Paving a Path to Rejuvenation

Here's an activity that can help you renew your focus and energy ;)

As I think about the calls and sessions I’ve had this week, one major theme seems to be emerging: entrepreneurs and creatives are feeling a deep desire to grow, but they’re hamstrung by fatigue and overwhelm. They are the CEO, head of marketing, and finance director all rolled into one. They have dreams that are bigger than what they’re doing on a daily basis but the thought of putting in extra effort to realize those dreams doesn’t just seem exhausting, it seems impossible.

This is something I talk about often with people. The creative entrepreneur journey often starts as a solo freelance adventure. Someone leaves their stable full-time job and decides to go out on their own, specializing in one certain area and getting hired by a handful of different companies for projects. As they get more expertise and they build their reputation, they start charging higher rates, working for bigger companies, and at a certain point the demand supersedes the number of hours in a week. So they bring on an assistant, or in some cases they join forces with another creative in the same field to split up the work. The freelancer is now evolving their solo work into a potential business. They might establish an LLC or even start to build out a brand that features a portfolio and client testimonials. This is where they get stuck.

They’ve got one or two freelancers working for them but they aren’t doing any less work. And, more often than not, the salary they pay the freelancer isn’t actually made up in the extra work they’re able to bring in. So they’re in a place where they can’t afford to hire more people to take off some of the stress of the workload, but they don’t want to be stuck doing the same work day after day. Often they want to build a bigger business, potentially an agency or a company that has a more diverse services offering.

Does this sound like you? Keep reading. Does it sound like one of your friends? Please forward this to them! Can’t relate but you’re tired nonetheless? The Energy Audit can still help…

Okay, so this seems like an impossible situation to rectify without some major investment $$ or deferring big dreams. It’s not! I help people through this every single week and one of the most popular and effective things that we do first is called an Energy Audit.

The task is pretty simple: every day, for one week, when you’re done with work, set aside 30 minutes for this audit before you start cooking dinner or settle into your favorite TV show. Bonus points if you can actually do this throughout the day, but you don’t have to. Once you begin your 30 minutes, get a notebook and write down every single thing you did that day and when you did it. Include everything, not just the things on your calendar. The 45 minutes you spent responding to emails, the hour you worked on a few admin tasks, the walk you took to get your creative juices flowing. And of course, the calls you had, the big projects you worked on, the in-person meetings. Once you’ve written everything down, spend a couple of minutes reflecting on how those things impacted your energy. Write “high” next to the task/event if it left you feeling excited and energized. Write “medium” next to the task/event if it didn’t really make an impact on your energy levels. Write “low” if you left feeling more drained or tired than when you began the task/event.

After you’ve done this for a whole work week, look at everything in aggregate. What trends are emerging? Are all of your low energy trends related to one specific part of your business—like sales, or product operations, or finance? Is the pattern more in the method of the task? Is it back to back calls that zap you? Or perhaps it’s doing the deep solo work that is really draining? Or maybe you notice that you always feel low energy in the mid-afternoon, regardless of what you’re doing. Find the same patterns for your high energy work, too! What fills up your cup and inspires you for the rest of your day?

Sit and reflect on your findings for a day or so. What surprises you? What sneaking suspicions have you had that are now validated? You can keep doing this audit for another week or two to see if you experience consistency or you can start to take action. You'll want to remove or reduce the low energy tasks and replace them with high energy actions. The low energy tasks cost more than just the time you took to do them, they slow down the rest of your day.

You might say, “I can’t just stop doing the things I don’t like doing. I don’t have the budget to hire somebody to do them for me and they have to get done.” Fair! But what if you grouped them together so they don’t drag down multiple days in your week? I’ve seen some people use Mondays as their low energy days because it helps them ease into the week. I’ve seen people do them on Fridays for the same reason, they can ease into the weekend. But also try to be as honest with yourself as possible about how urgent those tasks really are and if you can delegate or outsource at least a few of them. We entrepreneurs like to make things as hard on ourselves as possible sometimes, so give yourself permission to make it a little easier. If you do have the budget to hire people, then this is your guide for who to hire! I’ve led people through this exercise before they grow their team and who they end up hiring changes as a result of this audit.

If you’re not an entrepreneur, you’re just feeling a little fatigue or ennui in your current job, use this as a way to help you understand what your future job should look like!

If you decide to do the audit, send me a note and let me know how it goes. Hope you all have an energizing, inspiring, and insightful week :)