Ep. 050: Pressed for time? Try "Power Hours"
In this moment of shelter-at-home protocols due to COVID-19 many of us are being tasked with running businesses with everyone in our family home all day. This is incredibly challenging especially if we can't, or don't want to, put our businesses on hold.
As some who's been homeschooling and running businesses from home for the past 10 years, I've been able to grow year after year with Power Hours. Tune in to hear about this simple strategy that will help you maximize your limited time.
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Erika Tebbens: Hey, welcome to the podcast. I am, uh, diverging a little bit from my regular plan. Because we are now living in the time of coronavirus and, uh, things are different and weird. And a lot of us are living in operation, under shelter and place orders, which means that things are just different. If we have children, they are likely at home with us.
If we have partners, they are also likely home with us now, too. It's just weird and different. And it occurred to me that the other stuff that I was going to be putting up some, uh, an interview and some other things can wait for a bit because while they are still important, it felt like there was some more pressing stuff that I wanted to get out to you.
So today I want to share something really, really quickly with you that is going to help you with the juggle right now. Which is power hours. So this was something I was going to share in the future anyways, cause I'm a big believer in utilizing power hours. I think I've kind of mentioned them in passing on previous episodes.
But this is very, very, very timely. So, uh, I am also going to be recording an episode about, uh, ethical selling in uncertain times. But right now you might be like, well, "I have projects and other things and current client work and stuff that absolutely has to get done that you, I can't even focus on bringing in new clients or new work because I have other stuff that people have already paid be paid me for, that I have to now do. And I'm trying to do it all with no childcare." So, hence power hours. So where I used to use power hours is in my previous business. And I used to teach on this a lot and it's, it's not necessarily, it's like definitely not something that I invented. I don't even think it can be traced back to one single person, but it was a concept that I learned many years ago.
And then I would use it myself and I would teach it to, um, the women who I was leading in my previous business. So, uh, a power hour in its simplest form is one hour of completely undisturbed, fully focused working time. But that in and of itself, that definition is not necessarily helpful. So I'm going to explain it a little bit more.
So, let me just back up a minute and say that, uh, when I was working in corporate retail, we have like for anyone who hasn't been a manager of a store that works on a set like corporate, uh, sanctioned amount of payroll, you are given, um, based on a few different variables, a certain amount of hours that you can operate on for your store in any given week and if you go over that, uh, you can be penalized. So I would have to figure out how to staff my store and make sure that all the projects got done and all the customers got helped. And I had to stay within that number. And because companies try to keep their overhead as low as possible, to maximize their profits.
Usually the amount that you are given is very, very small relative to the amount of work that you actually have to do. So I got really, really good at being super productive and making sure that my team was super productive in the hours that they were there. Now, I don't believe in multitasking, uh, power hours, you should absolutely not be multitasking.
Um, however, there were things that I learned to do in that corporate retail setting, that retail management setting. Where I could, uh, be really competent at doing something like refolding down a whole section and greeting people walking in the door and doing customer service and all of that. Right? So it was a, it was just, it was pretty intense.
Um, but it was nice to know that, you know, when I clocked out when it was the end of the day or when it was the end of the shift for one of my employees, like that was it. We were done. We could leave our work, uh, in, in the store and just go home and go on with our lives. So when I had my direct sales business, I was working from home obviously, and my son was younger and I was homeschooling.
So as I've been running businesses, I have always been homeschooling. So basically for the last 10 years I've been doing both. Running a business and homeschooling. So I had to get really creative and, uh, really efficient with my very limited working time. Especially when my son was younger and we had a lot of, um, you know, weekly classes or things that I would take him to.
I had, uh, you know, even though like we were home and stuff, it wasn't like we were actually always home and he needed a lot more handholding and assistance with his schoolwork. Uh, back then. He's 15 now. So he mostly just does it on his own. So I had to find these pockets of time where I could get a whole lot done in a short amount of time. And so what this enabled me to do is get really, really, really crystal clear on what was going to move my business forward in the best way possible in the least amount of time. And then I had to be pretty organized about when I was going to work and what I was going to do during those time periods.
And now this is something actually, uh, I've been thinking about lately is that I'm actually way less efficient with my time now because I don't have other needs coming at me. Like, like I said, my son does most of his work alone. Um, and then we just kind of look it over. Uh, he doesn't need me as much, um, since we've moved.
I already like didn't have as many places to go or people to visit. Um, so that has enabled me to be at home a whole lot more and it was winter. So I just wasn't going out as much. So our new normal now in this, um, world of shelter in place, actually looks a lot like what it had been for the previous two and a half months.
Uh, and it meant that I was actually getting into some really lazy work habits because I kind of didn't have a time that I had to stop or needed to start or, or anything. Um, so this is a good reminder to me that I actually get a lot more done when I work in the short power hour bursts. So all that to say, here is how you do it.
So you need to take some time. Doesn't matter when you do it. Like if you run your business, let's say Monday through Friday, I'm going to suggest that you spend a little time the week before, or even over the weekend, doing planning for the weekend. Just first of all, brain dump, absolutely everything that you have to do, be very, very clear on, especially if you have calls like client calls or anything, um, meetings, uh, figure out how long that is going to take for you.
Block it out on your calendar. And then really look at what is the other time that you have to work and be very, very, very realistic with yourself and be sure to bake in time for transitions between things. And especially if you have kids that are around that you are going to be an eating to, you know, stop and maybe prepare some food and clean up and do all those little things depending on, uh, what ages they are. Because you want to give yourself enough margin so that your work is not stacked up on top of itself.
And please, please, please, put in some time for you to eat lunch and all of those other things. So you want to create little buffers, uh, in your, your days, right? So this is the goal is not to suddenly, you know, wake up at 4:00 AM and start your work before the kids get up and then keep doing it until midnight and, uh, perpetually get four hours sleep a night until you just completely burnout.
That is not the goal. The goal is to really figure out okay, realistically, when are you getting up? Realistically, when are you going to bed? What are all the other things that are essentials in your day that have to get done? If that is again, you know, cooking dinner, cooking breakfast, tidying up. Uh, you know, throwing in laundry, like any of, any of that stuff.
Um, I will say just as a, as a personal aside, I really try to keep my weekends, uh, sacred and not let work, spill over into them. Now, even in this really weird time, that is a great time to prep for the week ahead in terms of household stuff. So not only like business stuff, but household stuff. The more that you can prep ahead, even though it's not always fun. Uh, and it can, you know, cut into time when you'd rather just be like watching Netflix or anything like that. Um, but then some meal prep of, you know, breakfast, lunch, dinner, even at the very least dinner, if that's the most time consuming, do as much as you can on the weekends.
So that way it is not impacting your work days. Okay. So you're going to plan out all, all the stuff that you have to do for the next week and the pockets of time when you can do it. Sometimes a power hour looks like two hours. Sometimes a power hour looks like 30 minutes here, 30 minutes there, and then an hour there.
Right? So put all of that stuff in. And then you want to be crystal clear in your pockets of time, Monday through Friday. Again, it might look different based on your family and your circumstances and the days of the week and everything. You are going to map out exactly what you will be doing in those times.
And this needs to be active focused working time. This needs to be something that will be either for work that you already got paid for or stuff that will bring in new money to your business. Right? So this is not researching the best, uh, you know, client scheduling tool right now. That is something you can do when you don't need your premium brain space.
After the kids are asleep, you can put your laptop on your lap while you watch Netflix and do research because it doesn't matter if you use, you know, a Calendly or acuity or whatever. Like none of those, whichever one you decide is not directly going to, uh, bring you more money, right? That's not an activity that helps you get more clients.
So this is actual focused work time that directly relates to, uh, like marketing and such marketing and sales. So you are going to have every single day and, and I would start, like you don't necessarily have to have Monday through Friday, uh, down to the very specifics for the entire week, but at the very least like Monday and Tuesday should be pretty rock solid.
And you should have an idea of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. And give yourself a little more wiggle room because let's say something happens on Tuesday. Something takes longer than you had planned. You are going to need a little bit more time to finish it on Wednesday. So you also want to make sure that you are giving yourself enough time for each task.
Be realistic. If it takes you 30 minutes, usually to write your weekly newsletter, uh, don't necessarily try to just give yourself 15. Unless, you really, truly think that you can get it done in 15, then by all means this is a great time to test it. See if you're going to get really focused. Maybe it takes you 30 minutes because you're not super focused.
So try to beat the clock if you can, unless it's going to impact the quality of your work. Uh, otherwise just, you know, budget accordingly. If you end up with extra time, that's a bonus. But you're not going to get, uh, like behind the eight ball as they say, if you don't schedule enough. So now that you know what you are going to do, uh, make sure that when you have that time block, that you have everything you need to do that project, uh, at your fingertips and you are ready to work.
And you can set a timer and shut off all distractions. So this is really, really, really crucial. Next, I will say that if one of your things is like, "Oh, well, like responding to emails or, you know, checking my inbox or whatever." This needs to be very mindful. This needs to be its own pocket of time. And unless, there are emails coming in that are urgent and important from clients, future clients, anything like that, I would say like, if you tend to not have that in your business, or that's not really essential, I would even put that for checking email to later in the day. Right? Because if it's just random, like replies to things or reading over things or whatever, uh, listening to people's podcasts upsets, anything like that, again, that is going to go in your times where you don't have to be as focused, right? You, if you love a business podcasts, or if you have like webinars or any learning things, um, for courses. If you are capable of multitasking that while you do something else, like cook dinner, like cleanup, then it should be shifted to those times.
It's okay if you can't do that, but that is one thing I like to do is I know that one thing I can multitask is I can listen to, let's say an audio book or a podcast or a training while I am doing something else around the house. So these are the things that you're going to be doing again. Client work and income producing activities.
And, uh, you will actually be amazed if you do this. If you have things prepped ahead of time, if you have all the tools you need, if you have distractions off, it is phenomenal, what you can actually get done in an hour or even 30 minutes. But again, the reason why, and I cannot stress this enough, that you preplan, what this is going to be is it is shocking how much time can be wasted on when you sit down at your computer, deciding what you're going to work on. And the other thing, and I say this to my clients because I do a lot of, um, planning stuff with them in our work together, is when, you know, that you have something scheduled for later in the week, so like, let's just say I'll use podcast recording as an example. Right? Cause this is something I like to keep up on. This is not haphazard. This is like, you're going to get an episode for me every week, unless it's a really special circumstance.
So a podcast recording to me is a non-negotiable. So, uh, I, we'll put something in, like, let's say, okay, I know that on Wednesday, uh, I have some time and I'm going to record all the April podcasts episodes. Right? So that's, that's my schedule today. All the April episodes. Well then on Monday or Tuesday, when my brain is freaking out and is saying, don't forget the podcast episodes, don't forget the podcast episodes.
I can reassure myself that it's already scheduled. It's going to get done. I don't need to task switch right now. And try to go record podcasts episodes when I don't need to record podcast episodes because they are scheduled for a later date. Or if it's, you know, on Friday, you are going to create the training for that you're delivering next week.
Well, all this week, like this is literally my schedule this week, all this week, every single day, multiple times a day, my brain goes, "You should really work on that now. You're not going to have enough time. Um, it's, you know, it's next Monday, you're presenting in front of people. You, you know, it's online, but still you're presenting. You need to make this a good presentation. You're not going to have time later. You should just stop what you're doing into it right now. And then every time I just reassure my brain, "Nope, it's fine. You have plenty of time on Friday. It's not actually going to take you that long. Just jot down some notes, write out some things. It will be fine. You will have it done."
Right? So, uh, if you know that you have that schedule, you have that stuff planned, then you, it will minimize your freak outs because your freak outs are often what cause, uh, the task switching. It's when we start to get panicky, when we, uh, start to assume that something is urgent, that actually isn't. That is when we're like, "Oh, well I'll just go, you know what? I should probably just go write that email. Now I should probably just go do this thing now. I should probably just go post on Instagram now." No, don't do it. And another thing, one final little tip that will save you from, especially if you're doing, um, social media posting as part of like a marketing effort, is, uh, the creator studio.
So Facebook, which, you know, they own Instagram, has a new creator studio that you can post to your Facebook business page or your Instagram business account. So the nice thing about this is it's totally separate from posting directly to the feed. So you won't inadvertently get distracted by checking comments or DMS or anything.
Right? So, I would really recommend that you go in and you utilize that feature. You can schedule, you can either post, um, automatically, or you can schedule a post. So use that. Um, another thing you can do is if it feels like it takes you a while to post in your stories and like type captions and blah, blah, blah, uh, you can actually batch record your stories and like edit them and have them prepped and ready, and then you can release them all at once, uh, later when you have some time.
So even if that's, you know, on Monday, you use some time and you record various stories that you want to share during the week. Uh, go ahead and do that, then save them to your phone, have them we're ready to go, post them later. So yeah. That is, uh, that is how I do power hours. They work beautifully. You can get seriously, so much stuff done.
Um, you know, this could be, you could do 30 minutes, uh, you know, before the kids are up. You could do, um, an hour, maybe in the middle of the day while they are being entertained. You could do another hour after they go to sleep. Again, this will just depend on your personal circumstance. Um, but when you work in this focused way, uh, like without again, without any distractions and with some purposeful intention behind what you are going to be working on and you build in that margin, because you'll need it, uh, you will actually accomplish a ton of stuff. All right. Thank you again for being here. Uh, I truly appreciate every single person that listens to this podcast and as always, happy selling.
Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of The Sell It, Sister Podcast. If you loved it and you want more, be sure to subscribe so that you never miss an episode and then head on over to sellitsisterhood.com to join my free Facebook community group. And as your mama said, "Sharing is caring." So if you got a lot of value out of this episode, be sure to share it with your biz besties too.
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