Holiday Season work planning

Episode 22 - Holiday Breaks (EDITED)

Fri, Dec 15, 2023 7: 31AM • 17:47

Fri, Dec 15, 2023 7: SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Fri, Dec 15, 2023 7: work, organizing, december, travel, planning, decluttering, seasons, week, australia, quiet, day, lovell, love, holidays, childcare, clients, mornings, emma, year, place

00: 01

00: Do you want to live a life of freedom and adventure? Are you wanting more than the daily grind? Me too. Welcome to the Emma Lovell show, a place where we talk about living a life you love. Now, I'm your host, Emma Lovell, and my number one value is freedom. I've spent the last 14 years running a business and traveling the world. And now I take my husband and toddler along for the adventure to it's possible and I know you can create a life doing what you truly love as well. This podcast will inspire, motivate and encourage you to go after your dreams to create a life you love until you get now don't wait for a time and or someday in the future. I'll be sharing episodes weekly about how I harmonize business travel and self care. I'll also bring on incredible guests to share their journeys, wins the challenges and how they're creating a life they love. Let's jump in and get dreaming. This is a space for you to manifest a life you love.

01: 03

01: I would like to acknowledge and recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of this place now known as Australia. I am grateful for the continuing care of the land waterways and skies where I work live, listen, learn and play. From here on you can bear country and from wherever you are listening, I pay my respects to the elders past and present.

01: 28

01: Hello, lovely and welcome to this episode, a solo episode all about how I'm planning my business for the holidays. It is I'll tell you, it's 14th of December. And we're coming into the Christmas and summer break. And here in Australia. It really is a shutdown period. I know in the US, in the UK, there's nowhere near in Europe, there's not as long a time it's maybe the few days over Christmas and a few days over New Year. Sometimes it might be that week or 10 days in between. But in Australia, it feels like people wind down around the 21st 22nd. So in a week's time, and they don't come back until almost the 26th of January, which is currently a Australia Day and a long weekend here. It feels like this doesn't really stop back till then.

02: 27

02: People are back. But other schools usually start back a week later. So

02: 32

02: kids are already on holidays, kids in private schools have been off already for a week or so. I feel like they're off for eight weeks or nine weeks, which I know in some other places, they have a big summer as well. But yeah, I've really noticed that change in the past few years

02: 50

02: in terms of looking at where my clients are available.

02: 55

02: And that this, this just is such a big shutdown. I have a toddler. And so he doesn't really have that holiday season yet.

03: 07

03: And I tend to not travel so much over this time. Because I avoid the I can avoid the holiday as well. And I always have from my own travels. But I sort of want to talk about what's that look like over the seasons. For me. I did actually seasonally used to travel around. Funnily I say that, I'd kind of leave in November, I used to live in November. And I'd be away like the whole of December and in some of Japan, I would be going over to Europe or the US to visit family and friends.

03: 38

03: And spend the winter there. I've done that quite a few times. Sometimes I was in India, I was there for a wedding once on Christmas Day, which was amazing. And I've always been able to keep up with my work. But I was also kind of happy to at one point kind of feast or famine it so I would feast on the work and work work, work, work work up until end of November, get as much work as I could and then kind of switch off and go away and travel.

04: 05

04: I found that my seasons really shifted when I moved to Queensland, which is now seven years ago. And I think it's the heat.

04: 15

04: Yeah, I'll just find that in once it got to summer. And I guess everyone was kind of wanting down. So beautiful outside, but also hot and the day that you always want to take a nap. I've really struggled this afternoon, just staying awake. And I think there is kind of a body clock thing and so I don't like the false deadline of the end of the year because every part of the world we are such a global world now has different seasons in terms of when they're working. But I do think there's kind of a biological, you know, your body's been doing this pattern for so many years. I'm 36 that your body just knows that it's time to wind down.

04: 55

04: But when I I used to kind of worry with the type of work that I did around

05: 00

05: And with freelancing, so copywriting, marketing, content creation, social media, if you didn't really have contracts in like November, early December, it would usually be quite a few months.

05: 13

05: In sometimes that could be stressful.

05: 17

05: But when I moved to Queensland, I kind of accepted it a bit more, and went with the quiet time. And I started to have a habit of really using that time to get organized and to do the backend work that you just do not get time to do when you're in delivery mode and client mode. And

05: 40

05: you know, having meetings and having calls and the time is not really your own. So I actually really love this season.

05: 46

05: I do slow down, I do make sure I get outdoors a lot. I've been for a long walk this morning, I went for a swim at lunch, I'm gonna go pick up my son soon. And we're gonna go for a swim. So lots of outdoor thing. But I also am doing a lot of sorting, decluttering organizing planning. I'm very excited to be working with a new executive assistant and EA, who I'm going to be sitting with next week to plan out 2024. So there's really big, big chunks in there. And the first thing I'm going to be looking at over that time is to chunk out when are the school holidays aren't in Australia. And so when is my audience maybe going to be not as available.

06: 31

06: Not everyone that I work with has children, but it seems to really impact business operation that I've noticed in the last few years. So just being aware of that and maybe like we weren't launched something around that time, or run events around that time, then putting in my travels. So any retreats that we already have planned any workshops or events that I want to run, that's all gonna go in the in there first,

06: 57

06: we're going to block out Wednesdays, because Wednesday is typically been my day off. And it's been like a thing for the last three years and even yesterday was Wednesday. And I've juggled my week around a bit because we have I was traveling on Monday, I was traveling on Friday. So I put my son into childcare. And I thought I will do some work and had delivery work to do. Whereas Wednesday's have been my go with the flow day. And if I feel like doing something or something comes up and I want to do it, I will otherwise I'll just let you know, see what happens. And the universe kind of conspires against me, when I try to do things, and it just says, No, it's meant to be a rest day. Even last week, I went to visit my godfather in Brisbane, and we got caught in three and a half hours traffic on the way home, it was like,

07: 44

07: maybe it would have been good to just be at home today. And just to do simple things and just to have a quiet day. And my body really like was telling me to slow down yesterday. And so it's funny for this break that's coming up. I was saying I'm not going to have a rest, per se, because I've just had an amazing month away, traveling the world. And I will share an episode all about that soon I'll share the preparation episode, but I'll share how it went down and what we did and what worked and what didn't. But I had an amazing time. And I feel so inspired and encouraged. But then I'll come back and I've had some more things on and so I'm like, Ah, actually, I think I will end up having some quiet time. But getting that regular consistent break throughout the year and blocking out those Wednesdays, I mean, look, if someone's going to pay me 1000s and 1000s of dollars to do something awesome on a Wednesday, I can probably, you know have a rest day another day. But we're also gonna be putting my son into childcare that day as well, just to make sure that I'm getting that proper break.

08: 47

08: Yeah, because when I'm on I'm on. So I need to have some forced rest. And we need to block that calendar out. And so that's where the executive assistant is going to help me wise, getting back on top of my calendar, getting back on top of my inbox, and I'm feeling really in that mode of decluttering, organizing, filing, having better systems in place. I'm working with a VA as well, who helps me with my podcast, making sure that the system in the process there is working well.

09: 16

09: And that we have things we know where everything goes and there is a really systematic approach to it. So that's feeling nice to get organized.

09: 25

09: And this innate ability to lift others who are wavering authenticity, her dedication to following her passions are only qualities that radiate from every single part of all her endeavors.

09: 42

09: Whatever she touches and creates is just magical. In a world where everything is trying to mold us and we're really stem strong, showing us that staying true to ourselves is the ultimate path to success. She is just

10: 00

10: This amazing Trailblazer just become a dear friend and an amazing mentor.

10: 12

10: Yeah, so we'll have a planning day. But what do you first of December 22 of December, I've got my some family visiting. So I'm going to take that week just to enjoy time with family, enjoy time with my son enjoy the weather. And then after that once

10: 27

10: the last week of December in the first few weeks of Jan, I am going to use that to do back end stuff more of that decluttering, I'm going to tidy up my walls and looking around the room. I've got all this beautiful vision body and manifesting, but it'd be nice to start a little bit fresh with a little bit of a clean slate of what I'm going to take into 2024. And what I'm grateful for and thankful for the fact that we're going to just leave behind for 2023. So sorting out a lot of my paperwork and notes. I feel like things don't really have a place to live at my house at the moment. So having that tiny space, having that space that I want to come into that I can be open and expansive and creative. And that's something I really love doing. I've always I remember this time I was sitting in I was actually pet sitting when I was running that business sitting in someone's house pet saying this dog aircon on movies on and how to swim in the mornings very hot in the day in the middle of the day in Australia. In summer, you really want to stay inside, go out in the mornings in the evenings, but stay inside of the day. And I was watching some movies and just organizing all my photos, organizing all these folders,

11: 37

11: deleting things, moving things, looking at things, and just having the time and the space to do that. It's a really nice time to do it. So that's how I use this holiday season.

11: 50

11: And I've really let go of as well. I mean, I think my mind business has changed. And I remember three or four years ago yeah, really, like I said feeling stressed at times about not having working or not having work on.

12: 02

12: But now because I have thing events on early in the year, I'm hosting a retreat with a client in February, I'm selling a retreat that's going to be going out in November when launching another retreat in the next week.

12: 16

12: And I also have always on coaching and always on programs and offers now that

12: 23

12: there is always income coming in, it's not so seasonal. For me. My goal in 2024 is also to go more global than I already am more global and have clients around the world which also helps to navigate those seasonal times. So maybe December, January, bit quieter for Australia, or end of December, the january MONTH is quieter for Australia. But that's the time that I speak to the US, the UK, the India,

12: 54

12: the you know, the other side of the world audience just looking at when they have their different seasons, so that I can ramp up sort of

13: 04

13: different parts of my business. And it's really exciting to think about the future of that.

13: 10

13: But I do remember one year yeah, really sitting there that's trying to keep that stress at bay.

13: 16

13: about not having work and I did enjoy those few weeks over the summer. I enjoyed doing the organization but then it was like okay, come on, like time to come in now and I was rooting out but I remember sitting on

13: 30

13: like a rocks at this place called Fingal head looking out for dolphins and I was like, I just need to see a dolphin I just want to see a dolphin I need to see a dolphin. And he started crying. When we did see dolphins and it wasn't that I needed to see a dolphin it was that I needed to have work and I needed to have income. It was really stressful. And I hadn't said it out loud. And I hadn't been open about it and saying that allowed me to be okay with it to think about what I could do.

14: 00

14: And yeah, to, you know, again, my husband is really helpful with sometimes going you wanted this quiet time and you like having this little patch.

14: 10

14: It's going to be okay. And I think a few weeks later, I ended up getting a bunch of contracts and hitting my income goal in the next three months. So

14: 21

14: it can happen turnaround. Yeah, I just think it's really interesting. Learning what the seasons and the flow for you. leaning into when there is acquired a season leaning into it and planning around it.

14: 37

14: You know that that means cash flow and budgeting and all those things for that time and knowing that that it's gonna be quiet so that you're not stressed about it. I think I wasted so many years. Over that patch. Even when I made the choice and made the decision to go overseas, or to finish up with clients. I could start the year fresh and then stressing because I didn't have work even though ultimately, I know that I'm always going to be able to

15: 00

15: Um, reach out and bring in work. But the work that I'm doing now is more future focused. There is that always on marketing, I am very visible and to my audience. And that's also that's what this time is gonna be about, about building up some,

15: 18

15: some content. So getting the podcast ready for, you know this episode, but for this for six weeks getting a little bit ahead,

15: 27

15: planning out what that looks like and then lining up guests nice and early. Also looking at, you know, my social media content, what does that want to look like? What does my schedule want to look like, for the next few months? There's been so much happening, you know, what can I share that has happened already and have fun doing that have have the time and space to be in that creative space and looking ahead.

15: 52

15: So that's what holidays look like for me.

15: 56

15: Yeah, weekends will be weekends, my son will be in childcare three days a week, and my husband's off on Mondays to be with him. So I kind of keep my usual schedule.

16: 06

16: Just with a bit more swimming and a bit more.

16: 09

16: Few more afternoon naps might be nice as well. So I wish you a very highly Happy, happy holidays. I say happy holidays now to cover all the different what however you choose to celebrate. And I hope that you get to do what you want to do these holidays. If you want to take a rest if you need a break. Awesome. If you want to be with your family, have to be with you get to be with your family. That's that's fine. And if you want to work and you want to get ahead and you want to use this time when it's nice and quiet here in Australia, wherever you are when everybody else is off during the holidays thing and you don't want to do that and you just want to work in your business. Do that to find what works for you and flow in the season that you're in. If I can leave you with anything. All right, happy holidays. Lovely. Thank you for listening.

17: 02

17: Thank you for listening lovely one. I hope this has inspired you to dream big and start creating a life you love today. If you love what you're hearing, don't forget to follow and rate on Spotify and rate review and subscribe on iTunes. It helps other awesome people to find this podcast and get motivated and inspired as well. Want to stay connected. Come and join the live a life you love group on Facebook or connect with me on Instagram. Emma lovell.au The same as my website. But all the details are in the show notes lovely. I'll see you next episode for more inspiration, motivation and freedom seeking Now go out there and live a life you love