If you like it or not, your cognitive energy is everything and it is finite all at the same time. In this episode of my podcast, The Hayley Osborne Show I’m connecting those dots for you between the life systems, cognitive energy and intentional and sustainable growth for your business and how you can start to implement the little things in your day and life to be able to really step into your era of CEO energy and what it really means to protect your energy like a CEO and make those decisions like a CEO.

I’m excited to share why the systems we build at home and in business directly influence our ability to focus, make decisions, and create momentum.

I talk about decision fatigue, why motivation is unreliable, and how high-performing business owners create environments where progress feels easier instead of heavier. I get asked these questions a lot and how I’m able to do what I do, so I thought I would break it down for you as well. Knowledge is power in my eyes.

This is a conversation about creating calm so you can lead clearly and grow sustainably.

SUMMARY

0:00:00–0:02:30 Intro, Context & Intent of the Episode

0:02:30–0:07:27 Organization as Friction Reduction (Not Just Tidiness)

0:07:27–0:12:30 Cognitive Energy Is Finite & Where It Should Go

0:12:30–0:16:0 Focus, Energy Stability & Momentum

0:16:04 Systems, Boundaries, and Why It All Matters

Hayley Osborne

Hello, my beautiful friend, and welcome back to the podcast, the Hayley Osborne show, my beautiful podcast. I am glad that you are , that you are listening and that I am in your ears today for another episode, and today is kind of like an extension of last week’s episode. So if you haven’t tuned in, last week, I spoke about organizing my home in my world like a competitive sport, and I do, and I need to, because, you know, hello, life with three small humans and running a successful business. And today, I wanted to have a bit of a continuation of that, so that whole narrative.

So now I want to talk about protecting my energy like a CEO and the systems that keep me thriving in business now, energy and protecting that is everything. And I know it’s such a hot topic right now, but I think that the curiosity in me wants to know actually how people do it, and how people like me do it, and I want to know how others protect their energy.

And I find that I’m seeking out tips and tricks from other business owners, entrepreneurs like, what do people do to be able to protect that? Because life is full of so many intra interruptions, it’s not even funny. And you know, you I could be working, and then I see an email, and I get distracted, or I get bored, and so I or I’m, I’m losing my concentration. So I was, I’m, I’ll just check Instagram, and then I’ll scroll, and then I’ll find myself in a dark hole.

And so I’ve gotten very good at not doing those things, and that is part of protecting my energy, like a CEO stepping into that those boots, because I think that in life, if you don’t crown yourself with these titles and these names, like when I say crown yourself, I physically mean, put the crown on, look in the mirror and be like, right? I am the CEO of this company, and I’m the CEO of my life, and I’m the CEO of my house, and whatever that looks like for you, because that’s what I do. I am the CEO of this company that I run, and it is a company, and I need to show up like that.

And that means for me to be able to show up like that, I need to protect the walls around me from interruptions, especially when I’m in the zone and all of those types of things. So there’s a few things that I wanted to talk about today, and what I do to be able to protect that and how it might be able to help you, because knowledge is power, and I think that the more I don’t gatekeep, the more that I can share that might be able to help you, that then you can put that into your day.

And so I’ve sort of softly started this year with the podcast more on you know, the first episode was around the direction I’m moving, and then I was talking about organizing my home, and now I’m talking about protecting my energy like a CEO. And yes, this is more of a business-related episode, but the other ones weren’t, and I think that that was the warm up.

And so now we’re going to start to get into it, and you’ll start seeing a lot more strategy from me and the things that are working for me, and I’m doing lots of different things to be able to learn and also pass on to you, because that’s really important, right? Because I’m in a position of education, and you know, that’s one of my highest values.

So if I can help you to educate, to build knowledge and that therefore, then build power around yourself, then my job is done. So, you know, having this podcast, being at almost 200 episodes, I consider myself being in a seat of more power. There’s a lot of people that listen, and so there’s no gatekeeping. I just want to be able to share with you what works for me and how I protect my energy. Because I’m, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about that lately, and I’m, you know, I’ve been interviewed on a few podcasts now this year, and ones that are coming out that talk about that, because they’re like, well, people are like, how do you do it? Hayley, you’re running this business.

You’ve got three small humans. Like, hats off to you. But what’s the secret? Well, there’s no secret. It’s just about protecting yourself and your energy and what you let yourself get distracted by and what you don’t. And it’s like eyes on the prize, okay? And the first there’s, I’ve divided this into about three sections, so no longer do I write full scripts for my podcast. I just have a few dot points, and then I riff on that and I say what I feel and what I want to teach you. Excuse me, so the first one is organization isn’t necessarily about tidiness.

Now I operate with very minimal paper. A desk, and I love that, but I think that organization sometimes gets a little bit misunderstood, and I think people think it means being structured just for the sake of it, or being naturally organized, or even being a little bit controlling, and that’s kind of all those things. But I think that really, it’s never really been the goal for me. I think the goal for me is always to reduce friction. Okay, so when life or business I need a drink, excuse me, when life or business starts to feel a little bit chaotic, it’s usually not because there’s so much that I need to do.

It’s more because there’s too many decisions happening at all at the same time. What did I forget? And I saw this funny thing the other week between, like, men and women and their thoughts. And it was the women, the female goes to the car and is like, do I have the coloring in books for the oldest child? Do I have snacks for everybody? Did I remember to pack a ball? Did I remember to get dinner out? Do I have all their water bottles filled? Are we on time? Did I change the baby’s nappy? Like, blah, blah, blah. And then the dad comes out, and he’s like, do you have the keys? And it was so funny. And not that that’s my life, because it’s not because my husband is, like, very hands on. And he’s the type of guy that will be like, all right, we’re going now.

And he puts the kids in the car, organizes the backpacks, he puts my water bottle in the car and my phone, and so literally, all I have to do is get in. And so it’s not it, that’s not my world, but that’s the weight that a lot of women that run successful businesses hold. And I think that rolling back to there’s too many decisions at once. How do we try and wipe that clean and reduce that friction of what we need to decide, and what did I forget and what needs my attention now? And I think every one of those small decisions, like I kind of ran off before drains your energy. And I think when your energy is drained, especially early in the day, everything feels harder to do.

And so I think that protecting my energy is more about having things running smoothly without having to make those little decisions. So therefore your brain has space to think a bit bigger and think like a CEO, right? So when you see things that say, oh, you should be thinking like a CEO. You should put data. It’s not that that’s big picture thinking, but in order for you to do that big picture thinking, to have your business run that way, all of those small decisions kind of have to be already made, so you’re not even thinking about them, okay? And the next section, well, the next point I want to make is your cognitive energy is finite, okay? So when I say cognitive energy. I mean that the brain, the brain or the brain power that you use, for focus, for decision making, for learning new things, for emotional regulation, all of that stuff. Okay, it is finite, and it’s something I’ve learned over the years that there’s a small window of when that is in the day, and so you only get so many clear, focused decisions in a day.

And I think that I have found, through working with lots of business owners, especially in the health space, that we accidentally spend our energy on things that don’t move our business forward. Okay, so things like, and I like to give practical examples, because I don’t want you to think, oh, Hayley, you’re talking about cognitive this. And you’re talking about like, well, what are the things that move my business forward? And what are the things that aren’t? The things that aren’t are replying to emails all day, switching between tasks without finishing something and then making the same decisions over and over again.

And so one of the things I believe that sets me apart from a lot of other business owners is that I move fast. I make a decision, and I act on it, and I make a decision, and it is activated straight away. And the time that a lot of people get to the work that actually requires, the thinking, the strategy, the creativity, the leadership, you’re already exhausted, so by the time you get there, you’ve got no room for anything else. And this is why systems matter.

This is why those systems matter so that you can protect your energy to do the work that being a CEO requires, and it makes you more productive, but it actually protects your ability to be able to think more broadly, and your capacity. Okay, so if you think, oh, I’m just going through a stage where I’m not really very creative, and that’s really reflective. In my business, I think that if you can manage and protect this, then this is going to be your strategic advantage, because that’s what I found works for me, and I have done a lot of thinking about these questions that I’m constantly being asked when I’ve done podcast interviews recently is like, how do you do it all without burning out? How is this a thing and that’s what it is.

It is removing all of those small decisions so that when I sit down, I am focused, and my thinking capacity is broad, so I can execute straight away, and I move very quickly. I don’t sit on things. If I’m going to do something, I do it. I don’t procrastinate on it. I just move through and do it. It’s like, if you’ve always done what you’ve always done and you always have what you’ve always got, if that’s that? Is that right? Is that right? Saying, I think it is, but you’ve got to move fast. That’s what I think differentiates business owners that are very successful, as opposed to those that feel like they are stagnant, and yeah, I think, I think being able to remove that small clutter, to be able to think big picture, is game changing. So close your emails down.

Okay, you don’t need to have them open throughout the day. And I have, I have proven that, because a couple of years ago, when my first child was I reckon he was six months or even one, okay, he’s now five, almost, I decided to delete emails from my phone, so the app, the whole app, is gone from my phone, because I was just finding myself checking it, and I don’t need to check that. And then so the last say, for years I haven’t had emails on my phone, and nothing went wrong.

Nothing’s ever gone wrong. And so if that can tell you something, and sometimes I’m out, this is life, and you know, there’s nothing. So if something’s urgent, someone’s going to call you. So if you do have emails on your phone, for example, this is proof that you don’t need to reply to emails constantly. Look at it in the morning, and then look at it in the afternoon. I haven’t checked my emails today yet. Okay, I just wanted to get this done. I wanted to do a few things, and then I feel like I’m lighter on my feet because I know that I’ve done the big thing, so the podcast needed to be recorded straight away, and switching between tasks, don’t do that. I think that your thinking capacity is larger when you stick to one thing and get it done.

And that’s something that I find really powerful for me. Okay, so your energy then moves along. Let’s just move along. From that, your energy determines focus. Okay, so when you have a lot of energy and it is stable, your focus and your ability to focus becomes a lot easier. And we all know that if we’re well slept, we are like an absolute gun. So a lot of the time now, if I need to be in the office at night, there’s certain things that I can do and certain things that I can’t do.

And if I know that I’m going to have a full Office Day the next day, I’m like, well, I’m not going to do this now, because what would take me two hours is going to take me 20 minutes in the morning, after a good sleep, some fuel, and, you know, a lot of water. It’s just seamless. So when your energy is stable and when your cup is full, your focus becomes easier, and you don’t have to force it. No one’s saying you need to force it, but you can. You’ll be able to sit with problems a little bit more, make clearer decisions, which make your decision-making process a lot faster.

And then you have, you have the ability to be able to finish things instead of constantly starting new things. And then this, my friend, is where the momentum starts to build. So you’re the CEO, you need to have the momentum to be able to grow your business, but if your cognitive function isn’t there, that momentum is always going to be stagnant and staggered and slow to move, okay? Because focus, when you are focused, that’s the thing that is going to progress you forward, okay? And it creates motivation, like, when you have big wins, you are so much more motivated to be able to dive deeper. Have more wins. I’m just looking out my window for a minute.

What’s going on? Nothing good. You know, the funniest thing I know. I’m so segue on this, but I sometimes get interrupted by deliveries when I’m recording the podcast, and it is highly annoying because it does. I should shut the blinds, but then the doorbell rings and the whole house rings, and that’s kind of like, okay, stop. But it wasn’t that, thank goodness. Okay. So you know, focus creates progress. When you focus, you can just. Consistently move forward, and when you see yourself moving forward, it creates momentum. So it’s a little bit like healthy eating. It’s a little bit like training. Everything kind of flows into that bucket of the more you exercise, the more you want to, the more you move your body, the more that you want to, all right, and then the more wins you have in your business, the more you want to be in your business. And it makes you really happy because you’re winning. And that motivation builds motivation.

You need discipline around that, though there’s no other way around it, and a lot of people wait to feel motivated before they act. But high performers build environments, and that’s just the way it is, and action feels a lot easier to start. And so I’ll definitely wear that cap. I do think I’m a high performer, especially for the season that I’m in at the moment. And I put that down to my environment. And when it’s game time, I have built the right environment to be able to start, where I have taken out all the small decisions to be able to build faster and above all, the last thing I want to say, why does it even matter? Why does any of this even matter? It matters because this is where everything connects back to your business, and this is where the business owners I found that I see, and I’ve seen over the years of working in this space, especially with the health brands, the ones that I see growing sustainably. They’re not super busy.

They’re not the busiest ones. They’re the ones that are protecting their energy and doing the thing that moves the needle, and they’ve got clear working hours. I know I do. You know, they’ve got repeatable systems and processes. They have less priorities at once. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have a I sit down and I’ve recorded a podcast episode on this. I’ll put the number in the show notes at the bottom. I can’t remember what number it is now, but I sit down at the end of the week, and I will at the beginning. On a Sunday, I sit down and have a look at what works, what hasn’t worked the previous week. What do I want to achieve this week I have, and I hate to call it this, but it’s a to do list.

I’ve got shit to get done, so that goes on the list, and then I’ve got a clear priority of, okay, I need to move the needle this week in this area. This is what I’m going to focus on, first on a Monday, and then, above and all, first and foremost, the ability to say no to the things that do not align with you. Now I am hand on heart, one to completely protect my energy on the weekend, and I won’t say yes to doing something Friday night, Saturday, Saturday night, Sunday, Sunday night. I can’t do that, and it’s not fair on my kids.

And so I might do one thing, if it is for myself, over the weekend with a friend, but I can’t do many things with friends, even if I have nothing on because I can’t show up for my kids, and then I can’t show up in my business when the week starts. It’s just that it doesn’t work for me, and I’ve realized that over time, and I’m solid on that, and so I think that all of these things help you to not constantly be in a state of reactiveness. Okay, it’s you then start to lead, and when you crown yourself with that CEO energy and build out those systems and those processes that keep you thriving in business, that keep me thriving in business, your energy starts to get managed better, too, because it’s kind of like a knock on effect, and that’s kind of the narrative and the story that I’m trying to tell, like the last few podcast episodes. So start to get organized. Start to remove that decision fatigue.

Of the small things, you can start to expand your thinking with the bigger things, and then you can start to step into that CEO status of, yes, I am creating some real change, and I’m creating real momentum, and I’m creating a difference inside of my business, and I’m making a difference for other people with what I’m doing. So time isn’t fixed. There’s no time frame on this, and energy isn’t okay. So when your energy is supported, everything becomes so much easier, focus, consistency, creativity and even your confidence, okay? And that’s why motivation becomes less important. Okay, it comes down to discipline, but motivation you don’t always feel motivated, and because the systems can carry you out on the days and the discipline can carry you out on the days that you don’t feel like pushing. So if there’s one thing that I want you to take from this episode, its high performers don’t rely on most. Innovation.

Okay, they rely on systems to protect their energy, and they rely on taking the small decisions out of their day so they can focus on the bigger things. And you don’t need to overhaul everything at once. I’m not saying that, but take one thing that you’ve learned today from me and start to input it into your week, or even the next week. Okay, start with one area of your life where it feels heavy or unnecessarily heavy, and you know it doesn’t need to be and ask yourself, what could I do here to make it easier?

Listen to last week’s episode, if that might help you. Because it might start with your house. It might start with your office. Now, my office is set up in a particular way. I love it. I’ve decked it out where it’s seamless, it’s very sleek, and I love that, and it makes me motivated to come in here. Okay, small changes can create a lot of calm, and that’s where you could start. And calmness, the flow on from that, is momentum. So thanks for being here, and I look forward to seeing you next week for another episode of The Hayley Osborne show, have a great rest of the day or night. Wherever you are, bye. You.