You’ve probably started listening to this podcast precisely *because* you want to get out of the rat race mode.
(If efficiency tips were all you wanted, you’d have stuck with the guy productivity podcasts. Right?)
So when my client came to me wondering how to actually, practically, live with a clear schedule, I wasn’t surprised.
She said, “I don’t like the busyness, the grind, the rat race.” So I’m not running my own business that way. “But the to-do lists, the feeling that I can never get ahead” – I still have those in my personal life! I want this non-burdened and non-rat-race life for myself. But “how can someone not have a lot to do on their schedule?” (Like truly, not having anything to do?) “I like that concept, but I don’t know that I’ll ever be at that place with children and a business” to run.
Yes, exactly – you’ve completely caught the vision for an unbusy way of living. You’re just in the “but how do I make this happen?” part.
Because it’s one thing to schedule, and customize, and carefully calendar and craft your day – it’s another to actually *live* it in an unbusy way.
You can have a crammed-full to-do list that’s carefully thought out, or a super-stuffed calendar with too much going on leaving you no time to rest, and have all your meals planned out so you’re still getting food down everyone’s throats.
That’s not what I’m talking about – the survival efficiency mode.
But it’s where many moms are staying when they’re in “just give me another productivity tip” mode.
So, maybe an example from my life would help. We recently had family in town, and because this was going to be an almost two-week visit, I needed to clear my schedule a lot more than normal.
This is how you achieve that “truly nothing going on” mode with your personal to-do list and calendar – because trust me, I’ve done that lots of times when family’s in town.
I look at each day, and I put the minimum of cleaning and cooking on there. (Preferably some of that on my kids.) And since it’s family visit time, I know that some of the meals aren’t going to be at home. Or aren’t going to be supplied by me.
Then what else is going on in the day? Well, skip the homeschooling – the grandparents are here. That’s what year-round homeschooling is for.
What about the business? Email and client check-ins only – all content is pre-scheduled for that week, and for the next few. There’s nothing I need to worry about. All projects can go on pause.
Okay, what about my personal to-do list projects?
If there’s something about your house you’re embarrassed to show with guests, by all means do a push and clean it up before they come.
But otherwise? All your personal projects can wait, too.
If this sounds revolutionary, think of it this way: yes, it may be worthwhile. Otherwise it wouldn’t be on my (business or personal) to-do list in the first place.
But does it actually *need* to get done this week? Even this month?
Many of my “crucial and important” business tasks are not essential for this specific calendar week. They just need to happen this quarter.
Most of my personal to do’s are the same. (Well, usually a “happen this month.”)
So what I told this client is that yes, you absolutely can have basically nothing on your schedule other than what’s for supper – provided you have already figured out the *true* deadlines on all those other tasks filling your days.
And then you just delete, delete, delete from your calendar and keep pushing them off to another week or another month.
Presto, you have clear week. An empty day. Ready to be filled with guests, vacation, taking care of sick kids, or whatever you need it to.
The crucial skill here is finding out *when* everything on your personal-and-business lists actually has to get done. (And how much time it takes.)
Once you know *that*, you can back plan and say, it *must* go on this week or I’m not meeting the deadline,” and you don’t have to worry about all the weeks before that.
So get really good about only filling your daily list with useful tasks, yes, but always keep in the back of your mind when that closet switchover or launch email planning session *really* has to get done.
That’s how you get the freedom to completely clear the decks on your schedule and not get anything done.
Why? Because you had something else more important to do – to rest. To become unbusy.
And if it takes a forced vacation day at home, proving to yourself that what’s on your to-do list isn’t essential, then that’s what you do. (And enjoy it!)
