Episode 53 | 3 Ways to Increase Your Strategic Laziness - YES Increase

Sophia Noreen: Hello, everyone. Welcome to another fantastic episode of the Boss It Podcast. My name is Sophia Noreen, and I'm going to be your host for today. And today, we are going to be giving you three strategies on how to be more strategically lazy. Yes, I am talking about lazy, strategically lazy though, because we want to make sure that we are using our time and energy in the right places during the right time, especially if you are a business owner and you are working a nine to five in tandem with doing your side hustle or your start-up. 

Now, during this episode, I will be giving you the three tips and I will be also sharing some examples of how I use these three tips on how to be strategically lazy in my business and in my life because I really feel like these real examples will help you guys apply these tips to your life as well. 

The first tip is your communication. I really do feel that if you are doing anything, it does not matter if you are running your own business, you are communicating with your partner at home or you're running a team in your nine to five. Your communication is the most important thing that will essentially set you up for success or for complete failure. If you are not able to communicate efficiently and effectively to the right group of people at the right time, you could be setting yourself up for disaster. And I know that I sound like I'm over-exaggerating, but trust me, I have seen pitfalls where communication was lacking or there was a little bit of potential politics playing around in the background. And because of the politics, the transparency and communication weren't there, and there was a complete breakdown in the team dynamics or breakdown in the entire program planning. And I am alluding to a few things that had happened in my past life, but going to share with you examples of how I apply effective communication with my current team in my nine to five, and in the team that I run with our side hustle or our start-up.  

So communication again is extremely important. What I do in the company of the Also Sophia company is I will use a project management tool, which we've spoken about many times in past episodes. I use monday.com, and the reason I use Monday is because they have amazing features. Again, this is completely un-sponsored but I like monday.com because it is a really powerful project management tool, and you can also upload files, documents, and videos. 

So if I'm giving a tutorial on how to complete a specific task, let's say, for example, we're onboarding a particular team member, monday.com is great because I know that the new team member will have to go through all of these strategic steps. They can watch a video and then they can click done that they've actually finished that orientation. 

We use monday.com for all of our project management details. So for planning an influencer marketing campaign, for example, we will put all the influencer handles into a spreadsheet and we will ensure that we complete done every time they have passed through a specific milestone in the entire process of becoming an influencer when they're part of our team. 

So if you haven't had the opportunity yet to look into a project management tool, there are many on the market. There is Trello, there are a few others, I'll put the links in the show notes or below this video so you guys can definitely check that out. I also suggest this type of strategy to use a project management tool even if you are not working with a team right now. Again, communication is not just with other people, it's also communication with yourself. And the reason why I say this is because many people won't be using a project management tool, and then eventually they get to a point where they're like, oh I do need help and I do need an assistant. And you can get virtual assistants now that we're in different time zones, so your communication with them may not be over the phone as regularly or face to face for that matter. So having an ongoing tool that you're used to using will help you, on board other people.

Even if you're working your nine to five, if you don't have a project management tool, you could suggest it to your team. See if you can find a free tool to use online, you can also use things like Google Docs or Google Sheets because that way you can even have drop-downs in the cells using Google Sheets. The point is you need to get used to tracking all your milestones when you're doing any type of project, and the reason why this is really strategic laziness is because you don't need to communicate all that often. If you're doing a repetitive task, for example, when we do our influencer marketing campaigns, they're pretty repetitive. Once we know the milestones that an influencer needs to pass through, really it's about saying, okay we're planning a campaign. You open up a spreadsheet, you see what you had done in the past, and then you walked through the exact same process. Really, I'm not communicating a heck of a lot with our team. When I say: Hey, I want to do a campaign starting January 1st, 2021 or 2022 or 2023, it doesn't matter because they know exactly what to do.  

Another point I want to make with communication is you want to ensure that you're communicating only with the people that you need to communicate with. So if you have a bigger team, either in your nine to five or you have a team within your side hustle or start-up, only invite those people who really, really need to be at the meeting. 

For example, if I'm doing an influencer marketing campaign, I'm obviously going to have the campaign manager there. But I may not have the individual who's responsible for social media at the beginning because the campaign manager really needs to kick off the whole process. They are responsible for getting the influencers and they are responsible for contacting the influencers. The social media manager really has a part in the game, but later on in the trajectory. So even though your team may need to be in the "know", they need to be I'm able to know what's happening in the company, either again on your nine to five or your business, you have to be strategic on who you're communicating with and when. This will help them as well because they won't feel as overwhelmed because I know they have a heck of a lot going on and they don't need to be at the meeting if they have no action items. That's a good litmus test actually. You can ask yourself before you send an invite out to the whole team, you can ask yourself: will they have any action items at the end of this meeting? Because if there are no action items, then they're just basically sitting in the peanut gallery watching what's happening, and now with the age of zoom meetings and team meetings and Google hangout meetings, we don't even know if they're even listening. Let's face it. Many times people are putting us on mute, taking us off camera and they're working out. A big secret right there, my husband does do that sometimes but won't let anybody else know that so the point is, we want to make sure that we are inviting the right people who are going to be active participants at the meeting and who are going to walk away with an action item. 

Okay, so let's go into our next tip. We just covered off communication and how we can use communication to be strategically lazy. So the next tip is for you to hone in on what your end-user wants. We call our end-user in this case, our ideal customer, our ideal customer avatar, our ideal client. When I work in my clinic job, I call them my patient. So we really need to ensure that we're always thinking about the person who's receiving the end results. We want to ensure that whatever we're creating in our campaigns, in our products, whatever it is, I don't want to be wasting my time and energy, again I'm coming back to strategic laziness. I don't want to be wasting my time and energy on things that might end user does not want. 

I'll say it again. I do not want to waste my time and energy on things that my end-user does not want, and this is so important because I think sometimes we start creating things either in our minds, on paper, we then proceed with our teams and getting project plans and all the rest of it done, and then we forget that we have not even asked the end-user their opinion. And this goes back to episode 51, where we spoke specifically about things to keep in mind when creating a product, and one of which is to ensure that you get a minimal viable product and test it.  

So if you have not caught that episode, head to episode 51 and check that out. There's also a workbook included, so you guys can really get into it and start working on those tangible details in your business. The point is, do not waste your time and energy on things that people don't want. Make sure that you create prototypes and test it, and ensure that you're getting the right feedback so you can improve on your minimal viable product. 

Before we move on to the last point for you regarding strategic laziness or how to increase your strategic laziness, is that when you're getting feedback from your end-user, from your IC, or from your ICA, it doesn't matter who they are, you need to ensure that you ask very specific detailed questions when you're trying to collect feedback to improve your product or your service or your solution. You need to ensure that it's a detailed question because then you can take that information and you can actually apply it.  

If they say to you something like, I don't really like that shirt, let's say you're making brand new shirts. I don't really like that shirt, and that's it. That doesn't help me. I don't know why you don't like that shirt. You need to ask them, why don't you like the shirt? Is it the fabric? Is it the stitching? Is it the design? Is it the style? Is it that they're not your ICA? Maybe they're not your ideal customer avatar, right?

There are things that you need to understand about the product in order to be able to apply it, so that way you can improve it moving forward. And again, it goes all the way back to communication, our first point, and how you communicate with your IC because that way you are being strategic and strategic laziness, you're saving time and energy because now that conversation or that feedback form has been able to strategically give you information so you can move forward and improve on your product. 

Again, we want to make sure that we're using our time and energy appropriately. We want to make sure that we're communicating well with our customers. And we want to make sure that we're getting the best feedback from them so we can continue to improve our product offerings.  

Okay, let's move on to our final tip regarding how to improve your strategic laziness. It comes down to your habit formation. Basically, you've heard it before but majority of things that we do during our day are habitual. And if you can make a process into a habit that you need to complete regularly in your business or in your career, then it will be easier for you to execute that and implement that strategy or that task over and over again. So again, if you can start creating a habit out of a daily routine that you know is going to set you up for success, then you will naturally be able to do it regularly. It'll take less time and energy, which again will help you with your strategic laziness.  

One example I can give you from my personal life is that I'm very habitual when it comes to my start-up routine in the morning and my wind-down routine in the evening when I'm shutting down the computers. And the reason why I've made this into a habit is because not only does it help me stay organized, but I'm the type that won't do these tasks unless I'm forced.  

One of the examples that I have to basically improve my organization and make it into a habit is that I have a really solid start-up routine and a wind-down routine for my day. And so for my start-up routine, I'm really cognizant of checking my meetings, ensuring that I have everything written down in a paper agenda. So I actually have an electronic outlook agenda, all of my calendars are now synced together and I can see the whole spreadsheet of how my week will look. And then I will ensure that I actually write it down in an agenda.  

And the reason why I'm writing down in the paper agenda is because it clicks then that when I have that action from your writing. There's a neuro pathway that connects from my hand to my brain, and I'm like: Yes, I have that 2 o'clock meeting today, and so I need to prep for that 2 o'clock meeting. But I actually start doing this the whole week, so I'll actually know that that meeting is coming up, and then I'll look and I'll see what I can time block off in my schedule how I can prepare for that meeting if it's something I need to prepare for. And so I do that every morning and I do it again every evening. So I'll look at my list of things that I had to get completed, let's say I didn't complete them, then I'll strategically put them into time blocks during the day. I'd write it down in my agenda then I'll actually also go time block it on the digital calendar. That way, no one else can book in over the top of my reserve time to do my tasks, and so that for me was difficult. I was not basically owning my time. I was not essentially being cognizant of what I was doing when I was doing it.  

So by doing this start-up routine and basically mirroring it at the end of the day at the wind-down for both the clinic works, so working my nine to five and also for my business, it forced me to own my calendar. And so this is a habit that I've now formed which took a lot of energy before, and I know by me owning my time, I've become more productive. I've been able to now say with confidence that I'm taking on this project, let me make sure I have time to complete it.  

And again, a real struggle for me because I am an expander. We can talk more about expanders and contractors in another episode, but basically, I will take on the world if I could. I will go and I'll take on more projects if I can, but time is not an unlimited resource. It's a very limited resource. We don't have all the time in the world and we definitely do not have all the energy.  

So this particular habit that I have formed is forcing me to really own my time, and also great because now, I'm a being strategically lazy. I'm not using the time and energy without my knowledge. I'm looking and saying, okay I need to do this at this time otherwise I will not have time to do it at all. And so I think if you are going to start looking at your habits, see what you can include in your daily routine as a habit that will actually also help you in other domains of your life or in domains for your business. 

So another great habit creation that I've completed in my own personal life is I ensure that I go to yoga and that has now become such a habit, it's like second nature. Let's say, I have to go on Wednesday evenings to yoga or Tuesday evenings to yoga or more predominantly Sunday mornings for yoga. And if I don't go to my class, I don't feel great. And so again, that's a habit that I've formed. It takes me a lot less energy to pull myself out of the bed on Sunday mornings to get out to go to the class. People will say, you slept really late and you're still going out? It's a habit, it's like anything else. If you do things enough time, you naturally do it without thinking. Think about the car, when you're driving your vehicle, you will go from point A to point B, and then you realize: Hold on, I don't even remember driving because you drifted off into another space because your brain was habitually getting you there.  

Anyways guys, let's go from the top. How can you improve your strategic laziness? We spoke about communication. How can you improve your communication with your team for your business or in your career? How can you basically ensure that the right people are coming to the right meetings? And a great litmus test for this is to see if they will leave the meeting with action items or are they just part of the peanut gallery and you don't know exactly if they're listening or just trying to kill time and potentially work out. 

We also spoke about getting feedback from your end-user. It can be your patients. It could be your IC or your ideal client avatar. We want to make sure that we're not wasting our time and energy creating things for our end users that they do not want, so really ensure that you're getting the feedback. If you haven't listened to episode 51, head back there, listen to episode 51 so you are ensuring that you're creating the best minimal viable product, your MVP, that will satisfy your customer's needs, and then get feedback. We want to be strategic. We are trying to be strategically lazy in everything that we do, so we are putting our energy and our time in the right place.  

And finally, we spoke about creating habits so that way we are naturally inclined to do things that will help with our productivity, that will help us with our health. I gave a few examples from my real life, for example, my yoga. And of course, I spoke about my start-up routine and my wind-down routine for the day. And I really do suggest everyone start planning those routines for themselves, so then it's more effective and more efficient for you. You will naturally start doing things that will keep you more productive in your day-to-day routine.  

Okay, guys, that's all I got for you for today. I really hope this episode was useful on how you can become more strategically lazy. I know in the past, I may have spoken about how to avoid strategic laziness when it comes to your procrastination. In this episode, we spoke about how your strategic laziness can help you use your time and energy more effectively. And so I really hope you've taken away a few gems. And of course, remember you should apply things that you have learned. I know it's great to listen to a podcast and then be like, that was nice and then you walk away.  

Try to take a few of these tips and apply them to your everyday routine, to your life. It could be as simple as saying, I'm going to communicate more strategically and effectively with my husband without the kids being present in the room, for example. It could be as simple as being more effective when communicating with your partner, saying that I only communicate with him or her without the kids or any other family members being in the room. And the reason for that is because you only need his feedback, you don't need all the feedback from everyone else.  

Again, we can apply all these strategies to many domains in our life. And so again, dig deep, see where you can apply these tips and tricks. And if you have any questions at all, you can reach out to us at [email protected] and remember, make a plan and take action. And yes, you can have it all. We'll see you guys again next week. Take care. Bye.