Transcript:
How I make my personal life easier so that I can focus on my business is something that has unbelievably helped me grow my revenue at Mi PA, because, I mean, let’s face it, who is a good business owner when everything outside of the office is hectic as well? The penny dropped for me about 18 a months ago when business was getting more and more demanding and something had to give. And so I got slicker with life outside of work to help work. And, this episode is going to show you exactly what I implemented.
Welcome to this week’s episode. My name is Emma, Mills. I’m the founder of Mi PA, and I help business owners leverage themselves out of the day to day so that they are either spending their time doing the things they want to do, the things they enjoy doing, or just spending it. Imagine with the people they want to spend it with. So, this week’s episode was inspired because a couple of weeks ago, I had somebody say to me that they perceive that I’ve just always got my shit together all the time in work and outside of work life.
Now, of course, I’m really glad it seems like that, it’s not always true, but it did make me think that there are, is, to be fair, a lot of things I do and implement and now take for granted that, would be helpful to somebody whose life is one big blend of work, business, personal. And it feels unwieldy, and it feels hectic, and it feels that home is as stressful as work. And I’m not talking about relationships.
This episode is solely focused on systems, rhythm, tasks, repeatable things, things that can just make life easier. So I thought, you know what? Great episode coming here. I’m just going to make a list of the things that I do and have implemented, and I hope some of these might just be like, little light bulb moments or ticking the boxes for you to do the same. So I’m going to share with you the five things that I felt like were most impactful on just making life outside of work easier. So, number one is my calendar. And before you switch off, this is not about diary management.
It’s the fact that my calendar from Monday to Sunday is a complete reflection of what I am doing. Like, my PA, Bex, knows that if it’s not in the calendar, I’m not doing it. So everything personal is scheduled in there, to the detail. Most importantly, my calendar is shared with my boyfriend, Joe, vice versa. His is shared with mine. I know some of you watching this going well, I’m not doing that. But for us, it has just eradicated so many tiresome conversations around.
Well, I didn’t know you were away then, or I didn’t know you were taking the car there, or you were doing this, or I didn’t know you were out on Friday night. Well, who’s looking after? Like, it eradicates everything? Because what I am doing is planned into the minutiae. as my PA Bex knows, if it’s not in the calendar, Emma isn’t setting up to it or doing it. So Monday to Sunday, it’s a complete, even when I’m doing a, training for a marathon at the moment. So when I’m doing a run, when I’ve got, basically, you get the picture, everything is scheduled in there, and, there is no chance for confusion. It’s the same with Joe. he does lots of training.
That’s all in there. I know when he’s going to be out late. I’m not saying now that I follow his every move, and I know exactly where he is, but I know when we have commitments or when they clash, or when one of us will be doing things that are important to us. And also, some of you may not be open to this, but few key members of my management team also just have full access to my calendar. They can see when I’m in, when I’m out, what I’m doing. And I have no issue with that because I would just rather they know that this stuff is going on. But the key part is that because my calendar is shared with my boyfriend, it has just eradicated so many conversations that we would have had before around, well, when we. Oh, you never told me you’re going there.
I never told you two weeks ago. Well, I don’t remember that. None of that ever happens now. It’s just, he can see what I’m doing, I can see what he’s doing, and it makes life so much simpler. So, number one, if you share your life with somebody, that, ah, impacts you 100%. I would have a shared calendar with them of what you’re doing away, because it’s been a real game changer for us. Number two, and one of my favorites is subscriptions.
So the more things that turn up without me having to think about them, the better. And, if you just think about it in this way, if you have something repeatedly in your life, surely you want it to happen. You put the effort in once, and then it just keeps showing up. You don’t have to keep putting the effort in time and time again. It’s the one thing that having my PA has taught me. Like, the rhythm in the business of the things just repeatedly happening is where all the good stuff comes from. And if I am using or consuming something more than once, I can get it on subscription, then I am. So this at the moment, like, a brief overview would be m my supplements with longevity box. I get them every month. Come in my nutritional supplements, beauty products, hair dye. If I can get it on a rhythm, it’s coming. Ralph’s food butternut box. We get coffee on subscription now. We get coffee every month. Coming. I did have a spark and water subscription at one point. That was probably a step too far. Evening meals. I remember when the first couple years of me and Joe being together, my weekly pain of thinking about what we were eating and when and when I was going to buy it and what we were going to cook, and I hated it. Every evening. I like cooking when I’ve got time, but not when I’ve come home from work and I’m having to think about what are we going to have. Like, gusto has saved my evenings.
The fact that I don’t have to think about it. I spend five minutes picking some really nice meals. They take ten minutes to make. It means that Joe’s now got involved because he never used to cook before. But literally, the fact that it just comes, I don’t have to go and get this stuff. I don’t have to think about what we’re going to have. That’s not the same thing every night. Like, gusto for me, is just a no brainer. The food shop that now happens just on a weekly basis. I have an order that we duplicate and we add, and remove where we need to. But it comes just every Sunday from sages.
Like, I don’t have to think about, oh, I’m walking around, like, wasting time. Or should we get some of this? It’s just on a rhythm. And for me, the rhythm and consistency of things happening in my life frees my brain from so much fog. It is worth it. Even if some of them are a little bit more expensive just having them on repeat than maybe going and getting a special deal at Morrison’s or whatever. The fact that it’s just happening makes my life so much easier.
So if I can get anything on subscription, it is happening, and I would really recommend you do the same. And number three, which is the solution to never having to keep refining information all of the time, is that I have a project now. I use Asana. Whatever your choice of software is or whether that’s just an apple note or a onenote or word document doesn’t have to be anything fancy. We use Asana to run the business.
Anyway, so I have a personal project in there which is private to me and I use it to store and add to and amend all of mine and my close family around me, like personal information that, the kind of thing you might need. And then you’re like, oh, what was that? Where is it? Where can I find it? So that will be, I have a picture of my passport in there, my driving license, the name and number of Ralph’s vet, doctors, the garage that we take our car to. And then I start to build out travel preferences in there. And if there is a transfer company that we use when we go away or where we take the car to the garage and I start to build out in there, and I consistently amend this. Now, this isn’t just if you’ve got somebody helping you. This is like a place where I keep all of the personal information that I might go, oh, where is that again? I keep in there like my UTR number for HMRC, my self assessment number, my national insurance number, all the things. And when something new comes in or if I’ve joined something new or like my private medical insurance, my membership number, I just start to add all the things in there that is like this complete treasure trove of when I need to sort something out personally, I’ll go, oh, I’m going to look in there first. I know I will have put it in there. Rather than looking through letters, paperwork. Where did I put that mortgage reference numbers? I literally just keep adding to it on all of the key personal things in my life.
Like I’m going to need this number at some point. And what it’s really helpful with is that when you get to the point, which I hope most of you do, after you’ve watched this video, to get somebody to support you in your personal life, and that is not a big expense or as big a deal as it might initially sound, having one place where they can add to as well or easily find information that they need to progress stuff is just absolutely makes life so much easier. And as you start to build up this project around you and the people close to you in your personal life of information that you would need, then getting somebody to help you can become much, much easier. And that’s going to take me on to my step number four. Number four was getting somebody to support me in my personal life and to be fair.
This stems all the way back to the first time I ever heard Nigel Boschfield tell the story around how he went on holiday, spent time with a family who, or met a family, rather, on holiday, who had a housekeeper. And then it opened his eyes up to the idea of, wow, if I got a housekeeper on a couple of hours a day, it would make my wife’s life so much easier and mine.
It would make everything flow so much better. And this is what the essence of this episode is about, getting the things that just make everything flow better. So you’re less hectic, less frazzled, less stressed, and getting somebody to help as an exec PA in my personal life is definitely up there with the all time greats of things that make my life better. And before you think, oh, wow, okay, I’m turning this video off because I can’t afford a full time salary. I don’t need someone full time. Like when I first started to get some help, probably three or four years ago now, my first PA actually was a virtual PA, and she was literally doing about five to 10 hours a month. For me, this was probably like 2019, 2018, something like that. I now have bets who works full time, and she helps me in all sorts of areas.
But in the very beginning, my PA that I had was literally supporting me for 5 hours a month, 10 hours a month, having that go to place of can you just do this? Can you just sort that the tick in the box like the dopamine hit ah. Of somebody just taking something off you. And the mindset of this episode doesn’t just have to be about in the business because you put so much into the day, okay? Getting your personal life in better shape, in a better place, it doesn’t have to be pushed to the back. Being a really great business owner isn’t about sacrificing everything outside of what’s going on in the office and that, well, I’m really on top of it here, but unfortunately, just everything has to go outside of my personal life. That’s not what being a really great business owner is about. And it doesn’t have to be like that. there are solutions for it. So I just wanted to give you some flavor of the kind of things that my PA, Bex, like some of the personal things that she is doing for me and Joe.
And she literally books all of our travel. She checks us in no matter what our travel is, I will just send her a screenshot of what we want, and she just books it. And she has a card to use, so she books. All of our travel makes sure it all flows nicely, that we’ve got enough baggage, and all of, that little nitty gritty stuff that she gets our seats reserved near the front. You know, the stuff that just. It takes time, and I would rather be spending that time doing something else that I really want to do. She’s helped me organize a hendoo for a friend.
Like, she helped kind of coordinate who was going, who’d paid the money. I have all of the birthdays of my friends and family in my calendar, and without fail, a week or two weeks beforehand, Bex will look in advance and go, okay, this is coming up. What should we do? Or just, even if it’s a prompt, even if I’m the one getting the gift, it’ll just be like, okay, this is coming up. What do we need to sort or organize anything at? Also, she’ll have that as well. I have a Whatsapp group with my PA Bex and my boyfriend, Joe. And then in that, we can just send.
We’ll send screenshots, messages like, oh, can you do this? And even over the weekend, you’ll be, oh, let’s book this. Pop it in. She gets to it, on Monday. Having the WhatsApp group is a real no brainer, because it’s just so easy to go, oh, what about this? And what about this? Literally, if Sunja recommends a book to me, I’m putting a screenshot in there and asking, bex, can you just go and get me one of those and get it? I ordered the next set on know. She’s waited in the queue for tickets to Solomon, a dj I really wanted on an online queue that is not in a physical queue, but she’s waiting online queue to get tickets to something that I wanted. And just all of these things add, while they are not big, huge projects to push the business forward, they make my quality of life so much better that she has got my back. And she also, by having the project with all of the personal details in, she has a knowledge of my life that just makes her doing things so much easier, because she knows and she gets it, and she knows the preferences and what we would do and what we wouldn’t do. And so that, flow just starts to get easier and easier. So, one, by having all your details in a place where you can access them, but two, once you plug in somebody to help you, even if it’s for a couple of hours a week, which is so possible, whether it’s a company like ours, whether it’s somebody local that just wants some part time work to work from home. Whether it’s a local va, just getting that support makes life so much better where you’ve actually just got someone you can farm a few things out to and they’ll get them done for you. Even when we’ve moved house, I mean, we’re about to move house again.
Bex has done all of the redirections, all of the changing of the addresses, like all that kind of thing that otherwise I might be spending my Saturday afternoon or my evening doing. And quite frankly, I would rather, and it’s a real mindset to get into. I’d rather buy my time back so I can go and do something that I really enjoy doing. But all this stuff’s happening in the background, and you don’t, have to be a multimillionaire to make this happen.
All this stuff can be just happening in the background while you go off and do other things that you would rather do. And the one thing this happened again, on a call this morning, somebody said to me, I struggle with using a pa because I feel a bit cheeky asking them to do things. Do not be in any doubt that your tasks and the satisfaction of getting through these things and getting them done is somebody else’s absolute source. Like, they love to do that, they love to help you, and they love to go, right, done this, what’s next? Done this, what’s next? Solve a problem. Note. Right.
They can’t book this in, I’m going to get you those tickets. I’m going to find that restaurant reservation that is somebody else’s absolute perfect job and role. So don’t ever think as well that, oh, it’s just easy to do it myself. I don’t want to bother them. Somebody else out there wants to and loves to do those tasks. And number five, which might be a slight deviation, but I, in the past twelve months, have prioritized my fitness in my personal life as much as I have prioritized my business in the past 15 years. And I cannot recommend this enough that you treat fitness sessions in your calendar like you would a, meeting with a client.
Now, I got myself a fitness coach to kick start this whole thing because I like accountability. But you could just as easily do this with a friend, or I’m not saying you have to get a fitness coach, so for me, it really helps. But that treating of time in your calendar as important as a meeting to either go out and do one or two mile walk or go and do a gym class or go and do a run.
That has been the biggest ease of my personal and work life that I’ve probably ever experienced, because I’ve always dabbled in the gym a bit, but it’s always been at the bottom of the list. And as soon as I put what you would call a personal task up to the front of all of the business tasks, it made running the business so much easier because the way I dealt with stress, I guess my general fitness levels, just, it really helped shape me as a much better leader. And so I just had to include this in. Because in terms of getting your personal life, like, running fluidly and smoothly for me, subscriptions, sharing your calendar with the people around you that are important, getting some help, getting all of your personal information into just one clear place where you’re not having to keep checking it. But number five was prioritizing. My health and fitness has made me, ah, an infinitely better, clearer, wiser business person. So I just had to include that because I want you to give it the same importance and that I feel like we most often do to our business, but not to everything else that flows around it.
I hope today’s episode has helped you get your head out of the dirt and into the clouds. Because for me, when your personal life is overwhelming, is hectic, constantly feels behind, and you’re just spending the weekends catching up. That is when we are most often in the dirt and not doing meaningful things, not enjoying how we’re spending our time, and everything starts to get slow and slower and slower. So putting some clarity around how you can get your personal life flowing like it should be is only a good thing. And I will see you next week. See you then. Bye.
