How to find your "Not-To-Do" list
Have you ever heard about that one before? The your “Not-to-do-list”?
In these times, I feel it’s just as important to figure out what you DON’T need to do, as it is to figure out what will keep you moving in the right direction. I’ve seen tons of lists of what I can get done, now we’re all working from home and to be quite frank with you, I HATE it. It’s not that I don’t like checking things off my to-do-list, but I don’t see the point of adding more to your plate than necessary. I don’t get why I, besides working on my business, also need to paint the shed in the garden, read up on the great thinkers of the 18th century or deep clean the whole house. I mean, seriously?
When I decide what to do with my time, I like to keep my priorities straight: My family, daughter, friends, business (and growing my business), learning, resting, being in nature. That’s about it. I don’t see why I would want to add more, just for the sake of being “busy”. Busy is not a badge of honor, it’s a necessity in times of growth or when you’re working on a big dream of yours. It’s not an end goal in itself.
I’ve come to value a simple tactic: Use the path of least resistance.
What do I mean by this?
This means: I’ll not overcomplicate things for myself. (Still learning!). I’ll practice to not overthink (also still learning!). If I can get a job done easily, I will not do it the hard way, just so I can feel more “accomplished”, because work is supposed to feel hard and life’s hard and my floors need to be sparkling clean all the time.
NO!
When creating a “Not-to-do-list”, it’s about freeing yourself from all the pressure we tend to keep on ourself. We don’t need to be doing more, we don’t need to be more productive – we need to do the RIGHT things, so we still move forward. But there’s no reason to make it even harder for ourselves.
When you’re building your own business, you wear all the hats. You need to make the product itself, photograph it, market it, sell it (and maybe do the accounting yourself), order supplies, keep tracking of packing materials, pack and go to the post office to ship it, talk with customers, - you’re the one putting in all the hours and the sweat, blood and tears. It can feel overwhelming and I know the struggle. It’s not that I can take all the work away for you, but I want you to think of areas, where you could make things easier on yourself. Maybe it’s a product that takes a ton of time to make and it’s honestly not brining in that much money in the bank. Maybe it’s something you make, that you find easy to make, so you feel like cheating when it sells so well? Hear me here: Make more! Do it! Do not make work that’s too difficult and that earns to little. Remember the path of least resistance.
Are there other areas where you could make things easier on yourself?
Do you find it difficult to build your own website? You don’t need to learn coding and HTML and all those things (I don’t know how to do it either) – a lot of sites makes it perfectly easy for you to build your own site – see shopify.com or squarespace.com for example!
Your not-to-do-list is not about you just laying around in your pajamas binge watching Netflix all day, it’s about taking those things off your plate that simply stresses you out or take way too long time for you to complete.
This is a permission slip from me to you. Let it go. You hereby have permission to let that thing that do not serve you in any way go.
What is your time worth? Sit with this with me for a moment. What’s your time really worth? Is it priceless? How much is an hour of time with your loved ones worth versus an hour working on your business? Is there a difference?
I want you to really let this one sink in. Is there a difference in the worth of the two above? If there is, it’s now you need to get crystal clear on what you need to work on in your business to build it into the dream you have, and what needs to go. I hope to be a part of this journey with you, and the tools I’ll teach you in my new book will help you do this. (You can find it at the bottom of my front page).
As we grow and learn, it’s easy to let old habits stay the same. “I’ve always done it this way, and it’s working just fine” is not useful anymore. What can you cut back on?
I wish you a wonderful day – you’ve got this!
Xx Caroline