Here’s what triggered my concern: Recently, while listening to a trending business podcast, I heard the host confidently declare that time management was ‘old fashioned’ and that energy management was the superior, more modern approach. I’ve noticed this sentiment gaining traction, particularly among productivity influencers and business coaches.

Let’s pause for a moment and consider the implications of this trend.

Time management is being dismissed as outdated precisely when business owners need it most. In our increasingly complex business environment, where leaders are juggling remote teams, rapid market changes, and endless digital notifications, having a solid grasp on time management isn’t just helpful – it’s essential for survival.

But here’s what the energy management evangelists get right: understanding and optimising your energy patterns is crucial. They’re correct that scheduling your most demanding tasks during your peak energy periods can transform your productivity. They’re not wrong when they emphasise the importance of recovery and renewal.

The critical insight that’s being missed, however, is this: energy management without time management is like having a high-performance engine with no steering wheel. You might have all the power you need, but good luck getting to your destination.

Through my work with countless business owners in the Rockstar Team Framework, I’ve observed a clear pattern. Those who try to implement energy management strategies without a solid time management foundation invariably struggle. They find themselves with excellent intentions but chaotic execution, leading to increased stress and disappointing results.

Consider this real scenario I encountered recently: A client came to me frustrated that energy management techniques weren’t working for her. She’d been told to tackle her most important work during her peak energy hours (early morning), but she consistently found these precious hours hijacked by urgent team issues and client demands. The problem wasn’t her energy management strategy – it was the lack of a robust time management framework to protect and maximise those high-energy periods.

The solution isn’t choosing between time and energy management – it’s understanding how they work together synergistically. Time management creates the structure within which energy management can flourish. It’s about:

• Creating boundaries that protect your high-energy periods
• Understanding the true time cost of tasks and commitments
• Building realistic schedules that account for both time and energy requirements
• Establishing systems that allow your team to function without constant intervention

When you combine solid time management principles with energy awareness, something remarkable happens. You gain the ability to not just manage your workload, but to strategically design your days for maximum impact. Your leadership becomes more effective because you’re not just showing up – you’re showing up at your best, at the right times, for the right activities.

The path forward isn’t about jumping on the latest productivity trend. It’s about taking a more nuanced, integrated approach that acknowledges both the finite nature of time and the fluctuating nature of energy. This is how sustainable business success is built.

Ready to move beyond the either/or debate and create a system that actually works? Start by auditing your current approach. Where are your time management foundations solid, and where do they need strengthening? How can you layer energy optimisation onto this foundation? This is exactly the kind of strategic work we do in the Rockstar Team Framework – creating systems that support both effective time and energy management.

The future of business leadership isn’t about choosing between time and energy management. It’s about mastering both. Your team deserves a leader who can not only manage time effectively but also bring their best energy to the most important moments. That’s how truly sustainable business success is built.

Every business owner’s situation is unique, and cookie-cutter solutions rarely work. Your time and energy management strategy needs to be as individual as your business and leadership style.

Ready to Create Your Perfect Balance?

Book a Free Dream Team Discovery Call and let’s chat about what’s going to work for YOU.

The post Time vs Energy Management: The False Choice Costing Business Owners appeared first on Paula Maidens.

You’re not alone! 

It’s so easy as a female entrepreneur, juggling work, life, and family to drop into overwhelm with the sheer volume of tasks demanding our attention. 

For me, the only thing that supports me when that so-much-to-do feeling creeps… is to focus on prioritisation.

And by prioritisation I mean a really disciplined process of prioritisation that is realistic.. 

This allows me to identify just 3 things that need to happen that day and accept that if that is all that gets done.. The world is not going to end.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not easy and it takes some serious conversations with yourself including NOT justifying or accepting that in fact there are at least 10 big things that need to be done that day…

I’ve found – that when I get SUPER clear and then give myself permission to ONLY do the 3 big things, the important stuff always gets done but the overwhelm goes away.

But here’s the thing.

All of this can become heaps easier or actually harder when you have a team.

It can be EASIER – if you view the businesses priorities in a pool where the team rallies together to execute what is important.  The load is shared and the priorities get done. 

It can get HARDER – if your team members are working in silo only focusing on their own ‘patch’, not aware (or not caring) about other priorities.  This can lead to one person carrying the pressure (usually you, the boss!), a sense of imbalance, resentment and a total lack of ‘we’re in this together’.

So if you are feeling overwhelmed and thining sh*t it’s only February, here are some tips on how you can get your to-do list down to the Top 3 and feel like your whole team is rallying to get the important stuff done.

1. Review and Clarify your business goals.

Yes, it’s only February and you probably only set them in the last month or two but I’m still suggesting you review them.   Maybe they aren’t specific enough, maybe they are too unrealistic or maybe they are too vague or maybe you just haven’t finalised and decided them at all!? 

By referencing your goals, you should be able to easily look at your to-do list and see which tasks and projects are the “needle movers” for the business and therefore what needs to be prioritise. 

2. Bring your team together to discuss the business goals and direction and workload. 

You can’t keep your head in the sand and hope that the workload problem will pass without discussion.  If you want the team to share the load, SHOW them the load and look at ALL the priorities and tasks together. 

Everyone understanding the broader business goals and the relevant prioritisation of various tasks and projects and how they link to the bigger picture is essential. 

3. Break It Down into chunks. 

This  maybe something you work on alone or as a team.  Breaking the big projects and any tasks that feel ‘big’ into smaller chunks that feel manageable.

4. Review or Assign timeframes

Based on the number of people you have available and keeping the “max 3 big priorities each day” pace in mind.

And finally…. 

5. Learn to SAY NO. 

It’s far too tempting and far too easy to say yes to every opportunity that comes your way.

However, as the leader in your business – you need to prioritise 2 things. Being available to your team (so they can complete their big tasks) and you completing yours.  

This process above will also highlight if there are ACTIVITIES that are being scheduled that aren’t a priority and therefore as just being done ‘because’. 

Looking at this critically will help you lean up workload and take away some bloat from your team which is a total win win.

Remember:
Doing more doesn’t move the needle. 

Doing what matters. 

What do you think? Does pulling your massive to-do list right down to your “BIG 3” every day feel possible or totally crazy? 

If you’d like support, consider booking a free 45-minute Dream Team Discovery Call with Paula. You can talk about your business goals and how you can rally your team to support you to achieve your big goals. 

Book a time HERE

The post Prioritising Your Never Ending To Do List appeared first on Paula Maidens.

Among these challenges, one that stands out as crucial to our well-being and productivity is mastering boundaries.

In this blog post, we’ll explore the significance of boundaries in creating a business and life that thrives, addressing common struggles, and offering actionable strategies.

The Importance of Boundaries:

Boundaries play a pivotal role in shaping the dynamics of our businesses and interactions with both team members and clients. They serve as guardrails, guiding us toward a path of balance, respect, and productivity. However, establishing and maintaining boundaries can be a daunting task, especially when met with resistance or uncertainty.

Many of us can relate to the feelings of overwhelm, stress, and guilt that arise when boundaries are lacking. Without clear guidelines in place, it’s easy to find yourself inundated with interruptions, distractions, and unrealistic expectations. These challenges not only impede your ability to focus and perform but also erode your well-being and overall ability to ‘switch off’.

The common boundary that is often lacking and needs clarification for most 6 and 7 figure female service-based businesses is around communication.

How to Address and Create Boundaries for Communication: 

It’s essential to adopt a proactive approach to boundary setting and here are some actionable strategies and steps that you can take:

1. Clarify Expectations: Start by defining your expectations for communication, availability, and response times. Often the confusion comes from lack of explicit conversation and clarity. Clearly communicate your expectations to your team and make sure your clients know what your communication rules are to avoid misunderstandings and conflicts.
2. Establish Clear Communication Channels: Implement a Communication Framework that outlines when and how different channels should be used for communication. This helps streamline communication processes and minimises disruptions.
3. Set Time Boundaries: Determine specific work hours and times when you are available for communication and stick to them consistently. Encourage your team to do the same, fostering a culture of respect for personal time and boundaries.
4. Practice Kind Assertiveness: Don’t be afraid to assert your boundaries firmly but respectfully. Think of it as ‘reminding’ rather than ‘reprimanding’. Remember, boundaries are essential for your well-being and the health of your business. Hold yourself and others accountable for respecting them.
5. Seek Mutual Understanding: When setting boundaries, consider the perspectives and needs of others involved. Strive for mutual understanding and agreement to ensure that boundaries are fair, reasonable, and supportive for everyone.

By implementing these strategies you’ll be well on your way as a female entrepreneur to overcome common boundary-related challenges and to create a work environment that fosters productivity, respect, and well-being.

Mastering boundaries is not just a skill – it’s a cornerstone of a sustainable success for female entrepreneurs. 

By setting clear expectations, establishing communication channels, and practicing assertiveness with empathy, you can create a work culture that prioritises balance, respect, and productivity.

If you’d like to learn more about Setting Healthy Boundaries listen to the Boundaries: How to set ones that work (& keep them!) episode of the Big Dreams Great Teams® podcast.

The post Mastering Boundaries: A Key to Sustainable Success for Female Entrepreneurs appeared first on Paula Maidens.

If it’s been a while, this is a reminder for you to ask yourself:

>> Are you always racing against the clock?

>> Working backwards from deadlines and only getting the essentials done?

>> Do you struggle to get creative or brainstorming time let alone bounce around ideas as a team? 

>> Does your brain feel like it’s constantly in ‘thinking’ mode and your body on high alert?

If you’re nodding yes…then, you’re working WITHOUT SPACE in BUSY mode.

(And before you roll your eyes with a ‘but there’s nothing I can do about it…stay with me…)

You might THINK being busy is the REASON you feel like you have no space.

BUT there’s usually a lot more to it than that.

Working out the **true** reason why you don’t have space and feel so busy can actually be a little tricky to figure out.

Because the cold hard reality is… that YOU are the boss of your business.

You get to set the deadlines and the priorities

Which in turn means that you are choosing to be busy and choosing to operate without space.

I know, this realisation often doesn’t feel so good….

But, only YOU have the power to change it

So you need to work out WHY you won’t.

It’s frustrating, weird and confronting to feel so powerLESS, when you actually hold the power.

And when you are operating in #justkeepgoing mode 

You’ll automatically keep pushing 

When instead you need to be slowing to work out what needs to change

Because nothing changes, unless something changes.

So right now, as you read this, I encourage you to take half an hour to slow down.

To look at your week and your month ahead.

And look for what you can change and ways to create SPACE

Because although it’s not easy, it IS always possible.

There are a number of ways that I can support you to create more space in your business and in your life by helping you build your dream team. 

Book in a Dream Team Discovery Call with me here and let’s have a no obligation chat about your business and I’ll share my honest opinion about whether I can help you.  

The post How much space do you have? appeared first on Paula Maidens.

You are  successful business owner,  a successful CEO, with a clear idea of your zone of genius and you know the multimillionaire version of you is waiting to step forward.

But let’s pause there.

To do that….you need to stop the story that you “don’t have time to focus on team”.

You being in the spotlight, centre stage. Doing insta lives, talking to clients, running events and showing up in all your amazing glory, serving your genius to the world….is not the only part of the production.

Every performance has a backstage crew. A BTS support team.

Superstars have a rockstar team.

Working the lights, the sound, organising the tickets, checking audio.

They simply would not be standing there in the limelight if it wasn’t for their team.

So if you are feeling stretched right now?

This is why.

Because you are doing all the roles of all the people. Juggling it all.

And you are convincing yourself you don’t have the time to change it.

The edge for millionaire business owners in the making is the team that’s helping them to make it happen.

Team?

Team might feel like the least sexy thing to invest in. You might be sitting there thinking of paying someone to help you as just an expense. More money going out the door without a big enough shiny ROI.

But let me tell you.

Investing in your team. In your ability to choose great people and lead them so they can take the weight off your shoulders.

Is the BIGGEST AND BEST investment of your time and your hard-earned dollars that you’ll spend when you’ve cleared 6 figures and you are racing towards 7 figures.

When you invest in your team, you invest in a support system who is bought into your vision, share your passion, fuel your ideas, bring their own ideas and make everything so much more possible

So the solution to finding the time to be able to focus on team?

>>>>> IS changing your perception of the importance of this aspect of growing your business

And simply LIFTING IT UP to the top of your To-Do List.

Now.

Every single day – you should be taking action towards moving the emphasis off you being the major DOER to you being the LEADER in your business

And leaders – they lead teams. They spend time on their team. 

That is truly the evolution and shift you need to make in your business – by moving team systems, processes, operations, efficiencies, feedback and communication from the bottom of your to-do list or your ‘one hour a month’ spot in your calendar to the top of your priorities – where you ** give it the time it needs to operate the way you need it to ***

Because if you aren’t prioritising it

You are accepting it

And the message you are sending your team, the universe and your future million dollar self –

“I’m OK with the status quo because I’m not prioritising investing in the people, the systems and the framework I need to improve and shift us outta here”

So, if you have read this far, you probably haven’t received the solution you were hoping for – BUT I want you to know I’m saying this from my heart and from my 15 years of experience supporting businesses to hire great people and develop into the leaders they need to be – to keep them and make them produce results that blow their minds.

So if you clicked on this article thinking “I wish I had more time or I don’t have time” then I want you to walk away with the clear message that you have ALL THE TIME YOU NEED.

You just need to choose

And it doesn’t have to take up all your time – find 2 hours per week to dedicate to it – and you’ll be noticing significant improvements straight away to the way you feel about your business.

And if reading this has you chomping at the bit with what you should be doing with those 2 hours a week or that time you are investing – jump across to my FREE facebook group and dive into the trainings there. It’s the Savvy Hiring Secrets for Entrepreneurs group.

The post How to get enough time to focus on ‘team’ appeared first on Paula Maidens.

If you feel like this, don’t worry, it’s totally normal!

This is a challenge all successful, highly capable entrepreneurs experience when managing their team.

So, let me introduce you to a simple concept that will have you all on the same page.

Ask, don’t tell.

Yep, that’s it.

Super simple, yet super effective.

But Paula, I think you misunderstood the difficulties I am having?

Trust me, I understand. I’ll walk you through the concept.

Let’s start with a very common problem I hear from entrepreneurs, all the time.

You see something done incorrectly, a mistake made, something not done quite right – and your immediate response, is to spot it and tell your team member exactly what needs to be fixed or done differently.

Sounds logical – particularly when we are coming from a place where these tasks were once managed by us – so the fix is obvious, quick, and ‘yay, it’s sorted – quick let’s move on to the next pressing task’.

Until the next time!

A new mistake or issue, or maybe even the same one!

You quickly tell your team member what to do to fix it again. (Straight into solve it mode because you’re busy and really don’t have time for this).

However, this time your frustration increases slightly, because it’s happened again. While your team member experiences another ‘this is how it should be done’ instruction.

Take a moment to think about this ONE WAY form of communicating your expectations to your team (because how we treat one team member is how we treat them all – but that’s a whole other topic for another day!).

If we are constantly talking AT someone, what happens?

The person may –

• Tune out
• Doesn’t catch all the information
• Allows their ego or emotions to take over and stops listening, through fear, shame etc.

All, whilst your frustration is rising with each occasion you spot something not done as it should have been.

There is another way.

By asking and not telling, we create a space for open communication between both parties, that allows the full picture to be seen. How and why did it happen the way it did?

So, start by asking –

“Hey, I noticed you did this, and this was the result. Can you talk me through your process?”

This open-ended questioning allows the other person to explain what their thought process was, potentially whether there were any other factors that came into play, and if the task was not fully understood by them, etc.

You are then in a position to understand their thought process and clarify any assumptions for both of you.

“Actually, what I was hoping for was more along the lines of…”

“I would prefer if we are able to do it this way, because of…”

“I may not have been as clear as I needed to be, so this is how I would like this done next time…”

By asking and not telling – you allow the space to uncover the real reason for the error.

This process allows you to get to the HEART of why it happened the way it did.

This AHA moment will then allow you to clarify your expectations and provide the solution – but one that is the right solution to prevent it happening again, because it takes into account why it happened in the first place.

Whilst asking not telling takes more time – think about the concept of time.

Time invested now, prevents time wasted fixing things again later. Or worse, replacing the person because your frustration with the mistakes has reached breaking point!

We need our team to understand what we need, how and why.

The only way to shift them from where they are, to where you want them to be…is to bring them on the journey with you.

So, don’t talk at them to solve the situation.

Talk with them. Ask, don’t tell.

This will train them to be more able to think like you from the business perspective and also to be more invested in the outcome.

So suddenly…you’ll find your time is freed up.

And I know you would all love more free time!

If you have found this tip useful for your business…join me and other successful entrepreneurs for more biz tips in my Facebook group, Savvy CEO Secrets for Entrepreneurs.

The post Tired of mistakes? Ask, don’t tell. appeared first on Paula Maidens.

So this week feels a bit different, and it’s Tuesday and I have some time to breathe and some time to think and plan. Of course, I still have work to do, and an awful lot of it lot of it, but I do not feel like I am in crisis mode, with deadlines and meetings which puts everything into the ‘super urgent’ box.

Many people are familiar with Steve Covey’s Time Management Matrix (or in a reproduced form of some sort) and I suppose what I am realising is that for the last few months, I have been operating in Box I “Urgent and Important”.

So with a bit more time on my side this week, and a few less deadlines looming, I am reviewing the Time Management Matrix (below) and realising that finally, I am sitting in Box II, the apparent ideal box to be in. With a strong sense of tiredness from the last few months, and to be honest, a bit of relief of not being in Box I, I can truly understand that pattern that Steve Covey talks about how people who spend too much time in Box I move between Box I and Box IV. It would be so easy to enjoy the ability to muck around, spend too much time on facebook and generally ‘relax’ and deal with it all later.

But knowing I’ll be really upset at myself at some stage in the future if I do that, I have decided to today force myself to take some time out to plan and brainstorm what I need to do over the next few months and to also plan how to stay in Box II and attempt to minimise future intense periods of heavy deadlines and too many pressing issues.

A few ideas so far:

• Plan & Block time for the whole month in advance, two if possible.
• Encourage autonomy within the team members by allocating blocks of my time with each person in advance for the coming month (two or three if necessary), and encourage them to self-solve and raise challenges for discussions in those periods of blocked time.
• Include time to innovate across 4 areas: a) seminars/workshops b) marketing methods c) online sales d) new business partners
• Include time allocations for personal activities, including yoga and exercise and aim for a long weekend once a month.

A lot of people find it strange that I am at my ‘concentration best’ working from a busy coffee shop. The noisier the better, as somehow it helps me to concentrate and go inside myself to focus and produce more than when I am in the office or at home alone.

So I’m at Buzz Coffee Shop at the Emporium Centre in the Valley and off I go. Wish me luck!

The post Taking the time to Plan appeared first on Paula Maidens.