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INTERIOR DESIGNERS GET IT DONE DAILY PLANNER

LISTEN TO HER NEW PODCAST: THE INTERIOR DESIGN BUSINESS CEO

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE:

WHAT THE LATER HABIT IS, AND HOW WE CAN AVOID IT

THE IMPORTANCE OF TIME MANAGEMENT

HOW GETTING OVER PERFECTIONISM CAN HELP US TAKE BACK TIME

HOW BUILDING CONFIDENCE IN OUR BUSINESSES AS CEOS AND LEADERS CAN HELP US TAKE BACK TIME

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Here we are mid-summer – if any of you are like me, you’re finally starting to relax and take a moment for yourself. What that also means is you may be putting things off.

So today, I am so excited to welcome my friend Desi Creswell back to the podcast. This is her third time sharing her expertise with fellow interior designers, and it is because of an ah-ha moment I had while listening to Desi’s podcast, The Interior Design CEO, that inspired me to invite her back on. She did an entire episode called The Later Habit. So I knew everyone else would relate to this Later Habit that we all tend to slide into, especially when it’s summer months, and schedules are wonky, and we are out of sorts. 

Desi is a master certified Life and Business Coach who helps Interior Designers build thriving businesses without the stress adn overwhelm. She uses a blend of mindset, actionable strategies, and industry specific expertise. Desi supports clients with topics such as time management, leadership, delegation, systems, and goal setting. And the best part about it is she is one of us. She is a trained interior designer who left practicing in order to dive in and support designers even more! 

I am the queen of the later game! So in today’s episode, Desi explains that The Later Habit or latering, is just putting something off. We can do it in many different ways. Whether that’s saying we will do it when……the time is right, you feel good whatever. You’re putting a task off until later.

“Let’s not make ourselves feel bad or wrong for sometimes ‘latering’ because it’s just something that we do.” – Desi

When we think about later habits, it starts with the thought that says, I’ll do it later, and then that leads us to put things off. Whether that is a habit you want to reinforce or doing some task in your business, it can be so many different things. We ‘later’ in every area of life. 

I share in today’s episode about how I like to have a deadline set as well as putting my tasks on a piece of paper rather than digital and the feeling of physically crossing it off the list once I’ve completed it. 

Desi shared a beautiful perspective on this that nothing outside of you makes you accountable. That includes people, sticky notes, and deadlines, nothing makes us accountable except ourselves. 

“We can have the most perfectly laid out plan, but that’s not going to make you do the ‘thing’ – you do the thing because you decide to do the thing.” Desi

One of the things Desi encourages her clients with is what she calls curious evaluation with the planning process and time management and weekly looking at what you’re doing for your planning, the way you’re working, the number of hours you’re working, and what’s working really well for you and what’s not working very well and what you want your best next step to be? 

This is such an important principle of time management. 

There’s no right or wrong way to manage your to-do’s. It’s just the way that you find what’s right for you, and that process of evaluating consistently and with curiosity (versus judgment) is really the way that you figure that out. 

Time management also means making the time to work on your business, not just in your business.

Desi explains that you’ve got to know where you’re going first. Whether it ends up being the exact destination you end up with or not, it’s helpful to have that point that you’re aiming for. 

Once you have that, it makes it so much easier to decide what you’re going to be working on this year, this quarter, this month, this week, and this day so that you’re making really consistent progress on your goals. Otherwise, the ‘latering’ becomes us waiting for that perfect time, the stars to align and have the extra time or setup in place. So having that bigger picture and tasks in front of us help us to take focused action that’s deliberate. 

I know I certainly have fallen into that trap of ‘I will do this project when…..’ and that’s really just me ‘latering.’ 

Also, you might be used to spreading yourself too thin and being in that cycle of being at over capacity.

When you are in that pattern, you’ve already filled that extra space you think you’ll have, or even if it does become available, you are uncomfortable having open space so you fill it because the capacity issue hasn’t been solved, and so the ‘later’ never comes.

When you’re making decisions about deadlines that you’re setting or when you’re going to be starting a new project or onboarding a new client, when we are in our current position, in the here and now, we often overestimate our capacity or enthusiasm to do things. So it can be really helpful to picture yourself in the months ahead, or whenever your deadline may be, and think about that present moment. Be in that moment, that month, and you’ve got a project still going and have a new one starting. How will you feel then? Check in with yourself about how you will do. Will I be glad that I made this decision? Or am I going to be not so happy with myself?

I have experienced this by taking on the wrong client, so it is truly so important to protect yourself and also by all means, listen to your gut. 

Not everyone resonates with being in the CEO role. However, it’s really important for us to start thinking about ourselves as leaders in our business. It will change the way that you value your own time and the respect that you require from yourself to yourself and the same from your clients as well. 

Often as designers, we’re very concerned about the clients being happy. But if you don’t take the time to proactively lead your business and grow your business and streamline your business, the clients suffer. Yes, you might get them the response to the email within 2 minutes instead of 2 hours. But that level of reactivity in your business is actually preventing you from delivering that excellent client experience and working with the caliber of client you want to work with because you’ve set time aside to market or update your portfolio. Often we think it’s to the detriment of the client if we prioritize being the CEO, but it’s actually going to end up benefitting everyone.   

Desi also talks about how she created 5 extra hours of time each week! If you would like to hear more about that, she goes into detail about the steps you can take here.

We also talk about how perfectionism can also take away too much of your time.

“So many of us think perfectionism is a noteworthy quality. Attention to detail and having pride in your work is something we all want. But if you look at the actual definition of perfectionism, it doesn’t exist. 
Even if you think it’s perfect, which really it’s just a thought, a decision you make to decide that something you’ve done is perfect. Some other person is going to have something to say about it. So no matter how much you overthink something, it might still not be perfect. And I say all that in the hope that that’s a bit of a relief. Because chasing that perfectionism is so, so exhausting and time consuming.” says Desi

This episode was so full of value! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! Please be sure to send us your emails to let us know how you are adding value to your clients and business. We’d love to hear from you!