As a solopreneur (team of one!), you are scrambling to stay on top of your work — you’re exhausted from doing all the admin tasks, marketing, keeping on top of business systems and processes, customer service and client satisfaction… Not to mention doing the work of the actual services you provide or products you create!
It’s A LOT. And it just never ends!
If that sounds like you — if you are an overworked, exhausted solopreneur — then here’s what you need to work on… your time management skills and productivity practices.
In this video, we’ll explore why time management and productivity matters so much for solopreneurs, the HUGE issues that arise when you don’t deal with this, why the way you think about productivity is probably all wrong, plus a quick productivity assessment for your solopreneur business.
Watch the video here (or scroll down to read the transcript)...
Why does productivity matter so much for solopreneurs?
I’m guessing that right now, you’re thinking something like, “It’s just one of those super busy seasons, things will calm down soon! It’ll resolve itself!”
…but you’ve probably been saying stuff like, “Things will calm down soon” for weeks, if not months or years, on end, without any end in sight.
Does that sound familiar? If you don’t want this to continue being your reality, make sure you hit that “like” button on the YouTube video right now so I know you’re in it with me!
Because if it hasn’t changed yet, then it’s not going to magically resolve itself on your own.
You might believe that you “just need to work harder” to catch up on your workload, or that you should “wake up earlier” to cram more work into your day, or that “after THIS project is finished, I’ll be able to breathe easy again” …but let’s be honest: that’s not going to fix it.
Here’s what happens in each of those instances:
- If you force yourself to “just work harder,” you’re going to burn the candle at both ends and wear yourself out. Your work quality will suffer along with your personal life: You’ll get burned out and even more exhausted, so you’ll start making mistakes in the work you’re doing, which leads to unhappy clients and poor reviews, not to mention disappointment and frustration in yourself. You’ll be pushing back your personal life even more to try to prioritize your business, so your work/life balance is going to get even more skewed than it is already.
- If you “just wake up earlier,” a) that doesn’t take into account whether you’re a morning person or if you even have the capacity to work earlier, and b) just like with “working harder,” it simply means you’ll be cramming in more work into your schedule — your workload won’t decrease, you’ll be working even LONGER hours than you already are.
- If you “wait til this next project is wrapped up” because you believe it’ll free up your time, then realistically, is that true that it’ll fix the issue? OR, will more projects simply arise to fill the space? (Think back to how long you’ve been having this issue… if it wasn’t THIS project, it was another project, wasn’t it?)
The PROBLEM in your business right now — the REAL problem — is that you are struggling to stay afloat. You don’t need to hustle harder or wait for things to magically resolve themselves!
INSTEAD, you need to improve your productivity and time management… but not in the way you think.
The problem with traditional productivity...
Traditional productivity methods = toxic hustle culture, overworking, glorification of busy work, overtaxing yourself, putting work before everything else, and the belief that the number of hours you put into something is more important than the quality of the work you’re doing. 
That’s why I focus on anti-hustle productivity that’s based on your unique wants, needs, lifestyle, personality, and brain.
Because the best productivity methods will look very different for you if you have ADHD vs if you’re parenting small children vs if you’re an insomniac vs if you’re multi-passionate and so on.
There’s no one-size-fits-all — and what works for you in one season of life and business won’t necessarily work for you in another.
By the way — I have an awesome class that dives deeper into this subject, where you’ll learn my signature framework to save 10 hours/week every week as a solopreneur without burnout or unnecessary hustle!
It’s my gift to you 🙂 Do you want access to that?
Benefits of anti hustle productivity
I’m going to share with you some guided questions to assess your current toxic productivity levels in just a moment, but first of all, here’s what great productivity, TRUE productivity, HEALTHY productivity, PERSONALITY-BASED productivity, ANTI-HUSTLE productivity, can do for you…
- Improve the quality of your work (you won’t be exhausted or burned out, and you’ll be clearer-headed!).
- Help you make smart decisions much faster and more confidently (yes, even if you believe you are an indecisive person!).
- Improve your energy and creativity levels — so you have the capacity and bandwidth to do your work faster and more easily.
- Increase your enjoyment of the work you’re doing, because it’ll actually make SENSE to you and you’ll be doing in a way that works for your brain.
- Improve the quality of your relationships with clients and customers, your ability to meet deadlines, and your communication skills with them — which means they’ll give you rave testimonials, turn into repeat clients, AND recommend you to others.
- Help you achieve your goals much faster and more easily, and to do so in a highly strategic, intentional way, with flexibility built in as much as you want or need.
- Improve your motivation, personal accountability, self trust, drive, inspiration, confidence, and long-term thinking.
- Improve your work/life balance AND align your professional goals with your personal goals — so your solopreneur business fully supports your lifestyle and your personal values.
…plus SO MUCH MORE.
So, what can you DO about this??
The first thing you need to do is to identify what areas of your solopreneur business aren’t actually serving you — in what ways are you succumbing to toxic hustle culture, and where are there areas of improvement?
Quick productivity assessment for solopreneurs
Here are a few questions to get started with asking yourself — grab a pen and paper:
- How long have you been saying “things will calm down after XYZ?” Has it been weeks, months, years? Be honest! Now, if you DON’T make a change, what’s going to happen for your business and your life? Really look at the path you’re currently taking. Does it have long-term, long-lasting sustainability? (If you're watching this video, then spoiler alert, it probably isn’t sustainable!) There’s no shame or judgment in any of this! It’s about identifying where you’re at right now, so you know what needs to change moving forward.
- What goals do you have for your personal life… and what goals do you have for your solopreneur business? Do they match up? Where are there discrepancies? Again, we want to know where you’re starting from to see what needs to change. As a solopreneur, you are your business and vice versa. Disconnects between your life and business will create bigger problems down the line (if it hasn’t already!)
- What would your life and business look like if you had more time, energy, confidence, motivation, and better decision-making skills? When you close your eyes and picture it, what does that look like to you? How does that feel? How does it change your work/life balance, the speed and ease with which you achieve your goals, the types of action you want to be taking?
Some of these questions can bring up some discomfort, but you’re not going to make the change you so desperately need unless you’re willing to look at these things. These questions are essential to explore if you want to end the cycle of overworking and enjoy a business that truly supports your personal life…
I know how committed you are to your business success and the high quality work that you do, so now we need to make sure that your work/life balance and the way you APPROACH your business gets the same stellar treatment that you give to your clients.
Your next step...
This is the tip of the iceberg! And there are many different aspects I help my clients with as an anti-hustle Productivity Strategist and Solopreneur Coach, but the area I want to focus on for this video series is your time management.
Now that you know why productivity matters for solopreneurs and why personality-based, anti-hustle productivity is the most important area for you to focus on in your solopreneur business right now, AND you can envision what your future will look like both if you make changes and if you don’t, you’re ready to learn about what you absolutely MUST do if you want to skyrocket your time management abilities.
Stay tuned for an upcoming video on this exact topic! We’ll address the TRUTH about time management, which is going to change EVERYTHING for your time management skills.
Be sure to save this playlist so that you can check out more videos that are coming very soon about specifically what you can do to improve time management, why your current time management strategies are NOT working, and how to save 10 hours each week in your solopreneur business no matter how busy you are.
And let me know in the comments section on the YouTube video about specific questions you have so I can be sure to include them in upcoming videos on this topic of productivity and time management for overworked solopreneurs!