Just lately I’ve had a few people write and ask me – how do I manage to fit it all in?
Do you feel as though you are ‘firefighting’ with your business, as though you are doing all of the right things but with no particular plan or strategy?
Do you feel as though there aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything that you want to do?
Do you feel pulled in several different directions – whether through motherhood or other work or other commitments?
Fitting everything that you need to do to grow your business seems hard. You wear so many hats as a business owner – I know I don’t need to describe them all to you.
This year I have somehow squeezed in a wedding season where I had to travel overseas (twice), an international move (with two babies in tow) written two books, adopted one puppy, started the FPA, mentored photographers, completed baby, bump, and family sessions in addition to the wedding + engagements, completed one gorgeous mega-shoot, completed about ten online courses, joined a weekly mastermind – the list seems endless.
No wonder I don’t seem to be able to fit in yoga! {Body, if you’re listening, I promise this will change very soon}.
And that’s ok, because this is the answer. If you’re wondering what exactly the secret is to getting all of this done, it’s this.
This is the simple answer. Stop trying to fit it all in.
Seriously.
Because this is what I do, a lot, and I have to catch myself and stop it. I regularly beat myself up about not getting *stuff done*.
Argh! The house isn’t clean there is a pile of washing on the stairs the dog needs a walk I have five blog posts to write and I haven’t updated my twitter in like DAYS, the girls need a sugar-free vegetarian meal with no ipad and argh they’ve had too much today, must make time for more ‘crafts’ OH- WAIT- THE WORLD ISN’T ENDING.
Yes, that. Probably for a few minutes at least once a week, my brain runs around in a big panic thinking about all of these things I HAVE to do, and then I remember that I have given myself permission to stop trying to do everything all of the time.
When you worry about having to do everything, about fitting everything in, you just stress yourself out, which as you know is pretty counter-productive. So when you accept you can’t fit everything in and you instead focus on actually doing just a few things instead, you actually end up getting more done because you’re not running in circles stressed about the stuff that you *should* be doing!
The less you worry about what isn’t getting done, the more you’ll actually find yourself doing (That’s probably horribly grammatically incorrect, but you get what I mean. I know you do)! Thinking yourself into negative patterns actually manifests more negative patterns – you worry more, so you do less, which means you worry more… It’s a horrible cycle. Don’t get caught up in it. Free yourself from that
* I have to do* burden.
And the way that you decide what you should focus on, is by concentrating on what is working within your business, and what isn’t.
For example, for me, I know that my blog and newsletter here at the FPA is well-read, so most of my business efforts are focussed there.
I also have a good following over on Instagram, so my aim is to post on that at least once a day.
They are the things that work for me, so that’s what I concentrate on.
I’m terrible at posting to Facebook and Twitter. That’s ok, because I’m not about to beat myself up over the fact that I’m not getting daily Facebook Likes. (I’d much rather be giving you quality blog posts instead. Though if you do want to check out our page, find us here).
When you stop trying to be the queen of social media, the worlds best photographer, a fantastic blogger, and making a zillion and one contacts, you’ll be more focussed on what you CAN do for your business, rather than what you’re not doing.
So, look at your business.
What’s working for you right now?
Where are most of your clients coming from?
Where have any of your clients come from?
Where do you have a big following?
What are you proud of?
Pick your strongest area. You’re going to concentrate on using that one area- whether that’s Facebook or your blog or being published – whatever is working for you – and keep doing that. Because clearly you are good at it, so keep going. Make this the one thing that you’re determined to keep alive no matter what.
Next, take your biggest weakness. What aren’t you quite so great at? Whether it’s twitter or your technical skills, your marketing ability or your bookkeeping- you know this area needs some work.
You have two options here. Resolve to work at it, or if you really despise it, outsource it. Outsourcing is powerful– as it frees up the time you spend struggling with this area to enable you to concentrate on the area you’re most profitable / productive in instead. You can outsource editing, accounting, web design, even your admin and blogging. It’s definitely a good idea to look at outsourcing as an investment rather than an expense.
If you decide to work at it, keep doing what you are doing, but try to set aside a little time to invest in getting even better at it. Read books, blogs, articles; join courses or masterminds; do a workshop or attend a webinar. Just get from good at it, to great.
So the secret to getting ‘everything done’ looks a bit like this.
Keep going with the good stuff
Outsource or work at your weakest point
Maintain everything in the middle
We have covered the parts of your business that you are good at, and what to do about the weakest part. Here is how to maintain everything else so you feel like the Queen of Entirely Everything.
Let’s use social media as an example. So you know you should be posting to every social media engine, at least 3 times a day? Nobody has time for that.
Maintain it instead. Take thirty minutes of your time to schedule your social media at the start of the week, and hey presto- although there is no big, clever, super plan for gaining zillions of followers, you will be maintaining the interest of the followers that you do have, and through that alone your following will naturally increase. Top up your scheduled tweets and statuses whenever you can with more personal ones, but don’t stress about it- because the hard work is already done for you.
Find a way to simplify + maintain your middle ground. The bits that you don’t mind doing but you never seem to be able to find enough time for. Stop worrying about getting on top of them, and maintain them instead – using processes or structures to help if you can.
Get better at what you’re good at
Get better (or outsource) at what you’re bad at
Maintain the middle
Working in this way ensures that your business ticks along beautifully, your goals stay on track, and your business grows slowly, but firmly. You don’t feel guilty about not doing the one billion things under the sun that you should be doing, and you enjoy your work time instead of it feeling like a burdensome to-do list.
The other thing I do is schedule my time. This is most essential if you’re a creative, day-dreamy, free-spirit type of girl like I am, who kinda gets sidetracked by Pinterest or Facebook or looking for a notebook. Often, I fall off the scheduling wagon, but it’s always there to remind me, and so it’s much easier to climb back on and get my shiz together again, than if I had no structure in place to fall back on.
This is my schedule, pinned up on my fridge. Yep, terrible photo (iphone at dusk). Yep, the schedule looks pretty rigid. It has to be when you have two pre schoolers, a puppy, and are separated from any family childcare by 1000 miles. Trust me– I don’t always manage to follow it. However, as well as (usually) keeping me on track, it also works to help my family to understand when I am available and when I am very definitely not available – ‘Mummy is working that night’. Use every single minute that you have, wisely.
Another way of working that I find really useful is to make the most of blocks of time. Whenever I have my allocated work times, if I have a big lump of time that day, I cluster-work. I can’t remember where I first heard that term but I think it was borrowed from cluster-bombs, so you would chose ONE task and repeat it several times throughout that chunk of time, which means that you completely destroy your goal for the week. So for example, take blogging.
Is blogging your strength? (If it’s your weak point, try making this the thing that you work at as it’s key to growing your business) if it is one of your strongest points, try cluster blogging. In your schedule spend one whole chunk of your time dedicated to writing blog posts for the week. If you have 4 hours and do nothing but open your blog, you should be able to write 2 posts in that time, which could be a weeks worth content for you. 8 hours ~ 2 weeks. And so on.
Finally, my biggest tip for managing your work load? you gotta kill procrastination! Seriously. It is literally the biggest waste of time ever. Turn off your whatsap. Turn off any browsers with Facebook / social media / your email. Definitely turn off your email! don’t do anything else whatsoever during your work time – no cleaning no playtime no distractions – just focus on your 3 goals for the day (I talked about the three task trick here).
That, seriously, is how I manage to get it all done.
Which of these can you implement into your daily or weekly routines to help you?
-Drop the guilt about not being able to do everything
-Embrace that you are able to prioritise that which you are good at, and release that which you do not enjoy or doesn’t serve you
-Maintain the middle
-Carve out time dedicated time for work
-Schedule it
-Cluster work
-Kill procrastination
Keep an eye on the blog later this week – we have a few notes coming up on procrastination – if you know this holds you back sometimes, you’ll want to read this!
Oh, and just to let you know – we are giving 10% off Film; The Luxury Advantage, for Cyber Monday – but hurry, the discount expires in 24 hours. Perfect if you’re a film photographer and you want to know how to truly boost your business in 2015. Click here to see it!
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