How to get it all done as a business owner

Welcome aboard to Business Class - the podcast for entrepreneurs, creators and ambitious business owners navigating the journey to success. In this solo episode, Vicky Owens opens up about the reality of running a fast-growing business, managing a team, building a personal brand and trying to stay organised when every week looks completely different.

After what felt like a complete disaster month in April, Vicky shares the honest behind-the-scenes of what forced her to rethink productivity, time management, boundaries and business organisation. From feeling overwhelmed and overstretched to creating a “Tetris-style” calendar system that actually works, this episode is packed with relatable advice for entrepreneurs trying to juggle everything at once.

Vicky talks about:

•Productivity tips for business owners
•Time management and organisation hacks
•How to structure your week as an entrepreneur
•Creating boundaries in business
•Using AI tools like ChatGPT and Opus Clip to save time
•Managing a growing team and avoiding burnout
•Personal branding and content creation strategies
•Why business owners feel overwhelmed
•The importance of business development days
•How to stop overbooking yourself
•Creating realistic routines that actually fit your lifestyle

She also shares how she uses voice notes, journalling, alarms, AI automation and weekly audits to better understand where her time is going — plus why she believes no entrepreneur truly has it all figured out.

If you’re a business owner, freelancer, content creator or anyone trying to balance ambition with real life, this episode will make you feel far less alone.

This episode is sponsored by [Planoly](https://www.planoly.co...) — the all-in-one social media planning tool Vicky has used for years to schedule content, organise campaigns and manage both her own platforms and client accounts. Use code Vicky10 for 10% off your Planoly plan.

Don’t forget to rate, follow and share the podcast if you enjoyed the episode, and welcome aboard to Business Class.

Produced by TAEPodcast - www.taepodcast.co.uk

Produced by TAEPodcast www.taepodcast.co.uk

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome aboard to business class. The only place to be if you are on your journey to success. I'll be showing the ups, the downs, and everything in between. Just a disclaimer that this is all my own advice and what I found works for me as a first-time business owner. So please take everything I say with a pinch of salt. So take your seats, strap in, and welcome aboard to business class with me. Hello everyone day and welcome back to business class. Thanks so much for tuning in with me again for another solo episode this week. This week I want to speak about something that is very relevant to what's going on in my life right now that I think could be really useful for you listening. And I've also got a couple of requests from people to do an episode on this. And it is basically going to be on getting like how do we get all of this done? How do we do it all? And I think I've done one before on productivity, but it was more so advice that I've been given that I was like relaying back to you not so much what I do and what my week and my day-to-day looks like because I'm still very much figuring that out. And I think I'm definitely not there yet at all. Um, and the reason why I wanted to speak about it is because I literally had like a disaster month in April, and I really needed to inwardly look at the business and how organized we are and how organized I am as a person because it's so so easy to literally get drowned in work and not prioritize anything. And I feel like the reason you always hear business owners complaining is because people just come to us with problems 24-7. Everything is time sensitive, and also it sounds so cliche, but we do wear a lot of hats, so it's like we're responsible for the finances and the social media and the clients and the calls and the team and like so many different things that are just so hard to manage into an actual week that has structure where you're like Monday I do this, Tuesday I do that. It's really, really tough, and I think I only want to speak on this now because I'm only just finding my feet with like what my week looks like, and I've spoken to a lot of um people that I know well, people that I know kind of well that are really successful, and just basically ask them how they do it. And I wanted to speak about what I'm learning at the minute, what I'm trying to do in my week to get everything done, because it's just it's so hard, and I actually don't think there really is a way where you can have complete structuring your business ever. I don't think that's ever gonna happen. And it was really nice actually when I had Maxine Lace be on recently from Absolute Collagen, and she basically just gave me the reassurance of like, I think she said she was in her 60s, and she was like, I have still not figured it out, and I'm still chasing my tail every day, and that's just part of it, and we just have to accept it rather than being ourselves up over it. So my take off today on the pod is that I am being slightly more productive, and I think I've just I mean, I I feel like what I've realized recently is that you can solve a lot of your own problems, but you just don't really realise that until you speak to yourself more. I am an average person that loves to speak to themselves. I have always said, like, one of my favourite things to do when I'm stressed or I just want to speak to someone um without like any judgment or I don't know, just like completely offload, is I literally just film myself and I make a little vlog to myself and I just chat and I basically have a camera roll of videos of you know me crying in my car or like me celebrating something. Um I think it just gives me so much comfort knowing that I'm gonna look back at those in a few years' time and be like, oh my gosh, how did I get through that? And it's just so nice to look back on your journey. So why am I even speaking about that? What has that got to do with anything that I was just talking about? I have no idea. But my takeoff this week is that I am being more productive. So I have basically had to be productive. I mean, that's what I was saying. You get in your own way. I was in my own way for so many things. So, like, I you have you obviously know this by now. I always complain about my house is a mess. Whose fault is that really? I have a cleaner, so it is actually my fault because I am not prioritizing keeping on top of it and like putting things away. And yes, I've not got enough time and blah, blah, blah. But do I really not have enough time? Because as we all should probably know by now as well, I don't wake up early because I much prefer to wake up later and go to bed later. That's just how my productivity levels are. Would I have more time if I woke up earlier? 100% I would, yeah. But do I actually want to do it? No. And I'm really, really bad with disciplining myself unless there's like a, you know, I've paid for it, I've booked for it, I have to be there. So my take off is that on the weekend, I basically sat down and made a couple different lists of things that I wanted to really understand about myself and my business. Um, and I guess this takeoff kind of links to the episode, so I can just get into a little bit about that now. Um, so in these lists, I wrote down things that I am doing that I shouldn't be doing. So, like when I say this, I don't mean I'm so high and mighty and I shouldn't be doing anything. I mean things that like can be outsourced. So it's like editing videos, or I might be, I mean, I go on a lot of the client calls when I shouldn't really be doing that. And it's almost stopping people that are senior in my business from having those opportunities because I'm like, I'll just do it, I'll just do it. So I was basically writing down things that take up a lot of my time that I shouldn't really be doing and that I can outsource, and that I should just make the time to learn to teach people how to do it. Cause I think that's another thing as well, as business owners, is we know that someone else should be doing it, but it's like the time to onboard someone and to teach someone is so overwhelming. But in the grand scheme of things, you're definitely gonna get a really good return on investment with that. And this is like another um tangent that I'm gonna go off on. But I saw a really good TikTok recently about how you should treat your life like everything in your life like it's a return on investment, including people. So let's say, for example, I want to go out for a meal with my friend, I'd be like, would that be a good return on investment today? Um, and I could say, yeah, because I'm feeling a bit low and I know that I'm gonna come back feeling a lot lighter. Or it might be you've got a certain family member that maybe makes you feel a bit crappy after you've seen them and you're like, that's not gonna be a good return on investment for me right now. So I think once you start treating your life like a Tetris board and moving around different pieces and really thinking like strategically about time, how long does that take me and how much time does that save me? And even things that you don't think are wasting time are wasting time. Like when you're driving in the car, or like because I go up to London at the minute every bloody single week, um, I'm losing so much time because the Wi-Fi on trains is no joke. It doesn't exist, it is non-existent. So I'm on the train for like two to three hours, completely unable to work, because obviously I need Wi-Fi to work. I can do some stuff without Wi-Fi. Um, so what I actually did recently was we drove up to London instead of getting the train, I got my partner to drive and I worked the whole way there and back just using my like 4G, and I got three hours there, three hours back, and I felt so much more productive because I wasn't losing out on that time. So, going back all the way to what I was just speaking about is these lists. So, what shouldn't I be doing? Things as well. I wrote down like things that need to be a priority in my week, and I actually think I might, I don't know, I feel like I am I doing this intro? Am I getting into the main episode? I feel like I'm just gonna speak about it. This is just how my brain works. I had a really good conversation with someone recently because I was like, I am really struggling with structuring my week. It doesn't, it cannot happen. So, you know how some people are like, every Monday I get in the office and that is my day for like me time and admin. And then Tuesday is focused on social media, Wednesday is focused on blah blah blah. That does not work for me. It just doesn't work because every single week is different. Like it might be Wednesday, I'm in London for this event. Tuesday, I'm speaking at that, Thursday, an emergency meeting is booked in and everything else goes out the window. So I was like, how am I ever supposed to have any sort of structure? Ever. And there is different ways that I've I mean, I'm literally starting it this week. So I'm not talking as if I've figured it out, but there's different ways that you can audit your week to understand how this keeps happening. One of them being um no boundaries. So for me, I have like an open door policy at the office where anyone can walk in at any time and we should be like, what do you think of this? What should I do with that? And as much as I did that because I I think it's helpful, it's kind of not helpful because you should be empowering people to go and figure it out themselves and be like, Well, what do you think? And like, I'm not always here, I'm not always available. But also, it wasn't good for me either because I get so into my flow states, as soon as someone breaks it, I'm out of it and I'm like, oh, I've lost it. I've lost the state now, I can't get back into my work. So a lot of it is boundaries. Another great exercise that a friend of mine recommended me to do was for one week, just keep an audit of what your week looks like and how long certain things take and just make a little note. Or it could even just be like in your Google calendar so you can see what time you did something from and then till. So it could be um Monday, I've just been pulled into this meeting. How long did that meeting take? Just make a little note. Then I had to edit this video that took me this long, make a little note. Then I had to, I don't know, film social media content that took this long, how long did it take? Um and then you can have an understanding of what is eating the most into your time. And when you find the results, it's very shocking what is eating the most into your time. But then I feel like from there you can understand what is holding you back. So what I was just saying about weeks and sections in your weeks and things like that. The reason and basically the way that I've been able to figure out how to have non-negotiables in my week, despite not being able to have non-negotiables because every week's different, is basically, like I said, treating my calendar like it is a Tetris journey blog, like a I don't know how to explain it. Everyone's everyone knows what Tetris is, right? It's like moving the blocks around. So every week is different. So I've had to make my calendar different for every week. So I've put in there two non-negotiable days for me. So one of them is my personal brand. And the reason why this is a non-negotiable for me is it's because it's a lot of where our revenue comes in from, it gets us opportunities for the agency, for me. Like so many reasons why it's gold for the business. So if I have a week where I'm like, I can't commit to it, then I notice there'll be like a decline in sales or a decline in obviously the social media engagement. So I used to book this in for every Monday because I was like, you know, it's the start of a fresh week. I can plan my content out. But then the same thing would keep happening where even if I said to my team, please don't bother me on a Monday, don't speak to me on a Monday, something would still come up on a Monday that would stop me from doing this. So now we Tetris it. So I put it in for the Monday, and then Matt, who basically he like plans my calendar and stuff every week, and he is the one that like books me in for meetings and stuff, if he sees that my Monday is getting full, he just plays a little bit of Tetris and he moves it to the Tuesday. So it means that I'm gonna have that day, but it might just not be on the same day every week or something. Do you know what do you know does that make sense? I don't know. And then my other second day is the business development day. I think as long as you have it, it doesn't have to be a day, it can be an hour, it can be anything. I mean, any time that you've got everyone needs to have some part in their week where you are asking yourself questions about is the business moving forward? Because you're not really aware of how your business is doing until you stop and you think, and you're like, let me just regather my thoughts. So I made myself like a questionnaire of that I need to answer every week. So it's got things in there like, um, was there things that held us back this week? What is our sales goal for this week? Or um what is a blind spot that I've missed this week? How do I feel internally this week? Like all these questions that I want to fill in every single week and that I keep coming back to. And again, we Tetris it around. So I used to have personal brand Monday, business development Wednesday, and they just Tetris move each other around. And not every week, like there are some weeks like this week that is busy every day where I don't have time for either of them, but it's just feeling like you can at least be aware of it and make it a priority, and you can minimize it. So I think something is better than nothing. So if I want to post three times a day on TikTok and I can barely just about scrape one together a day, then that's great. Like we're making some sort of progress. So anyway, I feel like I've just literally gone off on potentially the biggest tangent I've ever done since I started the podcast. So I'm gonna go on to my departure, and then I'm actually gonna get into a little bit about how you can implement. I mean, I feel like I've just told you a little bit, but you know. So my departure is that I have been overbooking myself. So because I'm like being productive, I'm now I was then thinking like, oh well, I should probably get some um some times booked in with my friends, and I should probably like I always feel like I can't just have a day where I'm doing nothing. Like if it's like a Sunday and I've got nothing planned, I'm like, I should probably do something. So I've been over booking myself and overstretching myself a little bit, um, and also over booking myself when it comes to work as well. Like I keep saying yes to loads of opportunities that aren't always totally aligned with what I want to do, and I definitely need to be a little bit stricter with my time. Time is your best asset as a business owner, and I think when you value your time, other people will value your time as well. So, even though I've just done literally like a 20-minute intro, let's get on into today's episode based all around productivity and organization. How do we do it all as business owners? I don't think I know anyone that does it all, but when I do think of people that I know that are the most organized and efficient, the one thing they all have in common is they've got firm boundaries. Like they have so much respect for themselves and their boundaries. So, for example, let's say you were to be like every Monday, that's my personal brand day. Nothing is moving that. Like it can't be moved, it won't be shaken, even if it's for like an emergency nail appointment, or even if it's for like a client emergency, they're so strict on no, that's my Monday. And the thing is, I think I'm gonna be really honest in saying it's easier said than done. And one thing you have to take into consideration when comparing yourself to other business owners and how they work is everyone's at completely different stages, and everyone's business is totally different as well. So for my business, I'm still in a phase where it's quite reliant on me. So I'm not at the phase yet where I can be like, don't disturb me, this is my day. No, like nothing can come up. I don't, I can't do that. Um, but someone who's maybe like 10 years on from me, they might have the luxury to be able to do that because they've been through what I've been through and they've worked really hard. So just take that into consideration that just because someone else is like, no, you need to be doing this, you need to be doing that, it's not as easy as people make it out to be, and I'm living proof of that. Like I am a big preacher of boundaries and like what we should and shouldn't be doing, and I still don't manage to do it all myself. Um, but I do think that going back to one of my favourite business quotes that I will always, always refer to um, is that everything in life, well maybe not in life, but in business is your fault and your responsibility. So if you feel like people are really taking the mick with your boundaries at the minute, or if you feel like how would I describe it, um, clients booking last-minute meetings with you is because you have created a boundary, uh, you haven't created a boundary, so they think that they can do that. So just like really evaluate your week and what comes up and why people think they can do that. And sometimes it takes a conversation. Like it would literally just take me standing up in front of my team on a Monday morning meeting and just being like, just so you all know, moving forward, on Wednesday, I will not be contactable because of X, Y, and Z. Like, no one would have any problems with that, and they would all figure out how to defend for themselves on a Wednesday, and everything would be fine, but it's because you're like, Oh, well, what happens if something does come up and I want to be the one to do this and that? When obviously you can empower people to do it themselves. So a lot of the reason why your week is the way it is is because of the boundaries you've set. And alternatively, you might be listening to this as someone who's like really type A and really organized, and you don't actually need this episode. Um, and you might be thinking to yourself, yeah, I'm really organized because I've got boundaries, because I'm really good at telling people that they can figure it out themselves. I've got strong boundaries about certain things and other things not so much. So, one of my boundaries that is probably the strongest out of all my boundaries in business for me and for my team is do not speak to me about work outside of work hours. And I don't mean work as a whole, because like I like speaking about business as a whole. Like, say if me and my sister go out for lunch, like we'll probably be speaking about business because we work together. Or like if me, yeah, me and my partner work together, we speak about business. I mean like a pro a business problem. If it's gonna stress me out, I don't want to know. And I'm a firm believer of like no one's dying and it can wait till I'm in the office tomorrow because it's happened so many times. Like, oh my god, my sister bless her. I was gonna say rest her soul. No, we don't want to manifest that. Bless her soul, she um tells me everything. I will never forget when I literally was away last, was it last year? And I got engaged, and it was a big holiday for me. And I think it was either the day that I got engaged or the day after, and I was on FaceTime to my sister, and she was like, Yeah, also, by the way, this client isn't happy with this, this, and this. And I instantly was like, felt sick, and I was like, Oh my god, like and I started stressing, and I was like, Why would you tell me that? And she was like, Because you know, you need to know, and I don't know what to do, and blah, blah, blah, blah. And I literally just absolutely flipped my lid because that ruined my day and then my next like the next day as well, because I was so stressed about it when really it can just wait. So that is one of my strict boundaries, is like, do not contact me about things outside of work. And then the second one that I I mean I used to be really strict on. Have I softened up a little bit? I don't know, is I don't really give my phone number out to many people, especially people that I'm working with, because I've had a few instances where I've given my number out and people just feel like when they've got your number, like for me, it's like I'm a social media hotline. It's like, oh Vicky, I posted this and it's not got many views. Why is that? Or if it's a client, again, they can message you out of hours. So I feel like now I'm a little bit better though, because I can give people my number, but then I just put my phone on, do not disturb, after like 5 or 6 pm. So I'm really good with that boundary. I'm not good with the boundary of like, I'm like, if someone wants to speak to me, I'm like, I'll I'll fit anything around. Like I can make it work. Like it's really weird because I have an extremely busy schedule, but also unless I'm at something, like at a physical shoot or an event, things can be moved around. So, but I'm like, no, I need to be treating myself like a physical event I need to be at. Like, I really respect people when they have, and obviously, different things work for different people. So I've got a friend that does a Monday meeting with herself, so it's like her CEO time, and it's in every Monday, and that's her non-negotiable. But for me, I know what would happen, I would book that in, and then like someone on the team would be like, Yeah, but this client really needs to speak to you at that time, and then you gotta think, mm-hmm the client's kind of more important than anything, so I'm gonna have to cancel that meeting. So that's why I'm not very good at sticking to things basically. So boundaries is a huge thing. A lot of things you are responsible for, and like I said, reviewing your calendar and looking at timings, how long things are taking you. There was actually something someone suggested to me. I think it was called timely, like T I M E L Y. I think it's an AI thing and it times things for you if you forget to do them. Um it's also good for team as well, so you can monitor how long your team takes on certain things as well. Um and actually thinking like what is moving the business forward? Because another quote that I always go back to if you're working in your business, no way I always butcher it, if you are always working in your business, you can never work on your business. So if you don't work on your business, the business won't grow. So just making sure that when you are working, that you're thinking of, is this actually moving the business forward in any way? So when it comes to my week, and a few of you have asked, like, how do I manage an agency and a team and things like that? And what does a typical week in my life look like? No two weeks are the same, and I'm really I really genuinely mean that no two weeks are the same. I feel like quite commonly since January, there's always been travel involved every week, so that's quite difficult. Um, but I would say usually I I would say I do like three days. Well, we have a work from home Wednesday, which I think was important for the team. Although controversially, I don't like working from home at all. Like I really I just feel slobby and I don't get enough things done, and I'm really lucky that we've got an office that I can go to. So I'm usually in the office like two to three times a week. Um, Thursdays are usually fully booked back to back with one-to-one. So I literally have a million of those to do. And I like to, I mean, funnily enough, I used to have Thursdays as my call day and I'd only do my calls on a Thursday, but it just doesn't work because not everyone's calendar works in that way. Um, but I don't, I've not yet found my this is my non-negotiable thing. What I'm trying at the minute is like I said, that Tetris uh calendar of I I set it in for a Monday and a Wednesday, my two non-negotiable days, and I just move them around and I just make a note to whoever's planning my diary, which is Matt, um, is that that's how I want my week to be. So as much as possible, try and keep if I've moved it to a Thursday, no, maybe not a Thursday, because that's not a good one because someone ones-ones are on that day. If I've moved it to a Friday, try and avoid booking in other things for that day. A lot of it is just communication and also just being realistic. Like, yeah, I think if you ask any business owner, they would say, I ain't got no structure. And also every week is rushed and a bit messy, and you're trying to do a million things at once. Um, one thing I am trying to do is work a little bit smarter with AI, so you can use AI video editors, so it used to take us a really long time to like edit my um podcast clips, and then you can just do it with AI now with Opus Clips, O P-U-S, hashtag I'm not sponsored. Um I schedule uh social media posting with Planely, obviously, our gorgeous sponsors. Um, and then what else do I do that helps save time? Yeah, so I'll basically um just learning how to prompt AI to do different things. So do chat GBT. Um, I'm just programming it at the minute. So I'll say morning, and then it'll basically run uh run through my Slack messages, my Instagram DMs, my WhatsApp, blah, blah, blah, all of the things that I use, my emails. And then it'll say these are your priority messages for today. Uh, and like also it can add things to your calendar as well. So, one of my worst traits, right? This is actually gonna blow your mind if you didn't know about this. One of my worst traits is I say things and then they never happen. So, say for example, I see a friend and they're like, Oh, I'd love to see you. When can you do it? I'm like, Friday, yeah, Friday sounds good. Then I'll like forget to add it to my calendar and then they'll be like, Hey, just checking you're still on for tonight. And I'm like, Oh god, I really don't want to do Friday now. Why was I sociable at that time? So, what you can do is go on to Chat GBT, and actually I went to this event recently, hosted by Amy Smell from OddMuse, which was incredible to meet her. She was an angel, and we were talking about how to use it to basically organise your diary, and this is what I learned. So um, you basically say to Chat GBT, like, can you add whatever it might be to my calendar at this time? And it'll just do it. Because that's just something I always do is like I go and book, you know, when you get I get my nails done, and then they're like, Can you book your next appointment in for three weeks' time? And I'm like, Yeah, yeah, that sounds good. And then I'll write it in my notes somewhere and then it's just lost forever. Whereas you can literally just type it in your chat GBT and then get it to add it to your calendar for you. Um, and I also think as well, a chat I think a trait we all do is we write down things that are important. So it's like we could be out and about and be like, oh, I need to message this person, you put it in your notes, message this person. So instead, it can be that you make different sections. So I've got sections, one of them is like social media ideas, business development ideas, general to-do list, um, you know, things like that that you have in your brain. I feel like that you have to categorize what your brain thinks of day to day. And I feel like for most of us, it will be stuff to do with business, a general to-do list, and maybe like important dates or something. Um, and then instead of you just putting it in your notes app and forgetting about it, which is what I do, um, I've started to put it in Chat GBT and say, um, please can you add this idea into my section list? And it can be you build it in Notion or you build it in Google Sheets, like Google Sheets that can add it into. And then that just means that when it comes to your business development day or your time where you're like, I've got 15 minutes free, what can I get through? You've got this list that you've added to because that's just the thing for me is like I think of so many ideas, I write them down that I never actually do them. Whereas if you've got a set list you can go to and refer back to, it's very helpful. I am so excited to say that this episode is sponsored by Planally. Now I've been using Planally since I was about 16 years old in my very first marketing job, and I used to use it to basically plan out content for the feed, get it looking all nice, but now it does so much more. It's basically a full creator toolkit all in one place. You get your social media planning, but you also get a free link in a bio tool and a built-in customizable storefront with checkout. So you can schedule your post, preview your feed, drive people to the link in your bio, and actually sell your product or services, digital downloads, even one-on-one coaching without juggling five different tools or paying transaction fees on top. As a business owner, I know how easy it is to batch your content and then just forget to post it, or how hard it is to stay consistent on social media. I've used so many tools, but Planerly is the one that makes my workflow feel so seamless. And it has everything I need to manage my clients' content and my own. So if you're looking to take your social media growth seriously this year, start with Planerly and you can use code Vicky10 for 10% off your Planarly plan. So I think organization is a difficult one because different things are important for different people. So you might be listening to this and you don't think it's that important for you to have a day focused on your social media, but for you, well, I mean for everyone, I feel like we should all have the business. I call it the biz dev day, business development day. I think every business owner should have that somewhere. Um, and you might actually be really lucky to have a diary where you can book a business development day in for a Wednesday, and that you can stick to that every single Wednesday. But that for me is just not possible. And I I'm definitely on the busier end of the schedule when it comes to stuff like this. But one thing I will say is if you are unorganized like me and you are someone that puts things on the back burner, and you're like, Oh, I know that I need to fix this, but I'll do it another day, or I really need to make that tweak on my website, but I'll do it another day. Oh my god, I don't know how the universe does it. But if you put off something for long enough, the universe will force you to make that change. And I have been living proof of that so many times. I don't know how it does it. I literally don't know what the science is, what the sorcery is. Um, but I've had it a couple times where I've been like, for example, it could be, oh, I really need to change that point in our contract about X because people keep bringing it up, and you're like, I need to do it, I need to do it, I need to do it. You won't do it if you're like me until it's broken. Like I wait until something's broken before I fix it. Whereas you should be preemptively fixing things before they break. And that's why Business Development Day is so needed because that's your designated uninterrupted time to do that. I don't think of any more um productivity hacks that I do. I mean, one that I've touched on in a previous episode regarding social media and like my social media is I use AI to transcribe my videos for LinkedIn posts and LinkedIn captions and um like Instagram captions and things like that. Um see if I've got any other time-saving hacks for you there. The only other one I can think of that I've not spoken about for a while that really, really helps me remember things is setting physical alarms for stuff. Um, because I think when I see a reminder, I'm like, oh, it's just a lot of reminder, I can just like flick that off. But when it's an alarm going off and it's really loud, it's like a pattern interrupt in the brain. Like you have to do it. So sometimes when I know that I've got certain things that I need to do, I'll set like loud alarms to go off at certain times. I have to just make sure I'm not in the cinema or something if they go off. Um, but they're really good for my brain. But I think we have to just give ourselves a little bit of like grace with being a business owner. It's a really unique job where you've got to be doing everything at all times so that you're not going to be able to figure it out overnight. Um, I've been trying to create somewhat of a morning routine because if you know me, like I just don't do mornings and it's something now, only now that I'm very unapologetic about. I used to be really embarrassed about it and be like, yeah, I get into the office at 11, like, because I don't do mornings. But I have like worked my back end off for so long for this business. So if I want to get to the office at like 10 or 11, I can do that because I'm working till 10 or 11 pm at night every day. So it doesn't really matter. So, but then I also struggle because I think if you're employed by yourself, you know, you're self-employed, you will understand that if you've got no structure, it can actually be a curse. Like when we actually had um Heather Bowling on the podcast a few months ago, and she's if you don't know her, she's like a really big creator and she has a full-time living from being a creator. And she was saying that one of the hardest parts about her job that seems like a luxury is that she has no structure because all she has to do, I say all she has to do, but she has her own schedule. She has to film content, she has to create content, edit content, send it back to brands. She hasn't got somewhere set she has to be every day. So she's not able to create a structure or a routine. And I know that's a very champagne problem to have, but sometimes that's what I have is like I don't need to be at my office for 8 or 9 a.m. Uh, neither do I, nor do I want to either. So for me, I used to like I would get up, uh I would wake up at like half eight, and then I would get ready, um, maybe do a bit of yoga, blah, blah, blah. And then the hard work for me started at like 10 till like 10 p.m. I do like a day, have my tea, and then I always have like an evening block of work. Um, when I'm like really in my push phase of like go, go, go. Um, but then when I've been complaining about, you know, my house is always a mess and um I'm not finding any time to do exercise and stuff like that. I was like, I have got this time in the morning that's my uninterrupted time that I've had firmed up for so long because everyone knows to not book me in for a meeting before 10. So I've already subconsciously created this boundary of don't speak to me before 10. So I should be using that time more wisely. So this morning, this is even like such a little difference. I woke up at eight. I did half an hour of just like cleaning up the house, like, you know, making my bed and putting things away from the night before. Then I did half an hour of yoga, and then I got ready, and then I was at my first meeting, and then I've had a really productive day so far. And I'm gonna like try and continue to do that and keep on top of it because you are responsible for your life. Like, you like no one, like not this episode. I mean, not this, not that this episode's really gonna be that much help to you anyway, but this episode's not gonna help you. A therapist isn't gonna help you, like you have to be the one that's like, I am like, I'm at a point now where I'm so sick of being type A and being messy and being late and being unorganized. I'm like, oh my god, it's just so embarrassing and exhausting. And I'm like, come on, like, just get some bloody structure in there. Like, it's only because I've reached that that I want to make uh an impact on my life and change it, and it's not easy, but I think the only thing that does work is when you create things that cannot be avoided. So the only thing I've tried everything, right? To wake up earlier and be a morning person. There's only one thing that works for me every time, and it's putting my alarm in a different room because my alarm goes off in my dressing room. I have to get up, get out of bed, turn the alarm off, and then I'm up. If it's next to me, I'll go back to sleep. So I know that for me, if I want to start a habit or I want to change something in my schedule, it has to be something where I am changing a pattern. So for me, I can't just say I'm gonna book in a CEO meeting with myself every Monday because I just won't go and I'll just miss it. Whereas if I know that I'm having my CEO Monday meeting with my friend who's also in business, I don't want to let her down, so I'll be there. So you have to create things that you cannot avoid and be creative about it as well. Um, you know, whether it means you have to spend money on a content studio or you want to get a friend involved to help you out to keep you accountable with something, it's really, really tough. And I feel like this episode's more so just been me brain dumping on you rather than actual help. But in a way, I hope it's helped you in this way to realise that you kind of can't do it all. Like, and some things have to. It's like Emma Greed, the woman that she is, she always says that you you go through different stages in business, so you're either like um, you know, in a in a phase of really, really hard work and graft, but in oh god, what's the word? It's like in exchange. No, I did I can't think of what the word is. It's like you gain things and you lose things. So I know that I'm rambling right now, but actually, like, listen, right? I'm gonna try and like clean this up. So Emma basically said that when you gain some things, you lose other things. So when you're in a phase of working really hard and you're gaining, you know, more money, more opportunities, what you will lack is maybe the self-care, the tidy house, the seeing the friends. But then there'll be some phases where because you've worked so hard, you can chill out a little bit. So your house will be lovely and clean, you'll be on it with your self-care, you'll be on it with your rituals. And I think that that's just what I tell myself now is like your mental health, like every week is different. And also, if you're a lady or you have periods, you'll know you have like different phases of your cycle where some days you feel really productive, some days you feel really messy, really angry, you don't want to get things done. So I just try and be not like obviously it gets on top of me, and I get a bit angry, and I'm like, God, the house is a mess, and this isn't right, and I've just eaten crappy food all week. But we're just doing our best, and every every one of us is exactly the same. Like, no one who I've had on these podcast seats has got their shit together. No one has a perfect structured week. Everyone tells me that every single week is different. So you just have to find your non-negotiables and making them be a non-negotiable so that there's no way that they can get moved. Um, and just a bit of time each week to just move the business forward, really. So yeah, I don't know if that was helpful. I just more so want you to understand that there isn't a magic solution and there isn't a magic fix, really. And that was just me offloading and trauma dumping to you about where I'm currently at. And I'm hopefully I'm gonna see how I get on with my new Tetris diary and my new morning routine, and I'll follow up with you in a couple of weeks and then let you know if it's actually worked, which I'm hoping it has, because I am a different person in the morning. I am not gonna lie, like I'm a very motivated driven person. I am lazy in the mornings, lazy with an underline. I love my bed, I love to sleep. Like I love to sleep so much that like if we're going on holiday and there's an early flight, I would rather just not go on holiday. And I know that's crazy, but I'd rather just get a like a flight at a normal hour of the day. Anyway, I hope that has been helpful in some capacity. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate it five stars on Instagram. I'm okay, on Spotify, on Apple, subscribe on YouTube, like this video, share it on your stories. Absolutely love to see it. It makes my day, and I will see you next week on business class.