When you work for yourself, how do you make sure you always hit your deadlines, even when you’re not feeling it? This is not something I ever considered until I found myself smack bang in the middle of a slump with looming deadlines closing in, and chances are if it happened to me then it probably has, or could, happen to you too, so we should talk about it.
When you first step out of the corporate world and into the world of running your own small business or being a solopreneur, it’s a very different space to find yourself in. Especially when it comes to managing the dynamics of hitting deadlines to meet client needs, so that you can invoice for your work, so your business can get paid, and finally you can pay yourself! It can be a bit of a culture shock from having your salary hit your bank account every month, or every fortnight in a way that can feel detached from the actual completion of work.
And it takes some getting used to. Ideally, we are always looking to be forward planned and proactive in how we manage this, making sure we have some good runway in our businesses. So that we have the funds behind us to smooth out any ebbs and flows in cash flow. But sometimes you still find yourself in a position where you are in the deadline crunch. That can really mean a lot as a small business from a couple of perspectives. Firstly, you need to meet the needs of your clients, you need to make them happy, so that they will want you back and refer you to others. And secondly, you need to keep the cash flow coming into your business. Even if you are well prepared, and you have a great runway you still need to keep the wheels turning, you want to achieve a steady rhythm. The trouble is, though, when you work for yourself, sometimes you’re just not feeling it, sometimes you just don’t have the rhythm. Now that could be for a number of reasons. Maybe you’ve just come off a bunch of really big projects, and you’re just feeling tired from it all, or you may have had a lot going on outside of work, you may have been sick, there’s so many different things that can lead you to a place of not feeling it. But the deadlines don’t always wait for you to feel better. And this is the space I will really want to talk about today. Because it was one of the things that I really struggled to get my head around when I first started working for myself.
So if you find yourself in the same position, I have compiled for you here my top 5 tips for hitting those deadlines even when you’re not feelin’ it.
Prioritize your to do list, and then reprioritize your to do list.
You most likely already have a to do list, you already know what pieces of work you need to complete (chances are it’s a long list). And you know how to get through it and tick everything off…usually. But on the days when you’re not feeling it, a massive to do list can be overwhelming, grinding all productivity to a halt. Sometimes you don’t even want to look at it. So you need to ruthlessly prioritize your list. Take a slightly different lens in these moments when you’re not feeling it. Sometimes you just have to get really blunt with yourself and go, ‘okay, I need to focus on what moves my business forward’. Because that’s the thing you’re probably most likely to stress about when you know there’s a pile of work to do, and you’re not getting through it. So you need to reprioritize your list with that in mind. Obviously, everything that’s important on your to do list needs to be done. But I’m talking about how you can take this pressure off yourself while you’re not feeling it. If you’ve just gotten over the flu, and you’ve got no creativity happening in there at all, look for what you can do that’s going to help you feel like you’re moving things in the right direction in terms of keeping the business flowing, keeping the cogs turning, keeping the cash flow coming in. You’re creativity will return with greater ease if its not baring the brunt of the business burden.
Look at where you can get some help.
Now I know this may sit a bit funny if you’re doing everything yourself and you’re not used to doing any form of outsourcing. Which might be fine week on week when you’re feeling great. But when you’re just not feeling it, maybe you actually need to call in some help. And that’s totally okay. So have a look at everything that’s on your list and work out – are there any things on there that could be done by someone else who could get them done just as well as you could? Now this doesn’t have to be a permanent change. This might be just something you’re doing in this specific instance, just to get you through this period of time. Sometimes you need to call in some help to get things done and it’s okay to to pay for some help. Yes, you might be cutting into your profit margin a little bit. But in this instance, you’re also taking some pressure off yourself, you’re still meeting your client deadline, you’re keeping the cogs turning. And all of that still works out to to equal forward progression. So in some instances, yes, it is a good idea to pay for some help.
Start with the thing that gives you energy.
Let’s return to that prioritized list from step one. Go through this short list and identify the thing that’s actually going to give you some energy because you really enjoy it, or it gives you some inspiration. If the task is uplifting, that’s a great place to start. Because if you’re just not feeling it, you could trudge through the rest of the list and take a really long time to do it and feel worse for it. Or you could lean into that one that just gives you a bit of a boost and then your energy is going to raise and the rest aren’t going to seem so hard. Now I’m not saying burn your whole day doing the one thing that you like doing and you never get to the other things – timebox if you need, but just start with the thing that gives you the energy.
Before you sit down at your desk and start working, try going outside and getting moving.
Go and do some exercise. Go for a walk. Just take in some nature, touch some grass, let your feet hit the dirt. Whatever it is that connects you with outside, fresh air and moving your body (to whatever you are capable of if you’ve just been sick). This has an amazing effect on your mood. You’ll get your endorphins flowing and elevate your entire mood, you’re going to feel so much better. And on the back of that kind of exercise high, then sit down and start your work, I guarantee you’ll feel much better about it.
Check for imagined deadlines.
Now this is possibly my most important tip, because this is one that I’ve had to check myself on a few times. I have this tendency when I am under the pump, and potentially under the weather, when I’m feeling like everything is on top of me to see everything as important. Everything seems to be a deadline. And I have sometimes been guilty of inventing deadlines that don’t need to be there. It just seems to be the result of what happens in my brain when I’m really feeling under pressure. So go through your list and really question – is this deadline what I think it is? And does my stakeholder or client have the same understanding as I do around what actually needs to be delivered on this date? Because sometimes you’re not on the same page. And if you’re like me, you probably have a tendency to think you need to overdeliver. So check, pick up the phone and say, ‘Tuesday’s deadline next week, does it need to be Tuesday? Is there a reason it’s Tuesday? Could it be Thursday, will that make a difference? Or if it doesn’t need to be Tuesday does it need to be all 10 things?’ You can have this conversation with your clients and just make sure you’re checking and double checking that you’re on the same page around what needs to be delivered and when, because chances are, you had inflated it in your head as to what you needed to do. So it’s definitely worth checking that you haven’t invented, inflated or imagined some of these deadlines. Because you’re probably the cause of half of the pressure that you’re feeling (if you’re anything like me).
I hope you found these tips helpful. The reality is when you work for yourself, whether you’re a solopreneur, or you run a small business, you carry the full weight of getting the work done and the cashflow flowing on your shoulders. It’s always best to be in a very proactive, well planned space when it comes to these. To be well set-up up in how you structure the deliverables within your work and how you invoice to those. There’s a lot you can do to make sure you are managing and balancing a good cash flow in your business. Even when you’re getting started. But even in in the instance when they’re all in place, the reality is sometimes you just don’t feel it, you’ve been sick, you’ve you’ve been worn out, you need a break, but the deadlines don’t stop and the cash flow still needs to come in. So please consider these tips in your own business as you navigate this space for yourself.
