1. We Own All of Our Time 

My personal experience with time is, I used to be the one that would be saying I could't possibly exercise, I couldn't possibly do this or I couldn't possibly do that, I dont have time, I dont have a choice, I have to take my dog for a walk, I have to make lunch, I have to brush my hair, I have to do all of these things. When I actually heard the notion, we own all of our time, no exceptions! I had a bit of a resistance to it, probably like you are right now. I was like no that's not right, I dont have a choice to not do these things, I dont have a choice to care for elderly family members, to walk my dog, to make dinner,  I dont have choice to tidy up and clean and keep the house in order and write blogs like this. When I actually let that resistance go, I realised something. We do have control of all of our time and for me I have found when I reframed it as a priorities issue rather than a time issue, everything changed. Instead I was like what do I want to do with my time what do I get to do with my time? I get to make myself lunch, I get to take the dog for a walk and when I flipped the script on this, I found that it did really let me release the initial resistance to this notion. 

The second part of this is, things that we do out of habit, we do them because we think we need to, then it's just what we do. But is it? Look at your calendar and see where are you just going yeah I need do this , I should be doing this, I have no choice here, I need to spend my time doing that. Question that because do you? Could you get help walking the dog, could you get childcare? Could you batch certain tasks in your business? Do you even need to be doing that thing? Do you need to hoover up and tidy every single day or could you do it once a week? All the little things like this I found really helpful.

So to recap you do own every single hour of your time and its up to you how you guys want to spend it. 

2. Yes or No System 

I have a default Yes or NO system, there is no maybe in my world. I used to be the worlds worst at going yeah you know I might get time to do that, that might be fun, I could do this or maybe I'll try this. It works for any area of your life its not just a business thing but for me if it's not an immediate Yes then its a No. Obviously what ends up happening with this is that more times you are saying no to things. So if I have something that comes into my life, its a business thing or a personal life thing and I'm like, hmmmm yeah maybe and I have any kind of doubt, if its not like a Yes I definitely want to do that and its coming from my gut and for sure I want to do that, its just a complete No. This has freed up so much of my time just by doing this just automatically saying no to things has just really really helped, so if something is a maybe, its still a No. Unless you are really really wanting 100% to do that thing, you want to spend some of your time doing this thing then its a Yes.

3. Three Daily Tasks Per Day

Thats right I run my 6 figure business doing only 3 tasks per day. At this point in my journey I dont spend a lot of hours on my Etsy business and that's the reason I can do these blogs, make videos and have my own you tube channel to help you guys. So for me I only have between 1 to 3 must do tasks per day and you will find that using the previous tips like the yes or no decision making thing will find that your priorities  dwindle down. So those 1 to 3 tasks need to be things that drive your business forward, I dont want to see you guys playing around with your website fonts, I want you guys to focus on the things that drive your business forward so that is my 1,2,3 tasks per day. 

Now I'm in a lucky position where I can outsource quite a few of my bits, but even if you're not able to do that, I would still focus on these 1,2,3 tasks per day and that'll just free up so much time. Just focus on 1 to 3 things per day, even if its just to list one item, to respond to emails to do all of these little things as long as its driving your business forward that can be one of your tasks for the day.

4. Our Brains are not Designed to Hold Ideas

I realised that our brains are not designed to hold our ideas, they are designed to make them! I can't  remember where I heard this but when I did I was like YES thats is 100% true.  

When you have an idea your brain will not be able to hold it, because your brain is like a name generator. Its your generator, it is always scanning your environment, looking for ideas, looking for creative inspiration and every so often it spits out a really good idea. But our brains are not designed to hold these ideas so this is why whenever I get an idea and think I need to add this to my to do list, I do it right away, I do not wait. Even if I'm driving I'm like, Pull Over I need to write this thing down. If you are trying to cram all these things into your brain and add them to your mental to do list then its very easy to get overwhelmed and burnt out. Please write it down, personally I use Asana, I love Asana it is so easy to hop on your phone and upload all of your tasks, you can assign them to people, make projects, have a calendar, I much prefer it to other things like Google Calendar and its free so check it out. 

5.  Assign Time to Each Task 

So you remember me saying I only have 1 to 3 task per day, I actually assign time to each task, so I time block each task. Today I am time blocking out 6 hours to make 8 videos and that is my one big task for me to do today. I know it's going to drive the business forward because it is bringing new people in to the business every single day who watch the video and now know that I exist right so you can see how all of this stuff put into practice really works.  Time blocking is something I love to do, for example if I gave myself 2 days to film 8 videos, guess how long it would take me? Thats right 2 days! If I gave myself 6 hours to make it, guess how long it would take me  6 Hours! Your brain will allow yourself the time you give it so why not eek it in a little bit and put yourself under a little bit off pressure to get that thing done. Thats why time blocking is good. If you dont know how to time block just keep it simple and say im going to start this at 12 and finish at 6. Dont over complicate it and just give yourself a time limit for one thing you want to achieve and go ahead and do it. 

6. Keep Your Business Simple

I am such a fan of the 80/20 rule but for me I do it as a 75/25 rule I find that's more efficient in my everyday life. I keep my business really really simple, Im such a fan of using numbers like 1 or 3 so for me I have 3 main ways I have to bring traffic to my business, when I  was starting out I only had 1. I keep  things streamlined, I keep things super super simple, could I bring in more people if I did a pod cast, if I was doing lives every single day, running sales and promotions all of the time? Yes I probably could. BUT  would it work for me, would it be an efficient use of time, would I actually want a business like that? The answer is probably No! So keep your business streamlined, super simple, honestly guys you do not need to be working full time on your handmade business as in 9-6pm, 5-6 days per week to get your business to a 6 figure business. you don't need to be working that much in order to get it. 

7.  Find the Value in Your Time 

I want you to put an actual monetary amount to what your time costs you. If you pay yourself every single month or every single week, which I would recommend that you do. I want you to figure out how many hours you spend in your business and actually give yourself an hourly rate. So for example lets say you are paying yourself £25 per hour do you know that you can go on to Fiverr and pay like, £10 per hour for someone to schedule your social media for you? You can see how this is a really efficient use of your profits and time. So put a £ or $ amount on your time so you know how much all of this other stuff, this busy stuff is actually costing you. 

If you'd prefer me to visually teach you this blog post, then you can watch it HERE.

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