What’s Your Bubblegum For the Brain?
June 3, 2016
As summer approaches, how easy will be it for you to take a real vacation? Do you often feel it’s easier to just “do it myself” than to teach someone (if you had someone)? Have you trained your clients to expect an immediate response at almost any time of the day? (And yes, you trained them).
You are not alone. We know that the only way to grow, is to let go. Not only by delegating but also by turning off that smart phone (yes, we said turn it off). We believe work-life integration comes from working smarter, not harder and it’s a process. Here’s our simple 4 step process:
- Figure out where to get help. Track your time and categorize what you are doing into 3 columns:
- That which drives my business forward & is revenue producing
- That which if I had a manager I would delegate
- That which is easy to delegate (and probably just a form of procrastination keeping you from doing what you should be doing – did we mention bubblegum for the brain?)
2. Outsource your C level work. Follow a delegation model that assumes nothing, provides frequent check points, and avoids surprise outcomes. Make sure the person or company you are delegating to has the skill set required to accomplish the task — you should be providing guidance not education. Understand that you are investing time to gain even more time down the road. Create systems that can be duplicated (that’s called scaling for growth). Set realistic expectations. Bottom line: communicate, communicate, and communicate.
3. Embrace technology and simultaneously put DOWN the smart phone:
- Use technology to produce efficiencies, not distractions. Evernote, TimeTrade, Zoho, Constant Contact ARS, Asana, TSheets. These tools help us manage tasks more efficiently – the only real form of time management.
- Shut the phone OFF. No one needs to be accessible all the time. You are not being more productive, you are simply training your brain to never slow down and thereby dramatically reducing your creative strategic output – your most revenue producing skill. I recently stopped carrying my phone everywhere. Try it – awkward at first, but setting this boundary has been a real boost for my creativity.
4. Avoid the distractions. There are some interruptions that are simply unavoidable, but we can plan for them. I block white space on my calendar in anticipation of having to address these important and urgent issues. However, one of my big distractions was Facebook. It certainly has marketing value, but it had become my “bubblegum for the brain”. I found myself scrolling through my feed way more than made sense. Removing this from my phone has been the most productive change I have made so far this year. Go ahead, you can do it…
These 4 steps are simple but not necessarily easy. It’s a process and we encourage you to keep moving toward the blend that works best for you, the blend that helps you to create a business that fuels the life of your dreams. We can help. Reach out to any of our team members for more information on our suite of back office services designed to help you focus on driving revenue.
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