I overestimated my capacity: Reflections from Q1
I can’t believe the first quarter of the year is over! The first quarter of the year is always difficult for me. I’m hugely impacted by the short days and the grey skies (and grey snow).
For me, this first quarter always brings with it a higher level of anxiety as I face the swirl of thoughts going on in my brain about what I want to achieve and how I want to feel.
And this year was a particularly turbulent swirl as I knew that I had overcommitted myself before the year even started.
Before I get into it, I want to let you know that this blog post is a bit vulnerable for me. But it’s part of the transparency I want to have with you.
Because business isn’t always success and it isn’t always the manicured beautiful posts you see on social media.
It can also be messy, turbulent, overwhelming.
And last quarter, I overestimated my capacity.
As part of my business practice, I always ensure I incorporate a reflection exercise at the end of every quarter.
I do this before I even start planning for the next quarter because if you haven't looked backwards, you’ll be missing key information when you look forwards.
I set aside 15-30 minutes of my time, and answer the following questions:
What are all the things you accomplished this year?
What were you NOT able to accomplish?
What are you most proud of?
What are you going to let go of?
What did you learn?
(Tip: if you set a timer for 3-5 min for each question and just free-write, you’d be surprised what you come up with)
This first quarter was A WHOLE LOT for me, and I realized that I overplanned and overbooked my time.
But you know what I learned? I don’t need to do all the things at the same time.
In December, I got excited about the things that I was going to learn and do in my business. As is common for me, I overestimated my capacity.
I booked myself at 100% - leaving no room for anything else.
A recipe for burnout if I ever saw one.
I signed up for an 8 week copywriting program, signed on with Sabrina Torres to up my content strategy game, enrolled in a 9 month Bookkeeping Alumni Program, joined a new co-working community, and started my Notion Mastery program.
I’m sweating just writing all of that.
Sure, it’s a day here, and a few hours there, but when you combine all of this with the work that I needed to do for my clients, as well as the work that I needed to do for my business, it was too much.
I ended up having to re-prioritize what was important and spend less time and energy on some of the programs I was really excited about.
How I’m moving forward
I’ve now set a boundary in my business. I’m limiting myself to 1-2 new learning/big projects per quarter.
This leaves me space for client work, space to integrate what I’m learning, space to breathe, and space to be a human with good days and bad days.
I’ve implemented a new field into my tasks database - “How many Pomodoro’s will this take?”.
Now, when I look at my list of tasks, I can see at a glance if I have overcommitted myself on any given day.
My advice for you
Dedicate time to plan at the beginning of the month.
Map out immovable commitments - both personal and business, map out a content schedule, plan out when you’re working on client projects.
Spending an hour or two of dedicated planning (not doing, just planning) at the beginning of the month helps me clear out so much mental clutter.
Now as I go through my days I don’t have to spend time trying to figure out when I’ll fit any of these things in, or what content I need to create because it’s all mapped out for me.
And I know it’ll help you, too.
And most importantly… be kind to yourself and give yourself some grace.
Good things take time. I planted a bunch of seeds in Q1, but they won’t start to poke through until Q2. I wrote about this in my most recent email (you can get on the list here).
It’s important to plant those seeds, but also, you need to tend to your business garden. To tend to the stuff that’s already sprouted, that you’ve already got going on.
Notice when it needs some TLC and celebrate when things start to bloom.
Thinking time is work. Go for a walk. Marinate. Let your mind wander. It will help you integrate any of the thoughts and ideas that you have had in your day. It will even help you be more productive.
And finally, even though I talk about goal planning and ways to be more productive, it is important for both me and you to remember that your worth or value is not in your productivity.
So if you need to shift things from one quarter to the next, I celebrate you for honouring yourself and your capacity.
Be gentle with yourself,
Kim
