The little things we do every day add up to having BIG MASSIVE results! In today’s episode I talk about how to shrink time and what you can do to make huge shifts in your business. How to plan your day and what I do and how to avoid those distractions by sharing my awesome tips and tricks (that work).
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Transcription
Hello, my awesome soul inspired friends and welcome to another episode of The Hayley Osborne Show. I am so happy you’re here listening with me.
Today I’m going to be sharing with you How to shrink time + plan your day (& what I do to make it all work)
Why would you spend a lifetime (that’s a super long time right!) trying to make your goals and dreams a reality when you can fast track your way to get there?
Not only fast track but create huge success for yourself and your business.
I’m going to split this episode into 3 sections, how to:
- Shrink time
- Plan your day – What I do
- Avoid distractions – MY awesome tips and tricks (that work)
PART 1: Shrink time
This is such a big one right! We all want to get to where we want to go as quickly as possible with the path of least resistance. BUT there are some critical keys to get there that I think a lot of business owners don’t value the way they should.
The very first way I ABSOLUTELY know works in order to shrink time is to invest in levelling up! I’ve said this so many times before but, in order to grow you need to invest in yourself.
As a business owner there are always so many ways you can get from point A to point B, it’s just whether you take the short way, travelled before. Or the long way figuring it out yourself as you go.
Investing in a coach or a mentor goes a very long way and can shave 10 years off your trajectory of progress. This is the best, most effective way to shrink time. From my experience, investing in this is the best investment anyone can invest in themselves. I see so many of my private coaching clients having huge breakthroughs on smarter ways to market themselves and clever, new ways to think about marketing when we work together. The most common responses I get are:
“Wow that would have taken me all day to do and we just did it in 5 minutes”
“I am so glad I did not have to do that from scratch as it would have taken me ages”
“I wish I had known how to do this sooner”
You get what I’m saying, and the list goes on. You only need to take a look at the video testimonials on my website to see everything my clients say after working with me. And I’m not just talking about me, but any mentor or coach you’re thinking of working with, all you need to do is have a look at their testimonials to read about the breakthroughs business owners and entrepreneurs have after working with them. HUGE results every single time. Provided you pick the right coach that’s a great fit for you and will have huge impact in your business and your life.
Someone who’s already walked the talk and been on the path you’re travelling or are looking to take. This is someone who’ll give you all the tips and tricks and help you not make the mistakes of a newbie starting out in the area of expertise you are in. They’ve been there and done that and will fast track you to get to the desired outcome. They’ve already achieved the thing you want to achieve and will share with you their skills, expertise, and knowledge.
Other awesome ways are to invest in programs and education that can help you improve the skills you already have. Sign yourself up to anything that will help you to learn new skills needed for you to be an expert in your field.
By working on yourself, you’ll have more to offer when it comes to your business. You might not see it at the beginning, but it will pay for itself tenfold. Nothing is ever wasted.
The second way I ABSOLUTELY know works in order to shrink time is to hire help!
Hiring my full-time employee Elysia was the best most scariest decision I have ever made. She is the get shit done **typa** person and holds me accountable. She holds me accountable in bringing this podcast to life every single week, because without her, I wouldn’t be able to do it and this is a super important element within my business.
She focuses on all the things that were sapping my time, leaving me time to do periscope needle mover activities in order to drive this business where I want it to go. I look back now and have no idea how I did it all before she came onboard. AND the best part is she genuinely cares about this business being a success. The key to hiring help is finding the right fit which can be a challenge, but practice makes perfect in my eyes. If you want to know how I did it, feel free to send me a DM on Instagram @socialsoulmedia where I hang out the most.
Like I said, full time help within your business at the start is a scary thought, but it was the best decision I have ever made.
I often use this quote: “New level, different devil” and what once scared me, really doesn’t faze me anymore, this included, and I have so many more examples in my business journey so far where this has been the case.
The third way I ABSOLUTELY know works to shrink time is to start reading books and listen to podcasts and make them both a habit.
Have you heard the quote: “today’s readers are tomorrow’s leaders”? True are the words. Find the time in your day to read. I read usually before I go to bed instead of watching TV. I aim to read 12 pages per night which will usually see me finish one book a month. I am onto my 6th book this year and I am well on my way to completing my goal of 12 books in a year and it may even be more considering how fast I am reading them.
So far, I have learnt A LOT. If you want to know what I’ve read so far, DM me on Instagram @socialsoulmedia. It’s been the best path to get inside other really successful business owners at a very low cost.
Reading books gives you limitless education regardless of what the subject is.
The fourth way I ABSOLUTELY know works to shrink time is to be very selective on the projects you choose to do.
I can safely say I learnt this the hard way in the beginning of my business journey. I was saying yes to everything, basically working for free, meeting anyone for coffee, bending over backwards for xero reward. You name it, I was pretty much a doormat for fear of failure. However, it taught me a lot. I refined my skills and got laser focused with what I said yes to and what I said no to. The no’s actually feel really good.
So, before you take up any project or something you think could be an opportunity, ask yourself, “How can this help me become who I want to be?”
Don’t waste your time doing things that aren’t aligned with where you’re going in your life and who you’re wanting to be
PART 2: Plan your day – What I do
Everyone has the same number of usable hours in one day! It’s how you choose to use them that ultimately defines you and defines how successful you will be. This sounds super straight shooter, especially when I verbalise it, but it’s the truth. If you’re always getting tied up in activities that are not moving the needle, then that’s not having a positive impact or contribution in your life at all. It’s important you try and eliminate those tasks from your day so you can work on those that matter the most.
I plan my weeks. Because I have a young family, I need to plan out the days I am on my own to be super productive. Then those days I have my little guy, I am 100% in the game with him. The only time I work around that is when he naps. Then I am laser focused on the task I need to complete because I have already planned out that this is what I’ll do when he naps today. And it just works.
I have weekly lists, daily lists, before lunch lists, after lunch lists and I love to cross things out. I avoid using a notebook now for lists as it just wasn’t working for me.
So I have:
- My annual diary for all the BIG things
- A monthly calendar which is in the form of a book. It’s a double page spread for a month so I can see what’s going on in what month and how much of each thing I am doing. It’s only a 12-page book essentially so it’s light.
- My weekly digital calendar that’s the gate keeper of my meetings which I make sure I allocate only to certain days of the week, leaving time to work on my business. This is also shared with Elysia, my full-time employee so she knows exactly what’s going on and when.
- Asana is my project management and workflow tool which is where I keep everything that moves and shakes in my business and both myself and Elysia work from this. It has a mobile and desktop app and is great for accountability.
- I also use VOXER as my go to between Elysia and myself. It’s a voice messaging app so whenever I need to tell her something or assign a new task, I just record the voice message and send it. No writing huge emails, I just speak and send, and she takes care of the rest.
- A weekly printed to do list which is divided into client work and Social Soul work. Two different pages and as I go through them, I cross them off. This is saved on my computer as “to do” and at the end of the week, I’ll go through and delete everything that has been completed and add anything new that needs adding. This is a super fresh way to work and such a feeling of accomplishment. It also gives you a fresh page to print every week which is a great way to start.
- Lastly, I keep a note PAD. Not a notebook and anything miscellaneous that comes up, I write it on there. AND this is also where I hand write my before lunch lists, after lunch lists.
I know this sounds like a lot, but it works for me and keeps me accountable. It also keeps things out of my head where they don’t belong, especially when I’m trying to relax or spend time with my family. This is the ultimate best way.
PART 3: Avoid distractions – MY awesome tips and tricks (that work)
I put my phone away from 9am to 12pm and from 2pm to 4pm. THEN, I completely put my phone away from about 7:30pm – 8pm. It’s the best habit I’ve ever gotten into and makes me do things with more meaning when I am near my phone and leaves me to just be in the moment when I don’t have my phone. There are days I do not do this and this is when I am 100% parent, however I use it for different things and that’s mostly taking cute pics of my family.
I have ALL social media and email notifications ALWAYS tuned off on my phone. It’s the best.
I don’t have any email alerts pop up on my computer and usually check my emails at the start and end of the day, leaving time to respond. This is so important not to get bogged down in this as you can waste away in your emails every single day, all day long.
When I sit down to do work, I know I need the following with me: water bottle, hand cream, lip balm and tissues on my desk. So, I always make sure I have these things.
Other random things are: I never do anything around the house on work days, EVER. No “just put a load of washing on”, nothing. It’s not worth my time.
WOW that was full of so much goodness and I do hope you enjoyed this episode!
To recap
The key things I have covered today on How to shrink time + plan your day (& what I do to make it all work)
- Shrink time
- Plan your day – What I do
- Avoid distractions – MY awesome tips and tricks (that work)
There’s a lot of good stuff in this episode for you and I hope I’ve inspired you to make some actionable changes to your business and your day and how you move forward to collapse and shrink time and fast track your success to greatness.
I’m here for it and I am here for you!
AND that, very much concludes this episode my lovely friends and thank you so much for listening.
If you have any questions about anything I’ve said, feel free to drop me a DM on Instagram @socialsoulmedia which is where I hang out the most. I’m always up for a great chat. A big thank you for loving on this podcast, it means the world to me.
xx Hayley
