Back in December 2021, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by kiwi Vince Warnock, of Chasing the Insights. He’s a Podcast host and an author, and an award winning Business and Marketing Coach and strategist.
In this episode, we discussed an uncommon topic in the productivity space – how to start creating time boundaries and flexibility in your schedule as a solo business owner. Especially when you don’t have kids.
Check out episode 131 here. Or read the transcript below.
Be sure to grab my free Solo Biz Kit for your Time/Clarity Workbook.
Transcript:
Vince 0:04
Welcome to chasing the insights the podcast designed for you, the marketer, the entrepreneur, the small business owner. I’m your host, Vince Warnock, and in each episode, we talk to the biggest and brightest brains of marketing, extracting every awesome insight to give you the unfair advantage as you grow your business.
Hello, beautiful people. Welcome to another episode of chasing the insights how you’re doing. I’m Vince Warnock. Thank you so much for taking time out of your very busy day to join me here. Oh my goodness to join me here as I talked to some of the most talented, some of the most skillful some of the most interesting people in the industry. And I’m being very specific with my words, because I’m about to introduce you to Jennifer Vela. But before I do that, you know, I have a couple of quick housekeeping things. So first of all, I don’t want you to miss a single episode of chasing the insights.
So whatever platform whatever app whatever tool, basically, however, you’re listening to this podcast right now, if you haven’t already, see that little subscribe or follow button, give that a little push. That way, you’re notified every single time this new episode. And we do multiple episodes per week, because, well, let’s be honest, we just have an amazing lineup of guests or just dying to get you content to help you move the needle for your business. Plus, speaking of good quality content, don’t forget also to check out the chase in the insights insider club. Not only is it a great way to support the show, but for $10 a month.
So essentially the price of two cups of coffee a month, you get access to something far more valuable than coffee. It is exclusive content that is going to help you to feed your mind feed your creativity and feed your entrepreneurship. So go check that out at chasing the insights.com/insider or just go to the website. You know how websites work. There’s a menu item, you click on the item and tada. You’re magically transported to the page you need.
Anyway, my friends, that is not why we’re here. Oh my goodness. I’m here to introduce you to Jennifer Vaaler. Now, Jennifer is a time optimizer not to be mistaken with Time Lord, although I think that may be a part of it as well. She helps unconventional child free solo business owners to find more time for what they love. And to find that same adventurous feeling of freedom, intentionality, and embracing life on their terms. I’m getting tongue tied here now too excited about the title of SP. Jennifer is a firm believer that life is an adventure to be joy enjoyed in the moment. Now she wasn’t naturally organized or skilled at time management. But Jennifer learned through experience by helping the neighbors declutter the offices by owning and operating to coffee drive thru’s and purging 80% of your belongings to exit an abusive relationship.
Now when Jennifer’s world was in chaos, organization and time management became the control that she needed to change her life.
Now, as a time optimizer Jennifer draws from expertise to help child-free solo business owners to find that work life alignment, and to more time to do what they want. That is freedom that is travel, try a new hobby, enjoy more sleep, whatever it is you want. Jennifer is here to help it make it help to make it happen. Oh, my goodness, Jennifer, thank you so much for joining us on the show.
Jennifer 2:59
Thank you.
Vince 3:00
Right now, I’m super excited about this episode, Jennifer, because we’re gonna be talking about something super important, which is the concept of time boundaries and flexibility in your schedule. And I know right now, every single listener is just going, Oh, hang on, I need to lean in. They need to pay attention, because that’s something that’s just about all of us fail it. And interestingly enough, I know that we’re gonna talk about this very shortly. But I know that you focus purely on on entrepreneurs that don’t have kids. But this is a concept I know, that translates across all of us as well. So before we get into that topic, tell us your backstory. Tell us how you got to where you are now. And why are you so passionate about what you do?
Jennifer 3:40
Yeah, so you kind of started it with the bio and intro. But essentially, like you said, I wasn’t naturally organized. I kind of always had a paper planner. But I never utilized it as much as they potentially should have then, right? Yeah. I didn’t even use a Google Calendar.
At the time, I was in an abusive relationship. And I had two coffee drive thru’s I was a barista and coffee shop manager in any coffee shops for over a decade before I got into this. Yeah. So the drive thru’s I really had to get used to being really efficient and making sure we got everyone through the line and everything. So I kind of took that concept and put it into a home office.
To get away from my situation, at least for a few minutes. Each day, I would go over to the neighbor’s house, and they had their own businesses and they work from home so I would help them get organized and their home offices and help them with time management and most had younger kids too. So that’s kind of where I started for that.
And then I realized, oh my gosh, this is so therapeutic. And then I ended up purging 80% of my stuff. And just getting rid of that physical clutter gave me the mental space I needed.
That confidence to just finally leave, because I knew I was meant for more, and my neighbors encouraged me to pursue that. And the rest is history. As they say.
Vince 5:34
I love it. I love that you took the courage to do that as well. Although I must say, purging 80% of your belongings makes me really nervous. Because I’m not a hoarder, but bordering on close when it comes to my Star Wars toys.
Now, we are going to be talking about this, this concept of time boundaries and flexibility and schedule. But before we kind of dig into some of the how to’s and things give us a bit of a definition by what you mean by time boundaries.
Jennifer 6:02
So essentially, it’s about knowing what you’re prioritizing and why you’re reconnecting with yourself, you know what your goals are, and why. And that way,
you can stay focused and stay on track, and then say no to everything else that doesn’t align.
And it’s really important, because it’s one time is one of your most important assets, and you don’t get it back. So it just makes sense. You need to optimize what you have.
We only die once, but we get to live every day, we need to be able to experience life to love that as this couple elements you just talked about there, which is really important.
Vince 6:44
And I just want to drill down on that for a second. But one of the aspects you talked about there is knowing why you’re doing what you’re doing, and connecting with your why. And that’s just so incredibly important. Because like you said, if you don’t know why you’re doing what you’re doing, if you don’t know that your way, then you won’t know what is adding value to your business, you won’t know what you can let go off. And I love that you said saying no to everything that doesn’t align. That is super powerful. Now, the other thing, I think you’ve covered off an aspect of this anyway, but I just want to ask you from an entrepreneurs perspective, right? We talked about time boundaries and flexibility and skill. Why is that so important to us as entrepreneurs can be we’re so passionate about what we’re doing, and we just turn into workaholics.
Jennifer 7:32
But the whole point of creating a business is so we can have all this time freedom and do our hobbies and sleep more and travel more. But we’re so focused on we’ve got to check our phones, we got to get back to our clients. When we turn into workaholics, it’s like okay, well what happened to all the fun, other fun you used to have outside of your business? So I want to like it’s all about experiencing life and not being one of these people on their deathbed regretting. What if I love it? I love the fact that when you said checking your phones immediately, probably everyone did the same thing as me, which is I immediately looked at my phone. I was like, Wait, that’s a bad thing.
Vince 8:14
Yeah, I love that. I love the angry teen there as well. Because yeah, we do we do become workaholics. It’s one of the that’s kind of jokes about entrepreneurship really, isn’t it where everyone says, I’m going to leave my corporate job, I’m going to start a business, I’m going to get all this financial freedom, I’m going to get all this time freedom. And now you’ve gone from working, you know, eight or nine hours a day to now working 24/7. And you don’t have the financial freedom, the ones here, that’s for sure. Because you’re worried about when clients are coming in and all this kind of thing, and you’re trying to build for your future. So I love this.
All right, well, we’re gonna dig into giving some advice around this because I know a lot of people now listening to this episode again, okay, I get this, I get this, Jennifer. And I want that I want to be able to not just spend all my waking hours of the day working on my business, I want to be able to spend more time with friends with family with doing whatever it is that I’m passionate about doing. So how do we go about creating these time boundaries and these flexibilities?
Jennifer 9:12
Of course, you start with your why. But as equally important is you got to get clear on where your time goes. And not just your time. Like we hear a bunch about time audits. But essentially, it’s just really getting clear on how much time a time tat at time, how much time it takes for a task who is a tongue twister, especially if it’s a new thing you’ve never done before. And that’s often we got to get used to is doing new things, the unknown. And so we need to track that and then we get more efficient, the more we do it, but something you don’t ever really hear about. Is that your energy levels your physical and mental energy adjust throughout the day.
That’s why some people are morning people, some people are evening people. And I am not one to force you to get up at 5am if you don’t want to. So knowing how your energy levels fluctuate throughout the day, so when you have the most energy, that’s the time when you do your tasks that take the most mental or physical energy. And then just knowing when to rest in between. And just taking breaks.
Vince 10:30
Yeah. So how do we then like, I love this, I love the fact there’s not just tracking your time because everyone’s in corporate done this before we do these time trackers, and they’re super stressed on it. And it kind of gives you a false sense that you have to be busy all the time. But you’ve brought in that physical mental energy aspect of that as well. So if we’re tracking that, how do we like it’s very easy to track what we’re working on? And the time of the day that it is? How do we track their energy? Like how do we actually record what it is that we’re feeling in those moments?
Jennifer 11:02
It’s actually part of my opt-in for this for everybody, my free opt-in. So it’ll actually help you visually see where your time goes. And then it’s more of a ranking system less. So someone with chronic illness like me, my energy levels, would be different from someone without a chronic illness.
In the chronic illness world we call these spoons. So maybe something like taking a shower would take majority of people only like one spoon, let’s say, for me, it might take two or three.
So, like, energy levels are different for different people, depending what’s going on and what you have going on. Yeah, so it’s your own personal ranking system. Love that. And we’re gonna put a link to that, by the way to the solo biz kit, we’re gonna put a link to that in the show notes for this episode, you’re gonna have to make sure you go to the show notes and download that free solo biz kit. Because, yeah, that’s going to help you so much to be able to track your energy levels. Love that.
Vince 12:14
Alright, so what’s the next thing that we should be doing then to diversity, we’ll put these boundaries in place and work out more flexibility.
Jennifer 12:23
You’ve got to prioritize the things that you choose to do. Once you know your why where time goes, then it’s easier to prioritize and focus on what you want to do. And that also includes adding that flexibility in your schedule. So you’re not doing everything all day long.
Vince 12:45
Yeah.
Jennifer 12:47
Structure doesn’t have to be boring. It’s not about creating a really strict schedule. It doesn’t need to be strict, it doesn’t need to be boring. The point of it is to prevent that decision fatigue. That way, you know what’s going on. But you also have this white space that way, if something comes up or an opportunity comes up or life happens, you can still shift things around and still meet your deadlines.
Vince 13:17
Yeah, that’s super important. I love what you say they prioritize this couple of things here. Actually, there’s one on one of them, you say prioritize what you choose to do. There was Sousa heard that it was like, Ah, yes. Because often, this is the challenge we have as entrepreneurs, often when we put down our to do list, it’s kind of like we’re being told what to do. Even though it’s asked telling ourselves what to do. It’s like, I have to do this, or, or even I want to do this, actually deciding that I choose to do this means you’re in control, and you’re in the power. And that is just a powerful position to come from as an entrepreneur.
But the other thing you talked about preventing decision fatigue, but also you talked about the flexibility piece. So how do we how do we go about and it’s gonna sound random, but scheduling flexibility, because we talked about the fact that we were going to connect with the things that we know, connected with our way we’re going to connect with the things that are really important that we need to be working on. But how do we actually structure that for flexibility? Is it something we’ve built into the calendar? Or is that more of a mindset that we have to do?
Jennifer 14:22
A little bit of both, but definitely scheduling it into your calendar. Yeah. And it can always move around throughout the day.
Something I always try to make clear is that whether you have a paper planner or Google Calendar, whatever you use, I personally cannot write in pen. For me a pen means it’s set in stone. Nothing is set in stone. Things happen. Things can be moved around. And this makes it easier to go with the flow of life. And it’s okay to move things around.
You just got to be careful of how much you move things around. You can’t just keep putting things off. And if you keep putting things off, then that’s a whole other issue you need to look at pretty much. But you basically just schedule it.
Vince 15:13
Yeah. So how do we know the difference between this is a really good point. So if I look at my calendar, for example, I’ll have a pile of things that I need to achieve in the day. Some of those are time, folks. So obviously, we’re doing this podcast recording that time, folks, because I’m on a call with somebody else. Some of those are just blocks of time where I want to work on my next book, or work on getting something ready for the publisher or something. But how do we know the difference between allowing ourselves flexibility because of our winning energy levels, versus procrastination, or versus us just fearing that if we complete that we’re going to be seen? If we complete that, then people can judge us? And so how do we just basically make sure that we’re taking the right action based on our energy versus the wrong action based on your insecurities?
Jennifer 15:59
Well, that’s where self awareness really comes in. That really helps. And that’s also what I help with. Yeah. So ultimately, you’ve got to really be being in alignment, knowing your why, what you really want to achieve. You’re gonna have your big vision. But you also got to think about short term as well.
Vince 16:20
Yeah.
Jennifer 16:21
But yeah, think of the white space as time blocking as well. So time block a little bit of time, it can be 15 minutes, it can be an hour. Yeah. Each day, you start with a little bit, and then you build up more, whatever works in your schedule.
Vince 16:38
Love that. Awesome, Jennifer. I’m just, there’s always the awkward thing, being a podcast host, by the way, because you’re interviewing people, and you got to be present and focus for them and ask them follow up questions. But half the time you’re learning yourself, and you’re like, Oh, my goodness, I just write down white space is going, I need to book in some way that basically I need to block out white spaces in my calendar. Otherwise, it’s depressing. I just look at my calendar. It’s just full every day. This is cool. All right. Well, let’s, before we get to get into the part of the show, where I asked the same question, for all my guest, what is the kind of another tip or another process we need to go through to put those time boundaries in place?
Jennifer 17:14
Start saying “no” more.
Vince 17:20
Everybody’s just going to stop right now. They like way, way, way, saying “no” more. Tell us?
Jennifer 17:25
Yeah, no, it was gonna be your favorite word. No, but because boundaries, teach others how to treat you. And the more you say yes to other people, the more they’re going to take advantage of that. And so when you start putting boundaries in place, it’s going to feel aggressive, it’s going to feel strange, and people might not react. But you got to remember, their reaction is not your fault. It’s just what they’re used to. And whatever their own beliefs and their stuff they’re going through, is reflecting on you.
So these boundaries can be part of your contracts, setting office hours, yeah, making sure they know when you can get back to them, or when they can get in touch with you. So it’s making sure or this is a one time thing. And that’s it, and just being very firm about it. And the more you’re able to put boundaries in place, the more people are going to respect you.
Vince 18:32
I love that. I love that it’s not. I love what you put upon the so actually building it into the contract when you’re working with the client. But putting in the office hours, but actually putting the expectation of when you can get back to them. So it’s been really clear that, you know, it’s not five minutes after, in fact, I wasn’t a client of mine. But I definitely have had people before where they’ll send you they’ll comment on something or they’ll send you a message. They’ll DM you. And then five minutes later, there’s a reply DM going, oh, so are you ignoring me now? Or another five minutes later going, I really need you to get back to me. It’s like, well, first of all, it’s the timezone difference. And I’m asleep right now. So actually replying to them is really hard when you’re asleep. So I love the love of it, you actually set their expectation up front of the hour, basically, when they can expect to get a reply.
This is also I know, there’s a whole pile of people making notes right now. Because I am as well. And for all of you, you know what you’re going to have to do, you’re gonna have to go back and listen to this episode again, aren’t you because right now you’re probably driving like I do when I’m listening to podcasts, you’re probably going for a run or going for a walk. And it’s really hard to make notes. So when you get back to the office, you have to listen to this again, or even better, go to the show notes of this episode, download the free solo biz kit, and then reach out to Jennifer and I’ll put all that in the show notes as well, because she is going to be able to help you with this because I love what you said at the beginning.
We want to get to the point where we can do the things that we love. We want to get to the point where we’re not tied to being a workaholic, we’re not tied to trying to build this thing. We’re building it, but at the same time enjoying it, which is super important.
Oh, man. All right. Well, we are at the point of the show, Jennifer, where I do like to ask the same question of all my guests, which are, what are the three practical tips? So three things that you advise everyone listening the show right now? What are the three things they need to do right now to move the needle for the business?
Jennifer 20:19
1) Don’t schedule every minute of your day.
Vince 20:24
Oh, now I’ve already failed.
Jennifer 20:29
2) That white space so you can have more flexibility?
Vince 20:32
Yep.
Jennifer 20:32
3) And make “no” your favorite new word.
Vince 20:36
No. Say see, this is a challenge to give us openly because I’m going right now looking at my calendar again. Yep, I’ve booked out every minute of the day. I have no white space in there. And to make it worse, saying no, just it’s really difficult when you’re a people pleaser, like I am going to have.
Jennifer 20:52
It takes practice.
Vince 20:53
Yeah, but that’s it. We’re gonna have to practice. I’m gonna have to schedule calls with you, Jennifer, on how to say “no” all the time.
Jennifer 21:00
haha ok.
Vince 21:02
Awesome. Alright Jennifer, this has been super powerful and super valuable as well, because I know, this is something that I struggle with personally. So I know if I struggle with this. Everyone knows investors as well. Because you know, my audience, I know them well.
So yeah, everyone, I’m going to leave as I said, leave links to every way you can connect with Jennifer in the show notes for this episode. So make sure you go to chase the insights comm look for this episode. And then I want you to click on all the links, go and connect with Jennifer on social, or more importantly, download that free solo biscuit and get started on giving yourself that freedom, giving yourself the ability to have time boundaries, and to have flexibility in your schedule, so that you can actually enjoy this ride. Crazy thought I know. And Jennifer, thank you so much for joining us. Seriously, it’s such an honor having you on the show.
Jennifer 21:50
Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Excited. Awesome.
Vince 21:54
Well as the city run, don’t forget, check out the show notes of this episode. And just go and click on all the links, you know, you want to, you know, you have to okay, just go there, click on all those links and connect with Jennifer. But also don’t forget to subscribe or follow to this podcast. If you haven’t already. Just give that button a little push. That way you’re notified every single time there’s a new episode. And of course, don’t forget to check out the chase in the insights insider club, as I say a great way to support the show, but also a great way for you to get access to exclusive content that is behind the scenes of the podcast, it is masterclasses downloads. So so much more. Go check that out at chasing the insights.com/insider.
Now, my friend, I want you to pay attention for a moment. Okay, I know I know you well, I know right? Now you’re all going, I need to go and check out the show notes. I need to go and connect with Jennifer, I need that solo biz kit. Yes, you do. But pause for a moment because I want you to be very, very present for this part.
All right, because I want you to know something that I think is really important. And that is that you are very special. You are an entrepreneur, my friend. And despite the fact that as an entrepreneur, we surround ourselves with all these other entrepreneurs. So we seem to think that everyone in the world is building a business, everyone’s an entrepreneur. The fact is, that’s not the case. In fact, you are one of a very small percentage of human beings that have the courage, the tenacity and the passion, to birth, something new into this world. I mean, think about that for a moment.
I happen to think that is freaking awesome, you are taking something that doesn’t exist. It’s a seed a thought an idea. And you are calling it into existence, that my friend is worth acknowledging and is worth recognizing on your life. But more than that, it is worth celebrating.
So on behalf of both Jennifer and myself, we just want to wish you all of the health, all of the wealth, all of their happiness, or the success and all of the love that you so rightfully and I do mean rightfully deserve. And I want you to do a couple of quick favors for me, right? These are really important.
The first of these is really simple. I want you to close your eyes. Or if you’re driving, maybe don’t close your eyes, maybe pull over and close your eyes or do this when you get home. But I want you to close your eyes. And imagine your best ever customer. You know the one you know the one that every time they DM you every time they drop your link or email you or send you an email, every time they do that you’re like, Yes, I can’t wait to help them. I want you to pitch to them. I want you to picture the way you talk to them. I want you to picture the way you encourage them. Then you empower them. I want you to picture what they what you do when they succeed and how you celebrate with them. I want you to picture what they what happens when they hit the wall when they fall down. How you pick them up, dust them off, stand beside them and say let’s go in this direction. I want you to picture all of those interactions.
And then my friend, I want you to to treat yourself the exact same way. You see the world needs what you’re doing. But more than that, it needs more of you in it. So be incredibly kind to yourself, my friend. This this roller coaster ride we have of entrepreneurship is is crazy at best. So we want to we want you to not only survive that we want you to thrive that we want you to build the business that you want the dream business that gives you that Freedom that Jennifer talked about. So keep putting one foot in front of each other.
And then this brings me to my second favourite half of you, which is on those times where you do fall down where you stumble, or where you hit the wall. On those days where you get up and go, What the hell am I doing with my life, I can’t do this, I can’t face the day or I can’t face my clients, or it’s just really difficult. On those days, I want you to promise me this, I want you to promise me that you will understand this fundamental truth. And that truth is, there are a whole pile of people in this world that genuinely wants you to succeed. So reach out to them.
Reach out to your coaches and mentors. If you’ve got them. Reach out to your peers, reach out to friends and family if it’s appropriate.
Reach out to Jennifer reach out to me, we are in your corner, and we want you to succeed. As I said, the world needs what you’re doing. But more than that, it needs more of you in it. So keep putting one foot in front of each other, my friend, keep pressing in. Keep being the absolute Legion that you are.
And this is chasing the insights. I’ve been sworn up and you my friend are an absolute legend. Don’t ever forget it. And don’t you dare tell. Don’t you dare let anybody ever tell you otherwise. I will see you in the next episode.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
If you liked this post, then you may also like: Why I’m Child-free by choice as a business owner in my 30’s.
___
What was your biggest ah-ha moment about time boundaries and flexibility in your schedule? Share below.