Episode 261: Are you sprinting or running a marathon?
Are you somebody who likes to work in short, sharp bursts of time? Or are you somebody who needs to know that you've got a whole day in front of you? In today's episode, Fiona shares a quick and important business tactic. Tune in!
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
Sprinting
Running a marathon
Conclusion
Get in touch with My Daily Business Coach
Resources and Recommendations mentioned in this episode:
Welcome to episode 261 of the My Daily Business Coach podcast. Today it is a quick tip episode and this one is one that you'll want to stick around for because I think it can open up your eyes to what is possible. I know that is a big claim, but I do stand behind it. Before we get stuck into today's quick tip episode, I want to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of the beautiful lands in which I live, and that is the Wurrung and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. And I pay my respects to their elders, past, present, and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded. Let's get into today's quick tip episode.
There are two people that I want to shout out for today's episode. Inspiration one is Paige Brunton. Paige Brunton is a Squarespace designer. She teaches Squarespace and I think she also teaches people how to create a web design business using Squarespace. And when I started my business, I built a couple of sites on Squarespace for other people and charities. I love Squarespace. Honestly, if anyone's listening and wants to give sponsorship, I'm open to it. But honestly, I loved it. I had been following Paige Brunton for a while. She gave really good tips about Squarespace and I then contacted her to build my site. She was too expensive at the time. She said, “Why don't you do my course?” I learned a lot more about it, I thought I knew quite a bit about Squarespace, but I learned so much more.
Anyway, she's the first person that I think I heard this kind of idea. Shout out to her. And the other person is one of my wonderful clients Wash who listens to this and I think he's amazing. He has a cool brand called Forever Underdressed. He and I were having a conversation a while ago and he was talking about time. Both of those Paige and Wash have together kind of come together in my brain to come up with today's tip episode. Thanks, Wash and Paige. But today's episode is looking at what type of worker you are. Now, I know people are like, I'm not a worker, I'm an entrepreneur and all of that, but we all have ways that we work best. Paige Brunton calls this a sprinter or a marathoner. A marathoner, but I'm sure she has a better way of saying it than that.
But it's this concept of like, are you somebody who likes to work in short, sharp bursts of time? Like are you somebody who's like, give me an hour and I'll do a million things? Or are you somebody who needs to know that you've got a whole day in front of you? And when I was talking with one of my clients Wash recently, we were talking about this and I think it's something that you've got to figure out yourself. Like how do you best work? I know that I tend to sometimes think I can't get something done unless I have a whole afternoon to do it. Even if getting that thing done is going to take me like 20 minutes, sometimes people I think, I've only got an hour. I will be like, “No, I can't get it done because I've only got an hour.”
Whereas if I have the whole day or the whole afternoon, it's like, I know I can do that. But on the flip side, I can also push comes to shove, I know that if I work under pressure, I can get stuff done. And I've done that so many times in my life. I think that also comes from anyone who's listening to this, who's ever worked in journalism and had to get articles written very quickly, is usually somebody who can work well under pressure because you can't have to, you have to be able to do any good at in that particular environment or industry. I know these things about myself and it's asking myself like, do I need the idea of a whole day to get something done? Maybe something big that you're working on or maybe like sitting down and figuring out what your website looks like?
Maybe you want to get your first book published and you're like, I want to sit down and think about what is going to be in that book and I need, for example, a whole day. If that is about yourself, that's the first point. The second point is to then look at your calendar and figure out, not necessarily where is there a whole day, but can I let myself know I've got a whole day, even if that day is then broken into four separate days? Stay with me here because I know it's probably not making sense. Let's say an average day is eight hours and you're like, I know that I need a whole day to work on my book proposal, for example. Instead of thinking there's no way that I can carve out a whole day between now and say, the end of the year or between now and whatever the period is that you've told yourself, but you may well be able to carve out two hours over four days over the next two weeks.
Instead of going, I've only got two hours, you see that as an accumulation. For example, in this instance about yourself. I work best if I know I've got a full day. You are like, I have got a full day, I'm taking it in chunks. As you would, let's say you had the whole of Tuesday to work on something, you might work from 10 to 12, then you might take a break, then you might work again from one till three, take a break, then you might work again go and get the kids or do whatever and then come back and maybe work like five to seven and then maybe put everyone down and you work 8 till 10 and you're like, “I got so much done today.”
You can still do that over four days over four nights or even over a week. It's about changing your mindset and thinking about if I'm somebody who needs, if I'm a marathoner and I can I need a long time in front of me, it's like, you could have that without having to necessarily wait for this magical full day to appear. But by looking at your calendar over a certain period, whether it's a month, a week, or whatever it is, and figuring out what chunks of time I could take. Instead of thinking, it's just impossible that I couldn't get a full day to myself between now and the end of the year. You might be like, actually, I could if every Tuesday for the next three weeks I did three hours, that's a whole day.
That's more than a whole day, that's nine hours. It's about understanding whether are you a sprinter or are you a marathoner. I wish I had a better word for that. I'm sure there is. I'm sure Paige Brunton does not use marathoners, but that's what's coming to mind. But are you a sprinter? Do you just need a short amount of time and you can get stuff done? Or do you need a longer amount of time? And if you need a longer amount of time, stop waiting to have a whole day free because most likely for a lot of people that's not reality, especially at this time of year. And especially if you have other commitments maybe you're a parent or maybe you're trying to become a parent or maybe you have an elderly relative in your life or maybe you have something else.
Maybe you're a student, you're also trying to finish off an MBA or a Master's or your first university program or maybe it's not even the university, it's just something else that you're doing and that's taking up space. Instead of thinking, I can't do that because I don't have a whole day, look at could I chunk that day and treat it as if I did have a whole day? But it's over a week or two weeks or even a month for example. Now on the flip side, if you are a sprinter and you're like, I know I can get a whole lot of stuff done in an hour. You give me an hour and I'll get a whole lot of stuff done, then it's about figuring out whatever time in the week suites you. Maybe it's a Monday, maybe it's Sunday night, maybe it's Wednesday morning, whatever works for you to look at the next seven days and think where is that hour?
Where is that hour going to come from? And it might be something that you need to then say no to something else or push back or make a meeting into half an hour instead of an hour so that you can get half an hour back. Maybe it's about coming into your office a little bit later on a Thursday for example, and giving yourself an hour at a cafe nearby that has wifi where you can sit down and you can get those things that you need to get done. If you are a sprinter, I mean that's an amazing thing to be, I mean both of them are, but a sprinter, you can find bits of time anywhere and get stuff done. If you're like, I know I can get stuff done but I'm not planning for it, then take time to figure out at the start of your week, whenever that works for you to figure out where in the next seven days can I take that hour?
Within that, what can I get done? And mark that in your calendar, mark it in your diary, and tell other people about it if you need to stay accountable but sit down and get those things done because so often we know this about ourselves, but we don't plan as if we know it about ourselves. I think a lot of people fall into a trap, whether they're a sprinter or a marathoner of thinking I need a whole day or I need a whole week. I've thought this myself, I've thought it so many times about certain projects like, oh I'll need to take like a whole two months off and how am I going to do that? And then, and then you just let these things fester, and then nothing ever happens. Today's tip tool or tactic is a tip and a tactic really to sit down and figure out firstly, how I work best.
Am I a marathoner or am I a sprinter? And then with either of those, figure out where can I carve that time out and what am I going to get done within that time. It's such an important thing to figure out about yourself as a business owner. And it can change, it might change with your lifestyle, it might change as the business grows or things, different demands come in. But it's important to know that about yourself, how do your best work? And then how can you start planning your week, your month, your 90 days, whatever it is around the best way that you work for you?
That is it for today's quick tip episode. I wanted to say thank you again Paige Brunton and Wash for putting these things into my mind. Wash has a super cool brand and he is making some adaptions to that at the moment. Once it is up, I will for sure be putting that in the show notes and probably inviting him onto this podcast to talk about what he's doing and how he's doing that because he has a really interesting story. That is it for today's quick tip episode. You can find the show notes over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/261. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll see you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you want to get in touch, you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com or hit me up on Instagram @mydailybusinesscoach.
