Time Management: Get it all done with grace

You and I…

We have an amazing vision of what we are creating. We are working hard. We balancing being CEO’s of our business and of our household.

It’s a lot to manage.

But deep in our souls, we long for more rest, for more leisure, for more play… for the practical ways to get it all done.

I’m here to help.

Today, I am giving you something super practical. It is my time management tools and checklist so you can get it all done with grace and ease.

I always find it really helpful when other successful entrepreneurs share the details of how they’re able to accomplish all they do — it’s not only inspiring, but it gives me valuable insight as to how I can better leverage my time. I hope today’s email does that for you.

This is what I call my 20/20/20 model…

It is what I follow to keep:

• My working hours to less than 20 hours a week (4 hours a day),
• Work no more than 20 days a month (that gives me a couple months off time off each year)
• And make a minimum $20k/month.

1. SAY NO MORE OFTEN.

To clear your calendar to create what is most important to you, I guarantee that you need to begin saying NO more frequently.

If you are like most entrepreneurs I know, you are saying Yes too frequently and it is leaving you completely overwhelmed.

If that is you, I encourage you to watch my Facebook Live video I did on the topic of OVERWHELMED=Overcommittment.

Last year when I got adrenal fatigue, in order to heal I had to learn how to be SUPER discerning about everything to which I said yes because I had so little energy to give.

Here’s what I discovered… most of the stuff I thought I had to do I didn’t.

“The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.” Warren Buffett

2. TURN OFF NOTIFICATIONS ON YOUR PHONE.

According to a study, the average person checks his/her phone 150x a day.

I don’t know about you, but when I look down at my phone I would see so many notifications from all my apps. That darn little red badge notification created an impulse to open the apps to make the notifications go away. Constant checking, constant jumping, constant input. Like a ship tossed to and fro by the waves.

I simply turned them all off (all except my messaging app).

Phew.

Breathe.

I now more mindfully run my day.

I don’t want apps and emails and phone calls dictating my day, otherwise I spend all my time trying to multitask (which is not productive), and focusing on the urgent, rather than important. No thank you.

I check my main email only after 11:00am, and I have client care or our general inbox monitored by someone on my team.

I got visual voicemail on my phone so that I never have to dial into voicemail and have something else to monitor. My main business number is forwarded to someone on my team. And my personal voicemail is transcribed into text so that I can quickly scan the contents of the message.

3. PERMISSION TO DROP SOME BALLS.

There, I said it. I value being a consummate professional, but you need to hear this…

Give yourself a break, Love.

You want to do it all, and it is so tempting to carry a burden that you have to do it all perfectly, but perfection does not exist. If you insist that perfection must exist, adjust the scale and tell yourself 80% is the new 100%. It will make life a whole lot more enjoyable. Otherwise, you will be tempted to believe life is a “Pass or Fail” test, and if you didn’t make the 100, then you failed. It simply is not true.

You have permission to drop some balls. Concern yourself only with which balls you choose to pick up and why.

It doesn’t matter if someone judges you as “unprofessional” for not returning their text, email or phone call. Nor does it matter if they judge you for the fact that your child is crying in the middle of the grocery store and it is clear you are not handling it well.

The sooner you release yourself from the opinions or judgement of others, the sooner you will experience the freedom you crave. And the only way you will feel the release of their judgments is by releasing yourself from judgment.

4. BLOCK YOUR CALENDAR FOR SELF-NURTURING ACTIVITIES.

“You may find that you are so responsive to what others want and expect from you that it is hard for you to give sufficient attention to your own feelings, desires, and preferences.”

If you resonate with that, pick one thing–just ONE thing–that honors you.

Take time to listen to the voice inside of you and take one baby step toward honoring yourself and say, “Just this once, I’m giving myself permission to be perfectly okay with making this a priority, DESPITE how it may be interpreted.”

For me, I learned how to set boundaries without having to explain myself. I learned that I didn’t need to have my preferences validated by anyone else for them to be okay.

I learned to incorporate time for myself, with daily and weekly self-care practices (like weekly massages) that caused the mouths of other moms and business owners to drop in awe as they ask, “How do you do that?”

My response… “Because it is a non-negotiable. I am a better mom, a better wife, a better CEO, a better coach, and a better friend when I take time to center and take care of myself. It is no one else’s responsibility. And I refuse to buy into the belief that I will SOMEDAY ‘arrive’ and finally have the time or the money to enjoy the leisure, pleasure or simple luxuries that bring me joy. I let go of any conditions necessary to finally be ‘worthy’ of experiencing what I desire most. Instead, I ask myself how can I create it now?”

Here is a link to my self-care checklist that helped me create rituals and habits until my self-care practices were a regular part of my day.

5. SCHEDULE WORK BASED ON THE 4 QUADRANTS.

Pay attention to where you spend you time vs what is the most leveraged activities you could be spending your time on. Think Return on Investment. As the CEO of your business, it is critical that you stay in the areas that yield the greatest return… the areas that are your zone of genius. Delegate the rest.

When I evaluated my working hours, I found my time best spent in 4 Quadrants this way…

• 50% of my time needed to be spent on SALES.
• 25% on MARKETING.
• 17% on SERVICE DELIVERY.
• 8% on ADMIN tasks.

Take a look at this list to help evaluate how you spend your working hours. Most of the time I see entrepreneurs spending too much time in the admin and service delivery quadrants.

4 Quadrants of Time Management

6. THEME YOUR WORK DAYS.

I theme my working days in the following manner.

Core working hours: 11:00am – 3:00pm

• Mondays: Internal meetings (team meetings, talking to a team member, etc.)
• Tuesdays: Strategy Sessions or external business development meetings
• Wednesdays: Content Creation + Service Delivery (coaching calls, emails to list, curriculum or program development)
• Thursdays: Strategy Sessions or external business development meetings
• Fridays: Special Projects or VIP Days

7. PHASE YOUR CREATIONS.

Not everything has to be done at the same time. Plan out what you think you can accomplish in the next 90 days, then the next 6 months, then the next year.

Then either cut your deliverables in half, or double your timeframes.

You heard me right.

We generally push ourselves to create things in such tight containers, it takes away from creating with grace and ease. Then we beat ourselves up rather than celebrating the progress we have been able to make. It’s a terrible cycle.

Trust me on the cutting deliverables in half or doubling your timeframes.

Plan your next program or idea for a later phase. Perhaps summer of next year. You can create multiple six-figures by focusing on a SINGLE idea and implementing it all the way through. When that income stream is steady, begin to create the next.

“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” Bill Gates

I’d love to hear what was most helpful to you about today’s article. Leave a reply and let me know.

Here’s to success with grace and ease.

Love & Beijos,

Vanessa

P.S. I know there is a lot here. If you want it all in one place, plus my video training on time management, go here.