Are you ready to get more done than you ever thought possible?
Jon Clayton:In this episode, we are talking about.
Jon Clayton:Productivity, you'll learn a new human first definition of productivity,
Jon Clayton:why productivity happens before you take action, and why space is more
Jon Clayton:powerful than systems and stick around to the end where we share the real
Jon Clayton:reason things aren't getting done.
Jon Clayton:Welcome to Architecture Business Club, the show that helps you build
Jon Clayton:a better business in architecture so you can enjoy more freedom,
Jon Clayton:flexibility, and fulfillment.
Jon Clayton:I'm your host, John Clayton, and if you're joining us for the
Jon Clayton:first time, don't forget to hit the follow or subscribe button.
Jon Clayton:We're joined by Louise Miller, a productivity mentor.
Jon Clayton:The founder of Make It Happen Club and the host of the UN Frazzled podcast.
Jon Clayton:She's on a mission to change the world by helping her clients change
Jon Clayton:the world to discover changes you can make to be more productive.
Jon Clayton:Take Louise's free quiz by clicking the link in the show notes.
Jon Clayton:So Louise, we are going to talk about productivity.
Jon Clayton:We can get more done without burning ourselves out, and we're gonna
Jon Clayton:challenge, I think, what people think of productivity in the conversation.
Jon Clayton:So let's begin with what's your definition of productivity?
Louise Miller:Yeah.
Louise Miller:So I am gonna contrast my definition with what a lot of
Louise Miller:people would say if you asked them.
Louise Miller:So if you asked most people what they would say, productivity is,
Louise Miller:I think what they'd say is some version of doing more in less time.
Louise Miller:It's about getting more done in less time.
Louise Miller:But for me, I find that kind of makes me immediately go a bit tense and
Louise Miller:kind of thinking about it that way in my previous life before I started my
Louise Miller:business actually made me ill because it's constantly kind of in this battle
Louise Miller:against time that you're never gonna win.
Louise Miller:'cause time will keep ticking along.
Louise Miller:You're never really finished.
Louise Miller:So if you are looking at it as doing more in less time, and that's it.
Louise Miller:I don't think that's particularly helpful.
Louise Miller:So the definition I came up with, which I kind of, I was gonna say I
Louise Miller:was forced to come up with, I wasn't forced nobody, you know, nobody was
Louise Miller:standing over me with a big stick.
Louise Miller:But in order for me to do my work, which you know, is helping people get stuff
Louise Miller:done, I needed to redefine it so that I felt comfortable and that I wasn't
Louise Miller:leading people along a merry path to burnout and making themselves ill.
Louise Miller:So the way that I look at it now, and the way I talk about it with my clients and in
Louise Miller:the work that I do, is that productivity is about doing what's important.
Louise Miller:As efficiently as you can to create space for what you love.
Louise Miller:And I think the two key things in that, that's different from what a
Louise Miller:lot, a lot of people would say is it's about doing what's important,
Louise Miller:not doing all of the things.
Louise Miller:And it's about creating space, not about doing more, doing
Louise Miller:so that you can do more doing.
Jon Clayton:There's quite a big difference, isn't there?
Jon Clayton:There between those two approaches to it.
Louise Miller:I think so.
Louise Miller:I mean, it can feel a bit subtle, but usually when I share that definition,
Louise Miller:people's shoulders just relax a little bit and all of a sudden it
Louise Miller:just puts a whole different um, yeah, different perspective on things.
Louise Miller:'cause it's like, why are you doing what you're doing?
Louise Miller:And if you can start to think about that as well, you can let
Louise Miller:go of a lot of the stuff that actually might not be important.
Louise Miller:It might not be helping you get where you wanna go.
Louise Miller:And that was also, you know, quite liberating I think for people.
Jon Clayton:think, I
Jon Clayton:think with some people, their experiences that there's like,
Jon Clayton:um, to be seen, to be busy.
Jon Clayton:but not necessarily doing the things that really kind of push things forward.
Jon Clayton:And I've absolutely have been guilty of this, you know, that, that thing
Jon Clayton:you mentioned there about this idea of productivity where it's just.
Jon Clayton:Trying to do things quicker so we can cram more in and do more,
Jon Clayton:just more and more and more.
Jon Clayton:Um, I've definitely found myself in that position before and felt quite
Jon Clayton:stressed about it, to be quite honest.
Louise Miller:Yeah, me too.
Louise Miller:It made me ill, I ended up signed off work with, uh, work related
Louise Miller:stress and anxiety when that was how I was going through life.
Louise Miller:And I had colleagues also actually I was, um, working for a university at
Louise Miller:the time and I had colleagues that whenever anyone asked them how they
Louise Miller:were, their answer would be busy.
Jon Clayton:Mm.
Louise Miller:And I would quite often know that actually they weren't
Louise Miller:busy 'cause I was managing them.
Louise Miller:I had an eye on what they were doing, but they were so terrified
Louise Miller:of saying that they weren't busy for fear of what that would mean.
Louise Miller:Someone would give them more to do or they'd be seen as lazy or something.
Louise Miller:It's a really strange relationship that we have, I think with that word.
Louise Miller:It's interesting.
Jon Clayton:Yeah.
Jon Clayton:Busy.
Jon Clayton:Busy doing what?
Louise Miller:Yes, exactly.
Louise Miller:Yeah.
Jon Clayton:Something that I've heard you talk about, you, you believe that.
Jon Clayton:Productivity happens before you take action.
Jon Clayton:Can you explain that for us?
Louise Miller:Yeah, absolutely.
Louise Miller:So I'm going to share an analogy that I think is helpful when we think about this.
Louise Miller:So, running a business can be a bit like walking through a forest, right?
Louise Miller:You wanna get to the other side, um, and you set out all excited
Louise Miller:that you're going on an adventure.
Louise Miller:Um, but.
Louise Miller:There comes a point, yes, there are nice areas of dappled sunlight and it
Louise Miller:all feels lovely and there's squirrels running about and it's lovely, but
Louise Miller:you also reach a point sometimes where, well, not sometimes, I think
Louise Miller:all of the time, where you end up in those kind of damp, dank corners of
Louise Miller:the forest and there's muddy puddles, and it all starts to feel a little
Louise Miller:bit scary, and you can start to feel like you're walking around in circles.
Louise Miller:You've got your eyes on your feet.
Louise Miller:Because you don't wanna trip over the tree roots or those kinds of
Louise Miller:things, and you've just got your head down and you're keeping going.
Louise Miller:But then you start to wonder, am I actually going in the right direction?
Louise Miller:Have I seen that tree before?
Louise Miller:Start to feel a bit lost, perhaps get in a bit of a panic.
Louise Miller:So at that point, you have a choice.
Louise Miller:You can either keep walking and hope for the best, or you can
Louise Miller:take a, you know, take a pause.
Louise Miller:And in my little analogy, it just so happens as luck would
Louise Miller:have it, there's a tree house.
Louise Miller:So we've, we've stopped.
Louise Miller:We're walking around, we're feeling a bit lost.
Louise Miller:We stopped for a second and then we lift our eyes up and look up and you
Louise Miller:can see that there's a lovely tree house in one of the nearby trees.
Louise Miller:It looks all warm and cozy and inviting, and you think I'm going up there.
Louise Miller:So you go up to the tree house, have a little rest, settle your nervous system,
Louise Miller:get the panic, kind of gone, have a cup of tea, nice chalky bickie, and then.
Louise Miller:You know when you're feeling a little bit calmer, you can look out of
Louise Miller:the treehouse window and look down.
Louise Miller:So you can look back to where you've come from, first of all, which will actually
Louise Miller:remind you of how far you have come.
Louise Miller:You might feel like you haven't, but you'll see how far you've come.
Louise Miller:You can look over there into the distance.
Louise Miller:Just remind yourself where you're going to get another sense of, you
Louise Miller:know, yes, I do wanna get over there.
Louise Miller:Give yourself that motivation again, and then you can look down a little bit
Louise Miller:and actually start to map out the route.
Louise Miller:And look for the easiest way to get to where you're going so that when
Louise Miller:you are ready to climb back down onto the forest floor, you are feeling a
Louise Miller:lot more resourced, um, resilient.
Louise Miller:You know where you're going.
Louise Miller:You've got a bit of a map in your head as to how you're gonna get where you're
Louise Miller:going, and then off you go again.
Louise Miller:Right?
Louise Miller:So I think we can all agree that the most productive thing that happened there was
Louise Miller:going up into the tree house, not just carrying on, walking around in circles.
Louise Miller:And so for me that even though it might have felt like you weren't doing anything,
Louise Miller:'cause you're not actually in motion, you're not, you know, putting one foot
Louise Miller:in front of the other, that is still the most productive thing that we could do in
Louise Miller:that situation because it's allowing us to take that pause and go right to remind,
Louise Miller:remind myself of what's important, why I am trying to get to where I'm going,
Louise Miller:where I'm going, how I'm gonna get there.
Louise Miller:Um, and that all happens in that pause, not when we are taking action.
Louise Miller:For me.
Louise Miller:That's what I mean when I say that productivity happens
Louise Miller:before you take action.
Louise Miller:It's in that pause.
Louise Miller:Does that make sense?
Louise Miller:Resonate?
Jon Clayton:Uh, it, it really does.
Jon Clayton:Yeah.
Jon Clayton:Um, it's like being able to step back from the day to day and to be able to see
Jon Clayton:that big picture sort of helicopter view.
Jon Clayton:Over what you're doing rather than being stuck in the weeds.
Jon Clayton:I think that there's so many times, um, I've experienced this personally
Jon Clayton:where I, I, you know, I, I have this idea of, of the direction I'm going
Jon Clayton:in and then I just get stuck in the day to day and I lose sight of what it
Jon Clayton:is that I'm actually trying to do and sometimes can end up spending time.
Jon Clayton:Um.
Jon Clayton:Working on things that aren't actually moving me forward in the right direction.
Jon Clayton:And maybe I'm going off on a, you know, to use the kind of forest analogy that
Jon Clayton:I'm kind of going off down a, down an alternative path or another winding
Jon Clayton:path somewhere that's not actually taking me in the right direction.
Jon Clayton:And, um, yeah, unless, unless there is some kind of pause or moment when
Jon Clayton:you do step out of that and, and climb up into the, uh, the tree house
Jon Clayton:to be able to see the big picture.
Jon Clayton:Um.
Jon Clayton:It's really difficult to get back on track again.
Jon Clayton:I
Louise Miller:It is.
Louise Miller:Yeah, absolutely.
Louise Miller:And I think for a lot of people, they think that productivity is in the
Louise Miller:action that you're taking, but when all you are doing is taking action.
Louise Miller:That can actually lead to overwhelm and becoming a bit frazzled.
Louise Miller:And you're just, like you said, doing busy work that's not
Louise Miller:necessarily actually helpful.
Louise Miller:And you know, you start getting easily distracted.
Louise Miller:You're picking things up and putting them down again.
Louise Miller:But you are so fixed in this mindset that I've got a lot to do.
Louise Miller:I just need to keep going.
Louise Miller:I need to keep my head down and keep going.
Louise Miller:It's just so counterproductive.
Louise Miller:I describe, you know, you can get in when you're staying in that kind of action
Louise Miller:space, you can end up in this sort of frantic and frazzled overwhelm loop.
Louise Miller:And the only way you can stop that is to take that step out
Louise Miller:of it and to take that pause.
Louise Miller:And I'll just share here as well.
Louise Miller:I think 'cause it's relevant, I've, I talk about this kind of progress cycle
Louise Miller:and if you can stay in this progress cycle, you will be productive and
Louise Miller:you will get to where you want to go.
Louise Miller:And that all starts with the pause.
Louise Miller:So the first thing to do is to pause, then you reflect.
Louise Miller:So that's what we were doing when we were looking back to see how far we've
Louise Miller:come, looking to where we're going.
Louise Miller:Thinking about, you know, am I spending my time on the right things?
Louise Miller:Um, have I spent my time, well this week, this month, whatever that is, we
Louise Miller:take the pause, then we reflect from that place, we can then make a choice.
Louise Miller:So that's when you choose what you're gonna do differently or
Louise Miller:what you're going to do next, or what you're not going to do next.
Louise Miller:Just making an intentional choice while you are feeling calm and connected
Louise Miller:to where it is that you wanna go.
Louise Miller:And then once you've made that choice, that's when you start taking action.
Louise Miller:And when you work like that, it kind of becomes inevitable that the next
Louise Miller:part of the cycle after action is to complete, to finish what you've started,
Louise Miller:rather than bouncing around all over the place, trying to do 15 things at once.
Louise Miller:And if you can find a way, um, you know, some people take a visual and put it on
Louise Miller:on the wall, so they're looking at it.
Louise Miller:If you can find a way to stay in this kind of pause, reflect, choose,
Louise Miller:act, complete, and then start again.
Louise Miller:It can be a really great way just to keep you focused and
Louise Miller:moving in the right direction.
Jon Clayton:I love that.
Jon Clayton:I love that.
Jon Clayton:That's, that, that's a really interesting way to think about it.
Jon Clayton:So, um, Louise, I've, I've, we've talked a little bit about here, about,
Jon Clayton:um, space, Often people talk about systems a lot though when it comes to
Jon Clayton:productivity, but why, why space do you think more powerful than systems?
Jon Clayton:That's something that you've talked about before.
Jon Clayton:Um, what do you mean by that?
Louise Miller:Yeah.
Louise Miller:So what I see happen with a lot of people that are feeling that, like they're
Louise Miller:not getting as much done as they want.
Louise Miller:They're not as productive as they want to be.
Louise Miller:The solution they start looking for is some kind of system.
Louise Miller:So they start thinking, oh, I just need to.
Louise Miller:Start a new Asana board or let me go and buy that gorgeous planner
Louise Miller:that's gonna cost me 50 quid.
Louise Miller:But isn't it pretty?
Louise Miller:And you know, downloading apps and all of that kind of stuff that
Louise Miller:will help you manage your to-dos.
Louise Miller:People kind of look to those systems 'cause they think
Louise Miller:that's what the problem is.
Louise Miller:The trouble is when that's what you are reaching for.
Louise Miller:If you are in chaos in your mind, all you're going to be doing is
Louise Miller:transferring that chaos into your system, which isn't gonna help you.
Louise Miller:Uh, in terms of being more productive, you know, if you've got someone in
Louise Miller:your team, you're gonna be delegating, perhaps delegating or inputting
Louise Miller:chaos into your team as well.
Louise Miller:So yes, those systems can be helpful, but they shouldn't be the starting point.
Louise Miller:The starting point should be the, the space, the pause that we just
Louise Miller:talked about, so that you can figure out what is most important to you.
Louise Miller:Remind yourself of your goals.
Louise Miller:You know, figure out what are the actions I need to take to get me there?
Louise Miller:What can I let go of?
Louise Miller:Um, understand what else is going on in your life that
Louise Miller:might be impacting on your work.
Louise Miller:Because we are, you know, we're not robots.
Louise Miller:If there's something big going on outside of work, it is gonna impact
Louise Miller:what you're able to achieve in work.
Louise Miller:So you need the space to figure all of that out.
Louise Miller:And then from there, by all means, you know, find a system that works for you.
Louise Miller:But what I see happen over and over again is that people are just bouncing
Louise Miller:around from system to system to system thinking that that's the problem.
Louise Miller:When it isn't.
Louise Miller:The problem is that they're not giving themselves space.
Jon Clayton:I've had quite a bit of experience with that.
Jon Clayton:Louise, um.
Jon Clayton:You know, trying all sorts of different.
Jon Clayton:Productivity systems and, and methods and, you know, been on loads of like
Jon Clayton:webinars and, and you know, watched loads of content online about, oh, you
Jon Clayton:need to be doing time boxing, or, you know, you need to be doing this, or you
Jon Clayton:need to be using this fancy software.
Jon Clayton:And as you say, like subscribing to all sorts, you know, some free
Jon Clayton:tools, some paid that are promising.
Jon Clayton:Oh, this tool's gonna save you like a day, a week.
Jon Clayton:'cause it's just amazing.
Jon Clayton:And it's like the most amazing productivity task management, project
Jon Clayton:management magic tool in the world.
Jon Clayton:And, um, none of that really worked.
Jon Clayton:None of it really worked for me.
Jon Clayton:I, I tried all sorts of different things, um, and really struggled to
Jon Clayton:find, you know, tools that did help.
Jon Clayton:Um, and the fact being that.
Jon Clayton:What you described about that being just like sort of chaos, um, in my mind was
Jon Clayton:probably that, that huge contributing factor that, that those things just
Jon Clayton:weren't, weren't really working for me.
Jon Clayton:Um, yeah, so I did try an awful lot of different systems over the
Jon Clayton:years and, um, struggled to find something that worked for me.
Jon Clayton:Um, and it's, I think as well that it can then make you feel
Jon Clayton:pretty rubbish because you, you then feel a little bit like, well.
Jon Clayton:Well, I was promised that this system was gonna work and it hasn't worked, so does
Jon Clayton:that mean there's something wrong with me?
Louise Miller:Yeah.
Louise Miller:Yeah.
Louise Miller:And you're not alone in feeling that ev You know, I work with so many people
Louise Miller:who have been through that experience.
Louise Miller:I've been through that experience.
Louise Miller:Um, I bought David Allen's getting things done, booked back in about
Louise Miller:2006, thinking that was gonna solve all my problems when I was completely
Louise Miller:overwhelmed in an office management role.
Louise Miller:And I spent a whole weekend in my office setting that system up and it didn't work.
Louise Miller:And I was exactly as you described, feeling like, oh, that must be me then.
Louise Miller:There's clearly something wrong with me and it kind of breaks my heart and
Louise Miller:you know, and it's kind of unfortunate, really, this is why I'm really
Louise Miller:passionate about sharing this stuff.
Louise Miller:Because what often happens is by the time people come and find me,
Louise Miller:they've already gone through that cycle and they're kind of already
Louise Miller:feeling rubbish about themselves.
Louise Miller:And I find myself in a position of having, and it's, you know, I'm happy to do it.
Louise Miller:But trying to reassure people when they say, well, I've tried everything else.
Louise Miller:Why is working with you gonna be any different?
Louise Miller:Because they're feeling that sense of.
Louise Miller:I'm broken and I'm then having to explain, which is fine.
Louise Miller:You know, that's what I'm here for.
Louise Miller:Explain why the way that I work is so different and how it does help.
Louise Miller:And I find once people are brave enough, 'cause I think it is an act
Louise Miller:of bravery when you've been burnt like that, to step into a different space
Louise Miller:and pay money to come and work with me.
Louise Miller:And then they find that it works.
Louise Miller:It does so much more than just help them get stuff done.
Louise Miller:It rebuilds their self-confidence.
Louise Miller:And their self-esteem around all of this.
Louise Miller:So it does run deep.
Louise Miller:You know, productivity kind of sounds like this very practical, pragmatic thing,
Louise Miller:but actually it's got a huge emotional weight to it for a lot of people.
Jon Clayton:Absolutely.
Jon Clayton:Yeah.
Jon Clayton:I think that because often, you know, I mean everyone's, so
Jon Clayton:let's use that busy word again.
Jon Clayton:Everyone's so busy these days and.
Jon Clayton:I think there's a tendency to put an awful lot of things on the to-do list,
Jon Clayton:and I've, again, classic, this is a thing that I've done loads where I'm like
Jon Clayton:overestimating how much I get done in a day, so I have a big to-do list, and
Jon Clayton:then I don't complete everything on it.
Jon Clayton:Inevitably, it doesn't get completed because no sooner
Jon Clayton:am I ticking one thing off it.
Jon Clayton:There's other things that are getting added to it, and then you get to
Jon Clayton:the end of the day and think, well.
Jon Clayton:Oh, I've not, I've not done very well today 'cause, well, I've not finished
Jon Clayton:half my to-do list, so I'm, I'm not very good am I, you know, I'm not, I'm
Jon Clayton:not very good at what I do because I've not managed to get all this stuff done.
Jon Clayton:I should have been able to get more done because all these productivity
Jon Clayton:gurus online and telling me that I should be able to get tons of stuff done
Jon Clayton:in a day and I haven't been able to.
Jon Clayton:So it's quite a, a vicious kind of circle to get trapped in.
Louise Miller:it is, and it makes me really angry when I see people saying,
Louise Miller:well, you just need to do it like this.
Louise Miller:Like you mentioned, time blocking and putting all of that out there as if
Louise Miller:that is the solution that's gonna work for everyone and it, it really isn't.
Louise Miller:And I think if it's all right with you, John, I've got six pillars that.
Louise Miller:Underpin everything that I do.
Louise Miller:And if I quickly, if it's all right, just rattle through what they are.
Louise Miller:And hopefully that will help people understand that it, there are, it
Louise Miller:is quite simple actually what you need in order to get things done.
Louise Miller:Um, and it's not about the system.
Louise Miller:It's not about the tool, but so we've already talked about space.
Louise Miller:That's the first pillar.
Louise Miller:So I don't need to say anymore about that, but it's space away
Louise Miller:from the noise and the distractions.
Louise Miller:The second thing that we need to have in place when we're doing our planning
Louise Miller:and our to-do list, or whatever it is we're doing, is alignment.
Louise Miller:So.
Louise Miller:Taking that moment to just make sure that the things you're writing on your list are
Louise Miller:actually taking you in the right direction and the direction that excites you.
Louise Miller:So there's alignment, then there's the life friendly kind of pillar, which is
Louise Miller:about not just thinking, this is what I need to do for my business, but thinking
Louise Miller:what else is going on in my life.
Louise Miller:You know, I'm, I worked with someone once who was moving house.
Louise Miller:And hadn't, it hadn't occurred to her, that might mean she had less capacity for
Louise Miller:what she was trying to do in her business.
Louise Miller:She was moving across the country.
Louise Miller:So thinking about things like that and the smaller things as well.
Louise Miller:You know, if you've got kids and one of your kids is off school sick or
Louise Miller:something, you know, bearing all of that in mind and not expecting, you'll still
Louise Miller:be able to get a normal full day's work done if you've got a poorly child on
Louise Miller:the sofa that needs your love and care.
Louise Miller:Um, which kind of leads us onto the fourth pillar, which is about your plan
Louise Miller:or your to-do list being achievable.
Louise Miller:Um, so it's not just a brain dump that then you're calling a plan.
Louise Miller:It's you looking at what you've got capacity for.
Louise Miller:And also, actually, as an aside for this one, understanding, you're not gonna
Louise Miller:get that right all of the time and if you don't get it right, 'cause we all
Louise Miller:underestimate how long things take.
Louise Miller:I still do, but all that is, is underestimation of
Louise Miller:how long something took.
Louise Miller:It doesn't mean you're a bad person or that you failed in any way,
Louise Miller:but the more we can notice that.
Louise Miller:The better we can become at predicting it.
Louise Miller:So just a little side note.
Louise Miller:Um, and then rhythm is the fifth pillar, which is around, we don't just
Louise Miller:take that pause once and then think we're set for the rest of the year.
Louise Miller:How can you build that pause, reflect and choose into your month,
Louise Miller:into your week, even into your day.
Louise Miller:So you know, when you and I finish this conversation, we
Louise Miller:could both pause for a second.
Louise Miller:Reflect on what the rest of the day holds, and then choose what we're gonna do next.
Louise Miller:You can do it in a really micro way, but making that a rhythm.
Louise Miller:And then the, the final pillar is, the way that I work is
Louise Miller:very rooted in neuroscience.
Louise Miller:I'm also an NLP practitioner, so there's this whole thing around making sure we're
Louise Miller:getting our subconscious mind on board.
Louise Miller:Um.
Louise Miller:Believing that it's possible for us to have success rather than
Louise Miller:talking to ourselves in a way that we just keep reminding ourselves,
Louise Miller:well, I didn't get everything done.
Louise Miller:I'm a terrible person.
Louise Miller:Let's shift that.
Louise Miller:Um, and then we'll start to prove that new story true.
Louise Miller:So those are the six things that I think are key as far as being
Louise Miller:more productive is concerned.
Louise Miller:Um, and however you can, you know, think about and implement them into
Louise Miller:how you're moving through your days, your weeks and months, I think.
Louise Miller:Yeah.
Louise Miller:You'll be onto a winner if you even just a couple of them if you're
Louise Miller:not doing any of that right now.
Jon Clayton:Absolutely.
Jon Clayton:Yeah.
Jon Clayton:And they, um, the, the life pillar, I totally resonated with me that
Jon Clayton:because you know, when, when you have things, other things going on in
Jon Clayton:your life, then you can't, you can't expect to show up in the same way.
Jon Clayton:you're not gonna be able to be.
Jon Clayton:As productive.
Jon Clayton:Um, if you've got this things going on, like you say, if you've got like a child
Jon Clayton:off school that's ill you're not gonna be able to show up in the same way.
Jon Clayton:And I guess it's.
Jon Clayton:It's part and parcel of being a business owner that sometimes you've got all
Jon Clayton:the things going on at the same time and you know, with all good intention,
Jon Clayton:you might not be able to work as many hours that week or, or the hours that
Jon Clayton:you do work, you might have other things on your mind at the same time.
Jon Clayton:So, um, I think recognizing that and being okay with it, that,
Jon Clayton:we're not able to, you know, just turn up and, and work like
Jon Clayton:a robot every day of the week.
Louise Miller:yeah, absolutely.
Louise Miller:And for many of us who started our business, we started it because
Louise Miller:we wanted that flexibility.
Louise Miller:So why are we not letting ourselves have it without feeling bad about it?
Jon Clayton:yeah, that's so true, because that's most people that do
Jon Clayton:set up their own business, they're not, they're not doing it because
Jon Clayton:they're wanting to do more work.
Jon Clayton:You know, they're, they're doing it usually because they are wanting more,
Jon Clayton:more freedom and more flexibility in their life and more fulfillment
Jon Clayton:from the work that they're doing.
Jon Clayton:And that's, that's the, the thing, isn't it?
Jon Clayton:That, you know, you want to be able to, well, okay.
Jon Clayton:I'd, I can just.
Jon Clayton:Work less hours today and be with the kids, or, you know, I can take
Jon Clayton:some time off to go to the, the sports day or that event or whatever.
Jon Clayton:Um, because I'm in charge, it's my business and I can choose to do that.
Jon Clayton:Yeah.
Jon Clayton:But as I say, sometimes you can kind of, um, I think sometimes we can lose
Jon Clayton:sight of that if we get stuck in that the busy work or that, um, the client
Jon Clayton:work, like delivering the client work.
Jon Clayton:And then forgetting about like why we started doing it in the first place.
Louise Miller:Yeah, so I think that's where, if you're gonna do anything with
Louise Miller:those pillars that I just shared, I think the space, which is what, you know, the
Louise Miller:time in the tree house and the rhythm, so that you're doing that regularly,
Louise Miller:because the more often you do that.
Louise Miller:The more of a sense of perspective you'll have and the more that you'll know,
Louise Miller:this actually isn't that important.
Louise Miller:Yes, it needs to be done, but going to sports day with my kid,
Louise Miller:you know, is more important.
Louise Miller:And you'll have that sense of perspective and you'll be able to make those
Louise Miller:intentional choices rather than feeling like stuff's just happening to you,
Louise Miller:which is, doesn't feel very nice when you feel completely out of control.
Jon Clayton:So what, what do you think for most people then the,
Jon Clayton:the real reasons are why, why they're not getting stuff done.
Louise Miller:Yeah, I think there are three main things that prevent people
Louise Miller:from getting stuff done first is that they don't have a clear vision and
Louise Miller:then they get stuck doing busy work.
Louise Miller:Because if you don't know what you want your life, your business to
Louise Miller:look and feel like, how can you evaluate whether the work you're
Louise Miller:doing today is gonna get you there?
Louise Miller:So I think a lot of people don't have that clarity, which then means
Louise Miller:they've got nothing to evaluate their to-do list and their plans against.
Louise Miller:So I think that can, again, like you said, they can feel like they're
Louise Miller:busy, but they're not necessarily busy doing the right thing.
Louise Miller:So yeah, not focusing on the right thing because they haven't got
Louise Miller:this clear vision, I think is a big problem for a lot of people.
Louise Miller:The next thing we've all, we've already kind of touched on this a
Louise Miller:little bit, is that people don't set themselves up for success.
Louise Miller:Because they're not considering their capacity when they're making their plans.
Louise Miller:So, you know, as I flippantly just said a minute ago, writing a, doing a brain
Louise Miller:dump and then calling that a plan when all you've done is empty your head and
Louise Miller:then stuck some arbitrary, well, I can do all of that today kind of thing on it.
Louise Miller:So you're setting yourself up to fail when you're doing that.
Louise Miller:So, yeah, this is it.
Louise Miller:It's not about the fact that you are, you know, you're not lazy,
Louise Miller:you're not incapable of focusing, you are just trying to do too much
Louise Miller:and not considering your capacity.
Louise Miller:So.
Louise Miller:Yeah.
Louise Miller:If we can do that, set yourself up for success by considering your capacity.
Louise Miller:I think that makes a big difference for people and it makes you feel better.
Louise Miller:'cause you can ride that momentum of going, you know, I tried to do
Louise Miller:fewer things today on purpose, and look at me, I've got 'em all done.
Louise Miller:Doesn't that feel better than overloading your to-do list and then not
Louise Miller:getting any of it done because you're bouncing around all over the place.
Louise Miller:So yeah, setting yourself up for success.
Louise Miller:And the last one, um, again, we touched on it earlier, is that people
Louise Miller:are not giving themselves enough time to work on their business.
Louise Miller:They're constantly in the doing kind of zone in that action kind of space
Louise Miller:because they feel like well so much to do.
Louise Miller:They've got goals they wanna meet, they're not where they wanna be.
Louise Miller:And are we ever really where we want to be?
Louise Miller:I think all of us, we reach a certain level of success.
Louise Miller:And then there's another one.
Louise Miller:So if you're waiting until you get over there somewhere, I, you'll be,
Louise Miller:anyway, that's a little tangent.
Louise Miller:You'll be waiting a very long time.
Louise Miller:But yes, working on your business, um.
Louise Miller:Give yourself that time to think, make some really good choices about
Louise Miller:what to focus on and what can wait.
Louise Miller:So yeah, I think again, people just go wrong by thinking they've gotta
Louise Miller:keep their heads down and our culture kind of reinforces that as well.
Louise Miller:So again, if you're hearing that and feeling like that sounds like you don't
Louise Miller:feel bad about it, it's not your fault.
Louise Miller:Um, it's just coming around to this different way of thinking that actually
Louise Miller:going up in that tree house is the most productive thing you can do quite often.
Jon Clayton:What, what would be the main thing that you would like everyone
Jon Clayton:to take away from our conversation?
Louise Miller:Yeah, I think if people can remember the idea of the progress cycle.
Louise Miller:And if the image of the tree house is helpful, you know,
Louise Miller:put those two things together.
Louise Miller:Go up into the tree house.
Louise Miller:If you can do that at least once a month, if you can do it more often,
Louise Miller:I would recommend, um, just to take that pause, reflect on what's going
Louise Miller:on, how things have been going, where you wanna get to, and then make some
Louise Miller:conscious, intentional choices about where you are going to put your precious,
Louise Miller:precious time, energy, and attention.
Louise Miller:That will help you to take the right action at the right time so you can
Louise Miller:finish what you start, keep going around that lovely cycle and get what
Louise Miller:you wanna get done done in a way that feels good and doesn't need to burn out.
Jon Clayton:I think, um.
Jon Clayton:On the point with the tree house as well about having that space, um, that can
Jon Clayton:actually be a separate physical space.
Jon Clayton:That something that I've found that's worked really well for me is
Jon Clayton:leaving the home office and going somewhere completely different.
Jon Clayton:And, uh, my favorite, which I admittedly I haven't done for a
Jon Clayton:little while, is to have a, like a, I dunno what you wanna call it, a
Jon Clayton:CEO day or in a away day where I.
Jon Clayton:Head over to the coast and I go to the seaside for the day and I'll have a
Jon Clayton:little bit of a walk in the morning.
Jon Clayton:I find a lovely coffee shop.
Jon Clayton:I'll have my, my tablet with me, my notebook, and I'll just spend a few
Jon Clayton:hours, um, give myself space and time to just think about the bigger
Jon Clayton:picture stuff in that setting and somewhere totally different from home.
Jon Clayton:And I get so much done on those days.
Jon Clayton:You know, I, I come away feeling like.
Jon Clayton:I've been refreshed and a lot clearer about what I need to be working on
Jon Clayton:and, um, you know, for the price of, you know, fish and chip lunch at the
Jon Clayton:seaside, that's always part of it as well, and a couple of cups of coffee.
Jon Clayton:Um, it, it's, it's fantastic, you know, and I, I really get so much done and
Jon Clayton:it, yeah, that change of environment and if you're not able to do that,
Jon Clayton:I mean, the other thing that I do on, um, probably at the weekly level
Jon Clayton:is I go to the local coffee shop.
Jon Clayton:I take my notebook, I go there for maybe one to two hours, and
Jon Clayton:I, I think about, you know, what I need to be doing this week.
Jon Clayton:You know, what I, what should I actually be working on?
Jon Clayton:I've got all these things.
Jon Clayton:I know I'm not gonna get them all done.
Jon Clayton:But the change of scenery for me actually physically going somewhere different is
Jon Clayton:really important because I, I know that if I stay at home in the home office.
Jon Clayton:I struggle to make that space to, to do that type of work.
Louise Miller:Yeah, a hundred percent.
Louise Miller:I love that.
Louise Miller:That sounds gorgeous.
Louise Miller:Stay out at the seaside.
Louise Miller:Yes, please.
Louise Miller:Um, you know, and the smaller way you can do it if you just need 10
Louise Miller:minutes, is to just get up, walk away from your desk and sit on the sofa, go
Louise Miller:into a different room in your house.
Louise Miller:If you don't have time to go out and have a lovely coffee, you
Louise Miller:know, we can, I think you're right.
Louise Miller:Changing the environment makes a massive difference.
Louise Miller:And what are some small ways we can do that so it doesn't become.
Louise Miller:This kind of aspirational thing that we somehow don't manage
Louise Miller:to give ourselves time for.
Louise Miller:We can find little small pockets of, you know, ways of doing this as well.
Louise Miller:But yeah, I love that.
Louise Miller:Can I come to the seaside next time you go?
Jon Clayton:You can, yeah.
Jon Clayton:Yeah, we could have A-A-A-C-E-O Day together at the seaside.
Jon Clayton:That'd be fun.
Jon Clayton:Um, Luis, was there anything else you wanted to add, um, about
Jon Clayton:productivity or something related that we haven't already covered?
Jon Clayton:I think we've covered quite a lot there, but, um, was there anything else that
Jon Clayton:we overlooked that you need to mention?
Louise Miller:I think the only thing, I'll try and keep it quick, and we did
Louise Miller:touch on it earlier, but I just think it's really important to reemphasize.
Louise Miller:There is nothing wrong with you if you are trying to copy what someone
Louise Miller:else is doing, who you see as being productive and it doesn't work for you.
Louise Miller:There is nothing wrong with you.
Louise Miller:We are all different.
Louise Miller:You know, I'm not John.
Louise Miller:John's not me.
Louise Miller:What works for me isn't necessarily gonna work for you, John.
Louise Miller:So the best piece of advice I can give you is to just.
Louise Miller:Get curious about what does work for you.
Louise Miller:Build your own self-awareness experiment to find what works rather than looking
Louise Miller:out there for people to tell you what is gonna help make you more productive.
Louise Miller:You know, get curious and figure that out.
Louise Miller:I know it can be difficult.
Louise Miller:Um, come listen to my podcast if you want more on that.
Louise Miller:Um, but yeah, I think you are not broken.
Louise Miller:There is nothing wrong with you and you just haven't found what works for you yet.
Louise Miller:And if you get curious, stop paying attention and experimenting.
Louise Miller:You will figure that out.
Jon Clayton:Thank you so much for coming on the show, sharing your expertise.
Jon Clayton:Um, where's the best place online for people to connect with you?
Louise Miller:Yeah, I come and connect with me on LinkedIn.
Louise Miller:I love LinkedIn.
Louise Miller:I'm quite active over there, so come find me.
Louise Miller:Come say hello over there.
Louise Miller:That would be great.
Jon Clayton:That's great.
Jon Clayton:And could you remind us about your quiz?
Jon Clayton:Could you tell us a little bit about that?
Louise Miller:Absolutely.
Louise Miller:Yes.
Louise Miller:Thanks John.
Louise Miller:Yeah.
Louise Miller:So I have created a free assessment which will help you to identify, um,
Louise Miller:where you need to put your energy when it comes to getting more things done.
Louise Miller:So it talks about focusing on the right things, setting yourself up for
Louise Miller:success, and working on your business, which John and I talked about earlier.
Louise Miller:Um, it will help you figure out which of those areas is the weakest for you.
Louise Miller:And then I've curated some very thoughtful.
Louise Miller:Practical resources that will help you to make improvements in
Louise Miller:whichever area, um, needs some work.
Louise Miller:So yeah, it's at louise miller.uk/quiz if you'd like to go and take that.