress tracking box to ‘achieved’. I already use this part of me to achieve other things. I also like systems, innovation and tech to help support efficiency, so I’m going to try a couple of experiments. Firstly I’m going to do some time tracking experiments - getting realistic with myself about what’s going on with my time and secondly I’m going to test out a habit tracking app or two to see if that little buzz I get with seeing progress helps?  

Inside the practical small step experiments I’m trying (testing apps to help with time and efficiency are hardly great innovations - but they are progress from where I was) there is also the other thing in my conversation today that you get from doing work with a coach. That shift in intention or focus. 

I’ve taken the thing I want out of my head and said it now in front of another. This often really helps me move to action, sharing it with another, the act of talking it through. It stops it rattling round in my head and grounds it. It works with a part of me that connects to some core values around integrity and collaboration. I know my coach is not in any way going to be hot pursuing me about the stuff I talked to her about today, but that’s not the point. This is more about integrity with myself. To double down on that self knowledge, I’ve also gone and put it out there in the world of social media just to give that accountability / sense of being witnessed motivator an extra shove in the right direction…

Oh yes, the thing I wanted to make a shift in? Sharing some stuff out there that might resonate with other socially responsible entrepreneurs and help them feel they are not alone!

If this sounded familiar and you wanted to talk more about trying to stretch time and how to get shit done - give me a shout!