If you’re someone who finds it hard to find the time to work on your business because you’re so busy working in it, you’re going to love these three ‘bus stop hacks’!
In the past twelve months I have re-branded, networked, relaunched, automated, scaled and done all the wonderful ‘businessy’ things we’re all advised to do.
However, when I look back at the pivotal moments that really changed my business I noticed they were mainly done at bus stops.
It seems fresh air plus a cold silver seat was a recipe for solopreneur success.
As I sat on said silver seat each day, I realised we all have our own version of this spot somewhere in our lives. While it can be difficult to work on your business when you’re super busy working in it, each of us has a space where we can dream, plan and have our big ideas – whether it’s the shower, the daily commute or lying in bed trying to get to sleep.
So I thought I’d share some hacks I engage in on my daily commute that helped me build my business and my confidence too. Here are three ways you can get the most out of the ‘silver seat’ moments in your day:
1. LinkedIn
For some reason I’m more confident and happy to take more ‘risks’ (like the risk of rejection) when I’m not at my desk. So I started researching inspiring people I wanted to connect with, and sent a message to a new person every couple of days via LinkedIn. As I sat on the bus shelter seat with my iPhone, I would tap out little introductions and grew my LinkedIn network to well over 600 wonderful people and made partnerships that have strengthened my solo community and my business.
2. Daydreaming
Rather than daydream about my next holiday, I get more excited daydreaming about my business. I fantasise about where we’re going to be in a few months, and visualise amazing partnerships. I play a what if game, and run through scenarios on ways to be more productive, crazy top line ideas and even ideas for fun articles. I bet you can guess where I came up with this one! It seems at the bus stop I give myself space to step back from the business and look at it from a higher place, away from the general busyness of the office.
These fantasises quickly turn into reality when I punch one of my crazy ideas into a really cool app – then it becomes an actionable item.
3. Asana
Not only is it the name of some beautiful resorts in Bali, Asana is also a really cool app. I have researched ten or so productivity apps and have found this one to be far and away the best for me. I spend a couple of minutes each day on my silver seat at the bus stop planning my day in Asana. It keeps me accountable and I often find myself inspired in the fresh air. It’s then super-easy to tap some pretty big-picture ideas into Asana that I can then break down into daily tasks. Only a few months ago I added in that I wanted to publish a book. Asana allowed me to then add a re-occurring task that gave me a reminder every couple of days. This was a little bite-size part of my big idea, the reminder was to write just 200 words. This quickly added up to a book I am proud to have published on Amazon a couple of weeks ago. Go bus stop productivity planning!
Where do you get your big ideas?
