9. 3 Time-Management Tips for Busy Interior Designers
Many of you are racing to the end of the year, trying to get everything done so you can wrap up 2022 for the Holidays. There’s something nice about feeling like you’ve got the year closed out, but it also often leaves you feeling crunched for time and overextended.
What I’m sharing this week is important all the time, but is especially useful when things are busier than normal. There might be lots of back and forth with your clients, questions coming in, or extra things that require more of your time, energy, and attention, so this is the perfect time to dive into my time-management tips for when you’re busy.
If you’ve got a lot going on both in your professional and personal life as you look to close out this year, listen in. I’m sharing three of my favorite time-management tips for when you’re extra busy, so you can leverage the limited time you do have without burning yourself out.
If you missed the enrollment period for my group coaching program Out of Overwhelm, you’re in luck. I am reopening the doors leading up to our virtual kickoff retreat on January 10th, 2023. This opportunity won’t be available again until summer, so click here to learn more and claim your spot.
To celebrate the launch of the show, I’m giving away gift cards to Jayson Home, one of my favorite home decor sources. All you have to do to become one of the five lucky listeners to win is follow, rate, and review this podcast.
Please leave your honest feedback, and click here to learn how to enter!
What You’ll Discover from this Episode:
Why the end of the year feels especially busy.
3 tips for managing your time when you’re extra busy.
How to create a capture system.
Why deciding how you’re going to delegate ahead of time saves you time and energy.
How to define your no-matter-what results.
Listen to the Full Episode:
Featured on the Show:
Enter the podcast launch giveaway by leaving a rating and review! Click here to learn how to enter.
If you love what you’re learning on the show, I’d love for you to check out my signature group coaching program, Out of Overwhelm
Full Episode Transcript:
Hey designer, you’re listening to episode 9, this is the one where I’m sharing time management tips for when you’re extra busy.
Welcome to The Interior Design Business CEO, the only show for designers who are ready to confidently run and grow their businesses without the stress and anxiety. If you're ready to develop a bigger vision for your interior design business, free up your time, and streamline your days for productivity and profit, you're in the right place. I'm Desi Creswell, an award-winning interior designer and certified life and business coach. I help interior designers just like you stop feeling overwhelmed so they can build profitable businesses they love to run. Are you ready to confidently lead your business, clients, and projects? Let's go.
Hello designers, welcome back to the podcast, I'm so happy to have you here. As I mentioned in the last episode I'm doing some batch recording so that I can step out for the holiday season. So it's kind of fun to think about when you're listening to this I'm actually going to be in Costa Rica with our family. So that's kind of fun. I'm picturing myself being warm and not being in the snowy Minnesota weather. I hope all of you have some plans to settle in and give yourself some time and space as we close out this year.
Today we're going to be talking about managing your time when things are extra busy. And I thought this would be the perfect time to do this as we wrap up 2022. I know a lot of you are racing to the end of the year trying to get everything in because there is something nice, I will admit, about saying you've wrapped it up for the year. But I also know you're feeling really crunched for time and over extended.
And so that's why I wanted to bring you this episode today. Really, what I'm sharing is important all of the time but it's especially important when things are busier than normal. And this tends to be a period of time when there's lots of back and forth, lots of input coming into your business on a daily basis. So like questions, requests, things that just require your time, energy and attention.
And I find that it really picks up at the end of the year, not just because you're wanting to get things done and close them out for the year, but because other people are wanting to do the same. So whoever you're working with, whether that's project partners, or clients, or other people that you contract with in your business, they're wanting to wrap things up too, so they are reaching out to you to get responses to wrap things up.
And then, of course, you're wanting to wrap things up. So everyone's just trying to close all these loops, and it can create a lot of extra busyness. So definitely refer back to this episode during other times when things pick up as well because we all know that there are certain rhythms to our lives, to our businesses where there tend to be the busy periods where they're busier than normal.
And I know for a lot of moms it's the start and end of the school year. Or for business owners it's when a project is wrapping up, maybe all of those punch list items when you're just trying to close out the project, right? You've got all those little pieces to keep track of and they're coming and going. Really what I'm sharing applies to any time, but especially now I thought you could lean into these time management strategies.
Before we dive in, I want to say thank you to Laurabengen for leaving a review. She says this is her new go-to podcast. Laura says, “As a designer who's been in business for almost 10 years, I get just as much value out of this podcast today as I would the day I started. I highly recommend for anyone who's interested in changing their mindset to improve their business, whether you're a designer or not.”
I think that's so wonderful. Thank you for submitting that. I totally agree, these tools apply to every stage of your business. As you grow, you continue to use the mindset tools as you evolve, as you change the way you're thinking, as you step into that CEO role. And they always will apply because there's always going to be that next level that you're bumping up against in terms of goal setting, what you want for your life and business, who you want to be. And so we can always return back to these tools and they really truly grow with you. So I love that. Thank you for submitting that.
As a reminder, I'm giving away $50 gift cards to Jayson Home for a giveaway for the podcast launch. And I'm going to start announcing winners soon. Head on over to desicreswell.com/podcastlaunch you'll find all the instructions for how to enter the giveaway. You just need to rate, review, and then submit that review through that link that I provide on the web page, because otherwise I don't necessarily know how to get in touch with you. So I encourage you to go on over, do that, and then be entered to win and you can do some shopping for yourself.
Now, as I was saying, we have kind of covered where you're at, it's just feeling too busy. So let's just dive right in so you can start implementing these strategies right now. I'm going to be sharing three tips for managing your time when it's especially busy. And the first one is having a capture system for input. So that is all of the input that's coming into your life personally or professionally. Emails, phone calls, requests, maybe drawings you need to approve, or maybe a CFA that you need to get back to somebody about.
There's always so many moving parts and all of that constant input needs to have a system for being managed. Your brain should never be acting as a post-it note with a bunch of scribbles on it. Your brain is simply not designed to do that. I joke with my husband about not talking to me when I don't have a place to write things down. Because he'll walk into the room and start rattling off a bunch of things and I'm like, “I've got to grab my notebook.” Because otherwise, it's going to go in one ear and out the other.
So we need to have a place to put input. Because when you treat your brain like it's a post-it note, you're asking it to work harder than necessary by putting unnecessary demands on your cognitive load. And cognitive load really just refers to the amount of working memory resources that are being used in your brain.
I want you to think about a computer, when you have all the programs running, and all the apps, and all the tabs, all those things open at once the computer starts to get glitchy. It starts to slow down. And that's because the memory on the computer is being over extended. Your brain is the exact same way, it's going to run more efficiently when you aren't overextending that working memory, and having this capture system is the solution for that.
So when I'm talking about a capture system, what I'm referring to is a place where you put all of these to-dos. It's where you dump the incoming tasks and requests for later sorting. It's kind of like this holding ground. I personally like to have a place for each category of personal and professional. And I use a physical space, which happens to be my planner, where I capture items as they come in.
And I also find it useful to visualize the pieces that are coming in and then being set aside. So I'm physically setting aside those to-dos by writing them down, but also there's something about this visualization of just setting them aside, tucking them in, it really calms my brain down. I know exactly where things are to go refer to, I know that they're not going to get lost, I know I don't need to loop on these things in my brain. And they're going to be in one spot when I'm ready.
Like I said, I use a paper planner. And in my planning process I start with paper and then move to digital, that just what works for my brain. So a capture system could be a paper planner, or a notepad, it could be a Google Doc, one of my clients likes to do that. It could be task management software if you are using that in your business. It could be the Notes app on your phone.
It could even be a block of time on your calendar, where you just type things in as an appointment essentially, for when you're going to go through them. So you would just put the items you're capturing in the description of the appointment block.
There's two key pieces I want you to keep in mind when deciding on a capture system. The first is keeping it in one spot, whether that's physically or digitally. Or maybe you have two if you want to have one separate spot for personal and one for professional. I like to keep these categories separate, but I still list them in the same planner so that way when I'm looking at my week I'm taking everything into account.
So often we end up planning in silos and our business and our life are so connected, when you have a lot of things going on professionally you might need to make some adjustments personally. And sometimes when you have a lot more going on personally, you need to make some professional adjustments. So we always want to be looking at those things in tandem.
But keep the information in one spot. I know you love notebooks as much as I do, I totally get it. And at the moment it feels easier to just grab whatever is out but you're creating on unnecessary stress and often a lot of visual clutter when you don't keep the capture system constrained to one spot.
The second key piece to keep in mind is that whatever you're using, keep it simple and easy to access. If your system is complicated, you will not use it. Simple is always better, in my opinion. So go with whatever feels easy and doable to you.
With your capture system, then you're going to regularly sort and plan. So you've got these inputs, and then you're going to set aside time to sort through those inputs. Sorting can look like categorizing by type of tasks, so it may be phone calls, drawings, submittals. Or you could even categories by project or client. I'm always thinking about how I can group like with like to minimize context switching, which keeps my brain in the same state or type of thought process, which just creates an easier, smoother workflow.
Sorting can also be a great time to look at what you can delegate. And I encourage you to push yourself a little bit here. What are you telling yourself has to be done by you, that doesn't actually need to be done by you or isn't critical that it's done by you? When you're planning, it's essentially making decisions ahead of time on what and how you'll address whatever it is that you've just sorted. Deciding ahead of time how you'll handle the input or how you're going to delegate is another way to calm your mind down.
You don't have to expend extra energy looping on when and if you'll do something, and when you're extra busy, you do not want to be wasting this precious brain space. You're likely going to want to have sorting and planning time on a daily basis. You might even want to have little check-ins with yourself maybe around lunchtime, towards the end of the day, think about whatever would work for your rhythm. And if you want more information on intentional planning, you can go back to episode three where I walk you through that in more detail.
The second time management tip I'm going to give you for when you're especially busy is to leverage small chunks of time. When you're planning or when you're doing that sorting process we just talked about, I want you to identify things that can be done in small chunks of time, maybe 5 to 15 minutes.
I find that when you're extra busy, there's usually a lot of these loose end type tasks that are typically quick to do, but they start to add up and then that can feel really heavy and daunting as they linger around. So make note of these quick action items or you could even sort them into their own group so that when you have small chunks of time, you can take advantage of the time instead of scrolling or whatever your time filling go-to activity is.
I want to encourage you to start looking for these times throughout your day where you do have a little bit of time here, a little bit of time there. There could, of course, be unexpected free time, and then there's also typically patterns that emerge when these little time blocks will happen if you're paying attention.
For example, I have a call every week with my coach. And the timing of it is such that when I'm done with that and ready to transition to something else, there's not a lot of time there between the end of the call and when my kids are home from school.
And it could be labeled as an awkward amount of time, but I can make it really effective for myself by taking care of some of those admin type tasks that I saved for that time knowing that that typically is a time when I don't want to start something new and I just want to take care of some of these 5 to 15 minute tasks.
The other thing you can think about here is when you like to do these types of quick tasks and when you're most effective at doing them. Some of my clients really like to do some of these at the beginning of the day, almost as a warm up to the workday.
Or you could do them at the end of the day, which is what I prefer to do when it feels like my brain has been working really hard all day and I don't want to have something that's mentally taxing. Typically, these 5 to 15 minute tasks are requiring less of me and so I like to do those at the end of the day.
The third tip I'm going to give you is to write down your top one to three no matter what results, I'll explain what that means, you're going to create at the start of your day. So what I mean by no matter what results are what are you going to get done today, no matter what. This is going to require you to be very intentional about what is important and prioritize your time, energy and attention.
When you're feeling really busy the tendency is to sit down at your desk and just dive right in. And I get it, I still want to do that sometimes. But what happens is it always ends up costing you time on the back end which is, of course, the thing you're trying to save. Setting your top three no matter whats will only take a few minutes. And there's actually research showing that when you sit down to work with a clear intention, your brain is twice as efficient. That's some serious ROI if you ask me.
When you define these one to three no matter what results, you're giving yourself the reminder throughout the day that these are the most important things. Because things are always going to be popping up, there's going to be a lot of input when you're busy and you might forget what's actually important. It's that case of the urgent starts to take over the important.
And so when we write down what those one to three top no matter what results are, then you can use that to come back and go, “Oh yeah, that's what I decided ahead of time is important.” And use that to anchor yourself during a busy time.
I want to round out with one bonus tip. When you're sorting and planning, I want you to delete ruthlessly. What I mean by that is what expectations or tasks are you piling on yourself that aren't necessary, that don't need to be done, don't need to be done right now? When you're deleting ruthlessly, a great question to ask yourself is, what do I need to say no to right now?
And I'd follow that up by what do you think is in your way of just saying no? It's often a mindset gap where we're worried about disappointing other people, we are not clear on what's producing results in our business and so there's some fear-based decision making happening. So get really clear about what you can say no to. Remember, when you say no to one thing, you get to say yes to something else.
And lastly, when you're deleting, don't delete you during a busy season. Make sure you stay on your own priority list. That saying you can't pour from an empty cup, it's not just a cute quote to put on Instagram. It's absolutely true. Make sure you are on the list.
Let's recap so you can sign off and get going with these tips. You're going to decide on a single capture system, or two if you want one for personal one for professional, to make it easy to sort and plan the input. You're going to identify what can be done in 5 to 15 minute chunks of time and leverage those small blocks of time. And then you're going to define your one to three no matter what results for the day. And lastly, this was the bonus, you're going to delete ruthlessly, but never yourself.
That's what I've got for you today, commit to doing these things and you will experience a significant change in how you approach your busy days, how you feel, and what you're able to accomplish, and also being clear on what you can let go. You're going to feel more in control, more clear-headed, and you'll get more of the right things done so when you're busy, you're effective, profitable, and you're actually moving the needle forward.
In the next episode I'm going to be sharing some thoughts and takeaways as we head into the end of the year that you are not going to want to miss. I'm thinking of the next episode as teeing you up for the most incredible 2023, and it's not anything like you've ever heard before. I can't wait to dive into that topic. And until then, I'm wishing you a beautiful week. I'll talk to you in the next episode.
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Hey designer, I have a special announcement for you. I recently wrapped up enrollment for my six month group coaching program, Out of Overwhelm. Since closing the doors I’ve heard from several of you that with the busyness of the end the year you didn’t get around to applying or you let yourself sit in that decision limbo until it was just too late. So I’ve been thinking about you. I’m not planning to open the doors to the program again until summer 2023 and I don’t want anyone, especially you, to miss out on the opportunity to get the support you want as we head into the new year.
Out of Overwhelm is my signature six-month program designed to take you from overwhelmed and stressed to profitable, in control, and fulfilled. I’ve decided to reopen enrollment leading up to our virtual kickoff retreat on January 10th. If you love the topics I’m covering on the podcast, you are going to love out of overwhelm. It is where we take these tool and I give you a consistent structure for applying them and we create the exact results you want personally and professionally, and you get to do it all with my support alongside your peers.
So this is your official invitation to join an intimate community of designers where you’ll get my personalized feedback whenever you need it. During our group calls, our monthly focus sessions, and also with daily coaching from me within our online community platform, you’ll always be moving forward.
Head to desicreswell.com/group-coaching or click the link in the show notes for all of the details and to apply. I review the applications personally to ensure it’s the best fit. You can also request to schedule time for us to connect live so I can answer any questions you have.
With the starts of the new year there has never been better time get back in the driver sear of your business. Join me in Out of Overwhelm. Click the link in the show notes to apply and get started January 10.
---
To celebrate the launch of the show, I'm going to be giving away gift cards to Jayson Home, one of my favorite home decor sources. I'm going to be giving away $50 gift cards to five lucky listeners who follow, rate, and review the show.
Now, it doesn't have to be a five star review, although I sure hope you love the show. I want your honest feedback so I can create an amazing show that provides tons of value. Visit desicreswell.com/podcastlaunch to learn more about the contest and how to enter. I'll be announcing the winners on the show in an upcoming episode.
Thanks for joining me for this week's episode of The Interior Design Business CEO. If you want more tips, tools and strategies visit www.desicreswell.com. And if you're ready to take what you've learned on the podcast to the next level, I would love for you to check out my signature group coaching program, Out of Overwhelm.
Welcome to The Interior Design Business CEO, the only show for designers who are ready to confidently run and grow their businesses without the stress and anxiety. If you're ready to develop a bigger vision for your interior design business, free up your time, and streamline your days for productivity and profit, you're in the right place. I'm Desi Creswell, an award-winning interior designer and certified life and business coach. I help interior designers just like you stop feeling overwhelmed so they can build profitable businesses they love to run. Are you ready to confidently lead your business, clients, and projects? Let's go.
Hello designers, welcome back to the podcast, I'm so happy to have you here. As I mentioned in the last episode I'm doing some batch recording so that I can step out for the holiday season. So it's kind of fun to think about when you're listening to this I'm actually going to be in Costa Rica with our family. So that's kind of fun. I'm picturing myself being warm and not being in the snowy Minnesota weather. I hope all of you have some plans to settle in and give yourself some time and space as we close out this year.
Today we're going to be talking about managing your time when things are extra busy. And I thought this would be the perfect time to do this as we wrap up 2022. I know a lot of you are racing to the end of the year trying to get everything in because there is something nice, I will admit, about saying you've wrapped it up for the year. But I also know you're feeling really crunched for time and over extended.
And so that's why I wanted to bring you this episode today. Really, what I'm sharing is important all of the time but it's especially important when things are busier than normal. And this tends to be a period of time when there's lots of back and forth, lots of input coming into your business on a daily basis. So like questions, requests, things that just require your time, energy and attention.
And I find that it really picks up at the end of the year, not just because you're wanting to get things done and close them out for the year, but because other people are wanting to do the same. So whoever you're working with, whether that's project partners, or clients, or other people that you contract with in your business, they're wanting to wrap things up too, so they are reaching out to you to get responses to wrap things up.
And then, of course, you're wanting to wrap things up. So everyone's just trying to close all these loops, and it can create a lot of extra busyness. So definitely refer back to this episode during other times when things pick up as well because we all know that there are certain rhythms to our lives, to our businesses where there tend to be the busy periods where they're busier than normal.
And I know for a lot of moms it's the start and end of the school year. Or for business owners it's when a project is wrapping up, maybe all of those punch list items when you're just trying to close out the project, right? You've got all those little pieces to keep track of and they're coming and going. Really what I'm sharing applies to any time, but especially now I thought you could lean into these time management strategies.
Before we dive in, I want to say thank you to Laurabengen for leaving a review. She says this is her new go-to podcast. Laura says, “As a designer who's been in business for almost 10 years, I get just as much value out of this podcast today as I would the day I started. I highly recommend for anyone who's interested in changing their mindset to improve their business, whether you're a designer or not.”
I think that's so wonderful. Thank you for submitting that. I totally agree, these tools apply to every stage of your business. As you grow, you continue to use the mindset tools as you evolve, as you change the way you're thinking, as you step into that CEO role. And they always will apply because there's always going to be that next level that you're bumping up against in terms of goal setting, what you want for your life and business, who you want to be. And so we can always return back to these tools and they really truly grow with you. So I love that. Thank you for submitting that.
As a reminder, I'm giving away $50 gift cards to Jayson Home for a giveaway for the podcast launch. And I'm going to start announcing winners soon. Head on over to desicreswell.com/podcastlaunch you'll find all the instructions for how to enter the giveaway. You just need to rate, review, and then submit that review through that link that I provide on the web page, because otherwise I don't necessarily know how to get in touch with you. So I encourage you to go on over, do that, and then be entered to win and you can do some shopping for yourself.
Now, as I was saying, we have kind of covered where you're at, it's just feeling too busy. So let's just dive right in so you can start implementing these strategies right now. I'm going to be sharing three tips for managing your time when it's especially busy. And the first one is having a capture system for input. So that is all of the input that's coming into your life personally or professionally. Emails, phone calls, requests, maybe drawings you need to approve, or maybe a CFA that you need to get back to somebody about.
There's always so many moving parts and all of that constant input needs to have a system for being managed. Your brain should never be acting as a post-it note with a bunch of scribbles on it. Your brain is simply not designed to do that. I joke with my husband about not talking to me when I don't have a place to write things down. Because he'll walk into the room and start rattling off a bunch of things and I'm like, “I've got to grab my notebook.” Because otherwise, it's going to go in one ear and out the other.
So we need to have a place to put input. Because when you treat your brain like it's a post-it note, you're asking it to work harder than necessary by putting unnecessary demands on your cognitive load. And cognitive load really just refers to the amount of working memory resources that are being used in your brain.
I want you to think about a computer, when you have all the programs running, and all the apps, and all the tabs, all those things open at once the computer starts to get glitchy. It starts to slow down. And that's because the memory on the computer is being over extended. Your brain is the exact same way, it's going to run more efficiently when you aren't overextending that working memory, and having this capture system is the solution for that.
So when I'm talking about a capture system, what I'm referring to is a place where you put all of these to-dos. It's where you dump the incoming tasks and requests for later sorting. It's kind of like this holding ground. I personally like to have a place for each category of personal and professional. And I use a physical space, which happens to be my planner, where I capture items as they come in.
And I also find it useful to visualize the pieces that are coming in and then being set aside. So I'm physically setting aside those to-dos by writing them down, but also there's something about this visualization of just setting them aside, tucking them in, it really calms my brain down. I know exactly where things are to go refer to, I know that they're not going to get lost, I know I don't need to loop on these things in my brain. And they're going to be in one spot when I'm ready.
Like I said, I use a paper planner. And in my planning process I start with paper and then move to digital, that just what works for my brain. So a capture system could be a paper planner, or a notepad, it could be a Google Doc, one of my clients likes to do that. It could be task management software if you are using that in your business. It could be the Notes app on your phone.
It could even be a block of time on your calendar, where you just type things in as an appointment essentially, for when you're going to go through them. So you would just put the items you're capturing in the description of the appointment block.
There's two key pieces I want you to keep in mind when deciding on a capture system. The first is keeping it in one spot, whether that's physically or digitally. Or maybe you have two if you want to have one separate spot for personal and one for professional. I like to keep these categories separate, but I still list them in the same planner so that way when I'm looking at my week I'm taking everything into account.
So often we end up planning in silos and our business and our life are so connected, when you have a lot of things going on professionally you might need to make some adjustments personally. And sometimes when you have a lot more going on personally, you need to make some professional adjustments. So we always want to be looking at those things in tandem.
But keep the information in one spot. I know you love notebooks as much as I do, I totally get it. And at the moment it feels easier to just grab whatever is out but you're creating on unnecessary stress and often a lot of visual clutter when you don't keep the capture system constrained to one spot.
The second key piece to keep in mind is that whatever you're using, keep it simple and easy to access. If your system is complicated, you will not use it. Simple is always better, in my opinion. So go with whatever feels easy and doable to you.
With your capture system, then you're going to regularly sort and plan. So you've got these inputs, and then you're going to set aside time to sort through those inputs. Sorting can look like categorizing by type of tasks, so it may be phone calls, drawings, submittals. Or you could even categories by project or client. I'm always thinking about how I can group like with like to minimize context switching, which keeps my brain in the same state or type of thought process, which just creates an easier, smoother workflow.
Sorting can also be a great time to look at what you can delegate. And I encourage you to push yourself a little bit here. What are you telling yourself has to be done by you, that doesn't actually need to be done by you or isn't critical that it's done by you? When you're planning, it's essentially making decisions ahead of time on what and how you'll address whatever it is that you've just sorted. Deciding ahead of time how you'll handle the input or how you're going to delegate is another way to calm your mind down.
You don't have to expend extra energy looping on when and if you'll do something, and when you're extra busy, you do not want to be wasting this precious brain space. You're likely going to want to have sorting and planning time on a daily basis. You might even want to have little check-ins with yourself maybe around lunchtime, towards the end of the day, think about whatever would work for your rhythm. And if you want more information on intentional planning, you can go back to episode three where I walk you through that in more detail.
The second time management tip I'm going to give you for when you're especially busy is to leverage small chunks of time. When you're planning or when you're doing that sorting process we just talked about, I want you to identify things that can be done in small chunks of time, maybe 5 to 15 minutes.
I find that when you're extra busy, there's usually a lot of these loose end type tasks that are typically quick to do, but they start to add up and then that can feel really heavy and daunting as they linger around. So make note of these quick action items or you could even sort them into their own group so that when you have small chunks of time, you can take advantage of the time instead of scrolling or whatever your time filling go-to activity is.
I want to encourage you to start looking for these times throughout your day where you do have a little bit of time here, a little bit of time there. There could, of course, be unexpected free time, and then there's also typically patterns that emerge when these little time blocks will happen if you're paying attention.
For example, I have a call every week with my coach. And the timing of it is such that when I'm done with that and ready to transition to something else, there's not a lot of time there between the end of the call and when my kids are home from school.
And it could be labeled as an awkward amount of time, but I can make it really effective for myself by taking care of some of those admin type tasks that I saved for that time knowing that that typically is a time when I don't want to start something new and I just want to take care of some of these 5 to 15 minute tasks.
The other thing you can think about here is when you like to do these types of quick tasks and when you're most effective at doing them. Some of my clients really like to do some of these at the beginning of the day, almost as a warm up to the workday.
Or you could do them at the end of the day, which is what I prefer to do when it feels like my brain has been working really hard all day and I don't want to have something that's mentally taxing. Typically, these 5 to 15 minute tasks are requiring less of me and so I like to do those at the end of the day.
The third tip I'm going to give you is to write down your top one to three no matter what results, I'll explain what that means, you're going to create at the start of your day. So what I mean by no matter what results are what are you going to get done today, no matter what. This is going to require you to be very intentional about what is important and prioritize your time, energy and attention.
When you're feeling really busy the tendency is to sit down at your desk and just dive right in. And I get it, I still want to do that sometimes. But what happens is it always ends up costing you time on the back end which is, of course, the thing you're trying to save. Setting your top three no matter whats will only take a few minutes. And there's actually research showing that when you sit down to work with a clear intention, your brain is twice as efficient. That's some serious ROI if you ask me.
When you define these one to three no matter what results, you're giving yourself the reminder throughout the day that these are the most important things. Because things are always going to be popping up, there's going to be a lot of input when you're busy and you might forget what's actually important. It's that case of the urgent starts to take over the important.
And so when we write down what those one to three top no matter what results are, then you can use that to come back and go, “Oh yeah, that's what I decided ahead of time is important.” And use that to anchor yourself during a busy time.
I want to round out with one bonus tip. When you're sorting and planning, I want you to delete ruthlessly. What I mean by that is what expectations or tasks are you piling on yourself that aren't necessary, that don't need to be done, don't need to be done right now? When you're deleting ruthlessly, a great question to ask yourself is, what do I need to say no to right now?
And I'd follow that up by what do you think is in your way of just saying no? It's often a mindset gap where we're worried about disappointing other people, we are not clear on what's producing results in our business and so there's some fear-based decision making happening. So get really clear about what you can say no to. Remember, when you say no to one thing, you get to say yes to something else.
And lastly, when you're deleting, don't delete you during a busy season. Make sure you stay on your own priority list. That saying you can't pour from an empty cup, it's not just a cute quote to put on Instagram. It's absolutely true. Make sure you are on the list.
Let's recap so you can sign off and get going with these tips. You're going to decide on a single capture system, or two if you want one for personal one for professional, to make it easy to sort and plan the input. You're going to identify what can be done in 5 to 15 minute chunks of time and leverage those small blocks of time. And then you're going to define your one to three no matter what results for the day. And lastly, this was the bonus, you're going to delete ruthlessly, but never yourself.
That's what I've got for you today, commit to doing these things and you will experience a significant change in how you approach your busy days, how you feel, and what you're able to accomplish, and also being clear on what you can let go. You're going to feel more in control, more clear-headed, and you'll get more of the right things done so when you're busy, you're effective, profitable, and you're actually moving the needle forward.
In the next episode I'm going to be sharing some thoughts and takeaways as we head into the end of the year that you are not going to want to miss. I'm thinking of the next episode as teeing you up for the most incredible 2023, and it's not anything like you've ever heard before. I can't wait to dive into that topic. And until then, I'm wishing you a beautiful week. I'll talk to you in the next episode.
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Hey designer, I have a special announcement for you. I recently wrapped up enrollment for my six month group coaching program, Out of Overwhelm. Since closing the doors I’ve heard from several of you that with the busyness of the end the year you didn’t get around to applying or you let yourself sit in that decision limbo until it was just too late. So I’ve been thinking about you. I’m not planning to open the doors to the program again until summer 2023 and I don’t want anyone, especially you, to miss out on the opportunity to get the support you want as we head into the new year.
Out of Overwhelm is my signature six-month program designed to take you from overwhelmed and stressed to profitable, in control, and fulfilled. I’ve decided to reopen enrollment leading up to our virtual kickoff retreat on January 10th. If you love the topics I’m covering on the podcast, you are going to love out of overwhelm. It is where we take these tool and I give you a consistent structure for applying them and we create the exact results you want personally and professionally, and you get to do it all with my support alongside your peers.
So this is your official invitation to join an intimate community of designers where you’ll get my personalized feedback whenever you need it. During our group calls, our monthly focus sessions, and also with daily coaching from me within our online community platform, you’ll always be moving forward.
Head to desicreswell.com/group-coaching or click the link in the show notes for all of the details and to apply. I review the applications personally to ensure it’s the best fit. You can also request to schedule time for us to connect live so I can answer any questions you have.
With the starts of the new year there has never been better time get back in the driver sear of your business. Join me in Out of Overwhelm. Click the link in the show notes to apply and get started January 10.
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To celebrate the launch of the show, I'm going to be giving away gift cards to Jayson Home, one of my favorite home decor sources. I'm going to be giving away $50 gift cards to five lucky listeners who follow, rate, and review the show.
Now, it doesn't have to be a five star review, although I sure hope you love the show. I want your honest feedback so I can create an amazing show that provides tons of value. Visit desicreswell.com/podcastlaunch to learn more about the contest and how to enter. I'll be announcing the winners on the show in an upcoming episode.
Thanks for joining me for this week's episode of The Interior Design Business CEO. If you want more tips, tools and strategies visit www.desicreswell.com. And if you're ready to take what you've learned on the podcast to the next level, I would love for you to check out my signature group coaching program, Out of Overwhelm.
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