Holy smokes…. I am busy !! I’m out here in Australia doing some consultancy work (setting up a SUP school, so hey, it’s still heaps of fun !) as well as running my own business, and juggling the work I’m doing behind the scenes to launch my online program and a complete re-brand. Yikes.
I’ve got to be honest, I’ve had moments when I’ve thought… what the heck am I doing? How on earth am I going to keep juggling all this?
But here’s the thing. Doing this kinda work lights me up. This morning I spent an hour coaching an awesome client in the States, then I drove to the lagoon and spend the morning SUP’ing with a bunch of 7-year-old kids, and now I’m back home sending emails & writing this post.
This is how I always wanted my business to feel. Freedom is an integral part of what I do, and I designed my biz so that when rad little opportunities come up like this one, I could say yes to them.
So how am I staying sane? (and not talking to my SUP groms about brand clarity or telling my coaching clients to bend their knees ?!).
One simple thing. I’ve stopped multi-tasking.
I’ll be straight up with you. I’m a productivity geek. Systems, lists, efficiency…. it makes me smile. But I learnt a few years ago that multi-tasking was waaaay over-rated. Multi-tasking makes me less efficient (even though my brain says the opposite), crushes my creativity and stresses me out.
I end up doing several jobs averagely and not being totally engaged with any of them.
It seems like I needed a reminder of this last week, and as always, the universe was quick to deliver.
It was about 6.30am and I’d just come back from a SUP. I was getting ready to start work and found myself brushing my teeth, putting laundry in the washing machine and making the bed — all at the same time. It was only when I realised that I was about to spit out my toothpaste all over the floor that it was pretty stupid to be trying to do a whole bunch of things at once.
Every morning since then I’ve been super mindful to just clean my freaking teeth. Nothing else. Just stand next to the sink and do it.
Sounds crazy, but it helped me remember just how useless multi-tasking is. We seem to think that multi-tasking in business is a badge of honour… but really? It sucks.
So here’s my challenge for you this week. Have a think about when you multi-task … Could you try, just for one week to get laser-focused on what you’re doing, and only do one thing at a time?