3: Think Like a CEO; where is your time going?

It can be incredibly difficult to decide where your time should be going and in what priority – this episode and a simple exercise will walk you through this process.

One of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in the past has been to waste way too much time on things that didn’t actually move my business forward. There were a lot of reasons for that and lots of it has to do with fear. For example, I spent four months of working full time on my first website before I launched it. This is something I see so many newer entrepreneurs doing. You’re wasting literally weeks or months on a website when it could be a one-pager with clear here’s what I do, here’s why you should care, here’s the next step.

The second thing is wasting time on tasks that don’t make you that much money. This is a weird, tricky balance, especially at the beginning stages of your business.  You do everything yourself, mostly. But at what point do you or should you outsource? It’s tricky. You can do things yourself. But the question really is “Where is your time going right now?” and “Where should it be going?”

An exercise that I love doing with my clients and with myself are the $10 versus $1,000 tasks. How much of your time is crony going to $10 tasks versus $1,000 tasks? 

For example, something like: 

• editing my podcast
• formatting my newsletters
• formatting my blog posts
• scheduling my Instagram

Those are all $10 tasks for my business. That doesn’t mean I’m going to pay someone only $10 to do that. But it means that it’s not a very high revenue-generating task. Let’s say, I have an hour of my time, should I spend that hour formatting a blog post or should I spend that hour pitching to different conferences to speak on stage or recording a guest podcast interview or getting on a call or doing a Facebook live or creating a new lead magnet? Which of these tasks has a bigger ROI (return on investment) for me?

When it comes to ROI, we all immediately think, “If I invest a $100 in this, I’m probably going to get a $1,000 back.” That’s a financial ROI. But what we don’t think about is that, especially when you are working by yourself, your time is your ROI! You put an hour of your time into something, what do you get out of it? It could be financial but it could be you learn something, you make new connections, you get an idea, you get inspiration or motivation. 

There is some kind of result, some kind of outcome from that hour spent.

Batching

Second tip here, BATCH! Batching is the best thing you can be doing for your business. Multitasking makes you feel more tired. When you batch, you take a set amount of time and you focus on just one type of task. Take 1.5 hours and write three newsletters. Instead of spending 30 minutes once a week writing a newsletter. Batching ends up making you so much more productive because you can really get into the flow of that task and you minimize task switching. Studies have shown that your brain takes about 15 – 20 minutes, to get fully concentrated after switching between one task and another. That is a lot of time wasted. Wouldn’t you agree?

Another thing is to create rituals for yourself. If I know I need to create content, I always go to my favorite café shop and have a croissant with a milk latte macchiato. I open my laptop and start a blank Google document. Then I just let it all out. Find what works for you!

Have a look at Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies. A quiz I love! It will help you measure how you take action. It’s a little different from some of the tips I mentioned earlier, about $10 or $1,000 tasks or about batching. It will help you figure out what you actually need to be more productive and get more done.

Here are some tools that can help you save some time.

First one is using something like SmarterQueue for your social media. It automates and reposts blog posts.

If you work with clients (client onboarding/offboarding processes), have a look at Acuity Scheduling. I use it to take payments for one-off work with me. It’s to schedule podcast interviews, clarity calls, and forms. Another one is Dubsado, which I also absolutely adore. These tools can completely automate your client process

Then there is ThriveCart. It is more expensive than the other suggested tools. It is a platform to take payments, to create sales pages or checkout pages, and funnels. I think I made my money back on it with extra sales within about a week!

Love + magic,

Maggie.