"Ahhhh..."
Have you ever sighed with pleasure like that? Or taken a deep breath and exhaled with pure happiness and relaxation? Or been so in the zone that the hours flew by and you could have kept going forever and ever, whatever you were doing?

We've all had glimpses (hopefully more) of what it feels like to be in our happy place mentally, physically, and/or emotionally, but how often do we stop to think about how and why we felt that way? What makes our happy place our happy place?

The answer will be different for everyone, of course, but when was the last time you tried to deconstruct your happy place experience? And more important, when was the last time you tried to re-create your happy place experience in even a small way?

We are all affected by our physical environments. Without realizing it, the stresses around us, the energy around us, the people, and sounds, and smells around us all combine into one big experiential ball that affects our mood, our performance, our productivity, and our happiness.

I've always known this about myself. I can feel myself tighten up when I walk into a soulless conference room, I can feel myself come alive when I'm in beautiful surroundings, I know I am more creative when I am somewhere with high ceilings and light or surrounded by nature. I know these things because I pay attention to how I feel and how I perform. And that's why I encourage my coaching clients and anyone else who is interested in my performance "hacks" to Curate Your Environment.

This can be as simple as listening to relaxing music while you work at your desk, having a nice-smelling reed diffuser in your office, or using soft lighting instead of fluorescent bulbs. I do all of these things because I find spas really relaxing so why not make my working environment as spa-like as possible?

It can also be as practical as turning off email alerts from your phone so you're not always feeling harried and "pinged" or avoiding social events where you'll run into people who irritate or deflate you. After all, if you don't curate your environment, other people will curate it for you.

I know it's not always easy to control your environment. I don't live in a hermetically sealed bubble (and I'm guessing you don't either!). But we can focus on the things we can control and then curate our environments within those boundaries. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.

The little changes can make a huge difference in how you feel AND how you perform. You know whether you are at your best in chaotic environments or in more chilled ones. You know whether you nail presentations when wearing a power suit or wearing something a little less constraining but still professional. You know whether you exercise more effectively surrounded by the high-octane energy of a gym or running on a nature trail.

You may perform different activities at your best in different types of locations. I know when I am doing creative work or strategic, big-picture thinking, I need open, light, and beautiful spaces. I know when I want to push myself physically, I need the competition and variety of a team sport or obstacle course. I know when I am doing boring admin, I need to be in a "buzzy" place like a cafe or in my office.

Our minds are incredibly powerful and we pick up hundreds of subtle and subconscious cues from our surroundings. Curating our environments gives us a chance to be and do more of our best more of the time.

It just takes a little bit of reflection and a little bit of action. What's stopping you?

As with all the tips in this series, you won't know how powerful Curating Your Environment can be until you try it. Everything I've shared over these 10 days has worked for me and made my life easier, happier, and less stressful and I hope it will do the same for you.

Please let me know how you're getting on implementing what I've shared, and in the meantime, I'll wish you lots of time-full and stress-free days ahead.

Until next time!

"Is this what being an entrepreneur is about?"
There are times (yes, even now) when I wonder what I signed up for by becoming my own boss. Having a "regular" job is easier in so many ways: there is a lot of stuff you don't have to worry about - tech support, office supplies, overheads - and you can just show up, get your work done, and get paid.

And then I remind myself that having a "regular" job also means there is a lot of stuff you DO have to worry about: climbing a wobbly corporate ladder, office politics, awkward bosses, incompetence at different levels, and not being in control of your fate. All of those big picture things are why I didn't get a "regular" job after finishing business school. I wanted something else.

So whenever I find myself getting wistful about my "past life", I know there must be something I need to fix in my business. I know that my nostalgia is triggered by something that is frustrating me, and that's when I go back to the drawing board.

Because inevitably, my frustration stems from one of a few things: I am doing something I hate, something isn't working properly, or I can't see how what I am doing is having a measurable impact on my business. So I take the signals and sit down to see what I need to Delegate, Automate, or Eliminate.

What this means in practice is that I take my notebook and write down all of the activities I am doing. This is also where Tracking my Stats comes in handy because I have an accurate picture of everything I have been doing and how long it's taken me. (I Track my Stats every day.)

I look at the list and then do an honest appraisal of the activities, and group them into activities that I can: delegate to someone else (and take the frustration away... remember, what you hate, others might love, and vice versa), automate to lessen my cognitive load, or eliminate (these are the low-value tasks that are doing nothing for my business).

From a list of, say, 15 things, there are usually only a few that don't have an obvious "home" in one of the three categories. These might be activities that I just have to suck it up and do (being your own boss doesn't mean you are in your happy place all the time), BUT by delegating, automating, and eliminating everything else, I have more head space and time to do the tasks that are still on my plate.

Phew!

Do you see how valuable it can be to spend some time thinking carefully about what you do every day? Not only can you save time by delegating, automating, or eliminating, you conserve your energy for more important (or exciting) things AND you are constantly improving your performance and your business's performance by making sure that you're not doing things you're not good at or that you're letting someone else (or a process) get things done faster and more automatically than you would.

Our days are busy, we have so much to do, and by clinging to things that we can delegate, automate, or eliminate, we only create micro-frustrations for ourselves all day long. Carrying cognitive loads can be exhausting, decision fatigue is a real thing that affects performance, so why not get rid of the things that you can?

Anxiety is nature's way of making us decide. You can use your frustrations and anxiety as a catalyst for delegating, automating, or eliminating the things that bring you frustration and anxiety (delegate your bookkeeping, automate your admin, eliminate unnecessary meetings; delegate your house cleaning, automate your bill payments, eliminate bad food...). These big and small things add up over the course of a day, a week, a year, a lifetime. Running a business is hard enough, and harder when you insist on carrying all the burden yourself. So share the load.

Delegate. Automate. Eliminate.

PS - This process is continuous. You can't just do it once and expect everything to be fixed forever. As you and your business grow, you'll need to delegate, automate, or eliminate different things.

As all entrepreneurs and business owners know, in the beginning you do everything. Literally E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G: buy the printer toner, make client calls, delivery investor pitches, work on product development, make the coffee, post the job ads, and on and on and on and on...

But at some point, we have to make a choice: we can continue to do everything ourselves OR we can grow our businesses. We can't do both.

We have to start valuing our time...

Now, by valuing our time, I don't just mean that in an abstract sense of "time is precious" (which it is). I mean that in the very literal sense. What pound-value or dollar-value does your time have? This is an important thing to figure out because it can guide so many decisions when you are debating what to do in your business. (Hint: You can use your current or most recent salary as a benchmark, or ask other founders whose businesses are at the same stage as yours what they pay themselves to get an idea.)

Let's say that once you've done the calculations, you arrive at an hourly rate of £75/hour. This is how much your time is currently worth. (Your calculations will probably have given you a different number, but we'll use this number for illustration purposes.)

What this number very clearly tells you is that you should only focus on activities that are "worth" £45/hour (or more) OR activities that add £45 of value (or more) to your business. Put differently, this tells you that anything you can pay someone else to do for less than £45/hour is worth giving to someone else. [Note: I am NOT talking about exploiting people here. You should always pay a fair wage to anyone who works for you!]

Your time is worth £45/hour, so you should do activities that merit that rate. If someone else can do a task you are currently doing for less than your hourly rate, then it is good leverage to use them instead of continuing to do the task yourself. 

Now I know it isn't always as straightforward as this and when you are bootstrapping your business, paying someone else is a very big consideration. But take some time to let this lesson sink in. And start thinking of ways you can stay focused on the £45/hour activities. It doesn't always mean hiring someone. You can delegate tasks to a software,  a process, a better way of doing something, or to your co-founder!

There are lots of ways to get things done in a way that doesn't have to cost you much or any money, but setting these things up takes time and thought, so gift yourself the headspace to think about how you can do things differently, better, or more efficiently  and value your time.

Your business won't move very far if keep doing everything yourself.

"When am I gonna get time to do everything?"

You may remember from one my saying before that there were days (and days) in the beginning when I felt like a headless chicken. It wasn't just the running around physically, it was also the frantic "running around" mentally that was exhausting. I felt like my head was always swarming with things and ideas and STUFF that needed to get done: people I needed to follow up with, emails that needed sending, calls that needed making.

The work seemed endless, and I felt like I was jumping from fire to fire trying to get stuff done, but could never keep up.

There were times when I wished I could fly above it all and magically will the stuff to do itself or go away, but somehow that never happened. I was living in a near-constant state of feeling like I wasn't accomplishing anything. How demoralizing is that?

And that's when I remembered my entrepreneurial friend and decided to copy her. A few weeks earlier, I had sent her an email and got an auto-response that told me she only checks her email twice a day so she would be getting back to me during her next email checking slot within 24 hours. It was a mini Eureka! moment.

What she was doing was batching: grouping like activity into a specific slot, and only doing that activity then.

Batching is a HUGE time and energy saver, and I use it in all aspects of my life. Let's stick with the email example. Instead of checking my email throughout the day and getting distracted all day long, I generally only check and respond to email during two pre-determined slots. This ensures that I am still able to respond on the same day if needed and that I can catch anything important before the close of the working day. If anyone needs to reach me for something urgent, they know they can call.

Before I started batching, I was constantly spending a few minutes here and a few minutes there jumping from task to task. I was reacting to my day and to other people's demands on my time instead of taking control of my day and creating a structure that works for me (another friend had once described email as someone else's to-do list for you!) .

And batching clears head space. Because I have certain allocated slots for like activities, I can stop wondering or worrying about when something will get done. I know that X activity gets done during Y time, so if it's not Y now, then X ain't happening! Batching also forces us to be disciplined. If it's not Y time, then X doesn't get a look in.

I use batching for pretty much anything that can be grouped together: I pay my invoices on the 15th and the 30th of the month. I create my You Tube and blog content on Mondays and Fridays. I do my coaching calls on Thursdays and Fridays. I do laundry on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I do grocery shopping on Tuesdays and Thursdays. (You get the idea.)

Batching takes the guesswork out of your days and clears head space because you know when things will get done and don't have to waste time planning it in or reminding yourself. Batching imposes a useful but flexible structure in your life that will save you time, money, energy, and stress.

Just try it and see for yourself how much easier it is to keep on top of things when you're not doing a little bit of everything all day long. That is the beauty of batching.

"If I have to check one more voicemail, I'll scream!"

I am not a phone person. I love talking to people, but my phone stresses me out. I don't pick up if I don't recognize the number. I hate the back and forth of leaving messages and waiting for people to call back. I much prefer the check-when-I-want-to-ness of email and the cut-to-the-chase-iness of texting.

But once you've got your own business, people call you. And you need to pick up! You need to be available to your clients/customers/partners/suppliers/investors. You need to know if there is an emergency. You need to be contactable when people want to contact you.

You need to be all-available all the time.

Or do you?...

Because the thing is, you don't necessarily need to be available all the time, someone does. And that someone doesn't always have to be you.

Enter the Gatekeeper (or my heroes and sheroes, as I call them).

Gatekeepers can be many things, but for our purposes, they are the ones who do the screening and the filtering and the responding for you. They are the ones who get the calls, who take the messages, who arrange for things to get done so you don't have to.

Now, most leaders and business owners get gatekeepers in the form of a PA, VA, or  admin support. One of the gatekeepers I started using to save my sanity was a call answering service. Anyone who calls the office number gets routed to the answering service, and they then take down the important information and email it to me so I can then address whatever the call was about in my own time. This means I don't have to be on-call all the time, and makes it much easier and less stressful to manage the day to day running of a business. 

There's no point in building a business to gain your freedom only to be shackled by that business! So please start using these tips! The sooner you do, the sooner you will see the benefits in time saved, sanity gained, and money not thrown away.

It is worth it. And you are worth it.

When I was starting out, I was convinced I was the only person doing what I was doing. No one had my targets. No one had my ideas. No one had my vision for where I was going. And I was committed to figuring things out on my own...

But a simple search on google or browse through Facebook or flick through the news revealed that thousands of other people were just starting businesses, and thousands more had done so in the past. Who knew!?

This small realization was a huge (if obvious) relief, and thankfully, it came quickly. It meant that instead of trying to come up with a better wheel, I could follow tried and proven steps that other people had tested before me.

So I started talking to and asking questions of anybody and everybody I met who had  started a business. It didn't mean I blindly accepted everything they said - things change and people don't always keep up to date - but it did mean that I could tap into their experience for lessons I could apply to my own.

And it was amazing how generous people were with their time and expertise. I may have gotten lucky with the people I encountered, but I am a firm believer that you get what you put out into the world. If you are willing to share and be open then other people will be the same. Sure, I couldn't offer expertise back then, but I could offer a testimonial or a connection with someone in my network, or simply offer the satisfaction that comes from helping someone. (I know from my own experience that it feels good to help other people, and most human beings want to be helpful if given the chance.)

Now, I totally understand that finding and meeting people might not be something you can fit into your schedule (or want to do!), but you can download expertise and experience in other ways. There are tons of books, magazines, podcasts, forums and Facebook groups. You can sign up for e-courses, do online networking, book a call with a mentor or coach. You can learn a lot without leaving the house (but I would recommend at some point getting out into the real world!).

You can tap into the knowledge that is out there before you try to come up with a better wheel. Your sanity and your business will thank you if you do.

Starting a business can be terrifying. When I got going, I was convinced that I would need a full squad of professionals to get me going: accountants, lawyers, HR consultants, marketing experts, and anyone else who had more experience than I did (which felt like pretty much everyone back then).

Venturing out into the business world on your own can feel so big and confusing, but it doesn't mean spending big bucks on lots of specialists and experts. At least not at the beginning or all at once...

Most founders don't have a money fountain, and even if they do, should they be showering it on experts? (That is a question that comes up a lot with my coaching clients. They are often so overwhelmed - as I was when I started - that they think they need to hire expert after expert to get it right.)

But the thing is you don't; not always. The key is to hire the right experts at the right time.

This is something that you learn with experience, but you can also talk to other founders in your industry and get a sanity check before you start writing checks.

Do your due diligence. Get as smart as you can about what you do/don't need, and then make sure the person you are working with or planning to work with has the right experience and expertise required for your industry and your stage of business. Don't shy away from paying for specialist advice, but be equally careful not to pay for advice that might be "overkill.”

You could waste a lot of time and money paying for specialists you don't need and waste potentially even more time and money not paying for specialists you do need. It's a fine balance, and there are no hard and fast rules because every business is different. When people ask me which specialist they need to engage and when, my answer is always "It depends."

So when in doubt, talk to someone who has a business in your industry (or better yet, talk to a few someones) and see which specialists they used and why. And when you then speak to a specialist, ask them to explain or justify why you need to use them. (Often, the good ones will turn you away if they don't think you need them, and you'll know right away they are someone you can probably trust because they don't just see you as a cash machine.)

Do your due diligence, speak to people who have done it before, and use the right experts at the right time.

"Why isn't anything happening?..."

That was my exasperated woe-is-me refrain when I was starting my first business. My days would end and I would be convinced that I had done all the right things, but I never felt any satisfaction or accomplishment. What the hell was happening?! Where was my progress?! Where was my business growth?!

It felt like I was on a hamster wheel (and it wasn't as much fun as it looks above, either!). I'm not dumb, so if I was doing as much as I thought, why wasn't I seeing any results? I needed an independent way of checking up on myself (and I'm a bit of a data/numbers geek), so that's when I decided to Track my Stats.

On an Excel spreadsheet, I broke down my working day into 15-minute increments, and put those times down column A. Then, for two weeks, I filled in what activities I was doing during those time slots ("0830-0845: financial analysis; 0845-0900: plan for client call with X, 1200-1245: work on investor presentation" and so on for the whole day).

I quantified as much as I could and at the end of two weeks reviewed what my days actually looked like. My results made me want to vomit with disappointment.

The first problem was that I was working from home. And anyone who works from home knows how easy it is to be lured into distractions: "Oh that pile of laundry is annoying me. I'll just start a load and then settle down at my desk"; "I am hungry, maybe I'll finally make that recipe that I've been wanting to try"... and then the next thing you know, it's 6pm.

The second problem was that I didn't set targets for my days or weeks. Each day was a blank slate and I would sit down at my desk and then look for work to do instead of working off a plan. I'd make a few phone calls, do some research (then take a coffee break), make a few tweaks to my spreadsheets, respond to some emails and do whatever else fell in my path that day. My days had no structure. I was reacting to events instead of taking control of them. And objectively Tracking my Stats showed me that.

While it was disappointing to see how my time was being spent (not invested), it was also a huge relief because suddenly I could see that my lack of results wasn't because I was unlucky or destined to fail; it was because I was working too obliquely and without a plan.

So I started creating a plan for the week, setting targets for my days, and working to those plans and targets. The other stuff (emails, laundry, etc) got done too, but now I was working every day on the right things that would create the results I wanted.

And literally within weeks of my changing how I approached my days, things started to progress. But It was only because I took the time to be honest with myself and Track my Stats that I was able to course correct.

So, save your precious time, avoid the mental anxiety that comes from not knowing. Track your Stats and take the guesswork out of success.

"...Running around like a headless chicken"

That was how I responded to people whenever they would ask me "What have you been up to?" in the early days of starting my first business. It seemed an innocent enough thing to ask, and my answer always got a sympathetic chuckle, and then we'd move on.

But I didn't want to be a headless chicken! I wanted to be a graceful swan, or a majestic eagle gliding in the sky. Operating like a headless chicken wasn't dignified, and it wasn't an effective business strategy either. I didn't want to be spending my time, I wanted to be investing my time.

This starts by - counterintuitively - doing less but investing more time, attention, resources, money, etc to the high-value things that are moving your business forward.

If you are in retail, be selective about the products you offer, how many you offer, and how often you offer them. If you are in a services business, pre-qualify clients and be selective about who you take on. If you are in a technology business, be selective about the functions you offer. If you're in recruitment, be selective about the types of firms you will work with and what types of industries.

Have criteria or use benchmarks for what you are trying to achieve and then stick to them. Doing so will help you invest your time in the tasks that will see the best results instead of spending your time on the tasks that won't.

So what are you going to be more selective about? How are you going to start investing your time? I'd love to hear from you in the comments...