The Art of Doing Less

5th October 2020 By The ActionKnowHow Team

The Art of Doing Less to Achieve More

Ever found yourself missing a family event or working late just to keep up with the tasks you have to do in your business?

If the answer is yes then this blog is for you. You see, all of us think at some time in our working life that doing loads HAS to the be the answer to success, less = no work, more activity = more cash, right? Well I think it’s fundamentally flawed thinking. As a fairly old (almost 60) ex lawyer I remember when we used to be paid by the word, minute and hour, our worth was measured in the hours we billed and how much of that billing hit the firm’s bank account ie not disputed or a bad debt.

You are worth more than cash

That is not how we measure ourselves of course, nor is it, in 2020, an enlightened way to run a business when this year has taken the whole world and shaken it up and our personal and business lives with it. Working yourself into the ground burning both ends of the day and not feeling worthy unless you are in front of your PC tapping out more work is a big fat horrible danger signal that your life has got seriously out of kilter.

The way law firm partners thought when I worked in a traditional practice was how much could we flog the staff to earn this month? Do you know how many hours a lawyer works to bill 6 or 7 hours each day? Normally around 10-11 hours. Hardly a shock that by early 2000 (when we did a sharp exit) we saw many lawyers buying camper vans and heading for the hills.

Unprecedented levels of burn out across all professions

This is not just about lawyers though, you can insert any professional title in there and its the same, our internet obsession and the change of business to be 24/7 or at least operate always 7 days a week via a 12 hour day have changed the rules. We are not clear – I think – on what is expected of us any longer or how to manage the new way of working which means we can work any time without it being all of our time. That is my big question and one I have asked myself repeatedly, I have some but not all of the answers, my life is a journey but I can share what I have learned so far and what is working for me.

Examine your thinking

You need to look at doing things better and handling less using a higher brain function ie thinking and evaluating what to do, so its done once and right so you are not reacting and just processing your ‘to do’ list. Your ‘to do’ list also never ends, it just gets longer with more stuff being added daily. Sounds like you? Think again!

Another way

If you have a long ‘to do’ list and are spending your day worrying about fitting it all in and constantly being given or adding new tasks its time to rearrange your thinking. I use a project book, one of those split into coloured sections so I can use a colour coding for each project area I am working on plus a master board, nothing fancy just an A3 drawing block with all the projects in a big mind map on one page so I can check what is important and what is moving/slipping or needs attention.

For each project I colour code the name so I know a green one is live and underway, a red one is in trouble and needs my attention and the blue one is pending ie I am waiting on for someone else to make progress, violet ones are dreams ie ideas I may or may not revisit but they sure as hell are not having any time now devoted to them so they are on paper but have no flesh or time devoted to them now.

My green, blue and red projects have space in my project book, a page for each project tasks with my main aim written at the top. All of these plans and lists have scheduled time in the diary. If it’s not scheduled it does not happen. This stops reactivity, burn out and stuff getting missed. It also allows me to plan my time accurately around home life, my beloved husband, friends and dogs are always going to come first and have time devoted to them.

Oh yeah, how does that work when the sh*t hits the fan then?

Sh*t happens, ill-health strikes without warning, I went out one Saturday afternoon, fell over and spent over 3 years recovering from a traumatic leg injury needing major surgery and twice weekly physio. I did not miss one day off work, did not lose one client and earned more money the year I was injured than I had done at any time in the last 5 before it. I was super organised, and the schedule enabled others to take over some of my tasks easily without the fuss a disorganised working life can bring. Now in 2020, another type of illness in my family grounded everything to a standstill and I needed to change everything about the way in which I had worked for over 30 years. This sort of framework enables you to do or delegate without the need for full engagement at those times when you are under par or lacking physical and/or emotional energy.

Will you fall off the wagon periodically even if you adopt these systems? Of course, but done regularly and getting you the results you want will make them easier to get back into when something unexpected happens. Fancy some support in getting this sort of plan in your life? Email support@actionknowhow.com for details of courses and programs that would help you sort out your framework and paint a better picture for living in your life and business.

Is Social Media a Waste of Time for Lawyers?

17th June 2020 By Sue Edwards

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Thinking

18th October 2018 By The Actionistas

FIXING YOUR BUSINESS FROM THE OUTSIDE IN?

Starting and running a business is hard work – it takes time and commitment and there will always be challenges to face.

I’ve always considered myself blessed. I am in business with someone who totally gets the way I think and understands what I have in mind (even when I’m not sure I do) and also brings a totally different perspective to the table. We do have the same basic personality type but we often look at things very differently and, over the many years, we have both come to know and love each other’s strengths and weaknesses so we work with and around them. We also help each other to value and nurture those “gut feelings” that every entrepreneur has, which was really helpful to build trust and confidence in those ideas and feelings during our very early days in business. Ethically we have the same view.

Not everybody has this.

Subjective

For many owners of start-ups and established smaller businesses life can be very isolating – everything begins and ends with you. It becomes too subjective. You are the centre of the business and make every strategic decision, which is even harder when you’re tired or having a bad day. Let’s face it, none of us operate at our best when we’re overworked or feeling stressed.

The fact that you are so intrinsically a part of the business means that it is really difficult to even acknowledge that there is an issue/problem or big cloud building, let alone be able to deal with it. You’ll know that something is “not quite right” but having the time to delve further may seem like a luxury as you work to get sales in and meet existing orders. Even if you do try to tackle the issue (fitting it in around everything else) it may seem more difficult to pick your way through the problem. Often it’s easier to get on with things than to stop and open that box of issues and delve right in – we’ve all been there.

Objective

Ironically, this is exactly the point that you do need to spend time on it and this is when sharing it with someone who is not part of the business, who can view it objectively, is vital.

Making the decision to take the time out to discuss your concerns with a business professional will enable you to share their experiences and take advantage of having a totally new perspective.

Of course it’s not that you can’t tackle it alone but it’s about making it easier on yourself and your business. After all, why get lost trying to find your way when someone can help you out by letting you see a map? It’s about speed and perspective and you can lose weeks wrestling with something that an experienced adviser will have seen before and know a fix for. Why wouldn’t you want to access that help?

Early Mornings

16th October 2018 By The Actionistas

Productivity

Toni and I meet up every Friday and plan, discuss and generally work on our business for about 4 hours solid. We break this up into separate hours across the time spent together with a walk, lunch and often some coffee and cake. On Friday last it got me thinking how, very often, an hour is more productive in business than a whole day. I often get up well before 6.00 AM and will spend my first waking hour enjoying the day break through my office window. To me it’s always a renewed chance to do something different. It’s a new clean day to make an impact, to try something to make things better or tackle something in a new way.

Equally I know we all feel that on most days we need to sit in front of our computers, at our desks and focus solidly on our business and what it does rather than dream up ideas or make improvements. Being there in body doesn’t mean you are productive and often deciding that today you will spend just one or two hours on your business to improve things and do nothing else in terms of the real business you offer to clients will have a massive impact on our thoughts.

Stuff you can do in that lovely alone time

I am a self-confessed planner and short action list maker (1-3 things to do today and that’s it)and over the years I have been able to use simple tools to great effect. Setting a timer or online app to ping at the end of an hour set aside for one task is liberating. It could be grunt work like invoicing or admin, if you do this yourself, or creative work like sales copy or blogging. The main thing is whatever you decide to do is done in one hour, so it could be a massive task broken down into a manageable hour’s worth like say 10 invoices to chase or send or 2 x 350 word blogs or scheduling Social Media for 5 days or more.

Virtual Assistants

It’s a successful habit which adds up. Just one hour devoted to your business improvements for example will spark off ideas to get you more business, save time or work less on some of the more routine aspects of your business processes. This morning, my ‘Golden Hour’ was spent reading through my VA’s notes on various projects and providing feedback and ideas so when he starts work across the world in a different time zone he is not waiting for me. This practice has made both of us a lot more efficient but we did not get there immediately when we started working together. It’s grown and developed and it’s time well spent as he is a very fast worker who requires minimal comments to give brilliant results, but he does need input and I have to make sure I am fully focused so he gets the best instructions and I get the best results.

This also got me thinking about how I use an hour. When I am consulting I know exactly what I can do in an hour for a client and equally understand how tiring an hour of solid focus is. It’s much harder when I calculate what someone else does with their hour. I might tell my VA that a complex form is about an hour’s work and it could actually take 3 and I might take a day to set up a WordPress Site and install all I need on it and he will take half that time. I have learned to ask them what time it might take them as the answer often surprises me!

How do you use your time?

I also sometimes struggle when things are very busy and I cannot see where the hour can be found. Normally this means getting help in other places, watching less TV or getting up earlier before the noise of the day. That first hour of the new day for me is the most energising start. Whatever else the day has to offer if I can keep that first hour to myself I know I have achieved what I need and it puts into perspective any time spent later where I have less control over how it is spent.

So, big question now is when and what for are you going to take your Golden Hour today? Let us know in the box below, or get in touch on Social Media using the buttons on this page. We would love to hear from you.

Quitting the Day Job

13th May 2018 By The Actionistas

Quitting the Day Job

I hear from a number of clients in our new focus groups how they have been influenced by thought leaders into quitting their day jobs and going all out for their new business start-up. Some have been encouraged by motivational speakers – gurus who write books – and are really fired up in the first couple of weeks post quitting their ‘steady boring and unstimulating’ jobs to make a huge leap into their new businesses. I totally understand this. There is a strong belief in all of us who do make the journey into self employment/business ownership that we need to be all in or completely out of the game to make it work. No halfhearted toe in the water stuff, no thanks, let’s show up large or stay at home.

Where is the cash?

The truth of this approach is it can leave you super-exposed to cash shortages which may defeat your plans before they really get going. Believe me, I have ‘started up’ with little income and had to get part time jobs I hated to make ends meet. The new shiny business doesn’t get a chance when you are worried constantly about paying the basics; forget creativity and putting on a brave face 12 months into your new lifestyle fuelled only by potatoes and baked beans.

Is it negligent to be encouraged to do this by business gurus?

I think so. I think most of us who have done it and come out the other side can often look back and see there was a better path to tread at that time. You still can get to the end of the road, but in one piece and without the scars of debt so many of us have had to deal with, by using less of the ‘RaRa’ ballsy approach to give up work and make money immediately on our own terms. The truth is you just don’t make cash straight away that easily; it takes time, some money to make money and a load of effort to make the cash you need; enough to run, develop and grow your business. Ever more so when the banks don’t lend and your business needs to start now, not wait 12 months to sort out investment from others.

Beware of sound bites.

A lot of motivational speakers speak in clichés, little short sayings which make an impact but on examination are often meaningless. Really, if you are the sort of person who attends a seminar, gets half an hour with a guru or reads a couple of hundred pages on how great it all can be and then, without thought, throws in the day job that pays all the bills, holidays and more then you need to adjust your attitude. If we were sat together I would say this more strongly. Seriously, take a reality check.

Take a serious look at your mindset. The thing is, business can be every bit as humdrum on a daily basis as any job and possibly, from time to time, more so! The reason being that as a business owner you have to choose the bits of the business that drive it forward, not just the bits you love doing. This can raise a serious challenge to get really good really fast on marketing, sales and business development when actually you want to spend the day doing the service or building the product that drove you to open the business in the first place. That means you get to spend more and more hours each day doing the stuff you don’t like so much but which is needed; stuff like organising the VAT, accounts or liaising with someone to do them for you. Updating your web site and writing blogs to get noticed, the list is endless. You want to outsource but that takes cash and it can become a vicious cycle of cash shortages in the business, making for poor decision making as to your next move. Cash matters, its not everything, but it is something.

I’m depressed now, what do I do?

Work out your real cash needs for the basics and work out how long, without your ‘spreadsheet millionaire’ head on, it’s going to take to earn that in your new business venture. Anything that comes out as under 6 months re-address the figures again and run them past a few people you trust to tell it to you straight. If you want to start a business and have a job already then you will do it; it won’t feel so good all of the time, but your goal is in sight to give up the job in 6 months or so. The time will pass quickly as you will be flat out busy. You will be tired and you’ll be doing 2 jobs for a while, but you will transition into your new business on solid ground and not the smoke and mirrors offered by those who advocate credit card boot strapping and placing your house at risk.

Be a clever start up, not an insolvent one. You deserve more than puff and BS being spouted by those who take no responsibility for the mess and worry you will be in if you leave your job too early.

Need to talk it through? Drop us an email and we will tell you what you can expect from self employment.