The To-Do List— The Diary of an Entrepreneur #2

The less time I have, the more I do

Deadlines. For entrepreneurs deadlines are one of the aspects of business that makes or breaks us. Not in the way you may think. Here’s the thing, the less work we have on our plates and the less deadlines we have, often means the less work we do.

At least this is true for me. The more time I have, the less work I get done. Getting stuck in the loop of…

“I have time, I’ll do it later”

Enter: Deadlines. Now deadlines are a fabulous thing when you have ample amount of time because it gives us an end time to get that thing done. The problem; self imposed deadlines are easy to break.

Enter: Far too much work. Now here is the dangerous line that if balanced correctly is the entrepreneur game changer, misstep and you’ll be headed toward burnout faster than you can say “I love deadlines”

And here is where we find ourselves today. Teetering the oh’ so fragile line of “How much did I just really get myself into!”

Let’s share the short form of the to-do list of the day:

• Post content …everywhere (I got this…right!?)
• Write this blog post (Here we are)
• Follow up on that (super cool) networking call I hosted yesterday
• Have my 1:1 client call (Was fabulous)
• Host a virtual call with the community (On it!)
• Call the printer/distributer for the magazine (expected time 5 mins — total time 53 mins)
• Send magazine ad specs by email (overdue by 24 hours)
• Debate my business life choices (seems reasonable)

The less time I have, the more I do. The list above seems incredible from the outside looking in. Me being the person on the outside. You see, these things are huge. Let’s break some of these down.

Posting content used to be a hassle and a half, but 2 months ago I figured out a strategy to make this seamless. I have content for months waiting to be posted….now I just have to find the time to post it!

That networking call I hosted yesterday was super cool. I host entrepreneur networking calls monthly. These particular calls are for experts in the field. On yesterday’s call we had 1 entrepreneur announce that she closed a $1.2Mil deal, another entrepreneur mentioned Oprah (THE Oprah) and Michelle Obama (THE Michelle Obama) were her clients, another mentioned she could essentially retire from her biz so she decided to start a not for profit. This was the coolest call I had ever hosted in the networking Arena…and I did that! ME!

Also on that to do list I had written to have my client 1:1 call and host the community call! You see, what’s crazy about all this is that these were all dreams, figments of my imagination, visions for what I wanted for myself less then 2 years ago…and now this is my normal everyday.

And then!
AND THEN, there are bullet points about a magazine. A magazine I decided a month ago that I would create, and I did. And now…I am talking to the printers, talking about potential wholesale deals, and thinking about becoming a publisher.

Listen, this is insane. I repeat from earlier…

“How much did I just really get myself into!”

When I first started out in business I used to take 2 hours in the middle of the day to go for long walks. I knew that one day business would become busy and at that time I had little on my plate. I wanted clients to take up my time, I wanted events, and networking calls. I wanted cool colleagues and stories to tell. And now, I’m here doing the thing but holy spaghettios! What did I do!?

Last night I left my desk early to close my eyes and lay on the couch. This was not out of calm or happiness. Nope, this was because my headache was next level, I have been sick with Covid for over a week, and the thoughts that circled my head were:

“Did I just ruin everything?” “Did I just take on far too much?” “What if this isn’t it?” “Uh-oh I may have colossally messed up!”

The funny thing is, and this is only funny because humour is the best way out of this mess, this happens every time I embark on the coolest things of my career. I know myself by now, I have been launching new ideas, projects, programs.. I have been doing this with enough success to know that I can trust myself. My gut, my intuition knows. I have the proof, the receipts. The things I have achieved…I achieved. I did those things. And each was scary.

This is not an inspirational entry about all things working out. This is actually a blog post about swirling the drain. Living in the “holy shits.”

Teetering the oh’ so fragile line of

“How much did I just really get myself into!”

www.startwithhannah.com