3 time-saving boundaries you'll want to borrow ⏱
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Hey, Reader! At the start of this year, I moved my newsletter day from Thursday to Tuesday. The logic seemed sound at the time, I’d start the week strong, the newsletter would be sorted early and everything would be flowing. Reader, it has not flowed. Five months of scrambling to get this to you on time. Five months of mild Sunday dread. Five months of quietly wishing I hadn't touched what wasn't broken. So. Effective this week: we're back on Thursdays. Where we've always belonged, I think. I tend to let things simmer during the week to give me the inspo for the newsletter. So tiny experiment complete and we’re back to where we started. Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is just undo the thing that wasn't working. Which brings me perfectly to this week's three... 3 time-saving boundaries you'll want to borrow I came across a newsletter this week from Ellen Yin (Cubicle to CEO) sharing 6 time-saving boundaries she's built into her business. I kept nodding. I use versions of three of them so here they are, reframed in case they're useful for you. 1. Never give an answer in the momentCollaboration request. Speaking invite. Someone who needs a favour. "Can I pick your brain?" Podcast. Guest post. Whatever it is, I've stopped saying yes on the spot. Not because I'm not interested. But because things that feel obvious in the moment look different 24 hours later. The opportunity that seemed exciting turns out to be low-return. The collaboration that felt like a yes becomes a "not right now" when I actually look at my calendar. Or, it simply doesn’t align to my vision right now. And sometimes the answer is still yes. But it's a considered yes, which feels completely different from a pressured one. My standard response now: "That sounds super interesting. Let me get back to you by [day]." That's it. No explanation. No apology. Just a pause. 2. No agenda, no meetingBefore I agree to any call now, I ask one question: what are we hoping to achieve from this conversation? Sometimes the meeting still happens and it's genuinely useful. Sometimes it can be asynchronous and work well. And sometimes the request quietly disappears, because it turns out there wasn't really a point to begin with. The "quick call" that was going to take 30 minutes often becomes two emails or a voice message and it’s done. Protecting your calendar means asking what the outcome is before you block out the time. Anywhere I can claim back more me-time, I’ll all for it. 3. Stop giving your expertise away for freeIf you have real knowledge, someone has asked to "grab a coffee" or "just chat for 20 minutes" about something you actually charge for. If you're anything like most expert-led business owners, you probably said yes when you could have said something else. One question Ellen uses that changed how I think about this: "What are your top three questions?" I LOVE this reframe - it sounds generous, and it is. But it also immediately sorts who needs a real conversation from who just needed pointing toward a resource that already exists. It honours their time and yours. And it means you go into any conversation knowing exactly what's being asked of you, rather than finding out 40 minutes in. 2 things i'm loving ✦ The summer trouser that goes with everythingIf you haven't found your summer trouser yet — palazzo pants. Wide, flowing, almost aggressively relaxed. They work with a fitted top, a linen shirt, sandals, trainers. They move beautifully. They require zero effort. And somehow they make you look like you tried. → M&S Black Cotton Palazzo Pants only £38 ✦ The SPF I've been putting off buyingThe Supergoop Resetting Powder SPF 30. It's a setting powder with sun protection which means no more excuses for skipping SPF touch-ups mid-day. Currently 20% off at Boots, so now is genuinely the time. → Supergoop Resetting Powder SPF 30 — 20% off at Boots right now! 1 thing that made my May The Joy Experiment is done! 31 days. 31 pages. One stamp creation a day, in my sketchbook, for the whole of May. I didn't expect to love a £10 craft punch and a stack of old magazines and postcards. But there's something about making one small thing every single day (with no outcome required, no strategy, no audience in mind) that gives back more than you'd expect. I started noticing things differently. Hunting for beauty in what already existed. The pages built into something I didn't plan and it might very well have created a set of artworks to sell. If you've been running on discipline alone and quietly wondering where all the joy went: here's what I took from it → P.S. Which time-saving boundary are you going to borrow this week? Hit reply and let me know. Spread the Love. Share with a Friend. |
