Michelle Lynne 0:02
Welcome to design for the creative mind, a podcast for interior designers and creative entrepreneurs to run their business with purpose, efficiency and passion. Because, well, every design is different, the process should remain the same. Prepare yourself for some good conversations with amazing guests, a dash of Jesus and a touch of the woowoo. And probably a swear word or two. If you're ready to stop trading your time for money, and enjoy your interior design business, you are in the right place. I'm your host, Michelle Lynn.
Hey, y'all, welcome back to the podcast. And thank you for joining me on Episode Six. It's been a really fun launch. And I appreciate your support. It's interesting, I'm getting a little bit more comfortable behind the microphone. It's, I didn't ever think that that would I would say it. But I am more comfortable in front of the camera, where I can see other people's reactions than I am just in front of the microphone. So bear with me, I'll get the hang of this. And any sort of support that you can share or feedback via DMS on the Instagram or email or anything like that is always appreciated. And of course, if you're liking it, I definitely would appreciate some reviews wherever it is that you catch your podcasts. So for Episode Six, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about six time management tips to maximize productivity. We're all juggling so many things, if you are the owner of your interior design business, whether you are a solopreneur, or whether you are the leader of a team. It's a juggling act, and especially when you're trying to balance your friends and family and everything else that goes along with just being alive, you know, your health and wealth and, and so forth. So let's talk about how do you juggle all of this, and still remain productive and profitable and happy and just not chasing your tail all the time? Well, let me start by saying that it's not always perfect. And that there will be times that you fall behind schedule, things drop through the cracks, and so forth. And I'm just gonna say right away, give yourself some grace. We are not here curing cancer, we're not in the operating room, nobody's gonna die on our shift. We are interior designers, we are in the luxury industry. So we should deliver a luxury service. And that means amazing customer service client service. But give yourself a little bit of grace when things go awry. So I'm gonna start with that. Now, let's talk about like, we're going to start by setting goals. And then we're going to talk about how do you get those goals. That's your time management. Because time management without having a destination is simply reactionary. And that is more like being the thermostat versus the thermometer. Or know the thermometer versus the thermostat you will you want to be the thermostat setting the directions setting the temperature of your day of your week of your month of your year of your life, rather than the thermostat who is always in a reactive mode simply telling you what is going on. So I hope that analogy makes sense. And I didn't completely butcher it. If I did just stop and think about it, it totally makes sense. Let me interrupt myself to take a quick moment to thank satinath Insurance Agency for sponsoring this episode of The designed for the creative mind podcast. Their support and understanding of the interior design, decorating and home staging industries is unrivaled. Satin off understands what our businesses do, and they provide insurance that lets me sleep at night. Yep, this is the firm that I use. And they will do the same for your sleep habits and your business too. They're more than an insurance agency. They're an extension of my business. They take care of the worry because they are the experts which allows me and my team breathing room to do what we do best design beautiful spaces. You can find their contact information below in the show notes. Give them a call today. So first you have to start with what what are you dreaming? So what are your end results? Whether it is this year, or if you're setting three year results. I'm simply going to talk about a year and then I'm going to break it down into smaller bites so that you can do your time management tips and then we're gonna get a little bit more granular. But what is your dream for this year? Is it to be able to take your family on vacation is it to be able to work less Is it to make you know is it to hit the seven figures is it to hit the high six figures is it to take home a certain amount of money in regards to a portion of your revenue, whatever it is, if y'all listen to Grant Cardone, he is the dude who talks about 10x, everything 10 acts this like 10x that, well, and I'm gonna say, I'm in line with him, Take whatever you dream and 10 exit, because then what you're going to do is you're going to find yourself doing 10x The level of effort and doing what others won't do. Now, if you know me at all, I am all about not trading your time for money. So I'm not suggesting that you 10x your billing rate or your 10x the number of hours that you work, but you have to get strategic about how you go about it. Your goal is to dominate your sector and not compete. If you're doing what everybody else is doing, you're going to be getting what everybody else is doing. No, you're gonna be getting what everybody else is getting, you can tell this is slightly unscripted. So do what others won't do dominate your sector don't compete. So starting with these big goals in mind, you break them down into smaller tasks to move you towards these big goals. So if your goal is to start a podcast, like I just did, what you do is you break these big goals down into smaller bites. So I had the intention. Actually, if I'm in complete honesty, my goal was to have this podcast launched in 2020, it is now the end of the No it is when is this launching this will be the beginning of the second quarter of 2021. So again, Grace, it didn't get done when I wanted it to but it's getting done. But the way to go about getting these goals done is breaking these, the big goal down into smaller bites, what can you done, get done quarterly? And then break that down? And what can you get done monthly, weekly and daily. And we'll talk about that in just a moment. Because I want to point out that we always overestimate what we can get done in a day. But we underestimate what we can do in a year. So that goes back to the big 10x way of what you're dreaming like dream big, big dream. Big, because even if you don't hit that goal, even if you don't reach that dream, you are probably still playing bigger than you would have before. And let's admit it, nobody wants to nobody wants to dream small and hit it, rock on up, I made 50 bucks. No, you want to dream really big, and then exceed what you thought you could do, even if you're not hitting that goal exactly as it is. But you might even exceed that goal. Because maybe you're dreaming a little bit too small, maybe you're playing conservative thinking that you're dreaming big. It's amazing how our mind will trick us into trying to play small, so we don't get hurt. But let's talk about it. We're gonna call it your big, hairy, scary goal. My big, hairy scary goal was to launch this podcast. So what you do is you break your steps down, you write them all out, understand exactly what they are, I did this, and I broke it down into what I needed to get done by the quarter, then you take those quarterly goals and you spread them out over the next three months. And then you take those goals for the monthly tasks that need to be done. And you insert those into your weeks. And then from those weeks, you insert them into your days. So you're breaking this goal down. And it might have 25 tasks that need to be accomplished before you can actually launch. But taking those 25 Goal 25 tasks and breaking them down over let's just say three months, or six months or the entire year just because it's working in with so many other things that are folded into your business. It's a lot more manageable. Now in all honesty, I actually tried to launch my podcast on my own. And then I thought I would take my own advice and I outsourced it. That is part of my delay. There's going to be times where you look at this and you're like, you know what, it's going to be a lot easier and a lot less expensive. And by expensive, I mean the return on investment what was turning out to take me an extended period of time, I could easily pay somebody to do it in a shorter amount of time. And the number of dollars that I paid this individual I could easily make by doing what I'm best at. So there are some times when outsourcing is definitely the best idea. And I was practicing what I preach. But there are those things that you can't break down and And compare that you can't outsource that you do need to break down. Now, once you get these goals outlined and on your schedule, then you have your day to day operations. Okay, let's talk about your day to day operations,
you're going to be taking a look at reviewing all of your incoming projects. So we call that your pipeline, what's in what's what's, what are your prospects and what's in your pipeline. And then you're taking a look at the projects that are in process. And then you have potentially personal appointments that you need to be looking at. And then you have deadlines that you have to meet for, maybe it's writing your blog, or getting your social media down or anything that you are not outsourcing. Again, I'm a big, big, big proponent of outsourcing, we'll have another episode on what you should outsource here coming soon. So on your calendar, take time every single Friday to look ahead, at least one to two weeks to see what appointments and deadlines you have coming up and see what prep work you might need to be doing in advance. Because it's never fun to find out that you have a client meeting scheduled Thursday at two o'clock, that you don't remember until Thursday morning, when you wake up and you look at your calendar, and you need to be prepared for this meeting. If you're looking ahead, you know, I've got that meeting in a week and a half or in two weeks, I need to be preparing sooner than later. And then you can actually block time out on your calendar to prepare for that meeting and not at the last minute. One of the things that I work with with my team, and I've taught them and they exhibit very well is you need to think ahead for yourself. Because if you wake up, let's just say that Thursday morning that you have your meeting with the client and you need to be prepared for it. Let's say you wake up that morning and you have a headache or you stub your toe or you get into an argument with your significant other, or your kids throwing up or you get a you know a flat tire or something on your way back from the grocery run or whatever it eats into that Thursday morning that you might have set aside to prepare for your Thursday afternoon meeting. And you will not be nearly as well prepared mentally, or just in general. So if you plan ahead and have yourself prepared a day or two in advance, at a minimum, you are going to operate your best when you are in front of your client. So take time every Friday to look ahead at least one to two weeks to see what appointments and deadlines you have coming up. And that way you can do any prep work needed. This includes any prospects that are coming down your pipeline that you need to meet and be prepared for every client is a little bit different. But you should still have a process where you are putting together some sort of preparation or presentation so that they understand how you're going to deliver their design when they choose to hire you. So if it's construction, it's going to be a little bit different of a presentation than if it's simply decorating. So knowing what's coming down the pipeline will allow you to prepare and put your best foot forward. Additionally, each Friday ensure you have your daily planning list created. So as we were talking about your big, hairy, scary goal and breaking it down and getting these goals worked in to your day to day routine, you should have your daily planning lists created, whether you're working on Asana or Trello, or a good old fashion printed planner, which admittedly I'm a combination of, of electronic as well as printed. But you should have your daily planning list created for the upcoming two weeks. So that if you do have that aforementioned Thursday afternoon appointment with your client, let's just say it's to conduct an interview on the design that you are in the process of launching and creating, then you are blocking time out literally on your daily planner, literally on your calendar or literally creating a task on your calendar in Asana so that you are prepared. And like I said, you're thinking and preparing for yourself. That goes back to what I've recently learned is called the Pomodoro method. And this is where you time block your calendar into two and a half or three hour segments and don't let anything distract you. I read somewhere and I can't remember the don't completely quote me on this. But I read somewhere that it takes somewhere between 18 and 22 minutes to get back into the zone. On your focus, whatever you're doing if you've been interrupted, so if you're in the zone, creating a beautiful design, let's just say you're creating the floor plan, and you have all of these ideas, and they're just, they're just flowing out of you. And then you see your phone rings, and you pick it up. And it's, I don't know, a sales call, well, it's gonna take you, I think, 18 to 22 minutes to get back into the zone from that one interruption. So if you can set a timer for every two and a half to three hours, you can work in these two and a half to three hours segments, and you get more done without the interruptions. So that means put it on your calendar, for a three hour time block to design, you know, miss these living room, then to design mysteries kitchen, or however you need to mix it up. Or maybe it is, hey, I have a hair appointment in the afternoon. So in the morning, I'm gonna have to get these three things done, they all tie together, I'm going to hammer out these three basic details, whatever it might be, when you have these time blocks, and you don't let anything distract you. What I mean by anything is your phone, do not pick up the phone, turn it upside down, silence it, only let your alarm interrupt you so that you know that your your time block is done. Don't flip flop back and forth between your email, check your email one, two, maybe three times a day, actually, we're going to talk about that in just a second, I'll tell you how I do it. Don't let your email run your business. So third, so phone email. Third is don't take a quick look at the news. I used to distract myself by flipping over to the Yahoo News and looking to see what's going on. And then you get sucked down a bunny trail, I wanted to see what the weather was going to be like in Texas, and all of a sudden, I'm reading about, you know, the Royals in the in the United Kingdom. And I'm going down this bunny trail. So don't flip flop between the news. And again, the same thing with your outbound phone calls. If you need to make outbound phone calls to talk to vendors to get anything done related to even what you're working on, is jot that down and include that and maybe your last 30 minutes of your time block. If you have the Google Calendar, you can even go through and color code it and I know there's like 900 Other Calendars that you can use, but you can color code it by team members by tasks, working on that and blocking it out. Know that it can be give yourself the grace that if you don't get something done on Tuesday morning, like you were supposed to, that you can move that time block to maybe Wednesday morning. So leave a little bit of whitespace in your calendar so that you can get some of the things that you didn't get completed, finished or you can move your time block and let that let your calendar do a little dance. So remember, we always overestimate what we can get done in a day. But we underestimate what we can do in a year.
Y'all this podcast episode was made possible in part by foyer, a lightning fast interior design software that creates photorealistic renderings. I'm not kidding, you can barely tell that it's not a real room. So why don't leave your beautiful designs up to the imagination of your client, when you can show them what their space is going to look like. You will sign more clients and get more approvals with the software. It's powered by artificial intelligence, and a whole vouch for its ease, because if I can do it, anybody can. Because y'all know that my design team are the ones who do all the work, find [email protected] as well as in the show notes. Now, back to those emails, y'all. Emails can be the tail wagging the dog. And what I mean by that is that you can go down this bunny trail of responding to every single email that comes into your inbox. And if it looks like mine, if your inbox looks like mine, this could literally take you a year just to respond to every email. So be selective with the emails that you respond to. A thanks is plenty you don't have to go into detail. A I'll get back to you is plenty you don't have to get go into detail. The emails that are imperative are the ones that are closest to the money and what I mean by that is if it is project related, if it is client related, if it is a relationship that will bring you business related, those are the emails that are are of the utmost importance. So check your emails, I checked mine three times a day, I checked it in the morning. Now, I want to make it very, very clear that I am diligently working on not checking my email prior to my office hours. Even if you're working from home, you should set boundaries for your office hours, my office hours are nine until five. So I'm checking my email at nine o'clock when I get to the air quotes here office. So check it in the morning, anything that's on fire, you respond to set yourself a time block for one hour worth of emails, if you get done early, then you get you dive into your next task. If you get done late, then you stop at 10 o'clock, or whatever time your office hours are. And you get back to it the second time you check your your mail, and that's at noon. I check it from 12 until one roughly sometimes it's earlier, sometimes it's later. And anything that's come in over the course of the day, delete, delete, delete half the time, and then the other ones I can reply to accordingly. And then again, right at the end of the day. So at four o'clock, I am taking a look at any emails that have come in between, say one o'clock and four o'clock delete, delete, delete, reply, reply, reply, do what you need to do, put a task for the follow up, follow up the following day, so you don't forget about anything. And then you can close your email and know that everything has been taken care of, until the following morning, when you get to the office again, don't check it before bed that just gives you anxiety. Don't check it when you first wake up that just gets your day started way too early, you have to be diligent about these boundaries. And like I said, this is something that I work on. Sometimes I'm really good at not checking it first thing in the morning. Other times, that's when I get a lot of my work done. So if you have a busy day, and you want the peace of mind, check your email when you first wake up, get up a little bit early, whatever the case may be, but don't make it a regular practice have those boundaries. While you're in your calendar, schedule, some downtime, y'all, you have to make time to recharge, you cannot operate at your optimal if you are burning the candle at both ends. And I'm telling you that from my own deer experience, there's going to be busy seasons, absolutely, there's going to be times when you're running around with your hair on fire, because you've got so much business you don't know what to do with it. That's a good thing. But it cannot last for an extended period of time. So make sure you put time on the calendar for yourself. Even if it is just silence. Even if it is just time to read a book, even if it is time to go get a mani pedi even if it is time to take a nap. And sometimes those naps just sneak up on you. And you just need to follow through and listen to your body. Even if it's not on your calendar. That's what I mean by leaving some additional whitespace on your calendar. So that if you don't finish your Pomodoro block, because you need that nap, give yourself permission to do so and schedule the other half of your Pomodoro block, whatever it is that you interrupted because he needed a nap, to finish. If he pushed through and you're not giving yourself the grace of recharging, you're going to be a lot less efficient, effective, or even creative. So you have to rest and recharge what refills your tank. Is it going to the museum? Is it going for a walk? Is it going for a run? Is it whatever? Make sure you give yourself the ability to do that because it's going to make you a better designer in the long run, which is going to provide you better portfolios, better clients, better prices and all sorts of things. Yes, a nap can do that for you. And finally, I'm going to tell you to put the damn phone down, put the damn phone down. I now I'm guilty. I love social media. I love the social aspect of it. I love looking through the pretty pictures. I love looking for the inspiration. I love the dopamine hit that I get every single time somebody gives me a thumbs up or a comment or shares my story or something like that. But you have to put the phone down while you're working. It goes back to that interruption. It's not just picking up a phone call. It's also picking up a phone to check your Instagram. There is not a single COMMENT, LIKE SHARE, or DM that can't wait until your until you check it check your Phone, check your social media when you're checking your email, build in a boundary for yourself so that you are not getting sucked in because we all know how easy it is, oh, I'm just gonna scroll for five minutes. And then 15 or 30 minutes later, you're like, oh my god, I lost all that time, you're doing yourself a disservice because that time is time that you could be creating beauty. And that's what you get paid for. So six time management tips to maximize productivity. Start with the big goals in mind and break them down into smaller tasks to move you towards the goal. Take time every Friday to look ahead at least one to two weeks and see what appointments and deadlines you have coming up and do any prep work needed. Do it in advance, Think for yourself in advance. Time block your calendar in two to three hour segments and don't let anything distract you. This is called the Pomodoro method. For schedule your time to check emails, do not let your inbox dictate your day. Five, scheduled downtime, and six put the damn phone down. So those are the tenants that we run ml interiors group by are we perfect at it? No. But we know what they are. So when we get off task, we can get back on to tack on to the entendre. When we get off task we can get back on track, knowing what they are and doing them are sometimes two different things. So start getting in the habit to discipline yourself for your time management tips to maximize your productivity, and watch your productivity soar. So for those of you who can benefit from even more resources surrounding the business of running your interior design business, join the growing community on Facebook on my Facebook's private group. It's called the interior designers business Launchpad. Every week, I hop on there for a few minutes and give you even more training. And I'd love to interact with you. Like I said, sometimes being behind the behind the microphone and not having somebody whom I know on the other end is a little awkward. So let's get to know each other a little bit better. Interior Designers business Launchpad. In the meantime, if you like what you hear, and don't forget to give me a review on the podcast wherever you listen. Thanks. And I'll see you next time. Hey, y'all, if you love the show and find it useful, I would really appreciate it if you would share with your friends and followers. And if you like what you're hearing, want to put a face with the name and get even more business advice. Then join me in my Facebook group, the interior designers business launch pad. Yeah, I know it's Facebook, but just come on in for the training and then leave without scrolling your feet. It's fine. I promise you'll enjoy it. And finally, I hear it's good for business to get ratings on your podcast. So please drop yours on whatever platform you use to listen to this. We're all about community over competition. So let's work on elevating our industry, one designer at a time. See you next time.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
