Once you know what you are working towards, then every decision you make you
can put it through this filter of is it moving me closer to this thing
that I'm working towards. Is it moving me closer to my vision? Or
is it not moving me closer to my vision? Because if it's not moving
you closer to your vision, it's taking up time that could be spent moving
you closer, so it's actually moving you further away. Welcome to Imperfect Action.
I'm Steph Taylor. For years, I read all the books, downloaded
all the freebies, and did all the courses, but it wasn't until I
started taking imperfect action that my business had its first million dollar year. Imperfect
action is about doing things before you're ready, prioritizing consistent action over perfect action,
and moving forward even when you're not sure you're doing it right. On
this show, you can expect mindset advice, actionable marketing tips and strategies to
build a business that brings you more profit, more freedom, and even more
joy. Are you on the list to get my Daydaily Businesses? Every day,
I'll send you a bite sized prompt designed to help you grow your business
in a more intentional way. Sign up at Steph Taylor dot Co, forward
slash DBB, or at the link in your show notes. Hey, welcome
back to In Perfect Action. This is episode seven hundred and twenty five.
Seven things that are wasting your time in your business. Seven time wasters that
are slowing down how quickly you are growing your business. When I survey my
audience twice a year, one of the biggest things that comes out every single
time is that there's just not enough time in the day to do all of
the things required to grow your business. And I can totally relate to that,
like, there is no shortage of things that you could choose to spend
your time doing every single day. But unfortunately, not all of these things
are created equal. Not all of these things are going to have the same
impact on your business growth and the direction that you're taking your business. So
today I'm going to share seven things that are potentially taking up your time that
aren't the best use of your time. Number one, putting the cart before
the horse. So what do I mean by that? By that, I
mean getting bogged down in figuring out the little details like, oh, which
email marketing platform should I use? Where should I build my email list?
Should I be on Instagram or TikTok or YouTube shorts? Which podcast host is
the best? I see that one a lot, and there's actually not a
whole lot of difference between all of the different podcast hosts. Oh, which
tools should I use to edit my videos? What color should I use for
this graphic? What font? All of the little details that don't really matter
so much, the things that aren't gonna make or break your success as much
as getting the main thing out there. So what do I mean by that?
I mean choosing which podcast host. Spending days weeks choosing which podcast host
to host your new show isn't gonna make a difference once you get your podcast
out there. But it feels a lot more comfortable to spend that time researching
because there's not as much risk involved in that as recording a podcast episode and
putting it out into the world. And once you start recording those podcast episodes,
you'll be so excited to get them out there that you'll realize it doesn't
actually matter. I will just figure out which host suits me best. So
I guess it's really what I mean by that is making the unimportant things more
important than the important thing. Okay, like once you start recording videos,
you will just figure out how to edit them. You'll just want to get
them out there into the world, so you'll learn how to edit them,
or you'll hire an editor just so that you can get them out there faster.
Now, Seth Godin has this beautiful question that sometimes I like to reflect
on if I'm doing a bigger project, what has to be right before the
rest can matter? So, in other words, what action do you need
to take before these little details even matter at all? And is worrying about
these details just a form of procrastination that feels more comfortable for you, right
than taking that scary action and risking what could potentially go wrong when you put
that video out there or you record that very first podcast. Okay, number
two, The second big time waster is waiting around for inspiration to strike before
you take action. Now, if I only recorded podcast episodes when I felt
inspired or when I thought I had something worthwhile to share, we'd be at
probably episode twelve, not seven hundred and twenty five. Right. It is
now just part of my routine. I have this task on my to do
list that repeats where I need to record a podcast episode and the episodes don't
get skipped, right. We haven't skipped an episode in probably well over a
year now, and that's how it got to seven hundred and twenty five episodes.
That's how it all grew. But I'm not talking about consistency. I
know assistency is important, and I've talked about it a lot on this show.
What I'm talking about is this kind of waiting mode that we can get
into where we're like, oh, I will start that, but I can't
start it just now because I'm not inspired, and that ends up wasting a
lot of time. It ends up wasting a lot of mental energy that you
could have put to much better use. If you just started taking that action,
you would be a lot further forward than if you're sitting there, thinking,
planning, waiting for the right time. Now, I know that even
with this show, for example, I often will struggle to find that inspiration.
But I know that as soon as I start taking that action, the
inspiration comes to me. But I have to take that action first before it
arises. Now, when I start recording, great, that's when I generally
just figure out what I'm talking about. I've got an outline, But once
I hit record, it becomes a lot easier than sitting there waiting for that
inspiration to hit the record button. And I could wait for that for a
long time. Number three, the third thing that is wasting your time is
busy task that feel productive but that don't grow your business, like checking your
emails five times or more every single day. I deliberately tell people that I
am bad with emails, and I think I even have an auto responder that
says this. I reply to my emails in batches because it is so much
quicker than context switching, then doing one task and then quickly checking and replying
to an email and then moving to another task. That takes up so much
more time because you're constantly having to change what you are focusing on, rather
than sitting down and replying to one batch of emails in one go. I
also generally will work with my phone on do not Disturb so that notifications come
through cool. It doesn't derail my focus and it doesn't waste my time.
I guess. A big question also to ask yourself around this is could somebody
else do this thing? And if the answer is yes, then consider delegating
that task. Another thing to ask is does this task need to happen.
Is this actually producing a measurable result? And if it's not, then I
would consider deleting the task. Okay, number four. The fourth big time
waster in your business is trying to make everything perfect before you release it into
the world, or just get it out there. Honestly, Once it is
out there, then you can see what works. Then you can see,
oh, this is successful or this is not successful, and then we could
iterate from there, rather than waiting for it to be perfect and never getting
it out there in the first place. You won't know what works until you
have it out there and you can get that feedback loop. Right. I
love to think of this as, you know, a digital camera versus a
film camera. A film camera you could point, you could shoot, you
could take a photo, but you won't know for weeks whether the photo was
any good because you have to wait for it to come back and then you
can see, oh, it was out of focus or it was under exposed.
Whereas a digital camera, you take a photo and you can see instantly,
oh the horizon's wonky, let me take that again. That is what
taking action is like. It's like having that instant feedback of something's broken.
Great, let's fix that. I used to spend an hour creating a single
podcast episode, outlining it, recording it, editing it so it was perfect,
and it would take up so much time, three episodes a week,
Right, But then I've realized, you know, my audience doesn't care whether
I say like or or uh, but they do care that I'm producing good
content. And for me to produce good content, I can't be spending an
hour on every episode. Now I don't edit my episodes anymore. But back
when I did, I realized, oh, I could save a lot of
time by just leaving in the filler words. Now, the other thing where
I see people getting stuck is editing captions, making them perfect before they can
publish that post to Instagram, recording their course content. They can get so
stuck on making the slides perfect and the outline perfect and the recording perfect,
and it ends up becoming this thing that takes so long it never gets out
there into the world. Back in episode seven hundred and fifteen, I talked
a little bit about how you can use imperfect action and as a framework to
get out of this place of being stuck and overthinking. So, if you
want to listen to the full episode. Dm me on Instagram. I'm there
at Steph Taylor dot co. Send me seven one five, seven hundred and
fifteen as the number and I will send you the link to that episode.
You'll also find a link to that episode in the show notes below. Okay,
number five, number five the fifth time waster over complicating every single task
in your business and every single project. I love Tim Ferriss's example from his
book Tribe of Mentors, where he talks about how when he sat down to
write the book, he kept over complicating it, and he came back to
this question, what would this look like if it were easy? And in
his in that situation, the easy version was to interview a bunch of people
who had been successful in their field and compile that into a book. What
would this look like if it were easy? So often I see this with
online business owners, especially when it comes to something like creating a course or
launching a pot. I see them trying to go from zero to one hundred,
instantly, trying to add all of the bells and whistles into their first
launch, and then they get so overwhelmed because there's so many different things to
do, and it never ends up happening. So rather than that, what
is the minimum viable version of this? For example, if you're creating an
online course, could you potentially teach that online course as a live workshop first
to test the idea and to test the content before you go and spend six
months outlining and recording and creating all of it. Could you potentially teach it
as a group program instead, where you're teaching it week by week, instead
of spending twelve months outlining some kind of course that you've never taught before.
Right. For example, with this show, for so long I put off
doing YouTube versions of each episode because I thought that it had to be this
perfect quality video with awesome editing, you know, all of the jump cuts
and the cool text that comes over the top. But I thought, you
know what, let's keep this simple. I record it with my webcam,
which is pretty good quality, and let's just see if people want to watch
the video versions first before we go and spend even more time editing the video
versions to make them look really fancy and go and create some kind of crazy
editing process. Okay, Number six. Next thing that is wasting your time
and your business is saying yes to things that you don't want to do coffee
catch ups. Oh. I used to say yes to all of these,
and you know, it felt like just thirty minutes in my calendar, but
then it was thirty minutes of driving and then finding a park, and then
it would be I'd get back and I'd have to try and get myself back
into the flow of work. So generally I say no to coffee catch up.
Now collaborations. I say no to a lot of collaborations that come my
way because they don't excite me or I don't think that they're going to be
the best use of my time. All of these things fill our calendars,
they make us feel like we've got some purpose and we're busy and all of
that, but they don't necessarily move them. They can be a massive time
waster. And another question this is also actually from the book Tribe of Mentors
as well from Tim Ferriss's book. I can't remember exactly who came up with
this or who shared this, but the question that I reflect on is would
I say yes to this if it were tomorrow, If this thing that I
am committing to today were happening tomorrow morning, would I still want to do
this, and that's been a really good gauge because a lot of the time
we think a month from now, oh, I'm going to have so much
more free time. I'm going to be able to do all of these things
that I want to do. But in reality, that free time is going
to fill itself as well. So would you say yes to this thing if
it were happening tomorrow, Yes or no? And if it's a no,
then maybe consider saying no to that thing all together. This also goes for
tasks that you don't want to do. For example, if you are creating
content for TikTok because everyone out there is telling you you need to be on
TikTok otherwise your business isn't going to succeed. But you hate doing that,
then consider deleting that task. I'm a big fan of deleting things that they're
not lighting me up, not moving the needle, that get them off my
plate. If you're considering working with a client that you don't want to work
with, maybe they're a painful client, or they're exhibiting some red flags,
or you're just not that excited about working with them, you can say no.
When you say yes to the wrong client that takes up space that could
be filled by the right client. And I know it feels really scary because
you're saying no to potential income, but by opening up that space, you're
allowing something better to come into its place. And then finally, number seven,
the seventh time waster in your business is not knowing what to focus on
at any given time. So chasing all of the shiny ideas, being really
scattered, working on whatever you feel like working on, but not really moving
forward on anything in particular focus gets you there a lot faster. And I
say this as somebody who has ADHD who struggles with focus. Unfortunately, focus
is incredibly important and if you are like me where you struggle to find that
focus, that is where having external structure can be really helpful, having systems,
having a team to support you, having external accountability, Like I would
not be able to focus on creating these episodes if I didn't have that external
accountability of my podcast listeners expecting a new episode from me every Monday, Wednesday,
Friday. It also helps knowing what your vision is for your business and
having that clarity for your business model, because once you know what you are
working towards, then every decision you make, you can put it through this
filter of is it moving me closer to this thing that I'm working towards.
Is it moving me closer to my vision? Or is it not moving me
closer to my vision? Because if it's not moving you closer to your vision,
it's taking up time that could be spent moving you closer, so it's
actually moving you further away. Okay, So I have a free work book.
It's called Escape the Messy Middle, and in that workbook you will get
complete clarity on where your business is heading so that you can start to grow
your business with more intention and focus. You can grab that ebook at Stephtaylor
dot co. Slash EMM will pop a link to that in the show notes,
or you can send me a DM on Instagram. I'm there at steph
Taylor EMM. Just one word those three letters in one word, and I
will send you the link to download that free workbook. Now, if you've
learned anything from this episode or any of the episodes that I have shared so
far, I have two little favors to ask of you. Firstly, please
tell a friend about this episode, hit the share button, copy the link
and send it to them. Somebody who is maybe starting out in business,
or somebody who have been in business for a little while. They might be
spending time on things that aren't really moving the needle on their business. So
share this episode with them because it's how I get to help more people.
And the second thing that I would love to ask is if you haven't yet
left a rating and a review in Apple Podcasts, please do so. It
takes thirty seconds. I read every single one of them. It means a
lot to me, and it means a lot to my team as well.
We put so much time and effort into creating this show, and you know
it's a free show, right We're putting a lot of value out there for
free. So I really do appreciate every single reading and review that comes through.
Thank you so much for listening. Catch you next time.