Mindset Shift 4
ORGANIZING YOUR TIME
As a new fempreneur, you are going to be busy! You will struggle to find time to get everything done, particularly if you are a solopreneur and doing most of the work by yourself. You will also be juggling many responsibilities, often performing multiple roles at your startup. This persistent pull will be compounded by the fact that there are also fewer boundaries with our always-on world, so you’ll feel like you have to be constantly connected. Dealing with continuous transformation and addressing numerous undertakings simultaneously will be your new norm as an active business owner. Does this realization make your head spin? You’re not alone, but I assure you: you can master this mild chaos by taking control. We will work on that together with our fourth Mindset Shift.
The Mindset Shift we’ll discuss in this chapter focuses on how female founders need to think about time management and organization. The reality is that although all new business owners are busy, women entrepreneurs face additional challenges in this arena, juggling countless responsibilities as heads of their family and heads of their business. According to the Pew Research Center, “women still bear a heavier load than men in balancing work and family.”1 Another study found that “a lack of the effective division of domestic labor was the single largest contributor of entrepreneurial failure for women, playing a role in 49% of the failures . . . studied.”2 As such, this Mindset Shift is crucial for your ultimate success as an entrepreneur. We’ll get into a few strategies to help you master your time, including goal setting, scheduling, aiming for work-life balance, and dropping guilt. Sound good? I hope you’re reading this book while soaking in a nice lavender bubble bath!
Setting Goals
The best way to begin this balancing act is by setting goals. Establishing realistic business targets is vital for female entrepreneurs—and requires a Mindset Shift to achieve. You’ll need to break your goals down into daily, monthly, and yearly milestones and benchmarks, and ensure that they are SMART. SMART goals are important because they are unambiguous, set within your reach, and attached to a schedule in order to accomplish them by a fixed date. SMART goals are also helpful because they give you a precise target to aim for and enable you to clarify certain questions such as what, when, where, and why you want to achieve this goal. They also allow you to measure your progress and determine whether or not you have achieved the target you’ve set for yourself. By making the goal realistic, you won’t be reaching for milestones that are impossible to hit.
An example of a general goal is “I want to get more sales,” but an example of a SMART goal is “I want to increase sales of our new products by 5 percent within the next six months through increasing daily sales calls by 30 percent and implementing a new social media advertising campaign on Twitter and Instagram.”
SMART goals are effective for founders because they enable you to establish exact benchmarks for different areas of your startup. This will allow you to streamline tasks and make sure that you are not losing sight of any facets of your business. If you have team members, these goals will also enable you to delegate appropriately and can generally act as a compass to measure whether you are on course with getting your business to where you want it to be. The more detailed the goals are, the better your blueprint for success. Another perk of goal setting is that these types of specific targets thwart procrastination by holding you accountable for what you set out to do.
Although adhering to your goals is crucial for success, it’s also important to point out that you need to build in some flexibility, as things will come up that you cannot predict. It may be necessary for you to alter your plans and adjust from time to time—and that is OK. The COVID-19 pandemic is the perfect example of this. Most entrepreneurs had targets in mind, but when the virus shook our entire world, those targets needed to shift. I’ve been thrown a curve ball or two, and you will as well. Be willing to adjust as needed.
Some early objectives that you’ll set as a new fempreneur may be related to your business plan, the creation of your website and social media accounts, revenue attainment, product launch, forming connections with suppliers, and establishing a networking or sales strategy, to name a few. Benjamin Franklin said famously, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Make sure that planning and setting SMART goals are always at the heart of your processes and forward momentum as a business owner because they are a central part to this Mindset Shift.
Create Action Plans
In business, you must also develop action plans, which are documents that list the steps needed to achieve a target or benchmark that aligns with your short- and long-term goals. When developing an action plan, you must take into account priorities, deadlines, responsible parties, and necessary resources and then incorporate the ability to track progress within your plan. Typically, an action plan will be in a template format and include columns outlining the following:
• Your objectives: what you want to put into action
• Related tasks: what you need to do to attain your goals
• Success criteria: how you’ll measure attainment or progress
• Necessary resources: what you need to accomplish your goals
• Microsteps: actions you will take to execute your objectives as well as related tasks
• Time frame for completion: how long it will take to make it happen or when you hope to accomplish it
You might even create your own modified template (including the information listed here) or search for one online so that you have a basic, consistent outline for all of your action plans. Why not give your master list a catchy name like Mary’s Must-Dos or Donna’s Dealmakers? It’ll spice ’em up a bit.
Action plans are important because they give you well-defined direction on how and when you are going to hit your targets, including what’s needed, who will perform each task, and when the task must be complete. You can also utilize project management software to help you stay on top of and organize your projects. Some popular choices include Basecamp, EverNote, and Trello. I’ve used Trello for many projects, and I find it quite helpful and user-friendly, and when utilizing this software, you can move a task from one team member to another. Getting something off your plate and onto someone else’s is not only satisfying, but it also gives you a little mental boost, sort of like crossing an item off a list or cleaning out the fridge. Goodbye, leftover pizza!
Fancy tools, although nice, are not necessary, as you can use an Excel spreadsheet or Word document for these purposes as well. So don’t spend unnecessarily if you have limited funds (remember what we talked about in the last Mindset Shift about spending your money wisely).
Once you get your action plans structured, break the plans down into the microsteps that it will take to make them happen. For each action plan, there will be a number of stages required to hit the goal. The more detailed your microsteps, the better chance you’ll have of accomplishing the benchmarks that you’ve set for yourself and your business. For example, writing a blog post might be one of your action plans, but there will be multiple steps to accomplish it, including brainstorming about the topic, creating an outline, doing research, writing the post, editing the post, choosing a picture to accompany it, posting it, and finally sharing it.
When you break your action plans down into microsteps, they seem much more manageable and digestible, and there is a clear place to start and finish. It’s the ultimate productivity road map and how-to guide. Creating and utilizing action plans and microsteps is a priority for this entrepreneurial Mindset Shift.
Schedule and Review Your Plans
After you’ve created your action plans and microsteps, it will all boil down to scheduling and review. In terms of scheduling, it’s important to set deadlines and hold yourself accountable. Sometimes just the act of putting it down in writing is all the forward momentum that you need.
When it’s time to review your progress, be honest in your self-assessments. Don’t give yourself an A+ when you deserve a C (we see you). Really make note of what you are on track with and areas that you need to improve. Use your calendar and other visual cues and reminders to help you stay on task. One of the best ways to do this is to add tasks to your calendar as soon as you implement your action plan and microsteps. This will ensure you won’t delay your progress and will be consistent.
You’ll want to begin chipping away at your action plans and become more productive, so it will be helpful to work in chunks and minimize distractions. As part of your daily routine, identify three to five must-dos every day. Make this list at the beginning of the week for the whole week and then again at the start of each day. Schedule chunks (in one- to two-hour blocks) to accomplish the three to five items that you’ve pinpointed, and then check back in with yourself at the end of the day to hold yourself accountable for your progress. Block out those chunks on your calendar so that you have time dedicated specifically for accomplishing these must-dos. If you don’t finish everything slotted, you’ll have to move the incomplete tasks to the next day. If you are ahead of schedule and have extra time, shift toward completing other items on your weekly list. The most significant thing here is to make sure that you are checking in with yourself in terms of your progress and adjusting to be as productive as possible.
Plan for Everything
As an organized startup leader, you should have master checklists associated with everything that you want to accomplish. Checklist tracking is a critical part of your process; review your checklists in the morning and then again in the evening, as well as weekly for an overview of bigger-picture items. Get creative with them so they’re visually appealing and you actually want to interact with them. I mean, why not throw some glitter their way (the virtual kind of course—the other stuff’s too messy!).
Document and categorize all of your to-dos into these checklists as they come in and revisit them often, evaluating each in terms of the time, energy, and resources needed as well as their priority. Cross items off the list one by one as time allows and have a weekly review with yourself where you clarify outcomes, keep track of your progress, and determine what’s next. Organize and plan, and you will accomplish the goals and benchmarks that you’ve set for yourself, adjusting as necessary if you are falling short.
You are in the driver’s seat when it comes to your ultimate success. So hit the gas pedal—stopping periodically to check the engine and fuel up—to drive your results!
Maintain Perspective
Learn to look at both the grand scheme and the day-to-day. Reward yourself for accomplishing goals and small tasks along the way, which will reinforce that productive behavior. Did you complete all of the items on an action plan or finish all of the tasks on your daily to-do list? Yes? Then treat yourself to a facial, or go for a walk, or order a movie. Hell, buy yourself a lemon cupcake and down it with a glass of pinot! You deserve it, girl! You might even just tell yourself that you did a great job. No matter how small your reward, celebrating your productivity and accomplishment is key. Remember, focus is critical and productivity is what will make things happen for you as a woman business owner. Fempreneurs work smarter and get what they want out of life, and you are a rising fempreneur!
Plan Ahead
As you schedule your microsteps and goals, be sure to work ahead and plan for busy periods. When you know you have a heavy week coming up, perhaps one with a lot of travel and events, get in front of it by having presentations and other reports prepared well ahead of time. That way, you will have extra hours available if any emergencies or time-sensitive tasks get thrown on top of your already busy week.
Can you think of a time when that happened to you in the past, when you left everything to the last minute only to have a few catastrophes arise when you were trying to get your work done (like your printer not working or your child getting sick)? We’ve all been there, but no more! You’re a time-savvy entrepreneur now—one who likes to plan as much as possible so these situations are unlikely to happen to you again. This extreme preparation and planning are central to this entrepreneurial Mindset Shift.
Tackle the “Meh” First
When beginning on any large task or project, deal with the mundane first. You know, those things that we put off because we don’t like doing them. Doing them first will eliminate some roadblocks (mental and otherwise) and give us the forward momentum to get the project off the ground. As they say at Nike, just do it!
Try to move things off of your mental checklist and desk as quickly as possible to prevent them from slowing you down. For example, if you have a stack of bills sitting waiting for you, pay them quickly, file or shred them, and go on to your next thing. Look at that nice clean spot on your desk now! If you have a bunch of small emails that you can respond to swiftly and easily, do so and get them out of your inbox. Just having them sitting in there is stressing you out whether you realize it or not. Reply—delete. Forward—delete. Ahhhh . . . isn’t that satisfying?
Put Yourself in Check
As a business owner, you’ll always be watching your numbers: sales, revenue, collections, and so on. Are you on track in terms of progress? If not, what do you need to adjust in order to get there? Put these progress check-ins on your calendar as well. It’s so easy to do now and can be set up in your email program or on your smartphone. How often and what dates or times will you check in? Weekly, monthly, or otherwise? Attach a funny sound to these alerts so that they make you laugh while prompting you to take action—maybe a silly phrase like Dunkin’s “It’s time to make the donuts” or lyrics from the song “She works hard for the money” by Donna Summer—whatever gives you a smile and motivates you to achieve.
Improving Your Time Management
Female entrepreneurs often understandably have a difficult time with scheduling due to a heavier load. As revealed by the Pew Research Center, they must balance issues related to managing their family while juggling all of the household obligations they are responsible for as well as those tasks and commitments related to running their startups.3 This section will show you how to outline and schedule your daily tasks and commitments. We’ll also discuss improving focus, setting weekly review time to clarify business objectives, tracking progress, and reducing time-sucks.
Time management is certainly challenging, but you can make adjustments. Some of the many things that you can do to maximize your time as an entrepreneur include minimizing disruptions, slowing down to take a breath, incorporating small breaks throughout the day, and avoiding the urge to do everything flawlessly; done is much, much better than flawless, so aim for 95 percent amazing vs. 100 percent impeccable. Focus on your personal productivity first and foremost, and pay attention to your daily work habits. What throws you off track? Notifications on your phone? Place it across the room. Emails coming in? Sign out. Googling things that come to mind randomly? Learn to thwart this type of behavior. You can even come up with a mantra that you repeat to yourself when you catch yourself getting off track, like my favorite, telling myself, “Charlene, get back to work!” The more you focus, the more productive you’ll be, and you’ll actually be able to get more done in less time. And, ding, ding, guess what? That means more time for you and other important people in your life. Did someone say girls’ night?
Take Five
Taking breaks is critical, as counterintuitive as it may seem. The reality is that when you leave your workspace for a moment, you are resetting your mind and focus, and will come back to your desk with a more refreshed and attentive outlook. So, get up from time to time, stretch your legs, grab a glass of water, or step outside to get some air for a minute. Sit on the patio and soak in the day. Play your favorite song on YouTube and do a little dance in your office—you’ve still got the moves. It will help you maintain your focus, and as I’ve mentioned, focus is the name of the game when it comes to being productive.
Tidy Up
Work hard to declutter your workspace. By streamlining, you will be able to physically get items off your desk and/or tackle your mental checklist more quickly. This applies to both your work area as well as the files and organization on your laptop. Have you ever wasted an hour trying to find a document you misplaced under a stack of papers? Or had trouble locating a file you knew you’d already started? The tidier your work environment, the less time you’ll waste moving from task to task and trying to locate things. So, clean up your entrepreneurial act (so to speak)!
Ditch Distractions
Again, you will need to train yourself to really focus and eliminate interruptions. Do this by silencing notifications on your devices and resisting the urge to surf the web or talk on the phone. Strive to complete things quickly and with your full concentration, and using this method, you’ll get more done in less time.
If you know you should be able to accomplish more than you are right now, look at your entire schedule critically. Identify areas that are sucking time away from you; Netflix-binging perhaps? (That new series can wait!) Spending hours on social media? (Schedule time after hours to catch up on Insta and TikTok instead of during work time. Maybe limit it to Tuesdays and Saturdays from 6 to 8 p.m.) The best way to find out where your time is being spent is to track yourself for an entire week. You may be surprised at how much time you’re wasting without getting anything in return.
Find More Time
Wouldn’t it be nice to have more time in a day? It’s possible if you really look at your schedule and see where you can cut some things. Meetings are a prime example of this. Only meet when necessary. You can often accomplish what you want with a quick email exchange or phone call instead of a long meeting.
What else is squandering your time? Do you have an exorbitant amount of administrative paperwork? Can you outsource it? Are there certain tasks that take away from other activities that are more important to your bottom line? Then recruit some help or get creative with how you can reduce them. Do you lose focus and spend more time getting things done because you’re not working efficiently? Track and modify your work habits to eliminate wasted minutes.
Maintaining Your Self-Care and Work-Life Balance
When it comes to our fourth Mindset Shift, self-care is the third leg of the tripod, along with goal setting and time management. Proper work-life balance benefits female entrepreneurs in all aspects of their lives. This section will offer a number of steps that you can take as a woman business owner to improve your work-life balance, including setting limits to avoid overcommitting; making time for the people and activities that are important to you; prioritizing basic health needs; communicating about your boundaries and plans with key stakeholders to obtain buy-in; and getting a handle on your schedule, projects, and work environment.
As a busy fempreneur, you must take care of yourself—your health, well-being, and needs. The happier and stronger you are as an individual, the more you will thrive in business and increase your positive interactions with others. This involves your critical need for work-life balance. Proper work-life balance is advantageous for founders in many ways and is so crucial for overall happiness. There are many steps that a woman can take to improve her work-life balance, but here are some of my favorite tips.
Love Yourself
Loving yourself is at the heart of balance. This love involves self-care, putting your needs at the top of your priority list, and being kind and patient with you. Balance helps women in their personal lives by giving them time for what’s special to them without feeling overextended or guilty. It helps them as fempreneurs, as they will need to avoid excessive fatigue and have the strength to keep forging ahead. Love yourself enough to make balance a priority in your life.
Put Proper Limits in Place
The best way to deal with too many demands is to set appropriate boundaries and make time for the people and things that are most important to you. Let everyone know where they stand and what your limits are. Establish a daily start and stop time for work and develop a standing schedule. Communication with interested parties, whether they are friends, family, clients, or others, is the key here. Get them on board with your boundaries and plans, and tell them how you intend to find time for them, where they fit in, and how important their buy-in is to you. You’ll be surprised at how supportive they’ll be.
Stay Healthy
It’s critical that we take care of ourselves. Neglecting our sleep and overall health can be a symptom of imbalance in our lives. A higher level of self-care will help us to make better use of our time; feel more content; juggle multiple priorities; and be more productive, optimistic, and focused. Incorporate fitness, breaks, and activities to stimulate your mind, body, and soul.
In the words of relationship consultant Barbara DeAngelis, “Women need real moments of solitude and self-reflection to balance out how much of ourselves we give away.”4 Amen. I know that I feel as if I am constantly giving pieces of myself away. I’m sure you feel the same. Let’s fix that. Do you enjoy meditation, yoga, reading, taking courses, or Pilates? Even something as simple as a short nap can do wonders for your outlook and well-being. Schedule time for healthy meals and relaxation techniques as well. Get back to the basics, like drinking enough water and eating your fruits and vegetables. Remember what your momma taught you!
Don’t Overcommit
We also need to be aware of committing to more than we should and failing to delegate, outsource, or otherwise get additional help. If you don’t like to do a certain task, hire or ask someone else to do it if possible. Look for ways to share other responsibilities as well; there are likely many people who’d love to pitch in, in both your personal and professional life. When in doubt or when you feel overwhelmed, outsource!
Pay someone to do your laundry (doesn’t that sound magical?) or watch your children for a few hours (i.e., let you work in peace) while you focus on activities that will bring in more revenue. Pair up with a friend and take turns with childcare. Order your groceries and other items online so that you spend less time running errands. Better yet, if you are going to head out, schedule your errands in blocks (i.e., run four or five during a couple of hours instead of one at a time) so that your days aren’t interrupted.
Learn to Say No!
As part of not overcommitting, you will need to get comfortable with saying no. You can’t possibly do everything, and that’s okay. Don’t feel guilty about turning down things that you simply don’t have time for and/or don’t really want to do anyhow. Not feeling the bake sale? Ditch it. If you don’t want to take on an additional project (that doesn’t offer you much in return), then decline it politely.
You will have to pick and choose where you are spending your time, so only make room on your schedule for those things that are high on your priority list. Adjust your mindset so you don’t feel bad for saying no to things that you don’t want to do, that don’t serve you or your business, or that you don’t really have time for. You can’t do everything, so be smart with your choices.
Take Control
Greater work-life balance can be achieved by taking the reins on your journey: scheduling wisely by working on projects in pieces, eliminating and reducing disturbances, and incorporating self-management techniques. Some best practices include scheduling all aspects of your day, identifying (and eliminating) timewasters, and remembering to save some time for you. Take a day off here and there, and remember to spend time with those who are most important to you while still attending to and growing your business. When these two areas are in balance, you will thrive and so will your startup.
Drop Guilt
This is a biggie. Let’s face it, as women and particularly as fempreneurs, we are always feeling guilty about something. In fact, we feel guilty for just about everything—having too much fun, not having enough fun, being too good at something, not being good enough, the way we look, the success we have (or don’t), and so much more. Further, numerous studies have proven that women are more prone to guilt than men.5
There is both social guilt—guilt placed upon us by society and the people in our lives—and individual guilt, which is self-imposed when we don’t live up to our own expectations. Are we not spending enough time on our business (or too much?), did we forget to send an email that we meant to, neglect to buy a get-well gift for Uncle Jim, or not help a friend last week when we really wanted to? Do you worry continuously about spending enough quality time with your children or spouse? Stop beating yourself up! You are not superwoman, and there is no way to do everything that you want to. And no one does! No one!
You Can Balance
Former first lady Michelle Obama summed up the importance of work-life balance well by saying, “Women, in particular, need to keep an eye on their physical and mental health, because if we’re scurrying to and from appointments and errands, we don’t have a lot of time to take care of ourselves. We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‘to do’ list.”6
As a fempreneur, striving for work-life balance is vital to mastering this time management Mindset Shift. Being a business owner is challenging and lonely. You will have a lot of ups and downs on your journey and not much help growing your startup. But the balance you create for yourself will give you the strength you need to keep charging ahead. The temptation to overwork will always be there for you, but working too long will actually cause you to be less productive. Instead, make sure that you find the time for other areas of your life that are important to you so that you can enjoy them while growing your company.
And balance can be achieved—I’m living proof! I’m a single mother with two girls. I have a full-time job, work a side gig, and write books in my free time. (What free time?) I know a thing or two about being stretched, pulled, and feeling guilty. I’ve been at this for years. I’ll be in the middle of something I’m working on for a client when someone throws something extra on my plate at work, my daughter screams for me to break up a fight she’s having in another room with my other daughter, all while I’m thinking about my dad’s birthday (I need to call him, send a card) and remembering that I also need to reach out to my friend whose father passed away last week. Shoot, and I haven’t worked out yet today either. It’s okay.
Think about all of the steps we talked about in this chapter and take control of that schedule. Look at each item in terms of its priority and where it fits into those daily plans. You can make it all work. Get creative with it and never allow yourself to feel bullied by other people’s expectations of you, or worse yet, those placed on you by yourself. You are an amazing business owner, mother, friend, spouse, and strategist!
The most essential thing to remember about work-life balance is that no one is going to do it for you, so you have to make it a priority and talk to the other important people in your life about your schedule. The more in balance you are, the more successful your business will be!
FINAL THOUGHTS