6 Time Management Tips for New Entrepreneurs

Just six years ago, I set out on a mission to start an online business. I started my business with the simple goal: to stay home with my son. I had just given birth to my son, and I decided I didn't want to go back to work.

This was a shock to my husband and me because I always imagined I would be working up the corporate ladder and working a typical nine to five. 

But if you are a mother or a caretaker, something just changes. I suddenly had this desire to start my business. 

I was still working my nine to five so I had to be super strategic with my time. Luckily. I'm addicted to time management and productivity hacks. And as a Virgo, I think it's pretty natural that is just how I normally structure my time. 

So as I started to build my business and find these time management hacks, I shared them with my community.

I shared them with my audience and they served them at a high level, but I found that so many of them started to ask about those early days.

The reality is that starting your business requires a lot of dedication and discipline, and some of the hacks I used then are different than now.

STARTING AN ONLINE BUSINESS

When I was starting my business, I really wanted to be able to replace my corporate income. We were going down to one salary as a family so I was very determined to make those strategic choices. 

You really have to have an honest conversation with yourself when you’re starting a business.

How badly do you want it? One of the things that I was constantly reminding myself of was the life that I was creating and the reason that we were doing this.

I wanted to start my business because in the beginning I just wanted to be home with my son. I was having that new mommy love.

But the reality of it was my husband and I had always dreamed of traveling the world. We were living off of a decent salary, but I was in nonprofit - not the wealthiest of areas.

I loved the work that I did, and we had all these dreams about buying property, traveling, all of the things that have been in the works for six years now. So when I was making the decisions to spend money on my business and not on my fashion or get my nails done or things like that, when I was making the decision to not watch Netflix so I could write emails, when I was waking up early, when I was making these choices, not sacrifices, choices, I always kept the vision of the life that I was creating in my mind. 

And I still do that today, even when I'm going through these periods of life, when business is demanding more from me, I'm always thinking about the life that I'm creating for myself and my family. 

So please know that these tips and these tricks are definitely going to help you structure your day, really focus on the things that are gonna move the needle forward, and optimize your time at the highest level. 

But it really comes down to you making a choice that this is what you want, dedicating your time and energy to it, and making it a priority.

We always say that you have this much time in a day, we all have the same amount of time. And one thing that I've realized is that when we prioritize the things that we really want to do during this season, somehow we are able to create more time around us. 

It's absolutely magical. When we sit down and really audit all the things that we're doing, we remove the things that aren't contributing to where we wanna be, or what we need in this season. Magic happens. 

So please, if you haven't already, take the time to dedicate yourself to growing your business. 

These are some of my top tips for you if you are just getting started in your business or consider yourself a new entrepreneur. 

TIME MANAGEMENT TIP #1: OPTIMIZE YOUR TIME

Most likely if you are just getting started, you're juggling a lot of different things. When I was starting, I was working a nine-to-five job and I had a new baby.

So I was also navigating motherhood and trying to build a business on the side. Many of my clients are working full-time jobs, caretakers, working part-time jobs, or growing multiple companies. 

What I always recommend to them is to optimize the time that you do have available.

For me, this looked like using my commute to work to listen to podcasts and to listen to audiobooks.

This was really helpful for me to get into a mindset, to learn new things, to ultimately increase the education that I had around branding and marketing specifically, that I could then implement in my business as I was getting started. 

Then on the way home, I would use that time to actually record social media posts, notes for things that I was working on, and even emails.

My favorite hack was to use the voice recorder on my phone. Just set it down while I was driving and just freely talk. The quality of the recording didn’t really matter because I was going to transcribe it. But what it allowed me to do was use that hour time that I was commuting home with my sleeping baby in the back seat, to create content for my business.

I would also utilize the time when we would go for walks. Once I left my job, my son and I needed to get out of the house a lot. So we would take frequent walks to, and from the park near our home. Every time we were walking, I had my headset in and I was recording content. I would record blogs, emails, social media posts, all of those different things that I was using to promote my brand new business. 

I would do those while I was doing other things in my life. It's my favorite hack and a great example of optimizing your time. 

So what I want you to think about are those moments when you're commuting or you are on your way with the kiddos to the park, or maybe you're making dinner or you're washing your face before bed, can you use those little pockets of time to get those ideas in your head out and document it so you can then use them within your business. 

TIME MANAGEMENT TIP #2: BULK SCHEDULING

You might have heard me talk about this before. If you've seen any of my videos on YouTube. I love to talk about bulk scheduling, especially as it relates to content creation because I think it's an incredibly powerful, overlooked tool for optimizing your time to create the most amount of content in a very short period. 

But you can really do this with everything. I recommend that new entrepreneurs have one day a week where they create content. This is typically two to three hours a week, one specific sitting. For me, it was Sundays when I was working my nine to five. Once I left my nine to five, I switched that to Monday. 

You’re sitting down, writing your content,  recording your videos, or your podcast, getting it all scheduled for release for the week, and repurposing your content, if that's something that you're doing, all in that one period of time.

This allows you to then not worry about content the rest of the week, not worry about getting your social media post up every single day or posting your blog. You are completely done pretty early in the week. 

Another thing is that you can bulk your client interactions.

If you are doing consulting, coaching, or anything, where you're doing a one-on-one call or group, calls with your audience, you want to try and schedule those on the same day every single week, and try to do as many as possible.

This was a lifesaver for me when I was working my nine to five, I would essentially work with my clients on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the evening. So those were the only two days that I did.

Once I left my nine to five and I had more availability during the week, but of course there was a baby on my hip, I was more focused on a specific day of the week that I knew my husband was going to be home and I would have that support. 

So I did Wednesdays and Wednesdays were pretty much the only day that I allowed my clients to book times with me. If that wasn't available, I still did Tuesday evenings and I would alternate my weeks.

I would pretty much have five calls on a Wednesday, but then the next Wednesday I wasn't doing anything. I still do this in my business today.

I book my coaching days, my mentoring days, and my group calls for Brandmerry Academy on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which leaves me Mondays and Fridays for really focusing on my business.

Another thing that you can bulk schedule is your admin time.

Think about the spreadsheets that you have to make, anything that you're tracking, looking at your numbers, your finances, anything like that. It's going to be really hard to do that and then jump into something creative.

You're going to waste more time trying to focus and switch your brain. Choose a specific day, which I like to call your CEO day, where you're focused on admin tasks, which include money, scheduling things, maybe contracts, invoices, all of that stuff. You'll find by actually creating specific days to focus on one area, you're able to get more done. 

In addition, it really helps you schedule your time when you have a million things happening, not only in your business but also outside of your business. 

TIME MANAGEMENT TIP #3: ASK FOR HELP

Look for opportunities where you can outsource, whether that's paid or just, via a family member or a friend, so that you can gain a few extra hours every week to work on your business. 

Some of the things that my clients have used are grocery delivery. How much time do you spend driving to the grocery store, picking out all this stuff, and then coming back home? You could be using that time to write emails to your audience or market your business.

Another thing is having someone clean your home. How much time are you spending doing that on the weekend? You could be using it to grow your business and make money in your business. 

Another thing is if it's accessible to you, you can also ask for help from friends and family. So if you are with a partner, how can they support you during the week and take some of the things that you are doing off of your plate so that you can dedicate that time to your business. 

One of the things that I did is that one of my cousins had a new baby and was looking for support and I was home from my job. So I would take her daughter on Wednesdays and she and my son would play. And that was my primary focus. And then on Fridays, she would watch my son, which gave me a whole day on Friday to dive into my work. 

Are there opportunities for you to do that as well? If you are a caretaker, if you have children, how can your community support you during this time? 

One of the things that can be incredibly helpful is to do a time audit. So take one week and write down all of the different things that you were doing during that time and how long they are taking you.

This is a fantastic way to see right in front of you where your time and your energy is going and where you might be able to outsource.

TIME MANAGEMENT TIP #4: USE A TASK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

We really love ClickUp here at Brandmerry. It is literally, if it's not in ClickUp, it's not happening in our business. But I also use it for my personal life as well.

I so wish that someone would've told me early on to start using a task management system for all the things that I was doing at the beginning of my business. It would've saved me so much time just diving into work every day. 

I only had these little pockets of time, which I'm sure you also have as well. So you wanna utilize that time to its full capacity.

You can just simplify the entire, “what should I be working on” process by starting to use a task management system. There are so many free options out there. ClickUp is our favorite. There's also Asana, Trello, or monday.com.

What you really want to focus on is getting every task that you have into the scheduler with a start date and an end date so you don't miss any of your deadlines.

You can also set up recurring tasks. If every month you need to do something in your business, get that set up so it reminds you. It's so easy to miss those individual pieces so having monthly, weekly, or even daily recurring tasks is fantastic. 

I also have found that having a task management system really simplifies what I need to do every single day.

What I do is get on my computer first thing in the morning and in ClickUp, there’s a homepage where I can see everything that is due today or coming up next. So it really takes the mystery out of what I need to work on to grow my business. 

A side note on that: Schedule every single thing. Every tiny task that you have to do, every big thing that you are doing in your business, whether that's a live video or a class or a challenge.

And I even recommend in your Google calendar or your iCal to schedule those individual pockets of time, you’re gonna be working on your business as well as all the other life things that you have going on. 

It's just a fantastic way to remove the overwhelm every single day, because you can look at your schedule and know what your focus is during that moment.

TIME MANAGEMENT TIP #5: SCHEDULE TIME OFF

Remember in the beginning, when I talked about optimizing your time, that is essential, but you don't want to be working every single hour of every single day. 

If you're working a nine to five, you're basically waking up, maybe thinking about your business, going to your nine to five, thinking about your business, coming home, taking care of life and diving into, yeah, your business and I totally get it.

You do want that dedication to getting things done and prioritizing, but I have found that even taking one day away from focusing on my business can actually help me creatively. Even though I’m off or taking a break, I get the best ideas. So I'll just jot 'em down and circle back to them. 

So do yourself a favor and get into this routine of taking at least one full day off in your business.

Now, maybe that's Saturday or Sunday for you, which is pretty typical, or maybe it's a Wednesday. It literally doesn't matter, but schedule that inside of your calendar as well. And if you can keep it consistent every single week, that's really going to help you with your time management and your productivity.

This is something I recommend you continue to do as you grow your business as well. 

TIME MANAGEMENT TIP #6: FOCUS ON ONE PROJECT AT A TIME

I know when you're starting your business, it can feel like you have a million different things that you need to do. Let's say for example, that you want to create your website because you've been following me long enough to know how important a website is. You want to implement that SEO, you want to have a blog, and you're really focused on those evergreen content strategies. 

Give yourself a set period of time to work on your website.
Make it a priority, add it to your task management schedule, put a deadline on it, and even put the time that you're going to be working on that particular task into your calendar.

Allow yourself that focus time to get it done. This is going to allow you to get it done faster and in a more efficient way. Y

ou can absolutely get your website done in 30 days or less if you are fully focused. If you're not, you might do a little bit here and a little bit there. And before you know it, six months have passed and you still don't have a website.

I know that it's not 100% possible to focus on one thing and one thing only every 30 days. We have a lot of moving parts in our business. Marketing is definitely one of them. But if you can choose one to two days every single week, where that is your main focus, focusing on a specific project is going to allow you to get it done much faster.

And I have found that this focus is really important as you continue to scale your business.

The amount of things that you have to do doesn't necessarily go away. Even as you hire your team, you're going to think of new creative things to do in your business. So really focusing on one project or one offer, at least every 30 days can be one of the best ways to optimize your time.

I know that starting a business can be a lot of work. I have been there and like you, I was not just starting a business. I was juggling a lot of different things, expectations, and responsibilities at the same time.

I want you to know that it is possible, but there are going to be some things that you're going to have to adjust, and definitely making it a priority is going to save you a lot of time in the long run. 

Inside my program, Brandmerry Academy, I provide a step-by-step roadmap of exactly what you need to do in order to grow your business.

It is a one-stop shop for branding, systems, and marketing that can support you to getting to six figures in your business. You can check it out brandmerryacademy.com.

P.S. Ready to get your brand seen and paid without the pressure of social media? I'm teaching my top strategies inside of my new free class, "How to Build a Brand That Gets Seen and Paid!" You're invited to tune in and learn my signature 3-part framework for a sustainable 6-figure brand. Sign up to watch for free at Brandmerry.com/class

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MEET MICHELLE

Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.

I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.

I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.

This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.

Productivity Tips for Work From Home Entrepreneurs

When it comes to productivity, I don't believe it's about doing more, but rather being efficient.

I think sometimes we think productivity is all about the amount of energy we churn out, but that can lead to a hustle mentality and burnout.

To me, it's about optimizing your time in the best way possible.

It's why I'm always looking for ways to streamline my workflows, ultimately giving me more time to step away from my business and live my life.

It's why I'm so passionate about streamlining the content process and creating repeatable systems for entrepreneurs. Something you can learn all about in my Content Planning Blueprint.

But, like all things in life, I've found that my ability to streamline and increase efficiency doesn't just pertain to marketing!

So, today, I'm sharing with you some of my top resources for improving productivity in your life and business 👇

10 WAYS TO IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY (WFH)

​Watch Time: 19 mins​

If you've been looking for productivity tips, ways to increase your productivity when working from home and a little bit of balance with that work-from-home life, this video is for you!

Watch: Productivity Tips

4 PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS

​Watch Time: 13 mins

​I'm sharing some of my favorite tools we use daily in business to make sure we're getting everything done in the most efficient way possible. If you feel like you're constantly doing stuff and no further along, this video is for you.

Watch: Productivity Tools

6-FIGURE SUCCESS HABITS

​Watch Time: 20 mins

​In this video, I'm sharing the specific habits I've used to create success in my business and in my life. I'm a firm believer that the daily actions we take, aka habits, can change your life. I know they changed mine!

Watch: Success Habits

MORNING ROUTINE

​Watch Time: 17 mins

​Watch behind the scenes as I share my morning routine, the key staple in my day that has increased my productivity over the years! I'm also sharing my top tips for creating yours.

Watch: Morning Routine

Don't forget to drop me a comment on your favorite video so I know you watched it!

P.S. Have you gotten your hands on the Content Planning Blueprint, yet?

I created this blueprint to help you become an organized, productive, high-converting content machine that gets their brand seen and paid consistently.

As I was creating the CONTENT PLANNING BLUEPRINT, I knew I wanted to give you a tried and tested approach to planning 90 days of content for your business so you can create data-driven content topics, and show up consistently.

Without a clear system in place for finding content ideas, organizing your content ideas, optimizing your workflow, and creating a weekly rinse and repeat system for time management, your dreams of consistent and converting content just won't happen.

I've seen it time and time again.

The key is harnessing the power of a weekly content workflow, the art of repurposing, and utilizing SEO research so you can master your content creation strategy. At the center of a successful marketing strategy lies your content.

Check out the Content Planning Blueprint now!

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DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES

START HERE ↠

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START HERE ↠

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START HERE ↠

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MEET MICHELLE

Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.

I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.

I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.

This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.

The Framework for a Morning Routine You’ll Actually Stick To

The Framework for a Morning Routine You’ll Actually Stick To

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

To be honest I had a little resistance in writing this blog because I have a whole beef about morning routines. 

Then I thought, you probably have the same beef when you hear the term morning routines. You want one, but the information is just too much. 

I know the whole concept of morning routines can be very fluffy. If you've ever worked with me in my coaching, I don't do fluffy. I like action. I like actionable, deep work. So let's do a new spin on the morning routine. Shall we?

Let's start with the beef. When I first started my business, Brandmerry.com in 2016 I was just one month postpartum. So there already wasn't much of a morning routine happening at that point because we were just surviving. 

However, at the same time of going through this postpartum period, I also started building my business and exploring this whole idea of entrepreneurship.

Shortly into doing that, I felt like I was bombarded with information on coming up with a morning routine. This isn't new, right? People have been talking about this forever, but to me, it was this new concept because I used to just, get up, brush my teeth and go to work. There was no morning routine happening. 

I was looking for stability at that time because I was in the midst of being a new mother and that incredible fog and uncertainty, so I started consuming all the content about morning routines. 

Fast forward to September of that same year and I was leaving my nine to five to pursue my business full time.

I remember saying, “Okay, I'm about to work from home. I'm about to change my whole entire schedule with my kiddo.” So I started seeking out support inside of Facebook Groups on how to juggle the work from home life.

I asked them, “What do you recommend doing as you transition from working a nine to five then switching to running a business at home with a kiddo?” Everyone was like, “You must have your morning routine!”

Everyone was giving me all of this feedback on the morning routine:

“I meditate for 45 minutes.”
“I like to go for a 30-minute walk and go to the coffee shop.” 
“I have a 20-minute skincare routine.”

And I remember thinking that this must be the secret sauce, so I dove headfirst into creating a morning routine that looked like everyone else.

And I failed miserably.

I realize now that I wasn't actually failing. I had set crazy unrealistic expectations for what was happening in my life.

I was letting someone else tell me how my morning routine should go and what I should do. And then thinking that I would just mirror that and suddenly it would be all great.

THE TRUTH ABOUT MORNING ROUTINES

Morning routines aren’t the end all be all and they won’t make or break your success, but here is the thing that I later learned: Having that morning routine sets you up for success. 

It gets you in the mindset, the focus and grounded so that you can then take on all of the things that come your way throughout the day. There's always a rollercoaster ride of things throughout the day and being prepared (aka starting off on the right foot) is essential when handling them.

But the trouble with morning routines is when we hear other people talk about their morning routines, we try to parallel them. 

Rather than asking ourselves, “What do I need?” We assume if it worked for her, it will work for me and that's doing a disservice to your life, your season and your expectations. 

So rather than looking on Pinterest or another podcast, that tells you to do these five things every single day and then setting yourself up for something that might not work with your life, it’s important to have a framework, not an end all be all rule book.

MORNING ROUTINES ARE SELF CARE

Actively choosing your morning routine is just another opportunity for you to make choices for yourself and do things that serve you and your family at the highest level. 

Doing things that serve you and the life that you are building and making choices that are aligned with your goals.

Making those decisions first and foremost is important. And then taking action and creating habits around them and doing them in the morning so that you're setting yourself up; that's the whole point of the morning routine. 

There's no secret. 

It's this trifecta of choosing the things that are going to serve you, committing to them and making them a habit, which is one of my favorite things to talk about. 

On my podcast, The Beautiful Climb, episode 14 dives into the importance of habits, not just in a morning routine, but throughout the day as well.

YOUR ROUTINE SHOULD EVOLVE

There’s absolutely no shame in having a routine that evolves.

You are a human. You are evolving every single day. You're learning new things about yourself. The outside world is changing and impacting what you can and can't do. 

Your routines, including the ones you do in the morning, should mirror that.

I have learned rather than to be rigid with exactly what I'm doing, that every time I feel like something's off, or I need something new, I go back to the framework I’m about to share with you.

I like to ask myself and encourage you to do the same...

• What do I need during this time?

• What would support me most during this season of life?

• What are the pieces that I'm committing to doing daily? 

And then implementing them.

It's all in the habits. 

It's not in the specific thing that you do. 

It's in the fact that you are making it a recurring routine that you are committing to first thing in the morning to set yourself up for success and alignment throughout the day.

My morning routine has changed so much over the years as a mother, wife, entrepreneur, woman, daughter, etc...Every season demands something new from me and I must be willing to adapt to that while still honoring my habits and boundaries.

If you want to head my entire journey with morning routines, including what I’ve done and what I do today, head over to Episode 34 of The Beautiful Climb podcast and have a listen.

THE FRAMEWORK FOR A MORNING ROUTINE YOU’LL STICK TO

What I have found through my journey, working with my clients and chatting with my friends is that people really struggle with, “but what do I do?” 

And it’s because they're not asking themselves, “What do I need?” And then creating a routine that best supports that need. 

So the framework I’m about to share with you is just that, a framework. I encourage you to explore and fill in with the things that you personally need.

Today my morning routine is so different, then when I first started. My life has changed. My son has gone from crawling to walking to being more self-sufficient. My business has grown. My husband has retired and in each of those seasons I was forced to ask myself, “What do I need right now?” 

You can absolutely make your morning routine your own and one that serves you at the highest level.

For the framework, I recommend focusing on the big three. Choosing three main areas to focus on every morning. This typically looks like Mind, Body and Soul, but can be any combination you need most.

At this stage of my life, it's a focus on my fitness with high-intensity workouts, followed by getting myself ready mentally and then nourishing my soul. This looks like a 20-30 minute workout or rides on my Peloton, getting dressed in pants that button (no yoga pants here) and then making myself a healthy breakfast to start my day. 

I used to journal for 30 minutes, I’ve meditated for 10, I used to not work out daily, and that’s the point I want to make; your routine will change, but if you focus on the big three you’ll find you’re always giving yourself a well-rounded start to the day.

What I encourage you to do is think about three things that you could do every morning that maybe take 15 minutes. 

If you’ve got more time, then great!
Maybe you need to wake up a bit earlier (no 5 a.m.’s necessary) to give yourself a full 30 minutes.
Maybe you've got even more time and can take it nice and slow. Every season will be different!

Focus on the three core things you need most in this season, fitting them into a time frame that works for you and I promise it will be so empowering. 

And that's what I want you to remember. It's about listening to yourself, identifying what you need, making a plan for that, creating a habit and then taking action.

Rinse and repeat.

A SUCCESSFUL MORNING ROUTINE IS IN THE HABIT

The last thing that I'll share about setting up a morning routine is that it's all in the habits. 

If you haven't read Atomic Habits yet, it's one of my favorite books and there is a quote in there that says, “You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.” 

And that's why having systems for how you’re going to achieve something and taking daily action is so important.

Setting the intention is amazing; it’s the first step, but then you have to look and say “Well, what am I going to do to get there?” 

And then you have to honor that. 

You deserve healthy habits in your life, and they are the secret to getting to your goals, and an excellent place to start is with your morning routine.

I know the days when I fall off track, there will be days when nothing seems to be going right. You just want to sleep in. 
And you're thinking about how your legs hurt so maybe you’ll skip moving your body and just shower.
Or, maybe I’ll just get to work and check those emails to save some time.

But, I’ve noticed on those days it’s more important than ever to honor myself and start the day on the right foot and this includes setting boundaries not only with yourself but also with others.

You need to set boundaries. If you are thinking, “I don't have time in the morning, Michelle, to have a morning routine,” I need you to create time. 

And one of the ways that you can create time without waking up at the butt crack of dawn is to have conversations with people in your life and get support. 

If you find that when you try to work out at home, everybody is in your business and won't leave you alone, then you need to get out of the house and figure out how you can do that. 

If you’ve got a kid, bring them with you. Go for a walk or just have a conversation with them and say, this is what I need to do. Invite them to join you as you workout and set the tone with them that this time is sacred.

Get them in the habit of creating morning routines as well. I love that my son Cal has his morning routine. This kid has created almost his own morning routine on accident because I have created mine and he's watched that happen. 

Talk with your spouse, your kids, your roommate and let them know what you need to make this happen! And honor your boundaries with yourself by scheduling your morning routine, honoring your commitments and taking action.

You deserve it!

Set yourself up for success.

Get your systems in place.

Honor yourself.

Check-in with yourself and rock your morning.

P.S. Have you tuned in to The Beautiful Climb podcast? I release new episodes every other Friday on topics around productivity, motherhood, habits, goals and going after the life of your dreams! Check out past episodes and be sure to subscribe at thebeautifulclimb.com

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- FREE GIFTS YOU'LL LOVE -

DISCOVER YOUR BRAND STORY IN UNDER 5 MINUTES

START HERE ↠

LEARN HOW TO WRITE AN ‘ABOUT ME’ PAGE THAT CONVERTS

START HERE ↠

MAP OUT 30 DAYS OF CONTENT IN UNDER AN HOUR

START HERE ↠

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MEET MICHELLE

Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.

I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.

I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.

This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.

How to Improve Your Focus as an Entrepreneur

How to Improve Your Focus as an Entrepreneur

March 21, 2019

PREFER TO WATCH, INSTEAD OF READ? I’VE GOT YOU BOO. SCROLL DOWN TO WATCH A QUICK 12 MINUTE VIDEO!

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As an entrepreneur, one of the worst things that you can struggle with is having shiny object syndrome, or as I like to call it, s.o.s.

It is so hard to move your business forward if you're constantly jumping from idea to idea, project to project or worse, never actually completing anything.

And honestly, it can be detrimental to your business and kind of your sanity as well. It can feel overwhelming not knowing what to work on, feeling really caught up because you're not able to focus. And if you are struggling with this, know that you are so not alone. So many entrepreneurs struggle with focus and productivity, and that’s what I want to talk about today.

If you don't know a lot about my story, I started my business with a one-month-old baby.

I quickly returned to work two months later was working a nine to five, figuring out this whole mom thing and launching this business from scratch. So optimizing my time, being really lasered in and being productive when I was working on my business was so, so important.

I hear from entrepreneurs all the time about the lack of focus, the lack of productivity, not actually feeling like they are moving their business forward in a way that is allowing them to break free from their nine to five or support their family or travel the world..Whatever that desire might be for you.

Today, I wanted to chat with you about my favorite tips for improving focus, especially as an entrepreneur.

1. FLEX YOUR FOCUS MUSCLE

The first thing that you need to know when it comes to focus is that focus is a habit. If you don't currently have a great method for focusing or you feel like you have squirrel brain (you're all over the place), then it has to be a conscious decision that you make.

To change this habit, you have to make the decision now and create an awareness around it so that you can start flexing that muscle. I often say that focus and productivity is like a muscle. The more that you do it, the more that you practice it, the stronger you will actually become.

It's really easy to stay in this same cycle, to stay in a bad habit. It's like a wheel you're constantly on over and over and over again until you make the conscious decision that you're going to step off of that. The same goes with the habit around focus.

If you struggle with this, then you have to be super aware and on it, on those moments when you're not lasered in and focus and pull yourself into that different mindset. Every single thing that you will create around a new way of focusing and productivity will require daily action on your part.

It can be really easy to slip back into old habits, but I really encourage you to make the decision now to start taking those small actions and you will eventually see that this just becomes second nature to you and you're able to not just get more done, but actually be productive in your business.

2. BRAINSTORMING SESSION

Your girl right here constantly, has ideas. And if I just let those ideas flutter around in my brain, I would always feel overwhelmed. So the key that I have initiated from the very beginning is a brain dump. Like didn't we all learn how to do this in elementary school? We're getting ready to write a report or write a short story and we have to do a whole brainstorming session.

That's exactly what you're doing here. I call it a brain dump because we're taking everything that's going on up here that's driving us freaking crazy and we're dumping it into a list and getting it out of here so we can focus on what we actually need to do.

If you are a creative entrepreneur or a creative person than I know those ideas are constantly coming at you and you can't quite figure out which one you should be focusing on to actually see results. The spinning, the constant spinning back and forth is what's keeping you stuck because you can't see a clear plan of action to get from here to here.

Oftentimes those ideas that we have might not be right for this moment, but we're so hung up on him. We're so clouded by all of the ideas floating around in our head that we can't actually map out our own step-by-step.

So getting these ideas out on paper; I prefer to use Trello for this. You can do a complete brain dump in Trello to get you started and you'll be able to see with your eyeballs the things that you need to do and the things that aren't needed in this moment.

My tip for you, after you do this brain dump, is to actually pull out the pieces that are going to make the biggest impact for you in the next 30 days.

This is a great habit to start getting into because you're looking at the bigger picture of your brand. I'm not going to overwhelm you and be like 90 days out. Like let's just focus on 30 days at a time. By brain dumping all of that information, pulling out the pieces that you think are going to be the most important in the next 30 days, and then starting to prioritize.

Again, I love Trello and for this next step after our initial brain dump, I recommend using some sort of tool like Trello. There's also Asana out there, monday.com, tons of options for you, and organizing those individual pieces into smaller actionable steps.

In the beginning it's gonna feel like snail-like motion, but eventually you're going to really create a rhythm. The only way to do that is to actually get clear on all the little bitty nitty gritty details that you actually need to do in your business.

With each of these individual projects that you have prioritized, I use Trello to create different cards for those projects and add in all the tiny steps.

The key here is for you to take that big idea and break it down into all the tiny little details that are going to help you get that done. Remember, it is in the small actions, we start to feel really overwhelmed when we're just looking at one big task and we're like, how do I get there? What do I need to do now? And we're Ping ponging around.

If you can break it down into these small little actions, put a little checkbox next to it when you are completed with it and know that, oh if I do all 10 of these things, I will get that done.

3. embrace your calendar + MAP IT OUT

Okay, let's talk about scheduling your time. I know you're an entrepreneur. I know that you decided to break free from the nine to five life or maybe you've gone part time or whatever because you want complete control of your schedule. You still need to use a calendar. I don't care if you are an entrepreneur, I don't care what you're doing.

You need to embrace your calendar by giving yourself time to schedule out these individual task is going to save you so much time and energy in the long run.

Remember, you don't always have to be scheduling every tiny little detail as you start to create this habit, but especially in the beginning, I want you to start scheduling and time blocking all of those individual tasks.

If you caught my post last week where I talked about content creation and the four tools and tips that I use, I talked about batch scheduling. This is also something that you need to get into the habit of scheduling, not just the tiny little parts, but also those batch scheduling sessions that you use in your business, whether that is creating content, filming videos, engaging with your audience.

Start putting those in your calendar as well so you can really see where you need to be laser focused and on which project and where you a little bit more breathing room and flexibility.

So again, being your most focused and productive self is a habit that you have to practice. You have to flex that muscle.

These tips are what's really going to help you get started in creating this habit. Remember, we need to get all of those ideas out of your magnificent brain, onto a piece of paper or some sort of computer software so that we can start strategizing how you're going to move forward.

After the brain dump, you want to identify the most important pieces, the ones that are going to have the biggest impact in the next 30 days. Then you went to breakdown each of those individual tasks into tiny little actionable steps and get them on your calendar. This way, you know every single day what you're working on, where your energy and focus needs to go and you know and you trust that each of those small actions is leaving to the bigger goal, the bigger picture and your business.

4. PRODUCTIVITY HACKS

Another thing that I absolutely encourage you to do is use something that allows you to take multiple breaks. One of the ways that you can increase your focus and productivity is not staring at a screen for like eight hours. Get into the habit of taking frequent breaks while you're working on something every 50-60 minutes is usually a good mark, but if you're the type of person who needs every 30 minutes to get up, walk around, meditate, do something, then go ahead and do that.

My favorite thing to use is those little cute productivity cubes and finally one of my brand new favorite tools that I absolutely love is called habit lab. It is a chrome extension and it monitors the time that you've spent on various platforms.

Nothing will break your focus more than your inability to walk away from Gmail or your horrible obsession with spiraling on Facebook.

If you find yourself wasting tons of time on Facebook or Instagram and Gmail, then you are missing out on your focus and your productivity and therefore you aren't moving your business forward.

Putting a chrome extension onto your browser is going to help you get into that habit of not going to that platform every time you have a little bitty break. Utilizing these tools is only going to help you, you guessed it, flex that focus muscle.

You want regular tips and tricks on productivity. Be sure to follow me on Instagram at instagram.com/brandmerrycoaching.

I'm talking about all the behind the scenes of how I run my business, how I manage being a mother, how we're traveling full time, how I work with my husband, the communication that needs to happen. It really comes down to being super productive.

Don’t forget to grab my free content planner, which will support you in improving the focus when it comes to creating awesome content! You can get that at brandmerry.com/contentcalendar.

P.S. Are we connected on Instagram? No? Well lady what’s happening here we’ve got to fix that. Come hang out with me on my favorite social media platform. Follow for inspiration and send me a DM to know we’re connected.

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Four Tips to Improve Productivity While Working From Home

Four Tips to Improve Productivity While Working From Home

October 11, 2018

When I was getting ready for my first week as a “full-time entrepreneur” I was freaking out! I turned to the power of the internet and reached out to other entrepreneurs asking, “What tips do you have for working from home?”

The response was overwhelming, ideas flooded in ranging from; don’t make a plan just go with it to only work 3 hours a day for better efficiency. However, there was a slight problem with these suggestions - no one who commented was a mother!

Now, whether you’re a mompreneur or not this post will still be super valuable to you, but it’s an important part of my productivity journey because I had no other option that to make it work. Over the past two years, I’ve freaking mastered productively working from home, even when some of the biggest distractions were injecting themselves into my day (thinking baby peeing on you during a live stream, mid-day screams and 💩)!

If you struggle with getting sht done while working from home, you’ve come to the right place. I’m sharing four of my top tips for Improving Your Productivity While Working From Home.

**Please note some of the links are affiliate links. I only recommend products I absolutely love, but I might receive a small commission from your engagement.

1. PLAN THE NIGHT BEFORE.

I can’t stress enough how important planning is for productivity - I mean thing about it when you fly by the seat of your pants you’re constantly bouncing from one thing to another. Did someone say squirrel?!

One of the best strategies I’ve used for productivity over the past 6 months has been to carve out 15 minutes to map out and structure my tasks for the following day.

The night before I hop into my Weekly Schedule on *Trello and sit with my schedule for the next day. Based on family plans and weather (I’m a big advocate for Zoo days) I’ll move things around on my board. I also like to rank my tasks in order of importance and put a time limit on some of them (i.e. things like writing this blog post).

This allows me to have a full picture of the next 24 hours before I even go to sleep, reducing the overwhelm, allowing me to feel on top of my sh*t and to get more things checked off.

Want to try Trello for your business? Grab a free account here: https://trello.com/michelleknight6/recommend

2. Set a timer

When I was a kid my mom used to set a timer in the morning, you know one of those old-school white timers for your counter? Every morning she’d set the timer and when that timer went off we knew it was time to leave for school. Ok, total disclaimer I was still late like 99% of the time, but just think how late I would’ve been if I didn’t have that timer.

This is such a great trick for increasing productivity in your business as well. When it’s time to dive into the black hole that is social media, set a timer for 15 or 30 minutes and when that timer goes off - GET OUT OF THERE!

I love to use the timer method in my business for:

• Social media engagement
• Writing my emails
• Writing my blog posts
• Answering emails
• Tech (SO important to set a timer with this one)

Think of the areas of your business that are major time sucks and set that timer!

3. Batch Scheduling

One of the hardest things to do when working from home is to jump from one project to another. My greatest strategy since day one has been batch scheduling. Rather than spreading out your writing over the course of 5 days, how would it feel to be in your creative zone for a longer chunk of time, rather than having to start over?

When I try to write a single email a day, over the course of a week, it takes me 2x longer for each than if I were to sit down for three hours and write all my emails and social posts. Batch scheduling will save your bootay if you are an online entrepreneur who has to write ANYTHING (so basically everyone)!

Get in the habit of scheduling your batch writing at least once a week, maybe twice, in the beginning, to start finding a rhythm and routine. Before you know it you’ll be writing 10-minute emails and blog post with ease.

4. USE YOUR TIME WISELY

Efficiency is all about looking for all the areas in which you can use up space. When my son was teething and needed to go on daily walks, I would bring my cell phone with me and create talk-to-text documents for my emails. If I didn’t have the time in the day to sit down, you better believe I was using this time to my advantage.

When I use to drive to and from my 9 to 5, I would listen to podcasts which inspired the crap out of me and would record small ideas and notes in my phone, so I didn’t forget a single idea.

Look for every single opportunity you have to tap into your creative space. We all have the same hours in a day, it’s about HOW we use those hours that makes the biggest difference.

How are you currently using your time? Where are your biggest time sucks?

Some people call me the Get Sh*t Done Queen (ok, not a lot of people, but you get the idea) - I’m really great at streamlining and being the most effective with my time.

It’s because in the beginning of my business I had to be! I built this business from zero to multiple 6-figures in two years while working a 9 to 5 in the beginning and raising a baby. Productivity is my jam and that’s why it is one of the main pillars of my signature group program Roadmap to Freedom.

The doors are opening for Roadmap to Freedom for the third time this November!

If you are a new or aspiring female entrepreneur who is ready to launch an online business that allows her to make money on her own terms then this program is for YOU! When you join the waitlist before October 19 you’ll get first dibs on all the amazing bonuses + save some serious cash when you sign up during pre-enrollment.

Learn more and join the waitlist at brandmerry.com/freedom.

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