Episode 177: How to de-stress future you
How do you help the future you? In today's episode, Fiona talks about looking at your schedule, looking at future you, and putting it in place. Tune in!
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
On Post-holiday blues
How to avoid de-stress future you
Conclusion
Get in touch with My Daily Business Coach
Resources and Recommendations mentioned in this episode:
Yricka
Hello and welcome to episode 177 of the My Daily Business coach podcast. I'm Fiona Killackey. I'm your host and I am so excited that you are here to spend 10 minutes or so with me on this episode. So today it is a quick tip episode. That's where we share a tip tool or tactic that you can implement immediately. And today it is a tactic and it's a good one. And I'm kind of like, “how am I this far into my business?” And I did not do this. It's something I've done recently. So stick around for that before I get stuck in. I just want to remind you that if you are interested in kind of up-leveling your game in marketing this year or so many other things, starting a podcast, getting published, you can find a whole lot of our courses over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/shop.
We have a whole lot of stuff from small courses that will take you an hour or two through to larger marketing for your small business course. That may take you a couple of weeks, some people a couple of months but the feedback from that course, which we have now offered for almost close to six years, has been incredible. People are like, I finally get it. I finally understand my brand. Finally understand how to market it and market in a way that aligns with my values and my beliefs. So you can find all of that over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/shop. And if you wanna get stuck into marketing for your small business, you can also just find that at marketingforyoursmallbusiness.com. I also want to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians on the land on which I am recording this podcast. So before I jump in, I just wanna pay my respects to the elders past present, and emerging of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. And I also pay my respects to any other indigenous and Aboriginal people that may be listening to this today. Thank you. And welcome. All right on with the show.
So I am recording this in early February, very early February, and you may hear that I have a cold and it is not COVID. I took three rat tests and it’s negative, but I got a bit of a cold. My son got a bit of a cold while we were on a holiday. So it was really amazing, such an amazing holiday that went into rock pools. It was just absolutely. It was exactly what everyone needed. And I know how lucky I am to have that, but I came back. So we got back on a Saturday evening, I spent Sunday kind of, as you do unpacking, doing all the washing, doing everything else, I was taking medication for the cold. I was trying to rest a little bit as well. And then I came straight back into, back to back meetings Monday, a whole lot of work to do Tuesday back-to-back meetings Thursday.
Like it was just those times when you have, I even had a holiday to do. We just imagine that. And what I did was first, think about how did this happen? How have I gone from being on holiday to literally straight back into it, not feeling like I had a break, just exhausted really? And I know that must sound really annoying, especially if you've not had a holiday, but we were also on holiday while a close family member was very unwell. And in the hospital, I was on holiday with a toddler light, which is never really a holiday. Let's be real. And so, came back in and kind of assessed the situation and was like, “I don't wanna feel like this when I've just had a holiday.” Also, I've taken a long time off. I usually take all of January off to spend with my kids.
And also because I'm the primary caregiver in our household. And because I run a business, I'm able to take that time off. And so there was just a whole lot of stuff that I had been really wanting to get stuck into just didn't have the time. And I don't know if you do that, where you have all these expectations of I'm gonna get through all this stuff, and then you forget, I have children and I have other stuff that has to be done. And so you don't get through all of it. And so I came back and I have to say that by the time Tuesday night rolled around, I was exhausted. I was probably a bit moody from being honest. And I just, I had totally had post-holiday blues. And I looked at my calendar and went, I don't want this to happen again.
I don't wanna feel like this part of running my own business is that I have the freedom not to have to feel like this straight after a holiday. And yes, part of that is planning, but I looked at my kind of week and I was like, “I don't wanna week like this again.” I love what I do. Don't get me wrong. I love seeing my clients. I really enjoyed talking to everyone, but I'm still a bit under the way. And so what I did is I looked at my calendar and I shared that with my OBM Yricka, who's great. And I looked at it and I looked at every single school holiday that is coming up between now and halfway through 2023. And I have blocked out Monday and Tuesday when school goes back every holiday. So the next one that is coming up is the Easter break.
Then we've got the midyear break. Then we've got the September break and then we've got again a huge summer break. And then even into next Easter. So I book them out, I just put, do not book anyone. And so that my lovely VA, OBM, Yricka can see that. And I also made sure that they're not on our Calendly, which is a tool we use for booking because I was like, “no, I need those two days to kind of ease back in.” But also to maybe catch up on the things that I thought I was gonna get them that holiday. And didn't maybe it's just a bit of rest. Whatever it is, I just didn't wanna come straight back, smack into work, meeting not much in between now. I don't usually work like that anyway. So it was a bit of an anomaly because I hadn't seen people for like five or six weeks.
So I had a kind of bank up of the things that had to be done. And, but I just thought I can control this for the next time so I can control seeing people or not seeing people. And I understand that some people will be like, “you know what? I don't get that opportunity.” Like if I have a shop, I have to open it. I get that. But maybe it's that you open for half a day on that day, maybe that's for what it is. Or maybe you work half a day and your staff, somebody else comes in for the second half of that day. So you don't feel like, “straight into it. Didn't get a break.” The other thing obviously is I could have planned better and worked with my OBM to plan so that we didn't have back-to-back clients. And we didn't have big things happening and sort of evening events on.
And I've got a mastermind retreat and some other things that I'm working on. So potentially we could have looked at that. And I think the end of 2021 was just such a race to the end that we didn't. And that's totally my fault, but I can improve that for next time. So I guess the tactic is really looking at out if you have children and you have to take off school holiday, you get to, I shouldn't say, have to, you get to take off the school holidays, or maybe you don't have kids, but you've got a holiday coming up or maybe you're in the US. And there are certain calendars like the 4th of July, or I don't know, other kinds of things that you celebrate, whether you should, or whether you shouldn't celebrate them. But, and so I'd be looking at the calendar for this year and be like, okay, where are the potential pockets of like stress or where are the potential pockets of feeling, the post-holiday blues, or not even holidays, maybe you've done that photo shoot coming up and that's gonna take quite a bit of your time.
And so you make sure that maybe the photo shoot goes Monday to Thursday, you make sure that Friday after the photo shoot, you don't have anything on, so that you can just calm everything from that photo shoot that might have taken so much energy, expense effort, all of those things, likewise, maybe you've got a big milestone birthday coming up and maybe you are gonna party because we have not been able to party for years. So you are gonna really make the most of it. And so maybe it's looking and going, well, the Monday following that weekend that we have the party, I am not gonna book in X, Y, Z, or, I'm gonna take that day off or, you know, something else so that you can just, you know, really benefit future you from potentially having a stressful time.
You can benefit them and sort of be like, “you know what, future me. I'm gonna take away a little bit of that stress. I'm gonna ease you in.” So I'm not gonna book anything for those two days after a holiday, or I'm not gonna book anything for that day after a photo shoot. Now I'm pretty good at usually kind of mapping out my time and I don't work full time, only work three days a week. I usually work during school hours. So I don't think that I'm overwhelmed with work all the time. And that's been a very ongoing lesson that I've had to keep implementing the whole time that I've had this business. I've definitely worked in businesses where you are on 24/7 and I've hated it. And so I guess it all kind of comes back to brand values. One of mine's freedom. And I definitely didn't feel like I had freedom after that holiday.
I felt like I came in and it was just a friend of mine who said it feels like just being slapped. And that is how it felt as much as I love my business, as much as I love my clients, it just felt like I'd come in. And it was like, “we've gone from zero to a hundred.” So that is the tactic. Look at the pockets of time that you have this year and look at where could I reduce things so that when I come back from a photo shoot, when I come back from a party, when I come back from traveling, when I come back from a holiday, when I come back from anything that is a lot, I can ease back into things in a way. So that is it for today's quick tip episode. It's really about looking at your schedule, looking at future you, and putting it in place.
Things like a day off, putting in place. Things like clients can't book me. I can't do a photoshoot, or I can’t be in the office, or I can't work in the store that day. So that future you, feels just that little bit more relaxed. That is it for today's quick tip episode. If you wanna revisit this in text, you can find the blog with a full transcript over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/177. And if you have somebody in your life who you think could really benefit from this quick tipper, please share this episode with them. And if you share it on social media, please make sure you tag @mydailybusinesscoach so we can see it as well. Thank you so much for listening. I'll see you next time. Bye. Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you wanna get in touch, you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com or hit me up on Instagram @mydailybusinesscoach.
