828: Power Moves to Take Back Your Time and Get More Done

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2:01Maybe it's not an integrator for you. Maybe you need help with your inbox or you need someone to help you set up your schedule or you need help cleaning your house. Whatever that is, look at ways that you can get help and earn back the expense of hiring that help. I'm Jenna Kutcher, your host of the Gold Digger podcast. I escaped the corporate world at the age of 23 with nothing more than a$300 camera from Craigslist and a dream. Now I'm running a seven figure online business that feels even better than it looks all from my house in small town, Minnesota with my family. Here we value time as our currency.

2:38We mix the woo and the work and we are in the pursuit of building businesses that give us the freedom to live lives that we love. I've always loved turning big goals into reality, and I'm here to help you do the same. This isn't just a peek behind the curtain. Come along with me and my guests as we tear the whole curtain down. Every week we tackle practical, no-fluff marketing strategies and host honest discussions on what works and what doesn't. Join me and my expert guests for actionable insights to help you grow your dream business with confidence. Pull up a seat and get ready to be challenged, inspired, and empowered.

3:14This is the Gold Digger Podcast. The holidays are here and with the season comes that familiar, all too busy feeling. As your calendar fills with events, obligations, and to-dos, taking back control of your time and your life can honestly feel like a far off dream. But here's the good news. It doesn't have to be. Today, we're diving into practical power moves that can help you reclaim your time and get more done without the constant hustle or burnout. I've been championing an anti-hustle approach for years, encouraging you to build a business that supports your life instead of one that takes it over.

3:51Now, this episode originally aired in June of 2022, but I feel like now more than ever, as we're approaching the year's end, this conversation is even more relevant. You're about to hear 14 actionable ways to make the most of your work hours so you can truly savor your downtime. Like imagine finishing your day without a list hanging over your head, freeing you up for more of the moments that matter and the things that you love, whether that's enjoying the holiday magic, unwinding with loved ones, watching those Hallmark movies, or simply finding a little piece amiss the noise. Without further ado, let's jump on in and explore how you can make the most of your time with intention and purpose.

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5:10It is all waiting for your team in HubSpot. Keep your marketers cool and make your campaign results hotter than ever. Visit HubSpot.com slash marketers to learn more. That's HubSpot.com slash marketers. Thoreau once said, it's not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about? And that idea, that thought, it really hits home for me. When I started my business, I was working full time in my corporate position on top of planning a wedding and commuting an hour to work each day and training for a marathon. To say I was stretched thin would be an understatement. I was stressed.

5:48I was busy. I was doing all the things. Because of everything that was happening in my world, I did not have a ton of extra time to devote to starting and growing my business. So every spare hour I could scrounge up went into building something that would get me my life back. Now, when I look back, I literally have no clue how I managed it all. But at the time, I knew that the sacrifice of working pretty much around the clock in that specific season was going to be worth it. Did I work all the time? Yes. Was it worth it looking back? Yes. Was it sustainable? No, absolutely not. Now, when it comes to hustling, I think that there are seasons where it's appropriate and maybe even necessary to push the gas pedal down and get running.

6:30But I also want to preach that working that way only works in short bursts. It's not sustainable and it's usually not life-giving and you have to proceed with caution in order to avoid burnout. These are all things I've learned the hard way in my decade of entrepreneurship. I mean, there are bound to be these phases, these seasons of our lives and stages in our business that are busier than others. But if we recognize that off the bat, we can do our best to set ourselves up to feel even incrementally less frantic and frazzled by preparing the things that we can, setting up systems that give us back some of our time and being totally and brutally honest about what we need in order to get through the busy while avoiding the burnout.

7:13All of these things are going to help us transition more quickly into a smoother, more balanced way of living and working. Now, I'm literally walking through that this year with launching my book. It's going to be busier than I've been in the last four years, and things might get crazy. But I am doing literally everything in my power to anticipate what needs to happen, to prepare what I can prepare in advance, and to stick to my values when things try to pull me out of my life. Speaking of life, it took a lot of living to figure all of this out. And here's the thing. I'm speaking from this place of here's what I've learned so far.

7:48I will undoubtedly learn more lessons on this topic as I grow and evolve. But heck, these experiences shaped how I look at things like time and efficiency. And I'm going to guess that you have your own personal stories too. For me personally, motherhood was a massive catalyst and it helped me shift the way that I look at my time. My mom recently told me that her and my dad were slightly nervous to watch me become a mom, not because they doubted that I'd be a good one. But for so many years, I worked so hard, like work was my baby. And so much of my time went into my work. I went through this big transitory period after having Coco and realizing that my time was more precious than ever.

8:29And my time was now split. Like I'll admit that I didn't exactly have the most mindful and balanced approach to work pre kids. Today, things look totally different than they did years ago. I mean, for me, it was fun to work. Like I was in love with my work. So many days I find myself jumping online any hour of the day or night if inspiration struck or if I felt a tug of energy to get stuff done. I was the queen of like one more email, one more post, one more thing. So when I became a mom, I went from working full time to working really part time. And instead of working around the clock, I found myself basically working after Coco went to bed those first several months and even years.

9:10This was a massive, a massive transition for me. And I know that I'm not alone in that. There are so many nap time work warriors or side hustlers listening who want to be able to get a lot done without a clear chunk of time or cutting work time in half without impacting their results dramatically. Our situations all look different, but we can all agree that if we are able to do focused work in less time, we will have more time for the things that we love, the things we're passionate about. So maybe you're in this season where you're working full time and building a side hustle whenever time allows, or perhaps you're in the season of parenthood and working whenever your cute little sidekick lets you log in for a little bit of time.

9:52Whatever your story is, I want to share some massively helpful tactical actions that you can take one at a time to free up more of your time so that you can actually focus on what matters, whether that's finishing a project or rocking your baby during nap time. This list may be somewhat longish, but don't let that keep you frozen. Just pick one or two things today to work on in the next week or so, and then come on back to this episode or even visit the show notes at jennacutcherblog.com slash less time. That's jennacutcherblog.com slash less time to work on a few more once you're done. Before you know it, you'll have more margin in your day to spend however you'd like, and you won't have to waste time on repeating tasks or doing things that aren't actually productive or worthwhile.

10:37So without further ado, let's jump on in. First, we want to start with working smarter with the time that you do have. So that means building out a few things that will take time on the front end, but save you massive amounts of time later on. Now, trust me when I say time passes anyway. So this upfront work is going to be worth it. So first, you can create email templates for anything that you find yourself writing more than once. It can be a new client inquiry responses, frequently asked questions in your inbox, a follow up email, or literally anything that you type out from scratch all the time.

11:11Bonus thought is that you likely have an email in your inbox that you can take and just tweak and save in a Google Doc as your future template. Now templates are life like imagine the feeling of creating one thoughtful or intentional email and using it over and over and over again without the thought or time needed. So first start with email templates. Next, create an autoresponder that sets clear expectations and buys you some time. Autoresponders can absolutely change the game. Let recipients know in the message when they can expect to hear back from you, whether it's within three business days or 10, and remember to under promise and over deliver here.

11:51On top of that, what you can do in your autoresponder is share links to things that they might need in the meantime. You can link up resources, an application to work with you, your products, your pricing guide, or anything else that someone might be looking for. And if your email is constantly getting flooded with messages that you just can't prioritize responding to right now, it's totally okay to say that. Say something like, while we appreciate and love getting notes from the community, at this point in time, we're working on some big projects for you and unfortunately can't respond to every email that comes in.

12:22If your note is urgent, we will get back to you within X business days. Otherwise, keep up with us on social media for announcements of what's to come. This allows you to set both expectations and boundaries using an autoresponder that will do the serving for you. And the best part is, is that you can set it and forget it. Number three, create a pricing guide that walks someone through the features of your offer and explains what your offer is and how much it costs so that you don't have to book tons of consults with people who might not be the right fit. A well thought out pricing guide can help someone qualify themselves as a potential client and can keep the awkward money discussions at a minimum because you're upfront and you're sharing what it is that they can expect.

13:02I know many photographers and designers have pricing guides, but honestly, I believe any service provider can and should have a pretty PDF that they can easily send to prospects that explains a package and the value of what someone will get if they work with you. You don't want to waste anyone's time. So being transparent with your pricing can save you time and build trust. I know some people say don't list your prices, but I always included a starting at with a price point because it just helps people see if they're even in the ballpark of if they can afford you or not. So I think the more transparent you can be with pricing, the more time you're going to save yourself and potential clients.

13:43This podcast is brought to you by Mercury, banking that helps entrepreneurs do more with their money. Okay, I remember in the early days of my entrepreneurship journey, clients would literally mail me checks and then I would have to drive all the way to the bank to deposit them. It took me literal years to make things go digital. And I am ashamed to admit I still have a filing cabinet with paper contracts because I'm way too afraid to throw them away. But that's the beauty of growth, right? You learn what systems serve you and which ones hold you back. Mercury is one of those systems that just works.

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14:56It can all be overwhelming and confusing, but thankfully, that's where today's sponsor, Shopify, comes in. Shopify powers millions of businesses around the world and 10 % of all U.S. e-commerce. from big brands to folks just getting started. They offer beautiful, ready-to-go website templates so you don't need design skills to look professional. Their AI tools help with product images, descriptions, discount codes, and more. Shopify also makes it simple to run email and social campaigns so people can find you. And if you ever feel stuck, their award-winning 24-7 support is always available. Turn those dreams into...

15:34and give them the best shot at success with Shopify. Sign up for your$1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com slash gold digger. Go to shopify.com slash gold digger. Shopify.com slash gold digger. Number four, begin to create regular content that serves, explains, and teaches to build up a library of resources you can direct people to about your offer. My blog, this podcast, massive resource libraries that we point people to daily, those can save you a ton of time. And while you don't need to have thousands of blog posts or hundreds of podcast episodes, creating a few key content pieces that can serve as resources can massively help you.

16:19It can literally be like one blog post a month that leads someone to more information or even an Instagram caption that teaches something that you can then send to people asking about certain topics. A quick way to get started with this is to look back on old content that you might have already created and see ways that you can expand and repurpose it in a fresh way. Or even ask your audience, what questions do you have and build content around that. Creating a little library of resources can help you direct people in the right place without asking you to repeat yourself like a broken record. Create once, serve more than once.

16:55Number five is this. Build a website or even just a solid landing page that shares more about you, your business, your offers, and your pricing so that you can have a place that's searchable and that does a lot of the question answering and pitching for you. You want to have some sort of home base on the web. Not only does it help you build credibility, but it provides searchability and it allows for people to qualify themselves as a potential fit for your offer. Now, obviously this is a larger undertaking, but if you sign up for something like Flowdesk for email marketing or for Kajabi to create courses, platforms like those provide the ability to build out websites or landing pages within their platform so that you can get your info live quickly.

17:37To check out my favorites, head to jkfaves.com. That's jkfaves.com. And I list out all of my favorite places and resources to help you get started along with discount codes that it'll allow you to save. Number six, have a hub for your transaction. So this is an absolute life changer, but having a system or a CRM, which is a customer relationship manager, some sort of simple way that you can send contracts, collect invoices easily and coordinate sales and client interactions online can be life-changing. Everything can be stored and tracked in one place. And this is going to keep all of your important payment information and correspondences in one place, which makes it easier and faster to interact.

18:23And here's the thing. When you have a solid CRM, you don't have to deal with things like snail mail or have a bunch of separate platforms for managing various backend tasks. A lot of times these systems can save you time on things like taxes, and they can do things like automatic follow-up for things like payment and save you time and streamline your workflows. I used to do everything with filing cabinets. In fact, I just found one of my old filing cabinets with contracts from years ago, and I would have to go to the post office and snail mail things over and go to the bank and cash checks. And then I decided to join a program called HoneyBook.

18:58And it was an absolute game changer for all things like contracts and invoices and workflows. So if you want to look for one, or if you want to see what I'm using, go to jennacutcher.com slash HoneyBook, and you can check out how HoneyBook works and how I use it in my business. And the best part is, is you can save 50 % off on your annual subscription. Again, that is jennacutcher.com slash honeybook. Okay. So after you have all of these pieces in place, now let's talk about how you can work on more of the day-to-day time-saving action. So all of the things I just listed from email templates to auto responders, you can build those ones, set them up and have them working for you.

19:38So start with those pieces of the puzzle first, but next I'm going to give you some tips for how you can save time in your day-to-day life. So number seven is this, change your daily approach to work and incorporate something called a big three. So a big three is essentially establishing your big three tasks, or even if you just have a limited amount of time, figuring out what is the number one thing that I need to get done today. Now, this is basically just defining the action steps or the task that needs to be completed that will make the most significant difference or make the biggest impact in your business or your life.

20:16Now, when you are strapped for time, it is so easy to feel like you do not get anything done. Like, have you ever worked your butt off and you finish the day and you're like, what did I even accomplish today? I feel like I was working so hard and nothing got done. Or maybe you think like the work I did didn't actually even make a difference. If you can get really good at looking at your list and starting with the one thing that can actually be tied to a tangible result versus things like social media or getting sucked into your inbox. You can then finish your day feeling accomplished and knowing that you did something that made the needle move.

20:49So start off your day, look at your task list, start off with the one or the three things that must get done for that day. And then if and when you have that extra time, you can use it to tackle the rest of the things on your list, or better yet, you can use it to rest. Number eight, using a project management system and breaking down a big task into a bunch of smaller ones. Now, this is something that became a necessity for me after having Coco. I literally found myself logging into work and not even knowing what I needed to get done. So having a project management system, not just for myself, but for my entire team absolutely was a game changer.

21:25Now we use a program called Monday for project management. And basically what it does is it allows us to look at big picture projects and break them down into way smaller digestible pieces. I can not only look at my own to-do list and check things off, but follow projects my team is working on and it keeps everything in one place. Everything is in one home. So it gives you this like satisfaction of checking off things as you do them, but it also allows you to mentally release tasks that are taking up brain space since you know you have everything safely stored in one spot. You can create tasks, you can mark them off, you can set deadlines, reminders.

22:03There are so many different ways that you can use Monday. And it has been just life changing for me and my team. So taking the time to break down a big project into micro tasks is going to help you move forward. And it doesn't leave you feeling like you have unfinished business. Like for me in this stage of life, I need to know that I close the loop on certain things just to be able to mentally disconnect from work and get back into living. And so if you want to check out what we use, head to jennalovesmonday.com. That's jennalovesmonday.com. And we absolutely love it as a project management system.

22:38And I know it can be tempting to think, I don't have a team. I don't need something like this. Trust me, if you can start using a system like this when you are a solopreneur, it's going to help for you to break down these big projects and create systems and workflows that are going to serve you long after today. Next up is number nine, cutting out the unnecessaries or the needs to haves to focus on the need to haves. Think about this in terms of things like content or frequency of posting or sharing or outreach. You want to start super simple and then expand your efforts once you get the flow or the hang of it.

23:14There's no point in shooting too big or being unrealistic and then feeling guilt or shame when you can't follow through. I know I've done this before as an entrepreneur. And so maybe it's most realistic for your time and needs to start small. You're saying, I'm going to send one email to my email list a month and then work your way up to more later on as you get the flow, as you know how long things are going to take you, as you figure out your own system. So look at how you can really make sure that you're doing the things that make you an actual business, aka you're making money, you're making sales, you're serving clients, and not just focusing on things that make you look like a business, aka social media or a perfect website.

23:54Focus on the needle movers first and be brutal in cutting out anything that really isn't tied to an actual result. Number 10, getting help, whether it's a contractor like a VA or hiring someone short term for a one-off project on a site like Fiverr. Now, I personally used to absolutely suck at asking for help. But over the years, I've realized that in order to do the things that I do and also be the kind of mom I want to be, help is essential. It's required. Hiring my integrator Marissa three years ago actually came out of my frustration of trying to navigate naptime warrior life after Coco was born and essentially not having the bandwidth to even know what needed to get done or where to start.

24:34Like I felt like I was wasting the precious time that I did have just to get reacclimated to the business. I was busy answering everyone else's questions and figuring out what needed to be done and responding to emails. And I would literally just like sit down and stare at all the needs and requests from my team and then look at what big projects or launches were coming up. And I just felt frozen. I like literally didn't know where to start or how to dig myself out. When I realized that I am the visionary and not the integrator, when I hired someone to be the integrator, to integrate, to manage the team, to handle the requests, like everything changed.