Why 2020 Is The Year To Rethink Busy-Ness In Your Business
Eleanor O’Leary is The Better Brand Consultant, growing socially conscious companies with effective brand marketing & communications strategies and support. Her work includes some of the most exciting sustainable, ethical and purpose led brands including frank green, Rubies In The Rubble, Karma and Kindred.
January: How was it for you? Hard to believe it was only five weeks ago we were languishing in the Twilight Zone (27th– 30th Dec) where time slows down, you can’t really remember when you last washed your hair, and your next move depends on whether you want another green triangle from the Quality Street tin before BBC’s Dracula starts. I cherish these lazy days. As a member of the business community, it’s rare we truly give ourselves permission to switch off; surely we should be researching, planning, reaching out, having a coffee with someone, Doing The Work, or posting about all of the above across three social media platforms whilst updating the blog section of our website and then repurposing across our newsletter, right? Wrong.
This in-between time offers the chance to embrace the collective feeling that it’s ok to send 90% - 100% fewer emails, Instagram won’t miss you if you don’t post any pictures for two weeks, and the pressure of PRODUCTIVITY isn’t imposed on every fibre of your being. And I love it. So much so, that this year I’m planning my business around preserving this feeling; the slower pace, communicating in a way that cuts through the noise rather than adds to it, and tapping into the times when we are collectively switching off or dialing up our energies. If you want to join me, I’ve shared the three simple things I’m putting in place to take the busy-ness out of business.
FIRST THINGS FIRST: FORGET EVERYTHING YOU’VE BEEN TOLD ABOUT NEW YEAR NEW YOU
As someone who spent their early PR days writing New Year New You press releases (fitness bootcamps or laser hair removal, anyone?), I can tell you this: do not get caught up in the hype about January being the month to start anything new.
Think about it. How unrealistic is it to expect to have all our #2020goals in place at the stroke of midnight, despite spending the previous month at full capacity and with no real time for contemplation; wrapping up deadlines, psyching ourselves up for ‘party season’, and being caught up in the mad hype of Christmas? We’re bombarded with brands and media promoting that New You New Year feeling (still not sure what that is). We begin nearly every email with HAPPY NEW YEAR to the point of no meaning. Three weeks in, brands and media have switched tack and tell us it’s “officially” The Most Depressing Day Of The Year (it’s not). Throw into the mix Dry January, a tax deadline, one of the coldest and darkest months of the year, and it’s easy to see how these mixed messages can make us feel uninspired before we’ve already begun.
In an age of information overload, we’re shedding narratives that put pressure on us to door be a certain way, and I’m pleased to say that this year has been the first where I’ve seen a more people get on board with ditching the New Year New You mantra. As Poorna Bell wrote in a recent Stylist article “The reason a reset is so attractive is because it offers itself up like a big red button that can blast through all the terrible things of the previous year. But that’s also precisely why it doesn’t work…Ultimately, the problem with the concept of ‘new year, new you’ is that it doesn’t acknowledge everything that is good about who you already are as a person.” New Year New You (NYNY) tells you you’re not good enough; you need to get up earlier, write more to-do lists, eat more five a day, create more goals, build on your life – IMPROVE! This January I actively avoided all articles that referenced NYNY and unfollowed any accounts that launched into January with phrases like “bossing it”, “here we go bicep emoji” and “WHAT DO YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE IN THE NEXT DECADE?”.
Instead, I’ve been quietly reflecting and taking inspiration from key moments over the past five years since deciding to launch my business. When did the big shifts happen? How did I nurture the relationships that got me there? When did I follow/ignore my intuition and what did that look like? For me, this inner work gives me the direction and confidence I need to grow outwards. It’s not about other people’s bullet journals, Q1 targets or #MondayMotivation; it’s about switching off completely and aligning with your inner guide and flowing from that point of quiet confidence. And I started this work last November, not last week.
EXPLORE ALTERNATIVE TIMES TO PLAN, CREATE AND REAP THE REWARDS
Don’t get me wrong, every business needs a comprehensive timeline and strategy, and it would be naïve to think that we can completely reject our ‘modern’ Roman Calendar. However, over the past few years I’ve played around with a few different timelines that allow me to feel more in-sync with seasonal energies. I’ve noticed that everyone truly ‘wakes up’ in March, July is when things are at their most fast moving, September brings about a celebratory feeling, and November calls us to slow down for winter and reflect for the year ahead (The real NYNY if you will). I’ve noticed that real success and self-development happens irrespective of what quarter you’re in, and often, those Big Wins you’re hell-bent on chasing can straight up lead to Burn Outs.
With this in mind, it feels counter intuitive to assign new beginnings to 1st January, a day that doesn’t bear any real importance apart from the weight we put on it, and ourselves. This year, I’ll be flexing my business calendar to accommodate these beliefs and how I plan ‘productivity’. I’ll be overlaying the energies of the lunar calendar and incorporating my own cyclical nature with the help of Moody Month to “go with the flow” as it were, and for those who want to take things on a soul level, I’d recommend a reading with Astrologer Zoe Hind whose work takes in to account your own ‘personal vibrational signature’ and “unlocks the secret of good timing”. Because who wouldn’t want a tailor made plan of action that focuses less on what you shouldbe doing, and empowers you with what you could be doing?
REDEFINING GROWTH & SUCCESS
Real visionaries know that we’re on the cusp of a new era, and we need to update our 20th Century economics for 21st Century problems. My go-to is Oxford academic Kate Raworth, whose Doughnut Economics theory presents a model for thriving modern businesses, and highlights the many issues with our ‘onwards and upwards’ trajectory of growth economics. Her TED Talk has received over 2,750,000 views and her book of the same name was listed as one of the best of 2017 by the Financial Times. If you’re after a lesson in respecting our resources, moving beyond the myths of 'rational economic man', and an acknowledgement that nothing in this universe is linear, this is it.
If you’re wondering how to apply this to your own business model, think about your personal, energetic resources and what a typical month looks like for you. A ‘Wheel Of Life’ template can be a helpful first step in identifying areas where you’re expending too much or too little energy, and how you’re keeping that work/life balance. If you fancy a bit of homework, I’d suggest working through a copy of Designing Your Life: How To Build A Well-Lived Joyful Life, recommended to me many moons ago by ‘Happiness Coach’ and author of Love It Or Leave It, Samantha Clarke. This book helped me establish some KPIs ‘for the soul’, and included: attracting work that allowed me to champion the things I believed in most, being able to make a 9-5 a more effective 8-4, and, most rewarding of all, ‘working with people I like’. Because after all, there’s no point in being your own boss if you can’t set the rules.