When are you at your most productive?

I hope heading into the weekend you feel that you have had a productive week.?Whilst I've been super busy with client work, and have had some brilliant discovery calls this week,?there has also been time to work on other projects.??

We spend so much time as business owners supporting our clients and so often I hear people say that they never have time to work on their business.?I felt the same for a long time and then I made some big changes to the way I work.?It begins with prioritising yourself!

Firstly I identified what days would work?best to work?on the business, and this has turned out to be Wednesday afternoons and Fridays - this took trial and error to see what pattern best fit and that actually worked.?These are the days that tended to be quieter for my client work.?I schedule in blocks of time for CPD and also the doing-stuff like marketing and?writing this newsletter for example.??

Also think about WHEN you are more creative - maybe you are a morning person or an evening person, so book the work in for when you feel most creative.??Then you (just!) have to make sure you do it!

On Fridays I join an online co-working session and fire things off my list then too.??OK, so I don't have it completely nailed yet and do stray into client work when someone needs something occasionally (especially when I'm procrastinating about doing something) but the to-do list is definitely decreasing!

I also?go to a?coworking venue -?in person - once a month if I can and save a list of jobs to do then, as when I have a change of scenery I feel more creative and tend to power through the list.

Do you plan in time to work on your business, and if not, would any of these tips help?

In my world

Whilst we are most definitely in nativity season, with Bethan singing songs from their production (which randomly includes the song 9-5 by Dolly Parton which is sung by the angels - intriguing!) last week was all about Children In Need and Bethan had to get the dog involved too!?

I had to be quick to take the shot, as Ember doesn't like her photo taken :)?

TOP TIP FOR THE WEEK

Another productivity tip!?A while back someone mentioned to me that they have call-free days.?So these are days when you protect your time and whilst you might be working on things for your clients, you don't book any calls in.?As you well know, when you have a call with a client, you then have a mountain of work that comes out of it, so having call-free days protects that time.?Don't forget to change your on-line scheduler if you use one!??Try it and let me know how you get on.

Case Study: Lizz Jones/ Tallant Jones

We are very grateful to our lovely client Lizz for agreeing to share a few words about how (in her words) the support from Jayne has "made a?significant difference to?the way (she's) able to run?and scale the business".

After an initial bedding in period, Lizz found that Jayne brought her ideas and?suggestions to the table, offering a more collaborative approach. Lizz enjoys the fact she?has someone who simply ‘gets it’ and who she can bounce ideas around with as well as?rely on having sound judgement.

Read the full case study here.

I hope you've found this week's content useful, thank you for giving me a little of your time to share my tips with you.?

Where I'll Be!

You can find me at the following events, do come and say hello, or if you'd like to find out about these events, reply to this email.

* Devon Women In Business Awards 26th November, Buckfast Abbey

* Coworking Devon 8th December, Buckfastleigh

* Business to Boardroom 14th December, Exeter Library

* Samphire Club Christmas Party, 14th December, Old Walls Vineyard

For the Christmas break, the office will be closing on 16th December at 230pm and will re-open on 4th January at 930am.