Latest / You're Overqualified Podcast - Career and Leadership Strategies for Women / 105. How A Time Audit Made My Client $2k

Transcript

105. How A Time Audit Made My Client $2k · You're Overqualified Podcast - Career and Leadership Strategies for Women

• 0:08
  Hi, I'm Danny Tan and if you are here, you are in the right
• 0:11
  place. Welcome to the Pivot and
• 0:12
  Promotion podcast where we say forget the rules because they
• 0:15
  weren't written for us. I'm Danny Tan, I'm your host as
• 0:18
  well as career and leadership coach and a proud advocate for
• 0:21
  redefining what success and leadership looks like.
• 0:24
  And here's what I know. You can lead at any level, you
• 0:27
  can pivot at any age, and you can make moves that feel right
• 0:30
  for you. Whether you're climbing the
• 0:31
  perfect ladder, starting something completely new, or
• 0:34
  just figuring out your next step.
• 0:35
  I've got you covered with strategies, stories, and
• 0:37
  straight up inspiration. So let's make some moves.
• 0:45
  Hello. OK, so in today's episode we're
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  going to talk about how a time audit is super helpful, but not
• 0:50
  only that, how a time audit helped one of my clients make
• 0:53
  $2000 in the course of one session.
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  And you may hear a little Kitty or two in the background just
• 0:59
  for fun. All right, so let's get started.
• 1:02
  So I have this lovely client who I just you're working with.
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  She is a creative business professional.
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  She has her own business and the biggest thing for her is that
• 1:10
  she has many, many projects that are going on at once, some that
• 1:13
  are for profit, nonprofit and volunteer.
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  And she knows that with intentionality for the next
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  year, she wants to grow her business when it comes to
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  revenue sustainability, being able to take care of herself
• 1:24
  through that. And so with that, our time
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  together has been to map that out.
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  So we had our first session just the other day and the amazing
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  thing that happened was that I gave her an exercise on the time
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  audit piece. And So what this exercise is
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  about is just understanding where your current allotted time
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  is, the work that you are doing, the task that you are doing and
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  how do they kind of layer up or mirror what it is that you want
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  to do or achieve. So we're going to break it down
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  to three phases per usual. So phase one may be that you are
• 1:53
  doing a lot, but it's not actually all aligned.
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  So you're calendar is super packed, you're always doing
• 1:58
  things, but it's hard to tell if it's actually moving the needle
• 2:01
  for you. So for example, you are
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  potentially like juggling multiple roles.
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  Some may be paid, maybe some are unpaid, maybe some are passion
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  projects. And you're kind of feeling stuck
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  when it comes to your business and its growth.
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  But you're not sure like what do you keep, get rid of, turn down,
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  turn up. And so you kind of feel like,
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  OK, I'm doing so much. How come it's not resulting the
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  way I want it to result? And so the biggest thing that we
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  do throughout this is defining for you what is important and
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  then breaking down how your time is being spent and what is
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  actually helping drive your growth, your income, and what
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  you want for your future. Doesn't have to be about money.
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  But The thing is, is that if that is one of your top goals of
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  what you're trying to achieve for yourself, that's something
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  that we've taken into account. So let me break down this
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  example. So in this exercise, what I had
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  my client do was essentially look at their calendar and list
• 2:52
  out how their time is being spent.
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  So like for example, Project A is X-Men hours per week, Project
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  B is X-Men hours per week, business is X amount per week,
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  and then how much they have for rest.
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  Because I think that's really important to map into as well as
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  fun. So when she mapped this out, I
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  then had her map out what her ideal scenario would be on a
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  week to week basis. So great, this is what the
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  baseline is, but then what would be your ideal scenario?
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  Same exact exercise of what would you want to give to each
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  of these projects on a weekly basis from an hourly
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  perspective. Then the next thing that we did
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  was live on our first call. So we had our first call, we had
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  her go through in her current state to highlight the things
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  that are going to be revenue generating tasks and to leave
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  the ones that don't unhighlighted.
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  The next part is to prior like to go ahead and list out like to
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  number through what's taking up the most time.
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  So for example, this is a reflection that's going to help
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  you see are the top three to five things that you're doing
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  actually supporting what your goals are or maybe they're kind
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  of eating up that time that's going to Createspace for what it
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  is that you actually want to do. So we did that exercise and then
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  the same thing, exercise for what the ideal scenario is.
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  OK, if you were to rank these like how are they looking?
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  So then the first thing was where can we start to cut back a
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  little bit? So for the things in her current
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  life that maybe are not generating what she needs them
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  to generate, they're taking up lots of time.
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  Let's take one project and figure out how we can kind of
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  scale, scale back. How much time is getting
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  committed to that? So we talked about, you know,
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  how many hours get put into it? Why do they get put into it?
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  What could potentially be done? And The funny thing is, is that
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  she already knew deep down that she wanted to cut these back,
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  but it was just it's nerve racking to get that started
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  right? Like she's very motivated.
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  She does what she needs to do. But also Time says it could be
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  scary, especially if you are a part of a culture or a
• 4:35
  generation where everyone else is before yourself.
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  And so it can be an adjustment, especially in your business to
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  think about putting yourself 1st.
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  And so with that being said, one of the projects she went ahead
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  and she sent them an e-mail letting them know that she could
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  no longer work on things. We're free, let's just say
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  obviously right in a more elegant way, but that she could
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  help with any in person events. But anything else outside of
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  that, she's going to have to like hold for a second.
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  So she went ahead and did that. And she did know that they have
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  previously, you know, given out funding before first project
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  from the moment she said, turned around and said, hey, you know
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  what, we actually have a project for you and we have a budget for
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  $2000. So it's just really funny in the
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  sense of when we have intentionality about our time
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  and we start to protect our time more and we put it out there
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  what it is that we're trying to use that free, that freedom and
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  that flexibility and that time for these things for themselves.
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  So in the course of her just sending one simple e-mail of
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  trying to Createspace for her business, trying to Createspace
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  for the things that she wants, she was able to turn that into a
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  project, a pay project, which is lovely.
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  And then for her second one, for her scaling back her time, the
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  team was super supportive too. So now holistically just from
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  scaling back those two projects, she one has gained $2000 and
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  then two, she has been able to open up about 30 to 40 hours per
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  month that she can now commit to growing her business with more
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  intentionality. So we absolutely love that.
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  So my question that I have for you and the reflection prompt
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  that I have for you, what are you working on right now that
• 6:02
  maybe is not aligned with what you want next?
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  And I would just sit with that of like, if you were to look at
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  your day-to-day schedule, what is something that's this is
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  taking it probably the second or third most amount of time in my
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  week? And is this truly aligned with
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  what it is that I'm focusing on and that I want support on?
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  I think that's something that's always good for all of us to
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  kind of just take inventory of our time.
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  So the next piece is Phase 2. So how a time audit can create
• 6:26
  clarity and options for you. So we walk through this time
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  audit, you're kind of being able to have this realization of like
• 6:31
  where your time is actually going and what's getting your
• 6:33
  best energy, like what's taking up space and what's getting your
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  best energy. So for example, it's not about
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  like cutting everything and and getting rid of it.
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  It's also about like realignment.
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  So for example, let's say you're using your morning time for
• 6:47
  tasks that are like, I'm just going to say like you're
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  scrolling or, you know, you're just hanging out and maybe in
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  the morning you have the best time for your creative writing.
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  So also understanding that too, like when you're looking at your
• 6:58
  time of like where your energy is best throughout the day and
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  what you can do to kind of re slot your projects based off of
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  that as well. So knowing that we were able to
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  do this for her and I got her those 3 to 40 hours back, one of
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  the things she wanted to increase in her buckets was time
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  for creative projects to be able to just like have some freedom,
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  flexibility, just to explore. So that was something she was
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  able to do without having guilt. A big thing that I also had her
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  slot in was making sure that there is just time and space to
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  not do anything. So for example, if we feel like
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  we're always going to have to work every single day, every
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  single weekend, every single evening, then it always is going
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  to be this on like imbalance of the amount of tasks we have and
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  the time we have. And it kind of sets us up
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  mentally for a little bit of failure and a little bit of
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  guilt. Because if I always anticipate
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  that I will work 24/7 every single day and I'm not able to
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  get everything done, it's going to be a vicious cycle, right?
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  Because then the next it will come and the same thing will
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  happen again. So being able to be honest and
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  and OK with yourself of knowing like it's OK to have certain
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  days committed and blocked out, to not have anything that
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  actually will help you sustainably to have that more
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  creative energy and strategy with that space.
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  And so that's another thing to kind of understand is that like
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  having this audit also helps you create options for yourself,
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  actually does not hold you back. And it's always better to like
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  under promise your time and over deliver versus constantly trying
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  to over promise your time and then being burnt out.
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  So the next thing I would say for you, your prompt would be,
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  you know, if you were to look at your calendar and be really
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  ruthless with yourself, where do you feel you kind of need to
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  realign your energy, whether that's on how your schedule is
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  or where you're giving your space to have time just to just
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  to have nothing in there. And so the last piece that I
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  would say is that the best part is that creating boundaries just
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  opens up so many opportunities. And I feel like people think of
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  boundaries as like a, as a negative connotation.
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  Like I have a boundary. So I'm saying no, or I'm have a
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  boundary. So it's an absolute no or I'm
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  saying boundary. So I'm being selfish and it's
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  about myself. But no, think of it more so of
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  having like a guideline, A guideline or a rubric of the
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  guardrails of where you want to be.
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  It's OK, we're going to fluctuate up and down, you know,
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  from year to year, season to season, week to week.
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  But it helps you to kind of just stay on track of where you want
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  to go. And so when you have that, it
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  makes it easier to communicate, whether it's to an organization
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  or a person, what it is that you're looking for.
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  So versus US waiting for somebody to inform us or tell us
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  what we want, we are just communicating what we would
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  like. And then it's not just a
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  declaration, it's also a conversation and a
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  communication. Like you can negotiate those
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  things. It's OK.
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  You can say something of what you want things to stand at and
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  someone else might refute it and that's OK.
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  It's just a conversation, and conversations create clarity
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  versus just going with what somebody you know demands of you
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  or tells you it's OK to speak to what it is that you want.
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  So by doing this, creating the space in your calendar should
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  recreate an opportunity, which is amazing.
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  I'm so happy for her. And so just know that there is
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  so much strength when we are taking actions along with what
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  we want to do and we're not just stuck in the day-to-day trenches
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  of like trying to clear out the weed.
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  So that's definitely going to happen from time to time.
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  But also where can you intentionally create some space
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  within your calendar so that way you have some opportunity for
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  these pieces. So the reflection would be what
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  opportunities do you have that you can kind of create some more
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  space within your calendar? All right, awesome.
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  So hopefully you found this helpful in some way, shape or
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  form. I think the biggest thing is
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  just really figuring out ways that you can own your calendar.
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  I know I hear lots of times of, but I'm at this level, I don't
• 10:34
  know if they can, I can be in control of my calendar or my
• 10:36
  boss is in control of my calendar or my clients are in
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  control of my calendar. You are in control of your
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  calendar to a certain extent. So finding a way that you can
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  bake that in will help you just feel also more empowered to have
• 10:47
  you have more options for yourself as well.
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  And honestly, people love people who are very clear and strong
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  about what their needs are. And if they're not, they're not
• 10:56
  your people. So it's OK.
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  All right, awesome. And I will see you next week.
• 10:59
  Have a good one.