Welcome back for another installment of Entrepreneurial, my monthly journal entry chronicling my experience as an entrepreneur, my victories and failures each month, and the lessons learned along the way.
Time Flies When You’re Productive
As I sit here writing this I honestly can’t believe that May is nearly over. For most of the month, I thought it was still April. This was my own fault because I forgot to change over some calendars in my office and without “seeing” that it was May, my brain kept thinking it was April. Ugh! But May was a really wonderful month for as much of it as I can remember. It’s been something of a blur for me and I think that’s because I have been super productive this month! Like I mentioned last month, I finally have my routines in order and because of that I was able to get myself a week ahead on my work. So although this post is being published on May 31st, it’s being written on the 23rd! Same goes for my YouTube videos which are also filmed and scheduled a full week in advance. Being ahead of your work is a great feeling and I attribute all this productivity and success to my established routines.
What I Didn’t Do!
1. I didn’t work on any new products. Instead I knocked out a few project that have been lingering on my to do list for a while. Things like sales pages and FAQs for my shop. Little odds and ends that didn’t take a long time to complete, but just kept being
2. Skimp on self care. Self care has been a major part of my new routine. Nearly every night I do something for myself and spend quite time reading or listening to podcasts. It feels so luxurious to be able to pamper myself and I’m glad I am putting myself first for the first time in a while!
3. Waste time on social media. Because I have been executing on my new routine consistently, I have found that I end up wasting less time on social media. Before, I might have spent a few hours checking Instagram or YouTube, but recently, I have seriously cut back and its given me more time for myself and my business.
What I Did Do!
1. Got my Twitter under control. This is thanks to my assistant who has been managing my tweets not really me, but getting my twitter under control has been a major task on my to-do list for over a year. It’s great to be able to check that off now that there is a system in place.
2. Planned out some great promotions. This month I ran a special promotion for my email subscribers that I think was a great success. I also spent a good amount of time outlining a major promotion that will be going on in the next few weeks.
3. A few secret things I can’t mention yet. Most of this month was focused on a major project that I can’t wait to announce but can’t really talk about right now. Don’t worry, you will hear about it once its good to go and I’m super excited for all the great content and behind the scenes I will be able to share with you!
What I Learned!
1. Routines really work. Once I got my routines under control in April, I was able to make major progress in May with my work. I love waking up knowing exactly what I am going to do for the day and then finishing my work and tasks in time to relax, enjoy dinner and have
2. Trust the process. This isn’t something I just learned, instead it’s something that I knew and had to remind myself a lot this month. Sometimes I work on a project or a piece of content and don’t see it doing very well, but then I step back and see the overall progress and realize that things are moving in the right direction. It’s so important to trust the process and remember that individual events or results all add up to overall progress.
3. My shortcomings. Now that I am on a schedule and executing on my routines I find that I am seeing myself and my flaws much more clearly. I don’t mean this in a negative or demeaning way, instead, I feel like in getting myself on track I am seeing the truth about my shortcomings that I use to explain away or make excuses for. It was easy to ignore a specific problem I was having and chalk it up to being stressed or overworked or too busy, but now that I have my schedule in order I see that I am really the cause of my problem. Obviously this is something I’m going to file under my own personal development and will have to think about and make a plan to correct if I want to see my problems solved but its definitely something worth noting and I hope my insight can help you as well!
I hope you enjoyed this installment of Entrepreneurial and perhaps picked up some new insight or a strategy you didn’t think of before. I’d love to hear how your month went, so please let me know what you learned by leaving me a comment down below!
Thank you! Always motivating.
I will forever struggle to stick with a routine. I over organize my planner then barely stick to it!
Trust the process a big big lessons for me too, along with everything isn’t black and white.I love how you added what you learned and “shortcomings.” It’s so true it’s easier to see once you’re on a schedule and executing. Great stuff!
Congrats with having you routines nailed down! could you share your process? Did you start with evening routines first then implemented morning? I know what I have to do but find the task overwhelming