Happiness abounds

Okay, so I haven't been feeding myself that well lately (damnable PMS!) but today, I am in the best mood ever. In a meeting with a potential client (where I was more authentically me and truly effective and clear at What I Do than I've been since I started this business), I realized what I'd been missing - it was that authenticity piece, and that chance to bring a truly well-rounded suite of services to the zen kitchen's clients. For the first time since I hung up my shingle almost a year and a half ago, I was able to communicate with clarity and conviction what I am for my clients - a creative problem solver. Someone who can listen to the challenges you're facing in your business and come up with ideas that can help you turn those problems around. And not only can I come up with the ideas, I have the design talent and creative vision to help you solve those problems on every level, from brand design and print/web pieces to new and simple ways to enhance your customer's experience with your brand. I feel so alive and happy now that I want to squee!

All right - must be productive. But I thought I'd share that as a change from my last few days of whining.

scheduling drama

So, yesterday, I really did it to myself. Without fully realizing or understanding it, I had booked myself so solid on Thursday that I thought I was going to die - coffee with a colleague at 9:30, followed by a seminar at 1:30, which I had to leave 15 minutes early to participate in a focus group down the street at 3, and then a webinar at 5, followed by a television interview (for an upcoming documentary on Somerville Community Access Television) at 7. Needless to say, I ended up not making a couple of the events - notably the seminar and the webinar. But man, I was still stressed out.

One of the things I'm realizing slowly but surely is how precious my time is - I'm feeling very protective of it at the moment, to the point where I'm almost reluctant to set meetings at all. Which, of course, is not really reasonable - I have to meet with my clients, go to networking events, etc. - but I'm starting to feel a need become much more selective of the events I do attend, and I'm definitely monitoring the amount of volunteer work I engage in.

The things you learn along the way...

Is it possible to be TOO social?

So the last couple of weeks have been literally insane - I've been trying to get work done around the office, but I just keep having meetings - meeting with a client here, a potential client there, meetings with my acupuncturist (to deal with my stress and lack of focus), a woman I'm mentoring, and various networking events - it's been enough to drive me insane. It's almost like I'm compulsively leaving the house.

What's crazy about this level of social activity is that you get so caught up in being on autopilot that you forget that you have a choice. When I find myself getting frustrated because this or that one is "demanding" my time, I have to keep reminding myself that I chose to be this busy. I chose to schedule all these meetings back to back.

So now comes the ultimate challenge - time management. Today, I'm going to look at next week and the coming weeks and I'm going to start scheduling 2 days a week where I will allow myself to meet with people and/or swallow my day with meetings (preferably not SWALLOW the day, but at least I'll limit my meetings to being on those two days), and 2 days a week where I stay in and work exclusively on being productive for clients. The other day will be devoted exclusively to working on my business - admin/financial stuff, marketing, designing promo pieces and updating the website/blogging/all that stuff.

It's going to be an interesting experiment, but my hope is that I'll be able to finally whittle my schedule down to a balanced 5-day workweek, including meetings, etc. The somewhere to go almost every day thing has GOT to go.

And the Tuesday morning yoga class and Wednesday morning meeting with my support buddy has GOT to stay.

A Productive Weekend

Today, in the interest of getting ahead of things and avoiding the inevitable guilt that ensues when I spend time during the week on marketing my studio (don't worry - I'm trying to get over it), I spent the better part of the day making much needed updates to the site , preparing some files for an upcoming call for entries, and getting my monthly e-mail newsletter ready to go out on Tuesday.

The day was positive on several levels; for one, I was up and out of the house to meet a friend for breakfast at 9:30 (a triumph for Sunday - I'm usually not up until somewhere around noon!), after which I went to Advance Auto Parts to top off my car's various fluids, dropped off some plastic shopping bags at the local Shaw's for recycling, and picked up a few things I needed at the store. By noon, I was back in the studio and getting to work. I even managed to get in a 40 minute walk, 40 minutes of yoga, and a quick dinner at Charlie's Kitchen in Harvard Square.

What I'm learning from all this is two things: a) I really do get a lot more done when I wake up early (imagine what would have happened if I had gotten up at 6 - I would have been done even sooner!) and b) I'm much more productive overall if I have at least a few hours a day where I'm not interrupted.

So, starting tomorrow, I wake up at 6, start my day with yoga, breakfast and a shower, and I don't check my e-mail or answer the phone until 11am.