Ruthlessly Eliminate What Holds You Back: Solopreneur Insights, Vol. 17
“Half of knowing what to do is knowing what not to do.”
I wish I could have carved this into my skull when I first started out. One of the best parts of Solopreneurship is that you finally have no boss telling you what to do. But, here’s what most people miss: When your boss was telling you what to do, they were simultaneously telling you what NOT to do. This framework served their business, and it will serve yours as well.
Search and Destroy Mission
Once you start logging your time to develop systems, you’ll shine a light on every little thing you do throughout your days.
You’ll find lots of activities that contribute to your effectiveness.
You’re also going to find lots of actions that fall under these categories:
They don’t add value
They don’t make you money
They don’t save you time
They don’t get you closer to your goals
And, this isn’t just for beginners. One of my most important systems involves routinely assessing where I’m spending my time and what can be eliminated from my activities. I carefully examine each activity to see if it falls under one of the four categories above. If so, it’s gotta go.
Since I’m writing these articles in a series—and core ideas get distributed across several articles—there’s an important thing to keep in mind: These aren’t tasks that should be automated or delegated.
These are tasks that should be straight-up nuked.
They’re not important for you, they’re not important for someone else, and they’re not important for any of our soon-to-be sentient tech tools.
What are these activities? Well, the honest answer is “anything that fits one of the descriptions above for you.” You need to go through the task of observing your own time. Not only am I feeling severely disinterested in coddling anyone at the moment, but the act of observation itself provides as much value as the data you log.
Nevertheless, I won’t leave you hanging. There are some common examples of activities that I see Solopreneurs facing. In the spirit of not coddling, I’m going to refrain from any specific “how to solve your issues” list. By now, I think you’ve likely picked up no fewer than 10 billion tips and tactics for how to kick unhealthy habits. Identify the detrimental actions below, then attack them as you see fit.
Dopamine hits
These are the tasks that give you that little bump of dopamine. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but virtually every media company and app are specifically designed to keep you coming back like a rat to cocaine water. Email, social media, and basically the entire internet are prime culprits. Be honest about these time blocks. If you’ve ever checked your screen time report on your phone, you’re likely shocked when it shows you spent 3 hours and 42 minutes on your screen today. The data doesn’t lie.
Existence validation
Especially in the corporate world, people can skate for literally years doing nothing but showing up and breathing. They operate in an endless cycle of meetings, busy work, and shifting papers from one side of their desk to the other. Nothing created. Nothing solved. Nothing to show for it. While pointless meetings are the most visible expression of this, busy work and task switching are more insidious. Pay particular attention to activities that feel productive, but don’t actually do any of the four items listed above. Also, recognize that every task has start and stop time. Observe any transition time spent between tasks. When reviewing your time logs, you’ll see that there’s lots of wasted time switching between tasks that could be eliminated if you just batched them together.
Neuroticism
Solopreneurs tend to value control over their time, money, and environment. Believe it or not, this control can sometimes be accompanied by a desire to control external factors, as well. Slipping into the abyss of neuroticism looks like overly organizing, cleaning, tidying, planning, researching, and micro-managing. I’m all for being neat, tidy, and accurate. I definitely love legit plans. But, there’s a point where these become unproductive tasks that might scratch a mental itch, but do nothing to move the needle in the real world.
Wallowing in despair
One of my favorite quotes of all time is this: “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Maybe you’ve heard it.
Look, down days are inevitable. I have them just like anyone else. But, make no mistake: they’re expensive for us Solopreneurs. Add the destructive habits of negativity, complaining, drifting, and overthinking, and you’re mixing a cocktail that leaves you nothing but misery in return. Solopreneurship is no place for limiting beliefs, gossip, or any other self-destructive behavior. Pay particular attention to these.
Random box from Hell
Finally, there are activities that don’t have a neat little category, but creep up regardless. These are simple distractions, feeling stuck, procrastination, and grinding. Solopreneurs often work from home, and home provides lots of benefits and comforts. It also tends to provide distractions in the form of pets, deliveries, children, or a neglected to-do list items that look oh-so-appealing as a way of putting off that project. Or, maybe it’s that nice quiet space that’s great for focus, but can also leave you feeling alone and lacking energy from other humans. It can be so comfortable that you work right when you wake up. And, then all day. And, then into the evening. And, even sometimes when you can’t sleep. With no commute to book-end our workday, we’re particularly susceptible to working non-stop. All of these activities are detrimental to our success. As vague as they can feel, we must learn how to recognize them and learn to eliminate them.
Take a methodical approach
As you work through each day, keep track of these activities. Look for these symptoms. You’re not going to identify them all at once, and you’re not going to eliminate them all at once. That’s OK. The trick is to get in the habit of reviewing your time, observing detrimental behaviors, then eliminate them as you see fit. Like anything else, you’ll look back in a short time and be impressed with your progress.
– Torrey