8. You’ve Got Too Many Things On the Go

If it feels like you've been busy for weeks but nothing has actually moved, this episode is probably why. Claire talks about what happens when you've got too many things competing for your attention at once - and why the answer is almost never to add something else to the list.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Welcome to the Girls Mean Business Podcast, where we share business and marketing tips, advice and trade secrets to help you raise your game and build your brilliant business. Get more clarity, more customers and more sales. Here to show you how. Your host, Claire Mitchell.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Hello, it's Claire from the Girls Meme Business. One thing I noticed the other day was that my notifications on my phone have really crept up again. And that's after I got rid of loads of them last year. I properly went through my phone and turned things off and deleted things just to make it quieter. But then I got a cat cam for the shed so I could see when Dylan, our little rescue cat, was around and making sure that the big fat cat from next door wasn't stealing all his food, which was fine. And then I got a chicken cam so I could see what my girls in the chicken shed were up to. Also fine. And now it's spring, and I've got a bird box cam and I've got little blue tits and great tits all coming around and having a look, trying to decide if it's for them, which I am completely obsessed with by the way. So now I've got all of those on top of every other app on my phone. And I suddenly realised the other day that my phone was just ping, ping, pinging and lighting up all the time. Notifications just popping up one after another. And I just sort of got used to it without noticing. But when I did notice, oh honestly, I was just kicking myself because every time something pinged, especially the cat cam or the chicken cam or the bird box cam, I would look, even if I didn't mean to, I was like, oh, I might miss something. But even if I was in the middle of something, I'd just pick up my phone, check it, put it down again, and then try to get back to what I was doing, and then something else would come in, and again and again, and it doesn't feel like much at the time, but it really breaks your focus because you're never in one thing for long enough to be productive. And this happens not just with notifications, it happens in business when you've got too many things on the go as well. Because none of these things are a problem on their own. The cat cam is not the problem, the chickens aren't the problem, the bird box definitely isn't the problem. I love them all, and they're all good things, but when they're all happening at the same time and they're all pulling your attention, it becomes too much, and that's what it feels like when you've got too many things on your to-do list because everything on its own makes sense. Post on Instagram, send an email, research that event, update the website, start a freebie, try something new, look at Pinterest, try TikTok. They're all good ideas, none of them are bad ideas, but when they're all on the go at once and they're all competing for your attention, you end up doing a bit of everything, and you don't get very far with any of it. There's this Chinese proverb about if you chase two rabbits, you'll catch neither, and this is what I mean with this, really. You're just diluting your attention. So you start something, you get interrupted, somebody shouts for you, or the phone rings, or the doorbell rings, and then you switch to something else, and then something else, and by the end of the day, you feel like you've been really busy, but you also don't feel like anything has moved, nothing's finished, and that's the same kind of feeling. Your attention is constantly being pulled in different directions. You're never really in one thing long enough to do it properly. I'm sure there's some statistic out there that says if you get interrupted doing a task that you're focused on, it can take you up to 15 minutes to get back into that focus again. And if that happens every time you get a notification or every time you swap tasks, you can see why you're losing loads of time just trying to get back into things again, and then it starts to feel like nothing is working, but it's not not working, it's just it's not getting the chance to work. So I had to be strict with myself. I'd started using my do not disturb for my work hours with a little bit of a break at lunchtime because I have to have my bird box cam fixed at lunchtime, and I noticed the difference straight away when I turned that on, which meant that I didn't get the notifications, just you know, fewer things popping up, and then suddenly it was much easier to stay focused and stay with what I was doing, to finish things to not keep breaking off halfway through. And honestly, it's the same in your business. If you've got loads of different things on the go, all wanting your attention, it's nearly impossible to make progress with any of them. Whereas if you take a few of them off, even temporarily, I call it parking them. I've got a park, an ideas park, or a list park in the back of one of my notebooks, which are things that need doing, like research Pinterest, or try TikTok, but they don't need doing now. And all the time they're on my to-do list, they're kind of stuck in my mental energy and tempting me to go off and explore them when I don't need to do it now. So if you take a few things off your to-do list, park them somewhere just temporarily, and give yourself a bit more space to focus on what's left, then it'll feel very different. You'll get through things properly, you'll give yourself enough time to actually see what happens, you'll finish things, and that's when you'll start to see the benefit from it. You'll start to feel more productive. So if things feel a bit all over the place at the minute, my advice is look at your to-do list and take off two-thirds of what's on there for now. Just park them somewhere and then come back to them. Do the things that will move the needle now. Do the things that you actually need to do to bring in money to move your business forward, whatever that looks like for you. Just stop everything competing for your attention. Take those things off your to-do list, and you will get so much more done, I promise.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

That's it from the Girls Mean Business Podcast. Join us for even more stab tips, advice, interviews, and trade secrets to help you get more confidence, more clarity, more customers, and more sales. Connect with us on Facebook at facebook.com forward slash the girls mean business, and check out our website at www.thegirlsmeanbusiness.com. See you next time.