Designing Success

15 Quick Questions to get unstuck for the girlies who can't stop makeing it harder than it needs to be

rhiannon lee

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Welcome to Designing Success from Study to Studio. I'm your host Rhiannon Lee, founder of the Oleander and Finch Design Studio. I've lived the transformation from study to studio and then stripped it bare and wrote down the framework so you don't have to overthink it. In this podcast, you could expect real talk with industry friends, community connection, and actionable tips to help you conquer whatever's holding you back. Now, let's get designing your own success. On this week's episode of Designing Success, it's just gonna be a short one for me today, but sometimes the smallest ideas can have the greatest impact in our business I wanna share almost like a quick mindset episode 15 questions that can help me unstick myself. So it's something in my business that I often ask myself or things that I challenge people on when I'm private coaching that I really feel with some reflection can help move them forward. It is really easy for us to overthink things, to overanalyze, to sit in paralysis and instead of progress and to kind of get stuck in our own head sometimes. So I'm just gonna sprinkle each of the questions through and hopefully it sparks something for you. Or you can save this episode or share it with a friend or, revisit it. Come back here if you are finding yourself stalled or stuck. One of these questions might really help you move forward. So the first question is, what would this look like if it was easy? This is my go-to question 100% every single time. I'm like, okay, stop for a second. Are you overcomplicating it? What does it look like if it's easy? Like what is the pathway? What is the. The process. What are the steps to get this done? What would it look like if there weren't so many steps and it wasn't so complicated. Effectively, can I make this more streamlined? Can I be easier on myself about this issue? Whatever it is, number one, and my favorite, what would this look like if it were easy? Easy? The second question is, what is the simplest next step? So sometimes we, yeah, we are overthinking things and we are thinking about. A huge amount of steps that it's gonna take to get the outcome that we want. But what is the simplest next step? I find this question really great for progress. Just sometimes identifying that things can be step by step and eventually you will get there. You know, I think it's Steven Bartlet on Diary Over CEO, who talks a lot about being 1% better than yesterday, and I do think like the simplest next. Step to get something done rather than nothing. So there are days where, you know, you have this large project or a documentation issue or so you know, you've got something large on your plate. But what is the simplest, just next step, what, can I just do one little thing? This is quite helpful for taking a bite of the pie and not being just terrified of the entire enormity of the pie or job ahead. Number three is just good, best practice. What would I do if I wasn't afraid of getting it wrong? So sometimes we can steer ourselves in the wrong direction just because, what would I do if I didn't care what people thought of me? Or if I showed up in a way that was quite liberated and you know, like, whatever, I'm just gonna get it done. If I wasn't afraid of making a mistake or getting something wrong or failing, what would I actually do about this task right now? And, if nothing else. Sometimes it just helps to say the scary thing out loud, right? You're saying that I'm a little bit afraid of not succeeding at this, or I've bitten off more than I could chew, or, oh, this is new to me. This feels uncomfortable. So what would I do if I wasn't afraid of getting it wrong? Question number four. If I only had 20 minutes, what would I prioritize? So imagining yeah, we all know we've got a thousand things on our to-do list, but I only have 20 minutes and I want this outcome. What? Task, am I gonna prioritize and set an alarm for 20 minutes and just do sometimes. That's great. Again, because it's like, well, I can only do what I can do in 20 minutes, but at least you've done something. This is for the girlies who are stuck. You know? This is for that time when we're in the office and we're just doing nothing. That's what these questions really do. They're gonna help unstick. Number five is another reflective one. What am I avoiding? Because it feels uncomfortable, not because it's unimportant. So is there anything that I'm maybe just, I see it on the to-do list every day, and I just keep moving it to tomorrow because I'm like, oh, I don't. I feel a bit uncomfortable at that. It's a little bit hard. Um, not because it's unimportant, just because it makes me feel out of my comfort zone, or it makes me feel like it's heavy, again, you can mix that with number one. What would this look like if it was easy, or number two, what is the simplest next step? I'm avoiding something because it feels uncomfortable, but it's not unimportant, so I need to find a way to rip the bandaid. Number six, what's actually the problem here and what's just noise? So sometimes I think, again, with the overthinking, is there a problem? Maybe not. Maybe I'm just having a really stressful week. Maybe I'm, you know, I'm in different stages of my cycle and it's not as easy for me this week. Or I'm, you know, I'm not feeling that motivated, or, things aren't really working, but maybe there isn't a problem. Maybe it's just I'm getting. A little bit like a chicken with a head cut off or whatever. I'm running around. I'm hustle. Hustle busy, busy. But it's like, wait, stop. What would it look like if it was easy? What's actually the problem? What is stopping me progressing here and what's just noise? What's just flopping around myself in my head, in the office being like, ah, I've got this and I've got this. Listing things over and over isn't gonna tick anything off. It's just gonna make me feel the noise, you know? It just makes me feel busy, but I'm not achieving anything. So we know we can now go and revisit number four. If I only had 20 minutes, what would I prioritize? So maybe silence the noise. Set yourself a little alarm. Put on Taylor Swift's new life of a show girl, and be like, I've got four tracks to get this done. And then just do something. You'll feel so much better on the other side. Which brings us to number seven. What would future me thank me for doing right now? So sometimes it's like, oh, I'm in it. I'm overthinking it, or I'm procrastinating, or whatever it is. Just be like, Hey, future me 6:00 PM tonight. Me, what will I be really grateful that I took the 20 minutes to do? Or when I revisit this to-do list tomorrow, what will tomorrow me be like, oh my God, thank God you did that hardest part yesterday. So now you just have to do the next thing. That's probably really weird, isn't it? I always say that's a, you know, that's a future me problem, or I'm annoyed at past me'cause I didn't do that thing. I reference these. Other characters that don't exist, you guys must think I'm bonkers. I'm like, I've got this suite of imaginary friends that work for me and, and I'm always talking about past me and future me. But this question actually helps me, sometimes. Just helps for me to sit and say, Hey, what does tomorrow mean? Need from today me? And if I can just do the today me job, I'm gonna be so grateful for that tomorrow. Number eight, if I didn't care about doing it perfectly, how would I do it? So this is similar to what am I afraid of getting wrong, but this is more about the execution or the how. So it's not so much about what would I do? It's like, how would I do this? If I didn't care about doing it perfectly, if I really, truly believed in progress over perfection, how could I show up for this task right now, right today, and just go, yep. How would I do it exactly? And I don't really care about the outcome being perfect. Sometimes mapping that out shows you the, or gives you the clarity, the the kind of process. It's like if you just get a piece of paper. And that's another thing about simplifying the next steps that we sort of mentioned earlier. We get so hung up on our digital calendars and our process mapping, and everything's on notion and everything's crazy. There are times where I have to go back to mind mapping, or there are times where I'm so grateful for a pen and paper, take a notebook, take a fancy fine liner, walk down to the cafe, have a coffee, map it all out on a piece of paper and bring it back. And sometimes that can really help me get unstuck. So today's episode all about getting unstuck. So sometimes changing the methodology, so getting off the computer screen and going for a walk and then sitting down and brain dumping, writing things down, and then coming back. I have the all new clarity. So if I didn't care about doing it perfectly, how would I do it? So think about the how. Number nine, what decision can I make now to get me closer to done? So just committing to making a decision, right? Again, when we're stuck, we're often just overthinking things and circling around the same issue and just going round and around. So this is all about what actual decision do I need to make to get myself closer to being completed with this task? So that could be. A micro task that could just literally be like, what decision? Okay, well I need to book personal branding, photography for the huge task of overhauling my website, for example. So I'm overhauling my website whilst I am in Canada because my dad is my web developer. And that way I will have him hostage with me and I'll be like, we're doing this, we're doing this. So when I'm thinking. What one decision could get me closer to done. I got online and I booked a personal branding photography session for October, so I know I will have the gallery back in time to use all of that on my brand new website. And it wasn't a big task, you know, it was literally getting on my preferred photographer's website, looking at her services, clicking on a button and paying the deposit and booking the time slot. And I reckon that might've been 10, 15 minutes of my day. But I'm feeling really like I made it as. Decision that's getting me much closer to completing the website overhaul. It was something that was an action rather than, you know, an action or an activity rather than just anxiety and me feeling like I've got all these things I need to get done to get this new website. It's like, Nope. Now I've completed one task. You get sort of momentum, you get that mojo. You're like, okay, so the personal branding's done, so now I need to talk to my copywriter and then I need to do this, and i'm starting to get a bank of all of the things prepared so that when I arrive, it's a matter of just pasting it. My dad will tell me it's a lot more than just putting it all online. But you know, starting to design that WordPress backend, we can do that together when we have the content. All right. Number 10, is this moving the needle? I hate that saying, but it is a thing, right? Is this moving the needle or maintaining the illusion of progress? This one, you have to get a bit real with yourself. I talked before about sort of circling around and feeling the hustle and listing out the list and the to-do list, and the busy, busy, but it's like, is this just an illusion of progress? As in I've done a couple of tasks, but they're not really moving you. Forward. So the question is, is this moving the needle or maintaining the illusion of progress? You can pose this question to yourself any way you like, but really is this an action that is getting the job done or is this an action that is just continuing to perpetuate this feeling of like busy without the actual progress? So is it an illusion of progress or is it as an example of progress? I love number 11. I'm all about number 11. Who could do this faster or better than me? What a powerful question. I think it's really important that we are sometimes doing things and getting ourselves in a flap and thinking, you know, this is 15 questions to get you unstuck. Sometimes you're stuck because you're not that fast. You know, I spoke to someone I'm coaching today and she had outsource. Um, her investment guide through Canva because she'd identified that she's quite slow at Canva. She doesn't know much about Canva. And so she was able to outsource this for someone who would do it faster and the the outcome would be exactly what she wanted, maybe a bit better without the frustration along the way of trying to upload a brand kit and learn Canva from scratch. So this is someone who maybe doesn't use that. Application very often. So for her, when you ask the question, who could do this faster or better than me? It's like, yeah, absolutely. I'm just going to take this offshore. It's one task and pay for it, get it done, have it delivered to my inbox and have this beautiful thing. Not everything needs to be an acquired skill sometimes. So an example, the website is a great example. You know, if you are possibly creating your own website and you're battling with Squarespace or Wix or one of the others. Suppliers and you don't really know a lot about how to use them. For example, you can get on Upwork or one of those, even Fiverr, one of those sorts of things. And you can either hire someone to make like brief in the changes and hire someone else to make the changes in much faster time than you would be able to do them or. You can also ask for, five hours of coaching from that person on how to do the task. So you can take over that blog page going forward, or you could learn from them. So there are ways that you can benefit from number 11, the question, who could do this faster or better than me? Number 12, what is the smallest version of this idea I could test today? So we often have like all these wild ideas and, get validated, some don't. Sometimes we're like, oh, I really wanna, drop everything that I'm doing. All the creative work that I have to do for my design clients, and I wanna go over here and create a course, or I want to do a digital product, and we can get in our head and then it seems like, oh, this task's really difficult and it's ahead of me and I, I need to go and do this task. And actually sometimes that question 12, what's the smallest version of this idea I could test today? Is just jumping on your stories and going, Hey, I've got this idea. I'm thinking of this. Would you guys be interested? Would anyone like to join the wait list? Or tap the little icon of a hedgehog if you're interested. And I'll, I'll, and then I'll know that it's worthwhile me going over and creating it. So it's like validating it. That's a really small idea that you could test. This one's just helpful if you've got a lot of things, as many of us do, a lot of ideas floating around and it's like, I don't wanna get destructive from the work that I need to do, but I do wanna start thinking about this idea. So what's the smallest version we can test? Number 13, if I wasn't trying to prove anything, what would I choose? So again, being really self-aware, understanding our emotional way that we approach work and that we show up. If I wasn't trying to prove anything, what would I choose to do? So if nobody can see you, almost like dance, like nobody's watching, if nobody can see you, what would you actually wanna do? Do you even wanna do this task? If, if you're stuck, maybe you're stuck because. If you weren't trying to prove anything, you would not choose to do this thing. So maybe don't like, I just find this question really helpful.'cause occasionally question 12 unlocks something for me and I'm like, who am I doing this for? Not me. I'm not that interested. And I'm always chasing, you know, how can I help my ideal client? How can I create this? How can I do that? But occasionally it's just not aligned for me. I think, oh, I'm working so hard for your businesses. But if I wasn't trying to, prove anything, if I wasn't trying to be highly ambitious or bring you all of the things, what would I choose? I would probably choose to play Lego with my kids, or like, I don't really wanna create another resource. So yeah, sometimes that can be really helpful. Number 14. What if I trusted that I already know how to start? This is really good. Again, with the overthinking, like if you are in your office and there's a task that just feels overwhelming, I have one of those on my plate right now and it's like, okay, well what if I just trusted that I already know how to start and just get started? I don't have to get finished. I don't have to get perfect. I don't have to show anyone else. But maybe there's like a really big idea or a big thing that you wanna bring to market or a little thing and you sometimes just need to give yourself. The freedom of feeling like, okay, just trust in yourself. You already know this. Well, you at least know how to start this, so start it and it might go somewhere or not. And I will leave you with this very last question. Uh, it's a very, very helpful question for getting unstuck. What would I tell a friend or a client in the same situation? So we are often quite harsh on ourselves, hard on ourselves. Put a lot of pressure bringing all the elders daughter type a vibes to the table. But I think sometimes it's really great to reflect on the idea that if someone came to me with the same things, like, I'm quite stuck. I'm overthinking this, or maybe I'm not overthinking it. What do you think about this, that and the other. If I voice memoed, and there are a few of you that listen to this podcast who know that you're my emotional support animals, um. If I voice memoed, one of those people and I'm like, okay, here's what I've got. I've got this idea. I'm thinking about this, but what if they don't buy it? Or what if they don't want it? Or what if it steps on toes? Or maybe I should, and then they come back with a voice memo being like, whoa, take a breath. All of that was just in your own head. Yes, go ahead. Or No, don't. Or whatever. And then it's good to sort of roll, reverse that feeling of like if I received a voice memo in this, like completely. Yeah. Crazed, state of spiraling, how would I be unflappable and give good advice to this person? You could even record a voice memo if you want to with all of your issues and listen to it and be like, imagine that's not my voice, it's just someone I know asking for my advice. What would my advice be? Because your advice to other people is everything. It's so wise and carefully considered and really emotionally intelligent. And then your voice to you is like, oh my God, I don't even know. So. Yeah, sometimes putting yourself in the other position and thinking like, what would I actually tell a friend or client if they came to me with this exact issue? So next time you're sitting there overthinking, procrastinating, or fully spiraling on something that should have taken five minutes, just stop and ask yourself one of these questions. Now, not all of them will fit every situation, but one of them might break the loop and sometimes the only thing standing between. Stuck and progress is a better question. Start with what would it look like if it was easy, because that one just honestly really helps me on a day-to-day basis. So a little episode from me today, but I hope that it's been helpful. I would really appreciate if you've gotten any support from this or any episode that you'd listen to of designing success. I would love it if you could stop by Apple or Spotify and leave a review. It's been a little while and I would love to share. These sorts of episodes with more and more people. And the way that they find me is if they see reviews on the podcast effectively. That's just what, it's a bit like the algorithm, isn't it? If you review it and you have a positive thing to say about it, then it's gonna be shared with even more people. So love that for us. And if you don't mind, I'd be forever grateful and I will speak to you next week. Okay. Bye for now. That wraps up another episode of Designing Success from Study to Studio. Thanks for lending me your ears. Remember, progress over perfection is the key. If you've found value in today's episode, go ahead and hit subscribe or share it with a friend. Your feedback means so much to me and it helps me improve, but it also helps this podcast reach more emerging and evolving designer. Just like you for your daily dose of design business tips, and to get a closer look at what goes on behind the scenes, follow at Oleander and Finch on Instagram. You'll find tons of resources available at www.oleanderandfinch.com to support you on your journey. Remember, this is your path, your vision, your future, and your business. Now let's get out there and start designing your success.

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