Want More Time To Work On Your Business Avoid This. - When I Grow Up

Want More Time To Work On Your Business Avoid This. - When I Grow Up I have a current client whom I adore. Shes smart and determined, a real go-getter whos more than ready to get her business show on the road. Her website is thisclose to being finished, shes already working with a client (who keeps extending their work together), and she knows her stuff when it comes to what shes offering. Her biggest roadblock?: I dont have time. Yes, its true time is at a premium for her. Isnt it for all of us? So many roles we need to play, so many responsibilities as mothers, partners, daughters, employees, friends, and on and on. When we look at how this client spends her time, though, shes being led and tricked! by perfectionism in a big way.   Choosing a couple of stock images for her website took hours, with an s. Sending an email to someone she met at a conference took 30ish minutes. Responding to a prospective client took days (with an  s),  because she was convinced that she needed an online scheduler before she responded and the link wasnt working. And also didnt her questionnaire need to be on a beautiful PDF? And how do you send an invoice, anyways? Lets research it. Im sharing her story because I know shes not alone. Are you nodding your head here, too? Do you know that you let perfectionism and busy work get in the way of discovering, launching, or growing your business? And yetare you telling yourself its because I dont have time or I just need to learn this new thing first or I dont look professional enough yet? This is the voice of Resistance (yes, capital-R Resistance, like the one spoken of in The War of Art), keeping you safe where you are. Although you might be tricking yourself that you are  working on your business, youre not really moving it forward youre standing still, or even backtracking. This busy work is keeping you from The Real Work, and its why youre telling  yourself you have no time, even when we know its not quite the truth. Its funny, because when Ive asked my clients whether theyre aware of the moment theyre doing busy work as a procrastination tool, Ive gotten a Yes 100% of the time. Is that true for you, too? Do you know when youve crossed that line? Everything beyond that line is time you have, but not that youre really using. The line where checking Facebook becomes mindless scrolling for an hour or more. The line where watching my show becomes a 4-hour Netflix binge. The line where researching XYZ becomes the newsletter youre not writing, the lead youre not reaching out to, the website thats not yet ready to show to the world. When we stop ourselves from crossing that Perfectionism line or course-correct ourselves when we realize its already happened our time is both made and found. Another client of mine realized that shes in the office alone for 2 hours every morning, forced to come in at 7am in advance of the rest of her co-workers. Theres rarely anything for her to do then. She found  made an extra hour every weekday to work on her business. A third former client knew she didnt have the brain power or the energy to work on her business during weeknights she was too spent from her day job. But she realized she could use both weekend mornings to do business tasks, and she developed the routine of waking up on Saturdays and Sundays, making her favorite cuppa, and immediately taking 3ish hours to do her business work. She sat by her favorite window and was done well before lunch. 6 hours a week, time made and not found, waiting to fall from the sky. Have you heard of Parkinsons Law? Its the theory that a task takes as long as the time you have available. When you only have 1 hour in the morning, or 3 on a weekend day, your work gets  done. You can see the progress. You feel the momentum. The first client I spoke of is killing it with a timer, setting one before each task based on how long she  wants it to take. Sure, she might go over by a few minutes, but its rarely the procrastination blow-out shes used to having. She also does well using a Post-It note at the end of every working session to jot down her tasks for the next one. If its too much, she circles the highest priorities. This way, she can see what  needs to get done at a glance. When she goes off the Post-It note, she knows its more than likely Procrastination trying to keep her safe. My 90 Day Business Launch friendleague (thats a colleague whos my friend), Laura, told our participants to practice being  Decisive Imperfect  recently. There was only 4-6 weeks of our program left, and if anyone got caught up on The Perfect Font or The Perfect Copy or The Perfect Online Scheduler, they wouldnt meet their launch deadline. These are intentions we can all live by: Decisive Imperfect.  Aim for a B-. Let it be good enough. Dont sidetrack yourself with things that arent important right now. Get out of your own way. Because the time? Its there. You just need to catch it, and make it for yourself.