Donna Hann
As a mum running a business term for the last part of the year, can pass us by in the blink of an eye, there's often loads of end of year activities as the school year rolls around to an end. And there's lots of Christmas parties and in our family, there's a few birthdays in there as well. So there's a lot to keep on top of naturally, it can be pretty tiring. And there's a tendency to really check out of our business and push back our business activity into the next year, which you know, is effectively two to three months, a quarter of your year. So it's quite a bit of time. So what I like to do at this time of the year, is a couple of things that either pushed me forwards in achieving and finishing off those goals for the year. Or if I'm feeling really tired, I do some business spring cleaning in preparing for the new year. So today, I'm going to offer a few suggestions to really try and lift your motivation levels, and also inspire you to get the things done that really count and offer some suggestions that if perhaps you're feeling a little bit tired, and you're ready to sign off and unplug from the year a little early, what are the things that you can do to really make the most of the time without, you know, creating more, a bigger sense of exhaustion. So that's what I'm talking about today, in this episode.
Hello, I'm Donna Hann, a business coach, and an online course creator. And this is the shoes in business podcast. You can think of me as your business bestie, who's a few steps ahead of where you are right now. As a monk fueled with ambition and determination, I've created and sold three businesses. I've learned the lessons made mistakes, and I understand the daily juggle in the hustle. I also know what it's like when relationships fray and burnout taps you on the shoulder. That was my world until I reshaped and transformed the way I ran my six figure business. Today I help women to transform their businesses and go from being the overwhelmed entrepreneur to becoming the thriving entrepreneur feeling energized, empowered and fulfilled within their business lifestyle. I want to inspire your business journey and help you to stop spinning your wheels, because I want you to burn bright instead of burning out. And I'll invite other entrepreneurs to share their real life stories too. Because I want you to know that you're not alone. You can be the savvy entrepreneur that you're born to be, and enjoy the freedom to do the things and be present with the people that mean the most to you. So if you're ready to rise to the next level and build a business by design, this is the shears in business podcast for moms who are made for more.
So this time of year, you can either be feeling like you're super tired. And you're like thank God, we're nearly at the end of the year. Or you might be like I'm feeling pretty energized. I want to end my year strong. But there's so much to do at this time of the year. How do I fit everything in. So today's podcast is a bit of a combination of, you know, either going hard and finishing strong at the end of the year and the tips that I can offer you to help you to do that. And it's also if you're feeling tired and little exhausted, how can you without pushing the limits too much further feel as though you're still kind of having that sense of achievement at the end of the year that you have almost like I guess like a finish line, that the things that you wanted to get done, you've gotten done. And you can move into the new year feeling, you know, excited and ready for whatever's to come right. And also, the big thing here is that I believe it's so important over December in January during the school holidays, if you're Australian base, like we have a big six week gap over our school holidays over the summertime. That's the time where you know a lot of other businesses are doing reduced hours or even closed for some of that time. So it's the perfect time for you as a business owner to also unplug. Close your business for a few days or at least reduce the amount of hours that you're putting into your business so that you get the time to rest and reflect, rejuvenate. Spend time with the people who mean the most to you, you know before going strong into another new year and so this is that time of the year where you're preparing yourself to wind down if you are feeling like you've got the energy and that you want to finish out the year strong.
My suggestion is to pick a strategy, or perhaps a theme for this last quarter, so that you can stay focused. And if you're anything like me, I'm always thinking up new ideas, which is great. That's what makes us, you know, entrepreneurs is that we have this different kind of wiring in our brain that we've always got ideas coming up. And we're always thinking about ways that we can help people. But what I love about the end of the year is that feeling, where you've got everything wrapped up and closed off, and you have that really great sense of accomplishment, right. So even though ideas are great, and you know, I have them too. And, you know, it's really important that we have those inspired ideas all the time, it's probably not the right time to start on a brand new fresh idea. Because, you know, leaving tabs open at the end of the year, feeling unfinished when you're going on Christmas break. For a lot of us a lot of women that I work with my private clients and me myself, it just always feels a bit if you haven't wrapped things up. And so, you know, if instead you'd like to feel as though you've finished those things, and you've really, you know, done the best to finish out the year strong. One of the ways that helps me to do that, and the things that I share with my clients is to have a strategic focus, a theme for the quarter, that way, you're less likely to get distracted by the shiny things. And you know, you're not going to be biting off more than you can chew at this typically busy and sometimes stressful end of the year. So in this way, you can try and finish out the year strong. And so the other thing about this is having you know, that clear focus objective is that you're, you know, really going to be able to step back, look at your business and go okay, what are the things that are actually going to move my business forward, if I dedicate my time to getting it done.
And that's, you know, sometimes the trickiest thing is a business owner, especially and inspired business owner that has lots of ideas all the time, is picking the things that are actually going to make a difference either to your bottom line, or to attracting new clients and customers into your business or strengthening your brand positioning, like what is it that actually gonna make a difference and move your business forward towards your big goals. The other thing that I'd really recommend that you do at this time of the year is to start a new notebook, or to start a new notes section either in your phone or you know, have a document on your computer to dump all of those brilliant ideas that may come up for you over this next quarter that you feel drawn to implement, bank them up, put them into a document, put them into a notebook, however, you best like to organize those ideas, so that you don't lose them. But also, they will then begin to start to form your goals and you know, ideas for 2023, we don't want to lose that juicy good stuff. And then when you do your 90 day planning, which I always do with my clients, both in the ready to rise program, and also private clients is encouraged them to do 90 Day planning, because this is where we really really get down to the nitty gritty and we get stuff done. So in creating a new notebook or creating a new pay a new note section in your phone, or perhaps a new digital document that you can just constantly break down anything that new that comes up for you. This is not the time to start brand new stuff, this is the time to start to put all those ideas into one place. And that way, you've got your ideas ready to go. For 2023 We've got to be a time management ninja. And so another thing that's really important at this time of the year when everything is so busy, and we've got all these extra commitments that we need to squeeze in, is to really look closely at your diary and strip out anything that really doesn't need to be there. This is about honoring you and your time and putting boundaries in place and also acknowledging that we can't do everything.
As much as we want to do everything. We're you know, sometimes superhuman as being a mom and running a business and doing all the things but you know, you don't want to burn yourself out. And so and also the other thing too is you don't want to let people down if you've made a commitment to do something and then you realize closer to the time that you just don't have the space, the mental space or the you know, you can't logistically get there. You don't want to be letting people down at the last minute. So my advice here look closely at your day are a strip out anything that doesn't need to be there? What are things like, for example, meetings, could the meetings that you've got scheduled in there could some of them be an email instead, sometimes we just so you know, meetings can just swallow up your day. And it may not necessarily be the right use of your time, it could be perhaps done in an email instead. Also be mindful of emails that start to bounce back and forth and become this long, long email, like, list that kind of feels like it goes on forever. Instead, see, if you could make that a phone call, you know, sometimes we get stuck in that back and forth emailing when you can just pick up the phone call and have it solved in 15 minutes. The other thing is to make sure that everything that needs to be in your diary is in your diary, so that you don't miss those important things. And make sure it's all the way to the end of the year. So things like school commitments, you know, family and friends, celebrations, Christmas party, client drinks, you know, and also make time for what's important to you, as well. So if you know that, you know, you sometimes get overwhelmed by being amongst people all the time, when you're peopling, maybe you might need to actually factor some time in there for you to maybe have a walk along the beach, or you know, just go and take yourself out for a coffee so that you can decompress and kind of come back to you.
And what's important here is to think about, like, what do you need to say no to what are the things that you know, at this time of the year, there's a lot of invitations that come your way, but you don't need to be a part of everything. So which things don't you need to be a part of, you know, and do the right thing, let those people know, now, rather than canceling the night before, when you knew now in October, November, that you weren't going to make it anyway. Right. So you know, it's it can be a big thing to organize events. And for you know, people might be counting on you to turn up there. So, you know, do the right thing and let them know now that you can't make it. And you know, by doing this, you're going to be thanking yourself in December, when you're in the thick of it. And everything feels super crazy and you know, fast paced and trying to squeeze everything in. Now when I come back from this short break, I'm going to be talking about if you don't feel as though you want to really push to the finish line, and you're already feeling tired and a little bit worn out. What are the things that you can do instead, that's what I'm going to be talking about after this break.
In the spirit of gift giving, since it's my birthday month, and because Christmas is just around the corner, I've got a free resource to thank you for being a podcast listener. During the silly season. I know firsthand that juggle of business and family is a little crazier than normal. So to save you some time when it comes to social media marketing, over the silly season, I have 25 Christmas Canva templates that you can download for free and personalize them to your business. If you want to go grab them head to Donna hann.com forward slash silly season.
So now what if, at this time of the year, you're already feeling really, really tired, and perhaps even a little bit burnt out at this point. And you're like, Donna, this all sounds great. But I just feel like I have run out of steam. And I just can't even think about you know, finishing the big stuff within my business. I'm just that one out. Well, this is really important. This is where it as a business owner and as a mama like we've got a lot of people who are dependent upon us. And you know, you guys know from listening to the podcast, I am really passionate about preventing women from burning out. And so this is where we do need to listen to our body. And so if this is you if you're feeling worn out and tired right now, then take the easy options is my advice here. If you can push for some dead, if you can push some of your deadlines into 2023 then give yourself permission to do that. It's okay like it's all still gonna be there. I remember being on a job site when I used to work in construction and I was flying fly out I was parked up in in the middle of the Australian desert in the Pilbara. And I would get so stressed by the sheer amount of work that I had to get through before. You know I could return home for a week and then come back to site to work for another full week. It was a fun or roster like four weeks on one week off kind of a roster. So you always worked in blocks of four weeks. And I would always towards the end of that four weeks get really stressed because there was so much work that I wanted to get finished before I left site. And one of my managers said to me, you know, that in tray that you have, this is back when we had in trays, right?
When I worked in an office, who knows whether you still do or not, I don't know, it's been that long since I've been out of the corporate space. But he would say to me, you know, the, the in tray will never be empty, it's always going to keep filling up all the time. So get the most important stuff done. And then just push the other stuff back, like as long as you're getting stuff done by the due date work towards that. So that's kind of like my advice here is that if there's some things that you can push back into 2023, and you're feeling tired, and you don't want to really pull out all stops and run yourself into the ground, which is not something that I recommend doing, then pushing into 2023, it will wait it will be okay. dragging yourself to the finish line. There's no medal for that. Right. There's, there's there's no medal for that. So be kind to yourself, and do what needs doing and then just make a plan to do the rest in 2023. The thing that I like to do if I'm feeling particularly tired at this point in the year, which I will say, I've got to acknowledge that actually, I kind of am like, I wouldn't describe that I'm at the point of burnout. I'm very careful about managing my energy that way. But I am feeling tired. And a lot of my clients that I'm speaking to and working with, and you know, just in my community of business buddies that I am so lucky to have, everybody is feeling a little bit tired.
So when I get to this point, what I like to do is sprinkly my business, I get my inbox down to zero, I tidy up my electronic files, I review the strategies that I have in place moving into the new year, like my marketing strategy, my growth strategy, you know, there might be areas of your business that you can systematize you know, do that kind of stuff. It's also a good time of the year to kind of review your expenses and look for any areas that you can maybe cut back before you jump into another new year, and tidy up your workspace. So you know, spend a couple of hours decluttering your desk, your office, you know, your storage, cupboards and drawers and all of that kind of stuff. Because you know, decluttering The workspace is important. I know for me when I'm working in a really cluttered space, it clutters my brain, somehow, it has an effect on that kind of stuff. And I always feel so much better. When I've done a bit of a tidy up and things are feeling good. The other thing you can do is look ahead to 2023. So I've purchased recently, a big wall planner, it's often what I do at this time of the year, as I keep my eyes peeled for the wall planner that I love to use, and I buy it and then I start to fill it. So I first of all, the first thing I do every single year is I put in, I get that washi tape, and I block out the school holidays. And then I block out any family holiday trips that we want to do throughout that year, I look at my husband's roster, I look at what I've got planned and we map all that sort of stuff out.
And then I look for those important business activity dates. So you know, I look for when I'm opening the doors to the ready to rise program I look at if I've got in person or online events that need to go on the calendar, you know, the big business things that if you're releasing a new product, or you're releasing a new service, or you've got an event that you'd like to go to every year for your own professional development, all of that stuff goes in there. And it just helps you to kind of have a bit of a vision of what the next year is going to look like. And it can be a great time of the year to do that. Also, another thing that you can do is get super organized with those family appointments for the beginning of the new year. So it could be booking in haircuts Cairo appointments, you know, if you know that there's extra, extra curricular activities that your kids want to do have like do a bit of research and find out when the signup days are for those kinds of things so that you can be a little bit better organized going into the new year. And the other thing that I would definitely recommend doing is to create and schedule your social media content for December and January. And then that way, for me doing all of the things that I've just kind of described, it means that I can feel at ease and just prepared to unplug, recharge you really take a break from my business over December and January, and enjoy the school holidays and the silly season so much more than I would otherwise if I didn't have all that stuff in place. So you know, whilst it's really great to finish the year strong, you don't have to push. If you are already feeling tired and worn out.
It's so much more impactful for you to retain your energy and look after yourself. So press pause, tune in, listen to yourself, and ask yourself, what do I need most right now? Do you need to go hard in your business for those last few months, smash it out? Or do you need to maybe take a step back and spring clean and go into tidy up mode for your business. The thing here is guys, you are the boss, you call the shots. And as you're, you know the ruler of your own destiny as a business owner, you get to choose what you need to do for you right now. So give yourself the power give yourself the permission to do exactly what you feel you need to do. Now, I love getting DMS from podcast listeners. So if you enjoy the show, if you have any topic suggestions, any things that you would like me to talk about, because, you know I'm powering into a new year. And like I said, I like to, you know, plan a little bit ahead and get some ideas and inspiration and I'll be doing lots of podcast batching over the next couple of weeks. So if there's things you want me to talk about on the show, or if there's guests that you'd like me to bring onto the show, then slide on into my DMs I love getting DMS from podcast listeners and I personally respond to all of my messages. So let's chat. I can't wait to hear from you. Send me a DM let me know what you want. Let me know you know your feedback of being a listener to the show too. That's, that's really great for me if I can kind of know that it's landing. So that's it for me today. I hope it's been helpful and I wish you the most incredible best day ever.
Thank you for listening to this episode of The She's in Business podcast. If you enjoyed it, please share it on Instagram and Facebook and I'd be so grateful if you could leave me a review on iTunes. Be sure to include your business name and Insta handle so I can give you a shout out to if you want to know more about what I do the programs that I offer, then head over to www dot Donna hann.com and follow me on Instagram at Donna underscore Hann underscore s IB. I hope this podcast inspires you to be courageous and take action in carving out your very own business by design where you can avoid burnout and shine like the universe is yours.
