Hi there
I posted a note on Facebook the other day about my word of the year for 2015. I set my word of Simplicity at the beginning of this year. By simplifying things, I have had more time with my family, more time to read, more time to create and more time to think about what direction I want my business to go in.
One of my readers said she’d love to know what’s worked so far, so I said I’d share in a blog post. Be warned, it’s a long post despite it being about simplicity!
I’m still a work in progress, but I thought it might be helpful to share what’s worked for me so far. Here are my top tips for creating a simple life.
#1 Tip – Set clear boundaries
I’m a workaholic and one area I have to work on constantly is boundaries. Boundaries with others, but also more importantly (and harder to do) boundaries with myself. I knew that I wanted to take Fridays off, but it was only me that could enforce that to happen. Nobody else was going to stop me from working so I had to literally schedule fun things in my diary to do so that I wouldn’t work. It’s interesting because, if you’ve worked on boundaries yourself you’ll know that the very setting of boundaries seems to bring up lots of challenges. All of a sudden clients wanted to work with me on Fridays, people were inviting me to Friday networking events and I had the thought of, ‘Oh well, just this Friday, next Friday I’ll take the day off’.
I knew that I had to make the decision to make Fridays my day off. Has my business suffered as a result? Not at all. If anything I’m much more focused in the week so working less hours, but smarter in those hours that I am working.
When I explained to a lady that was inviting me to a networking event that Fridays were my days off she said that networking over coffee wasn’t work. Well, in some ways she’s right, however, I know me and the event itself would have triggered me back into work mode which was what I was trying to avoid. It’s really important to know what you’re like, and how things affect you.
So what about the clients? Well, I have the thought process that my ideal clients will work with me, and I will attract the right clients that will work with me at the right time. I am running my own business so I get to choose when/how I work – how liberating is that?!
It wasn’t just about Fridays though. I was also starting to work every evening and really long hours, so I sat down with my family to chat through what would work best with them. There will be times when I need to work in the evenings and that’s fine, but we all agreed that it should be the exception rather than the norm and that Fridays to Sundays should be Ruby and family time. I know it’s sad, but I have to literally book ‘Ruby Time’ in my diary to remind myself that I don’t work Fridays and it’s paying off.
I run online membership groups so I don’t want to be completely unavailable to my clients over the weekend, but equally I don’t want it to eat into my family time so I have set up a reminder to check in on my clubs and then for my Bootcamp I run a Power Hour* every Sunday night, this enables me to check in with them and for me to prioritise my week ahead too. Win:win. My clients know that if they need me over the weekend they can ‘tag’ me in Facebook and I will get back to them as soon as I can but that I will only be popping in. Stepping back from social media at the weekends has been a real challenge. I have to literally move my phone out of view so that I don’t get sucked back in again!
#2 Tip – An overall task list plus MIT’s
In order to get clarity, I have to get ‘out of my head’ and think on paper. I now use an idea from Bullet Journal where you have an overall task list for the month. I write absolutely everything down on this list and then figure out some dates of when they need to be done by. After that each night I choose my top 3 tasks (MIT’s – Most Important Tasks**) for the following day. Once I’ve achieved those the next day then I list the next 3 and so on. That way I’m not feeling overwhelmed, I’m focusing on the most important things and it feels fabulous being productive and achieving things.
I also use Trello to organise my weekly tasks so I list all of my recurring tasks in there, such as follow up with clients, social media scheduling etc. (I learnt recently that Trello is a great way to apply the Kanban Method – a way to be productive)
#3 Tip – Reflect and adapt
At the end of each day, I spend some time reflecting. I was writing a journal, but I wanted something really quick and easy to use for this so chose Grid Diary. It gives you the chance to tailor questions around your day. I’ve included things like gratitude, self-care, books that I want to read etc. This gives me a quick snapshot of what’s working for me, where I’ve not made time for my friends, family or even myself and what I might want to do differently the next day. If you don’t like techie stuff there’s no reason why you can’t just create a list of questions that work for you. Some of mine are;
- What 3 things are you grateful for today?
- What 3 things do you want to focus on tomorrow?
- Did you spend enough time with your family/friends today?
- What book did you read? If you didn’t read what creative thing did you do?
I really wanted to read more, yet each day would go by and nothing would be read. With this little reminder, I now make sure I read something every single day. Sometimes I get time to read whole chapters, sometimes just a couple of pages but I’m slowly starting to eat into that enormous reading list I’ve had on the go! I’ve started learning more about speed reading and installed Spreeder on my Chrome toolbar so that I can build my reading speed. Spreeder allows you to build your reading speed on websites you’re reading by showing you one word at a time (or more if you choose to set it as groups of words). I also read a really interesting article the other day about whether you actually really need to read a whole book or not.
#4 Tip – Make time to play!
I realised that I’m also really creative – I like to make cards, doodle, crochet and I’m just getting into mixed media journalling. If you want to know what I like check out my Pinterest board. By throwing everything into my business I was losing a big part of who I am. When I create I clear my mind and lose myself in the moment, which is such an important thing to do when you’re running your own business. We all know that taking time away from the usual routine of day to day life is when ideas come up. You might be washing your teeth, taking a shower, walking the dog or any other number of tasks. Neuroscience has now proven that there are certain parts of your brain that are activated when you allow your mind to stop focusing on tasks. There is a ‘default’ network that fires up when you are not focused on a task. The brain is still active but it’s a restful activity. The default network kicks in when you’re day dreaming, being silent, meditating and visualising.
Making time to play has really helped me. Some of it is part of my Friday ‘Ruby Time’, and some is a case of consciously making time to create at the weekends/evenings. I’m actually making progress on a huge crochet granny square blanket I’m making. I’ve made nearly half of the 290 flower squares I need to make!
In today’s post I’ve shared some of the things I’ve worked on so far to bring simplicity into my life;
- Set clear boundaries (and stick to them!)
- Create an overall task list plus sort out your priorities (top 3 MIT’s)
- Reflect and adapt
- Make time to play (the key bit there is to make the time!)
As I said a work in progress. By reflecting and tweaking though life is becoming much more simple and better still, more enjoyable as all aspects of me are being fulfilled.
If you chose a word, what was it and how is it going for you so far? What do you need to change to make life more fulfilling for you? Leave a note in the comments below to let me know.
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*Power Hour – used with permission from Louise Presley Turner in her group coaching programme, Relaunch Your Life.
** MIT’s – Top 3 Most Important Tasks – Leonie Dawson.
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