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Blacksburg Belle

3 Daily Habits that Have Made Me More Creative and Productive

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A few months ago, my creativity was waning.

Anytime I sat down to write or paint it felt like I had a first class seat on the struggle bus. I’d rather have been back in middle school trying (and completely failing) to do a pull-up in front of my entire class for our annual physical fitness test.

I wondered if I should flip over the couch cushions and look underneath the beds to see if my creativity had hidden somewhere.

So…I did what I always do when I have a problem. I researched.

And, I found a class on CreativeLive that looked like a great fit: Get Into Your Creative Flow taught by Steven Kotler.

I wish I could tell you I did something really cool like went on a three-month sabbatical to India, Indonesia and Italy, Eat, Pray, Love-style. But I’m more of a research girl.

This course was just what the doctor ordered. I absolutely recommend it, but for today, I want to share the three things I learned from this course that I’ve turned into daily habits.

If you’re anything like me and need a boost in creativity (and productivity), you should adopt these daily habits, too.

Thanks to Steven, I’m feeling much more creative…and productive…and happy.

Here are the three daily habits:      

1. Using my trigger list.

One of the strategies from this course I found the most helpful was creating a trigger list and using it daily.

A trigger list is a list of release activities that you use when you’re in the struggle phase of the creative process in order to reach flow.

Release activities are also something you use between 90-120 minutes of focused creativity in order to prep for the next one. When you do a release activity between blocks of work, you’re less likely to burn out and much more likely to reach flow throughout the day.

Steven describes triggers as low-grade physical activities–something where your body is moving (not at an extreme level) and your mind can wander.

My release activities range from walking my dogs to pilates to embroidery sewing to knitting to repetitive cleaning.

Takeaway: Build your own trigger list and do release activities for 25-45 minutes in between 90-120 minutes of focused work throughout the day.

It might seem like this would make you less productive, but it does the complete opposite. If you can reach flow when you’re working, you’ll get a lot more done in the 90-120 minute blocks of time. Steven says it can increase your productivity by 500 percent.

Tip: Television and movies do not work for release activities. They drain you of the neurochemicals needed to reach flow.

2. Ending focused work with a question.

At the end of one of the 90-120 minutes of focused work, I now think of a question and write it down.

This question relates to something I was struggling with during that block of time or what I know I’m going to be working on when I come back to work after my break and doing a release activity.

Steven teaches that ending with a question will give your subconscious time to ponder the answer while you’re doing your release activity. When you come back to work, you often know the answer or can come up with the answer pretty quickly.

When I sit back down to work, I spend five minutes journaling the answer to the question that I wrote at the end of the last block of work.

It works pretty darn well!

I don’t always have an answer, but I’ve done a lot of creative problem solving with this technique.

Takeaway: End every block of focused work by writing down a question at the top of a piece of paper. When you come back to work after your break, spend five minutes journaling the answer.

3. Reading nonfiction outside of my niche.

If you’re new around these parts, you might not know that I adore reading. That includes nonfiction, but when I read nonfiction, it’s mostly business and productivity type books. Those definitely fall into my niche.

During Steven’s course, he talked about the importance of reading nonfiction outside of your niche in order to spark creativity more often.

He explained that creativity comes from pattern recognition and to have this happen more often, you should read books outside of your area of expertise. He recommended 25 to 50 pages per day.

Since taking the course, I’ve been reading about 25 pages in a nonfiction book outside of my niche most days and I agree with him. It has amped up my creativity.

It makes you think about things in different ways, come up with ideas you never would’ve thought of and more.

I’m currently reading Lagom: Not Too Little, Not Too Much: The Swedish Art of Living a Balanced, Happy Life and then I’m going to read Let Your Mind Run: A Memoir of Thinking My Way to Victory. I have a couple options after that.

Takeaway: Make a reading list of three to five nonfiction books that are completely outside of your niche. Pick books you’re interested in–topics that you enjoy! Buy those books or check them out of your local library and read 25-50 pages each day. Once you’re done with those books, repeat the process.

See if it doesn’t help you to think more creatively!

Those are the three big takeaways from Get Into Your Creative Flow that I turned into daily habits.

I learned so much more from the course, but these three habits have made me a happier and more creative person.

Tips for All My Fellow Rebel Entrepreneurs

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My husband strolled into the bedroom after getting home from the gym, sweat seeping into his shirt.

I had a twinge of jealousy, because I was stuck in bed with muscle aches, a low fever, a headache and sore throat.

He asked how I was feeling and I told him pretty crappy.

“That sucks,” he said. “Well, listen. You know that trainer I told you about? Arkief?”

I nodded.

I thought about the stories he’d told me about the police officer who was also a trainer at his gym.

“He’s started personal training sessions at the Blacksburg Pilates studio and he knows about your health issues. I think you should start training with him. He thinks it could be a good fit.”

I cocked my head, took a deep breath as my face turned tomato red and said, “I can barely walk around the block. I just started treatments for my autoimmune disease and the only thing I have energy for is working. And, now you expect me to start working out. ARE. YOU. SERIOUS?”

He gulped and took a step back, but I was livid at the suggestion.

How dare my husband say I need personal training!

I’d been in bed off and on for months and months, barely leaving the house because my immune system was so weak. I’d only been getting treatments for my autoimmune disease for  a few months and was just easing back into the real world.

And he was suggesting that I pick back up with regular exercise.

His intentions were good. He’d talked to Arkief about my chronic health issues and Arkief had explained the healing nature of pilates and how it could help with my insomnia and pain. But, my husband didn’t go about things in the best way.

I might’ve given him the Paris Geller “evil eye” for the rest of the day.

*********

It took about three months for me to decide that it was MY decision to try pilates and ask my husband for Arkief’s phone number.

I’m currently going twice a week to personal training sessions, love it and have lost six pounds in the process.

It’s my favorite way to exercise, Arkief is an amazing personal trainer and I’m so glad that I gave it a shot.

But it had to become my idea for me to do it.

That’s what it’s like to be married to a Rebel.

When I say Rebel, I mean one of the four tendencies that Gretchen Rubin explains in her book, The Four Tendencies.

The four tendencies are personality profiles that reveal how you deal with expectations, productivity/procrastination and other people.

Signs you’re a Rebel (mostly comes from The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin):

  • You want to do what you want to do when you want to do it.
  • If someone tells you what to do, it makes you want to do it a lot less.
  • You don’t even like telling yourself what to do.
  • Your best days are the ones when you get to wake up and say, “What do I feel like doing today?”
  • You resist control and enjoy thwarting expectations and rules.
  • You aren’t often persuaded when someone says something like, “But you’ve already paid for it.” or “It should be this way.” or “You said you’d do it.”
  • You value choice and will even choose something that isn’t in your best interest just to show that you can make that choice.
  • You’ll work hard if you’re doing something you want to do.
  • If someone dares you to do something, it’s on.
  • You’ve got an “I’ll show you” mentality.
  • You don’t mind going against customs or conventions.
  • You value authenticity.
  • You value freedom.
  • You want to come up with your own way of doing things.
  • You hate doing repetitive, boring tasks.
  • You don’t like being labeled, even if it’s an accurate label.
  • You don’t really care what others think of you and don’t mind being seen as different.
  • You often think outside of the box.

Do you relate to this “you’re not the boss of me” Rebel mentality?

I’m with you and it’s as hard as Hades being a Rebel.

With every other tendency, there are very clear ways to get sh*t done.

If you’re a Rebel, it’s much more vague.

That’s why I’m writing this blog post. I want to help all the other Rebels out there by sharing what I’ve learned. (I’d also love for all of you Rebels to share your experiences and tips in the comments of this post so that we can all give each other a bit of encouragement. Who’s up for a round of virtual high fives?)

Getting Sh*t Done

1. Rebels like fun.

I used to have a love-hate relationship with live calls.

I relish live calls, because answering questions in a live call format is my jam and interacting with my favorite customers in that setting is something I could do every day.

It’s my absolute favorite way to hang out with the women I work with. For me, two hours flies by so quickly. I’m always surprised when we reach the end, because it never feels like it’s been that long.

The hate part comes from getting “video ready.”

I’m so pale that my family calls me a vampire and I don’t feel comfortable on video unless I’ve done my hair and makeup. I believe it’s professional to look your best and it makes me feel confident.

It’s a problem that there was hate attached to live calls, because my main offering is built around live calls. So, I made getting ready more fun by: listening to audiobooks or watching a tv show while doing my hair and makeup, investing in more makeup options, experimenting with my hair and lessening the time it takes me to get ready.

Now, we have anywhere from two to three live calls every week for Sunday Society. That means I have to get video ready two to three days a week. The only way I was able to get myself to do that was through making it fun.

I love picking out my next audiobook. I get giddy about scrolling through Sephora and deciding on my next eyeshadow palette. I get a kick out of pinning hairstyles on Pinterest.

I enjoy the process so much more.

The first tip to getting more done is to make it fun. This helps anyone, but it’s especially crucial for Rebels.

If you really want to cross something off your list or achieve a goal, make it enjoyable. Think of every way possible to make it more fun. It might take more time or money to get the goal accomplished but you probably wouldn’t have achieved the goal if you didn’t invest the time or money!

Think about the goal you’re trying to accomplish right now that’s evading you.

What are three ways you can make it more fun? I bet if you add those three things you’ll be much more likely to achieve your goal.

2. The second tip is to lock onto your values and return to them often.

Another reason I decided to swallow my pride and start pilates personal training was that one of my top values is health.

I know what it’s like to lose your health and I’ve promised myself that I will make choices to be the healthiest I can be with the autoimmune issues I have.

That meant going back to my husband and asking him questions about Arkief and pilates and apologizing for being so harsh when he brought it up.

As a Rebel, that was about as painful as stabbing myself in the thigh with a blunt pencil. But, I was able to do it because I value my health more than I value punishing my husband for bringing something up at the wrong time.

One huge positive about rebels is that they’re authentic and want to live their lives according to what they value.

So, let’s say that one of the reasons you started your own business is because you wanted to be able to employ others and give them jobs they love.

Each time you find yourself procrastinating, come back to that value and remind yourself that in order to keep employing those people, you have to do your job. And, if you want to employ more people, you have to grow and make more money.

That should give you the oomph to get past the rebelness that doesn’t want to check off another to-do from your list.

3. Get rid of repetitive tasks.

The best decision I made last year that made me more productive than anything else was hiring cleaners to clean our house once per week.

We have three hundred-pound labs that I knew would be all up in their business and get very excited (read: bark like deranged monsters) when new humans enter the house, so I knew it would be a challenge to find the right cleaners for our home.

Thank goodness I hunted them down and they love dogs.

One thing that Rebels hate are repetitive, boring tasks. (Maybe that’s why I dislike blow drying my hair and putting on makeup?)

They put those types of tasks off until they absolutely have to do them.

Thinking about cleaning, putting off cleaning, and cleaning took up waaaaaaaay too much of my time, especially thinking about having to clean and wondering what I could get away with not doing.

If you’re a Rebel, I bet there are some repetitive tasks that are getting in your way of getting BIG things done.

The third tip is to take these tasks and hire them out, batch them or decrease them as much as possible.

4. If you’re having trouble meeting deadlines, pair up with an Obliger.

When Rebels become entrepreneurs, they struggle with telling themselves what to do. When they pair up with an Obliger, that person often makes sure that essential things get done.

“Just as they often pair with Obligers, Rebels often pair with family members as work partners–perhaps because a relative has more understanding, experience, and tolerance for the Rebel.” -Gretchen Rubin, The Four Tendencies

What to Tell Other People

When you work with other people, you need to let them know the best way to work with you.

If it’s someone you’re bringing onto your team or partnering with, have them take the four tendencies quiz so that you know what tendency they are and you can explain your tendency to them.

1. Let them know that flat out telling you what to do will have the opposite effect and instead, they should: explain how it’s going to be fun, how it relates back to your why/values, and/or why it’s important to them.

2. If there’s something someone needs to speak to you about that’s more serious, the best way to go about it according to Gretchen Rubin is to: give you the information, tell you the consequences, and give you a choice.

They shouldn’t lecture you or hover over you. It should be simple and to the point.

3. Rebels respond well to games, challenges and choices.

If someone wants to inspire you, they could turn something into a challenge or game. Let your friends, family and colleagues know this. Give them an example or two.

For instance, if your friend is disappointed because you haven’t been finishing the books for your monthly book club, she could turn it into a challenge by saying that whoever finishes first buys the other dinner.

As a Rebel, that will prompt you to want to show her up.

Being a Rebel has its downsides.

We’re not the easiest people to get along with and we have to work hard to be super productive, but we’re also passionate and creative and authentic.

My husband has never understood why I can’t “pretend” to like someone when I don’t. If we’re at an event and speaking to someone I don’t care for, it often shows on my face.

I’m not rude, but I can’t hide my feelings.

I don’t do it on purpose. It’s just part of who I am. I believe it’s part of being a Rebel.

We’re genuine people who don’t enjoy hiding who we are or how we feel.

This can work in your favor if you love what you do. You can’t hide that either.

Keep coming back to that when your Rebel personality is giving you hell and pushing you to procrastinate. Remember why you’re doing what you’re doing. Connect to your values and feelings.

If you’re a Rebel, please share your tips in the comments below! We need to stick together!

5 Questions to Figure Out Why You’re Not Achieving Your Goals

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When your alarm clock buzzed this morning, what did you do and how did you feel?

Did you press the snooze button and snake under the covers, thinking the next 10 minutes were probably going to be some of the most luxurious of your day?

Did you force yourself out of bed, shivering at the cold and cursing the winter months while grabbing for your robe?

Did you take a minute to think about the exciting things you get to do later that day, grateful for your life?

Whether or not you’re a morning person, the way you feel about your day when you first wake up can tell you a lot about the way you feel about your life.

Are you just going through the motions? Are you putting things on your to-do list because you want to do them or because someone else wants you to do them? Is there anything in your day that you’re over-the-moon excited about?

Now, consider how 2018 has gone so far.

Think about the goals you set for yourself.

We’re two and a half weeks into the year. How are you doing?

Do you already feel behind? Have you already let yourself down? Do you already feel like things are a struggle?

First, we’re only two and a half weeks into the year! You’ve got lots of time to turn things around.

With that said, you don’t want to wait and keep letting days and weeks pass you by without making changes.

If you’re already fighting to keep up with your goals or stick with your habits, I’m going to help you figure out why YOU are struggling and what YOU personally need to change with this blog post.

I’m not going to give you vague advice that only works for a subset of people. Instead, you’re going to answer five questions and through those questions, you’re going to determine what you need to do to get your year on track or to stay on track.

1. Are you an upholder, obliger, questioner, or rebel?

If you have no idea what that means, let me give you a quick overview. Gretchen Rubin created what she calls the four tendencies and they basically explain how you respond to expectations, how you’re most productive and how you deal with others’ expectations of you.

Once you know which group you fall into and you learn about your tendency, you can learn so much about how you work best, how to keep habits and how to be most productive.

If you don’t know which tendency you are, I recommend you take this quiz. I also hosted an entire live call in Sunday Society about the four tendencies after reading the book and studying them. If you join the membership program, you get instant access to that call and can learn a lot more about your individual tendency.

You should also read Gretchen’s book to get more information on your tendency and learn how to deal with others who have different tendencies than you.

(P.S. I’m a rebel…figuring that out helped me become more productive! I discuss how in the Sunday Society live call)

2. Do you need regular accountability? If yes, how have you built that into your day/week?

The biggest tendency is the obliger group and if you’re an obliger, the only way you’re going to be productive is through other people–other people relying on you, other people’s expectations, accountability, etc. Nothing else works.

You can try to just do it on your own, but you’re always going to come up short. So, why not figure out how to hold yourself accountable? If that’s the only thing you need to do, do it, my friend.

This is the reason that we now meet for FB Live calls on Mondays and Fridays inside of Sunday Society. On Mondays, members share their top five priorities for the week along with the one thing they’re going to do that week to be more productive. Then, we meet back up on Fridays and members share how many of their five to-dos they got done, they give themselves a productivity score (between 1-10), they tell the group what they’re going to do the next week to be more productive and share their biggest win of the week.

It’s an accountability group for anyone who needs that bit of accountability and a check in, almost mastermind, for anyone who wants to connect with other creative bosses.

If you need accountability, you need to have multiple ways of getting it such as an accountability partner, an accountability group (like Sunday Society or something like it that meets twice weekly), a FB group you check in with multiple times a week, and maybe a paid mentor.

It’s not one or the other. It’s all of the above, especially for obligers.  

3. What’s tripped you up in the past?

You need to look at your personal situation and what has gotten in your way of success in the past.

Look at just the past two and a half weeks.

What has made it hard for you to stick to your goals/habits? List everything you can think of.

Now think about the past year and the main things that got in your way. Add those things to your list.

For everything you’ve listed, you need to come up with a contingency plan.

Life isn’t perfect. The things on your list will keep popping up.

Your kids will get sick. You will get another migraine. Another family emergency will occur. Another unexpected vet visit will happen. Your sister will go through another break up. You won’t feel like blogging again soon. Your babysitter will cancel on you.

What can you do now to plan for these things when they happen?

Do you need to give yourself a bit more time to accomplish your goals so that you have wiggle room when something doesn’t go as planned? Do you need to work ahead of schedule? Do you need to have blog posts written ahead of time?

Making sure that your expectations are in line with real life is crucial to sticking with habits and accomplishing your goals.

4. Are your goals really YOUR goals?

Sometimes we see someone we admire doing something that looks kinda cool such as speaking at a large event or learning how to hip hop dance or breaking through to seven figures.

Or, we see a beautiful picture of someone mountain climbing on Pinterest or on the beach of a tiny island on Instagram.

Then, all of a sudden that cool thing or pretty image gets added to our own goal list even though we haven’t really thought it through.

We even add certain goals to our lists because of society’s expectations like losing 15 pounds or because we think it’s the next step for our businesses such as getting 100,000 email subscribers.

For you to put in the time it takes to reach a goal, you’ve gotta want it. It can’t be on your list just because you once saw a pretty image. Now…it could all have started because of a pretty image and have grown from there.

If you’re struggling with a specific goal, check in with yourself. Do YOU really want it? Is this goal for you? Did you decide to reach for this goal because of you or someone else or just because?

5. Is the journey fun?

This question feels cheesy but it’s reallllllllly important.

Goals aren’t actually supposed to be these hairy beasts that we have to stare down and wrestle to the ground to accomplish. They’re supposed to be fun!

If you don’t make the “doing” fun, you’re going to have to work yourself up to do the work every single time you work towards that goal.

I’m not saying every moment is going to be fun, but you should make it as enjoyable as possible.

For instance, if you want to get into better shape and exercising five days a week is your goal, you should pick a form of exercise that you enjoy and maybe get a friend involved.

If you love yoga classes, don’t force yourself to go to a bootcamp. Go to yoga classes with friends.

This seems obvious but how many times have you given yourself the hardest route possible?

Let’s take another example. If your goal is to grow your email list from 250 subscribers to 5000 subscribers, make a list of the ways you enjoy promoting your business.

If you love Instagram but can’t stand Facebook, then spend your time posting pictures and videos to Instagram, posting Instagram stories and hopping onto Instagram Live. If you like video a lot more than writing, then post videos each week instead of written posts.

Create special videos just for your email list and promote them on Instagram, using short clips and links to a landing page where followers can sign up for free to get access to the entire videos.

You could also put together some webinars, if you also enjoy that kind of thing.

Do more of what you like and less of what you don’t.

It sounds simple, but again, the creatives I work with tend to make things as hard as possible for themselves. For some reason, they’ll force themselves to do the thing they hate instead of do the thing they enjoy to reach their goals.

The more you enjoy the doing, the more likely you’ll reach your goals.

Are you enjoying the process right now? If not, what’s one thing you can do to make it more enjoyable?

If you dig into these questions and answer them truthfully, you’ll figure out what’s standing in your way of keeping up with your habits and reaching your goals. You’ll also see what you can do right now to change things.

Now, it’s up to you to decide whether or not you’re going to make those changes.

Are you going to figure out your tendency and how that affects your productivity? Are you going to build in accountability to your day/week, even if that includes paying for accountability? Are you going to make a contingency plan for all the things that have tripped you up in the past? Are you going to make sure your goals are your own and make them more fun?

Doing this work now will mean a much more successful year.

My 2018 Planning System

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Two weeks ago I published an in-depth blog post about the top 14 planners for entrepreneurs.

The most common question I got from that blog post was, “What planner are you going to use for 2018? Why did you leave us hanging?!?!?!”

I didn’t reveal which planner I picked from the bunch, because I hadn’t figured out which one I wanted to use when I published that blog post.

I adore the concept of the Desire Map Planner and was suuuuuuuuuuper close to choosing that as my main planner for the upcoming year. I don’t focus enough on how I want to feel and what I can do to create those feelings and I plan to do that a lot more in 2018.

But, I couldn’t overlook how much I loved the design and every single page of the Inkwell planner. From the moment I opened that planner, I felt like it had been made for me.

The Productivity Planner also caught my eye with its simplicity and focus. I tried it’s system of focusing on one to five tasks and rating my productivity in my bullet journal and got a lot done on those days.

And then there is bullet journaling…the planning system that has my heart and has kept me organized this past year.

I also can’t forget Lara Casey’s Powersheets which aren’t a traditional planner but help you plan out your goals for the year and then help you take action and review how you’re doing throughout the year. I immediately knew I was going to use the Powersheets when I opened that package.

So what’s a planner addict to do when she has a stack of planners she loves but she can’t use them all?

It kinda felt like choosing a wedding dress all over again.

Luckily, I found a way to take the parts of the planners I really liked and put them together.

First, I decided that I would use three planners throughout the year.

I know…that’s a lot. But, I don’t care. This is my business and I can do what I want and I want three planners and one of them isn’t even a traditional planner for those of you who are counting.

I’m using: 1) the Powersheets to plan out my goals and track them throughout the year, 2) the Inkwell planner either just for Sunday Society or BookTube (I haven’t decided yet) and 3) my bullet journal for everything else.

The bullet journal I purchased for 2018 is huge.

Seriously, it’s a big boy. It’s still a Leuchtturm1917 but it’s the size large and the difference between the medium and the large is big.

I supersized because I want to fit a good amount of stuff on my daily spreads. I’m taking things I like about each of the planners I mentioned earlier and combining them into a custom daily spread.

Before I made this decision, I thought a great deal about whether or not this would be a good use of my time–creating the daily spreads and filling them out.

I came to the conclusion that I need to make more time in 2018 for journaling and thinking about the things I’ve included in my daily spreads. So, I believe it’s more than worth my time. If I decide later that I’m spending too much time on it, I can limit what I put into my daily spreads or move into one of the other planners.

For now, I’m excited about the system I’m setting up in my big ol’ bullet journal.

Let me give you a tour of what I’ve done so far.

Here’s the yearly spread (what some in the bullet journaling community call a future log) where I can put in launches, vacations, sales, birthdays, holidays, etc:

And, here’s my daily spread:

Here’s the breakdown:

At the beginning of the day, I want to think about what Danielle LaPorte calls your core desired feelings. Basically, it’s how I want to feel. I’m going to write them in the little honeycomb shapes. This will remind me of what’s really important–how I want to feel and if I can achieve that, then I’ve won that day.

Then, each morning I’ll also write a sentence or two to respond to the soul prompt (all of those come from the Desire Map Planner).

Next, I’ll write a sentence or two in response to the business prompt. I’m putting together a list of business prompts for this part of my planner.

The picture below shows you the bottom of the first page of my daily spread.

The three things that are circled come from the Full Focus Planner (which I didn’t know about until after I published my post on the top planners for entrepreneurs or this one would’ve made the list). In the Full Focus Planner, every day there is a spot to check off that you’ve completed your morning ritual, your workday startup ritual, your workday shutdown ritual and your evening ritual.

Each day that I do my morning ritual and workday startup ritual, I’m more productive and I’m happier! My workday shutdown ritual consists of making sure my daily spread for the next day is ready, looking over my schedule and filling out my to-dos for the next day.

In 2018, I would like to post on Instagram every weekday and share more of my work on Instagram stories each day. I’ve added three boxes for exercise–they’re for 15 minutes each, so I can check them off if I break it up throughout the day or get in a longer workout earlier in the day. I also have some checkboxes for water to make sure that I’m staying hydrated.

The box at the bottom of the page is for ‘something learned’ because I try to learn something new every day and writing it down makes it more likely that you’ll retain it.

The top of the second page (picture below) comes straight from the Productivity Planner which I looooooooooove. This planner is all about focus. If you’re a creative that has a hard time staying focused, you should seriously think about investing in this planner even if you use it as a secondary planner.

Anyways, instead of a standard to-do list, I’m using the Productivity Planner’s set up for my to-do list. It gives me room for five items and the five little circles next to the checkboxes represent 25 minutes each. The Productivity Planner encourages users to use the Pomodoro technique–25 minutes working, separated by short breaks. I’ve been doing this recently and I’ve been getting a lot more done.

At the end of the day, you look at your task list and what you accomplished and give yourself a productivity score.

Below my productivity score, I’ll wrap up the day by thinking about a few more things: what I want to stop doing, what I want to change and what I’m grateful for. Each of these prompts came out of the Desire Map Planner and they change each day. For instance, ‘Stop Doing’ and ‘Want to Change’ and ‘Gratitude’ all stay the same each day, but ‘Speak Up’ and ‘The Solution Will Come’ and ‘Ask for More’ will be different the next day. I write whatever the Desire Map Planner has for January 1st…January 2nd…etc.

Then, I’ll consider the wins for that day and list them. This is something I think we all need to do more of. We constantly think about what we should do differently and how much we didn’t get done, but we need to congratulate ourselves on the good stuff.

And, I always like to have a place for notes in my daily spreads.

There you have it. That’s my planning system so far for 2018. I hope it gives you a bit of inspiration for customizing a system that will work for you!

Win a 2018 Powersheets and Planner Bundle!

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When I unboxed the beautiful (and super helpful…because what’s beauty without usefulness?) Powersheets by the lovely Lara Casey for the first time this year, I knew more people needed these dreamboats in their hands.

Since it’s the holiday season, I immediately thought…giveaway!

I’ve put together three planner bundles. Each bundle contains the 2018 Powersheets and a 2018 planner.

Here are the three bundles to choose from:

Bundle #1: Powersheets + The Get to Work Book

Want more information about either of these planners? Click here.

Bundle #2: Powersheets + the Happiness Planner

Want more information about either of these planner? Click here.

Bundle #3: Powersheets + the Daily Greatness Business Planner

Want more information about either of these planners? Click here.

I’ve made it super easy to enter. All you need to do is:

Select which bundle you’d like if you win and tell me in the comments AND share last week’s post about the top 14 planners for entrepreneurs for 2018 on Facebook, Instagram and/or Pinterest and let me know where you shared in that same comment. I’ve made easy-to-share images and copy that you can swipe OR  you can use your own. It’s up to you.

Your comment must be in by Monday, December 18th at 11pm EST and I’ll announce the winners on Tuesday, December 19th by 4pm EST right here on this blog post.

Make sure you use a valid email address when leaving your comment, because that’s how we’ll contact you to ask for your mailing address.

You can enter from anywhere in the world…but any taxes you have to pay on your end are up to you.

THE WINNERS ARE:

BUNDLE #1: Neesha Merani

BUNDLE #2: Amanda Creek

BUNDLE #3: Ana Matamoros

Winners: Congrats!!! We’ll be emailing you soon to ask for your mailing addresses and we’ll be getting your packages in the mail by December 27th. The sooner we get all of your mailing addresses, the sooner we’ll get the packages in the mail…so please be on the watch for that email.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all of you who entered and helped me spread the word about my planner blog post! I wish I could send you all the 2018 Powersheets but I’ll have to settle for a virtual hug. I appreciate every single one of you.

Here are some swipe-able images and copy (make sure the links work on Pinterest and Facebook before posting):

For Instagram:

Go to bit.ly/planners2018 to see the top 14 planners for entrepreneurs for 2018 and take a quiz to find the right planner for you! @blacksburgbelle

For Pinterest:

Go to http://www.bit.ly/planners2018 to see the top 14 planners for entrepreneurs for 2018 and take a quiz to find the right planner for you!

For Facebook:

Are you a planning junkie like me? I’ve finally found the right planner for myself and you can to with this quiz: http://www.bit.ly/planners2018

Plus, you’ll find information on the top 14 planners for entrepreneurs for 2018.

***Remember to let me know where you shared on social media in your comment! You get bonus points for sharing on more than one platform!

The Top 14 Planners for Entrepreneurs for 2018

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The right planner.

To some it may not seem like a huge deal, but think about this for a minute:

What if your planner kept you focused on your top three tasks throughout the day, so that you stopped getting sidetracked by your pile of dirty dishes in the sink and your latest painting idea?

Or, what if your planner reminded you to exercise each day which actually got you moving and after the first quarter you feel energized throughout the day and you drop a dress size?

Or, what if your planner gets you to think about how you want to feel each and every day which helps you to lower your anxiety and increase your happiness?

Now, the perfect planner sounds more like something you should find, right?

Well, I’m going to make it super simple with this blog post. This is what you’ve been waiting for…the post that blows any other post about planners for 2018 out of the freaking ocean. (I say kinda humbly…but not so much because I’ve put over 50 hours into this beast!)

I purchased 14 different planners (and three bonuses non-planner planners) to photograph and review for you.

Below you’ll find details on the most popular planners on the market along with some not-as-well-known planners that you might want to take a peek at.

For each planner, I’ve included a favorite detail, pluses, drawbacks and the bottomline. I didn’t hold back. If there’s something you probably won’t like about one of these planners, I’ve done my best to include it.

I also took all of this information and created a simple quiz that will help you determine which planner is the right fit for you. Take it by clicking the image below and find out which planner you should invest in for 2018.

Now, go and find your planner!

1. Bullet Journal

Favorite thing about a bullet journal:

It’s completely customizable. You make it whatever you want it to be and include whatever you want to include. There’s no extra fluff.

Includes (Leuchtturm 1917):

  • Two ribbon bookmarks
  • Table of contents
  • Numbered pages
  • Dotted, lined or blank pages
  • Pocket folder in the back

Pluses:

1. You can include things that you might not have room for in other planners such as detailed notes, lists (that aren’t to-do lists), ideas, habit tracking and brainstorms.

2. When you realize something isn’t working for you, you can just stop including it. For instance, if you decide that you don’t like daily spreads, you can stop doing daily spreads and try weekly spreads. This means that you use the entire journal–not just parts of it.

3. You can be as creative or as minimal as you want.

4. There is an entire bullet journaling community that shares tips, spreads, ideas and more. When you start bullet journaling, you become a part of that community.

“I like the flexibility of this method, because both at work and at home, sometimes I am so busy I barely have time to open the journal at all. Since I write in all the dates, I don’t waste any of the journal if I don’t use it on a particular day. Of course, the downside is that I have to draw in the calendars, but I’ve found that I can easily do it while watching a half-hour TV show with hubby.

I don’t like copying tasks over and over, so I’ve learned to list my tasks down the right-hand side of the page, and then I list the date on the left side of the page with any date-specific tasks. I continue to use that list until it is mostly accomplished (even if the dates spill over to the next page), and then I’ll transfer the remainder to a fresh page if I need to.

The Leuchtturm journal has two bookmarks sewn in, which is very handy if I’m tracking both daily tasks and a project at the same time. I also like the pre-printed index pages at the front of the journal, and the fact that it has a hard cover. Best of all, the A5 size fits into most of my bags and purses, so I can carry it around with me all the time. Last week, I was able to write a 90-day action plan for both businesses while riding the Metro one afternoon.” -Carole Carlson

Drawbacks:

1. If you want daily spreads, you have to recreate them every single day and that takes time (unlike a planner that you just fill in).

2. You might get so caught up in wanting your bullet journal to look nice that you put too much time into planning, lettering and decorating.

3. You have to create everything from scratch.

Bottomline:

If you always find yourself wishing your planners included certain things or didn’t include specific things, why not create your own? If you’re a creative and want another outlet for creating, bullet journaling is a great option.

You can do as much or as little as you want each day. Or, if you’re a minimalist and only want to plan want you absolutely need to, a bullet journal allows you to do that without any waste.

“I love that the bullet journal is 100% customizable. Since I have a day job and I feel like my business is not your typical business (which I think most people in this group of creative business owners can relate to), I felt like a lot of the planners out there didn’t quite fit what I needed. I don’t need something to plan out my hours from 9-5. I need something to plan out my hours AROUND the 9-5 day job. With the bullet journal, I can keep track of things you can’t in a typical planner (ie. a place to put notes for my upcoming projects, etc). All of that can be in one place in my bullet journal, which means I only have to carry around ONE journal/planner for all of my planning and brainstorming.” -Madeline Stoker

2. Conquer Your Year

Favorite thing about the Conquer Your Year planner:

One of the unique things about this planner is that it’s broken up into 12-week sprints. If you get overwhelmed by your huge goals, this planner can help you break them up into manageable pieces.

Includes:

  • Introduction
  • Information on getting started
  • Worksheets to break down your big picture goals
  • 12-week sprint planning spreads
  • Weekly spreads that include a weekly reflection
  • Quotes at the top of the weekly spreads
  • End of year reflection

Pluses:

1. It’s an inexpensive option!

2. Some of the pages include a pretty watercolor wash that gives them a little something extra.

3. Each day includes a spot for your top five to-dos.

4. This planner doesn’t just focus on what you’re accomplishing but also focuses on your wellbeing. Each day there are eight cups to check off as you drink water and seven 15-minute exercise increments to check off as you move your body.

5. Compared with many of the other planners on this list, the Conquer Your Year planner is much lighter in weight which would make it easier to take with you on the go.

6. There’s a spot to note three things you’re grateful for each day.

7. The weekly reflection will keep you focused on your big picture goal as well as your health.

Drawbacks:

1. The cover is kinda flimsy cardboard which could get easily damaged. For someone who uses her planner every day, this could become a problem. Mine is already a bit bent.

2. There isn’t any room to put notes or extra information on a daily or weekly basis.

3. There isn’t a place for scheduling timely events such as meetings or appointments.

4. The entire planner is this purplish pink color which might get stale after a while and it limits creativity if you like to use stickers and such in your planner. For me, this is the biggest drawback, especially because I don’t love the color.

“I used the Conquer Your Year planner but didn’t like it. It had very little space for writing the to-do’s, and a lot of space for reflection and questions.” -Ana

Bottomline:

If you’re looking for an inexpensive option that helps you break down your big goals into more manageable pieces, this is a planner you should consider. If you also need help focusing on your well being on a daily basis (reminders to exercise and drink water!), you should check out the Conquer Your Year Planner.

3. Daily Greatness Business Planner

Favorite thing about the Daily Greatness Business Planner:

The way the yearly calendar is set up, because it shows you every day in the year in a two-page spread. When you plug in launches, interviews, sales, etc., you can see the overview of your business very clearly in that two-page spread.

Includes:

  • Quotes on colorful pages
  • Content about productivity, organization, finances and goal setting
  • Suggestions for getting the most out of the planner
  • Yearly calendar
  • One-page business plan, business vision planner, business goal planner
  • Strategy and budget worksheets
  • Monthly calendars
  • Weekly priority and action planners
  • Weekly spreads
  • Quotes on weekly spreads
  • Weekly check-ins
  • 90-day reviews
  • Finance manager worksheets
  • Year end business wrap up
  • Two ribbon bookmarks

Pluses:

1. Unlike many other planners, the beginning of this planner has you focus on your business plan and vision. There are a bunch of worksheets that help you map out your business.

2. Each day has a place for your top three tasks of the day.

3. Each day starts with an interesting prompt such as ‘what I’m most excited about in my business is…’ or ‘one word that describes how I want to feel today is…”

4. Unlike the other planners on this list, the weekly check ins include different questions. This gets you to think about different areas of your business on a regular basis.

5. Each week starts with a priority planner. Then, you plan out your four major goals for the week and then you break those down into projects, appointments, tasks and actions.

Drawbacks:

1. You have to fill out the monthly calendars yourself–they aren’t done for you.

2. You’re given plenty of space to list to-dos for the week, but you’re only given three to-do slots for each day. 3. Some of the colors are really bold which can be a turn off or turn on. The bright orange, yellow, and lime green aren’t my style.

Bottomline:

If you’re a creative entrepreneur who likes bright, bold colors, you should check out the Daily Greatness Business Planner. It was made specifically for entrepreneurs and will constantly keep you thinking about how you can improve your business.

4. Day Designer

Favorite thing about the Day Designer:

There’s a section at the top of each daily page to write your top three for the day. That gets you focused on the three most important things you need to tackle that day, but it’s not the majority of the page. You still have room to schedule appointments and list other to-dos.

Includes:

  • Yearly calendar
  • Monthly calendars
  • Daily pages
  • Quotes on the top of daily pages
  • Instructions on how to use the Day Designer
  • Multiple worksheets in the beginning to focus on values, goals and strengths
  • Ideal month worksheet
  • Ideal week worksheet
  • Note pages
  • Pocket folder

Pluses:

1. Every daily page has a quote at the top which is motivating and a fun way to start planning the day.

2. There’s a place to list to-dos and appointments on each daily page.

3. There’s a little ‘don’t forget’ box on each daily page, so you have the option of including something you definitely don’t want to forget.

4. There’s a place for daily gratitude which can be a positive way to end the day.

5. Each daily page also has a box for notes which is a great way to record something from each day or summarize what you’ve learned that day.

“The Day Designer is great because it is daily and is large enough to handle my often messy handwriting or all the notes I want to jot down as I’m working. I like that it’s spiral because it stays open on my desk. But it is too big to carry around.” -Rebecca

Drawbacks:

1. The daily planner is large, so if you need to carry it with you, this might not be the planner for you or you might want to go with the mini daily planner that they offer.

2. Daily pages include a spot for dinner which isn’t something everyone wants included in their planner.

3. The to-do list is quite long, giving you 17 spots for to-do items. Who is going to complete 17 tasks in one day? And if you list 17 tasks, won’t that be overwhelming every time you glance at your planner? (Maybe you can use the extra space for more notes and make this a plus instead of a drawback!)

Bottomline:

The Day Designer is like your traditional planner that’s been modernized. You have plenty of room for to-dos and appointments/timely tasks, but you also have room for things a traditional planner never included such as daily gratitude and your top three.

If you like the idea of a modernized traditional planner with some extras, you should check out the Day Designer.

5. The Desire Map Planner

Favorite thing about The Desire Map Planner:

The daily spreads are unlike any planner you’ll ever come across, because they focus on how you want to feel and what you can do that day to feel those core desired feelings.

Includes:

  • Desire Map introduction
  • Note from Danielle
  • Core desired feelings worksheet
  • Yearly calendars
  • Monthly calendars
  • Monthly check-ins
  • Daily planning pages

Pluses:

1. In true Danielle style, her planner is gorgeous. The design, the cover, the fonts…it’s all beautiful.

2. The monthly calendars are spacious and each one has a list of feelings down the left side.

3. The monthly check-ins will help you center back to the feelings you want to focus on as well as the major goals you’re working towards.

4. The daily planning pages concentrate on: how you want to feel, your schedule and to-dos, what you want to change, what you want to stop doing and gratitude.

5. There’s a place on every daily planning page to list your top three to-dos for the day.

6. Each day there’s a different soul prompt such as ‘what is your greatest desire’ or ‘how did you feel when you woke up today’ that will get you thinking about the important stuff in life.

7. At the bottom of each daily page, there’s a statement or quote from Danielle such as ‘joy is power’ or ‘you don’t need to know the answer before you begin.’

Drawbacks:

1. On the daily pages, you have to create your schedule. There’s a place for it, but it’s not done.

2. For some people, some of the statements at the bottom of the daily pages and/or some of the soul prompts might cross the line into too woo-woo.

“This year I tried out the Desire Map Planner. I’m a mixed media artist. I did love that it has alot of room on each page. However, one major drawback is its sheer size and weight. I went with the daily planner (there is a weekly one, too). If you need a planner that will sit on your desk and you work on or in it – that’s perfect for you. I do have several freelance jobs and need to carry my planner with me a lot. The daily planner is simply too big to do that. Otherwise it’s a gorgeous planner with lots of room for journaling and drawing and lovely prompts. I especially loved the month-at-a-glance pages.” -Ursula

Bottomline:

The Desire Map Planner is such a unique planner that concentrates on one of the most important things in life: feeling the way we want to feel consistently. If you can do that, you’ve won at life!

If you tend to get caught up in day-to-day life and weeks or months go by without you focusing on yourself or what you need or want, you need this planner. The concept is amazing and it delivers.

6. Get to Work Book

Favorite thing about the Get to Work Book:

Every month includes a project spread where you break down a project into action items and deadlines on one page and can put all your notes for the project onto the other page.

Includes:

  • Year at a glance
  • Monthly reflections
  • Monthly calendars
  • Monthly tear-out calendars
  • Monthly project spreads
  • Weekly spreads
  • Extra project planning and note pages

Pluses:

1. The year at a glance gives you a place to put all your big projects, launches, sales, etc. and see them all together.

2. The monthly reflections give you room to brainstorm your wins, the things you’re still working on and the things you want to let go of as well as a place to goal set for the next month.

3. For each day, you’re given room to list your top three of the day along with space to plan timely events or list other to-dos.

4. In each weekly spread, you’re given room to list three main action items for the week and room at the bottom for notes or anything you’d like to include in your daily plans.

5. You’re given lots of space for project planning.

6. There is a good amount of space per day for a planner that doesn’t have daily spreads.

“This is my second year using the Get to Work Book. I really, really like it. I like that it’s a weekly spread, that it has sturdy covers, a book band to keep it closed in my bag, and that it lays flat on my desk. I like the design of the pages and the way the weekly and daily priorities are laid out on each weekly spread. I really need that weekly view, because I tend to goal set and think in weekly increments. That being said, I can see the appeal of the daily spread as well.

I like that the design is simple and gets out of your way. I stamp and washi and sticker to organize and beautify. The look of a planner is super important to me. If I don’t like the look, I don’t find myself using it.

If I could change something, I would actually make it a bit bigger. I do totally fill the columns when I’m writing. I’m also having my head a bit turned by something like the Day Designer, with a ton more room and daily layouts. But I’d still need the weekly one too.” -Janet Taylor

Drawbacks:

1. If you want to include time-specific events such as meetings and appointments, you’ll have to create the place for it.

2. There are only three checkboxes for the top three to-dos. If you list other to-dos and want checkboxes, you’ll have to add them.

3. The monthly calendars don’t include holidays.

Bottomline:

This planner is a great fit for someone who wants to use her planner to plan out projects, likes to focus on a top three of the day and likes grid paper (cause there’s quite a bit).

If you’re looking for a planner to get in, get it done and get out, this is a good option. The Get to Work Book will keep you focused without fluff.

“First of all, the design of the Get to Work Book is stunning and I really love the way it’s bound. I like that you can lay it flat and that the cover is a hard, protective cover rather than a flimsy one that would get ruined easily. I also loved the project planning pages, which I felt helped me to start learning how to break down tasks into more actionable chunks. I think I carried the project planning aspect over to my new planner, so I am really grateful that I used the Get to Work Book while I did. The main thing that I would change about the Get to Work Book is that I would add daily pages. I did like the monthly and weekly views but without the daily pages to plan each day and write daily thoughts/notes, I felt a bit limited.” -Amanda Creek

7. Happiness Planner

Favorite thing about the Happiness Planner:

This planner is focused on happiness–on planning a day that will make you a happier person! That’s pretty cool.

Includes:

  • Ribbon bookmark
  • Introduction
  • 26 rules to live by for a happier and more fulfilling life
  • Beautiful quotes
  • 15 worksheets to help you focus on what makes you happy and unhappy, your strengths and weaknesses, your definition of success and more
  • Yearly calendar
  • Weekly planning pages
  • 100 daily planning pages
  • Weekly reflection pages
  • 100-day review
  • Pocket folder

Pluses:

1. Even though this planner focuses on happiness, you still have room to write in a schedule and six to-dos.

2. Every daily page starts with a quote.

3. There are sections on the daily pages for: what you’re excited about, exercise, your main focus, meals, notes, gratitude and more.

4. Each daily page ends with you filling out what good things happened that day (which keeps you focused on the positive) and what you hope for the next day.

5. It comes in multiple pretty colors.

6. This size of this planner makes it travel-friendly.

Drawbacks:

1. The boxes for each section are small, so you can only write a short sentence or less (unless you have tiny handwriting).

2. The only calendar included is a yearly calendar.

3. If you have appointments and meetings to schedule, it’ll be hard to do so in advance unless you fill out all the days ahead of time and even then, you have to be on the specific page to see it as opposed to having a monthly calendar overview. (They do offer another planner that’s more expensive and bigger but includes monthly calendars!)

Bottomline:

This is an interesting planner that helps you focus on more than what you want to accomplish. It steers you in the direction of thinking about your mood and improving your happiness each day and week.

If you struggle with anxiety or depression and need help focusing on the positive stuff in life, the Happiness Planner could be a great fit for you.

8. The Happy Planner

Favorite thing about The Happy Planner:

The monthly planning spreads are reaaaaally pretty and fun. They include things like what you’re reading, pinning, watching and loving.

Includes:

  • Yearly calendar
  • Monthly planning spreads
  • Monthly calendars
  • Weekly planning spreads
  • Notes page

Pluses:

1. The space on the monthly spreads is utilized well, giving you room for three monthly goals, seven things you don’t want to forget, notes, birthdays and fun information about you like what you’re currently reading, feeling and listening to.

2. The monthly calendars are bigger than most which gives creatives space to have some fun with decorating and stickers if that’s your kind of thing or a little extra space for planning if not.

3. The weekly spreads give you plenty of planning space for each day even though it’s not a daily planner.

“I’m trying to manage daily tasks and short-term goals and I find The Happy Planner to be quite useful! I love the amount of space I have to write things down and they’ve made it super easy to add and remove pages. I really like some of the ideas in bullet journaling YouTube videos I have seen and I find I can implement some of those modules in my Happy Planner too. It’s also nice to not have to draw out all of your modules for the month.” -Rianne

Drawbacks:

1. It’s a spiral bound planner which is fine except the spirals in this planner make it hard to turn the pages which can become pretty annoying.

2. The way the daily planning space is broken up looks a bit weird unless you’re going to use the stickers by this company.

3. There isn’t an hourly timeline in the daily planning for appointments and meetings and other timely events.

4. The design of the planner I picked feels a bit high school-ish which is great if you’re in high school or college, but not so great if you’re running a business in your thirties or beyond. I’m not sure if others have the same feel or not.

“I’ve been using the Happy Planner and really like it for the most part. I like how the days are sectioned off and I can use each section for a different part of my life. But, some parts of my life are much busier than others, it’s a weird size so no other papers fit into it, and it’s too big for even my over-sized purse. Also, I tend to spend way more time having fun decorating it than I do actually working my to-do list. The calendar and all it’s insertable, decorative things are fairly expensive.” -Jeannie Gray

Bottomline:

The Happy Planner seems like a great fit for young adults or those young in spirit. I would pick this planner if you like the accessories, including the stickers, and plan to use them in your planning regularly. Otherwise, I would choose another option.

“The Happy Planner is my favorite so far. It’s colorful, has cute quotes, has pretty decent sized squares, and has a few options to choose from. Best of all it’s super reasonably priced.” -Amanda Howell

9. Inkwell Planner

Favorite thing about the Inkwell Planner:

After the monthly calendar, there’s a monthly planning spread that includes a beautiful honeycomb pattern, a place for planning notes, a box for your focus and a place to track three habits throughout the month. The spread is creative, motivating and unlike anything in the other planners.

Includes:

  • Important dates spread
  • Goals worksheets
  • Yearly calendar
  • Monthly calendars
  • Monthly planning spreads
  • Weekly planning spreads
  • Notes and ramblings pages at the end of each month (dotted pages)
  • Extra notes section at the back (grid pages)
  • Gift list
  • Wanderlust and project planning
  • Monthly bill tracker
  • Ruler
  • Band to close the planner

Pluses:

1. This planner includes a lot but still isn’t as big or heavy as some of the other planners, making it more travel-friendly than most.

2. All of the extras (such as the monthly bill tracker, gift list and wanderlust or travel information) are helpful and you’ll probably use them unlike planners that include things you’ll just skip over.

3. The ‘plan ahead’ section gives you just enough to get going, including the goal worksheets.

4. For each day, there’s eight lines for you to list to-dos or appointments and three boxes which I would use to list my top three for the day, but you could use in lots of ways.

5. The monthly planning spreads are unlike anything I’ve seen in other planners. It includes a place for you to track three daily habits each month.

Drawbacks:

1. There aren’t any checkboxes for you to list your to-dos. I don’t know about you, but I like a checkbox. Checking off something once I’ve completed it gives me a spark of joy.

2. There isn’t a place for timely events such as appointments and meetings on the weekly spreads unless you create it yourself.

Bottomline:

This planner almost has it all. It’s pretty, well-designed, and includes really helpful extras such as a monthly bill tracker. If you can deal with not having a daily spread for each day (including a place for time-specific events) and you want something that’s already super pretty, I would recommend you check this one out. (When I checked out the website today, I saw that they have a new daily planner. So, if you want all of the above plus daily spreads and you aren’t going to be taking your planner on the go, you might try that option.)

The Inkwell Planner was a huge surprise to me in the best of ways–I’m smitten!

“Although I’ve never met her, I feel like I know Tonya, the owner personally of Inkwell Planners – from watching the planner set up videos, following her Instagram, listening to her podcast, and just in general using her products and her vibe of encouragement that comes with them! Inkwell’s mission is to encourage women to find their own productivity, which shows in so many things this company does.

The planners are created with high quality materials and are designed beautifully yet minimally. There are colors but not over the top or feel like you’re using something made for a 4th grader. The design of the weekly planner includes the important elements (dates, monthly spread, weekly view etc) but really just leave space for you to add all the goings on of your life! I think planner peace comes from less is more. A big part of these planners is also goal setting, which I love. The daily planner is unlike any daily I’ve ever seen..most are set up with a long running list of to dos without any hierarchy or ranking of importance. Inkwell’s daily planner page is broken down into priorities, important tasks, and other tasks, along with an hourly schedule of the day. The daily planner is undated so that you can use it when necessary, without making you feel like you didn’t accomplish anything certain days that you may not need a broken down task list for. Although I live and breathe by my weekly planner, I have been thinking about getting a daily planner to have at my desk to use on my office and task-orientated days.

The paper is thick but not too thick. Ink doesn’t bleed thru. The tabs and cover are a sturdy construction and after almost a year of use (its in my purse or camera bag daily,) it still looks great! There are notes pages in between each month and the little folder at the back is great for stashing stickers, receipts, and other pieces of paper. The hard cover bound book is great to store a pen in the coil, or to fold the book on itself when you need to make your own surface to write.” -Amanda Feltmann

10. Melbourne Planner

Favorite thing about the Melbourne Planner:

It’s beautiful. The cover is gorgeous, the inside is gorgeous, the tabs are nice and the artwork is lovely.

Includes:

  • Yearly calendar
  • Dates to remember including a holiday list and place to record birthdays
  • Goal section to record 3 month, 6 month, 1 year and 5 year goals
  • Contact section
  • Note pages
  • Monthly calendars
  • Weekly spreads
  • Two pocket folders
  • Band to keep planner closed

Pluses:

1. The sections are clearly labeled and easy to find.

2. For each day, you have a section for six to-dos and notes.

3. The note pages are dotted and there are some in the front and back.

4. At the top of the weekly spreads, there are small monthly calendars so you can easily see where you are in the month.

5. Unlike some spiral bound planners, this one is easy to flip through.

Drawbacks:

1. The actual planning pages are very minimal and don’t give you any guidance unlike many other planners on this list.

2. There aren’t any daily planning pages–you get ⅓ of a page for each day which isn’t a lot of space for someone who likes to include more information in her planner.

3. There isn’t a place for timely events such as appointments and meetings unless you include them as one of the to-dos.

4. It’s often wasteful to include a contacts section in a physical planner when most people keep this information in their phones.

Bottomline:

If you yearn for a traditional planner that’s beautiful, the Melbourne Planner is for you.

Flipping through this planner, you’d think it came from the 90’s, especially with the contacts section, dates to remember section and minimal planning space, but there is something nostalgic and comforting about that which some people will adore.

11. Passion Planner

Favorite thing about the Passion Planner:

The monthly calendar includes a box to write your ‘not to-do list’ and that’s also really important when it comes to productivity. Everything you say no to creates more time for the things you really want to do.

Includes:

  • How you’ll benefit from this planner
  • Welcome message
  • Your passion roadmap
  • Planner instructions
  • Yearly calendars
  • Monthly calendars
  • Weekly spreads
  • Quotes on the side of the weekly spreads
  • Monthly reflections
  • End of year reflection
  • Blank note pages
  • Grid note pages
  • Ribbon bookmark
  • File folder
  • Band to keep it closed

Pluses:

1. There is a lot of space for planning on the monthly calendar spreads.

2. On the monthly calendar spreads, you’re given room to write down: people to see, places to go and a not to-do list.

3. The to-do lists are split between work to-dos and personal to-dos. The projects are also split between work projects and personal projects.

4. On the weekly spreads, you’re given space for ‘space of infinite possibility’ instead of boring old ‘notes.’

5. You’re given room to write in a ‘focus’ and ‘good things that happened’ in each weekly spread.

6. Within each monthly reflection, you’re asked questions that make you consider how well you spent your time and what improvements you can make for the next month.

“My most favorite thing about the Passion Planner is at the bottom of the weekly 2-page spread. It’s one column for a personal to-do list for the week and one column for a business to-do list. Like many here, I work from home and what I do for my family and what I do for my business are totally intertwined and equally important, and I cannot stand having to keep two separate journals. I like all my records in one place.” -Kat Southern

Drawbacks:

1. This planner is huge–one of the biggest on this list. If you keep your planner at home, this isn’t an issue but if you plan to carry it with you, I would look at other options.

2. The to-do lists are weekly–not daily. You’re given 14 personal to-do spots and 14 work to-do spots for the week which may not be enough for some people.

3. The hourly timeline is really scrunched together, making the weekly spreads look crammed.

“I used the Passion Planner for a while and liked it but needed more room for daily notes and it was too big to put in my purse (I had the big one). I was also afraid I’d run out of blank note taking pages so I kept taping my own pages into it and never actually using the provided ones.” –Jeannie Gray

Bottomline:

The Passion Planner has a lot of good things going for it, but the crowded look of the weekly spreads makes it a deal breaker. If you can get past that and don’t need to travel with your planner, you might enjoy this one.

12. Powersheets

Favorite thing about the Powersheets:

Powersheets are not a typical planner in that it doesn’t include any schedules or daily to-do lists. Instead, the Powersheets walk you through taking your ideas and turning them into goals and then turning your goals into actions.

Includes:

  • Note from Lara
  • 5 steps to get started
  • Worksheets to get to know yourself better
  • Cultivated life evaluation
  • Worksheets to help you let go, face your fears, cultivate what matters and determine other critical things that will help you set the right goals for yourself
  • Goal setting section that includes a place to list 10 goals for 2018 and then walks you through breaking down each of those goals
  • Monthly sections that include a preparation worksheet, a worksheet to clear mental clutter, a brainstorming worksheet, a goal setting worksheet and month in review worksheet
  • Celebrating 2018 worksheets
  • Two sticker sheets

Pluses:

1. It’s beautiful in a whimsical yet adult way. The gold foil on multiple pages and the cover gives it an extra special touch.

2. There are numerous helpful worksheets that will spark ideas, motivate you and inspire you to set the right goals for yourself.

3. Before you dive into goal setting, there are worksheets that have you focus on self-awareness which is always a good idea before setting your goals for the year.

4. This ‘planner’ will help you focus on what you want to accomplish and then help you plan out what you’re going to do when during the year.

5. Each monthly section takes you from preparation to action to review.

Drawbacks:

1. This can’t replace a typical planner. It doesn’t include any calendars or places for weekly or daily planning. You have to buy this in addition to a regular planner.

2. The cover is a flimsy cardboard that will get damaged pretty easily. For the price tag, I expect a nicer cover.

3. It’s large and heavy, so it wouldn’t be the easiest planner to take with you on the go.

Bottomline:

The Powersheets are a worthwhile investment for creative entrepreneurs who want additional help with goal setting and reaching those goals throughout the year.

I would absolutely recommend picking up a copy to use in addition to your regular planner if you get motivated by physically writing down your goals and mapping them out.

“Power Sheets have literally changed my life. I went from being totally overwhelmed by all the things I wanted/needed to do, to being able to really evaluate what my priorities were and why, and having a good way to keep track of the progress I was making on my goals. At this point, I’m a little bit lost without them!” -Sarah

13. Productivity Planner

Favorite thing about the Productivity Planner:

It’s realistic about what you can accomplish in one day by only giving you space for five tasks which will help you stay focused and get more done.

Includes:

  • Ribbon bookmark
  • Table of contents
  • Information on the concept and hacking productivity
  • Tips on creating a better to-do list and how to decide what’s your most important task
  • Information on the Pomodoro technique and why time tracking is important
  • Instructions on how to use the Productivity Planner
  • Weekly planning pages
  • Daily planning pages
  • Quotes at the top of the daily planning pages
  • Weekly note pages
  • Weekly review pages

Pluses:

1. You will always determine what tasks are most important which means you can focus on work instead of on ‘what to do next.’

2. You give yourself a productivity score at the end of each day which can help you think about what you can do better and what you’re wasting time on.

3. The weekly reviews give you a chance to think about your wins, issues you came across, what you learned and do a bit of planning for the next week.

4. The quotes at the top of the daily planning pages are motivating and inspiring. Out of any planners that include quotes, these quotes are the best and most motivating I’ve seen.

5. The size of this planner makes it travel-friendly.

Drawbacks:

1. You don’t have any room to schedule timely tasks. If you use a planner to plan meetings, interviews and appointments, this isn’t the planner for you.

2. There isn’t a calendar in this planner–not yearly or monthly calendars.

3. This planner is for focused, productive planning only. You get space to plan five tasks and a little space for notes–that’s it. If you want to document or plan anything else, there really isn’t room for it.

4. For creatives who like pretty covers, there’s only one option: black.

Bottomline:

If you keep appointments and meetings scheduled on your phone or on a computer calendar and are looking for a planner to keep you focused during the day, the Productivity Planner is a great option.

If you often get sidetracked throughout the day, this planner could become your best friend.

14. The Simplified Planner

Favorite thing about The Simplified Planner:

The design. It’s sleek, modern and sophisticated while also being fun and girly. The beautiful gold wire binding and protective gold corners make the outside look modern and sleek. Then you open it up and see the fun multi-colored tabs and girly stickers and you’ve got the best of both worlds.

Includes:

  • Sticker sheet
  • Message from Emily
  • The process of simplifying
  • Instructions on how to use the planner
  • Yearly calendar
  • 2018 holidays
  • 2018 bucket list
  • Monthly calendars
  • Daily spreads

Pluses:

1. The sticker sheet will add a bit of fun to your planning pages.

2. At the top of each monthly calendar there is a simplicity tip.

3. For a daily planner, it’s smaller than most. (It’s still a bit heavy, so keep that in mind if you’re going to be taking it with you out and about every day.)

4. For each day, you’re given room to list to-dos and timely events such as appointments and meetings. You’re also given space for notes and meals.

Drawbacks:

1. For each day, you’re given 16 to-dos which is a lot–probably more than anyone could handle in a day. Looking at that long of a list of to-dos seems like it could be overwhelming. (You could turn this into a plus by using some of this space for something else like additional notes.)

2. If you don’t want to keep information about your meals in your planner, a big chunk of each day in your planner will be wasted.

3. For a smaller planner, it’s quite heavy–but this company does sell weekly planners if you love the design but want something more travel-friendly.

Bottomline:

This really is a simplified planner. It contains what you traditionally need in a planner and nothing else but in a very modern design. The Simplified Planner is beautiful and it’s the type of planner that you’ll get in and get out of without lots of fuss or wasting time.

Bonuses!

As I researched planners, I came across non-planner planners. A lot of them. I picked three to include as bonuses in this post.

The Content Strategy Planner, Second Edition

This is a planner and workbook in one that will help you map out your content for twelve months. If you feel like putting your ideas into your regular planner or Evernote isn’t cutting it, you should check out something like this.

It includes:

  • Quotes
  • A message from Sara
  • Table of contents
  • Suggestions on how to use the planner
  • Worksheets to get you started
  • Monthly calendars
  • Growth and review worksheets
  • Weekly spreads
  • Balance reviews
  • Metrics and assessment worksheets
  • Opportunity worksheets
  • Content planning pages
  • Note pages

Create: One-Year Blog & Editorial Planner

The creator and author, Meera Kothand, says it best in the very beginning when she writes, “Where marketing meets simple so that bloggers and solopreneurs can build an unmissable stand out online presence minus the sleaze.” This is also a planner and workbook in one. It will guide you in putting together the blueprint for your editorial calendar.

It includes:

  • Table of contents
  • Quotes
  • Introduction
  • 5-step planning process, a primer for setting goals, and the four major blogging tasks
  • Your main pillars: content and email
  • Your year at a glance worksheets
  • Quarterly planning worksheets that include planning your goals, planning your blog and email content, monthly calendars and monthly reviews
  • Quarterly review worksheets

eatWELL Menu Planner

This is Inkwell’s menu planner. It’s the perfect gift for ladies and gents who love both organization and cooking (or meal prep). If you like to be super organized in the kitchen and plan out all of your meals, you should check this out.

It includes:

  • Weekly meal plans
  • Grocery lists
  • Holiday meal plans
  • Take out favorites (a place to list them)
  • Quick and simple meal ideas (a place to list them)
  • Seasonal fruits and veggies
  • Kitchen conversions
  • When to buy organic
  • Food expiration cheat sheet
  • The butcher shop (visual guide)

And that’s a wrap on all of the planners I reviewed for 2018!

I hope you found one on this list that’s right for you. If so, please share which one in the comments below. I’d love to know which planner you’ve decided on.

P.S. THANK YOU to everyone who commented on my post last month asking for feedback on the planners you love and hate. It added so much to making this post more valuable.

The Most Important 15 Minutes of Your Day

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Consider your last week and answer the following question:

Which days were good and which weren’t?

Now think about those individual days for a moment.

Did the good days include intention, surprises and self-care? Did the bad days include procrastination, lack of priorities and getting off track?

Like most people, I used to open my bleary eyes and grab for my phone to check my email and social media. No wonder my days got sucked up by everyone else’s priorities–their interview requests and questions and requests for guidance or advice.

By the time my husband called to ask what I’d like for lunch (yes…we’re one of those gooey, over the top couples that insists on eating lunch together on work days), I’d responded to Facebook posts, tweets, Instagram comments, blog comments and emails but I hadn’t spent the morning on what I prioritized.

And, our mornings usually dictate the rest of our day.

So, you probably know where this is going. I’d start my work in the afternoon feeling like I was already behind, continually interrupting my day by checking every new email and Instagram comment.

One day, I’d had enough.

I’d done a bunch of things for other people, but I hadn’t checked off one single thing from my own to-do list.

Now, my days look a lot different because I start them with intention.

Most weekdays, I don’t check my email, social media accounts or Voxer messages until my husband calls to say that he’s coming home for lunch. Between that call and when he arrives home is the first chunk of time I set aside for email and social media. I try to get as much of it done as possible during that time period–which is sometimes 10 minutes because we already have what we’re eating at home or 20-30 minutes because my husband has to pick up the ingredients or takeout.

This has not only changed how much I get done, but it’s also changed my happiness level.

When I start my day with email and social media, I’m a lot less happy throughout the entire day than when I start my day with writing or watercolor painting or working on something for Sunday Society.

I want you to be happier and I know that if you start your day with more intention, you’ll most likely enjoy your work days a lot more.

Let’s walk through the most important pieces and then you can download and print the one-page guide that will help you do this every morning.

It’ll only take you 15 minutes and we all have 15 minutes to put towards our happiness, right?

Your Ideal Day PDF to Download

1. Your word or message for the day.

Have you ever bought a new car and then suddenly you notice all the other cars with the same make and model when you’re driving around town? Have you ever prioritized something, like email marketing, and all of a sudden you notice a webinar and blog post and book on the topic? Have you ever thought about dying your hair a light lavender color and then see 12 different pictures on Pinterest where the each woman’s hair is lavender (by the way, I think that looks so cool and wish I could pull it off)?

We can’t possibly pay attention to all of the stimuli around us, so our brains tend to choose the things that are most important.

This is called selective attention.

“This type of selective attention is what scientists call inattentional blindness–that is, we see what we’ve decided merits our attention, and we’re remarkably blind to the rest. So the priorities we set for ourselves really matter.” -How to Have a Good Day, Caroline Webb

You want to start the day by telling your brain what to focus on.

What’s the message or word or thought you want to be the center of attention?

2. Your big goal for the quarter.

“Having explicit objectives that are challenging and specific–with clear timelines and performance criteria–leads to better performance. Setting a goal is about making a commitment in words, and words have the power to create a better future.” -Happier, Tal Ben-Shahar

What’s the main thing you want to achieve this quarter?

If you’re anything like me, you want to do it all, but unfortunately that usually leads to accomplishing nothing.

If you pick your one main thing and keep it top of mind, you’re going to be much more likely to achieve it.

When you’re stating your goal, here are a few rules to follow: a) make sure it’s something actually achievable (read more versus read 25 books) b) make sure that the language is positive (stop eating junk food versus fill half my plate with fruits and veggies at every meal).

If you haven’t been making a lot of progress towards this goal, ask yourself what it will feel like to achieve this goal. How will it improve your life or business? How will it affect your day-to-day life?

3. Top three priorities/tasks.

For years, I’ve used this top three method and it’s completely changed my productivity. Every single evening before I wrap up for the day, I write down the top three tasks I want to achieve the next day.

I don’t give myself a to-do list that includes 27 tasks.

That’s overwhelming and will immediately make you want to run back to bed and hide under the covers. And, it can’t be accomplished so you’ll feel like a failure at the end of the day and you’ll spend way too much time trying to decide what to do next because you know you can’t do it all.

Trust me on this one. I wouldn’t lead you astray.

Commit to three tasks–three things that you can absolutely get done. For example, you might include write next week’s blog post rough draft, do a 15-minute Facebook live and reply to all comments on my last blog post.

Here’s the magic in the three task to-do list: you waste no time trying to decide what to do, you feel amazing when you accomplish your three tasks and you often keep going because you’re high from tackling your to-do list like a pro.

And, my best tip for this section is to make sure that at least one of your top three is helping you to get closer to your quarterly goal.

Your Ideal Day PDF

4. Self-care and exercise.

Running your own business can take over your life.

You miss lunch and only realize it when you check the clock and it’s 4:28 and your stomach is rumbling. You don’t get out of your chair all day except when you race to pee (because you held it until the last possible moment). You go to bed at one in the morning when you have to wake up at six to get your kiddos ready for school.

You need a reality check and I’m going to give it to you.

When you don’t take care of yourself, your health, and your mental health, your work suffers.

You’re irritable with your husband because he forgot to take out the trash. You’re feeling depressed and you have no idea why. Your head pounds at the end of the day, making it next to impossible to fall asleep.

Your work, health and mental health will improve if you spend a small amount of time taking care of yourself.

“People who exercise are healthier, think more clearly, sleep better, and have delayed onset of dementia. Regular exercise boosts energy levels; although some people assume that working out is tiring, in fact, it boosts energy, especially in sedentary people.” -The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin

Each day, make this a priority and write down how you’re going to eat healthier, move your body and get rest. It could be as simple as dancing to one song every 90 minutes, eating lunch away from your computer so you can enjoy what you’re eating and getting eight hours of sleep.  

6. Obstacles and contingency plans.

“An excellent way to reinforce your positive intentions, strangely enough, is to make sure you spend a little time on the negatives. By this, I mean thinking honestly about what’s likely to get in the way of achieving your goals, so you can address those obstacles head-on.” -How to Have a Good Day, Caroline Webb

Look at your top three priorities. What might get in the way of achieving them?

Maybe your kid might get sick and have to come home early. Maybe your sister might call with a “crisis” and need to talk for an hour. Maybe your kids might need more help on their homework than usual.

You now need to create a contingency plan for each of those obstacles.

Let me give you a few examples:

If my sister calls wanting to talk for an hour, I’ll tell her that I’m working and will call her back this evening when she can have my undivided attention.

If my husband can’t pick up the kids from school and I have to do it, I’ll work thirty minutes later before going to bed.

If I start to get a headache, I’ll lay down in a dark room for an hour and if it gets better, I’ll decrease my task list from three to two items.

7. Visualize it.

Now comes the fun part (which some people think is a little “out there” but actually works).

I want you to imagine going through your day, getting those three tasks done, dealing with any obstacles that pop up. Play it in your mind as if it’s a movie.

Visualization is something that many pro athletes swear by.

When I was a diver in middle and high school, I had a routine for every dive meet. When they called my name and the dive I would be doing, I would climb the diving board steps and then I would shut my eyes and visualize myself doing the dive beautifully.

It absolutely made a difference. I went from earning lots of third and fourth place ribbons to getting second or first place at every meet.

“Mindfulness brings many benefits: scientists point out that it calms the mind and elevates brain function, it gives clarity and vividness to present experience, it may help people break unhealthy habits, and it can soothe troubled spirits and lift people’s moods. It reduces stress and chronic pain. It makes people happier, less defensive and more engaged with others.” -The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin

After you visualize your day like a movie, check it off your PDF.

8. Reward.

Are you the type of person that gets motivated by rewards?

I must raise my hand and admit that I do.

If I tell myself that I can read A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas for thirty minutes if I write my blog post draft and post on Instagram, I’m more motivated to do the work.

This doesn’t work for everyone but it works for a lot of people.

“Studies of people who have successfully started new exercise routines, for instance, show they are more likely to stick with a workout plan if they choose a specific cue, such as running as soon as they get home from work, and a clear reward, such as a beer or an evening of guilt-free television.” -The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg

Your reward could be taking a bubble bath or doodling or watching Friends reruns.

This also circles back to self care. I don’t know about you, but all of my rewards help my mental health. They make me calmer and give me more energy for work the next day.

There you have it. The eight things you should consider every morning before you start your work. Start your day intentionally and see how it impacts your productivity and happiness.

Download Your Ideal Day PDF right here.

In the comments below, I would love to know one thing you do in the morning that helps you have an awesome day.

How to Get Motivated (Wine and Pizza Not Included)

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We all have those days when we wake up and feel like declaring it a ‘mental health day’ which translates to watching Friends all day while eating a family-sized bag of potato chips.

I’m not opposed to a Friends break every once in awhile, especially when your brain needs a timeout. I’m always up to belly laugh at (and relate to) Monica’s neuroticism.

But, we’re getting off track.

The point I was trying to make is that it’s completely normal to dislike the work (or part of the work) that you’re so passionate about most days.

There have been days that I’ve groaned out loud just looking at my keyboard across the room or pulled out all my watercolor supplies just to have my inner creative say, “not today lady…not happening.”

Even though it’s a normal feeling, you don’t want to give up that easily. You want to work through it. You want your inner creative spirit to give you a push to get out of your black yoga pants with the hole in the right butt cheek that’s pretty much covered by a long t-shirt and give you an idea for a blog post, because it’s “due” today.

It’s one of the worst feelings to get to the end of the day and feel like you got nothing important accomplished.

And, what about when you hit a rough patch where you’re unmotivated for days or weeks or…gasp…months?

With this post, I’m going to help you take back control from that voice in your head whispering that you should “run out to get some skittles and buttered popcorn and spend your afternoon finding out whether or not Luke and Lorelia ever get married.”

These are my go-to ninja skills for getting yourself motivated enough to get out of pajamas and doing a happy butt wiggle when you think about diving into work:

1. Think about your why.

When I’m feeling really unmotivated, I’ve lost sight of my why.

Why I do what I do. Why I create a piece of free content every week. Why I run a membership program for creative entrepreneurs that’s priced the same as a t-shirt from Ann Taylor Loft.

I also think about the future. If I don’t do the work, what will my future look like (boring and bland without Anthropologie shopping sprees) versus what it will look like if I do the work (running a business that gives me the opportunity to create daily and supports my family, including my three ginormous labs that could eat an entire elephant for lunch).

Here are your two simple steps: 1. Think about why you do what you do. 2. Imagine the future (including details and the pros and cons of getting your butt off the couch and working).

If imagining the future doesn’t help you get motivated, then try my next tip.

2. Do one small thing.

We put a lot of pressure on ourselves and the overwhelm of a huge to-do list to reach our gigantic goals can derail our progress. Our brains can go into fight or flight or freeze mode when imagining a to-do list that you can never finish today or tomorrow or this week.

Try something for me. Put away that long to-do list. Seriously…get it out of your sight. Now, start another to-do list in your planner or on a post-it and only write down one small task. Something you can absolutely get done today.

That could be outlining your next blog post in 15 minutes or sketching in your sketchbook while waiting for the subway or brainstorming five titles for your webinar.

How does that feel? Better?

Once you’ve finished that small step, you’ll likely have gotten over that unmotivated bump and feel ready to delve into the next small step. And, if not, at least you accomplished something (which feels good, right?) and I’ve got some more tips for you to try.

3. Reward yourself.

I’m big on rewards. I give my brain a reward by having a written to-do list each day with a satisfying box next to each item to check when I’m done. That alone can give me a boost of motivating fairy dust.

As I check off a box, I look to the next item on my list because I want to get that one done and checked off, too.

But, if I need a bigger reward, I create one. For instance, I’ve rewarded myself with going out to eat with friends or buying a novel I’ve been eyeing or allowing myself to end my day early to do something I really want to do like play in my bullet journal.

Your reward doesn’t have to be material goods. I find that rewards that include an activity give me more motivation.

The other night, I rewarded myself after a long day of work by listening to an audiobook and fixing a huge pot of quinoa, lentil and kale stew. Usually my husband is the cook in our house (he looks really hot in his man apron), but I wanted to feel the enjoyment I get when I stand at the counter, cutting up veggies for 60 minutes (it was a TON of veggies) while I listen to a good book.

It might not seem like a reward, but for me, it totally was. I’ve gotten into a habit of working while my husband cooks dinner and while I appreciate that time he gives me, I wanted to rest my brain and do something automatic, liking chopping onions and carrots and tearing up bunches of kale.

4. Take a dance party break.

One of the easiest ways to trick your brain and body into getting motivated is to move your body and release some feel good endorphins. You could take a brisk walk around your neighborhood or you could have even more fun by turning on your favorite jams at the moment and dancing it out.

I know that exercise is often one of those things you don’t feel like doing when you’re already unmotivated but don’t think of it as exercise. Dancing around your living room like a fool is fun!

5. Talk to the right kind of friend.

You need other girl bosses in your life for this exact moment. Your friends who don’t run their own businesses or have their own side income probably don’t relate to your entrepreneurial drive and that’s okay.

That’s why you need friends who get it. You need to have at least one or two (or 130) creative entrepreneurs you can turn to when you need a pick-me-up.

“Sunday Society is a group where you can get almost instant feedback. I’ve posted in the FB group for help naming things, or titling blog posts, and I don’t have to wait long at all before people have given me ideas/feedback.” -Amanda Sue Howell, Magic in the Mess

When I’m feeling uninspired, I’ll ask Mayi Carles (my business and all things bestie) what she’s currently working on and her excitement for whatever project is currently keeping her hands covered in paint usually rubs off on me.

It’s also just nice to hear, “Yeah…I know that feeling but the good news is that it’ll pass,” from someone who understands and won’t say, “Well, if you’re not happy, why are you doing it? Just give up. It’s not worth it and you can join book club finally! YAY!”

“Sunday Society has kept me from feeling alone. Being a solo biz owner can get isolating and overwhelming with all the to-do’s. It is so nice to know you have a group of amazing ladies that support you. Everyone actually genuinely cares that you succeed. We keep each other motivated and accountable. I have never experienced this kind of connection in any other FB group. It is completely unique….it’s my village; I feel so grateful to be a part of this group.” -Neesha Merani, Paper Wand

6. Learn something new.

If you’re a lifelong learner like me, reading a couple chapters in a nonfiction book (highly recommend Organize Tomorrow Today) or watching a CreativeLive segment (like one from this course) or jumping on a webinar can be just the inspiration you need to move forward.

Maybe you’re bored because you haven’t been pushing yourself. Maybe you need to learn and try out some new techniques.

This usually gets my insides somersaulting with glee. Try it and see if it works for you.

7. Work in the right environment.

Change your location to see if that helps. If you’ve been working at home, take your laptop to a local coffee shop and see if the buzz of people (and shot of caffeine) helps your mood.

If you’ve been stuck inside, get outside. Go to a park or sit in your backyard and do a little work.

You could even try moving from your desk to your couch. Or make your desk more inviting by getting it organized and lighting a candle.

Our environments can have a greater impact than we realize and it might be just the thing that’s making you feel gloomy and distracted.

8. Think about what this really means.

If none of the ideas above help get you out of your funk and it’s been lingering for awhile, you should consider what this means.

Maybe you don’t love your business or what you have to do to run your business. Maybe you want to go in a new direction but are beating yourself up, because you’ve already spent hours and hours on your current side hustle. Maybe you need to hire a new team member so you can concentrate on the parts you enjoy.

Be honest with yourself. If you really don’t enjoy your work anymore, it’s probably not going to get better and the sooner you decide to move onto to something else, the better.

I pinky promise. I’ve been there myself a couple of times.

It’s a difficult decision to make, but it tops being miserable.

What about you? What helps you move past procrastination and lack of inspiration? Share in the comments below.

P.S. Have you been thinking about joining Sunday Society? Here’s how some of the women have said that Sunday Society keeps them motivated:

“Not only does April offer her wisdom and expertise daily (as well as live weekly calls), but each and every Sunday Society member jumps in, helps you, offers advice, and cheers you on. Since joining in February, not a day goes by where I can’t wait to check in and then get working on my own plans–and this is after YEARS of feeling stuck and afraid I would never be able to move forward with my dreams. April’s monthly challenges help make everything bite size and doable, and that’s also been key for me to stay on the motivation train. Love Sunday Society!” -Katie Meyers, Calming Creative

“If you have a question someone always answers. I found the march challenge super encouraging with the daily posts of what we had done, and it was super helpful to break it down in small bite-sized work. I even got virtual hugs when I was feeling a bit down! So thank you!” -Carla Montiel, Monmo & Co

“Sunday Society has helped me so much when it comes to procrastination. The Monday check-ins have helped me focus on the specific actions I need to do during the week and the Friday check-ins have motivated me to get all the to-dos done so I can feel accomplished.” -Katie Daniels Dunne, Crafty and Bright

“On days when I’m feeling totally unmotivated to work on my business, Sunday Society really helps me kick it into gear. When I think about blowing off a morning to do something else, I remember that there’s a whole group of women who are in the same self-employed boat with me. Sharing our goals with each other at the beginning of each week and sharing our progress and our wins at the end of each week helps me to feel like I’m accountable to someone. Having those “deadlines” in my mind and knowing that other people know about them too is a huge help when it comes to staying motivated to get things checked off of my to-do list.” -Erin Stewart, Aroma Culture

“I would get nothing done without Sunday Society! I love how I have a place to come for support and inspiration when I’m having a bad day and also a place for accountability and butt kicking when I’m being lazy and don’t feel like doing the work.” -Shelly Seward, The View From Where I Am

“I love that on Mondays we have the chance to post our goals for the week. I know that if I want to get something done that week, I need to share it on the Monday accountability post. Not only do I feel accountable to the promises I make to my Sunday Society friends when I share my goals, I also have people checking in with me throughout the week. It feels like just the right amounts of pressure to get it done, and fun when I get to share my progress throughout the week.” -Madeline Stoker, Madeline Shayne

“Sunday Society has helped me tackle my unmotivated days with not only consistent encouragement, but also accountability. Through this group, I have found not only a one-on-one accountability partner, but am also motivated by weekly and monthly challenges. I appreciate the consistent prompts, calls, posts and nudges to keep me headed in the right direction – even when I’m having one of “those” days, and it has made all the difference. I am truly more focused and productive because of Sunday Society.” -Julie Miller, Little Girl’s Pearls

These women are amazing! This is what I collected in only three hours. I asked them today, on the day I’m posting this for feedback on how Sunday Society keeps them motivated and this is what they said. Imagine if I had given them 24 hours. You want to be a part of this group if you’re looking for a serious (yet super fun) group of creative entrepreneurs who are working towards their dreams and will help you do the same.

Does Pursuing Less Really Improve Your Happiness?

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My mom went into kidney failure last Thursday and was admitted to the hospital.

I feel incredibly blessed that they figured out that the kidney failure was due to an allergic reaction to a medication she was taking and she’s now back at home, doing well. It took them eight long days to discover this.

For the first couple days, I couldn’t do anything–read a book, flip through a magazine, watch a television show. And, it felt like every single second lasted 27 minutes.

Once we realized that a biopsy of her kidneys would probably give us answers, I felt like I could breathe again.

While she was getting her kidneys biopsied, I sat in the waiting room and started reading what is now one of my favorite books, Essentialism by Greg McKeown.

I don’t know if Emily (from the podcast, Being Boss) would remember this, but she recommended I read it a couple years ago when we were chatting on Skype. It took awhile Em, but now I know why you pushed it on me. Thanks for the recommendation.

I learned or was reminded of a lot of critical things in this book. I pulled out my top ten favorite lessons and explain how it applies to my business and how you might apply it to your business.

But, this is not your get your get out of jail free card. You still need to read this brilliant book. (Don’t wait two years like me or you’ll want to kick your own bum.)

1. “The Essentialist doesn’t just recognize the power of choice, he celebrates it. The Essentialist knows that when we surrender our right to choose, we give others not just the power but also the explicit permission to choose for us.”

This is the quote that made me fall head over heels for this book on page 39. I knew right then that I needed this book in my life.

It might surprise some of you who know how intense I can be, but I’ve got a little bit of a people pleaser in me. It stems from elementary school when I would do anything to not get in trouble. In fact, the first and only time I ever got detention was in the first grade and I remember it clearly.

This snot-nosed little jerk wouldn’t stop talking to me even though I kept shushing him. The teacher didn’t care that I was trying to do the right thing. She put us both in detention and I came home sobbing. My mom said that I wouldn’t stop crying for hours.

I’ve grown out of that, but I still don’t like getting into trouble and that’s where my people pleasing comes into play. I have to remind myself every morning that if I don’t decide how I’m going to spend my time, others will for me through email requests and tweets and questions on Instagram.

Even when I have a hard time choosing something as simple as a buddha bowl or quinoa salad for dinner, I know that if I don’t choose, my husband will, which is fine as long as I don’t mind either. But, if I’m not in the mood for a buddha bowl, I need to speak up or I might end up picking at a dinner I didn’t really want.

If you need to get better at making your own choices, pause before you respond. Take a breath and remind yourself that you’re in control. You have choices.

2. “Essentialists actually explore more options than their Nonessentialist counterparts. Whereas Nonessentialists commit to everything or virtually everything without actually exploring, Essentialists systematically explore and evaluate a broad set of options before committing to any.”

When I realized that I no longer wanted to be a family therapist, I experienced a lot of meltdowns because I had no idea what I wanted to do.

It would’ve been easier for me to say something like, “I’m going to quit my job with great benefits because I’ve realized that I want to become a baker.” But, all I knew was that I wasn’t happy doing my work day in and day out.

So, I started experimenting with anything that sounded fun such as cooking, scrapbooking, jewelry design, blogging, writing fiction, making things out of clay, and mixed media painting. Every second I wasn’t working, I was trying to figure out my passion.

I’m certain that if I had just picked the first thing that piqued my interest, I would be a miserable scrapbooker. Instead, I played a lot and figured out that I love a combination of: teaching, writing and watercolor painting.

If you’re in the beginning of your business and you’re struggling with the “what,” have some fun with all of your options. Write a couple blog posts about parenting if you think you want to start a parenting blog that focuses on minimalism. Spend an entire eight hours (with small breaks) creating jewelry. If at the end of the eight hours you realize this isn’t something you like to do when you have to spend that much time on it, you’ve had a great a-ha moment and presents for all your friends’ birthdays.

3. “As painful as they can sometimes be, trade-offs represent a significant opportunity. By forcing us to weigh both options and strategically select the best one for us, we significantly increase our chance of achieving the outcome we want.”

I have a love-hate relationship with trade-offs. Oh my bananas, I wish I could do it all on any given day, but I can’t.

I have to decide if I should respond to the email that’s from a loyal customer asking for advice that’ll probably take me 10 to 15 minutes to reply to or get through a bunch of emails that will only take me a minute or less to reply to.

I have to decide whether to add another live call to the next month of Sunday Society or spend that time working on bonus worksheets.

I have to pick between going out to dinner with my husband and friends or eating something simple so I can squeeze in some watercolor painting.

These aren’t easy decisions, but as a business owner, you have to make a bunch every single day and those decisions impact your success and happiness.

4. “We can take further inspiration from the example of CEO Bill Gates, who regularly (and famously) takes a regular week off from his daily duties at Microsoft simply to think and read.”

This sounds like heaven to me, and it’s already something I’ve been planning since this past December. If things go right, I plan to take two long weekends (hopefully about four days each) to get away from everything and focus.

I’d like to spend one of these long weekends reading business books, watching TED talks and planning the future of Blacksburg Belle and Sunday Society. For the other, I want to hole up somewhere cold and cozy, preferably by the fire and spend the entire time writing.

My favorite chunks of time are when I fall into a reading frenzy. I’ll get this great idea, spend a few days outlining and then dive into the story, writing from the time I get up to the time I go to bed. I wrote three-fourths of a novel in three weeks this way. And, every second felt incredible.

What about you? When’s the last time you had a full day to think or lose yourself in your craft without a single distraction. I know it’s harder for you moms out there, but I think your family could give you one day or one weekend. And, those weekends are worth it because they feel magical.

5. “Play is an antidote to stress, and this is key because stress, in addition to being an enemy of productivity, can actually shut down the creative, inquisitive, exploratory parts of our brain. You know how it feels: you’re stressed about work and suddenly everything starts going wrong.”

There wasn’t a single concept in this book that turned me off, but this one made me light up.

I think about the days that I pull out my bullet journal and sketch without caring how it turns out because I could always erase it or cover it up. Or when I start an audiobook (usually an exciting thriller like Baby Doll by Hollie Overton) and paint with my watercolors without having an end goal in mind.

I also love playing board games, even though my family members get a little scared to play with me cause I tend to be a sore loser. Once I even threw all the cards onto the floor because my husband was cheating, no one else noticed and he giggled like “hahahaha, I got away with it.”

After game night, I always have a great day the next day at work. It’s amazing how play impacts my work.

If you’re stuck creatively, play. Go outside and play hide and seek with your kids. Have a game night with two other couples. Ask a friend to play a game of tennis with you. See if it doesn’t give you a boost of creativity when you return to your work.

6. “The best asset we have for making a contribution to the world is ourselves. If we underinvest in ourselves, and by that I mean our minds, bodies, and our spirits, we damage the very tool we need to make our highest contribution. One of the most common ways people–especially ambitious people–damage this asset is through a lack of sleep.”

My husband and I fight over the same thing constantly. He thinks he can run on five or six hours of sleep and I care so much about him that I demand he sleeps for at least seven hours.

I’ve shown him research that proves my point, I’ve read him passages in books that reiterate these facts, I make him watch interviews with Arianna Huffington who wrote about the importance of sleep.

And, my husband is probably the most logical person in our family but he still fights this notion that he needs sleep.

However…about six months ago, he admitted that he’s noticed a difference between the days that he gets seven hours of sleep compared to the days that he gets five or six hours of sleep. He gets more done, he’s better in court, and he avoids the afternoon ‘must-have-a-coffee-now’ crash.

If you get less than eight hours of sleep, try getting that much sleep for just two weeks. We can all do something for just two weeks, can’t we? See if it impacts your health and productivity. Most of the time we get less sleep because we try to accomplish more and the silly thing is that if we just slept a bit longer, it’d be easier to get those things done faster.

7. “As you evaluate an option, think about the single most important criterion for that decision, and then simply give the option a score between 0 and 100. If you rate it any lower than 90 percent, then automatically change the rating to 0 and simply reject it. This way you avoid getting caught up in indecision, or worse, getting stuck with the 60s and 70s. Think about how you’d feel if you scored a 65 on some test. Why would you deliberately choose to feel that way about an important choice in your life?”

I’ve heard this said a bunch of different ways such as, “If it isn’t a hell yeah, it’s a no,” but this single paragraph hit me right in the heart.

I have a really difficult time deciding whether or not to accept an interview request. Why? I tend to enjoy most interviews. They get me in front of an audience that doesn’t know me yet. I get to connect with the interviewer and who knows where that could lead.

But, interviews take up my time. If it’s a written interview, it can take me hours to respond to all the questions. I recently received an interview request from someone I like but it was a written interview with questions that I could spend an entire blog post answering. It would’ve taken me hours, three at best, to finish it. And, at that point in time, I had some personal stuff come up which meant I had to say no.

I’m much more likely to say yes to podcast interviews for a few reasons: 1) I don’t have to get video ready with hair and makeup all done up 2) I do well on my feet answering questions about topics I know a lot about 3) They’re the type of interviews I enjoy the most.

The next type of interview I’m more likely to say yes to is a video interview. It doesn’t usually require any prep except for doing my hair and makeup and I enjoy chatting with other creatives and seeing their faces and expressions.

But if I’m asked for a written interview, I say no 99% of the time. If it was a magazine like Artful Blogging who approached me, they would land in the 1%. Other than something like that, it’s a no because it’s too much work on my end. I could spend that time doing something for my own audience. Give me three hours and I can create a 30-minute bonus video for Sunday Society or pop in the Facebook group and do an impromptu FB Live video.

Try using this method before saying yes to anything over the next month. See how it changes your productivity and happiness.

8. “It’s not just that the boundaries have been blurred; it’s that the boundary of work has edged insidiously into family territory.”

Setting boundaries with clients, especially for those of you with service-based businesses who work closely with your clients, is critical.

I can’t tell you how many clients I’ve worked with that have said something like, “I have this client who expects me to respond to her emails within 30 minutes, drop everything on a Saturday because she wants to hop on a Skype call to discuss something even though my parents are in town, and gets frustrated when I give her feedback she doesn’t like.”

My response is always, “You need to have a discussion about boundaries. Then, you need to update your contract that includes these boundaries. This makes things easier for you but it also helps the client. It lets them know what’s acceptable and what isn’t.”

When you have a rule in your contract that says you won’t respond to client emails or calls on the weekend, but you ensure to respond by the end of the day on Monday, it lets your client know when she can expect to hear from you which is a lot better than the unknown.

It also makes it easier for you when you have to point to your contract to remind a client that you didn’t agree on the demand she’s making. Having it in writing always helps.

9. “We’ve all experienced how projects and commitments tend to expand–despite our best efforts–to fill the amount of time allotted to them.”

YES! YES! YES!

The very first time I taught at CreativeLive, I had exactly one month to prepare the entire 18 hours of content and workbook to accompany it.

What my sneaky content producer at the time didn’t tell me is that they usually give instructors at least three months–but more like six months–to prepare for a three-day course.

But, guess what? I got it done. I came prepared. My slides were done. The workbook was complete. I had practiced each segment multiple times. And, the best part is that my class was the fourth best-selling course of the year, beating out tons of courses taught by much bigger names.

If I’d been given three months instead of one, I can guarantee that I would’ve filled those three months prepping for the course. Would it have made it better?

I don’t know, but I didn’t really need any extra time. I was able to deliver in 30 days.

When you give yourself an allotted amount of time for a project, keep this in mind. We usually take all the time we give ourselves instead of ending early if we can. Where in your business could you cut out some time? Maybe you could give yourself 30 minutes instead of an hour to edit a round of photos? Maybe you could give yourself 45 minutes instead of two hours to write the rough draft of your blog post? Maybe you could give yourself two weeks instead of four weeks of research for your next project?

10. Whatever decision or challenge or crossroads you face in your life, simply ask yourself, ‘What is essential?’ Eliminate everything else.

This is definitely something I struggle with but plan to remind myself about it constantly. As soon as I unbox my new Day Designer (Squeeeeeeeeee!), I’m going to add a note at the front that says the exact statement above.

I know that if I had thought about this concept earlier, I would’ve created better content including blog posts and online courses, saved myself a lot headaches, and be closer to having a more cohesive body of work.

Those are the top 10 lessons I learned or was reminded of when reading this life-changing book (and I don’t say that lightly). Even though you’ve read this post, I promise you’ll be missing out if you don’t pick up a copy or listen to the audiobook.

Essentialism is one of those books that I know I’ll read every couple of years.

Have you read this book? What was your biggest takeaway? Are there any other books you’d recommend that have a similar feel as this one? Share in the comments below.

Decluttering Your Business through Editing and Elimination

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Glance down at what you’re wearing today.

If you were back in the store, would you pay to buy those pieces again at full price?

This is the question that I ask myself each time I clean out my closet. I used to feel guilty about donating a $98 dress even though I knew I wouldn’t wear it again because I’d already spent a good chunk of money on it (and there’s always maybe someday, right?). But, if I was in the store, looking at it and trying to decide whether or not to buy it, it would be an easy no.

That’s how I know I’m making the right decision to eliminate it from my closet and donate it, hoping that someone who really loves it will get to wear it.

It doesn’t make sense to keep it hanging in my closet, taking up space and making me feel guilty everytime I look at it just because I spent $98 on it a couple years ago.

We tend to hold onto projects and paragraphs in blog posts and commitments the same way.

If we’ve already put hours and hours into a new product, we have a much harder time letting go instead of adding it to our Etsy shops even though it doesn’t work with our other products.

If we’ve spent six hours writing and editing a blog post and realize it’s crap, we publish it anyways or feel like the six hours was wasted.

If we’ve already said yes to speaking at an online summit but then receive the details that include emailing our lists about the speaking engagement three times and know it’s not the right fit, we follow through instead of saying, “Sorry, I’m out.”

“Sunk-cost bias is the tendency to continue to invest time, money, or energy into something we know is a losing proposition simply because we have already incurred, or sunk, a cost that cannot be recouped.” -Essentialism, Greg McKeown

Here are four steps I recommend you take to make sure you’re spending your time on the right things:

Step 1: Inventory Your Business

It’s important to regularly look at everything we’re doing in our businesses to see if we’re doing things just because we’ve been doing them or have committed to something in the past.

Mark a day in your calendar to do this each quarter over the next year. On that day, make a list of all your products, services, projects, tasks and commitments.

For each, ask yourself these questions:

If I was starting from scratch, how hard would I be willing to work to start this project? What would I be willing to give up to make time for this project or commitment?

Ask yourself these questions about each of your products, your daily uploads on Instagram, your FB live videos, your meetings with your team, the interviews you’ve agreed to, etc. Evaluate anything that takes up time in your calendar.

Step 2: Get Past Your Fear

When I began blogging, years and years ago, I started a wedding planning blog. I wanted to blog about something and I was planning my wedding at the time, so I thought it’d be a great topic.

I built a readership into the thousands and a side income of around $450/month in ads and sponsored posts.

Once I got married, I realized that I didn’t want to spend my days looking at bouquets of peonies, wedding cakes and mermaid dresses.

Even though I knew that I didn’t want to continue blogging about weddings, it took me a few months to get past my fear of giving up something I’d worked incredibly hard to build.

I spent those months talking it out with my husband and friends, walking and thinking about what I’d really like to blog about and crying over my stupidity of wasting so much time on something I’d never want to do long-term.

I wrote a blog post for CreativeLive about giving up my readership and side income and I was shocked by a couple of comments from readers who couldn’t believe I would give it up including this completely ridiculous comment:

“Just because you get married doesn’t mean you have to shut down your wedding blog! If something is financially working, why shut it down? You are either an idiot, or you are not explaining yourself fully (or you are embellishing your story for drama). If you had nothing more to say about “weddings”, you could transition from weddings to family, but within the same blog, to the same followers, as…duh! They are progressing in their lives too! I am transitioning from photographing weddings to photographing babies because my friends are all married and are having babies now. Does that mean I throw my camera away? Do I close down my photography business? NO!!! It just means I take it in a new direction…At the very least, you probably could have sold the site to someone who would have gladly paid for the list of followers and paying advertisers…SOMETHING other than just shutting it down! And you want me to take advice from you? WOW!” -Latara Dragoo

When I first read this comment, I thought…what a you-know-what! How dare you scream at me with your capital letters and presume to know what’s best for my life and business when it’s obvious your business is struggling.

Then, I took a deep breath and realized that this person didn’t get the meaning of my post.

She didn’t get that closing my wedding planning blog was the best decision I could’ve made because it gave me the time to build THIS successful business that I truly love and brings in a much bigger income.

She didn’t get that life is way too short to spend it doing something I resent. She was proving the point that people fear giving up something they put hundreds of hours into even if it’s the exact right decision.

This was my response:

“First, I started the blog as a hobby–not as a way to make money. When I started my blog, none of the blogs I read had ads on their blogs or wrote sponsored posts yet, so I had no way of knowing what it could (and would) grow into. Second, when I realized that I didn’t want to continue with daily blogging about a topic that I no longer cared about, I wasn’t about to start another blog that I’d end up resenting. I don’t have kids and blogging about family is not a direction I would’ve wanted to go. Most importantly, if I didn’t let go of that blog, I wouldn’t have had the time or room to create the business that I have now which I love. Third, when you create a blog that is based on your interests, strengths and personality, it’s hard to sell it, because it’s not as if the person who buys it can just pick up where you left off and be you. If you’re planning on selling your blog, you have to create something that can live on without you being the blogger.”

I tried my best to explain my viewpoint while realizing that this person is shortsighted and not my ideal customer.

When you’re looking at all of the things you spend time on in your business, try to do so without the baggage of fear and the what ifs.

Don’t torture yourself by thinking about how you could’ve done things differently and holding onto products, services and tasks just because you already spent time on them.

You can’t change the past, but you can make sure you don’t waste another second on something that isn’t worth your time.

Step 3: Edit Your Business

You’ve already made a list of all your commitments and realized that some of them need to get cut. Make the time to cut them now, including sending emails or hopping on a Skype call to let anyone else involved know that you’re eliminating the task or project from your calendar.

For the ones that you’re hemming and hawing over, ask yourself this question:

If you were starting from scratch, would you say yes to this commitment, project or task again?

If you were just starting your business, would you still sell one-of-kind jewelry? If you’d never posted a picture on Instagram, would you still commit to posting three times a day? If you’d just received the email about guest posting monthly on a blog in your niche, would you say yes again?

If the answer is no, try letting it go for a short period of time and see what happens.

Try selling jewelry you can make again and again for a month. See if that business model works better.

Try posting once a day on Instagram for the next week. Do your numbers drop? Does your engagement drop? Or…do you have enough time to also do an Instagram live video twice a week that has resulted in multiple sales?

Tell the blogger that you’re unavailable to guest post for her for the next two months. Does it really hurt your business? Or…do you realize that guest posting for the past twelve months has probably resulted in all the new readers for your own blog that you’re going to get from it?

Edit your business by removing the non-essential tasks so that you have more time to focus on high-leverage tasks that actually move your business forward and make you money.

Step 4: Take a Moment Before Committing

Now that you’ve eliminated tasks that are getting in your way instead of bringing you joy and income, you don’t want to fill your calendar back up with crap.

Before you say yes to ANYTHING, take a breath. Really scrutinize what saying yes means. Consider whether this task or new product idea or interview request is helping you to achieve your overall mission and goal.

Think about the time and effort it’ll take and what you’ll have to say no to in order to make time for it.

It’s incredibly hard to say no (especially for people pleasers and to things that might turn out to be great opportunities), but running a successful business is all about editing out the unproductive, unrelated stuff.

Learning to say no, instead of automatically saying yes, will make you less overwhelmed and your business more profitable.

I say no to about 95% of the opportunities and requests that come my way. There are many that I wish I had the time to commit to, but I know if I want to ensure I have enough time for the things I really want to spend my time on, I have to say no.

What will you edit out of your business today? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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