When you are running your own coaching or heart centered business, or promoting your author business, it may be suggested to you that to create success you need to be putting in sixty hour work weeks and moving at a frantic pace to ”make it all happen”.
You may feel you must have your mobile phone with you continuously so you don’t miss a possible new client call. That you need to be checking emails and social media messages in case you miss an enquiry and the customer goes somewhere else. This is all not true and comes from a place of Fear.
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It’s a myth to believe that working non stop at a frantic pace will make you more productive – and bring you more clients. Recognise that overwork and stress cause anything but a productive state. In fact it is more likely to cause exhaustion, overwhelm, and stress related illnesses resulting in a lack of creativity and the very light and innovation that draws potential clients to you.
Taking care of yourself makes good business sense!
My advice to you as a Coach, Author or Expert is this: Since you call the shots, then you decide the rules.
Here’s some of my rules that help me to get more done in my allotted ‘work’ time so that I can have time to enjoy with my daughter, my animals, my country property, and bring more adventure into my life. Customise this list to suit your business and needs – and remember, nobody needs access to you as much as you think they do.
1. Mornings are mine. Mine to rise when I want, enjoy a leisurely breakfast, spend time with the furry critters, and exercise my little heart out with a run or hike through nature. No one gets morning sessions.
2. My work fits in with my life. My life doesn’t fit around my work. I begin around noon with clients or on my laptop, then finish when my daughter gets home from school at 4pm. On every alternate week that she is with her father, I have longer work hours should I desire so these are the weeks I will fit in more clients and take evening bookings.
3. Weekends are for family. End of story.
4. No booking appointments back to back. I allow some breathing room between sessions. That way with a break between every one or two sessions, I can regroup my energy with some fresh air and then feel re-energised for my next client.
5. The Mobile Phone stays on the kitchen bench, not on my body. I go out without my phone – all the time. I’m not concerned if I miss a call. That’s what message bank and email is for. If a potential client really wants to get to know how I can guide their coaching career, they’ll wait till I return their call or message.
6. If my work environment feels like it’s not energising me, I change it! A lot of days you wont find me in my office. Often I’ll be sitting in my comfortable lounge in front of the fire with my lap top, or outdoors on my patio swing with my kangaroos lying by my feet while I Skype with a client. That’s what modern day business can do for you. It’s mobile. So take it to the environments which feed your creativity and soul.
7. I prioritise. What’s most important is dealt with first. Or in it’s allotted time. I’m careful of being side tracked by issues of less importance.
8. Delegate. My Virtual Assistant. My boyfriend. My daughter. They all get task to accomplish with my business or my home duties so that I am not attempting to do everything.
9. Hire only competence. It may be more expensive to hire competent professionals but it’s going to save you time and money by getting it right the first time.
10. Demand Respect. From your family, friends, colleagues and your clients for your work time. When your family, and especially your children if you have little ones, know that when you are in that office or on that computer it is work time and they must leave you to do it, then you will get it done quicker and be available to them earlier. It’s a rule I taught my little daughter very early.
If a client needs to talk, you can drop everything and give them an un-allotted hour or more of your time that instant, or you can tell them the time you are free. It’s your choice.
As a coach it’s important to set boundaries on your access at the very beginning of every client relationship i.e. when and how are you available. With my middle and top end packages I am available via email at all times though that only guarantees an answer within 24 hours, not within 5 minutes. For my lowest package there is no outside access unless booked.
Set your own Freedom Rules that will allow you to be more focused and productive during the day, and give you more time to spend doing the other things you love and with whom you love.
What’s your new Freedom Rules? Post them in the comments below. xxx
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