Most of us entrepreneurs look like we have it all together but in reality, the chaos of running, managing and maintaining a business is not seen. It’s everything that’s behind closed doors. Now it’s time that I get real and raw with you.
In the last few months of 2020, I felt really disorganised. I didn’t have the energy and the excitement to do anything. I was just simply all over the place plus, holidays were coming up. It was just a whole lot of excuses that were holding me back from doing what I wanted to do.
Some of the feelings have even spread into the beginning of the new year in 2021. But now I’m back with energy and full-on with doing what I have been planning and wanting to do in 2020.
This happened one day, when I was walking into Big W which is a store in Australia, that is equivalent to Walmart in the United States. There are times that I like to go in and have a look at stuff, just to declutter the brain after sitting down so long creating content for clients and for myself.
As I was walking in, there was this aisle that had the books in it and this particular book caught my eye. It’s a book by Sarah Knight, called Get Your Sh*t Together. I bought it and read it in two days.
It was such an interesting book, and it really spoke to me. I wanted to share this with you because I know that this can benefit you in some way, shape, or form.
There are two things that you need to start with.
1/ Declutter Your Mind
The first one is to declutter your mind. It is the same as how you declutter your home but it’s just that in your mind, you need to get rid of all of the noise in your head. You need to remove all of the things that don’t serve you anymore, or just take up so much of your mental energy.
For me, my root problem is I had so many things that I wanted to do, and I just didn’t have the direction. At the end of the day, I became so disorganised because I was too excited to do too many things at once. Decluttering my mind really helped me get my sh*t together.
2/ Win In Life
The second thing is you need to win in life. You need to start living your best life ever. This happens when you translate your dreams into reality. If you don’t win in life, and all you do is win at business, then life can sometimes be really meaningless. And that’s how I felt when I was a burnt-out beauty salon owner.
Based on the book, here’s how to really get your shit together.
#1: Strategy
Strategy is everything. Set a goal, make a plan and break it into small and manageable tasks. It’s just like how James Clear mentioned in his book, Atomic Habits, daily small changes or improvements that you make can be atomic. By doing that 1% every day can actually help you achieve the big goals that you have.
Let’s say that you have an offer to launch sometime soon and you’re doing your preparation and you have 10 emails to write for your email automation. I’m pretty sure writing 10 emails a day is just madness, break it down into smaller tasks and write 2 a day. Finish it in five days and move on to the next task that you have.
Another example, you need to set up the tech for your course of your group coaching program and you have about six tools to fiddle around with. You need to understand how each tool works. Setting up 6 in a day is just crazy, it’s going to take you many hours, and it can set you back from achieving what you wanted to achieve in the first place.
You can either feel exhausted and at some point you just want to give up and end up procrastinating. Again, break it down into manageable activities. What you can do is choose to set up 2 tools in 3 days, or 3 tools in 2 days. Then move on to your next task.
See how simple that is? Instead of looking at the big goal, try to set up small tasks at a time. This will also prevent you from being burnt out by the end of the day.
#2: Focus
Set aside time to complete each task. For me, I get distracted easily with my phone and mindless scrolling on social media like TikTok. What happens is that I end up browsing through the content and getting inspiration for my Reels and TikTok.
The list to record videos is a list that looks almost impossible to achieve. But I’m going to stick to the strategy on how to achieve the goal of recording the entire list that I have right now by breaking them down into small manageable activity.
The key is to do things one at a time. Here’s what I do to have focus, I put my phone on silent, not in vibrate mode, then I turn the phone facing down so that there are no distractions at all with any calls messages or notifications from my social media apps.
For your time management, you can use the timer on your phone and set aside the time that you want to take to complete the task. For example, if you’re going to write 2 emails a day to finish up your email automation, you can allot one hour to complete the tasks so that you know that you have to finish and focus on that task for the next 60 minutes.
#3: Commitment
Do whatever it takes to complete each task. In order to do that, you need to prioritise your activities.
If you have a coffee date with your bestie, cancel or reschedule it to complete the task. I know it can be hard, I know you want to have that fun time but you need to commit and prioritise.
I completely understand that there are times that our plan might just get in the way but when you put your mind to something, just to get it done and you will be able to get it done.
There are other things that will get in your way like your limiting beliefs or the voices in your head. There are times that you’re going to keep telling yourself, “Oh my god, this is too hard. I can’t do this.”
When this happens, I want you to just stand still, pause for a moment and just remember your why. Why did you start this business in the first place? WHY? Don’t let anything or anyone hold you back from achieving your dreams?
I’m going to share with you something that I’ve never shared with anyone before. I was in a situation where I allowed someone really close to me, hold me back from achieving my dream and what I’m doing right now.
There was a constant reminder that whatever I’m doing wasn’t good enough. This whole online business thing wasn’t going to be a success simply because that person did not have any understanding of how the online business world works. But look where I am right now. I chose to believe in myself.
This was a lot of mindset work, it took a lot of investment into my personal growth and development to remove that limiting belief that I am enough, and that I can do it.
Nothing is too hard, and nothing can stand in my way in order for me to achieve my dreams. Always remember your “why” to remove any limiting beliefs that you have.
Let’s talk about the to-do list. I am a “list” person, I have a to-do list every single day. Most of the time, I can never complete the daily activities that I listed so what needs to be done is to switch up the to-do list.
Prior to reading the book, I used to have a really long to-do list. It is so long that it’s even impossible to complete it in a day especially with the time that I have, which is five hours when the little one is in school.
Although work is flexible and I can do work after picking him up, I choose not to so I can enjoy some time with him at the park, take a walk home, doing a little bit of grocery shopping, preparing his dinner and getting him ready for bed.
We both have our reading time of 10 minutes together every single day. I’m trying to instil in him that reading is educational and great for the soul. It’s a great activity to do before bed as it calms the mind and body down.
Now, I have a to-do list and a must-do list. The master list is where I prioritise what needs to be done based on urgency. The necessary stuff that needs to be completed that day, and it’s non-negotiable. I’ll save the low priority for the next day. Whatever that’s on my to-do list, I will do it the next day or whenever.
If perfectionism is your best friend, unfriend it now. If you’re going to start thinking what if that person (someone who you delegate or outsource activities to) is not up to my standards? Just remember this, done is better than perfect. You’ve got to get it done.
Getting your sh*t together means winning at life. You have to do so by learning how to manage your time and prioritise your tasks. Strategise, focus and commit to translate your dreams into reality. The secret ingredient to helping you win in life is will power.
Here’s how I’m going to manage one of my tasks…
I’m going to be recording my content, for Reels and TikTok. This means recording 7 each day for 1 week of content across four days to complete and setting aside two and a half hours to record one and a half hour to edit. It’s on my must-do list once each week.
P.S: Coming soon, my free eBook – The Ultimate Instagram Blueprint For Success – How To Supercharge On Instagram To Grow Online And Get More Aligned Clients. It’s packed with everything you need to succeed on Instagram. Plus, a bonus 30 days of content ideas. Message me on LinkedIn “ Blueprint” to be one of the first to get your hands on this eBook.