02 | "I don't have enough time." -

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Table of Contents

Podcast Description

How many times have you said “I don’t have enough time.”? Chances are, you’ve said this phrase multiple times, perhaps even multiple times in one day.

However, we all have the same 24 hours in a day, and it’s up to you to decide how you use those hours.

In today’s episode, I’m going to help you reframe this phrase in a way that’s going to help you realize what your priorities are, so that you can focus on the right things and grow your online business while doing less.

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Episode Transcript

(Note: This is a formatted AI-generated transcript to make it easier for you to read through, but is not an optimized blog post. Please excuse any spelling or grammar errors and filler words – it’s just how I speak LOL)

Episode Introduction

How many times have you said, “I don’t have enough time?” Chances are, you’ve said this phrase multiple times, perhaps even multiple times in one day.

But listen, we actually all have the same 24 hours a day and it’s up to you to decide how you will use those hours.

So in today’s episode, I’m going to help you reframe this phrase in a way that’s going to help you realize what your priorities are so that you can focus on the right things and grow your business while doing less.

Sound good? Let’s get started.

Hey, I’m Lucy Reyes, your host of the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast, where I’m on a mission to help online entrepreneurs like you focus on all the right things and kiss overwhelm goodbye.

Here, you’re going to learn strategies that will boost your productivity so that you can scale your online biz and impact lives sooner.

It’s your time to shine! So let’s get started.

Hey, hey, welcome back to the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast, episode two.

“I don’t have enough time.”

Now today, it may sound like I’ll be starting off with a little rant, but bear with me because at the end, I’m going to help you reframe one of the thoughts you probably have on a regular basis.

And look, everyone has pet peeves, and if you’ve been around me long enough, you likely already know what one of my pet peeve phrases is.

And that’s, “I don’t have enough time” because in reality, we all have the same amount of time in a day. And it’s up to us to decide how we’re going to spend our 24 hours.

It’s true though, that we each have our own unique circumstances and situations that do prevent us from getting more than we’d like done.

I mean, as ambitious online entrepreneurs we wish that we had more time so that we could get all the things that we want done. It’s only natural to want and think these thoughts.

But just because we aren’t given more than 24 hours, it doesn’t mean that we can’t check off all these things from our list.

I mean in episode one, I do talk about the difference between being busy and being productive and truth be told it’s actually not as hard as it may seem. All it takes is for you to be a little bit more intentional with your time.

And whoa, before I lose you. I know, you’re probably thinking, yeah, Lucy, I try, but life gets in the way. Or maybe you just have a ton of distractions that prevent you from focusing on your business or all of the things that you want to do.

And I get it. I, I wish I also wish that there is more hours in a day. I mean, I have a super long and never ending to do list that I wish I could get more done and that all of these things could just magically check themselves off.

And I feel like I’m pretty confident that if I did have more than 24 hours, I feel like I would get most of those things done. However, that’s not going to happen and that’s not realistic.

How To Maximize Our Time

So instead of just letting time defeat us, we have to learn how to maximize the time that we do have. And if you really take a moment to think about it, 24 hours is actually a lot.

It may not seem like it because it does go by fast, but it truly is enough time to get at least your most important things done while getting some rest at the same time, too.

Like I said, we just have to be a little bit more intentional with your time and here’s how.

Related Post: Time Management Tips to Get More Done Each Day

Implement Strategic Systems

One, implement strategic systems. No matter how long you have been in business, you need to have systems in place.

Unfortunately though, this is something that many online entrepreneurs miss when they’re starting out. And yes, this includes me too. But I really want to encourage you not to go even longer without having these in place.

And I do want to point out that there is a difference between having what I like to call a cute little system, then having a strategic system.

Because honestly, anyone can put together a system and say, this is what works for them. But if there’s no real strategy behind it, it won’t be as beneficial and isn’t going to really help take your business to the next level.

Systems are supposed to be ones that actually help you. And they actually help you organize your business in a way that allows for less task switching, improved focus, better planning, easy task delegation and so much more.

And each one should really have its own unique purpose that doesn’t just make sense to you. It should also make sense to your team or to your future team as a well.

These systems can be built inside of a project management tool like Trello, which is my preferred choice because it’s the one that I personally use to manage my entire business. And works incredibly well from my visual learning brain.

But there’s more out there. There’s Asana. There’s Click-Up. There’s Airtable. There’s all these other project management tools that you can build these strategic systems inside.

And look, I know that that word is super fancy and sounds like, oh, I don’t need that. I’m not there yet. Or I’ll get that once, you know, I’m successful. I say that in quotes. Um, but yeah, no.

And I know that it probably also sounds expensive, but all of these tools that I mentioned have a free version and I promise that using them isn’t actually as hard as it may sound and no, you shouldn’t wait until blank.

You shouldn’t wait until you’re successful. You shouldn’t wait until you’re making more money. You shouldn’t wait until you hire a team. No. Implement these now.

And yeah, it might take you a couple of tries to finally get it and finally be able to learn how to use a tool of your choice. And maybe you’ve tried a tool in the past and it didn’t really quite work out for you.

Well, there’s other tools that you can use and maybe that wasn’t the one that clicked with your brain, or maybe it’s just because you didn’t know how to use it. I mean, honestly, like it took me three tries to finally get Trello.

It took me going from Trello to, okay that’s not working, let me try Asana. Let me try, Click Up. Nope. Those are worse. Let me go back to Trello and that is what ended up working for me.

And I’m not saying those tools are bad. They’re actually all very, very good tools and they work for a lot of people. But they just didn’t work for my brain. I just couldn’t get them to work for me.

And that’s something that I want you to keep in mind as you’re going through these tools too, it’s going to be really important for you to really get to know what works for you.

Are you a visual person? Do you prefer to, you know, see things by text? All of these things are going to matter whenever you’re looking for your preferred project management tool of your choice.

And I myself am a super visual person and that’s why Trello was the one that worked best for me.

And I want you to know that if you’re starting from scratch or you’ve never used a tool before, or maybe you have used a tool before, but you just know that there’s more to it, it’s going to take some time to get used to them.

Even once you implement these strategic systems, it’s still going to require some habit shifting in order for you to actually start using them in the way that you’re creating for them to be used in.

Your natural reaction is going to be to go into that post-it note or to your paper planner or, you know, to writing that note in your notebook. So you’re definitely going to have to do some habit shifting, but don’t let that discourage you.

I promise it’s all going to be so worth it. In my program Level Up Your Biz with Trello, I teach you everything you need to know about getting these implemented and even include the plug and play templates for you.

Plan Effectively

The second thing you need to do is plan effectively. But I’m not talking about creating plans and that’s it like, period. No more.

You need to create strategic plans in order for them to be effective. And yes, there’s a theme word here. The word strategic. Okay.

And the reason why I keep pointing this out is because two terms that get interchanged often are strategy and plan, even though they don’t actually mean the same thing.

Now I won’t get too much into it in this episode, but know that a strategy is how you’ll execute your plan and this is the part that I see lacking most often. I was guilty of this too. There are times when I would say, “okay, I’m going to plan. I’m going to plan out my week.”

And then I would add all of these tasks and my planner and weekly schedule. And then that was kind of it and that was the end of it.

However, strategy would instead take this a step further to brainstorm how I’ll make sure to get that task or project done. And it also helps ensure that you’re truly focusing on your priorities.

While you’re brainstorming though, it’s important to remain flexible and give yourself some wiggle room because you know, life happens. And as much as we wish, and we pray that everything will come out as planned… you know, you know, that’s not the case.

So let’s go ahead and plan for that too. And hey, if life doesn’t happen and things actually go as planned for once, then whoo! Celebrate because now you’re ahead.

So you can never do too much planning, but it is important for you to be flexible and have a strategy that backs up your plan.

Reframe This Phrase

Now, lastly, coming back to this, “I don’t have time” mentality, I want you to try your best to stop thinking this because as we’ve covered, you do have time.

Instead, whenever this phrase pops into your head, I want you to reframe it to instead think, “I’m not going to make time for ____.” Whatever that is.

Can you see the difference in how this sounds? From, “I don’t have time” to ” I’m not going to make time.” Because remember we have 24 hours and it’s up to you to decide how you’re going to spend it.

So by reframing the thought in this way, you’re essentially telling yourself that you’re not going to make time for whatever that thing is.

And this is really going to help you start to see what your priorities are, which obviously your priorities are so, so important and play a huge, huge factor. Especially when you’re trying to plan effectively, which is, you know, the last thing we just covered.

At the same time, it’s going to help your brain catch anything that may actually need to be a priority over something else. Let me give you an example.

Let’s say you just got a new product idea. But in your head, you’re thinking, “I don’t have time to make this product.”

So instead, you catch yourself thinking this and you reframe it to say, “I’m not going to make time to create this product.” Your brain might be like, okay, sure and shrug it off. And now you’re not going to make time to create your new product idea.

But let’s say this thought comes into your head. “Uh, I don’t have time to schedule this doctor’s appointment,” But you catch yourself and so you reframe it to think, “I’m not going to make time to schedule his doctor’s appointment.”

In that case, your brain may be like skeerrrt, wait, hold up… you need that doctor’s appointment. What are you talking about?

And now, although you may not feel like you have time to do it and you don’t actually really want to make time to do it, a negative outcome could possibly happen if you don’t make the time for it.

So you have to do it. So it’s all about changing your mindset around time.

I know this isn’t going to be an easy process and it does take some getting used to, because if you’re like me, you feel like saying this all the time. And not just like me, I’m pretty sure like 99% of entrepreneurs out there, especially new entrepreneurs are always thinking this.

And yes. This thought definitely still comes into my mind all the time, but I do try to quickly reframe it to help me prioritize all the things that I want to do.

And I know that I can help you too. Especially now, after you just heard me rant on about this phrase, you’re more likely going to be self-conscious about the times that you blame something on not having enough time.

Episode Wrap-Up

While, this isn’t going to magically help you decide on all your priorities, it will help with some while helping you view time as being on your side instead of the latter.

And when you implement all three that we discuss in this episode together, which is strategic systems, effective planning and changing your mindset… you’ll even start to get time back in your day, because now you’re focusing on your priorities and minimizing time spent on things that don’t really matter.

You’ll start to see how much more intentional you are with your time which will also allow your business to grow and be more profitable sooner without having to do #alllllthethings.

And don’t worry, these are all essential topics we’ll be covering in detail right here in the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast.

So be sure to subscribe and tune in every Wednesday. You won’t want to miss it! But until then, I invite you to download my Effective Weekly Planning Starter Kit to learn my three secret strategies to plan your week in less than 30 minutes.

You can grab this for free by visiting www.cheerstoproductivity.com/pdf. The link will also be in the show notes.

Thank you so much for tuning in and we’ll chat again soon. To view the complete show notes and all the links mentioned in today’s episode, visit www.cheerstoproductivity.com/episode2.

And before you go, make sure you subscribe wherever you’re listening to so that way you know once the next productive chat is released. Talk soon and cheers to your productivity and success!