At some stage in our careers, most of us had the experience of working a “real job”
- Set hours (9-5 or so)
- A boss
- A salary
- Vacation / sick days
Some people like the stability, the routine, the structure… they operate well in this environment.
Most of us who left that, did so because we didn’t want the structure.
We want to sleep in when we’re tired, we want to attend family events without asking for permission, we don’t want a cap on our salary.
But then when we’re operating in our own business, realistically we do need to work 40-ish hours in the week, we need some accountability to get things done, we need money to live, and we need breaks.
We don’t crave structure, but we need at least a little.
So we put little blocks in our calendars to keep ourselves on track.
Works great for a week or two, then we start ignoring the blocks.
Then we shuffle them around. “Maybe if it’s at 10am instead of 8am I won’t sleep through it”.
That lasts a week or two.
But ultimately it’s really hard to make these things stick.
You’ve got urgent priorities to get to.
You’re in flow.
You’re being productive.
The structure falls aside.
I was talking to a client last week who was explaining exactly that.
She wanted some level of structure. And her team really wanted some level of structure.
But her day-to-day decisions told a different story.
So how do you make it work?
DISCIPLINE. Just kidding. If only we were all so perfect.
Make the structure useful, and more importantly, make it fun.
Let me break this down, what do useful structures look like?
- They don’t take too much time (they have a very high return on effort)
- They happen at the right frequency (some things happen weekly, others annually)
- They’re scheduled correctly (your life, which is your priority, won’t often get in the way)
If you’re noticing that you’re resisting or skipping a meeting or task on a regular basis, first ask yourself if you can fix one of the above.
Maybe they’re running longer than they should?
Maybe they don’t need to happen every week?
Maybe they’re about things that aren’t actually important at the moment?
Maybe Monday AM is theoretically a great time to plan your week, but in reality, there’s often a backlog of client requests that need to get answered.
Useful means that it actually fits in your life and business. It’s not competing with higher priorities and it’s adding the value it should to your business.
Once you’ve made it useful, make it fun 🙂
I know what you’re thinking… How on earth can a [insert your dreaded task or meeting here] be fun!?
Here are some ideas:
- light incents, a candle, or essential oil diffuser before you get started
- get a bowl of your favorite candy or a special tea and save it only to eat for this moment
- play a Hogwarts playlist on Spotify.
- move to a different room than where you usually work
- do the meeting at a restaurant you love, or a coffee shop
- take a shower, or go for a walk to get your head clear
Think about how to influence yourself and your environment so you actually look forward to this time.
And keep in mind that this will be a work in progress.
You may think that the meeting structure is great, but over time it becomes less effective.
When you had 20 clients, 15 mins was enough, but now you have 40 clients.
The restaurant works great for awhile, but then you can’t justify the travel time.
Observe yourself.
It’s not about being overly disciplined, it’s about adapting and creating a reality you want to live in.
Something you can more than sustain, but really enjoy.
When you find your groove, you’ll see your business grows painlessly, you’re always facing forward.
You’re able to better evaluate what’s working and what’s not.
You’ll see the opportunities to delegate.
You’ll have more headspace to come up with new ideas.
You’ll clear out the backlog of “when I have time I’d love to…” projects.
The structures are what give you back your control.
But they need to be useful and fun to do that.