The struggle is real right now to try to get the work done…both on your podcast and in your business. There’s a lot of fatigue, both decision fatigue and just generally not feeling motivated to sit down and plug away.
I hear you! I think it’s a case of the 2022s, but that doesn’t mean that we can sit back and wait until next year to do the work.
Today on the podcast, I’m sharing some tips to manage the fatigue of your podcast and business. That doesn’t mean that we’re taking a break and waiting until it feels right. Just the opposite, in fact.
Listen in to hear what’s worked for me and what might work for you.
Mentioned in This Episode Podcast
Transcript:
Abby Herman 0:10
Hey there, and welcome to episode 209 of the content experiment podcast, a podcast for podcasters that supports the idea that content and marketing are ever moving targets in any business. And it’s okay if you don’t feel like you’re doing it. All right all of the time. Here we talk about podcasting and creating content for your audience that they want to hear in a way that’s sustainable for you, the business owner, because I know that you have a lot on your plate. So I’ll give you the ideas and tricks and tools to publish your podcast consistently in a way that works for you.
Abby Herman 0:46
I’m Abby Herman, former teacher and current podcast manager, when I went full time in my business in 2013, I struggled to find the help and support that I needed that also fit into my budget. That’s what this podcast and my membership podcast is are all about, to help the business owner with a tight budget whose podcast is their primary marketing tool, for more information about the membership, and to find out how it can give you the accountability and support that you need, for a small $99 monthly investment, go to thecontentexperiment.com/ease.
Abby Herman 1:27
As I record this, it is the end of November 2022. And I’ve gotten I on some time off over the holidays. And I have some plans for the new year that I’m thinking about. At the same time, I am just starting to find my groove again, after a rather chaotic year, mostly in my personal life. But let’s be real 2022 has not been a great year for many businesses, there are so many things that we can should want to do in our businesses. And it’s really overwhelming, from email sequences to checking on our finances on a regular basis, to making sure that our content is going out consistently. And that we’re checking in with our clients as we should be. We have a lot going on in business. And of course, most of us hopefully all of us want to have some sort of personal life and want to take care of ourselves as well. So we have a lot of work that we need to do. And the biggest thing that I see holding people back in their podcasts, and basically just business in general, is the inability to make a decision, not because we lack for options, but because there are so many options, not because we don’t know what to do next, because we want to do it all next, not because we’re not sure what the next right thing is, but because we want it all to be perfect. And let’s face it our to do lists keep growing and growing, especially this time of year. And I know that you’ve heard this before, but Done is better than perfect.
Abby Herman 3:08
And if you’re going to take the next step in business, you just have to do the thing, which I know is easier said than done. Especially when our mounting to do lists and responsibilities, both in business and outside of business seem to continue to grow. And you know, we feel like there’s just so much to do all the time, especially if you are a service provider and you’re providing a service for clients. There is so much to think about. And I know that sometimes things get forgotten, or we just kind of leave off the things that we need to do for our own businesses, which is not going to help anyone in the long run. Over the last couple of months, I’ve helped a few clients launch or relaunch their podcasts. And some of them have spent a lot of time deciding on what music they’ll use or what their graphics will look like. So much so that it set them back a few months from when they wanted to launch because they just couldn’t hit go on the thing. And there was so much indecision in all of it. I’ve also seen podcasters hold themselves back because they struggle with the idea of publishing a solo episode or asking someone to be a guest or even just recording those intros and outros. Making a decision and just sitting down and doing the thing is, is a struggle. It’s real.
Abby Herman 4:33
And when we are our own boss, and we don’t have to answer to anyone except for our clients. It makes it more difficult to actually get it done. I know that that’s been the case for me at least. And I’ve struggled a lot and then this year I’ve struggled more than usual. But my biggest piece of advice is to just do it. There are Our time management tips and tricks shared all over the spectrum. They meaning the time management experts, which I most certainly am not, say to do the most difficult thing first to eat the frog so that you can just get it over with or to, or to find the most productive or creative part of your day and do the hardest thing then or set timers, block time in your calendar work in shorter time blocks work only on your podcast, certain days of the week or weeks of the month, batch record, co work on Zoom, get out of your regular routine and environment and go stayed in Airbnb or work at a coffee shop, hire someone to keep you on track. And I could go on and on and on. With all of the ways to get things done. I have tried them all, every single one of those strategies has been in my toolbox at some point or another. And they all work to some extent, but they don’t always work in the long term. And let me tell you, I am sharing this with you as I’m recording this episode less than 24 hours before it goes live.
Abby Herman 6:09
If you know me, you know that I am a planner, I love to have things on my Google Google Calendar. It makes me feel secure. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside, it just makes me feel good. I put my workouts there meetings, social events, zooms with friends, I have goals written on my Google calendar. And I put all of my travel there. And honestly, the earlier I can get all of this on my calendar, the better. I also have intentional time blocked out for myself, I call it Abby time. So I have the quiet time that I need to recharge every Friday, I take this information from my Google Calendar, and I transfer it into a paper planner, I use the full focus planner, which I love. I’ve been using it all year, and I just bought a yearly subscription for next year. Because while I love the ease of an electronic calendar, I also need to know that I have the time each week to get all of the work projects done that need to get done. So that I can enjoy that Abby time. So I can have that downtime so I can get to the gym when I want to. So that when I travel, I don’t have to work. I make a list of the client tasks that have to be done during the week. And then I block time on my paper calendar to make sure that I have time to get it all done. I also include my own podcast and my own behind the scenes work that needs to be done on a regular basis.
Abby Herman 7:47
Essentially, my full focus planner helps me create my weekly and daily to do lists. We use clickup as our project management system in my business, but having the tasks written down in a schedule format helps me to prioritize and manage my time. And I know this sounds awfully redundant. And it is. But it’s what’s working for me right now. It’s what is helping me to manage the fatigue of this podcast and my business. Because every Friday I make the decisions about what I’ll do and when for the next seven days. Does it always work the way I want and the way I have it scheduled out? Nope, not at all there. There are things that will always come up that will need my attention. Sometimes I underestimate how long it will take for me to do something sometimes I overestimate sometimes I’m just having a really crappy day feeling emotional or just really down and it makes it really difficult to get the things done that need to be done. But knowing that I have to get this episode done today, if I want to stay consistent, and that I have about 90 minutes to do it helps me to stay mostly focused, mostly not 100% it does not have to be perfect. This episode does not have to be a specific length. Although I did just catch myself looking at the timer to see how long I’ve been talking. The episode just needs to be informative and educational and to the point like I strive for with all of my episodes.
Abby Herman 9:25
Now let’s say that I had time off this morning to record an episode and I was just feeling super uninspired or I just woke up and didn’t have a great day at the gym and so I’m feeling down or tired. Well, if that happens, which it does, I do everything I can to push through that and just do it anyway. Yeah, I just do it anyway because nobody else is going to get it done. Nobody else is going to come record my podcast for me. I need to just do it. So it can couple of months ago, I bought a peloton bike. And I’ve been working through a few programs where you have to do various specific rides each week for those of you who are peloton errs, I am currently doing the Build Your power zones, which is a five week program and I have to do three rides a week, two of them are 45 minutes, and one of them is a 60 minute ride. Well, the other day I did my very first 60 minute ride, and I was really dreading it so much. Even when I pushed through and I started it about 15 minutes in, I wanted to quit, I thought well, I mean, I started it, it will still show up as having done the ride, I could quit. And I did not I stuck with it, I finished the ride. And at the end of the ride, I felt like I could have gone longer. I didn’t want to. And I didn’t have to thank goodness, but there was that feeling that I could have. And it’s the same thing with your podcast, or really any action that you need to take in your business, you do have the ability to push through, if you dig deep down and just do it, it’s not gonna feel good at first, or maybe it wouldn’t, maybe it won’t feel good the whole time you’re doing it.
Abby Herman 11:20
But when you’re done, you can look back and see what you accomplished, you’ve eaten the frog, and you have crossed something off your list. And then you can move on to the next thing, whatever that is, for me, it’s a client meeting that I have right after recording this. But sometimes I cross that podcast recording off or writing the show notes off and my reward is shutting down the computer for the day. And taking my dogs for a walk or curling up with a book. I think that there’s a lot of fatigue this time of year, we want to take time off for the holidays. So we have to do some extra work to get ready. Same thing with vacations. If you’re a service provider, you have to work ahead so that you don’t have to clock in while you’re away on vacation. For my business, we are trying to finish out this podcast and our clients podcast so that they can continue to release during the holidays and stay consistent. And we’re not slammed as soon as we get back to work in the new year. So we’re actually working to be a couple of weeks ahead. Even in January.
Abby Herman 12:26
We’re all pulling double duty right now. I’m being really annoying with my clients and, you know, pushing them to get extra episodes out. And it’s exhausting. And they probably all hate me. But I know that they will thank me in the new year. So sometimes the fatigue in our business is not something that we can manage. We just have to push through it. I know some people are listening and thinking, No, Abby, we do not have to push through it. We can take care of ourselves and not have to feel exhausted or like we’re not loving what we’re doing. I beg to differ. I think that sometimes we have to do things that we don’t want to do. I think that sometimes there are tasks in life and business that we have to do. And we have to get it done. Because nobody else is going to do it for us. Because it’s our responsibility. When I think about parenting, there were lots of things as a single mom that I did not want to do. But I did because that’s what needed to get done at that time. So that’s kind of the perspective I take on this. Yes, we do need to take care of ourselves, but we also need to get the work done. So let me just kind of review the things that are working for me right now, here are the things that I do on a consistent basis so that I can manage some of the fatigue that I’m feeling in the podcast and in my business in general. So I use a paper planner to plan out my weeks in advance so I don’t have to suffer from decision fatigue. I know what I’m going to work on and when I’m going to work on it every single day this week. Is it perfect? No. Do I always stick to that schedule? Absolutely not. But it is this thing that I can fall back on. When I am struggling.
Abby Herman 14:27
I also have blocked off intentional time for me, not just for my business but for me so that I can still do what I love to do. I have time blocked off every day seven days a week to either go to the gym, or do some sort of exercise or ride the peloton go for a walk, go for a hike every day I do something active. I also have time blocked off so I can read or walk my dogs or just generally spend time in the outdoors which is what brings me joy. It doesn’t have to be a lot of time. each week or each day, but I do need some time to do what I enjoy doing, and it’s on my calendar. And something else that I do is co working time with some of my biz besties. We have a standing appointment each week to catch up and get some work done. But I also will jump on unplanned co working zooms when needed. I’ll send somebody a message and say, Hey, I need to do this thing. I don’t want to do it. Do you want to get on Zoom, and you can do something that you don’t want to do to makes it a little bit more fun and more interesting. And it also holds me accountable for sitting in front of my computer and doing the thing. I have even had a friend who was we were co working and she saw me I kept looking down. And she called me out on it. She’s like, Get off your phone, get off Facebook and do the work. So that’s always very appreciated.
Abby Herman 15:55
I would love to know what works for you. Is there something that you’ve been doing that’s helping you through a time of fatigue in your business or your podcast? I would love to hear what it is. And you can tell me by sharing this episode on social media. You can tag me at thecontentexperiment, and let me know what you’re doing to help you through a particularly difficult or fatiguing time. Just remember that the more you share, the more we can get the podcast into the earbuds of more business owners just like you who need to hear the message that they are not alone. Until next time, take care.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
