Your Decade in Review

by | Business, Mindset

As a new decade fast approaches, now is the time to review all that you have achieved and the lessons you have learnt.

Taking the time to review the last decade will give you the opportunity to see where you want to be heading into the 2020s.

Click on the below image to view the document, take 10 minutes out of your busy schedule to fill it out.  I guarantee it will be worth it for your business and your mindset.

Hopefully the below articles will also be helpful for you and your business.

READ MORE BLOGS POSTS

MORE ABOUT ME

ABOUT ME PAGE

Head Back HOME

HOME PAGE

The Working Mums Survival Guide For December

by | Business, Mindset, Productivity, Working Mum

How are you coping with December working mummy?  It’s a time when there is more to do, more places to be and what seems like less time to do it.

Work can be more busy with deadlines needing to be hit for the Christmas rush or just so you can take a break over the festive period.  Your kids are more busy with their end of term activities and Christmas ‘stuff’. And we are more busy because let’s face it, the majority of present buying and organising for Christmas falls in our laps.

To help keep us sane; my early christmas present to you is the 12 points below in my ‘Working Mums Survival Guide For December’.

1. ASK FOR HELP

Rather than tie ourselves in a knot with everything that needs doing, we simply just need to ask when we need help.  So often we get caught up in thinking we have to do everything when we don’t. Some husbands and kids simply don’t see all the things that you know need to be done – so ask!

2. DELEGATE

Write out a list of tasks that could be done by your husband, partner or kids and delegate.  I’m pretty sure your partner in life could cope with buying a couple of gifts if you told him/her what to get.  I’m also pretty sure the kids (depending on their age) can wrap presents, sweep the floor, do the dishes or whatever it is that will make your life easier.

3. SHOP ONLINE

Avoiding the shops is a good idea but we may have left it a little late for online gift shopping.  Food shopping however is a dream online so if you can’t face the crowds at the supermarket on Christmas Eve, do it online.

4. SELF CARE

Keep looking after yourself.  What does that look like to you? Exercise, meditation, getting enough sleep; do what it takes to have some ‘me time’ to help keep you sane.

5. KEEP PRESENT BUYING TO A MINIMUM

I promise you the kids do not need ALL the stuff that is being marketed to them at this time of year.  I promise you, they won’t remember the plastic toy that you gave them when were 6. What they will remember is the ‘time’ you spent together and the ‘feeling’ of Christmas.

If you have a large family, do a Christingle or arrange beforehand for each family to buy one present for another family so you all get one present each.

This will save you the massive headache of coming up with ideas for everyone as well as save your bank account from running dry.

6. DO THE BARE MINIMUM

Seriously guys, do not get sucked into the Insta worthy family photo shoots with everyone in matching pyjamas and think because you’re not doing it then you’re not ‘doing’ Christmas.  Take away the comparison game and pick a couple of traditions that feels right for your family.

Keep it simple.  We have a Christmas Eve box.  That’s pretty much it for our Christmas tradition.  It contains 5 christmas cards, one for each member of the family.  We write messages in them to each family member to be opened on Christmas Day, a Christmas movie, a new decoration for the tree, some Christmas craft activities and a jigsaw puzzle.  Too easy.

7. BE SELECTIVE

Learn to say no.  You cannot attend every event for either work or fun. You don’t want tired and grumpy kids so sometimes we have to say no.  Also be selective about the people you see if at all possible.

8. DON’T GO ANYWHERE NEAR SHOPS WITH KIDS!!

Honestly, if you want to keep your sanity DO NOT go anywhere near shops with your kids in tow as we get closer to Christmas.  I try to sneak out to go late night shopping when my husband is home with the kids. How much quicker and easier is it when you’re on your own?

9. BUY FOOD

Do not feel like you have to home make every little morsel to be eaten over the festive period.  It is far too time consuming and way too much pressure. If you have to take food to school activities, gatherings or such, then buy it.  Lie about it if you have to! At the very least keep it really simple. It’s summer here in Australia so dips and veggie sticks or a selection of the most delicious summer fruits are always winners.  If it’s winter for you, then grab some store bought mince pies.

10. PLAN 

Get everything out of your head and down into lists.  Plan for gift buying, plan the meal for Christmas day, plan what needs doing for work from now until the new year, plan what outfits everyone is going to wear for Christmas.  I cannot emphasise enough how much planning will help you not to lose your shit.

11. CELEBRATE YOUR 2018 SUCCESSES

Take a moment to savour how much you have achieved over the last year.  When it all gets a bit crazy, we often forget how amazing we are because we’re so caught up in being busy and getting stressed.  Take a look at your work achievements, your personal achievements and how great it is that your kids are fed and watered. Every little bit counts and the family keeps on running largely because of us and our brilliance.  Celebrate it! Now might be the time for a gin!

12. GET EXCITED FOR THE NEW YEAR AND WHAT IT WILL BRING FOR YOU, YOUR FAMILY AND YOUR BUSINESS

Finally, at some point over the festive period, take some time to plan ahead to get excited about what is coming up in 2020.  This will really help with your enthusiasm and motivation to get through Christmas and into the exciting things that lie ahead.  Woot Woot!

Don’t let December get you down.  It is a crazy time of year, but with this working mums survival guide you can have a lovely stress-free, fun-filled family time.

I’d love to hear from you about how you celebrate your Christmas and how December goes.

Much love for now…
Nicola

READ MORE BLOGS POSTS

MORE ABOUT ME

ABOUT ME PAGE

Head Back HOME

HOME PAGE

5 Time Saving Hacks For Your Business

by | Business, Productivity

Hey working mum juggling all the things.  If you’re like me, you’re probably trying to keep many plates spinning. The business plate will keep spinning if you have awesome systems that make the most of your precious time.

How much unproductive time do you think you have on a weekly basis?  Are passwords hard to find? Do you waste time trying to remember how to do something you did a month ago? Perhaps you spend 15 minutes every morning working out what it is you should be doing.

Good systems = efficiency.  As mums with home based businesses we can often only rely on ourselves to make every aspect of our business run smoothly.  There is no team, no boss and no HR department implementing systems and policies on our behalf.

I work during school hours which means I have 4-5 hours in my working day.  I know I need to work effectively in those hours, be focused on the right tasks and have the outcomes I need to keep moving my business forwards.

Before reading on, it is a good idea to assess what you are spending your time doing.  You might be surprised. Use this FREE Daily Time Tracker for at least 2 weeks and jot down what you do every half an hour (be honest).  To truly become productive, you first need to know where you can make some changes.

Here are my 5 time saving hacks for your business.

TASK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM & GOAL SETTING

I use Asana (free version) and I love it.  Becoming familiar with a task management system will greatly improve your productivity.  If you are a paper and pen person that’s fine as long as your system is working efficiently.  

For me, I add all my tasks to Asana, and I mean ALL of them. That includes any personal tasks for the week.  For example, if there is something on at school that I want to attend, it goes on my daily task list because it will need to be factored into my day.  One of the reasons we work from home is to have the flexibility to be there for our kids, so respect the occasions your kids need you and plan accordingly.

Why do I love Asana?  I love being able to see the whole month laid out in front of me.  I love being able to swing tasks across to different days if they didn’t get done.  I love being able to program in repeating tasks that happen daily, weekly or monthly.

Goal Setting – create a system that sets out your quarterly, monthly and weekly goals.  You can use my goal planner here. Your daily tasks will come from your goals.  Having the goals in place will ensure you keep inching forward in your business.  Make sure your goals are achievable. As a general rule you want:

Annual Goals: 7-10
Quarterly Goals: 2-3
Monthly Goals: the tasks it takes to complete a quarterly goal
Weekly Goals: 3
Daily Win: 1

Create a repeating task in Asana (or whichever program you use) to remind you to set your quarterly, monthly, weekly goals.

ACCOUNTS

I use Quickbooks.  For years I persisted with the story that my business wasn’t big enough to warrant paying for an accounts system as I diligently filled out my Excel spreadsheets and manually produced invoices in Word.  Boy am I glad I woke up to the idea that an automated system would allow me to be much more productive. Quickbooks does not cost the earth and what it gives me in return is invaluable.

My system is to have a repeating task in Asana once a month to check off my expenses and balance my accounts.  I invoice each Monday morning. At the end of the financial year, I have all the data I need to send off to the accountant for processing.  Honestly, do this for your business if you haven’t already.

SOCIAL MEDIA & CONTENT STRATEGY

One of the biggest stumbling blocks I come across when I work with mums in business is social media.  The problems are generally; finding time, knowing what to post and when, understanding the different platforms and serving rather than selling.

Here are my 3 golden rules to save time and consistently produce content for social media

  • SYSTEMISE YOUR DAYS: This is what works for me. 
    • Monday – content production
    • Tuesday – scheduling, promotion & collaboration
    • Wednesday – strategy (working on the parts of my business that are going to keep it moving forwards)
    • Thursday – accounts & admin
    • Friday – catch up day
  • BATCH YOUR WORK – batching means to group similar tasks together and do them at the same time.  Imagine writing all your blog posts for the month and scheduling all your social media on one day?  How much time would that free up for other aspects of your business?
  • STRATEGY – for your social media to be consistent you need a strategy.  Create a task in Asana to remind you to work out your content strategy quarterly.  Commit to posting a certain amount of times per week, know which channels you will use to serve your audience, then work out what your posts will be.   If you blog then set out what posts your will write for the quarter and your social media will flow from there.

WRITTEN INSTRUCTIONS, TEMPLATES & PASSWORDS

There are many tasks in our businesses that we do on repeat.  Some things are weekly and some happen every 3 months or so. For all the tasks you do more than once, even if it is once a year you should have a written list of how to instructions.  Think of it like this. If you were out of action and needed someone else to come into your business and run it for a week, they should be able to read your instructions and do your tasks.

For example, do you occasionally use the Ads Manager in Facebook and each time you go back to it you have to remember what to do?  Write down instructions to follow each time instead of having to work it out all over again in 3 months time.

Templates are useful for repetitive tasks.  If you find you always send the same email replies; create a template.  If you create the same Pinterest Pins or Instagram posts then have a template ready to go.  Think about where else in your business you repeatedly do a task that could use a template?

Passwords can be stored in a cloud based program like LastPass.  This will save you heaps of time searching for passwords and can be accessed from anywhere by using the app on your phone.

EMAILS & G-SUITE

Are you a gmail user like me?  I have my emails stored in folders and try to keep my Primary tab limited to 20 – 25 emails.  This helps me feel more organised and less overwhelmed.

Any emails relating to social media go into my Social tab and any emails that i’ve subscribed to go into my Forums tab.  The search facility is a great tool for finding emails that you may have tucked away in a folder and will save you time looking everywhere for the one thing you need.

I check my emails first thing in the morning then close it down to be checked again at lunchtime.  

Other G-Suite products I regularly use are Docs, Sheets, Drive, Keep, Calendar.  There are so many useful tools for your business and by having your information stored in the cloud, it is easily shared with colleagues, collaborators or online.

Hopefully this post has highlighted some ways you could save time in your business.  Is there anything else you’d add to the list?  Let me know in the comments below…..

Remember, if you want to do an audit of your current habits then use my free Daily Time Tracker.  (Google Sheets)

Much love for now…
Nicola

READ MORE BLOGS POSTS

MORE ABOUT ME

ABOUT ME PAGE

Head Back HOME

HOME PAGE

A Beginners Guide to Creating New Habits

by | Business, Mindset, Productivity

I’m not going to pretend that creating new habits is easy (change is never easy!) but if you truly want to be more productive and have a successful business, there are certain habits that will serve you well and lots that won’t.   This post is aimed at female business owners so read on if you are wanting to start some new habits for success.

Before creating new habits it’s a good idea to do a quick audit of your daily routines to see which habits are serving you well and which aren’t.  For example, if you are wanting to be more productive but are spending hours scrolling on your phone; that habit requires change. Perhaps you are trying to be more healthy and do more exercise but you always save exercise for the end of the day so it often doesn’t happen; again something needs to change.

Once you have thought about or listed all your daily habits, read this list of 25 Habits of Successful Women in Business to work out if there are any other areas in your life that could do with a shake up. 

It takes around 21 days to create a new habit.  Those 21 days take effort, consistency, persistence and belief.  And remember; if nothing changes, nothing will change.

INSANITY: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the same results.

Albert Einstein

The following will help in creating and sticking to new habits.

WHY DO YOU WANT TO CREATE A NEW HABIT?

Be very clear on why you want to create your new habit.  There needs to be a concrete reason for doing it or it won’t be a sustained change.

Overcome the excuses. 

It is often our mindset that is stopping us from making a new habit a reality.  Take the time to listen to what is blocking you from the change. We repeatedly tell ourselves stories that have often been ingrained from childhood.  But with a simple mindset shift, those stories can change and new habits can form.

For example, I told myself for years that i was a tired type of person and definitely not a morning person.  The thought of getting up before 7am filled me with horror. Now, I have my alarm clock on the other side of the room, I have the alarm set for 6.17am every morning and i’ve changed the stories I repeatedly tell myself about early mornings into positive ones.  This morning time is now my chance to do yoga, go to the gym, write in my gratitude journal and I love it.

Triggers

Certain triggers will help you succeed and some will keep you falling back into old habits.  

When creating a new habit, attach it to something you already love to do.  By combining it with something that fills you with joy you are more likely to keep going.

For example, I wanted to start writing in my gratitude journal daily, so I have placed it next to the coffee pot in the kitchen so I can journal while my coffee is brewing.  On the contrary, my old habit was to scroll through my phone while my coffee brewed and before I knew it, i’d wasted 30 minutes. By removing my phone from the process and adding in my gratitude journal, I am achieving my goal of filling my morning with a positive attitude of being grateful.

Make Success Easy

To succeed you need to follow through.  For this you need a plan.

Make it easy to take action by being organised. If you want to do yoga first thing, lay out your mat the night before and plan which YouTube video you will follow.  My example of having the alarm clock on the other side of the room makes it easy for me to get up and out of bed. Make sure your mind is not sabotaging your new habits by slipping into negative thinking or old patterns that no longer serve you.  Try committing to the new habit by writing down a positive affirmation that you read daily. What small changes can you make to ensure easy success with your new habit?

Reward

In the early stages of creating a new habit, it’s a good idea to associate it with a reward.  Go to the gym; grab a coffee afterwards. Have a super productive day; listen to your favourite podcast in the evening.  Go to bed early during the week; allow yourself a late night watching Netflix at the weekend. You get the idea. If you can attach something nice to a new habit then you are more likely to succeed.

Now it’s time to go for it if you really want to see changes in how you do things.  Go create new success habits, read the 25 Habits of Successful Women in Business again and start today!

Let me know how you go in the comments below.

Much love for now…
Nicola

READ MORE BLOGS POSTS

MORE ABOUT ME

ABOUT ME PAGE

Head Back HOME

HOME PAGE

5 Ways to Motivate Yourself to have a Productive Day

by | Business, Mindset, Productivity, Working Mum

Some days I just don’t feel like it.  Some days it’s a struggle to get out of bed, get the kids organised for school and get everyone out the door with shoes on that all motivation seems to have flown out the window by the time I sit at my desk.  Do you sometimes feel like this too?

Motivation is a funny thing when you work alone at home.  I love working from home and I love being my own boss but it does mean that there is no one to keep me on track.  I am my own champion, my own goal kicker and to do this I need motivation to have a productive day.

As many working mums do, I work during school hours so my working day is significantly smaller than the norm.  It is for this reason that I have focused my energies on supporting mums with home based businesses to be productive.

I know that productivity is the secret sauce to being a mum and a successful business owner.  Discover your greatness by having your most productive day every day using these 5 ways to motivate yourself.

1. Go Back to Your Why

If you have delved deep into why you are doing what you do then that is a huge motivation to keep achieving.  When you feel in a slump, simply remember your why and that will give you a kick start to get going again.  

My reason for showing up everyday and doing my 4 hours alone at my desk, is to allow me to have the time and financial freedom to be there for my kids.  To take them on adventures, have the odd meal out and provide for our future. We are all different, so take the time to work out why you have chosen to have your own business.  And come back to it regularly.

2. To-do Lists

Lists are my favourite things when it comes to organising my time.  Be strategic with lists however, or you will find that it’ll be a never ending list of things to do.  It is important to be concentrating on the RIGHT things to bring you closer to your goals.

For motivation to increase, start achieving your list of tasks and get that sense of achievement.  If you know you are showing up and taking small steps towards a bigger goal, you’ll be motivated to do more of the same.

TIP 1!

Work out if you are a pen and paper or digital person when it comes to your to-do lists.  I love using Asana and now write everything down there.

TIP 2!

A good way to organise your tasks is to have 7-10 big annual goals, then 2-3 quarterly goals, break those down into monthly tasks to help you reach those goals and then have around 3 outcomes per week plus a daily win.

3. Stop Procrastinating 

If you are procrastinating then you are letting your fears put a dent in your motivation.  Procrastination is the habit that develops when we feel scared of a task. As humans we want to keep ourselves safe so we will always take the easy option rather than put ourselves out of our comfort zone.  The ‘stuff’ we do to stay safe often looks like; scrolling social media, spending time on household tasks rather than work, or doing work tasks that are easy & familiar rather than digging deep into the jobs that challenge you.

To have an awesomely productive day, my advice is to break the task that is causing you to procrastinate down into bite size chunks, face the fear and take baby steps to get it done.

4. Reward

If you are the type of person that works well when there is a reward upon completion then implement a system for yourself.  Whether it’s a food reward, a self care treat or a trip to the shops if you reach your goal; do what it takes to motivate yourself to get your tasks done.

5. Take a Break

If you’re feeling unmotivated and tired, my advice is not to work through it but to change things up a bit.  Sometimes we simply need a break. Doing some exercise, taking a walk around the garden, listening to a guided meditation, making a cup of herbal tea (or coffee!) can all be enough refresh and refocus.   5 or 10 minutes of doing something away from your desk will work wonders to get that motivated feeling back.

Hopefully these 5 ways to motivate yourself to have a productive day will help you have your best day every day.  Go working mumma, go get it done! If you have any other suggestions of what works for you; I’d love to hear them so drop a comment below.

Much love for now…
Nicola

READ MORE BLOGS POSTS

MORE ABOUT ME

ABOUT ME PAGE

Head Back HOME

HOME PAGE