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Avoid Burnout With Our Anti-Burnout Business Plan

September 19, 2022

As much as we’d like to promise you’ll never burn out again just by reading this article, that simply wouldn’t be true and isn’t something anyone can guarantee you.

What we can guarantee you, however, is that this article will help you put anti-burnout guardrails in place and assist you in the creation of a solid foundation for your business that is best FOR YOU and YOUR specific situation.

We want to share with you how we’ve learned to avoid burnout in our two businesses (Teachery + WAIM).

The goal of this article is to help you take actionable steps to avoid that dreaded moment when everything feels like too much and you have to take an extended break from your biz.

We’ve divided this article into four parts:

šŸ¤” Part 1: Setting realistic expectations (and enough-based goals)

In this part, you get to define your enough number (and MMM number if you don’t know it). We’ll explain below what both “enough” and “MMM” numbers mean. We also recommend avoiding listening to the overnight success advice and turning your months-long timelines into years-long timelines. We believe that patience is an important part of the anti-burnout process. Embrace the idea that slow-and-steady is better than fast-and-leading-to-a-mental-breakdown.

šŸ’¼ Part 2: Choosing the right business model FOR YOU

In part two, we identify the business model that’s right for YOU (and not just one you followed because of someone else’s story). We also start acknowledging that you will have to eat a few “shit sandwiches” (more on this later). We’ll share why using an experimenter’s mindset is helpful for weathering the inevitable tough moments and we want you to give yourself permission to pivot to a different business model if things aren’t working.

šŸ™…ā€ā™‚ļø Part 3: Setting boundaries (and how you can implement these steps in day-to-day business and life)

In the 3rd part of this article, we tackle setting your daily work hour boundaries. We talk about drawing your lines in the sand (days you don’t do calls, your response times, how to contact you, etc) and creating an inspiring and motivating workspace tailored for the way YOU work. In doing this, you get to define how you best work and build good habits for finding “flow.” Additionally, we encourage you to put intentional breaks on your calendar like daily walks, days off [GASP!], content breaks, etc.

šŸ”„ Part 4: Acknowledging burnout WHEN burnout happens and putting up guardrails to help you avoid burning out again

In this final part, we acknowledge that you will burn out (or burn out again). We hope you will come to accept that WE ALL EXPERIENCE BURNOUT ā¤ļø. We’ll finish up by talking about building your burnout savings, not allowing burnout to affect your self-worth, and defining what you need if you’re currently burned out.

Without further ado, let’s dive into the first partā€¦


Part 1: Setting realistic expectations and enough-based goals to avoid burnout

The first key step to avoiding burnout starts with goal-setting. You may already be aware of why goal-setting is important but if you’ve run into burnout many times, it might be time to switch up your goal-setting approach.

Why goal setting matters to avoid burnout in your business

1ļøāƒ£ Not setting any goals can keep you constantly striving for more. If you don’t set any goals at all, your brain will likely fill in the gap with its familiar fallback setting: MORE. Your mind will tell you to do more, grow more, hire more, create more, and work more, without ever really asking itself what all that more is in the pursuit of. That’s a recipe for burnout, please ask us how we know šŸ‘©šŸ»ā€šŸ¦°šŸ‘ØšŸ»ā€šŸ¦²šŸ˜¬.

When goal-setting doesn't happen

When we don’t set goals our eyes are bigger than we’re capable of handling.

2ļøāƒ£ Huge goals with short timelines are a recipe for disaster. If you do happen to set goals, but the scale is too big in too rushed of a timeline (i.e. every “how to make $100,000* in 30 days” YouTube headline!), that is ALSO a recipe for burnout.

šŸ™‹ *Please raise your hand if you’ve bought into these lofty promises only to realize it’s A) completely unrealistic and B) totally unsustainable for YOUR life.

So what’s the antidote we want to share and how can goal-setting help you avoid burnout?

Our recommended burnout antidotes

  1. Set realistic expectations for yourself and define your goals based on an “enough” mindset. This will help you know what it is exactly you’re working toward, and what you ARE and AREN’T willing to sacrifice in order to achieve it.
  2. Creating a longer, more realistic timeframe to hit your (enough) goals is THE most important way you can avoid burning out. But first, you have to establish your enough goals so you know what the heck you are even striving for!

Creating a realistic timeframe to hit your (enough) goals is THE most important way you can avoid burning out with your business.

Setting “enough goals.”

What we mean by “enough goals” are goals that begin with you asking yourself this question:

What does ENOUGH look like in my life? (Enough money, enough subscribers, enough followers, enough time, etc.)

Your enough goals will be different from anyone else’s, but that’s a good thing! Not everyone needs to run a $100k/year business, or needs to do 5/6-figure launches, or needs to build a team, etc. Instead, it’s about defining what would be enough for YOU, individually, to live a good and satisfying life. That’s why all those folks promising you wild success in short amount of time are only going to lead you to burning out, because they’re likely pointing you in a direction toward a goal that’s supposed to be one-size-fits-all, not one that’s tailor-made FOR YOU.

An enough number for your business is an amount of money generated by your business every month/year that would accomplish all your personal goals, but that wouldn’t require you to burn out trying to achieve it.

Defining your Monthly Minimum Magic (MMM) number

But how do you begin to identify your enough number? A good place to start is by defining what we call your Monthly Minimum Magic (MMM) number. This number is your baseline expensesā€”just the things you absolutely need for each month. It’s the amount of money you need your business to make in order to basically break even. If you’ve never set an MMM number, we would highly recommend doing it right now. Your MMM number should include:

  • Bare bones living expenses +
  • Minimum payments on any debts +
  • Lowest possible amount of business expenses +
  • A peace of mind cushion
  • (As an example, let’s say your MMM number equals $3,500 per month)

Think of your MMM number as the LEAST amount of money you could possibly live on each month, without feeling like you have to eat Ramen noodles at every meal!

Then, with your MMM number known, tack on (realistic) extra things that would bring you to that level of feeling really satisfied and secure in your life. It could be:

  • Additional savings
  • Wealth redistribution + donation to causes you care about
  • A complete debt payoff plan
  • Future down payment for a home
  • Nice-to-haves that would improve your overall wellbeing
  • Anything else you define for YOUR life!
  • (As a follow-up example, let’s say these additional items equal $4,000 per month, your total enough number would be $7,500 per month)

Your MMM number + realistic extras = YOUR enough number

What you’ll find (we’ve seen this over and over again since we’ve been talking about and teaching folks to define enough) is that your specific enough number is less than you may think, and it’s probably also less than that arbitrary number you’ve been striving for in the past! Your previous self has been following someone else’s number, not defining what amount of money would be considered enough for YOU.

Setting realistic expectations for YOUR timeline

Now that you know what number you’re aiming for, we can figure out how long it’s going to take to achieve that specific (for you!) goal.

The online business world is far too saturated with messages about “building your business overnight” and “hitting $10k months in just a few weeks” and “creating a 6-figure business by following a few simple steps.” To be 100% honest with you, all of that messaging is garbage #sorrynotsorry.

Taking out the business trash

What we should all do with “build your biz overnight” promises.

The truth is, to succeed with your online business, it is going to take WAYYYYYY more time than you probably hope/want. Coming to terms with this fact should actually feel empowering because you can take the pressure off yourself and your business a bit. If you simply embrace and understand that you’re in this for the long haul, you can avoid the trappings of working 12+ hour days, weekends, and still feeling like you’re not achieving your goals at the pace you’re supposed to.

Instead of thinking your business has to reach some “finish line” in the next 3-6 months, what if you planned for it to take 3-6 years?

Instead of seeing a small, finite, jam-packed schedule ahead of you (that will cause you to burn out), what if you zoomed the lens out a bit and gave yourself a realistic timeline that feels spacious instead of angst-filled? If you did that, you may find yourself less focused on the short-term, immediate result and more focused on making sure the journey feels good along the way. (You can see how extending your timeline helps stave off burnout.)

Prioritizing patience helps avoid burnout

Patience and business go hand-in-hand, it’s just that no one will try to sell you an online course about being more patient because no one would buy that course. However, and we saw this ourselves when we built Wandering Aimfully, planning ahead to prioritize patience in your business approach will get you through the inevitable tough patches.

šŸ‘‰ Patience will help you overcome the revenue dips and lackluster launches.

šŸ‘‰ Patience will reassure you when the social media algorithms change.

šŸ‘‰ Patience will calm your brain when a successful marketing effort stops working or when a sales funnel that was working goes kaput.

The ultimate irony of anyone telling you that you can succeed overnight, in the next 30 days, etc, is that you are likely in pursuit of EVENTUALLY having a calm and profitable business. Yet, the stress and work you’d have to put in (that 99.9% of the time won’t actually get you there) to see results on this hyper-speed timeline will take your life and stress levels in the opposite direction of calm and profitable.

That’s why a 3-6 year plan to reach your enough number is the crucial first step in our anti-burnout business plan. It’s time to stop buying into the idea that you can fast-track success just because someone sells you on a new way to skip all the hard work. Hard work is where success comes from, but with proper (enough) goal-setting, timeline planning, and patience, building your business doesn’t have to be an arduous, frustrating process.

We’re happy to be riding the (slower) anti-burnout business train šŸš‚ and we’d love for you to join us!

āš”ļø PART 1 RECAP āš”ļø

Here’s what Part 1ļøāƒ£ of building an anti-burnout business takes:

  • Define your enough number (and MMM number if you don’t know it)
  • Stop listening to the overnight success advice
  • Zoom the lens out and turn your months-long timelines into years-long timelines
  • See patience as an important part of the anti-burnout process
  • Embrace the idea that slow-and-steady is better than fast-and-leading-to-a-mental-breakdown

 


Part 2: Choosing the right business model to avoid burnout

Building a business of ease and freedom starts with making sure your foundation actually lends itself toā€¦ ease and freedom!

No business model is perfect and different business models bring different types of stressors.

If your business is built on a foundation that requires you to stay on an endless content treadmill (like a YouTube sponsorship model, for example) when producing content is especially taxing for you, that’s a recipe for burnout. Or maybe your business model requires you to work 1-and-1 with clients when you don’t do well with other people’s expectations and schedules; that’s also going to lead you to burnout.

Identifying a business model that’s right for YOU!

You have to find a revenue-generating business model that aligns with what you enjoy doing most AND what you’re best at.

A lot of people choose a business model they think will make them successful (because, maybe someone on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, or in your email inbox convinced you there was an “easy road to success”). The truth is, no business model is perfect and different business models bring different types of stressors.

Want to run a digital product business?

Awesome! It’s a very low-barrier-to-entry business model and if you’re a creative person with lots of ideas, this model gives you the freedom to express those ideas. However, you will have to navigate some technology to create and deliver your digital product. Then, as time goes on, you’ll probably need to update that product with new info. Also, other folks may want you to believe that digital products sell passively, but while that CAN happen, the reality is that you will likely find yourself constatntly writing sales emails, sales copy, and tweaking your sales strategy to bring in consistent sales.

What about a membership or paid community?

The recurring revenue is great with a membership or paid community, and if you love teaching or helping people in scalable way, this model can be great. But the reality is that you will need to show up for your customers on a recurring basis for them to continue to pay you. And, with recurring payments comes the admin work of dealing with failed payments and cancelations.

šŸ“Œ Related reading: We have an in-depth article if you want to know EVERYTHING we’ve learned about running a paid membership community with our WAIM Unlimited program.)

Those are just two options. There are many other business types and models to explore. The key for you is to understand which one is right for your situation AND to make sure you’re up for all the challenges that any business model will bring (but maybe pick the one with the least challenges to avoid burnout šŸ˜˜šŸ˜˜).

Which flavor of “shit sandwich” do you want to eat?

Elizabeth Gilbert talks about this idea of a “shit sandwich” in her book, Big Magic. What she means by that phrase is: there are going to be parts of any creative process that aren’t particularly enjoyable but that are worth choosing anyway. Your job is to decide which flavor of “shit sandwich” you’re willing to eat aka which sucky parts you’re willing to move through.

The truth is, when it comes to running a business, there are going to be crappy parts that take away from the joyful and awesome stuff. Find the business model or revenue strategy that feels worth it to you, even when you take into consideration the parts that are less than ideal.

When goal-setting doesn't happen

An anti-burnout business model means you’re trying to maximize spending time and energy on the good stuff you LOVE and are passionate about. But, you’re also smart enough to acknowledge there will be hard problems to solve and you’re choosing a specific business model because the positives outweigh the negatives.

What if you don’t know which “shit sandwich” you’re willing to eat yet??

You won’t know which “shit sandwich” you are willing to eat until you actually try different business models. This isn’t a bad thing. Remember, thankfully it’s a metaphorical sandwich šŸ˜†šŸ˜‚.

  • āŒšŸ„Ŗ You might find you don’t actually love selling digital products through Etsy and while it seems attractive, there are just too many parts that aren’t right for you.
  • āŒšŸ„Ŗ You may start selling an online course, only to realize you don’t want to talk about that content topic any longer (hello, that’s me [JasonšŸ‘ØšŸ»ā€šŸ¦²] and my ‘How To Get Sponsorships’ course).
  • āŒšŸ„Ŗ You could fire up an awesome membership but notice quickly that the pressure to show up for customers (and keep track of their payments) is just too much for the hours you have available to work.

Sometimes the only way to discover these options aren’t right for you is to experience the burnout that comes with them, which will ultimately allow you to course-correct.

We said it before and we’ll say it again: You WILL probably burnout at some pointā€”and sometimes that’s even the only way to know what shit sandwich ISN’T worth itā€”but the key is trying to have your burnout be as painless as possible and not like a volcanic eruption.

Use an experimenter’s mindset! šŸ‘©ā€šŸ”¬šŸ‘Øā€šŸ”¬

We’ve said this for years and it’s one of the best mindset shifts we ever made in online business. It IS emotional when you’re creating your own business. You DO feel some attachment to it and it can hurt when things don’t go to plan. Butā€¦ If you can always think of yourself as a scientist, constantly experimenting your way through product building, content creation, marketing, sales, customer support, etc then it becomes easier to deal with things when they go wrong.

You likely won’t be able to read this article and magically think your way to the business model that’s right for you. Instead, you’ll have to try a few versions of something, fail at a few things, and experiment through different ideas until you feel what’s right. The important part is to check in with yourself at each step of the way to see if what you’re doing is sustainable long-term.

Run your business like a dog scientist

You, as an [experimenting] business person.

When (not if, sorry) something goes wrong in your business, instead of feeling like your self-worth got punched in its gut, you can simply see it as a failed experiment: “Well, that didn’t go to plan, and it sucks, but here’s what I learned and now I’m going to do XYZ to avoid having that happen again.”

Everythingā€¦ and we mean EVERYTHING is an experiment in online business. The more you can reframe everything that way, the easier the hits are to take when they come your way.

Give yourself permission to pivot to avoid burnout

And don’t be afraid to pivot! Maybe you’re running a digital product business and it’s not as passive as you’d hoped. Or maybe you’re thinking of creating a membership to shift to more recurring income? No matter where you are, take it from two people who completely blew up their businesses in 2018 and essentially started from square one. Success won’t happen overnight, but you absolutely can completely change things up and create an anti-burnout business šŸ’ŖšŸ™…šŸ”„.

āš”ļø PART 2 RECAP āš”ļø

Here’s what Part 2ļøāƒ£ of building an anti-burnout business takes:

  • Identifying a business model that’s right for YOU (and not just one you followed because of someone else’s story)
  • Acknowledging that you will have to eat a few “shit sandwiches”
  • Using an experimenter’s mindset to better weather the inevitable tough moments
  • Giving yourself permission to pivot to a different business model if things aren’t working

 


Part 3: Let’s talk about how BOUNDARIES help avoid business burnout

We’ve talked about creating a foundation that is sustainable for you, in this next part, we’re going to focus on your day-to-day actions and how those actions can keep you from over-extending yourself.

One of the quickest ways to ride the bullet train to Burnout Town is by not having firm boundaries. When it comes to the amount of hours you work each day and what things take priority on your to-do list, it’s important to remember (if you work for yourself) that YOU are your own boss!

You make the schedule, you set the priorities each day/week/month, so it’s within your power to make sure you’re not burning the candle at both ends.

Working from home GIF

ā° The importantance of work hour boundaries

Many years ago when Caroline was working with clients doing brand design, she found herself feeling like there were never enough hours in the day and she was always behind schedule. To solve this problem, we sat down in front of her calendar and started by asking the question, “how many hours do you WANT to work?” After some chatting, it was decided that 5 hours of dedicated client work per day was most realistic, and the hours of 10am – 4pm (with an hour break for lunch) were her most productive. From that moment forward, a boundary was put in place for those specific work hours. She started building her client proposals based on these time blocks available on her calendar. And guess what happened? Almost immediately she felt more productive and in control, as she knew when she needed to get into work mode, and then she had a stopping time each day so she wouldn’t overwork herself.

When was the last time you SET your working hour boundaries?

You may have started your business to escape the 9am-5pm schedule, but it IS helpful to have set working hours based on your lifestyle and when you want to fit work into it.

Keep in mind you can also adapt this idea for how you work best. Maybe it’s not the same exact hours each day. Maybe you need something more flexible and adaptable to your energy. The most important part is that you ask yourself the question and set the intention NOT to overwork.

Whether you’re a seasoned pro or you’re just getting started with your biz, now would be the perfect time to sit down and answer these two questions:

  • How many hours do I realistically want to work per day?
  • What are my most productive working hours?

Once you have those answers, put that schedule on your calendar the next few weeks and try it out!

šŸ™…ā€ā™€ļøšŸ™…šŸ™…ā€ā™‚ļø What are your “lines in the sand” when it comes to work?

To set a “line in the sand” simply means to establish a boundary you’re not willing to cross.

To set a “line in the sand” simply means to establish a boundary you’re not willing to cross. It’s helpful to take some time and ask yourself, “what rules do I want to establish about the way I conduct my business?” These rules can be instrumental in not engaging in behaviors that drain you or lead you to exhaustion.

For example, quite awhile ago, I (Jason šŸ‘‹) found myself on phone calls, interviews, or having online meetings on Mondays and Fridays. I DREADED THEM. Monday calls killed my beginning of the week momentum and Friday calls interrupted my end-of-week push to tie up loose ends and transition calmly into the weekend. Then, I had a moment of realization: Why am I doing this to myself!?? There’s no rule that says I have to take calls on Mondays or Fridays, so why the heck am I doing that? Pretty soon after that moment, I put a boundary in place to NOT do calls on Mondays or Fridays. If someone reached out and only had those days available, I would kindly say I don’t schedule calls on those two days but am happy to chat Tues-Thurs. There hasn’t been a single time in nearly a decade when I’ve had to break this boundary.

If you work with clients (or have customers of a digital product), one of the lines in the sand you absolutely must draw is your expected response times.

Those of you with clients have most definitely run into the late night email/text/DM where a client has an “urgent” request. But, just because something is urgent for them does NOT mean it has to be urgent for YOU. The way we learned to get around this issue is to put a boundary in place early on where you’re 100% honest about your response time. Two things we’ve done that work really well:

  1. Tell your clients/customers the turnaround response time they should expect. (I usually say to expect a response within 48 hours, even though I typically reply in the first 24 hours.)
  2. Tell your clients/customers your working hours, but make sure they know that’s their time to contact you if they need you. (“I work between 11am – 4pm each day, and am juggling a few clients, but I try to get back to everyone in our agreed upon turnaround time.”)

Just because something is urgent for your client or customer does NOT mean it has to be urgent for YOU.

One more line in the sand we think is super helpful for running an anti-burnout business is letting people know the appropriate ways they can get in touch with you.

Just because a client asks for your phone number doesn’t mean you need answer their calls or texts! If you want people to communicate with you via email, make it VERY clear what you want them to send to you in email requests (is it screenshots? Loom videos? Etc). Maybe you don’t love email and you want to create a dedicated support inbox using a service like HelpScout or even something simple like a Google Form folks can fill out. And, if you want to offer a support chat/messenger directly on your website (or in your online course), just make sure you’re setting the boundaries for when folks can expect a reply (be VERY clear it’s not “live” support).

All of these boundaries serve to set the expectation for other people about how they can engage with your business in a way that doesn’t feel overly taxing for you. That is one key to being able to continue your work long-term.

Where do you work and how do you work?

We talked a bit about time boundaries, but now let’s talk about physical boundaries.

An often overlooked part of running a business that doesn’t burn you out is having a dedicated workspace that’s separate from your life. Trust us, we’ve tried working from the couch or the dining room table MANY TIMES, but the result of this was that work too easily can bleed over into your life, consuming much of your free time to rest and recharge. Creating a separation will lead you to actually enforce those work hours we spoke about and then when you’re away from your work space, your brain will actually be able to wind down.

Even if you live in a small space, consider a spot for a tiny desk. And, regardless of the size of the desk you can fit in your home, MAKE IT FUN! The more you can enjoy the physical area you sit or stand in to crank out some work, the more restorative and energized your work time will be.

Minimal Desk Setup

That covers where you work, but what about HOW you work?

It’s key to experiment with different approaches to productivity until you land on something that allows you to get in that “flow” zone.

šŸ‘ØšŸ»ā€šŸ¦² For Jason: First thing I want to do is toss on a synthwave āš”ļø or lofi šŸŽ§ playlist. From there, I need to close out of all ancillary applications on my computer and just have the ONE (or two) apps open for whatever task I’m working on. And how do I know what I’m working on? My Google Calendar is chalk-full of time blocks (30, 60, 90 minutes) and I don’t stray from the task at hand.

Time Blocking with Google Calendar

šŸ‘©šŸ»ā€šŸ¦° For Caroline: First and foremost I need to know what tasks I intend to complete any given week (I keep track of that with my favorite app Notion.) Then I’ll choose an order for those tasks each day based on where my energy is at. I use the Pomofocus.io app to split up work blocks into pomodoro increments and then I put on a playlist that matched my mood and I go to town. The MOST important part of my work day, though, is that I take intentional breaksā€”which is our next big tip.

Free Pomofocus App

Are you taking intentional breaks? You should be!

If you’re anything like us, your work can spill over into weekends and holidays, leaving you constantly saying, “I didn’t even know it was Labor Day!?” We’ve found that taking intentional breaks from our work can be super impactful in recharging our batteries, even in small increments.

šŸš¶ā€ā™€ļøšŸš¶ Daily walks help us clear our minds

A small daily break that has always been positively impactful for us is taking a 15-30 minute walk. Whether we end up at a coffee shop, are just circling the block, or are trekking into nature a little bit, a daily walk is a good time to step away from technology and rest our eyes and minds. You might find it hard to carve out this time, but pick something that works well with your schedule! Define this time, put it on your calendar, and be intentional about making it a habit.

The Zooks daily walk

We don’t actually take daily walks in slow motion šŸ˜…šŸ˜…

šŸ­šŸ˜“ Content breaks keep us off the hamster wheel of creation

We also take breaks with our content schedule. We intentionally pause our weekly email newsletter every summer so we can recharge those writing batteries and so our readers have the chance to get excited about our content again. We take the occasional month or even months-long break from our What is it all for? podcast too just to give ourselves time and space to feel refreshed. These intentional content breaks are absolutely crucial for staying engaged with our work, but it’s also helpful for keeping your audience on their toes and not letting that connection get stale.

Alrighty, that’ll do it for part three! Let’s get your action stepsā€¦

āš”ļø PART 3 RECAP āš”ļø

Here’s what Part 3ļøāƒ£ of building an anti-burnout business takes:

  • Set your daily work hour boundaries
  • Draw your lines in the sand (days you don’t do calls, your response times, how to contact you, etc)
  • Create an inspiring and motivating workspace
  • Define how you best work and build good habits for finding “flow”
  • Put intentional breaks on your calendar (daily walks, days off, content breaks, etc)

 


Part 4: Accepting that you unfortunately WILL burnout

In this final section, rather than give you one more tip for avoiding burnout, we thought it would be far more practical to talk about the burnout-elephant in the room, which is this: despite following the tips we outlined, you WILL likely burn out anyway. šŸ™ˆšŸ™ˆ

How do we know you are going to burnout?

Because the burnout threshold is different for everyone, and human instinct is to push the limit until you know what the limit actually is. We call this the “hand on the stove” moment, or that moment of pain you have to experience yourself before you know just how badly you want to avoid it in the future.

We want to offer you some tips for when burnout happens. How to soften the blow, how to be kind to yourself, and how to apply that lesson to the future.

Burnout happens to everyone šŸ˜°

Ripping the bandaid right off, let’s just be 100% truthful and honest: Burnout may not be “normal” (meaning working ourselves into the ground is not healthy) but it is COMMON. It happens to so many entrepreneursā€”including us! If you find yourself hitting a wall with your work, it’s important to know there’s nothing wrong with you. It’s a predictable part of the entrepreneurial journey.

Sometimes we hit burnout because we put too much on our plates, or life overwhelms us, or we bite off more than we can (business) chew, or we just run into a string of bad luck.

This is fine GIF

Even though it’s common, that still doesn’t mean it’s fun, though! It sucks, and it’s hard to get through. But, on the bright side, the burnout experience can often be a solid life/business lesson that will make us stronger and help us avoid bigger problems in the future.

Having this mindset of acceptance towards burnout when it comes can help you bounce back with confidence (in time) and avoid any kind of shame or guilt you may experience when it arises.

Having a mindset of acceptance toward burnout can help you bounce back with confidence and avoid any shame or guilt you might experience.

What are you going to do when you burnout?

Once you accept burning out is a part of the journey, the question becomes how are you going to handle it when it arises?

Whether you’re currently experiencing burnout, are on the cusp of burning out, or are in a good place and just want to know how you should handle it in the future, the best piece of advice we can give you is this: give yourself TIME to recover from burnout ā³ā³ā³.

As much as we’d love to tell you there’s a simple 3-step process to overcoming burnout, what we’ve learned over the years (and many burnouts) is that TIME is the only healer. Taking a break, stepping aside, completely removing yourself from the work that led you to burnout is the answer. And while that’s easy to type out in a sentence, we know from lots of experience how challenging that is!

  • What do you do for money if you can’t work on your biz?
  • How do you continue to move toward your goals if you’re completely spent?
  • How do you separate your self-worth from your business, especially in a down time?

Those are all great questions and they all come with answers that are different for everyone. We can’t guarantee our advice will be perfect, but we can tell you what’s worked for us:

šŸ’ø How do you make money when you’re burned out?

It could be dipping into your savings. It’s why you save, after allā€”for one of those rainy days (and with burnout, there’s a 100% chance of [metaphorical] rain on the forecast). If you don’t have savings, it boils down to figuring out what you can do for money that can sustain you. Is it selling stuff around your house? Is it asking a friend to hire you for low-pressure contract work? Is it moving back home to build back up with less overhead? All of these options are on the table and none should be ignored.

šŸŽÆ How do you work toward your goals when you’re burned out?

Honestlyā€¦ your goals get put on hold when you’re burned out. There’s NO sense in trying to continue to push forward or make progress, you must rest and you must be okay with the fact that the pause button is your only button. In these situations, it’s important to remember you’re taking one step back to ultimately take two steps forward. In that regard, you ARE still working toward your goals, you’re just making sure you’re in a healthy, energized head space in order to go after what you want.

šŸ¤— How do you separate your self-worth from negative burnout feelings?

This one is sooooo difficult because when you work for yourself it’s incredibly hard to separate your work from your worth. The best advice we can give you is to repeatedly remind yourself that your work is not tied to your identity. Your work is a set of experiments in a scientific lab of sorts. As soon as you leave that lab (your work), you are your own person with a separate identity. What happens in Vegas the lab stays in the lab!

It’s really hard to hear, but again, TIME is the only answer to overcoming burnout.

Allow yourself a break, and do whatever you must to survive and get by in the meantime, because the harder you push against burnout, the longer it will take to overcome (and the more damage you may be doing in the process.)

What guardrails are you putting in place for yourself?

Okay, let’s say you’ve burned out, you’ve given yourself time to recover, and you’re feeling good againā€¦ now how the heck do you avoid burning out again!??

Well first, read the previous parts of this article šŸ˜˜. The second thing to learn from your last bout of burnout is to understand what may have gotten you there. Then, put up some strong guardrails to help you avoid falling off the burnout cliff in the future.

  • Do you need better boundaries around your working hours?
  • Do you need better client processes?
  • Do you need more efficient productivity practices?
  • Do you need to completely pivot your business?
  • Do you need to quit and take a bigger break?

Only you are going to know what guardrails are most important for you, and it’s important you don’t ignore the mistakes of your past.

Only you are going to know what guardrails are most important for you, and it’s important you don’t ignore the mistakes of your past. We’ve certainly experienced burnout multiple times for the same reasons, and it’s not like you’re going to fix things perfectly after burnout, but you should absolutely try!

How to avoid the “shiny new” brand of burnout? (Hello, TikTok, etc.)

The last part of avoiding burnout is being able to recognize when you’re pouring your energy into a business tactic that isn’t sustainable.

This is especially dangerous when a shiny new opportunity comes along and you feel pressure to a) take advantage of a marketing channel that can get you disproportionately high organic reach or b) hop on the bandwagon because you see other business owners doing it.

Shiny object SQUIRREL

It’s easy to get caught up in trends, especially when your previous efforts may not have worked well, and then something new clicks and you start to see a lot of momentum. You want to ride that bullet train toward your goals and hold on for dear life! But, if you go too hard and invest too much time and energy in something new, all your foundational things can easily get left behind (goals, processes, boundaries, healthy habits, basic biz stuff, etc).

We’ve been there: The new thing emerges, you start to feel a positive change in your business, and you want to do everything in your power to grab ahold of that bucking bronco and soak up as much growth as you possibly can. However, if something new is taking up all your precious resources, something is going to have to give in its place. That’s when you typically end up burning out, even if you’re generating the most revenue, the most audience growth, and the most notoriety you’ve ever had.

We DO want you to notice the experiments that are working in your business!

We DO want you to enjoy the success those things bring! But, we also want you to remember you are trying to build an Anti-Burnout Business and to have something that sustains you for the long-term, not just a flash in the pan.

When it comes to shiny new burnout, just keep in mind your processes and your goals. You may need to reconfigure both of those things and you may need to reprioritize what really matters, but that’s the key: Embrace the new awesome thing, but be intentional with how all of that time and effort fits into your existing day-to-day.

āš”ļø PART 4 RECAP āš”ļø

Here’s what Part 4ļøāƒ£ of building an anti-burnout business takes:

  • Acknowledge that you will burnout (or burnout again)
  • Accept that WE ALL EXPERIENCE BURNOUT ā¤ļø
  • Start building your burnout savings now (and/or create a plan)
  • Decide what guardrails you need if you’re currently burned out
  • Be prepared for the new shiny object burnout

 


In Conclusion, Your 19-Step Plan to Avoid Burnout

Here are all nineteen tips we shared in this article to help you avoid burnout in the future and build an Anti-Burnout Business šŸ™…šŸ”„:

1. Define your enough number (and MMM number if you donā€™t know it)

2. Stop listening to the overnight success advice

3. Zoom the lens out and turn your months-long timelines into years-long timelines

4. See patience as an important part of the anti-burnout process

5. Embrace the idea that slow-and-steady is better than fast-and-leading-to-a-mental-breakdown

6. Identifying a business model thatā€™s right for YOU (and not just one you followed because of someone elseā€™s story)

7. Acknowledging that you will have to eat a few ā€œshit sandwichesā€

8. Using an experimenterā€™s mindset to better weather the inevitable tough moments

9. Giving yourself permission to pivot to a different business model if things arenā€™t working

10. Set your daily work hour boundaries

11. Draw your lines in the sand (days you donā€™t do calls, your response times, how to contact you, etc)

12. Create an inspiring and motivating workspace

13. Define how you best work and build good habits for finding ā€œflowā€

14. Put intentional breaks on your calendar (daily walks, days off, content breaks, etc)

15. Acknowledge that you will burnout (or burnout again)

16. Accept that WE ALL EXPERIENCE BURNOUT ā¤ļø

17. Start building your burnout savings now (and/or create a plan)

18. Decide what guardrails you need if youā€™re currently burned out

19. Be prepared for the new shiny object burnout

We hope that you are able to take actionable steps to avoid burnout from this article. As a reminder, reading an article does not promise you’ll never burn out again. But what we can guarantee is that you now have the knowledge to help you put anti-burnout guardrails in place and assist you in the creation of a solid foundation for your business that is best FOR YOU and YOUR specific situation!

Organize Your Life and Business Using Notion (Our S.O.A.R. System)

July 7, 2021

Ready to organize your life and business with Notion? Weā€™ll walk you through our ā€œS.O.A.R.ā€ Notion System we use on a daily basis to be as productive as possible while not burning ourselves out.

While we love productivity, weā€™re NOT trying to be the most productive humans ever and we donā€™t enjoy hustle-culture. However, we are constantly trying to improve our efficiency and use systems that make our lives easier.

When wearing multiple hats in your online business, it becomes all too easy for tasks, projects, and goals to fall through the cracks.

As creative people, we donā€™t always think about organization first, but organization has actually made us MORE creative.

When you can get all of your to-dos, your tasks, the overwhelm of everything you have to think about out of your brain and into a system, it leaves more room for creativity, for having ideas and for executing those ideas.

When you can get all of your to-dos, your tasks, the overwhelm of everything you have to think about out of your brain and into a system, it leaves more room for creativity, for having ideas and for executing those ideas.

Let us share a big, juicy secret with you: Sustainable habits and being consistent are the most* important things necessary when trying to reach your goals.

*When we say most important, we mean the most important things YOU can control. We donā€™t want to ignore or minimize that privilege is real and not everyone has the same advantages.

But alas, forming new habits can be a struggle!

We all love to read/watch/listen to other people talk about their holy grail productivity tools and habit-building hacks, but itā€™s important that you figure out what works best for YOU and your unique situation.

šŸ‘©šŸ»ā€šŸ¦°šŸ‘ØšŸ»ā€šŸ¦² Our Journey with Productivity Apps and Tactics before Notion

Hereā€™s the truth about our journey with organizing our business and staying on top of things using different productivity tools/tactics over the yearsā€¦

Our Productivity App Journey

Every time we discover a new productivity tool or app, our motivation and organization shoot up! We get really excited and we spend hours setting up a new app to ensure maximum productivity but then, a few months (maybe even weeks) later, the adrenaline of the new shiny app wears off and we just stop using it. #wompwomp

It happened with Trello.
It happened with Asana.
It happened with digital planning.
It happened with Airtable.

We were exhausted by the cycle of finding a new organizational tool, forgetting to keep up with it, feeling overwhelmed because everything fell to pieces and nothing is organized, feeling shame for not being able to keep up with the tool, and finally, looking for a new tool to escape the guilt from abandoning the last one.

We craved consistency in our organization systems. We wanted a system that was flexible enough that we could adjust when we got bored (or didnā€™t feel as productive). We also wanted something versatile enough to manage multiple types of organization so we could focus on actually using just ONE system, not three different apps and systems.

Notion is what finally fit that criteria.

Before & After Notion

 


Notion Basics: Content Blocks, Pages, and Databases

Before we dive into how we use Notion to organize our lives and businesses, letā€™s go through a little crash course on the basics of how Notion works.

Notion is a system of interconnected pages. You can add content to each page by using different types of content blocks.

Notion Blocks

There are many different content blocks in Notion such as:

  • basic headings and lists,
  • code, quotes, and callouts,
  • content toggles,
  • images and videos,
  • and so much more!

We like to think of Notion as a system of blocks for you to build whatever you want.

You can pick and choose the blocks that would work for every single page in your Notion workspace.

But by far, the feature that stands out the most is the ability to create Databases.

Notion Databases (a quick overview)

Notion Databases allow you to organize similar pages and assign different properties to them.

While databases seemed complicated and clunky with other productivity apps, Notion has really nailed this feature!

You can visualize the same Database in different ways using Views (Gallery, Calendar, Board, Timeline, etc):

Notion Views

Itā€™s important to know that every single entry in a Notion database is its own Notion page which means you can customize it with content blocks.

You can also create Templates to load a pre-made set of content blocks for every page.

The best part of Notion is using all these blocks together to build whatever dashboards and pages are most helpful to keep your life and business organized. Truly, the possibilities are endless and thatā€™s what makes Notion powerful!

Note: This section is a very abridged overview of Notion and all its functionalities. Notion has very robust and easy-to-understand help docs so if you want to deep dive into a specific feature, you can go to their help docs to learn more about it.

 


Organizing Life and Business with our Notion S.O.A.R. System

After many months of using Notion, we took a look at the MOST important databases and pages we use here at Wandering Aimfully and then we organized it into a system we could teach to you!

And that system has an acronym, because DUH.

S = Setup
O = Organize
A = Act
R = Review

šŸ¦…šŸ¦…šŸ¦… (feel free to do your own bird screech sound effects for added flare!)

Introducingā€¦ the S.O.A.R. Notion System!

Notion S.O.A.R. System

šŸ“ Quick Note šŸ“

The remainder of this article will be less about the ins and outs of how to set up the S.O.A.R. Notion system, and more about how we USE the system to run our lives and businesses more efficiently and calmly. Our S.O.A.R. System template is only available to our paying Wandering Aimfully members. Hopefully, youā€™ll be able to create your own system from what you learn based on our setup!

 
Before we dive into each component of the system, weā€™re going to give you an overview of the key pages in our S.O.A.R. Notion system. This will give you a reference point for everything in the system, then weā€™ll show you how we actually USE it.

Part 1 of our S.O.A.R. System: Setup

The pages in this category are the foundation blocks of setting the vision for what we are aiming for, what areas of growth we want to see, and what projects will help us get there.

We have three main databases for the Setup part of the system:

  • šŸŒæĀ  Life Areas
  • šŸŽÆĀ  Goal Tracker
  • šŸ—‚Ā  Projects

šŸŒæ Life Areas: What aspects of your life you want to cultivate and keep balanced?

In this database, weā€™ve listed out all of the areas in our life that we want to pay attention to. Think of broad categories like Family, Finances, and Knowledge and Learning. Here are the exact Life Area categories we use:

  • Health
  • Friendships
  • Family
  • Marriage
  • Creativity
  • Personal Care
  • Rest & Joy
  • Work Productivity
  • Planning/Organization
  • Finances
  • Travel/Adventure
  • Home
  • Community

In order to cultivate each Life Area, weā€™ve created a relation property that is linked to the Goal Tracker database (more on this below) so we can set goals for each area of our life.

Notion Life Areas

For example, in the Finances life area, we set a goal to get 20 sales of an online course during launch.

šŸ’” Tip: One of the ways we also like to use the Life Areas database is by rating it on a weekly basis (during our Weekly Reviews, more on this in Part 4) using a scale from 1 to 10 based on the attention it got during that week. Afterwards, we sort it from highest to lowest, we can clearly see which Life Areas we could be cultivating more or we can decide what our current priorities are.

šŸŽÆ Goal Tracker: What specific, measurable results are you working toward?

In this database, we add each goal as a Key Result (specific, measurable outcome) and identify the Objective (more intangible and broad) that it aligns with.

Each goal is connected to a Life Area and to Projects (if applicable) using relation properties. We also have a date property to take note of when we want the goal to be completed.

Notion Goal Tracker

For example, the key result is to write & publish 5 new articles, and the objective itā€™s trying to serve is to increase organic website traffic. This key result is connected to the Work Productivity life area and the Blog project.

šŸ—‚ Projects: What self-contained marketing channels or initiatives will help you reach your goals?

This database consists of any projects that we want to track for our business(es). This could range from launching a new course, tracking an ongoing marketing channel like Podcasts, to managing your Clients, etc.

We find it really helpful to create Projects for content creation as itā€™s easy to have those recurring ā€œprojectsā€ slip through the cracks week by week if you donā€™t plan them accordingly with everything else.

Notion Projects

The PAGE area of each project is where you can manage everything related to just that project. Weā€™ve created a Project Template where we set objectives and key results for the project. We also create the tasks associated with the project and compile the resources and inspiration for it.

Notion Projects Walkthrough

Just to further clarify how these all work together, we like to think of it as:

  • šŸŒæĀ  Life Areas are the broad aspects of your life and business.
  • šŸ§­Ā  Objectives are setting up the vision for those life areas.
  • šŸŽÆĀ  Key Results are the specific, measurable outcome that serves your objectives.

Hereā€™s a specific example:

  • šŸŒæĀ  Your life area is Community as in trying to be a better community member.
  • šŸ§­Ā  Your objective within that life area is to engage in ongoing anti-racism education, reflection & action.
  • šŸŽÆĀ  To serve this objective, one of your key results is to complete at least one anti-racism course or workshop per quarter.

Notion Projects Example

You can also apply the same concept to your Projects. For example:

  • Your project is Launching Your Hand-Lettering Business.
  • One of your objectives within that project is to establish organic traffic coming to your website.
  • To serve this objective, one of your key results is to write and publish ten articles on your website.

Notion Projects Example #2

Part 2 of the S.O.A.R. System: Organize

The pages in this category are the smaller bits that projects and initiatives get broken into. These pages help us move the bigger projects forward.

We have three main databases for the Organize part of the system: Tasks, Content Calendar, and Social Posts.

āœ… Tasks: What are the actual to-do items you will spend time on to execute your projects and goals?

All of our tasks across all of our Life Areas and Projects go into this master Task Manager database.

For each task, we assign a DO Date which is the date we plan to actually work on the task, not the deadline.

Quick shout-out to August Bradley; we believe he came up with the term ā€œDO Dateā€ for his own Notion system.

We also connect each task to the Project or Content Piece (more on this later) the task is related to via relation properties.

Notion Task Manager

For example, the task record podcast falls into the Podcast project and the Episode 01 content piece. That way, weā€™re able to see all the tasks in the context of the project or specific content it falls under.

šŸ’” Tip: You can also estimate how long your tasks take and then log a Start Time and End Time (using two date properties) to see how long each task actually takes. If youā€™re diligent about tracking your time for each task, itā€™ll be easier to estimate times for similar tasks in the future.

šŸ“ Content Calendar: What longer form pieces of content do you plan to create?

All of our content (articles, podcasts, newsletters, YouTube videos) goes into one master Content Calendar database.

Notion Content Calendar

We use the type property to differentiate between the different content channels and to set the status of each content piece. We also add a Publish By date (deadline) and a Create By date (when the majority of the creation will happen) to each content piece.

šŸ“ Social Posts: What longer form pieces of content do you plan to create?

The Social Posts database functions similarly to the Content Calendar but we prefer to keep it separate because if youā€™re posting on your socials every day, it can get cluttered very quickly.

We use the type property to differentiate between the different platforms and to set the status of each social post.

Notion Social Posts

The Calendar View for both the Content Calendar and Social Posts databases are especially helpful to see when our content and when the related social posts get published.

Notion Calendar Views

Part 3 of S.O.A.R.: Act

The pages in this category are the dashboards and pages designed to actually GET. THINGS. DONE. most efficiently.

We have three main pages for the Act part of the system:

  • āš”ļøĀ  Daily Dashboard
  • šŸ–„Ā  Biz Dashboard
  • šŸ­Ā  Content Factory Dashboard

This is really where the system starts to come together because this is where you execute on all of the stuff that you did in the set-up and organize sections.

āš”ļø Daily Dashboard: What will keep you focused on what you need to work on each day?

This page is where we spend most of our time in Notion every single day.

Notion Daily Dashboard

You can customize your own daily dashboard but for our system, we have spaces for:

  • Weekly Intention: What aspect of my life do I want to focus on this week?
  • Weekly Goal: What is the most important goal I want to achieve this week?
  • Daily Trackers: This is where we track our habits, gratitude, and mood.

The most actionable part of the Daily Dashboard (and where the magic really happens) is the Daily Task Manager. This is the same database as your Task Manager but it is filtered to show only the uncompleted tasks whose Do Dates are today and previous days.

This way, tasks donā€™t fall through the cracks because you are always reminded every day which tasks you assigned to be done today and the tasks you didnā€™t manage to complete from previous days.

The tasks are always piling up in this section so if thereā€™s a task we havenā€™t done for a week, that tells us that weā€™re not prioritizing this task and we either need to do it or set it for a date in the future.

We also have linked databases to our Projects and Goal Trackers so we can quickly jump to a specific project if we need to.

Notion Projects Dashboard

šŸ–„ Biz Dashboard: What are the basic guiding principles for your business and how can you track your progress?

The Biz Dashboard is a page where you can see your business at-a-glance. Think of it as a living and breathing page of where you can implement the things you’re learning for your business.

In this dashboard, we have:

4Qs: These are the core questions you need to answer to know what youā€™re doing and what your business can offer to people. We talk more about this in the Foundation section of our 5-Step Business Checklist.

Goals: This is where we write our revenue goal for the year as well as list our business-specific goals from the Goal Tracker database.

Notion Business Dashboard

Marketing Bridge Strategy: This little section is where we can see at-a-glance, ā€œAre we hitting initiatives at every step of the critical marketing bridge puzzle?ā€ We share more about the Marketing Bridge concept in this article.

Project Focus By Week: Each week, we like to set our project focus which is especially useful if youā€™re juggling multiple projects at a time.

Growth: We also track specific metrics in our business each week such as traffic and newsletter subscribers.

Notion Marketing Bridge Strategy

šŸ’” Tip: You can also dedicate a space for business-related files! For example, you can compile all of the worksheets youā€™ve been filling out for to gain clarity on your business in this dashboard so they get lost in the catacombs of your file folders.

šŸ­ Content Factory Dashboard: What will help you batch ideate and create content?

The Content Factory Dashboard helps us stay on track on all of our content channels. We use this dashboard to:

  • Brainstorm content piece ideas and social posts,
  • schedule our content pieces and social posts in our content calendar,
  • and view the tasks related to upcoming content pieces.

Weā€™ve found that an efficient way for us to generate content ideas is to write all our ideas in a stream-of-consciousness style and then decide afterward the content channel that is best suited for each idea.

Notion Content Factory

We use the same drag-and-drop concept for batch ideating and scheduling our Social Posts.

Notion Social Media Content

In the Scheduling section of our Content Factory Dashboard, we have a list view of our Content Calendar database which is filtered to show only the content pieces that have not been assigned a Publish Date, basically ideas that are floating around but havenā€™t actually made it in our Content Calendar.

From this list view, we can then drag each content piece idea to a calendar view (using the Publish Date) of our Content Calendar database to easily assign a publish date.

This process makes sure that all of our content ideas are captured and ready to be scheduled.

Notion Scheduling Dashboard

Once weā€™ve added our publishing dates, we go to this section to create tasks related to each content piece.

Notion Create & Add Tasks Dashboard

Part 4 of S.O.A.R.: Review

The pages in this category are the time-based pages and databases that help us check in regularly, plan for the future, and review all we accomplish.

The main databases for the Review part of the system: Daily Habit Tracking and Weekly, Monthly & Yearly Planning.

This is crucial because even if you spend all the time setting everything up in Notion, if you donā€™t come back to it often and donā€™t give yourself set times to invigorate and maintain the system, it will not work.

Even if you spend all the time setting everything up in Notion, if you donā€™t come back to it often and donā€™t give yourself set times to invigorate and maintain the system, it will not work.

ā˜€ļø Daily Tracking: What daily habits or data do you want to track?

In this database, each entry corresponds to a single day. We created properties to correspond to specific habits, metrics, and information we want to track on a daily basis.

Each day is also connected to a specific week in the Weeks database so we can review that information later on during the Weekly Review process (more on this below).

Notion Daily Tracking Dashboard

šŸ“… Weekly Planning & Reviews: How do you want to look back on your week and set intentions for the upcoming week?

Moving on to the Weeks database, each entry in here corresponds to a single week.

Notion Weeks Dashboard

The properties for the Weeks database are a little bit different because it rolls up or aggregates the data youā€™ve tracked in your Daily Tracking database.

For example, if you recorded the following data for the Exercise habit (property) in your Daily Tracking database:

  • Apr 4: āœ…
  • Apr 5: ā¬œļø
  • Apr 6: ā¬œļø
  • Apr 7: āœ…
  • Apr 8: āœ…
  • Apr 9: āœ…
  • Apr 10: āœ…

In your Weeks database, youā€™ll see this for the Exercise roll-up property:

  • Apr 4-10: āœ… ā¬œļø ā¬œļø āœ… āœ… āœ… āœ…

You can roll up all kinds of data like habits, daily mood, sleep hours, business metrics (average traffic, total newsletter sign-ups), and even your daily gratitude.

Notion Weeks Roll Up

Inside each of the Weekly pages (remember, each entry in a database is also a page!), weā€™ve created a Weekly Planning & Review Template.

In this page, we summarize what went well (or didnā€™t go well) and what we learned from the week. We check in on our Life Areas and Goal Trackers to see which areas we need to give more attention to. Then we hop in on planning for our Projects and Upcoming Tasks to make sure weā€™re on track or if we need to reschedule tasks. We also look at our Content Calendar and Social Posts to check our upcoming content pieces and make sure that we have enough ideas batched and planned for the next two weeks. And lastly, we have a section for tracking specific growth metrics in our business.

Notion Weekly Summary Dashboard

šŸ“ Quick Note: Each section in this Weekly Planning & Review Template is actually hidden under a toggle button (that little triangle ā–ø on the left side of each colored box). If we expand each toggle, we have content blocks that pull in data from all of the databases weā€™ve worked on in the Set-Up, Action, and Organize parts of the S.O.A.R. Notion System.

Think of it this way: Weekly Planning is Boss You and the Daily Dashboard is the Employee You. The Daily Dashboard is for getting stuff done every day and the Weekly Planning is for setting what needs to be done every day.

šŸ§“ Monthly & Yearly Reviews: What processes will help you on a monthly and yearly basis to set goals for your life and business?

We also do Monthly and Yearly Reviews, which is set up similarly to the Weekly Reviews, but we review and plan broader aspects of our life and business.

Notion Monthly and Yearly Summary Dashboard

You can also watch us break down our (free!) Yearly Planning Notion Template in this video:

 
Now that youā€™ve got the lay of the land, let us show you how we actually USE our Notion System!

 


How We Actually USE our Notion System

There are a lot of components in our Notion System so youā€™re probably wondering: How do all these blocks work together to help us actually run our business better?

Letā€™s walk you through it!

First, we set our vision for the year in the Years databaseā€¦

Notion Yearly Vision

Then we turn that vision into concrete financial goals and project plans for Q1 in our Quarters databaseā€¦

Notion Yearly Vision Dashboard

šŸ‘‰šŸ‘‰ For example: at the beginning of Q1, we set up projects for our January Flash Sale and Spring Enrollment Launch, and when we finally decided on the Notion Starter Pack as our spring ā€œproduct,ā€ we turned that into a project as well.

When we make a new project, we load our New Project template, and brainstorm tasks. We pull those into our Tasks database, and weā€™ll usually also estimate time for each task at this point too and assign a ā€œDo Dateā€

We also usually add goals at the Project level as well so we know what weā€™re aiming to achieve with that project.

Notion Project Planning

Thatā€™s all for NEW initiatives and projects, but what about ongoing content?

We have a project for each content channel. We plan our publishing schedule a month ahead at a time during our Monthly Planning meeting.

We do our monthly planning in the Months databaseā€¦

Notion Monthly Planning Database

Usually, our Content Calendar is empty or half-empty at this point, which means we need content ideas!

Thatā€™s when we head to the Content Factory šŸ­!

We can use this page to come up with ideas or schedule content that are in the idea stage and needs a Publish Date.

Notion Content Planning and Scheduling

For example, if we have an idea for a new podcast episode, we can add it in the Brainstorm section of our dashboard and drag it into the Podcast column.

Or we can go to the Podcast project page directly and drag our ā€œIdeasā€ view onto our Calendar View to assign a Publish Date to them.

Once episodes have a Publish Date, thatā€™s when we load in our ā€œPodcast Episodeā€ template and create tasks to actually MAKE that piece of content.

Notion Podcast Planning

On a monthly basis, we also have our Budget Meeting šŸ¤‘šŸ’ø. We use this dashboard page to input our expenses, our income, see our profit for the month, and see our spending compared to our budget.

Every week, on Sundays, we do a weekly review.

We evaluate Life Areas, Projects, Goals, Content, and basically just check in with the whole system to see what needs to be updated or tackled in the upcoming week.

Notion Weekly Reviews

This is where I (šŸ‘©šŸ»ā€šŸ¦° Caroline) do my ā€œIntentional Balance Inventoryā€ where I rate my Life Areas 1-10 based on how much attention they got the previous week. If I want to shift my focus to an area that is being neglected, I set that as my weekly intention in our Daily Dashboard so I see it every day.

During that Weekly Review, weā€™re also logging any stats we want to track for our conversions, etc.

Notion Weekly Database

And, also during the Weekly Review, weā€™re rearranging any tasks for the upcoming week to better even out my schedule and batch tasks if necessary. Donā€™t be afraid to have a bad week and then need to rearrange your tasks, it happens to us too!

Thenā€¦ every single morning, we sit down at our Daily Dashboard, and we plan out our day.

Notion Daily Dashboard To-Dos

The first thing we do is add a new day to our Daily Tracking and we fill out our gratitude, our habit trackers.

Notion Habit Tracking

This section of our Dashboard is where we spend our day though. We assign priorities to our tasks or we designate them for 1 of our 4 ā€œwork blocks.ā€

Notion To-Do Tracking

If itā€™s a task where we want to track our time, we set the Start Time when we begin and we set the End Time when weā€™re done.

Thatā€™s it! And still, you might be likeā€¦ WHOA.

Phoebe WOW

The beauty of the S.O.A.R. system is youā€™re really just updating it at the quarterly, monthly, weekly level. Then you just execute it daily.

This system is complex but youā€™re really only updating it at specific times. When we do our Weekly Review, it usually only takes about an hour max but that hour is the most powerful hour that we spend on our business because it sets us up for everything else.

 


S.O.A.R. Notion System šŸ¦… Wrap-up

If your head is up in the Notion-clouds with all the databases, blocks, properties and dashboards, hereā€™s a quick little zoomed out recap to show you how we use the S.O.A.R. Notion System to run our life and business:

Organize Life and Business with Notion S.O.A.R. System

šŸ‘µ Yearly Plan

We start by mapping out our year and setting goals for our life and business as a whole.

šŸ’  Quarterly Plan

During the Quarterly Planning, we create our new Project pages, set up goals and create tasks for those projects.

šŸ—“ Monthly Plan

This is when we set up our Content Calendar for the month, update our Content Factory Dashboard, and do our Budget Meeting to check in on our financials.

šŸ“† Weekly Plan

Every week, we review and update our Life Areas, set our daily intentions in the Daily Dashboard, plan our Social Posts, track our Growth metrics, and make adjustments to the Tasks weā€™ve already entered in our system.

āš”ļø Daily Dashboard

This is where we do our Daily Tracking, where we take action on our Tasks, track our time and GET. THINGS. DONE šŸ„³

It seems like a lot but again, youā€™re only updating the system:

  • once a year,
  • every quarter,
  • once a month (for an hour every week),
  • and then youā€™re executing it daily! šŸ‘šŸ‘šŸ‘

Everything else is working for you behind the scenes and you are just presented with the things that you need at the time you need them.

The final thing to remember: If your life and business have felt disorganized in the past, weā€™re with you! This system in Notion has really helped us get a stronghold on everything thatā€™s important for us to focus on.

Good luck and happy organizing! šŸ‘‹

031 – How We Got Rid of Our Bad Habits

May 19, 2019


Listen to the audio version


Episode Summary

When it comes to getting rid of bad habits the first thing you need to do is acknowledge them.

So often we go through life not changing our ways because we’re ashamed of some of the choices we make and don’t want to deal with adjusting our behaviors. But, like many things in life, when you do the hard work you come out a better person because of it!

We’re not going to pretend we’ve gotten rid of all of our bad habits (ahem: Caroline’s clothes pile and Jason’s limited patience with all other drivers on the road), however, we have kicked a few bad habits to the curb and talk about how we’ve done it.

šŸ’” We didn’t mention it in this episode, but James Clear wrote THE book on habit change called “Atomic Habits” and you can grab it here: https://amzn.to/30wlf14

šŸŒ± We DID mention the healthy meal prep company we love and it’s called Thistle. This is NOT an ad, but if you want to get $30 OFF by trying them, use our affiliate link: http://bit.ly/jasonthistle

QUESTION FOR YOU: What bad habits do you know you need to get rid of? (Feel free to comment with your answer on YouTube).

 


Want to support us and our show?
Wandering Aimfully Memberships

We recently created a 100% free, no strings attached Test Drive of our Wandering Aimfully Membership. You can kick the tires and see all the goodies we have to offer, along with a hands-on preview of our newest program Build Without Burnout Academy (a 6-month guided program to help client-based business owners transition to digital products).

You’ll also be able to see inside our “Vault,” which contains 30+ courses and workshops to help you grow your business or make big changes in your life. Give the WAIM Test Drive a shot and don’t hesitate to reach out and set up a quick 1-on-1 call with us!

Joining Wandering Aimfully is the best way to help support us on our journey AND help yourself grow your business (or start a business) with intention and on your own terms.

Donā€™t Share This

April 4, 2019

When was the last time you hit publish on a piece of content and immediately crossed your fingers hoping it would get shared? When was the last time that plan worked out?

That approach hasn’t worked for you, has it? It certainly hasn’t worked for me, either. We’ll spend countless hours creating an article, post, video, etc, only to feel like the crickets aren’t even interested in it (the jerks!) The problem is that often times we create content from the entirely wrong angle.

Too many content creators think, “how can I make shareable (or viral) content” instead of thinking, “how can I make really helpful or entertaining content?”

 


500,000 People Agree With Me, Getting An Article Shared Does Not Require “Growth Hacks”

A few years ago I wrote an article about a 30-day detox I took from social media. I can distinctly remember the 2014 version of myself sitting at my laptop and cranking out word after word for that article. I remember asking myself a few questions while I was writing what would become a 6,000+ word post:

  • How can my experience not using social media help someone else?
  • What did I actually learn from my social media break that I can share?
  • I felt really great at the end of my detox, how can I help people feel that too?
  • How can I make this article not suck??

Do you notice anything about those questions? None of them have anything to do with making that article share-worthy. None of them involve some viral growth tactic to get tons of shares, likes, RTs, etc.

And yetā€¦ That 6,000+ word article has gone on to be viewed by over 500,000 people since it was published.

Jason Zook Social Media Detox Article Growth

Fancy charts are fancy.

There are a few things to note about that article that may surprise you:

  1. There are NO social share buttons (never have been)
  2. There is NO call-to-action to share the article anywhere
  3. There is NO freebie, download, opt-in, which incentivizes sharing

All things considered, I may as well have written, ā€œdonā€™t share this!ā€ across the top and bottom of that article (obviously styling the text to match the yellow CAUTION tape you see at crime scenes).

So, why/how did that article get shared and how is this going to help you create content that gets shared?

First: Letā€™s talk about how to create shareable content by not thinking about creating shareable content.

If your intent is to create something under the guise that it will be shared youā€™ve almost already lost your battle to get attention from other people.

You need to create content that focuses on one or two things:

  1. Your content needs to be helpful
  2. Your content needs to be entertaining
  3. Bonus: Your content needs to be both helpful AND entertaining

You can play all the keyword research games you want but if your content doesnā€™t help someone or doesnā€™t keep them entertained while reading it, youā€™re donezo. And kudos to you if you use words like ā€œdonezoā€ in your writing.

There is too much content in existence on the Internet nowadays and weā€™ve all developed a strong bullshit radar for growth-hacky content.

Second: You must prepare your content for success (aka: do a tiny bit of SEO work).

Nowā€¦ hold on. Donā€™t flip over your desk in anger about how much you hate SEO and how much it confuses you and makes you want to punch pillows ā€™til the cows come home (a saying that I believe is catching on).

SEO SUUUUCKS

(Hopefully this isn’t you right now.)

When I talk about preparing your content for success, I just mean doing a couple of simple things that put you in good standing with search engines:

  • Writing a compelling headline (read: not click-bait, but interesting)
  • Making sure you use H2, H3, H4 headings with your focus topic (keyword)
  • If thereā€™s a question to answer in your article, do it early and plainly
  • Use a WordPress plugin like Yoast SEO*

*Obviously this only pertains to WP users. For everyone else, just skip this step.

If you want to dive deeper into my extremely rudimentary process for SEO, read the full guide I created: Everything You Need To Know From My Experience With SEO

The reason to think about SEO just slightly when youā€™re writing content is to set yourself and your content up correctly from the beginning. Read: Do the things Google wants you to do so it can find and share your content for you!

Third: You have to be patient.

Don’t aim for virality, aim for longevity.

For every single person reading this article (myself included), none of the content we create will go viral. And truthfully, virality should NOT be the goal. Viral content is a flash in the pan. Itā€™s over and done with faster than you can blink, usually with zero long-term net gains.

However, long-lasting, quality content can continue on an upward trajectory. This is especially relevant if you create a piece of content, like my social media detox article, which was written before people started talking more and more about taking breaks from social media.

Social Media Detox search term growth over time

Thanks to my buddy (and SEO wizard) Brendan Hufford for helping me find this Google Trends graph!

You have to be patient with your content. My social media detox article didnā€™t start gaining organic search traffic and shares for months. In fact, it wasnā€™t until a year after originally posting it that people started to include a link to my article when they did a social media detox of their own and wrote about it.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Iā€™ve had a handful of other articles follow the same pattern of how they took to get organic sharing and growth as my social media detox one:

  • Start A Business With No Money: Took 2 years to gain traction
  • How To Write A Pitch Email: Took 2 years to reach #1 on Google
  • I Failed P90X: Took 12 months to get consistent readership
  • How To Get Sponsorships: Took 18 months to land on page #1 on Google

Thereā€™s a recurring theme here and itā€™s that content worth sharing can take time to be found and to be shared. And again, none of those articles have share buttons, ask for shares, etc.

 
 


Here Are Your 5 Actionable Takeaways From This Article

Takeaway #1: Donā€™t set out with the idea to create shareable content. Create helpful or entertaining (or both!) content.

Takeaway #2: Unless you can prove to me that those god-awful share buttons cluttering up your beautiful website are working, itā€™s time to remove them. They do not work. Great content gets shared because itā€™s great, not because a few buttons make it easier to share.

Takeaway #3: You can set yourself up for success by doing a little bit of SEO work. Just a few small things! You donā€™t need to hire an SEO professional.

Takeaway #4: Patience is incredibly important. If youā€™re creating helpful and entertaining content, publish it, share it where you can, then move on to the next piece of content youā€™re itching to create.

Takeaway #5: I didnā€™t mention this anywhere else but itā€™s probably time you go back through your older articles and see if you can make any of them go from good to GREAT. Itā€™s easier to improve something that already exists than it is to create from scratch.

Donā€™t share this.

Unless this article helped you. Unless it inspired you. Unless it motivated you and gave you actionable steps you can take on your journey to having your content shared.

Otherwise, onto the next article you have open in those 43 tabs in your browser.

Letā€™s Stop “Running” Our Businesses and Start Walking Our Businesses

March 14, 2019

If you own your own business youā€™ve undoubtedly said that you ā€œrun your businessā€ or that you are ā€œrunning a business.ā€

Weā€™ve certainly said this on multiple occasions about our various business ventures.

But a funny thing has happened over the years as weā€™ve learned from our mistakes ā€œrunningā€ our businesses: Weā€™re damn tired of feeling like weā€™re always running!

With Wandering Aimfully weā€™ve made the public announcement of striving for enough. Not more. Not maximum profits. Not some arbitrary 7-figure annual income number. We actually did the math and figured out the amount of money we want to make to sustain the lives we want.

In this journey to enough, weā€™re also shifting our thinking from ā€œrunning a businessā€ to ā€œwalking a business.ā€

 


Creating 1,600 Videos While “Running A Business” Led Me Four Years of Serious Burnout

In May of 2013, I hung up my final t-shirt for my IWearYourShirt business and at the same time closed the flip-out LCD on my Canon DSLR video camera. After filming, editing, and uploading over 1,600 videos in a 5-year span (an average of nearly 1 video per day for 1,600 days straight) I no longer wanted to even think about creating a video, let alone touch a video camera. I was burnt-the-hell-out.

ā€œJason

Admitting to a room of strangers in 2013 that I was completely burned out and my business was shutting down.

Iā€™m not exaggerating when I say that it took nearly FOUR whole years to get over the negative feelings I had towards creating videos. Just thinking about the video-creation process gave me a swirling feeling in my stomach. Reaching for the video camera put me in a bad mood. Imagining myself having to edit any footage I shot made me depressed.

My feelings of burnout when it came to filming videos had come directly from ā€œrunningā€ my IWearYourShirt business. I spent countless hours overworking myself to publish videos on a completely arbitrary schedule Iā€™d forced myself into.

I left the 9am-5pm corporate world to chase down my own big idea (IWearYourShirt) only to find myself in a 9am-9pm job that felt like a career dungeon.

Maybe you feel the same way with your business right now? You’re stuck in a career dungeon?

You’re currently running, running, running, with no end in sight and are afraid if you slow down everything will crumble around you?

As business owners, we often donā€™t realize the traps we set for ourselves and how much we over-work until itā€™s too late.

After four years of getting over my burnout, I could pick up the video camera again

In 2018 I started creating videos again consistently with my wife but with a much more relaxed production schedule. I was NOT going to repeat my past mistakes. I was NOT going to work my fingers to the bone to push videos out quickly and at an unsustainable rate.

Instead, my wife and Iā€¦

  • Committed to a more relaxed production timeline (weekly videos)
  • Streamlined the video creation process and removed effort where possible
  • Reminded ourselves we didnā€™t need to create perfect videos like well-established creators
  • Started a recording batching schedule to get ahead of our publishing schedule
  • Brought on a video editor (Hi, Nina!) to take on our WAIM Show edits
  • Would be okay if we missed a self-imposed publishing deadline

An example video on our Wandering Aimfully YouTube channel.

This new mindset when it came to video production took me from feeling like I was always running around and burning the creation-candle at both ends to having a calm schedule that I could stick to and even get ahead with! (Novel idea!)

 


How Can You Tell If Youā€™re Currently Stuck In ā€œRunning A Businessā€ Mode?

It can be hard to know, in the day-to-day of operating a business, if you are in ā€œrunning mode.ā€ Do any of these things hit too close to home for you:

  • Youā€™re always having to wake up early and go to sleep late
  • You have a to-do list thatā€™s never ending
  • You rarely get to spend long, focused hours in your work
  • You want to create content, but can never do it on a consistent basis
  • Your email inbox is a complete shit show
  • You feel like you tend to let your customers down because you canā€™t keep up

If you feel the pain of those things weā€™ve been there with you. Itā€™s incredibly common for business owners to get stuck in the spiral of these things for weeks, months, and even years.

Sometimes you DO have to run your business

Instead of running, think about short sprints.

We get it. You are creating a new thing. You are making a big transition. You are starting from scratch. No matter what, there will be times when you have to run and not walk. But you should think of these times as short sprints where you absolutely must set boundaries for your running time otherwise youā€™ll just continue to run.

When you need to put in the extra work, think of it as a sprint, not a marathon. Short sprints of additional working time that you will stop doing at a certain point and not allow to become bad habits.

Weā€™ve all been preached the gospel of Hustle at one time or another. As I wrote in another article, Weā€™ve Reached Peak Hustle-Porn.

Hustle should be reserved for short bursts (sprints!) Running your business should only need to happen for small periods of time. If youā€™re always going 100mph youā€™re going to get burned out.

You might not be cut out for this…

Iā€™m a firm believer that weā€™re all unique snowflakes, letā€™s get that out on the table. I truly think that every person has a unique skill and can offer something to the world in the form of their own business if they so choose.

Howeverā€¦ That doesnā€™t mean everyone is cut out to operate their own business (running OR walking).

For some folks, the pressure and anxiety that come with the uncertainties of owning your own business are too much. Thatā€™s OKAY! Thatā€™s why there are a plethora of ā€œreal jobsā€ out in the world.

There is absolutely no shame in admitting that working for yourself is not the right path for you.

As much as you may want to work for yourself and chase down a big idea, it just may not be the right fit for you. Should you give a shot to see how it goes? 100% yes! But if it doesnā€™t work out you shouldnā€™t beat yourself up and you shouldnā€™t force yourself into debt, depression, or other negative things many of us go through.

 


Itā€™s Time To Commit To Walking Your Business

Weā€™re not going to lie to you and pretend you can just whisper our mantra of ā€œIā€™m committing to walking my businessā€ and POOF everything will change for you.

What we can do is tell you that IT IS possible to adopt the walking a business mindset even if you’re currently running.

Weā€™ve seen it firsthand for our businesses and my example about our video production schedule is just one part of how weā€™ve made our shift from running to walking.

Here are a couple ways you can think about transitioning from running to walking your business…

Walking Your Business Challenge #1: Define your enough number

Instead of focusing on never-ending growth, pick a number that you want to make monthly and when you hit that number stop. Don’t keeping going and working just because you can. Be content to use your extra energy and free time to enjoy the life you’ve created for yourself.

A tip for defining your enough number:

  • Look at the last 3 months of business expenses and create a monthly average
  • Look at the last 3 months of life expenses and create a monthly average
  • Add an extra $$$ each month to account for taxes (15% of monthly revenue is a good ballpark)
  • Add an extra $$$ each month you want to put aside for savings (maybe start with 10% of monthly revenue)
  • Add an extra $$$ each month you want to give to charity

Total all of those up to find your enough number. If you want to read more about how we defined our enough number go here.

Walking your business challenge #2: Set and cap the hours you want to work

How many hours do you actually NEED to work each week to accomplish your tasks and financial goals? If you don’t create a cap, you’ll fill every waking hour with work. Caroline will often ask me around 5pm: Do you have more work to do today? And the answer is always, “there’s always more work to be done.”

If you own your own business, it’s hard to shut things down each day because our to-do lists constantly ongoing. By creating a cap of 5, 6, 7, or 8 hours of working time you won’t stay attached to your computer afraid of FOMO.

Do you need help managing your time? We have a few tips for you here.

Walking your business challenge #3: Force yourself to take the next 2 weekends completely off of work

For some of you reading this, taking any time off from your business will sound impossible. For some of you reading this, you may already be doing it (hurray, you!)

If it feels like you have to work on the weekends to keep up you are stuck in the “running a business” mode and you are going to burn yourself out.

Take the weekends completely off for the next two weeks and compare your revenue and work completion to the previous two weeks. Was the outcome drastically different financially? Did your customers throw up their hands in anger because you didn’t get back to them over the weekend? Did you enjoy time with your family or maybe get to some of those household projects you’ve neglected for years?

Those are just a few simple ways to transition from running to walking. Only you will know the areas of your business that are currently in control of you instead of the other way around.

From our own personal experience, we know that running our businesses only leads to health issues and burning out. Slowing down may seem incredibly difficult but if you are able to build better habits and make your business as efficient as possible, you can absolutely start walking your business.

Related: If this article left you feeling like you wish you had more to dive into to organize your business, especially how you manage your time and money (making your biz more efficient), we’d highly recommend going through our Back To Business Basics Guide. There are actionable worksheets and exercises to free up your time, generate more revenue, and get a better grip on your overall biz schedule.

024 – Simple Ways To Improve Your Time Management Skills

February 17, 2019


Listen to the audio version


Episode Summary

Does it feel like time is always slipping through your fingers? Are you working long hours and not seeing the monetary rewards for your efforts?

This week’s WAIM Show is all about time management and specifically how you can be more efficient with your time. We share a couple of simple time management tips you can try:

  • Using time blocking to stay focused and accomplish more work in a shorter period of time
  • Giving yourself permission not to work a standard 9-5 schedule
  • How to be realistic about the work you’re currently doing and if you should pivot to something else

Listen for the part of the episode where Caroline went from making $1,000 per month to 3-4x that amount just by managing her time better šŸ‘

QUESTION FOR YOU: What time management trick have you used that’s made the biggest difference in your life? (Feel free to comment with your answer on YouTube).

 


Want to support us and our show?
Wandering Aimfully Memberships

We recently created a 100% free, no strings attached Test Drive of our Wandering Aimfully Membership. You can kick the tires and see all the goodies we have to offer, along with a hands-on preview of our newest program Build Without Burnout Academy (a 6-month guided program to help client-based business owners transition to digital products).

You’ll also be able to see inside our “Vault,” which contains 30+ courses and workshops to help you grow your business or make big changes in your life. Give the WAIM Test Drive a shot and don’t hesitate to reach out and set up a quick 1-on-1 call with us!

Joining Wandering Aimfully is the best way to help support us on our journey AND help yourself grow your business (or start a business) with intention and on your own terms.

The “18not180” Approach to Becoming Your Best Self

January 8, 2018

I talk a lot about becoming your best, brightest self.

Sometimes, though, I fear the way I talk about personal growth makes it seem as though once we discover what actions we want to take to live as our best selves, that seemingly overnight weā€™re able to simply make those changes and accomplish just that.

Likeā€¦

We decide we need to be more self-disciplined so we wake up the next day able to stay focused and on-task, and suddenly weā€™re living our best life.

We decide we need to rest and take better care of ourselves, so from then on we no longer overwork ourselves and burn out and, ta-da, weā€™ve changed!

But thatā€™s NEVER how it actually works, is it?

It took me so long to learn this. For so long I tried this strategy: Iā€™d find myself in a moment of ā€œI know Iā€™d be so much happier and brighter if I just did better with xyz.ā€ I knew what needed to change, and maybe I even made better choices for a while, but a month or two later when I went back to my old ways, I felt like a failure.Ā  I would judge myself for sliding backward, not making that change.

That awful feeling of letting yourself downā€¦ Iā€™ve realized thatā€™s often the most powerful force that holds us back from real growth. We judge ourselves for ā€œfailingā€ and the next time we donā€™t even try to do better because weā€™re tired of feeling the guilt and disappointment of not being able to suddenly wake up and do a 180.

But last year I tried something new. I realized I needed to stop making the goal to do a complete 180-degree change in whatever area of my life I was focusing on.

Instead I started asking myself:Ā What if I just focused on trying to get 10% better at whatever I wanted to change?Ā 

What if I just focused on trying to get 10% better at whatever I wanted to change?

What if I drank more water 10% of the time? What if I was better about reaching out to friends just 10% more? What if I managed my daily schedule better just 10% of the time?

By changing the goalpost to something so seemingly manageable, I stopped finding myself in the dreaded loop of self-judgement.

Lasting changeĀ and living your brightest life ultimately comes down to tiny micro choices. In any given moment, you can choose what feels easy and comfortable OR you can choose what that best version of yourself would choose.

Imagine you are a dial or compass pointed in one direction. Most of us view change as a complete 180 degree rotation to get ourselves pointed in a new direction. Instead, this new philosophy has me viewing change as the sum of tiny 10 degree turns toward whatever that ā€œbestā€ version of you looks like.

Jason calls this 10% better strategy ā€œ18 not 180ā€ (which, coincidentally, feels especially appropriate for the year 2018).

So my challenge for you this week is to think of the one or two most pressing areas of your life or habits that you are trying to change, and I want you to try getting just 10% better.

Try rotating those measly 18 degrees, not a full 180. See if it feels easier and more doable to slowly drift toward your brightest life, rather than feeling guilty or disappointed for not being able get there overnight.

#18not180. Iā€™m making it a thing. A gentle reminder. A mantra. A cheat code. Whatever you want to call it, I hope it helps you make 2018 your best year yet.

Thanks for reading!

Improve Your Writing and Overcome The Fear of Writing

October 9, 2016

The idea of becoming a better writer is daunting but I’m living proof that you can improve your writing, especially if you start out as a really crappy writer (hah!)

Youā€™re not a writerā€”Stephen King is a writer.

You canā€™t write anything about marketingā€”Seth Godin has written it all.

No one wants to read your opinionsā€”everyone has their own opinions to sort through.

You have no writing credentials. You didnā€™t go to school for writing. Youā€™re terrible at grammar, punctuation, and using parentheses. (I still donā€™t think I do this ā€œcorrectly.ā€) People donā€™t need yet another thing to read.

Three years ago, those were the thoughts that filled my mind as I decided to commit to becoming a full-time writer.

Now, granted, I didnā€™t actually realize I was committing to becoming a full-time writer. I had merely decided to step away from a business and the audience of 25,000+ people that came with it. I had decided I would instead share my experiences as an entrepreneurā€”the real experiences, not the hacks/tips/secrets/3 easy steps that pepper the headlines of prominent media outlets.

But when you have zero experience writing, except for 140-character messages to random strangers on Twitter, where do you start?

 


An Imperfect Daily Writing Practice WILL Improve Your Writing

From the experience I had filming daily YouTube videos, creating a daily writing practiceĀ made perfect sense. When I started filming daily videos for my previous IWearYourShirt business, I had absolutely zero experience (the same experience I had as a writer).

I went from nearly soul-crushing thoughts of self-doubt and overwhelm to creating over 2,000 videos with millions of views.

The first videos I created were cringe-worthy; in fact, I still canā€™t watch them.Ā For some odd reason, I thought my writing would be different. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t. My early writing is cringeworthy, but that early writing has helped me overcome the fear of writing. The fear of comparing myself to other writers. And part of that process is allowing myself to be a bit more vulnerable with my writing.

Where exactly do you startĀ with a daily writing practice?

Based on my research, I committed to four things when I made the decision to stick to a daily writing practice:

  1. Write 500 words at the same time every morning (and block off the time on my calendar).
  2. Write without judgment or concern for the writing being ā€œgoodā€ (or even coherent).
  3. Be completely okay with the fact that all 500 words might be 100% worthless.
  4. Stick to a daily writing practice for two months.

And so I committed, starting on June 1, 2013. I didnā€™t have a repository of writing topics. I didnā€™t know exactly what I wanted to be writing about. I just knew I wanted to try out this writing thing.

The first few days? Not fun. As soon as my butt hit my blue yoga ball (what I sat on at the time), the doubts I wrote at the beginning of this article ran rampant through my mind. But instead of letting those thoughts control me, I fought them by hitting the keys on my keyboard. Without a succinct topic to write about, Iā€™d just write my exact feelings or stream of thoughts.

Day after day, the writing practice got easier. The pressure I put on myself to write something worthwhile started to lessen. My writing actually started to improve.

Once every couple of days, Iā€™d have an idea for an article that seemed interesting or that I thought may be valuable for other people. There was no Action Army back then. There were no Road Runner Rules. I had no idea who I was writing for or why I thought they would even want to read my writing. I just wanted to share my thoughts.

In the beginning, I wrote what came easily: I shared my life.

Coming off a business where I hosted a daily live video show that shared 90% of my life, I knew I could make an easy transition into writing something similar. Instead of trying to create some fancy way of writing or spending arduous hours trying to figure out interesting topics, Iā€™d just leverage something I had at my disposal: my life.

ā€œSharing my lifeā€ was familiar to me, but it also looked a certain way. During my days of hosting a live video show and representing a different company on my t-shirt every day, I couldnā€™t have bad days. I couldnā€™t complain, be upset, or be honest if I was feeling pressure and stress. That would reflect negatively on the brand that was paying me, and I knew that wasnā€™t fair to them. Sure, I probably should have seen the writing on the wall that it wasnā€™t a healthy way to operate my life/business, but we all make mistakes.

 


Vulnerability, Not Grammar Rules, Helped Take My Writing To The Next Level

Once I removed the shackles of worrying about representing a company, I felt the freedom to share what was actually going on. I felt a burning desire to let the world know that everything wasnā€™t okay because I knew everything wasnā€™t okay for other people as well (or at least I hoped I wasnā€™t alone in thinking that).

That shackle-removal was the best thing I did for my journey into writing. Being more vulnerable and honest about my life and business pushed away people who only wanted to see a perfect life and pulled in people who could relate and who shared my thoughts and feelings. Writing about Feeling Lost, Values, Friendships, and various other topics attracted the types of people who were going through (or had gone through) similar things. And when they commented or emailed to thank me for my words, it was a life-changing revelation to me:

I could be real about things not going perfectly, and people wouldnā€™t scatter away like cockroaches when you flick on a light in a dark dingy motel room.

Defining who you are writing for is helpful, even if that definition changes over time.

Defining the audience I was writing for was extremely painful for me, but I knew it was necessary. I had seen with my previous business that having a very broad audience led to a lot of surface-level connections. Without a deep-rooted (and defined) connection, those audience members would leave at the drop of a hat to find the next shiny object. Luckily, my life partner eats bowls of soul-searching-deep-rooted connections for breakfast.

I had countless conversations with my wife, Caroline, about ā€œwho I wanted to be writing toā€ and ā€œwhy I wanted to be writing to them.ā€ Just typing those words makes my stomach do a slight turn. Not because itā€™s cliche or extremely commonplace to think about those things, but because it felt so limiting and constricting to me.

How I thought about defining my audience: This will limit the number of people I can attract, which will limit the amount of money I can make, which will make me feel unimportant and not unique.

How defining my audience actually makes me feel: I have attracted a specific group of people who can benefit from my writing. Iā€™m empowered to know Iā€™m making an impact on peopleā€™s lives (impact > number of eyeballs).

Bonus resource: I sweet-talked my wife Caroline into letting me share the Ideal Audience Profile PDF that we used to help me define my audience. This PDF is actually only available in her Better Branding Course, but youā€™re getting it for free because Iā€™m a master negotiator (and because I agreed to do the dishes a few extra nights).

As Iā€™ve written this article, itā€™s for the Action Army, a group of people who want to take control of their businesses and do things in ways that align with who they are (not who society says they should be). But the Action Army could transition into something completely different in six months or two years. Iā€™m 100% okay with and open to that change, because I know Iā€™ll continue to evolve the definition of who my writing is for.

 


Becoming A Better Writer Evolves Just As Your Writing Does

I didnā€™t have the Road Runner Rules exercise when I first started writing. Instead, I had one guiding principle: I wanted my writing to be useful to other people.

Actually, I think I had two guiding principles: My writing would be helpful, and I would avoid the awful trend of articles that start with ā€œ27 tips to…ā€ and ā€œ6 important hacks for…ā€. Sure, every now and again, Iā€™ll write an article that has a number in the title, but out of my past 100 articles, only 8 of them have had numbers in the title. Iā€™d say thatā€™s sticking to my second writing principle.

ā€œIs what I just wrote useful?ā€

Whenever I sat down to write or finish an article, I would ask myself, ā€œIs what I just wrote useful?ā€ The answer means 90% of my writing never sees the light of day. Itā€™s not useful. Itā€™s just words, jumbled together, often without a cohesive thread. I keep doing it because I like the writing process, but Iā€™m being 100% serious when I say I have 24 articles in drafts right now, most of which are between Ā½ and Ā¾ complete because theyā€™re not really useful. Yesterday, I wrote an entire article about what I learned from taking out my smelly trash. That was fun, but I think Iā€™ll trash it. šŸ˜‰

How did I define what was ā€œusefulā€ when it came to my writing?

I wanted someone to read what Iā€™d written and one of two things would happen:

  1. Learn something from my experience that they can directly apply to their lives or business
  2. Be inspired to make a change in their life and have the practical steps to make it happen

I like to think of my early writing like my younger self. Full of flaws, trying too hard, and lacking the experience or confidence to deliver something of actual value.

That may sound harsh, but I believe weā€™re all our own worst critics. And hey, thatā€™s how I reflect on the beginning of my writingā€”itā€™s not where I am today. I 100% realize Iā€™m not the next Kerouac, Nietzsche, or even Stephen King, but Iā€™m also not trying to be. I donā€™t aspire to be a great writer or to win awards for my writing. I aspire to write useful things. If Iā€™m doing that, Iā€™ll continue to keep writing.

Iā€™m writing a lot about entrepreneurship and living an intentional life these days, but maybe Iā€™ll write the next great fiction series? Maybe Iā€™ll get really into carpentry and write all about how to carve chairs out of sporks?

All I know right now is that after three years and 3,000,000 words, the important part is not the words themselves, but the intention behind them and the people they help. Thatā€™s it.

Iā€™m completely open to the evolution of my writing as long as it stays useful. One of the things thatā€™ll stay intact for me in all my future writing will be bringing my audience (you reading this) along with me. I thoroughly enjoy sharing my experiencesā€”again, the real experiences, not a sugar-coated version that will make headlines for major media companies. I enjoy the deeper connection my writing helps create, and Iā€™ll continue to invest in deepening that connection for as long as I can.

 


Where Does SEO Fit In And How Do You Keep Writing When No One Is Reading?

Ahh, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the mythical sasquatch for online writers these days. So many people buy the advice to write for search engines, and to stuff their ā€œcontentā€ full of ā€œkeywords.ā€ Iā€™ll be honest: talking like that make makes my left eye twitch.

Letā€™s take a look at organic (search) traffic of JasonDoesStuff.com since I started sharing my writing consistently (weekly) in January of 2015:

JasonDoesStuff Organic Traffic

One of the things youā€™ll notice right away are the two gaps. The first one, from January 2015 – August 2015, shows almost zero search traffic. Thatā€™s not surprising since it can take 3-6 months for a site with new content to index in Google. This is the stage of creating content when you just have to believe in your writing (you know, when NO ONE is reading it šŸ˜‚).

The second gap was a month when my website was offline and being redesigned. Notice that it didnā€™t affect the overall organic traffic growth after it was brought back online (yay!)

What strategies did I use to take my organic traffic from 0 to 500 visitors per day in about a year?

None.

Well, thatā€™s not entirely true. My friend Paul Jarvis gave me a great piece of advice that I still adhere to today: Write for people, not for robots.

I like Paulā€™s advice, and I havenā€™t concerned myself with a single other SEO strategy since then. I donā€™t care about what to put in H1, H2, or H3 tags. I donā€™t count my words. The only SEO-related WordPress plugin I have on my site is Yoast. And the only reason I have it is because my buddy Ben said I should. I fill out the title, keyword, and meta description with each article I write. But I have no clue if Iā€™m picking the right title, keyword, or metadata. Iā€™m just inputting stuff that feels right.

Otherwise, Iā€™ve just continued to write consistently useful content. Iā€™ve listened to my reader’s suggestions, and Iā€™ve tried to write about the things people seem toĀ actually want to read. Iā€™m happy to let the search engine robots (Skynet!?) figure out the rest of the details.

Could I be getting a lot more organic traffic? Probably. Iā€™ve seen all the same articles/webinars/courses you have about the topic. But that would be a lot of time spent focusing on things I donā€™t want to waste my time with. Iā€™d rather enjoy the process of writing for and helping others, and not concern myself with eeking out a little extra traffic here and there.

 


Improving Your Writing Starts With You

Your words are good enough as long as they are your words. Itā€™s easy to copy. Itā€™s easy to put a slight spin on something Seth Godinā€™s already written. In fact, thatā€™s a great place to spend 90% of your writing time. Just be willing to throw away the unoriginal stuff that isnā€™t useful.

Share your stories. Your stories are unique to you. Even if you arenā€™t going through crazy things in life, youā€™re experiencing things in a way that other people can resonate with. This is how you build an audience of readers.

Be willing to throw away your writing. At least early on, your writing is nothing more than an exercise to help you grow and get better. If you start with this thought (or change your current thinking about it), writing becomes way less stressful and can be done with much less pressure. Eventually, you wonā€™t need to throw away your writing (maybe).

Embrace vulnerability in your writing. Writing my book Creativity For Sale was one of the most cathartic things Iā€™ve done in my life. It allowed me to share a lot of thoughts and feelings Iā€™d bottled up. I do the same thing on a weekly basis with these articles. You donā€™t have to pull all your skeletons out of your closet, but maybe start with a handful of them that you think other people can learn from.

This has been another 2500 words added to my 3,000,000 overall word count (so far).

This article on becoming a better writerĀ went through a few revisions to make sure it met my #1 rule of being useful, but it also came together a lot more easily than 2500 words used to. Iā€™m more comfortable writing these days than I ever have been, and even though I still donā€™t consider myself a capital-W writer, I donā€™t think I (or you) need the title to do the thing.

Just start writing, and see where it takes you.

How To Fight Procrastination With Constraints and Limitations

November 16, 2015

We all deal with procrastination, but here’s how you can use constraints and limitations fight through it.

There are times when you feel like you just canā€™t get any work done. Your thinking isnā€™t clear. You have too many things racing around in your mind and instead of buckling down and getting to it, procrastination is at an all-time high.

You fall into Workload Paralysis: You stress about all the work that needs to be done to the point of needing an escape, only to come back and see even more work to be done. And on and on and on…

Itā€™s a dark place to be in, but there is a solution. It might seem counterintuitive, but I strongly believe that setting limitations and constraints can help you get through procrastination and help you get more done.

 


Start Fighting Procrastination By Shifting Your Mindset

Weā€™ve all been there before. We feel the squeeze of a deadline and somehow manage to hunker down and get the work done just in time. Often times during the ā€˜squeezeā€™ we feel like we get in the ā€˜zoneā€™.

You know the zone right? That place where you just seem to be firing on all cylinders and to-dos get knocked off like falling dominos.

Thereā€™s a trick to getting in this ā€˜zoneā€™ often. That trick is to set limitations on time and constrain yourself to focusing on only one task at a time.

One of the best ways Iā€™ve found to master my work output is to be very strict with my calendar. For example, while writing this article I blocked off 1.5 hours. During that time my email was closed, Google Chrome was minimized, my phone was out of sight. I put on some music that helps me focus while writing (Odesza and Pretty Lights). Then I just write. Free from distractions and any potential procrastination. Of course I have moments where I canā€™t think of what to write next or I can feel the pull of social media. But I remind myself of the limitation Iā€™ve set and stay focused.

My weekly calendar is filled with similar events.

There arenā€™t a lot of free hours in my day. 90% of the events, however, have nothing to do with phone calls or meetings. Heck, I used to even set times on my calendar to check email and social media (thanks 4-Hour Workweek).

I block off time on my calendar for writing, for strategy sessions, for customer support stuff, for life tasks (appointments, errands, etc), and I even block off time to NOT work.

Jason Zook Calendar

(A screenshot of my calendar during the BuyMyFuture planning and build.)

Why I only allow myself 30 minutes (or less) when going to the grocery store: No one needs to spend an hour browsing the aisles at the grocery store. Plus, this little trick keeps me from buying extra things I donā€™t need (because that would take too much time). Iā€™m in and out, with only the items I needed, and I can get back to work or back to time off from work.

If you donā€™t feel you have the willpower to let your calendar dictate your life, try finding an accountability partner for a while. If you donā€™t have friends you want to trust with this task, hire a virtual assistant. For the $20-50 youā€™d spend a week having someone nag you, it might make you want to stick to your schedule more because youā€™re spending money on it.

Plus, itā€™s human nature not to let someone down. Whether thatā€™s a friend or stranger somewhere else in the world, accountability can be very powerful.

Don’t procrastinate when picking “the right” tool, app, etc

We have too many tools at our disposal. A simple Google search for ā€œwriting appā€ brings up 252,000,000 results. Holy crap. How does anyone decide where to start? And the answer is not to click through until Page 5 or 6 in the Google search results, thatā€™s just ludicrous.

The key is just to pick one tool and limit yourself to that one thing to start. Personally, I like to pick the tool with the least amount of features. As an example, I use the Bear App for writing. It doesnā€™t have a toolbar. It doesnā€™t have text decoration options. There isnā€™t even any text formatting. Not being able to waste time with features helps me get in the writing zone very quickly.

Bear Writing App

(The Bear writing app in action – This is where all my articles start!)

A tool should be just thatā€”a tool. It should have just the amount of features necessary to get the job done. When you have the right tool, it fades into the background and allows you to focus on the task at hand.

But how did I find Bear App? Through a friend on Twitter. A friend I trusted the opinion of and I knew was also an efficient writer. Itā€™s one thing to take a recommendation from a friend who has successfully used that tool to their advantage. But if theyā€™re just gushing about all the shiny and ā€˜interestingā€™ features it has, that might be a red flag that their recommendation isnā€™t the right thing for you.

Another way to test a tool is to set limitations with it. Letā€™s say it takes you one hour to do an existing task with an app youā€™ve been using for a while. If you want to try a new app, only allow yourself an hour to perform the same task. If you canā€™t get it done, then the new app isnā€™t worth the time investment. If youā€™re able to do the same task in half the time, then you definitely should switch apps.

 


Constraints Are The Best Way To Avoid Procrastination

Itā€™s my honest opinion, coming from someone whoā€™s created a dozen online courses, written two books, and built four software applications, that having constraints is a beautiful thing.

When I say constraints, Iā€™m talking about a few specific things. The first is only doing the essential things needed to complete a project. The second is not letting assumptions dictate the amount of work you do.

Let me break both of these down for you…

When youā€™re building anything, it can be tempting to follow through with every ā€˜greatā€™ idea you have along the way

Yet by constraining yourself to only work on a few things, you have a better chance of actually finishing your project and creating something with value. Hereā€™s an example:

I have an online learning product called Teachery. For a year my co-founder Gerlando and I were heads-down building the best online course building tool we could, with the least amount of features possible.

Every time weā€™d think of a new feature idea, instead of spending time on it, weā€™d put it in a massive to-do list in Basecamp. Early on we set goals to help people quickly and easily build and sell beautiful online courses. If each feature we came up with didnā€™t directly relate to our goals, then it got put in the to-do list queue.

Recently we archived a queue of 50+ feature ideas. They werenā€™t bad ideas either. But by constraining ourselves to stick to the core features and work on perfecting them, weā€™ve been able to hit all our goals and milestones (which can be extremely tough when building a softwareĀ product).

 

How to avoid analysis paralysis

Now, when it comes to assumptions, I want to share an example of an online course I recently created. When I was writing the outline for the course I had 12 topic ideas. But when I sat down to create the course I told myself to pick the top 8 ideas I thought were most important to open up the course for purchase.

I assumed that people would be interested in the other 4 topics, but knew they werenā€™t absolutely necessary. I wrote a note in my outline next to those 4 topics that said: ā€œIf 5 people ask for any of these, I will create and add them as lessons in the course.ā€ This small step would help test my assumption that people would want this information. So far no one has asked about any of them.

 
Now in both of these examples, you could argue that my projects could have been better with all the additional features and topics. And while I agree with you in principle, I also believe in the quote ā€œDone is better than perfectā€.

Iā€™ve seen it with my own projects and with entrepreneurs and creative professionals time and time again. You want to over-deliver as much as possible to show the value of whatever youā€™re building. But itā€™s much easier to launch with less and add to a completed product, then it is to struggle to get a product to market that has a feature list a mile-long.

In almost all aspects of creation I see constraints as a beautiful and helpful thing

They help guide you and give you a compass to reach the finish line of whatever youā€™re working on. Lots of people get projects to 80-90% completion. Those same people struggle to get sales and always seem stressed out and overwhelmed. Get the best, smallest version of your project done and revel in your successes.

Thereā€™s a ton of power in completion.

Why Itā€™s Harder For Some People To Successfully Form New Habits

July 13, 2015

It appears Iā€™m on a kick about habits lately, so I hope you guys are along for the ride because today is yet another post about them!

Last Fridayā€™s post was all about using creative progress mapsĀ to help document the formation of new habits.

In the past few months, Iā€™ve written about my perspective on the power of consistency, how to stay accountableĀ to yourself as you build new habits, and how to get back on the horseĀ when you break the chain of consistency.

Itā€™s entirely possible that by now you guys are getting tired of hearing about habits, BUT I continue to write about them because they really have changed my life.

To me, forming new habits is a way of intentionally drawing more of what I value into my daily life.

Whether itā€™s been intentionally making time for creating art every day, or trying to make my health and fitness a priority, my attempt at successfully integrating new habits has always been about designing a life around my authentic self.

BUT thereā€™s always been one thing that has nagged at me when it comes to habits. Why do certain habits come more easily to me than others? Why are some easy to follow through on and others it feels like an uphill hike on a hot summer day?

For instance, Iā€™ve successfully completely at least six 30-day lettering challenges in the past year and a half, but Iā€™ve fallen off the wagon more than a time or two when it comes to instituting a fitness regimen.

What makes these two tasks different and why is one easier for me to stick to than the other? This is something I’ve always wondered.

Until yesterday.

Yesterday, I rolled out of bed and decided to go for a morning walk (something I used to do all the time in Florida but havenā€™t done since we moved to California.) I always use that time to connect with nature and listen to a podcast episode to get my brain warmed up for the day.

As I left my driveway this morning, wouldnā€™t you know it, the first podcast episode in my queue was one from The Lively ShowĀ with guest,Ā Gretchen Rubin, the author of a book that greatly influenced my life a few years ago,Ā The Happiness Project.

I was only a few minutes in and I realized that Gretchen has a new book out,Ā Better Than BeforeĀ (a fact I somehow missed despite what Iā€™m sure was a boatload of book marketing dollars – sorry publishers! You canā€™t get me! Muahaha!) Apparently, the entire focus of the book is on mastering habits and how our personalities affect the way we adopt new habits.

What?! The universe is clearlyĀ trying to tell me something about habits!

It was fun to hear that apparently I’m not the only one that has had these questions about why habits are easier for some and harder for others – Gretchen researched and wrote an entire book about it!

Anyway, there were a whole slew of topics that Jess and Gretchen covered in the episode, which I wonā€™t ruin for you here, but my big ah-ha takeaway had to do with this Four Tendencies frameworkĀ that Gretchen discovered/created through her research.

This framework is a way for us to understand how our unique personalities view the idea of forming habits, and what kind of expectations we tend to stay accountable to.

 

 I mage via GretchenRubin.com

Image via GretchenRubin.com

 

Hereā€™s a quick run-down on each tendency, as I understood them from Gretchenā€™s interview:

  • Upholder – An Upholder will rise to meet the expectations of others, but also uphold the expectations they have for themselves
  • Obliger – An Obliger has no problem rising to meet the expectations of others, but does have a hard time keeping themselves accountable to internal commitments. Theyā€™ll put their obligations to others above the promises they make to themselves.
  • Questioner – A Questioner has to understand why theyā€™re being asked to meet an expectation, whether internal or external. Theyā€™ll question this until they feel it makes sense that they should uphold any kind of expectation.
  • Rebel – A Rebel resists both internal and external expectations. They often feel that habits are restrictive and they want maximum freedom in their lives.

As Gretchen went through this list, it became clear to see myself, plus friends and family in relation to this framework.

For example, Iā€™d say for the majority of my life I have been an Obliger. I’ve always gone above and beyond to meet the expectations of other people, but I’ve had a hard time doing the same thing for myself.

This is the answer to my question about why I have a much harder time getting myself to work out than I do posting my daily lettering. With the lettering, I have an Instagram community that expects me to post every day; Iā€™ve made that promise public and my Obliger nature uses that external expectation as a means of accountability.

But, going to my work out class five times a week — thatā€™s just a promise I made to myself. No one is responsible for holding me to it except myself. In the past I would have had trouble placing this as a priority over something with an external expectation.

However, now after years of work, I feel Iā€™m finally getting a lot closer to being an Upholder. Iā€™ve learned to create boundaries and identify my core values, and that inner work has allowed me to give as much weight to my inner expectations as I do to the expectations of others.

For example, my friend Margaret stayed with me this past week and in the past, I likely would have used that as an excuse for myself not to go to my fitness class each day because I wouldnā€™t have wanted to “disappoint her” by spending a few hours away and leaving her on her own. However, I’ve now recognized that improving my health and strength is a priority for me — something I value —Ā and working out is a habit I want to cultivate, so I voiced this to her and stuck with my workout schedule during her trip. Now that I have a way to acknowledge this, I’m definitely going to work to stay closer to the Upholder end of the spectrum. If I notice myself slipping though, I can always use those external motivators that speak to the Obliger in me to keep me accountable.

Jason and I decided that he is definitely a Questioner. He cares a lot more about answering to himself than he does to others, but only if he has bought in to WHY heā€™s doing something. When thatā€™s the case, he has no trouble keeping up with a new habit.

See – itā€™s fascinating stuff, you guys! And itā€™s kind of fun once you start to see your tendencies illustrated in different areas of your life.

Iā€™m just such a nerd when it comes to frameworks for understanding human behavior, I can definitely see this chart represented in my own behavior and the behavior of people I know well.

Like I said, there were so many great nuggets of wisdom I took away from the interview — something Iā€™m hoping to dive into more when I read the book — but I at least wanted to share the Four Tendencies with you guys because it could be a game-changer for some of you.

If you really want to introduce new, positive changes into your life, the secret is to first understand what your unique tendencies are and then use them to your advantage to help you stick to your program.

Aside from these tiny revelations about habits in general, the biggest takeaway that I got from the interview was this:

If you want to make a lasting change in your habits, knowing your motivations and your values is the best place to start.

Just a little something I wanted to share with you on this Monday morning as you prepare for your week.

So,Ā are there any habits you have struggled to stick with in the past? Could Gretchenā€™s framework help you understand your own attitude toward habits better? Which tendency do you have?

Let me know in the comments!

Right after I finish The Art of Possibility, Iā€™m definitely going to download Better Than BeforeĀ and give it a read.

Hope today’s post helps you adopt those positive habits!

Wishing all of you a productive and positive week!