The Power of ‘Not Yet’

20 Aug

Written By

A quick word before we start:

We’ve been talking a lot about slow marketing and developing our businesses over here, and I hope that there have been some transferable nuggets for those of you not in the business of business. This blog started as a slow living blog, and, while I’ve been justifying the marketing content as contributing to a slow life, I’ve been yearning to bring back more outright lifestyle content. The trouble is, when your lifestyle is working, you tend you write about working!But, I think I’ve found a balance. From today I’m starting Slow Down Sundays, where the content posted will be more traditionally slow living – food, interiors, lifestyle, self. Some days, like today, there will be crossovers with the business-y content, but mostly it will be pure, unadulterated slowness. Because I think we all need a little more of that over here.

Now, let's get on with the post.

Hands, tea and pebbles ‘Not yet’ is something I continually tell myself, and encourage my clients to do too. If you’re anything like me, you’re always thinking ‘what next?’ – what can I achieve, where can I go, what can I do? Couple that with all the advice and should-do’s out there, and you’re left with a to do list that stretches out the door and no real time for a life. This is where ‘not yet’ comes in.Telling yourself ‘not yet’ is a powerful way to give yourself permission to put something aside, but not forever. It’s a promise to yourself to pick something up when you have time and space, whilst allowing yourself to focus on what is going to serve you best here and now.I talk about it in terms of a ‘not yet pile’. This can be a physical pile, a notebook of ideas you’re saving for later, a scrapbook of destinations to visit, a Pinterest board. Or just the act of moving something from the front of your mind to the imaginary pile at the back can be cathartic. When I’ve told myself ‘not yet’, on a project, I’ve felt a weight lift from my shoulders and a greater clarity about what was on my plate.

‘Not Yet’ for your business

Using the ‘not yet’ pile in your business is an effective way of keeping on top of your time and task management. It helps you to stay on your path and keep making dogged progress without running off to pick flowers– all safe in the knowledge that you can loop back round and pick the flowers further up.For me, I used this technique most effectively while I was finishing my notice period at my full time job, while trying to ramp up my own business. I was living at my parents, organising a house move from 200 miles away and time and thinking space were at a real premium for me. All I was hearing and reading about was how great Pinterest was for traffic, all I was being told was how I had to get on Pinterest.It started to stress me out: I was barely keeping on top of Instagram and the blog at that time, and I was focusing on my email list. How was I going to add something else in on top of that? The reality was, I couldn’t. I physically couldn’t, there was not the necessary hours in the day to devote to Pinterest and maintain all the other things. So I told myself ‘not yet’. In those three months I had to focus on maintaining growth in the channels I already had, and especially in my owned channels (you can read more on this here). Pinterest wasn’t going anywhere, the opportunity cost from pushing it back a few months was minimal and I would have time and space after the move to tackle it properly.

‘Not Yet’ for your life

I’ve always been a striver, always wanted to be moving on to the next thing, like a bouncing video game character jumping between gold coins. I’ve never been good at just being in the moment – even sat listening to waves roll in my brain is whirring and whirring.While I’m nowhere near mastering the art of switching off (that’s a blog post for another day!), I am exercising the power of ‘not yet’ to get some perspective in my life and give myself a break. Mostly this is going on with our house. The new home is bigger and differently shaped to our old one, meaning that we needed more or different furniture to fit it. Having got the essentials (and a few non-essentials – hey, I’m only human) I started looking around at other improvements I could make. But I wanted to be buying and choosing things for the right reasons, not because I felt a want dressed up as need. I wanted to live with the space and how we use it before splashing out on a new sofa and dining set. So I said ‘not yet’. We’ll get them some day, just not yet.Maybe you want to go on holiday to all the places (hello, also me), maybe you want to learn five new hobbies, maybe you want to take a course or go back to school. There’s no question that these things will serve you, but if you’re stacked up at work, have family commitments and a sick cat, are they going to serve you right now, or burden you?

How to assess what goes on the pile

Teapot, tea and a book on the windowsill Ok, you’re convinced and you want to make that pile and clear out the front of your mind. Where do you start? How do you know what to put on the pile?Here are some questions to ask:What serves you best right now?If you’ve got deadlines approaching then vowing to walk 10,000 steps a day is going to burden rather than serve you. But starting a healthy eating habit probably will help to fuel you.What is the opportunity cost?What will you miss out on if you don’t do this thing immediately? A feature in a magazine or a podcast interview probably won’t come around again in a hurry, but clearing out your studio could wait for a quieter period.How long have you been putting it off?If something has been on the to do list for months already, it can probably wait a few more weeks (like my Pinterest thing). If you’ve been avoiding it for a really long time, however, it may be worth asking yourself if it is worth doing at all.

How do you know when to take things off the pile?

The power of ‘not yet’ is that you’re not saying ‘no, never’ – you have to make it happen at some point. So how do you know when is the best time? You’ll like have a good idea from the questions above, but it’s all about knowing the rhythm and flow of your life, or your business.Perhaps the summer months are a good time to tackle things; work is quieter as everyone goes on holiday and those long evenings give you an extra chunk of time. Or maybe autumn is better – curled up inside with the kids in bed early you feel more productive with the back to school feeling. And of course, you get the unexpected spaces: the cancelled lunch date or postponed workshop. These can be times to pick up a book from the pile. Telling yourself ‘not yet’ is a powerful way to give yourself permission to put something aside, but not forever. It’s a promise to yourself to pick something up when you have time and space, whilst allowing yourself to focus on what is going to serve you best here and now.

Now, what's going on your 'Not Yet' pile?

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Telling yourself ‘not yet’ is a powerful way to give yourself permission to put something aside, but not forever. It’s a promise to yourself to pick something up when you have time and space, whilst allowing yourself to focus on what is going to serve you best here and now.