The thing that stops you from working fewer hours
Are you waiting till you feel ready ?
One of the things I hear from clients often is that their business can feel all-consuming.
While all they want is to work fewer hours so that they can be more present with their family, travel more, have time for pas
They have been so busy delivering the best possible brands and websites to their clients that over the years, the client work has taken over their whole business.
They often work evenings and weekends (and have been for a long time) to finish this client work.
And are now realising that their business could not be further away from the vision they had when they started; to be fully booked and still have the freedom for the things they love.
But they are in a constant catch-22.
To be able to work fewer hours;
They need to streamline and optimise their processes so that they can spend fewer hours onboarding clients and delivering their services
To have the time to streamline and optimise their processes they need to shift time away from client work> while still serving the same number of clients.
So they know something needs to change.
They know they need to start taking back control of how they spend their time so that they can spend it on the things that matter most to them.
This might sound familiar to you
So if you want to work less but don't feel the time is right, I know firsthand that you'll never feel ready to take action.
Waiting till you're ready is a losing game.
There’s always something else to do. Another round of refinement for client X's logo, another option to add to the initial logo presentation, already create the wireframe for the website project that is about to start next week.
If you're a designer that is often fully booked, the to-do list never stops.
So then what can you do to take back your evening and weekends?
You might think that in order to shave eight hours off your workweek you'll need to:
++ Improve your client processes with templates and automations
++ Streamline your business processes with workflow
++ Update client and project management systems
++ Review your pricing, your product suite and your profitability
And while that's all true, that's not the first place you start.
The most important step you can take is to stop waiting till you feel ready and make the decision that you will work less.
You're probably thinking; well that's easy for you to say Stephanie; just make the decision.
And I know it might come across this way, but I'm not just saying this. I've experienced it as well in the past in my business and in the corporate world.
In fact, am going through something similar right now because since I've started with my travel blog last year September I have been working most weekends.
This was something I wanted to do for years but never took the time to do. And now I finally did, it is taking up way more time than expected. I don't regret starting this, it's part of the vision I have for my life. But I knew I had to set some boundaries.
And making the decision to work less, is one of the hardest decisions to make when you feel overworked and burned out.
Because you feel you could not be further away from working less, you actually don't even have the time right now to do everything that you feel you're supposed to do, at least that's how I felt.
So how in the heck, are you then supposed to 'just' make the decision to work less?
For me, this decision was made when I was yet working another weekend and came to the realisation that if I would not make a conscious decision that something needed to change that I would still be working every weekend in 6 months’ time. I thought about what I would be missing out on in these months and how this was the opposite of the vision I had for my business.
There’s that Einstein quote—” Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
And I don't think I have ever shared this publically out of shame, but I've had a full-blown burnout in the past. And it took me 6 months to come back from this and I never want to go back to that situation.
So my decision for Q1 was to take 1 full weekend off in January and February and every Sunday afternoon. That's not the end goal, but a step in the right direction.
And you know what happens once you have made this decision?
Instead of you trying to find the time to organise the backend of your business so you can onboard clients more efficiently, to dive into your numbers and profitability (which you are never able to find, right?) you will be forced to make time for it.
You'll be forced to look at:
++ How you might be wasting time with inefficient processes and outdated workflows
++ If you are planning your week in a way to helps you to be productive or is actually slowing you down
++ If it's time to raise your prices or get rid of services that no longer spark joy.
Because if you don't, you know you will never be able to achieve your goal of working less so that you can be more present for your family or just sit on the couch at night to watch Netflix without feeling guilty or anxious.
And it isn't until you have made the decision, that you realise you should have done it sooner (I promise this).
And this decision is the starting point for you to take care of yourself, put your vision first & stepping into your role as the CEO of your business!
I hope this helps you to know that you're not alone. And that it's not just my clients that are telling me about it, I've experienced it as well.
What would getting your weekends back mean for you and your business? How would it make you feel if you could work less without sacrificing revenue?
Have a look at the video below where I explain how you can implement your ideal week in your daily life.
You've got this,
Stephanie
This post was originally sent as a newsletter to my email list on 31/03/2022
If you thought this post you might also like:
LOOKING FOR ANYTHING?
Popular items in the shop
FOLLOW ON INSTAGRAM
FAVOURITE RESOURCES
