Episodes

I help you get clear on what marketing strategies and activities you need to do, giving you the biggest growth, with the least amount of time and effort for your business. The waitlist for Superhero Marketing is open. Join the waitlist here: https://shm.hayleyosborne.com/superhero-marketing-waitlist-nov-2023

Today, I’m talking about time today and how to give yourself more time in your business, or my hacks, as a mum of two little people under three years old. I have a one and a two-year-old, because I’ve got some, you know, crazy hacks. And what I found is they work. And what I thought was, you might like them, too. So here are some of my tried and true tips for making sure that every moment of every day is used really wisely when working on your business. I thought I would share a few things I do, as they just might help you one way or another.

The first one is don’t be so hard on yourself. And I do take my own advice. And I do need to remember that as well. But flexibility really has been my ultimate Saviour, as well as being kind to myself to be able to get things done. And that nothing is really what it seems. So do the thing, remove yourself go do something else and realise that it is not as bad as it seemed. The other thing I do that really gives me more time in my business is to get dressed and ready every single day and every single morning for whatever the day throws at you.

Because when you feel good, no wait. When you look good, you feel good. I mean, I guess when you feel good, you look good, whatever. But no matter what that looks like to you, right? So, some days, I go easier on myself than others. Like I might wear more lounge pants than my jeans or culottes or whatever that looks like and I might wear sneakers or I might stay in my Ugg boots all day, but I still feel good inside. And therefore I’m ready for what the day throws at me. And I have learned and I’ve taught myself to do that pretty much from the get-go of starting my business. Some days, I might not even leave the house. And I’m like, Oh, you look really cool today. You’re not going anywhere. Oh, well, you still feel good.

That’s the main thing. And also, you know, you’ve got all these clothes sitting in your wardrobe that may as well be worn. I definitely feel like the warmer days it’s easier to do this than the cooler days. So lucky. It’s like really warming up. But I definitely encourage you to get dressed and ready for whatever the day throws at you every morning because it does make a massive difference to your mindset, how you start your day and how you achieve your goals.

The second one is, and this is a real game changer for me too, is to be really disciplined to start a task immediately as soon as you sit down. Okay, so don’t procrastinate on anything. Just sit down and do the thing. If you’ve got really two important tasks to do that day, start with the biggest, hardest, most important task first. That’s what I do. And I discipline myself to begin that task straight away. And then to persist through with real laser focus until I finish it before I go and do something else. Okay, so that might mean even waiting to go to the toilet. But I get it done: put your phone in another room, be focused. It really does help me. You’ll be amazed how much weight is really lifted once you’re finished. And you know what else it does? It creates a little sense of dopamine, which feels amazing when you really are disciplined to start the task immediately and you get those little wins. And then what it does is trickle through to the rest of your day. Right. So all of a sudden you start to feel those ripple effects through your day of having achieved something. Give it a try. Honestly give it a try. And let me know how you feel. Send me a DM on Instagram. That’s where I hang out the most and you’re listening to this which means you probably do follow me. So message me and let me know because if you can start something immediately and persist through with laser vision, trust me you’ll feel so much better.

The next point I want to make is to create a structured schedule and stick to it. Okay, plan out your days with specific tasks, even if they’re small. So I do this. And you know, I know that running a small business can be so challenging, especially when it seems like there are not enough hours in each day to get everything done. And trust me, I know this. And that’s why creating a kind of structured schedule and sticking to it can be a game changer. By planning out your specific tasks, even colour-coding them to whatever they are, you can really make sure that nothing falls through the cracks. And I’ll talk about how I plan out my days and weeks and what I use and everything later in the episode. But this way, you’ll stay on top of everything and you won’t feel overwhelmed. A friend of mine has a CEO day every Friday, and this really works for her. I don’t do that specifically.

Okay, because that won’t work for me. But it works for her. And that’s okay. I find that my weeks need to be more fluid because of my little people. So, more times than not, I might find myself having a CEO night. I know this might sound crazy to some of you, but it works for me. And that’s okay. So, as a small business owner, you’re the one who needs to give yourself permission of what works for you and what doesn’t, not just because someone else is doing it. It means that it should work for you. Because you are the master of the next level for you. Right, no one is going to come and knock on your door and graduate you to the next level; it’s just not going to happen. You have to be inside, give yourself permission and be okay with it.

For me, this CEO night, for example, usually happens at the beginning of the week, on a Monday night or a Tuesday night. And I actually love it. Because everything is quiet in my house, right? There are no little people interruptions. I really need to make sure that I’m well-slept a few nights before I do this, but I get shit done. And it’s the best. And this is my little hack as a mum with a one and a two-year-old. So there’s no set way to do anything in business. You’ve got to do what’s right for you. And take the tips like the ones I’m giving you along the way. And morph them into what works for you. What is that version of you? Okay, and then you can teach other people what you found to work for you and hopefully help them as well.

Another thing to give myself more time in my business has been investing in a coach or a mentor or in a programme. It can shave hours from my week, definitely, and has definitely shaved years off of the trajectory of my goals and my progress. This is such a great way to give yourself more time in your business because you could be doing something right now that takes you two hours when it could take you five minutes. And that is what my membership is for: to help you do the least amount and have the most growth. Okay. And that’s why all of the templates and tools and things are in there to help you do that to stop you from sitting in front of your computer thinking I really want to be in inside small business, but what do I write? How do I even start this process? Well, I’ve done that for you.

From my experience, I found that investing is the best investment that anyone can invest in themselves in creating more time in your business, especially if you see someone doing what you want to do. That’s the person you want to work with. I see so many of my private coaching clients having massive breakthroughs in smarter ways to market themselves. And just get really like clever ways, new ways to think about marketing. The most common response I get is wow, that would have taken me all day to do when it just took me five minutes, Hayley. I’ve been doing this for a long time guys. And I’m so glad I didn’t have to do that from scratch as it would have taken me ages and another one. And a classic. I wish I had known how to do this sooner. Obviously, provided that you pick someone to work with or a programme that’s right for you. It’ll have such a huge impact on your business your life and your time. Okay. It’s really funny how it works. You have to put faith in the universe that it will come back tenfold and it does.

Have you heard this quote as well? This is the next thing I want to talk about: today’s readers are tomorrow’s leaders. I’ve just got here reading true are the words from the time in your day to read from the time in your day to not read Okay, find it. I read or listen to audiobooks. Usually, before I go to bed instead of watching TV, I try and aim to read 12 pages a night, which usually I’ve done the maths will see me finish a book a month if I can again, you know I’m really kind to myself. These days. So if it doesn’t happen, then that’s okay, too.

Honestly, I haven’t read as many books as I would have liked to this year. I read so much more last year. But hey, you know what, I am being kind to myself, and it is very hard with young people, but I’m still doing it. And I’m still learning. So that’s a massive win in my books. Listening to audiobooks, though, as a replacement for tangible books, to some extent, has been my saviour, to keep me going and keep my reading alive. But you know, reading gives you limitless education, regardless of what the subject is, and it does teach you how to teach you all sorts of things. But you know, incredibly, you can learn through books how to give yourself more time and your business.

I want to say is be very selective about the projects that you choose to do. I can safely say that I did learn this the hard way at the beginning of my business, and I feel like we all have to go through that in order to realise what we like and what we don’t like, right? Because how are you going to know if you don’t move through it? I said yes to everything. I basically worked for free for a lot of the time with different projects because I didn’t know how long it would take me. I just wanted to do it. I’d meet anyone for a coffee, I’d bend over backwards for little to no reward, you name it, I was a doormat because I was really fearful of failing in my business. And I probably didn’t upskill as much as what I needed to at the start of my business. And I wish that I had I wish that I had invested in a group coaching programme because it’s the community. It is the community that keeps you accountable that Pat’s, you on the back that pumps up your tires. Okay. However, it taught me a lot. I refined my skills over time. I got laser-focused on what I said yes to. And what I said no to the nose actually feels really good now because I’m becoming more aligned with my mission and my objective to help as many small businesses as possible be amazing at their marketing because I know that small businesses are the backbone of our economy. And if I can help as many as possible, that means a brilliant economy. And that is my goal. So you know, before you take up any project or something that you think could be an opportunity, ask yourself, How can this help me? How can this help me be who I want to become? Don’t waste your time doing things that aren’t aligned with where you’re going in life because when you say yes to something, that might mean that you’re saying no to something even bigger that’s around the corner. So just make sure that you plan that out.

The next thing I want to do is I want to talk to you about how I plan my day and what I do, right? So, everyone does have the same amount of usable hours in a day. Okay, I say that, but we do and we don’t. I, my day is different, the hours are still the same. It’s how you choose to use them that ultimately defines you and defines how successful you’ll be. It sounds like a really straight shooter I know, but especially when you verbalise it, it’s the truth. Okay, if you’re always getting tied up in activities that aren’t moving the needle, then that’s not having a positive impact or any kind of positive contribution to your life at all. It’s really important that you try and eliminate those tasks from your day.

You can work on those that matter the most. Okay, and this will give you more time in your business. I plan my weeks because obviously, I have a young family and my day looks different, and everyone’s day looks different, okay. And everyone has their own set of different challenges that they need to move through whether you have family or you don’t whether your kids are old or they’re not. Like everyone has something going on every single person. So, when I’m on my own, I really need to be laser-focused. And that’s one of the things I’m trying to, you know, educate you and upskill you in this podcast episode, but I have typed out lists so I can cross them out.

I avoid using my notebook anymore because it just doesn’t work for me. Because when the notebooks get closed, and that’s it, and I have to find pages and whatever, whatever. So I type out on the computer, and I print out the list. So I have, I’ve got my digital calendar, and that’s the gatekeeper of everything. My meetings which I make sure I allocate only on certain days of the week, which leaves me time to work on my business. I’ve got personal things in my calendar, which are colour-coded and blocked out of my diary. So, nothing goes in its place.

Yes, even on weekends, because I can’t retain everything. So, it needs to come out of my head. ClickUp now is my project management software and workflow tool, which is where I keep everything that moves and shakes in my business. And I work there with my VA. I also use Voxer Right as my go-to app between my VA and myself and this is a voice messaging app. So whenever I need to tell her something or take her through how to do something or any little note, it’s just a voice message and I send it. There’s no writing huge emails, I just speak and send and she takes care of the rest.

As I said before, too, I have a weekly printed to-do list, which is divided into client work and business work on different pages. As I go through them, I cross them off, and I add things that need to be done. This is saved on my computer as a to-do. And at the end of the week, I’ll go through and delete everything that I’ve like that I’ve done, which feels so, so good. And I add anything new that needs to be added. It’s a super fresh way to start at the beginning of the week. And I feel really accomplished. And it’s a clean page with no writing on it. And I printed it out at the beginning of the week. And that way, you know, you don’t have to worry about carrying forward tasks and rewriting them.

So this is what I found to be really helpful. I also use a remarkable and that’s why I don’t have a notepad, which I love for meetings because I either usually send it to myself as a PDF if I need to, but with my writing, so the file gets saved, and then I transfer it into type. Sometimes, it messes things up and I need to just check the original notes, but then the type, I can just copy and paste into an email if I need to send meeting notes or something like that. I don’t keep a notepad anymore because it just doesn’t work for me, but it might work for you. So that’s what I do. Everything’s different. I know it sounds like a lot, but it keeps me accountable. And it keeps things out of my head where they don’t belong, especially when I’m trying to relax or spend time with my family if that’s the best way for me.

Another thing is I put my phone away. It’s the best habit I’ve ever gotten into and I did this years ago. And it makes me do things with more meaning when I’m near my phone. And it leaves me to just be in the moment when I don’t have my phone. So, I’ve all social media notifications off. They are always turned off on my phone. And I don’t have emails on my phone. It’s the best thing I ever did. And it was by accident at the beginning. And then I just never put them back on. Because I realised how good it was. And also, this way, I’m never distracted when I’m with my children. So it works. It works. It works. And I don’t have the email alert pop up on my computer. I usually check my emails at the start and at the end of the day, with a little bit of time to respond. So it’s important that I’m not bogged down. Because you can waste away your email, like your days spent writing emails every single day, all day long, it’s not worth it. You got to pick your times and you’ve got to take ownership of it not let it take ownership of you.

And you know another thing is when I sit down to work, I know that I need a water bottle hand cream, lip balm and tissues on my desk. And I always make sure that I have these things because I know that I need them. So they’re always available. And I never do anything around the house on workdays ever. I don’t put a load of washing on. It’s not worth my time I leave it. And, you know, I know you guys this sounds like so, so much work. But it’s just things that have worked for me as a busy mum of two really little children. I know that taking care of your time is the most essential skill to any successful person and to make sure that you’re always making the most of your precious hours every day.

If you start incorporating some of these tips, let me know how they might have changed the way that you work. Everyone’s got their own idea of success. Now, go and create yours. Don’t wait another minute. Use the tips I’ve outlined to give yourself a structure of what works for you. Leave out what doesn’t work for you and utilise every moment that you have. I know that is so much to take in a lot of goodness. I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode as I recorded it for you and getting out of my head what I do because you might be able to learn how it can help in your day as well.

This episode was brought to you by Superhero Marketing, the best programme helping you get clear on what marketing strategies and activities you need to do. That will give you the biggest growth with the least amount of time and effort in your business. Doors are opening soon for my beautiful membership on Tuesday, November the seventh, to celebrate doors opening, and it is such a big deal for me.

I am running a free three-day challenge, my marketing makeover challenge where I will take you through my three-step process. So day one, we’ll set up your marketing foundations and I will teach you what this looks like. Day two. We will then go into positioning and looking at your digital assets and digital footprint and making sure it’s in complete alignment. Day three will be followed by organising and optimising content to increase sales. I would love to have you there. So, to register, simply go to Hayleyosborne.com and follow the prompts. That’s it for me guys. And I’ll see you next week for another episode of The Hayley Osborne show and I will see you in the challenge.