Tina Tower [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to her Empire Builder Show. So the dream for a lot of people is to have maximum productivity in the least amount of time. What we want is the dream. We want to be able to build a business and have a business for freedom and flexibility. The number one reason that people start businesses is freedom and flexibility. However, I talk to people and they're like, oh my gosh, like, I'm working so much, I'm so tired. All of these different things. And so that is what inspired me to create this episode for you this week for how to get maximum productivity without burnout.

Main Episode

Tina Tower [00:00:39]:
It's something that I have had a lot of practice with over the years and I want to share with you how you can get things done while still living a full and joyful life at the same time. So what we want to do is we want to have both white space, we want to have productivity, we want to have the balance of everything all together. Now, I want to run you through my normal weekly flow. I will say before I run you through my normal weekly flow that there are of course always exceptions to this rule. It runs about 75% of the time like this and it depends on what big projects that I have coming up. If it is, say, three to four weeks before launch, this system is out the window. If it is, say the month before conference, this, this system is out the window. So I will caveat with that.

Tina Tower [00:01:29]:
But then for the rest of the time throughout the year, this works really, really well. What I do is Mondays is my content creation zone. When I'm saying these days, obviously it doesn't mean that you need to do the same days. But I'm sharing this with the hope that it inspires something in you to create a system that is going to work for you Mondays. I like content creation. I've usually had a beautiful restful weekend and then I am sitting there going, you what? From that weekend, I now feel re energized, recharged, inspired. My creativity is often the strongest on a Monday because I've had that break. And so that's what I want to use that for.

Tina Tower [00:02:09]:
I want to have it with as many appointment free as possible that I can because I want to use that creativity for the big projects that I'm working on. It's when I will often batch record podcasts like I'm doing right now. It is when I often film videos, it's when I write scripts, it's when I create slides, it's when I'm doing any of the big emails, like if I'M writing email campaigns and I want to use my mind to be able to do that. Yes, a little bit of help from ChatGPT, but still I get ChatGPT for inspiration and then I want to put my own inflection on that because what we know is humans do business with humans and still they're going to pick up on the human element of that. So that is my Monday. It is where I build pretty much all the thought leadership stuff and I show up as visionary in that. Now Tuesday is then my people day, so I spend all of Monday kind of working on my big projects. Tuesday is then my people day.

Tina Tower [00:03:08]:
It is my big call day. It's where I do any calls that I've got to do with contractors. It's where I do any calls with coaching calls, often from 8 o' clock in the morning till 4 o' clock in the afternoon is scheduled with calls back to back. I will have a 15 minute break in the morning, an hour break at lunchtime, a 15 minute break in the afternoon and it's big call day. I like to batch days like that because for me, for my mind, it's like I'm in that mode. So I don't open my emails, I don't look at other things. It's like I'm just devoted to the people that are on that screen in front of me. So it works really well for my mind in being able to focus on that.

Tina Tower [00:03:45]:
So it's fully on. You know, it's the day I will do my hair, I will put some makeup on, I will wear my nice clothes. It's when I'm ready for that high engagement. I'm showing up and I'm like, I'm there, I'm there, I'm ready. So that is, I find you want to be able to give your best to clients because in between those zooms, the good part about having batch days is you're not task switching all the time and switching your brain. I find one of the worst things to do for productivity and a recipe to lead to burnout is when I get in those moments if I'm a bit too busy or I've bitten off more than I can chew, and in between those zoom calls, I'm then straight over putting out fires and problems over here I'm straight into doing admin. I'm straight into writing content like in between those videos. The way that you can give your best if you're doing coaching and face to face is to have that downtime after to present and then go for a walk or then have a little bit of a breather before you go back in again.

Tina Tower [00:04:45]:
Because if you're constantly switching into the rest when you're going to coach someone, that's still all going to be playing in your head. And so I like to batch so that it's just, I'm fully devoted to that time. Then when it gets to Wednesdays, that is my deep work day. That is my big project that I work on. So this is when I do the things that are the more needle moving. So I'll do things like, you know, analyzing our customer metrics, I will do things like the accounting and analyzing all of our finances, like all of that really big deep stuff that I want to do on working on the business, like taking that helicopter view and going strategically, what do we need to be doing here? So it's that big needle moving stuff. I also build out our masterclasses on a Wednesday, design all of our retreats, our conferences. I will plan out our launches, make all of the content for that.

Tina Tower [00:05:40]:
So I really try to protect that day very fiercely. I have no distractions, I try no meetings. My meeting day is Tuesdays, sometimes Thursdays. So I like to keep that as bare as possible so that I can focus on that deep stuff and not be bothered while I'm in that mode. Then on Thursdays is where I will sometimes do calls again, usually just a masterclass or two. It's not a big batching day again. But Thursdays is like my leftover day. It's the day that, you know, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday is all very planned, but Thursdays then whatever needs to be done.

Tina Tower [00:06:15]:
So all of the things that have come up that aren't necessarily batch days, but things that I just have to do all get put into a Thursday. And then Friday is like the flex and flows. So ideally I don't work Fridays and in my normal running, I don't work Fridays again goes out the window if I'm traveling a lot the following month, if I'm running launches the following month, or if I'm running conferences the following month. But otherwise I keep those Fridays nice and free. So I have that three day weekend to get creative, get inspired to relax. Because if you've spent that four days with really working productively and on high value things and not procrastinating, not wasting any time, then your output is high enough that you can have that time off, you can have that rest and that recovery. So a little bit of what I do is, you know, Friday is like the buffer day. It's when, when I'll go get a massage, it's when I'll run errands.

Tina Tower [00:07:16]:
It's when I do things that are more so if I work, it's usually something more creative. It's something that, you know, is not necessarily has to be done, but something that I want to do or just being human, you know, I'll just take it, take it easy and go for a two or three hour walk in the morning. Whatever I like to do at that time. Other things that I put in there is the third week of every month is completely unscheduled. So while I do my call days and everything that is scheduled in there, I do that for week one, two and four of the month. Week three, I have no meetings at all. And so that way I get time to, if I need to record something, I can do that or I can have a week where I am not putting my face on camera. Which for me as an introvert with a little bit of an extrovert's job, that is often really important.

Tina Tower [00:08:06]:
I do find that I need time where I'm not on camera, where I don't have to speak, where I can just go deep into my world and then create what I need to create. And I love being in flow, left undisturbed, that is, you know, I'll talk to people sometimes and they're like, I find it really lonely working on my own. I love working on my own. I love being in the office by myself where you lose track of time. I don't know what day it is and I'm just there working on things that I love and going deep and creating really cool stuff. And so I make sure that I've built that into my schedule so that I have that allowance to actually create. We also take four weeks off at Christmas time. That is something we've done for the last, oh, three, four, maybe five years now.

Tina Tower [00:08:57]:
We've been doing that, having from mid December to mid January, completely off, completely unplugged. That is something that I didn't feel comfortable doing until I had good team members. So because I've got team that can monitor the inbox and monitor our clients and any of their needs in that time. I'm comfortable doing that. Before I did that, I would just take the two weeks off. I would just take time off between like two, just before Christmas to just after New Year. But any longer than that I would usually go, you know, you need someone there to be able to check on team. So I do four weeks off at Christmas.

Tina Tower [00:09:32]:
I Also do four weeks off throughout the year. So I regularly have the eight weeks off. Usually that is spent on either family holidays or in the case of this year, I've got a little bit extra off. I think we're having about 11 weeks off this year, so it's quite a lot, but it's been planned for that. So it means that when I'm working, I'm working very productively, very hard, because then I'm having a lot of that time off. I'm going away with each of my kids by themselves for two weeks each. We've got four weeks off at Christmas time, and then I've got another two weeks off with my husband. We're having our honeymoon in September because we're getting married again.

Tina Tower [00:10:11]:
And then I've got other time off around when I'm traveling for work as well. So it works about 75% of the time, like I said. But I do think that creating a schedule and allowing it to then go in swing, so creating a schedule of your perfect week, thinking about, all right, if I had to optimize for perfect productivity for me, for my goals, for the way my business operates, for the way my life operates, for what I do with my partner and what I do with my kids, or how you want to operate with that, if you formulate the formula for your perfect week, what you'll find is that that will actually work about three quarters of the time, which is better than it working none of the time. And so much of when I talk to people, it's because they're tired, because they don't have enough energy, because they're burnt out. Burnout in business is a massive thing. And I think that that is because people aren't planning well enough to be able to have that perfect scenario happening. And so tools that can support my flow in that is one, setting expectations with everyone around you. So letting everyone know when you can and can't be contacted.

Tina Tower [00:11:23]:
I think so often we feel the pressure that we should be able to be contacted all the time. I was talking to someone about this just yesterday, and they were saying, like, I've got to be really reactive because when my clients need me, they need me. And while I do agree that you need to be responsive to clients, there's nothing that really can't wait a couple of hours. So if you're doing a deep work day, being able to check your emails in the morning and then once in the afternoon is plenty people can wait in between. And I think being able to have those boundaries and being Confident enough in those boundaries is something that takes practice, but something that's so necessary because if we stay so reactive to people all the time, you will get burnt out because you just feel like you're responding to everyone and not actually being able to do the thing that you want to be able to do. So setting expectations is a big one. Setting it on your calendar. So I, on my calendar, block out the year in advance of when I'm doing cold days, when I'm doing deep work days, when I am off on vacation.

Tina Tower [00:12:23]:
All of those things are blocked out so that my time can't be hijacked. Because as we know, if time is there available, you will always fill it. So if you don't fill it with the things that you want to fill it with, it'll just get filled with other things. Everyone is always busy. Everyone always has things to do. It just depends on how much control you have over those things. The other is Monday.com so I use Monday.com to keep track of all of my tasks and keep everything on track there. And batching.

Tina Tower [00:12:52]:
So I like batching because I find in terms of my brain getting tired, there's different times where I will feel like marathon runners. They can run and then they have to have rest days or their legs get too achy and sore. We don't often do that for our brains. Even though when you're working your brain too much, it's going to get achy, it's going to get tired and sore. And so for our brains, what you want to do is be as kind as possible to them. And so if you're not mentally switching from task to task to task, it's not going to use as much brain power. So that is why I like using project management software to go, all right, this is what I'm working on here and here, so I don't have to constantly be thinking, what's next? What have I missed? Have I remembered everything? I can just trust the system that I've built. And then I don't switch from task to task.

Tina Tower [00:13:43]:
When I'm finished, a task is then when I go on to the next one. Like I talked about in a previous episode, I will always have a piece of paper and a pen there so that if I have an idea or want a task switch in between, I'll just jot it down and stay focused on the task that I'm on so that I can save a bit of that brain time. So this works because having fewer context switches will increase that focus and it will Increase your flow. And we get the most done when we're in flow. Like you know what flow state feels like, right? You know when you're in that stage and you're like, I've just like. You get lost in what you're doing because you're so into it and you're in that flow. That is when I don't like to stop when I'm in flow because once you get into that flow state, that's when things start pouring out of you. That's when you're doing your best work.

Tina Tower [00:14:32]:
So you want to create your surroundings and your situation to give you the maximum chance for good flow states. And what I find is because people are so reactive and so time poor and trying to slot so much into different times that there's no chance to get into that flow state. So you want to manufacture that for yourself. You want to also work with your natural energy and not against it. This is something I've gotten a lot better at the last couple of years. I used to often work past my energy levels so I would run my battery to empty and then I'd still keep pushing to see how far I could go. A couple of years ago I decided I wouldn't do that anymore. Which has made it actually, while it's good, it's definitely very healthy.

Tina Tower [00:15:20]:
It's made it more difficult in terms of, you know, when I'm done, I'm done. I now say I'm tired, I'm going to stop and I'll go watch mindless TV or I'll go and take a walk or I'll go and lay in the sauna. And I used to feel like I had so many things on my list that I had to do and I'd feel guilty that I wasn't doing them. But now I prioritize my health. I prioritize not burning out because I want to be here for a really, really long and I don't want to burn out my brain. It is the most vital thing in my life to me. It is what sustains us and our life. And so I have to protect that as much as I possibly can.

Tina Tower [00:16:03]:
So really pay attention to your energy so that when your energy is high, you're able to really capitalize on that and keep in that flow state and do really good work. And then when it's low that you are filling up your cup and not running your battery past empty in there, keep it flexible. So what I mean by flexible is even though some people look at my structure and they think that's rigid. It's the opposite of flexible. I do keep it fairly flexible so that it is structured enough for productivity, but it is open enough for life. So I do have it structured so that three quarters of the time it works perfectly. But then if something comes up or if other priorities need to leapfrog, that I'm not too precious about it, that I won't break it, I know what things deserve to break it and what things I should hold strong. You also want to build in rest, not squeeze it or not neglect it.

Tina Tower [00:17:01]:
So I make sure that that is on my schedule also because otherwise if you're doing a massive call day, you want to make sure that the following day you're not starting really early. Or one thing that I used to do was I'd run a conference and then I'd give myself one day off the Sunday and then go into a normal work week. On the now I give myself a little bit more buffer time. After things like conferences, speaking big long haul travel launches, I try and feed in that like a few days of recovery time with that as well. Otherwise you just don't seem to recover and you don't bounce back as quickly and the resilience is low. And when your resilience is low, your output for work isn't as quality. So when you're looking at your calendar, one thing to do is look at your calendar and ask yourself if it's reflective of the values that you have in business and life. Because everybody is different.

Tina Tower [00:17:55]:
What someone's perfect week will be will be wildly different to somebody else's and different for different stages of life as well. And so if you are there, like I hate the saying everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. Because that is just not true. I have way more time now than I did when I had small children. I've got some clients who, you know, the husband is working full time, she is working full time, they've got small children and you know, all of the house, like all of that stuff, she's got less time available than I do. And so there are people in all different situations. And so what I would say is make your calendar work for you in your current stage of life, make sure it works for your values and figure out what can you say yes to and what can you say no to? Because every time you say yes, yes to something, you're sometimes unconsciously saying no to something else. Because if we fill our calendar with something, it means that time is gone now.

Tina Tower [00:18:54]:
So you've got to make sure that you're filling it with all the things that are the highest priority to you in your life and your values. Otherwise other people will take that time from you. So make sure that you're architecting your own time. What that will do is it will give you better boundaries, it will help you keep in that creative flow, and it will give you massive, massive productivity, massive output, hopefully without burning out. I do think that for everyone in business, there's going to be some stages where you'll either get to the edge of burnout or you'll get all the way. And I wish that was avoidable because everyone always talks to you about the dangers of burnout. Right. But for everybody I know that's really ambitious.

Tina Tower [00:19:37]:
You kind of have to experience it. You have to go there and go, okay, I've gone too far. I need to learn the lesson and pull back and not do that again. But you want to try and pay attention to that so that you can course correct as quickly as possible. Because what we don't need is necessarily more time. We need to do the things that matter most. When you're doing that, you'll end up building an absolute business and life that you love.