Life is too short…
To keep investing your limited resources (time, energy, money…) in activities, tasks, strategies, ideas, products, clients and anything else that does NOT work…
This is true in your business, AND… in EVERY other area of your life.
This week, we’re going to do an…
Autumn Cleanup
Everything that doesn’t support you must go.
A quick reminder, to stay in the program, we expect you to participate fully in the program for the coming 6 weeks.
No stories. No excuses.
There are 6 more assignment weeks
You’ll have to do them ALL. FULLY!
There are 2 more Hot Seat sessions:
- November 10 – at 8pm
- December 8 – at 8pm
Make sure you are present.
Make sure you are asking a question.
There are 2 more bonus workshops:
- My Resilience Blueprint – November 24 – at 8pm
- Level Up My Business – December 22 – at 8pm
You do NOT have to join any of these… these workshops are OPTIONAL.
BUT… if you do choose to join any of them – each has an OBLIGATORY preparation assignment, which you MUST complete to attend.
So, again… choose wisely!
Assuming you’re committed to complete the program till the end…
Let’s start with…
Decluttering your business (and life)
You’ve already looked at the things that do not work (anymore) in your business, in last week’s assignment.
This week we’ll ask you to look again and create 3 action plans to declutter your business from whatever doesn’t deliver you results (anymore).
If your business is already a lean machine, or you’re just starting, take this week to declutter any area in your life where there are things that do not work.
Let’s start with your MINDSET…
The Pareto principle (80/20 rule) states that the majority of your results come from a small number of causes.
While the majority of causes will create only a tiny part of your results.
It’s time… to get rid of anything that doesn’t contribute (anymore) to your desired results.
Set your GOAL for this week…
Here’s a great goal for you:
I am going to get rid of anything that doesn’t work anymore.
How’s that for a 5-day challenge?
Choose the STRATEGY you will use…
Here is the 5-step process you could follow in order to achieve that goal:
- Identify all the tactics/strategies/products/actions/people that don’t produce results in your business (or in your life);
- Divide those into 3 lists – easy to eliminate, requires some effort to eliminate, difficult to eliminate;
- Eliminate all the items on your “easy to eliminate” list;
- Eliminate all the items on your “requires some effort to eliminate” list;
- Eliminate all the items on your “difficult to eliminate” list.
PLAN your actions in your agenda…
Your next step is to physically plan this process in your agenda.
Remember – the whole purpose of the Working ON Your Business (WOMB) program is to get you in the habit of investing EVERY DAY 10-15 minutes working ON your business…
So, my suggestion, don’t do all the exercises in one batch – but stick to the “schedule” I recommend… It will build the right habit, that would serve you for the rest of your business life.
Plan to invest 10-15 minutes EVERY DAY in the coming 5 days to follow the process above.
Now it’s time to IMPLEMENT…
Take 10-15 minutes, right now, and…
- Day 1 – Make a complete list of all the tactics, strategies, products, actions, people, etc… that don’t produce results in your business (anymore).
For example, in my business: Facebook and LinkedIn marketing produced zero ACTUAL results, we had several products (e.g. the resiliency training) that didn’t sell at all, and me blogging every week stopped delivering results a few years back…
If your business is a lean machine, or you’re just starting – pick up an area in your life – finances, relationships, health… and do the process in that area.
Post your list in the comment box.
- Day 2 – Divide your list from yesterday into 3 lists: easy to eliminate, requires some effort to eliminate, difficult to eliminate.
Post your 3 lists in the comment box. - Day 3 – Eliminate all the items on your “easy to eliminate” list.
For example, my LinkedIn account brought me nothing (not that I ever tried to make it work). So… as I’m writing this, I logged in to LinkedIn and deleted my account.
That was easy, painless and quick (less than 45 seconds).This is a hard assignment.
It’s hard to look at something you invest a lot of time, effort and possibly money, and honestly say “actually, it doesn’t work”.But this is crucial…
You have limited resources (time, energy, money) and you must be able to identify, admit and “kill” non productive “weeds” in your business.Please share what you eliminated in the comment box.
- Day 4 – Make a PLAN how to eliminate all the items on your “require some effort to eliminate” list and schedule the actions in your agenda.
For example, although I don’t use Facebook for years, I still have 4,500 “friends” and over 50,000 followers. So, I need to figure out how to get rid of it in a smart way.
I now set up a plan how to do it and my goal is to complete it by November 29.Please share your plan and commitment in the comment box.
- Day 5 – Make a PLAN how to eliminate all the items on your “difficult to eliminate” list and schedule the actions in your agenda.
For example, at the beginning of the year we realized that 96% of our mailing list subscribers didn’t buy anything from us in the last 3 years. And yet, we kept delivering free value to all of them every SINGLE week.The decision was clear… remove over 12,000 subscribers from our mailing list. But that wasn’t an easy decision to implement, and it took some planning and communication before it was completed around May (4 months later).
Please share your plan and commitment in the comment box..
Each day share with us in the comment box the lists you wrote.
My commitment to you…
- I’m looking forward to read your process and ideas below;
- I will be there for you on Wednesday to support you with any question, challenge or setback you encounter;
- I’m looking forward to celebrate your progress and results on Friday.
Live fully, stay awesome,
Nisandeh
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Day 3: Things that I eliminated from the easy to eliminate list
- I bought a new mobile phone with a subscription from a new provider.
- I unsubscribed from about 10 newsletters.
- I said more “no” to requests from others
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Goal: >>I am going to get rid of anything that doesn’t work anymore<<
WEEK 20 / Day 5 –This is my PLAN how to eliminate all the items on my “difficult to eliminate” list and schedule the actions in my agenda.
This list is well difficult to PLAN. There is a reason why these items are difficult to eliminate. For my the reason is primarily an emotional reason. I always think ahead trying to overlook the emotional impact of the decision I take asking myself how difficult it is to handle the impact. Am I ready to be completely on my own if that is going to be the result of my decision.
DIFFICULT TO ELIMINATE
Apartment in Denmark
DECISION WILL BE MADE DURING THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY 2022
Fulltime assignments less unless they add to my purpose
ALL FUTURE ASSIGMENTS WELL BE MAPPED AGAINST A CHECKLIST ENSURING THAT IT COMPLY TO MY VALUES.
THE CHECKLIST WILL BE MADE UP NOVEMBER 17, 2022
My house in the Netherlands unless I turn it into a full Airbnb with all the additional services I’ve worked out last week
DECISION WILL BE MADE PRIOR TO THE SUMMER HOLIDAY 2023
Print-outs which are not used
DECEMBER 2022 / JANUARY 2023
My last network group
DECISION WILL BE MADE BY THE LATEST DECEMBER 31st
All my MUST DO Habits which are causing serious stress
I ACTIVELY OBSERVE ALL MY HABITS TO CHECK WHETHER THEY ARE TO MY OWN BENEFITS, ADD VALUE TO MY PURPOSE or ARE INHERETED FROM MY PARENTS in which case I check if they still serve me or prevent me from becoming whom I am meant to be.
A great number of old instructions or information from my cupboards which are of no value anymore (from my library)
WILL BE COMPLETED DURING THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY 2022
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Goal: >>I am going to get rid of anything that doesn’t work anymore<<
WEEK 20 / Day 4 – This is my PLAN how to eliminate all the items on my “require some effort to eliminate” list with scheduled the actions in my agenda.
REQUIRES SOME EFFORT TO ELIMINATE
Lease car – SUNDAY 13/11/2022
I need to find a trustworthy platform which facilitates the selling of a lease car. At the same time I also recognize that I really like this car. There is a lot of space in it. It is a automate which is very nice with all my annual kilometres. The problem is that my work situation has change with the moving of my daughter and her family to Germany. With my time spent between Denmark, The Netherlands and Germany I pass the kilometres allowed within 4 month which means that all kilometres after that are twice as expensive.
Acquaintances which cost energy – PARTLY DONE.
Over the last 20 years my list of acquaintances is reduced from 72 to around 12-15 close friends excluding family.
2 remains which I cannot part from at the moment as I have an obligation from a beloved parted friend. One of the persons is his ex-wife which he cared very much for and which is emotionally a rag.
All the mails in my mailbox leaving a serious footprint – 27/12/2022
I will first attempt to do this on my own by putting all my mails on a usb stick. After that I start from scratch dealing with my mailbox on a daily basis. I will look for a PA/VA to support me with all my administrative work including mailbox management.
A number of books which does not add any value to my knowledge – 28/12/2022
A great number of stuff from my basement – 14/1/2023
Due to a flood in my storm following the last storm in March 2022, I have already emptied a huge amount of stuff from my basement. Still enough remains to be of impact to my creative flow. The rest will be removed on January 14, 2023
A great number of stuff from my garage – 2+3/12/2022
My garage has been emptied many times. Last time I rented one enormous container. Somehow it seems like I attract stuff like bees are attracted to flowers. It is also caused my the passing of my mother and stepfather whereby I am granted a lot of beautiful stuff forgetting that my house does not have enough room to store it. Besides from that I also feel more and more that stuff do not make one happy. On the contrary.
A great number of stuff my from attic – 11 + 12/2-2023
This is going to be a serious challenge. I have so much stuff from when the children were small together with my own stuff from the last years that this is going to be a serious and emotional exercise which makes
A huge number of letters from the last many years – 21/1/2023
I have so many bags of letters from years back. It is a major exercise but an important one for my feeling of freedom and energy.
A great number of apps – 17/11-2022
I now have 4 pages full. This should be reduced to 1,5 I would say.
A great number of magazines –
Clothes which I don’t use – 4/12/2022
A great number of toilet articles – 30/12/2022
A great number of make-up articles – 30/12/2022
My storage room in Denmark – 28/11/2022
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All the activities have been added to my agenda with the titel "W.O.M.B. - REQUIRES SOME EFFORT TO ELIMINATE"
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WEEK 20 / Day 3 – Eliminate all the items on my “easy to eliminate” list.
During WOMB I have eliminated a great number of products, networks, stuff from my garage, shed and basement. I have removed more stuff than I ever dreamt of. And it feels great. Not only does it free up an enormous amount of energy but it also helps putting my mind to rest.
The EASY to ELIMINATE list is the next things to be eliminated. As I am living in my chalet at the moment some of the actions will have to wait until end of November, beginning of December when I am back in my house. I have therefore categorised each area with the dates/period PLANNED.
EASY TO ELIMINATE
Subscriptions which I don’t use – WEDNESDAY 9/11-2022
Services I don’t benefit from – WEDNESDAY 9/11 and SUNDAY 13/11-2022
Hosting company which is not used – SUNDAY 13/11-2022
A number of overcoats – SATURDAY 3/12-2022
A great number of shoes – 27/12-2022
A great number of mocks – SATURDAY 3/12-2022
A great number of bedlinen – DONE!
A great number of tablecloths – 28/12-2022
Á great number of plates – 29/12-2022
A great number of kitchen cutlery – 29/12-2022
All the dates with the specific actions have been scheduled in my agenda using the title W.O.M.B. – EASY TO ELIMINATE ACTIONS TO TAKE
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Goal: >>I am going to get rid of anything that doesn’t work anymore<<
WEEK 20 /Day 2 – These are my 3 lists: easy to eliminate, requires some effort to eliminate, difficult to eliminate based on the list from WEEK 20/Day 1
EASY TO ELIMINATE
Subscriptions which I don’t use
Services I don’t benefit from
Hosting company which is not used
A number of overcoats
A great number of shoes
A great number of mocks
A great number of bedlinen
A great number of tablecloths
Á great number of plates
A great number of kitchen cutlery
REQUIRES SOME EFFORT TO ELIMINATE
Lease car
Acquaintances which cost energy
All the mails in my mailbox leaving a serious footprint
A number of books which does not add any value to my knowledge
A great number of stuff from my basement
A great number of stuff from my garage
A great number of stuff my from attic
A huge number of letters from the last many years
A great number of apps
A great number of clothes
A great number of magazines
Clothes which I don’t use
A great number of toilet articles
A great number of make-up articles
My storage room in Denmark
DIFFICULT TO ELIMINATE
Apartment in Denmark
Fulltime assignments less unless they add to my purpose
My house in the Netherlands unless I turn it into a full Airbnb with all the additional services I’ve worked out last week
Print-outs which are not used
My last network group
All my MUST DO Habits which are causing serious stress
A great number of old instructions or information from my cupboards which are of no value anymore (from my library)
…
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WEEK 20 / Day 1 – This is my (complete) list of all the tactics, strategies, products, actions, people, etc… that don’t produce results in my business (anymore).
Subscriptions which I don’t use
Services I don’t benefit from
Lease car
Apartment in Denmark
Hosting company which is not used
Print-puts which are not used
Clothes which I don’t use
Acquaintances which cost energy
Fulltime assignments less unless they add to my purpose
My house in the Netherlands unless I turn it into a full Airbnb with all the additional services I’ve worked out last week
All the mails in my mailbox leaving a serious footprint
My last network group
All my MUST DO Habits which are causing serious stress
A number of books which does not add any value to my knowledge
A great number of stuff from my basement
A great number of stuff from my garage
A great number of stuff my from attic
A huge number of letters from the last many years
A number of overcoats
A great number of shoes
A great number of mocks
A great number of apps
A great number of bedlinen
A great number of clothes
A great number of tablecloths
Á great number of plates
A great number of kitchen cutlery
A great number of magazines
A great number of old instructions or information from my cupboards which are of no value anymore (from my library)
A great number of toilet articles
A great number of make-up articles
My storage room in Denmark
…
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Aditionally, after the business buddy meeting:
- I stop going to parties or family-gatherings I don't like to go to
- I eliminate complaining the best I can, and I try to be thank full for all the disturbance and challenges and ask myself the question what it may bring. Furthermore I will take the situation as it is and make the best of it, everything I need is already there so no need to say: what if i have bla bla..
- stop with assumptions, be open minded
- stop with habit of going to late to bed
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Easy
- I have a “roof-team” that always keeps me stressed about their works and how they work. I put these guys to non-active. Action/commitment: I will eliminate them from the possibilities for letting them do some work for us. These guys are simply no subcontractors for me anymore from now on.
- Stop treating myself as a “normal installer”, we have a mission, I want to become more clear about. Action/commitment: create content that provides the back-ground story and the decision on what we do, why and how and with whom.
- Small projects, small prices. Action/commitment: the smaller the project the more expensive per panel the project will be. Small project: fair price. Same holds for sub-contractor work.
Harder
- Stop “no-follow up” on prospects I did put some effort in. Action: as soon as I start putting effort in one of my clients/and or prospects, I also commit to the follow up or I make sure I make a colleague responsible for this.
- Work without clarification of expectations towards my colleagues. Action/commitment: make a handbook, make it explicit. For the time being take every time we start a job the space to agree on the way we work and set a high goal.
Difficult
- Stop not being honest to clients that I don’t like to work for/or deliberating on a job that seems to provide troubles. I usually I don’t tell anything but just keep on playing nice and promising my input, although I should be telling the client I don’t want or can’t work with them.
- Stop hiding. The most important AND difficult thing to do to plan for expressing who I am and where I stand for. The first thing will be to organize and delegate all the follow up on prospects and to organize the way people can reach us. Secondly start telling my story. I need to get clear on the mission I am actually on.
- Stop working from 6:30 to 22:30 on one job. Either find a way to make it work in just less time or stop more early and accept you need to come back another day. Action/commitment: schedule the day and keep track. Set goals and if they are not reached, make sure there is a way to deal with the unfinished job.
- Feeling guilty about relax time, sports time and vision-quest time. Action/commitment. Make sure these things are part of the plan.
Celebration:
- this weekend my wife was away and I was with the kids. So yesterday evening I took the time to cycle home from a autumn-market from school with the kids and I made some really nice pizza and hot chocolate.
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The list will follow. But here is the fist thing:
Stop hiding. The most important AND difficult thing to do to make a plan for expressing who I am and where I stand for
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Day 5
Difficult to eliminate
== ===============
- Working full-time and being a co-parent >50% as a result of which the company does not get focus
- Procrastination
I won't quit my full-time job and definitely don't want to see my kids less. So the key is to get back in line and quit procrastination.
Will chunk down my business activities and commit myself to 30 minutes a day working ON the business.
Then focussing on the progress of the process, not primary on the result . In Q1 and Q2 of 2023 I'll plan only a few live trainings.
Will use this time as a transition to move to a fully online business.
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Day 4
Requires some effort
=================
- My lack of focus on the business
- No marketing strategy
- No sales strategy
After 2 years with all the Covid issues, I’ve lost focus on my business and focussed on my kids and daytime job.
Over the last few years, my business didn't fit anymore with my life as being a single parent. Many time I thought of quitting my business because it costs more energy than I got out of it.
Thinking time about my business brought me back to my stay in Tenerife, where the plan was born to transform my business with all live trainings to a fully online academy. Back home I've started this for B2B clients, but also lost focus over time.
I’ve joined the WOMB program to get the input and inspiration to rediscover my why, target audience etc. for the online business.
There’s urgency to create a marketing and sales strategy for the online academy instead of the live trainings.
So I’ll use this Q4 to develop, plan and schedule the activities to get to these strategies.
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Difficult to eliminate:
give instead of receive
helping to much / start asking help
habits not regular / write new habits in my agenda
giving money instead of receiving / focus on the receiving
I wrote these lines als in my agenda... to see them and get the reminder.
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Day 1 – Make a complete list of all the tactics, strategies, products, actions, people, etc… that don’t produce results in your business (anymore).
No results private or business:
Old books I have read
Clutter in closets that maybe come in use someday in my husbands opinion
Old pictures who are double maps in google
Downloaded and scanned documents check on them either to delate or safe
Old paper stuff
Go over my linkedin and facebook contacts and remove all who I don’t know in person
Old shoes and clothes I don’t ware or who don’t fit anymore in my new color scheme
Old downloads I still was planning on reading
Old client information on paper as it is all in the cloud
Day 2 – Divide your list from yesterday into 3 lists: easy to eliminate, requires some effort to eliminate, difficult to eliminate.
Easy to eliminate:
Old books I have read
Old paper stuff
Old shoes and clothes I don’t ware or who don’t fit anymore in my new color scheme
Requires some effort:
Old downloads I still was planning on reading
Old client information
Old pictures who are double maps in google
Downloaded and scanned documents check on them either to delate or safe
Go over my linkedin and facebook contacts and remove all who I don’t know in person
Difficult to eliminate:
Clutter in closets that maybe come in use someday in my husbands opinion
Day 3 – Eliminate all the items on your “easy to eliminate” list.
Shortet out my books and gave them away to charity.
I got my new color analysis card and sorted out my entire wardrobe today and next week I'm going shopping for new "business" clothing
The old paper stuff I will plan for that to do every Sunday afternoon and work year by year
Day 4 – Make a PLAN how to eliminate all the items on your “require some effort to eliminate” list and schedule the actions in your agenda.
- Old downloads I still was planning on reading (every Monday starting 7-11 I will go in google and delate what I don’t need and after google is finished I
will go to my external hard drive.
- Old client information (scheduled during the Christmas Holiday on 30 december)
- Old pictures who are double maps in google (every Thursday morning from 08.00 until 08.30 I will go over the maps and control theme and delete
double by sorting them out by year or event)
- Downloaded and scanned documents check on them either to delate or safe (every Saturday morning I will dive in to the scanned map and name the
documents or delete theme)
- Go over my linkedin and facebook contacts and remove all who I don’t know in person (As long as it needs when my son is enyoing his Sunday bath I will
go over my friends and connections and delete everyone I don’t know personally starting on Sunday 13 nov.
Day 5 – Make a PLAN how to eliminate all the items on your “difficult to eliminate” list and schedule the actions in your agenda.
I need my husband to go and check every closed and declutter so I will plan for this during the Christmas holdiday as he still is working in the kitchen garden preparing it for the winter.
Going over this assesment this week did bring back again the awareness for me to stick to a structure and dont let go for what ever reason and triggert also the part from my vison week about what it is that I realy want. What makes me happy, how can I implem,ent the 20/80 even better.
Wjere do I want to spend my time on and with whom and for what.
There are still moments in wich I procastinate and know but dont do and looking back this year I still say to my self: you did it girl, you came from far and are still not where you want to be but you are on track!
The celebartion will be that I will spent this evening on the sofa and wacht a movie from years ago: the Never Ending Story.
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Day 5: PLAN how to eliminate items on my “difficult to eliminate” list and schedule the action in your agenda.
• Stay as ZZP without the option to safe (for future investments or pension) as effect of chosen legal entity.
o Say, just do it.
o Pre-work starts in January and then have all relevant knowledge available and then start working in a BV (or LTD or) stating before April 1th, 2023.
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Day 4: PLAN on how to eliminate all the items on my “require some effort to eliminate list “ and schedule time to do or work on it my agenda.
• Offer people to have a look at something only because I’m curious.
o Stop doing this if it does not add value. The most important part is to respond and not react. So curiosity is nice, but first think before reacting.
o For this I do not have to schedule time will but it somewhere on a reminder in front of my desk.
• Do my own administration.
o November – January if will organize and structure this and but this in a list of tasks that I now follow and write this down as an instruction. In January I will select someone of an agency (after pre-selection) to outsource this.
• Do my own tax-filing.
o Same as before, might be the same person or agency.
• Using my Desktop as dump place for every downloaded attachment (start filing or delete).
o Christmas holiday task to develop several folder structures and clean-up and then either file directly of schedule time to do this every day or once a week.
• Saving old notes, paper tear-outs, poor or mediocracy books as reference material.
o Would say also Christmas, but this will take longer. Will start somewhere during the last weeks of this year than after a short holiday re-start this the end of January, should (is!!!) be ready before the end of March.
o By the way, keeping stuff (broader than paper) this way limited my ability to move elsewhere if necessary, stay where I am because of stuff (does not make sense).
• Customers that I did and can do again small assignment where the revenue / transaction-costs are never turning into reasonable profits and adding to my prospect list.
o The most important part is to respond and not react. Need to state a minimum size of an assignments, currently I feel this should be around 5000 euro (or at least a week of work to accept). This will be another statement above my desk.
• Redefining products / services as if in a new market or too much established competitors.
o Reformulate and reconfirm strategy and this apart from keep curiosity.
o Will reformulate my strategy before Christmas (expect will be part of this module or coming weeks).
• Making PowerPoints for everything.
o Will work more modular. Can use/reuse older PPT’s but think will do more drawing and personalize illustrations.
• Pay for newsletters I do not read.
o Christmas holiday clean-up. Will assess and quite will add all unpaid newsletter that I do not read of use. Considering to drop gmail.com because think I trick me too much.
• Contacting the wrong people (often the non-decision makers that decided on the money) but directly interested).
o This one is difficult, still not know how to do this. See if I can post this on a hot-seat session of welcome ideas from others.
• Work or do projects via middle man or organisations.
o Same, also difficult, still not know how to do this. See if I can post this on a hot-seat session of welcome ideas from others.
• Keeping old e-mails because I’m afraid I will need it in the future.
o Christmas holiday work and or otherwise just hit delete all before the new year.
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DAY 5
Remove myself as bottleneck of my business
I spend every Friday on recruiting and talking to possible VA.
Wish me luck! I am searching for months now…
There must be the right person for me!
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Day 5
Difficult to eliminate:
My husband and I have to look on a regular basis, for example every three months, at the big picture of our dreams and plans, in relation to our financial situation.
There are some big changes in our lives recently which influence our finances, so a good period to look together again and make decisions.
Next weeks are busy, I don't feel space to do more now. So we will plan this end of the year.
About:
Work me (employee and starting business);
Work Frans (zzp Dutch business);
(My) House Boxtel;
(Our) Houses (2) in Bulgaria (in Bulgarian EOOD, because previous - ten years ago - one could not buy property in Bulgaria as a private person);
Future vision living: where do we want to live;
Future vision work;
Financial situation after (my) age of 60, 64, 67 etc.
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DAY 5 Plan to eliminate the hard to eliminate list
For me the hardest to eliminate are bad habits. I had several moments when I was nearly defeating them while getting rhythm and traction but… everytime something happened that ”stole” that momentum.
In retrospectieve and with all honesty, it is ME who allows it to happen.
Therefore this is my plan of action to eliminate the bad habit of getting distracted and losing my momentum:
1. Commit to the believe that everything I need is already inside of me. No need to search for answers outside.
2. Take moments of silence, pray and be receptive to that "Ray of Sun" that has always led my way ☀️
3. Take time to plan and create a daily and weekly routine
4. Create plan B’s for Life Happening scenarios in order to assure consistency
5. IMPLEMENT, IMPLEMENT, IMPLEMENT
6. Do not allow any distractions to come in the way. Be critical and vigilant to distinguish an opportunity from a distraction. (Following to Pareto rule, 80% must be distractions)
7. Master the Art of saying NO on a polite but firm way
8. Evaluate, eliminate what is not working, readjust and continue with what is working
9. Enjoy the process while having the destination in sight
181 comments
Day 5 – Make a PLAN how to eliminate all the items on your “difficult to eliminate” list
So, I did. As I wrote yesterday I reserved a booth at a pre-loved fair for this ánd for next month. Marie Kondo style is perfect for the things that are difficult. Does it sparkle joy? Then you can keep it. If not, get rid of it. It will be difficult but the alternative is a house full of clutter and that clutters my brain.
And to make sure I won't get 'weak' I am going to hire a professional clean up coach. So no more excuses!
181 comments
Day 4 – Make a PLAN how to eliminate all the items on your “require some effort to eliminate” list and schedule the actions in your agenda.
So I did. Our children have their own homes now, but part of their clutter is still in our house. First I refused to do 'their' job, but I have cleaned out the closet and I am going to a vintage/pre-loved fair coming Sunday. Tomorrow, I am going to 'Marie Kondo' my and their closets and price everything. Sunday I am going to sell everything. Looking forward to getting rid of the clutter and earn some money as a kind of bonus ;-).
And I will be getting help from a professional clean up coach for the rest of the house to give me some tips.
178 comments
Exciting! Wish you a nice fair this weekend!
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Day 5 Make a plan for “difficult”
Make assumptions of what our clients want and think (measure and ask)
Instead of making assumptions about what we think our customers would want (or should) have, we will ask our customers about their needs (see also day 4).
In order to actually know whether our offer is and remains appropriate, we have to start measuring. I have no idea yet what exactly we should measure and how we are going to do it. In January we will get to work to clarify this and start it up
Doing too much ourselves instead of delegate:
Together with Bas I want to make a plan to delegate our new marketing strategy and product development on as many points as possible.
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Day 4:
? prepare appointment with notary about living together and contracts etc => 4 and 5 november
? Stop one of my insurances AOV; => 6 nov.
? evaluate other insurrances; 7 nov
? evaluate health insurance; 8 nov
? evaluate ZIGGO; 9 nov
? evaluate donations; vluchtelingenwerk, amnesty, Milieudefensie, Brabants landschap, MAX, SP, Kinderfondsen, kinderfondsen mama's, postcodeloterij, crowdfarming biological farm (chees-goat Francesca died of high age, so good moment to stop) , checked cancellation MyHeritage;
11 and 12 nov
Stop with Shurgard; go there with husband next week and make plan in agenda;
Stop with Hellofresh (recently started but it's definitely much more expensive than doing loose shopping, and lots of wast from plastic);
Sell travelsleeper; plan and announce december and sell march/april 2023;
Sell loom, Irish flute, silver flute, tin whistles, children's toys, plan in agenda weekends november/december.
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This belongs to Day 4:
Choices about samenlevingscontract of partnerschap, aanmelden partner bij pensioenfonds, testamenten; next week.
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That is a lot on your plate. Best of luck!
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Day 3:
I eliminated: too much once chosen domainnames from Argeweb; Volkskrant digital; Psychologie, Saar, Schoolbank, two postcodeloterij-lots; insurance for laptop from work;
I decided to lower: hairdresserexpenses (it wasn't big amount in history, but nowadays still too much).
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Day 5 - Difficult
* Doing too many things at the same time, no focus
* Having chaos everywhere (piles of papers everywhere, computer almost full and files not organized, even in my brain)
The most important one (and difficult, because it’s a struggle for as long as I can remember) is to DECLUTTER, and I mean EVERYTHING.
Physical things
- Empty my storage box (will also save € 35 per month). I don’t even know what’s in there anymore! Deadline Dec 31st
- Go through suitcases of clothes and bring everything to ‘kringloop’ that I haven’t worn this year. Deadline Nov 30th
- Piles of papers, everywhere! I bought 6 organizers (ordners) today and many dividers (tabbladen). I will spend EVERY DAY 1 hour of organizing my papers, to do lists etc. Should be finished by Nov 30th.
Financial (Dec 31st)
- Go through this year bank statements. What subscriptions can I cancel?
- Go through my insurance papers. What can I cancel?
Phone (almost full)
- Clean up pictures, videos, messages, contacts!
Computer (almost full)
- Get external hard drive -> done
- Organize pictures
- Organize videos
- Organize all screenshots on my desktop
- Clean up email list
- Clean up files
Kartra (course platform)
- Say goodbye to non-active leads
- Organize sales pages & Thank you pages (delete pages that are not used anymore)
- Delete pilot courses
Cleaning up all these things will automatically declutter my brain and bring more peace of mind as well😊
Another thing I will add for that is that every morning I will start with 1 hour for ME. Can be meditating, going for a walk, do some yoga as long as it is for MY physical and mental well being.
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You go girl. You can do it!!!
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First of all- I also decided to go for YouTube. Will start from december 1. It already gives me so much peace to not having to struggle with the mailinglist! I hate the new interface of AC and I still can't figure out how it works.
Requires effort to eliminate
* My opt-in (not to eliminate, but to replace yes. The question is- it doesn't give me anything but I also don't spend time on it so... should I remove it? I could easily change it to another opt-in but not sure if that will work if I don't do anything SEO or whatever)
-I am not going to put any effort at the moment on my website. so that's easy:)
* My website (same)
-see above
* i need to get rid of products that I am selling but not willing to create (I sold two different ones of those in the past week!! Not handy) - need to go over all the youtube video descriptions and remove the ones that I do't want to keep. It's not a lot of work but requires effort (200 videos)
needs to be done by the end of the year (it's 2 days of work but i only have two days in december)
* mailinglist subscriptions except the ones I am actually DOING something with it - go over my subscriptions and delete them one by one. Mainly a time effort.
- I am deleting and unsubscribing the moment they come in. I did a similar action last year during my incompletes but it's embarrassing how quickly it fills again! So far I am only keeping two mailing lists. should be done in the coming 2 weeks.
* Doing private stuff during work hours. It got less now that I have a lot of work, but still. Also time for more structure in my agenda.
- I decided i am not getting rid of this. I am going to plan better, but it's one of the many things I like so much about working online is that I am so flexible! But I need to be more strict on what I am going to deliver that week, and I already checked with my buddy on that.
Hard to eliminate
* starting something new all the time instead of giving somethig a fair chance and having patience...
this requires a process- and I am sure I can get my buddy to help me (simply by focusing me on what I SHOULD do and not on what I WANT to do.
DONE- at least having my buddy on board. Now I need to be true to this agreement I made with myself. I have a plan for next year with a few things on it, and that I want to do. Anything else is negotiable, but only possible when I think about it and decide I can stop something else.
* negative people. Already started creating a list of them. - for some of them this is HARD...
I finished the list. Its actually not as hard as i thought- most of them I waved goodbye or found a way to keep their negativity away. One of my family members is the only eh... headache file:) will talk with them soon...
* Talking OVER people instead of WITH people. Matter of practice I guess?
I would love to get ideas on how to catch myself earlier in this one! And also to find a way to close it off then...
* Complaining - same. Improved big time. Ongoing process.
* Taking things too personal - same as above.
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Day 3
Easy to eliminate
=============
- Google Ads [Done]
- Facebook Ads [Done]
- Quit Membership of dutch Association of Wine Educators [Done]
- Stop offering Groupon/Social deal offers [Done]
- hiring an expensive agency for SEA and SEO [Done]
- hiring a social media expert for instagram and facebook [Done]
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Day 2 – Divide your list from yesterday into 3 lists: easy to eliminate, requires some effort to eliminate, difficult to eliminate.
Easy to eliminate
=============
- Google Ads [Done]
- Facebook Ads [Done]
- Social media posts
- Membership of dutch Association of Wine Educators [Done]
- Groupon/Social deal offers: Only sold the front-end. Just a few bought the back-end [Done]
- hiring an expensive agency for SEA and SEO [Done]
- hiring a social media expert for instagram and facebook [Done]
- Follow different online courses and programs, without actual results in business
Requires some effort
================ =
- My lack of focus on the business
- No marketing strategy
- No sales strategy
Difficult to eliminate
== ===============
- Working full-time and being a co-parent >50% as a result of which the company does not get focus
- Procrastination
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Day 1
- Google Ads - Facebook Ads
- Social media posts
- Membership of dutch Association of Wine Educators
- Groupon/Social deal offers: Only sold the front-end. Just a few bought the back-end
- Working full-time and being a co-parent >50% as a result of which the company does not get focus
- No marketing strategy
- No sales strategy
- No funnel on online products
- hiring an expensive agency for SEA and SEO
- hiring a social media expert for instagram and facebook
- My lack of focus on the business
- Follow different online courses, without results
- Procrastination
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Day 5, difficult to eliminate.
I just download all the trainings and stop the montly subscription.
To stop with houseowners I mentioned in Day 4. I don't like that and it is difficult to bring the bad message. But it is wise to do.
A few weeks ago I have to stop with one of our new employees. That was difficult too, but later on it felt so good.
And the good news is that I hired already a new employee and that is a very kind person. I think I made a good choice.
In the last two years we did a big clean up in the company. That was the COVID period, we had time to look at the business what works and what does not works. So, I think our business functions very well, we work already very effective.
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Day 4, require some effort to eliminate:
I made a list of the houses with 1 booking this year, till now 4 houses. At the end of December I update the list with houses with 2 bookings.
At the end of December I send an e-mail, very kind words, that it is wise to stop with the cooperation.
And ask if they have a suggestion for upgrading the house or something else.
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• Day 5 – Make a PLAN how to eliminate all the items on your “difficult to eliminate” list and schedule the actions in your agenda.
• Finding someone to outsource to. I am looking very hard and make use of my network to find someone suitable. Plan in calendar an appointment with an HR professional to discuss
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Day 2, the list
Easy:
less newsletters
Twitter account. We don’t use that anymore.
require some effort to eliminate.
Houses in our offer with 1 or 2 bookings a year. We have to pay for the software and 1 or 2 is not enough to keep them in our offer.
Difficult to eliminate:
Stop with a monthly training, which I like very much but I don’t have time for it now. We pay for it each month.
Stop with some houses/house owners that give less results. It is difficult for me, because I don’t like to say goodbye. As a matter of fact it is difficult to bring the bad message.
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• Day 4 – Make a PLAN how to eliminate all the items on your “require some effort to eliminate” list and schedule the actions in your agenda.
Plan time in my calendar to make 8 linkedin posts. Stick to it and have it fixed for 2 months. Schedule for the first of each month.
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Day 3 – Eliminate all the items on your “easy to eliminate” list.
I don’t really have anything that is “easy to eliminate”. Maybe spending too much time thinking of making linkedin Posts.
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• Day 2 – Divide your list from yesterday into 3 lists: easy to eliminate, requires some effort to eliminate, difficult to eliminate.
•
1. Split my attention to too many things. – Requires some effort
2. Being too emotionally attached to results and taking too much responsibility if it does not work out. Requires some effort
3. Working in my business- difficult to eliminate
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• Day 1 – Make a complete list of all the tactics, strategies, products, actions, people, etc… that don’t produce results in your business (anymore).
• Split my attention to too many things. Being too emotionally attached to results and taking too much responsibility if it does not work out.
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Day 3, “easy to eliminate” list.
eliminate our twitter account
Unsubsribe on 5 newsletters
Clean up my desk😊
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Day 5
Difficult to Eliminate:
- Part of my funnel, I don't think eliminate but optimize.
My plan is in january to take a better look at the funnel for higher response and opening rate. And maybe I will take the funnel-leads in another list. And I think about to hire someone who is an expert in creating higher conversion in a funnel with active campaign
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WEEK 20 DAY 5 - Plan to eliminate the ‘difficult to eliminate’
Make a PLAN how to eliminate all the items on your “difficult to eliminate” list and schedule the actions in your agenda.
In April 2023 I will check who on my mailinglist has responded over the last two years. The ones that did, I will save to my normal adres book and I will keep in touch with them by personally writing them an e-mail once on a while. I plan this very action in my agenda. I will notify them about the change. The rest wil be notified about the ending of het contact. I will make a plan for the communication in May and execute it in June. So the contact will become more personal and restricted to the people who have shown real interest over the years. I have already put it in my agenda.
>> I am going to get rid of anything that doesn’t work anymore.<<
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Day 5 04-11-22
– Make a PLAN to eliminate all items on your "hard to eliminate" list and plan the actions in your agenda.
Today I immediately worked for 3 hours on the automation process with ActiveCampaign to clean up my mailing list. It also includes an automated email to everyone that they will disappear from my list if they show too little involvement. Since I only have a little over 200 subscribers, that requires no further planning.
Yesterday I said goodbye to Facebook.
In Omnifocus I now plan that I will search specifically for network meetings, come up with a good opt-in (I'm going to remove the old one, because I converted it into a question & answer book. I already sent the manuscript to Arjen yesterday.) and another come up with another name as a coach for myself. I'm still not over that.
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Day 3 Eliminate the “easy” list
We are no longer using our mailinglist like it is at the moment. Maybe in the near future we will sort out which contacts we can use (because they are real clients) and start a new list.
I stopped saying YES to all questions asked and with that also creating more focus on the tasks at hand.
We already stopped writing all kinds of blogposts (and it even did not hurt at all 😉 ).
I thought is was easy to eliminate to get annoyed by the children. I wrote it down in my easy list. It’s a bit harder than I thought.
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Day 4 make a plan for “require some effort”
Stop emailing without a proper follow-up:
My plan is to create a good follow-up system for the free downloads we have on our website. We can therefore use the same system for the follow-up when registering for our golden ticket of the card set. (start of December)
Trying to make an ideal client of a particular not so ideal client:
For a long time I have been trying to get a certain customer to become an ideal customer. Every time I run into it that it doesn't work. Last week I sent an email with questions. No matter how difficult; this was the last contact I sought to help. We can only start working together again if they contact us and commit to our system.
Create a “great” product without proper research if our clients need it:
We will no longer develop a product without asking our customers about their needs. I want to use November/December to ask the customer about the details of our new program.
In addition, conducting targeted interviews with customers/potential customers from January to discover where their needs are in terms of support.
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**Day 5** – Make a PLAN how to eliminate all the items on your “difficult to eliminate” list and schedule the actions in your agenda.
- Relying almost fully on working income, having low passive income
- For new business:
- Create online program / support group
- Create FEBE trainings
- Create book & youtube faqs
- Making the business depend on me, fully
- See above
- Plus: delegate (web)design, eventually get a (virtual) assistant...and other team members
- New business: not having a clear target audience yet (it’s so easy to believe the material *should* be available to everyone)
- Commitment to have this figured out before I start anything else in this new business.
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