Latest / Smart Business Growth with Nicky Miklós / Feel like time is slipping away? Discover where your time is really going.

Transcript

Feel like time is slipping away? Discover where your time is really going. · Smart Business Growth with Nicky Miklós

• 0:04
  Nicky: Welcome to Thrive in Business Together with Nikki and Ness.
• 0:11
  Ness: We would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of country, the Yagura and Wurundjeri people of Brisbane and Melbourne respectively, where Nikki and I both work and live.
• 0:21
  Ness: Hello and welcome to a new week on the podcast.
• 0:29
  Ness: Now, normally I'd be here introducing a guest speaker because that's how we roll.
• 0:34
  Ness: Do a, I'd say, solo episode is not really, it's a duo episode and then an interview.
• 0:40
  Ness: However, we have decided to mix it up a bit because if you listen to the last step, you will know that we talked about the concept of time management and through the lens of you don't need another time management course workshop book.
• 0:55
  Ness: There's a different way of resolving the issue.
• 1:00
  Ness: If you feel like you're stuck in the busy trap and the practical part of me has decided that we can't end the conversation just on the mindset, just on the language, I really want to get down into the nitty gritty of okay.
• 1:15
  Ness: So if we start there, what do I do next?
• 1:18
  Ness: What is it that is going to help me to prioritise differently?
• 1:24
  Ness: I mean understanding what drives us, understanding our beliefs.
• 1:28
  Ness: That's such an important component around creating change.
• 1:31
  Ness: But the reality is you can't change a belief just by realising that you have a belief that you don't want.
• 1:38
  Ness: There's got to be the next step.
• 1:40
  Ness: So today's podcast we're going to focus on what that next step is.
• 1:45
  Ness: Now I suggest that with this one, if you're.
• 1:47
  Ness: I mean, I listen to podcasts when I'm walking, so writing stuff down, even in my phone, never, ever happens.
• 1:54
  Ness: However, this is resonating with you as a challenge that you have right now.
• 1:58
  Ness: I'd probably recommend bookmarking this and coming back to it when you have a little bit of time to be able to play along and get thoughts out of your head as you go, because it's a practical exercise.
• 2:10
  Ness: Those that are still walking or driving I think it's really still appropriate for you to be involved and continue listening, because you can answer the questions in your head and you will have realisations as we move through this tool.
• 2:22
  Ness: So, Nikki, in the practicality of where we're heading today, I'd love for you to start with perhaps a refresher for those who haven't heard the previous episode Side note go back and listen, because it was great, and just give some context around the importance of why we're going down this path today.
• 2:40
  Nicky: Yes, wonderful, how low.
• 2:42
  Nicky: Lovely listeners, if I think about the key points in the conversation that we just had, there's an uncomfortable truth in owning the choices we make around where we're spending our time.
• 2:53
  Nicky: We shared a couple of questions for you to reflect on, to really take stock of and own actually where I'm spending my time, other things that I'm prioritizing, and that it's okay to realize that the other options they might not be the best options, they might not feel good, but there are still options that you can take to really protect boundaries around what's important to you.
• 3:20
  Nicky: So you feel like you're prioritizing the areas that truly matter to you, instead of just being on this mouse wheel of taking things on and saying yes to everybody.
• 3:29
  Nicky: I mean, there's so much we covered off, even around how to set some of those boundaries, and definitely go back and have a listen.
• 3:36
  Nicky: If you haven't already, it will be the episode just before this one.
• 3:39
  Nicky: We also talked about that.
• 3:41
  Nicky: Your language is a really good indicator of what your mindset, what your beliefs are around time.
• 3:48
  Nicky: So if you're not really too sure because sometimes we like to trick ourselves, trick ourselves and say that we've got really great beliefs around time our language will give the clues as to whether that is in fact the case.
• 3:59
  Nicky: For example, I have to do.
• 4:01
  Nicky: You feel like you have to do all these things, then that's an indicator that perhaps you don't have the most resourceful beliefs.
• 4:08
  Nicky: Now, what we're talking about today is necessary.
• 4:11
  Nicky: Is that practical aspect of the reality is that we don't have an infinite amount of time, so we can sit here and reflect on what's my mindset, what's my belief.
• 4:21
  Nicky: How can I tell myself that there's more than enough time in the world?
• 4:26
  Nicky: And the reality is you have a to-do list, you have family, you have other priorities that you still have to fit into 24 hours a day.
• 4:32
  Nicky: That does not change.
• 4:34
  Nicky: We can't physically get more time, but what we can get is the feeling of having enough time.
• 4:42
  Nicky: And for some of you listening and watching that feels like a massive stretch.
• 4:46
  Nicky: And for others, you might be there on some days and you're not there on others, which is the reality.
• 4:51
  Nicky: That's where I'm at.
• 4:51
  Nicky: Some days I feel like cool, I'm nailing it, I'm okay, I'm resourceful, I've got good time management tools.
• 4:56
  Nicky: They do have a place, but it's not the starting point.
• 4:59
  Nicky: And other days, even just this week, I'm like oh gosh, hang on.
• 5:02
  Nicky: I'm feeling overwhelmed, and then I know how to bring myself out of that.
• 5:06
  Nicky: Next to you resonate with that.
• 5:08
  Nicky: We're not perfect at this.
• 5:10
  Ness: I know and it's that whole thing around, just that reminder that we have to come back to about everything's a choice.
• 5:17
  Ness: Sometimes it's really hard to face that because it doesn't feel like we had choice, but that's the reality.
• 5:24
  Ness: And what I love about where we're going with this today, Nikki, is there will be so many people that will be screaming yeah, but what do I do there's so many hours in a day like you, tricking me into thinking that there's some you know, really clever system, and I went to all the time management courses and they never told me how I could get five hours in my day unless I was, you know, being super human.
• 5:47
  Ness: So let's start with it.
• 5:48
  Ness: I'd love you to start to unpack.
• 5:50
  Ness: We've worked on this one with quite a number of our clients and it's always something that people get blown away by, and yet it's so simple.
• 5:58
  Ness: So kick us off.
• 6:01
  Nicky: So we're going to help you do a little audit of your time.
• 6:04
  Nicky: There's two things you've got to be aware of.
• 6:05
  Nicky: First of all, you have to actually clearly understand where you are spending your time and I mean I don't mean where you think you're spending your time, I mean actually where you're spending your time and then the reality check of what you're trying to fit in because, like we said, there are only 24 hours in a day.
• 6:25
  Nicky: So sometimes it's about actually the reality check that I can't physically fit it all in.
• 6:30
  Nicky: So then we choose what we can and we choose what we will do to still help achieve outcomes outside of what we're doing.
• 6:38
  Nicky: Hmm, don't know if that made sense, but let's get into it and see how we go.
• 6:42
  Nicky: So if you're walking, park yourself on a park bench, sit down on the grass, sit down somewhere just for five minutes or so to do this self-reflection question.
• 6:50
  Nicky: If you've come back to this podcast, or if you're already in a space where you have pen and paper or you can grab your phone out to take some notes, that's excellent.
• 6:58
  Nicky: So what I want you to do is you're just going to do a little inventory of where you're spending your time currently.
• 7:05
  Nicky: Again, some of you might want to pull up your calendar to have a look.
• 7:09
  Nicky: Some of you might be able to think about this Just don't go war on peace on this.
• 7:14
  Nicky: Don't spend an hour and 20 million minutes on this.
• 7:17
  Nicky: I want this to be a quick, easy ballpark exercise.
• 7:21
  Nicky: So the first thing you're going to write down is think about, or look at your calendar.
• 7:25
  Nicky: Just for high level, we're going to look at what we call your big rocks.
• 7:29
  Nicky: So how many hours a week are you spending in meetings?
• 7:34
  Nicky: Think about your internal meetings and your external meetings, and so just do a quick little inventory.
• 7:40
  Nicky: I feel like, ness, you're doing this.
• 7:42
  Nicky: I can see you writing.
• 7:43
  Nicky: You're doing it as we go along.
• 7:44
  Nicky: I love that Because, also, side note, ness and I do this every now and then ourselves.
• 7:49
  Nicky: It's a reality check.
• 7:51
  Nicky: So you've got your internal meetings, you've got your external meetings.
• 7:54
  Nicky: How much time are you spending traveling?
• 7:57
  Nicky: So it could be travel time to work.
• 7:59
  Nicky: I know there's a lot of people that are back in offices now.
• 8:01
  Nicky: Or it could be travel time in between client meetings or some of those external meetings.
• 8:08
  Nicky: So just ballpark in a week, how much time are you spending traveling?
• 8:13
  Nicky: You want to look at batching different types of tasks.
• 8:15
  Nicky: So actually, let's do lunch breaks first, if you have them, and if you don't, that needs to go on the list for the new priorities.
• 8:24
  Nicky: If you have lunch breaks, how much time you're having or other breaks morning tea, afternoon tea what does that look like for you?
• 8:30
  Nicky: You may also think about delivery time with clients.
• 8:33
  Nicky: So you might have already thought about that in meetings, but, depending on the type of work that you do if you're a coach or your service-based business actual time with clients delivering, or workshops that you're facilitating, etc.
• 8:46
  Nicky: And then have a look at batching tasks.
• 8:48
  Nicky: So admin is there, or if you're doing your own content creation or what are the other batched type tasks that you're spending time on each week, and there might be other things for you to add to this list.
• 9:00
  Nicky: So you go rogue, you do you Whatever is relevant for your week.
• 9:05
  Nicky: That's going to be a lot of the business stuff.
• 9:07
  Nicky: Typically that's between Monday to Friday, but we know some of you that bleeds out into other days.
• 9:12
  Nicky: So let's start to look at other areas in the week.
• 9:15
  Nicky: How much time do you spend a week sleeping on average?
• 9:19
  Nicky: So look at your daily average times a by seven.
• 9:21
  Nicky: What about your exercise.
• 9:26
  Nicky: So do you go to the gym?
• 9:28
  Nicky: Do you go walking?
• 9:29
  Nicky: Also, house responsibilities so if I'm going too quickly you can pause me, but just really think about ballpark numbers.
• 9:37
  Nicky: So house responsibilities could be getting the kids ready to go to school, it could be cooking, it could be all of those sorts of cleaning the house.
• 9:44
  Nicky: Also, side note, look at if you can outsource some of these things.
• 9:49
  Nicky: What about kids sport?
• 9:50
  Nicky: Talking to our business mentor this week, school holidays and I know my mom used to fill out this with my sisters.
• 9:57
  Nicky: Okay, and me probably.
• 9:59
  Nicky: I know parents do.
• 10:00
  Nicky: Feeling like an Uber driver or a taxi driver.
• 10:02
  Nicky: Look at that.
• 10:03
  Nicky: Calculate on average ballpark how much time each week are you being a cab driver for your kids or your partner?
• 10:10
  Nicky: Do you have hobbies?
• 10:12
  Nicky: So do you get ukulele lessons or singing lessons or play the footy or those sorts of things?
• 10:19
  Nicky: The footy, love it.
• 10:22
  Nicky: I'm so sporty.
• 10:25
  Nicky: I'm really getting into the women's world cup.
• 10:27
  Nicky: I'm just going to say actually, this lunch break I'm going to get some Matilda's beanies and scarves to wear.
• 10:35
  Ness: So you've just brought up another really good one.
• 10:38
  Nicky: How much?
• 10:38
  Ness: time you spend watching TV.
• 10:42
  Nicky: Listening to music yes.
• 10:43
  Nicky: Netflix and chilling yes.
• 10:45
  Nicky: What about time with family?
• 10:48
  Nicky: It's going to be another one.
• 10:50
  Nicky: If you have dedicated time with family or friends, yeah, yeah, you're monthly wine and dine or wine down for the Friday week, etc.
• 11:02
  Nicky: So I want you to now.
• 11:05
  Ness: Hang on, we can't leave this conversation without social media.
• 11:08
  Ness: Social media, because that is a rabbit warren that you can go down and, down and down and then all of a sudden.
• 11:16
  Ness: So let's get real.
• 11:19
  Ness: And I think your phone actually tells you how long it is.
• 11:22
  Nicky: Oh, there is no hiding.
• 11:23
  Nicky: I wasn't even going to add that to the list.
• 11:25
  Nicky: Nice one, ness.
• 11:26
  Nicky: This is why we call this the reality check.
• 11:29
  Nicky: Are you stuck in the busy trap or on Juggle Street being all things to all people despite having a team?
• 11:36
  Nicky: Or perhaps your business is feeling chaotic?
• 11:39
  Nicky: Do the mini business health check to get 10 strategies in under 10 minutes so you can get time, freedom back, experience peak performance and finally leverage smart growth in your business.
• 11:50
  Nicky: Head over to b2businesstogethercomau forward slash health check and, if you're ready for us to help in a more hands on way, email us at hello at businesstogethercomau and we'll set up a time to chat.
• 12:05
  Ness: I also wanted to just jump in there because, for those of you who like data and like accuracy a little bit like me, I actually have an app that I use called Lifecycle, and it is an app where you can sort of put in the bigger chunks like work so how many hours a day am I working and how many hours a day am I spending on various tasks and it gives you the summary over the week, the month, the year.
• 12:29
  Ness: So I've been actually I think I started it back in COVID and I really enjoy just getting that more accurate view of how many hours am I sleeping and how many hours am I working, and it's sort of super cool.
• 12:43
  Ness: So if you're nerdy like me when it comes to data and you actually want to go down this rabbit warren a little bit further, then there are apps out there that allow you to be able to identify how long you're spending on different activities.
• 12:57
  Nicky: Oh, I love that.
• 12:57
  Nicky: I actually did download that, but it wasn't fun for me.
• 13:02
  Ness: No, it wouldn't be for you.
• 13:04
  Nicky: And I just I have to laugh because this is one of the beautiful things is that we're so unique and different in this way.
• 13:09
  Nicky: The idea of it is amazing.
• 13:12
  Nicky: So, absolutely, if you love that data, I can see totally why you would just totally geek out on it.
• 13:18
  Ness: It's great, and I can see 100% why you would not.
• 13:20
  Ness: So, listeners, if you're more like Nicky, forget what I just said and just go with ballparking, because ballpark will be enough for this exercise.
• 13:28
  Ness: Yes.
• 13:29
  Nicky: I will say that a really good thing that you can also do, though, as an interim.
• 13:33
  Nicky: If you want to get a good idea, you can do that.
• 13:38
  Nicky: So, basically and we've got a template just email us and we'll share it.
• 13:43
  Nicky: It's a really simple Excel spreadsheet and you take a note of where you're spending your time throughout the day.
• 13:48
  Nicky: So it's a short-term commitment.
• 13:50
  Nicky: I'm okay with doing that one because it's you know, but it's just another way.
• 13:54
  Nicky: The idea here is to really start to look at actually quantifying where we're spending our time.
• 13:58
  Nicky: But even if you just do this exercise, you'll get something out of it.
• 14:01
  Nicky: So add up what those hours are, add up the total amount of hours that you're spending.
• 14:08
  Nicky: We have 168 hours in a week.
• 14:13
  Nicky: That's correct, isn't it?
• 14:14
  Nicky: Ness?
• 14:14
  Nicky: Yep, my numbers gal 168 hours in a week.
• 14:18
  Nicky: So what's your total?
• 14:20
  Nicky: What is your total?
• 14:23
  Nicky: Is it more than 168 hours?
• 14:26
  Nicky: Is it less?
• 14:28
  Nicky: And this is where we start to get into reality check, because if your number and again, we've done this exercise with so many different people, and these are the patterns that we see either the number is below, substantially below, the reality check is.
• 14:42
  Nicky: Oh, my goodness, I've been telling myself I have no time, but actually have all this time free Great reality check.
• 14:49
  Nicky: What are you doing with that time?
• 14:50
  Nicky: Or the other side of the camp is that you've got maybe 180 hours worth of things that you are trying to fit into 168 hours.
• 15:00
  Nicky: It does not matter what you do, you will never fit all of that in.
• 15:04
  Nicky: When I'm saying time management tools aren't great, we have a whole bunch that we use ourselves with our clients.
• 15:09
  Nicky: We can go down that path, but if you don't get real first up about what you're trying to fit in, none of it really matters.
• 15:16
  Nicky: So the other side is wow, okay, I actually need to take some things off my list, and there's two key points here.
• 15:23
  Nicky: First of all, go back how much time are you spending on your socials?
• 15:26
  Nicky: If you removed that number, what's your tally?
• 15:29
  Nicky: And even Netflix and chill and look, I'm a Netflix or Stan or Apple or all those ones and chill.
• 15:35
  Nicky: But there's a time and a place for everything.
• 15:37
  Nicky: And the other thing I want to say is there's two key things we did not even ask you to put on that list Self-care and me time.
• 15:48
  Nicky: Exercise is a form of self-care, but it's not the only thing that you can do.
• 15:53
  Nicky: And me time I remember I talked to a psychologist 2012 when I was so burnt out I can go to work, and she said what are you doing for me time?
• 16:02
  Nicky: I'm going to yoga.
• 16:03
  Nicky: I'm doing this.
• 16:03
  Nicky: No, no, no, no, no.
• 16:04
  Nicky: And this is a psychologist saying this me time is when you have no expectation of what you must do.
• 16:11
  Nicky: Yoga is exercise.
• 16:13
  Nicky: It's a form of self-care, and whatever your version of that is.
• 16:15
  Nicky: So if you were to add me time and self-care, how does that change the numbers?
• 16:20
  Nicky: And so the idea here is that you're getting a really good understanding of where you're spending your time, therefore what you're prioritizing, and if you find that you're actually spending a lot of time.
• 16:32
  Nicky: Like you know, I used to, back in the day, cave time is a thing.
• 16:36
  Nicky: I actually used to spend maybe a whole weekend just watching, devouring Netflix on my laptop in bed.
• 16:42
  Nicky: What I realize now although I like to do that every now and then, but not for a whole weekend I realized that was a coping mechanism.
• 16:48
  Nicky: So where you're spending your time is peaking behind the curtains as to what is going on for you, ness thoughts, there's a lot in there.
• 16:59
  Ness: There is a lot in there, and I love what you said in relation to you know, when you have the data in front of you, what you get to see is where your choices that you're making are going, and I think it's the reality check around the fact that all the things you fit into that 168 hours and then some and we have had clients who've come up with 180 hours and gone.
• 17:22
  Ness: No wonder I'm feeling like I'm feeling I need to re-prioritize, and this is the bigger question, isn't it?
• 17:28
  Ness: This is really back to us being back in control of how we choose to spend our time, and this is really when we start to look at what are the next steps.
• 17:39
  Ness: If I want to create change, I need to set some more boundaries around what I'm available for and what I'm not available for, and often we're the first people that need to understand that boundary and hold true to that boundary.
• 17:50
  Ness: So it really is the starting point.
• 17:53
  Ness: But what I love about the continuation of the discussion around mindset first our belief system out at the way that we speak to ourselves, and now this is the reality check.
• 18:02
  Ness: Whichever way you arrive at it, it actually gives you the data to say, okay, now I know what choices I'm making.
• 18:10
  Ness: I can actually choose something different and if you need support with that, reach out.
• 18:14
  Ness: If not to us, then to your bisbisity or whoever your mentor or coach is and get some support, because this is a hard game.
• 18:23
  Ness: When we're feeling like this, If we're feeling time poor, it's not a great space to be in, so please do reach out and ask for help.
• 18:30
  Nicky: And I think one of the most common patterns that I see is that we are not asking for help.
• 18:36
  Nicky: Yeah, and that can be as simple as hey, I'm actually feeling a little bit overwhelmed.
• 18:42
  Nicky: Or I'm in Struggle Town a bit with your bisbets, with your bestie not even bisbesti or a person or your partner.
• 18:48
  Nicky: Sometimes we hold it together like why?
• 18:51
  Nicky: And then when we share, it's like, oh, I feel relieved.
• 18:53
  Nicky: Sometimes even just sharing lightens the load and then together you can come up with a solution.
• 18:58
  Nicky: So your action I know you've done that exercise is to look at what is the feedback that you're getting from where you're spending your time.
• 19:05
  Nicky: If you're overstretched, who and how can you ask for help?
• 19:09
  Nicky: What can you remove from that?
• 19:10
  Nicky: If you are under the 168 hours, really look at where are you spending your time and actually, for regardless, how can you put things in there that fuel your soul, that bring you joy?
• 19:22
  Nicky: So there's so many different ways you can do with this, but the action is to do one thing in relation to the feedback that's been given to you.
• 19:31
  Ness: Love it, love it.
• 19:32
  Ness: So I think we can end on that, and we trust that this has been valuable to you.
• 19:37
  Ness: If you're feeling like this and, of course, as always, reach out.
• 19:40
  Ness: If you need some extra support, you'll find us over on LinkedIn, but for now, we will say farewell and have a great day.
• 19:46
  Ness: See you later, everybody.
• 19:48
  Nicky: Thanks for listening to today's EPP.
• 19:50
  Nicky: If you loved what you heard, find us on LinkedIn and let us know what you enjoyed.
• 19:54
  Nicky: Also, don't forget to rate and review and, of course, share this episode with your biz besties.
• 20:00
  Nicky: Ness and I are obsessed with helping you break through your business and life barriers to get you to your next frontier of growth.
• 20:09
  Nicky: We bring two business minds and two perspectives into your business.
• 20:14
  Nicky: As the magician, I help connect the dots, see the possibilities and the hidden potential, and as the architect, ness turns those possibilities into practice, implementing plans and frameworks.
• 20:26
  Nicky: Because, let's face it, every vision needs a practical pathway to success.
• 20:31
  Nicky: We offer business health checks, taking you from chaos to clarity in just 30 days.
• 20:37
  Nicky: Are you curious to find out more?
• 20:40
  Nicky: Send us an email or go old school and give us a call.
• 20:43
  Nicky: All our details are in the show notes and on our website.
• 20:46
  Nicky: Until next time, happy listening and here's to thriving in business and life.