How to Know if the E-Commerce Life is for You

If you’re looking for someone to help build your site and complete your busywork, then do feel free to get in touch. I’m a virtual administrative assistant that would love to help grow your business with you. 💜 Get in touch here.

Deciding whether or not to start a business can feel daunting if you’re new to the world of online income. Especially in the age of instant social media – where it feels as if everyone is trying harder, doing better, and working more.

By the end of this post, you’ll be equipped with the know-how knowledge to determine whether or not this lifestyle will be for you. 

We’ll go through the traits of a successful business owner, the pros and cons of an e-commerce business, and discuss some of the high-potential businesses you can start working on today.

Am I Really Cut Out for This?

When digging through blog articles – or even just social media in general – it can be very hard to figure out whether the e-commerce lifestyle is truly for you.

Are they just pretending to like it?

It seems too easy to be true.

They must have some skill or ability that I don’t have.

I’m not as [smart, attractive, curious, independent] as them – so I probably wouldn’t succeed.

These are all doubts that we all have while starting a new business. It really sucks to think that you could fail, waste time and money, or you’ll disappoint your family.

Although these are very real and negative aspects of starting an online business, there’s also a lot of potential that come with it as well. Potential to make passive income, quitting your full-time job, and the pride that comes with running a successful business.

Before I started my blog I was worried that I would immediately fail – that I would somehow do something utterly stupid and ruin my entire life.

Dramatic much?

But here I am just a few months later – confident in my abilities and working every day towards my goals. 

Honestly, at this point, I don’t even care if I fail. I’ve learned so many skills and I’ve gained a huge amount of respect and confidence for myself in such a short period of time. 

Even if your business idea is unsuccessful, the amount of confidence, respect, and knowledge you gain is worth it. (In my opinion)

Another huge reason most individuals want to start their own business is to have the luxury of doing what they love. 

While there will be a lot of aspects that you dislike about running a business – you’re still able to follow your passions while doing so.

Before we jump into the pros and cons section, remember to stay until the end. I give a list of 10 e-commerce businesses you can start to create today.

You never know – starting an online business may change your life forever!

Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs

Do you have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur?

When first deciding whether or not becoming an online business owner is for you, you need to know if you have the right characteristics.

This list isn’t in any particular order. 

A Curious Problem-Solver

Are you willing and able to learn? Starting a new business is all about being able to learn new things and apply everything you’ll learn. 

You’ll need to be able to problem solve almost on a daily – if not hourly basis as a business owner. Individuals who are curious are the ones with the most innovative problem-solving skills.

Structured and Dedicated

Are you a person who rides on the waves of motivation? You only do things when you absolutely have to or your work style is very inconsistent?

Then starting a business may not be for you. 

Against contrary belief, you will need to be putting in as much time and effort into your new business as you can.

Are you running a business or a hobby?

If your e-commerce site is purely a hobby and you’re not intending to make cash from it, it’s completely acceptable for you to work whenever you feel like it. 

If you’re running a business – be prepared to be putting a considerable amount of work and effort into it. (At least in the beginning.)

Adaptable and a Risk Taker

Depending on your niche and the type of online business you decide to run, you may need to be constantly adapting and taking risks to succeed. 

We are in an ever-changing online environment where a simple update could change the course of your business in a matter of minutes.

Are you prepared for something like that?

Although I wouldn’t say it’s likely for your website to be made completely obsolete – you still need to be able to adapt to changes quickly. 

What would happen if your Facebook followers were to move over to Tik-Tok? Would you continue to try and build your Facebook account or could you adapt to using Tik-Tok? 

Could your business survive if you got banned on Instagram and lost your following?

If You’re Not Already – Can You Become Comfortable With Failing?

I honestly wish at the beginning of my blogging journey someone would have told me how much failing business owners go through.

Seriously – expect to be told NO a lot.

Do you want to run ads? – Your site isn’t providing enough value.

Do you want to write a guest blog? – Sorry, you don’t fit the vision of our company.

Do you want to add someone’s affiliate link to your site? – You aren’t getting enough traffic.

Do you want to partner up? – We already have selected a better candidate.

You will fail over and over and over again. The only thing you can do is get back up and try again until you succeed.

You need to be prepared that things will not go the way you hoped and will be more time-consuming and difficult than first expected.

And if everything does go as planned – good for you! It’s better to be prepared for obstacles than to expect to immediately succeed.

Persistent and Optimistic

Are you naturally a persistent person? Are you optimistic about what you can achieve?

Not only will business owners try again after they fail, but they will also stay positive about future opportunities

Of course, it sucks to get rejected, but hey – maybe next time!

Starting from Scratch

Before you start your business, you also need to keep in mind the resources that you have available.

Do you have enough money for your business idea? If not, are you willing to put in the work to make the money on the chance the business may fail and you lose all of it?

Are you able to work 10, 20, or 30 hours a week?

Keeping in mind the amount of money and time you can invest will ultimately decide what business you can start or additional changes you’ll need to take in your life.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Ecommerce is expected to grow from 13 to 25 percent.

“If you want to get into e-commerce, there has scarcely been a better time. The opportunities are growing by the day.” – Baltic Media

It’s always important to innovate when the time calls for it – and by examining the growth of e-commerce businesses, I’d say now is the time.

You’re able to make passive income

After you’ve successfully launched your online store and you have successful marketing, you can sit back and relax. (Mostly)

You’ll be surprised to find that a blog post or a repurposed image can be sending customers to your store months later. 

And the great thing is – once you’ve completed a piece of content, it’s created. 

Besides annual updates, you won’t need to be constantly creating things to be selling. You can rely on your well-built strategies to be bringing in the cash for you.

You can reach more companies

You’re probably thinking, “well, duh”.

But this is a huge pro that we sometimes forget to take into consideration. Especially if you’re already selling services. 

Besides the obvious fact that having an online store builds your brand’s authority, it also easily showcases your skills to anyone interested.

You don’t need to be knocking door to door or relying on WOM (which is still a really good marketing technique, don’t get me wrong). 

You can just send them a link and they can find out what you’re all about.

You don’t have to worry about opening or closing hours

This is my favorite pro, personally. 

You don’t have to worry about individuals catching you at the wrong time, or not being able to access your services/products.

You could be selling your handbags or receiving emails from clients at 3 in the morning.

An online start-up can be minimal cost

This is one of the beauties of starting an online business. 

A lot of business ideas can be started with the scraps you’re able to make from your part-time waitressing job. 

While it’s still an investment, it doesn’t have to be a super costly one.

Cons

The start-up can cost a lot (Depending on the niche)

Contrary to what was stated before, start-ups can also cost a lot of money if you’re ill-prepared, uneducated, or due to your niche.

This is why it’s always important to research the costs associated with the type of e-business you’re wanting to start – before you start it.

Concerns about privacy and safety

You don’t want to be the person who has to tell a customer that someone has access to their bank accounts.

When dealing with customers online, there is a lot that can go wrong, and a lot you can get sued for. 

You need to be looking into all the legal, privacy, and safety aspects your website needs to be following. If not, you can get hit with a pricy lawsuit.

It’s important to know the risks of owning a website.

Lack of engagement with customers

Some people consider this a pro, others consider it a con.

Is a large part of your business model making people feel at home when they walk into your store? Or maybe you enjoy getting to speak to each individual and to see them fawning over your expertise.

Not only do you lack engagement during the sale – but you also lack engagement if something with the sale goes wrong.

It’s already difficult to try and fix a problem from an upset customer in person – it’s even harder online.

A way to avoid this would be to simply have (what I like to call) a location niche. So if you’re a web designer specializing in creating blog sites, you can be a web designer specializing in creating blog sites in the New York Area.

This will greatly decrease your target audience but you’ll be able to see your clients in person and the site will still provide opportunities to work with bigger clients in different areas.

Added costs of operating an online store

If you’re someone who doesn’t want to have to mess with all the ‘backend’ stuff or you don’t want to be putting in a lot of effort – it can cost a lot of money.

Whether that’s from web designers to programmers to virtual associates to marketing software, they all play a key part in your business.

If you decide to start an e-commerce website you either have to take these roles or you can hire them out. A lot of people realize they’re way over their head and end up spending a lot more money than they intended to.

There’s no one to hold your hand

I know a lot of people who are dead-set on having someone guide them through life’s troubles and always needing to vent to anyone who will listen.

Unless you have a business partner who is willing to carry your weight – no one is going to be making decisions for you.

Whether it’s deciding the color scheme for a website mock-up, creating the wireframe, or even the cost of selling the business – these will all ultimately be your decision. 

Even if you were to hire individuals to do all of these things for you, more than likely they don’t want to be told to ‘do whatever’. The creative freedom it provides is nice, but at the end of the day, you still need to be the one making decisions.

And no employee wants to be responsible for the failure of your business.

In fact, one of the main problems for e-commerce owners is the lack of vision and direction. Know what you want and go get it!

Ways You Can Make Money Online

The most important thing to keep in mind is that the more effort and money you put in – the more you’ll likely get out.

If you’re smart – you’ll hire a virtual assistant to help with the process ;).

Dropshipping

“Dropshipping is an order fulfillment method where a store doesn’t keep the products it sells in stock. Instead, the seller purchases inventory as needed from a third party—usually a wholesaler or manufacturer—to fulfill orders.”

– Shopify

Proofreading

With proofreading, you simply correct grammar, copyedit and proofread text for an individual or business. Proofreaders often hold bachelor’s degrees in English or Journalism.

Selling T-Shirts

Selling custom t-shirts is a very popular way to make money online now. You often see individuals selling ‘merch’ in the form of t-shirts, caps, sweaters, etc.

Online Courses

The online course industry is absolutely booming with cash – it’s expected to exceed $300 billion by 2025. 

In fact, there are people who sell courses for more than $50,000! 

If you’re an expert in something or you have a knack for teaching – this may be the right course (ha) for you!

Virtual Assistant

A virtual assistant is someone who essentially takes care of the ‘busywork’ of a business. As a VA you’re able to niche down and offer specialized services if you choose or you can do general administrative assistance. You also don’t need a degree to become one!

Blogging

Blogs are everywhere because they have the potential to make a lot of money. Through a blog, you can build authority to sell services, your own products, or others’ services and products for a commission.

Write a Book

If you’re an expert on a topic or you really love creating stories – writing a book may be for you. Whether you decide to write about gardening or aliens taking over – you still have the ability to make money.

It’s important to keep in mind that you also have to do marketing and set up either your own or someone else’s site to sell your book. This also includes competitive analysis and research on your target audience. 

Writing a book is usually not the best way to make a lot of money, but it can make you more credible and increase your authority. Which can lead to more sales for other services or courses you may offer.

Write & Edit Resumes

A lot of people want to seem as appealing as they can for hiring managers. We’re in the age of high competition and education – we all want to outshine each other. Resume writers typically earn between $100 to $400 per resume.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing and blogging are often seen synonymously – but neither of them has to rely on the other. Affiliate marketing is simply offering a link to other’s products so you can collect a commission when the other person buys the product. 

Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular forms of marketing because of its simplicity and your ability to make money long-term.

Review Products or Services

Depending on your audience size, you can make a lot of money from reviewing others’ products or services. 

How often do you see YouTubers providing their opinion on a piece of software or the latest tech?

A company may offer to pay you through giving away a product for free or by offering you a price. 

If you’re not famous or you don’t have an online audience, you can also make money writing reviews.

Finally End Procrastination and Conquer Your Perfectionism

If you’re looking for someone to help build your site and complete your busywork, then do feel free to get in touch. I’m a virtual administrative assistant that would love to help grow your business with you. 💜 Get in touch here.

Do you ever look at all these YouTubers who are pumping out content day in and day out? Or perhaps you see the class president always acing their assignments. Maybe the mom who always seems to be present and attuned to their children’s needs.

You see them and you think – I want to do that.

But then you remember – you have a procrastination problem. Everyone says being addicted to drugs is bad, but being a chronic procrastinator is even worse.

When you’re a procrastinator you miss out on life. Your life becomes dull and you sit around all day daydreaming about what you wish you could be.

Or if you’re a perfectionist – you sit around all day wanting to start something but failing. Again, and again.

To me, that sounds terrifying and kinda sad.

This is what most people’s lives consist of. Always wishing they could be more, always wishing they could accomplish something. I felt this way too. 

The great thing is – you don’t have to feel this way. You can start to enjoy your life the way you were meant to. You can achieve goals that seem far out of reach and you can start accomplishing all of this today.

I’ve struggled with both procrastination and perfectionism for the first 19 years of my life. I can say it was definitely one of the hardest personal battles I’ve fought.

It’ll be hard for you, but it will be worth it.

I’ve since come a long way from being a procrastinator and perfectionist – now I teach people to be more productive in life. 

By the end of this article, you will have all the information you need to stop procrastinating and to end your perfectionism. It is up to you whether or not you actually use my ‘big sister’ advice and take control of your life.

The Main Goals

It sucks to see all of these YouTubers and influencers who seem to be living their best life. Especially if you feel like a failure who consistently wastes all your time.

But at the same time, you feel so overwhelmed because you can’t seem to start or finish literally anything. This causes you to worry about your future and you just fall into this deep cycle of:

Feeling this way is completely normal. If you’re really wanting to stop this cycle, make sure you read the rest of this post. I not only talk about practical steps you can take – but I also talk briefly about the psychology behind these problems.

When I personally started my productivity journey, I really had four main goals in mind.

Taking Responsibility

I wanted to start taking responsibility for my actions – my perfectionism, my procrastination, and just myself in general. You can do this by deciding from this point forward, that you’ll be 100% honest with yourself.

There’s nothing wrong with being imperfect – we all are. But lying to yourself about your shortcomings won’t change others’ views of you, it only hurts you and any personal progress you’re wanting to make.

Stop Relying on Motivation

I started my productivity journey because I really wanted to get my life back on track. I was sick of the roly-poley situation that was going on with my productivity. Basically, this was from riding the wave of motivation – which almost everyone knows leads to mediocre & unfinished work.

The way you can get off this wave is to stop relying on your motivation to get things done. If anything, you need to rely on routines you’ve built or the do-something principle by Mark Manson to get started.

Stop Making Excuses

I also wanted to stop making excuses for not getting things done. I was always too tired, too hungry, too unmotivated, too busy, with everything. If you really want to change your life, you have to stop making excuses.

Be Consistent

The last thing I wanted to do was consistently show up for myself. Remember this is a personal journey – try to get rid of the thoughts that you’ll stop procrastinating to be better than someone, or to accomplish tasks for others.

This journey is for you – so enjoy the ride godd*mnit!

If you’re seriously wanting to change your life, make sure you implement everything I talk about. Not doing one or two things can make the difference between beating or continuing your procrastination.

Remember, the most important thing is to be consistent with yourself. Even if you show up for one minute – it’s better than not showing up.

I’d also like to let you know that failure is a part of this process. You aren’t going to turn into a productivity machine overnight. 

You’re gonna fail – and that’s okay. Use it as a learning opportunity instead of an opportunity to bash yourself.

My Results

When I truly started to work on my perfectionism and procrastination – I almost immediately saw huge benefits. 

The first thing I noticed was that I stopped feeling rushed all the time. I used to always dread doing anything because I knew I would feel so overwhelmed by just the sheer amount of stuff I needed to do. I also felt very proud of myself for finishing the tasks I had planned to do. You can get this benefit too if you set realistic goals for yourself to achieve!

Honestly, I really, really hope that you do everything I’m about to tell you. You’ll be so amazed and proud of what you’re able to accomplish. When you stop procrastinating and you start showing up for yourself – you become your best advocate for life.

So if you’re wondering why I decided to group procrastination with perfectionism, it was for two reasons.

The first is a lot of individuals struggle with perfectionism.

The second reason is that perfectionism has a huge impact on your productivity. It’s almost impossible to be productive and finish what you need to if you have that nasty voice in the back of your head telling you that it’s not good enough.

If you don’t have or have never struggled with perfectionism – good for you! I’m jealous haha.

How You Can Overcome Your Procrastination

“[Procrastination is] the action of delaying or postponing something”

– Oxford Dictionary

When looking into what causes procrastination, I was surprised to see the sheer amount of things that can cause us to procrastinate. To keep it simple I’ll just list a few of the most common.

• Low Self-Confidence
• Anxiety, ADHD, Depression, etc.
• Lack of Structure
• Self-Regulation Issues
• Mental Health Issues / Negative Self-Talk
• Perfectionism
• Bad Goal Setting
• Fear of Failure

If you’re struggling with a mental health disorder I suggest you first visit a doctor, psychiatrist, or therapist if needed.

Now that we know what the causes are, let’s talk about how you can completely rid your life of procrastination.

Set up Your Environment

The first step to finally getting rid of procrastination is to set up your environment to work for you, not against you.

If you struggle with a videogame addiction (yes, it’s a thing) and you have your games sitting out next to where you study, you may as well not even study. We all know that once you come across a problem that’s mildly difficult, you’ll give up and head over to your console.

I personally use a website blocker to stop me from scrolling Reddit, Facebook, or YouTube.

Set up your environment in a way that will make it easier to do the tasks you’re needing to do, rather than the alternative.

Create a Routine / Time-block

The second step is to set up a routine. For me personally, this step has worked wonders to keep me on track and it automatically sets up time-oriented goals without me even doing anything. 

I simply create time blocks on Google Calendar and title them whatever I want to get done at that time. Keep in mind you should always strive to keep your time-blocking realistic, which includes downtime. If you pack too much into your calendar you’ll feel burnt out and not accomplish everything you’re wanting to.

Some individuals like to use a to-do list, but I’ve found that I’m more productive when I use time-blocking.

If you stick to your schedule long enough, it will soon become a habit. Once it becomes a habit, you’re golden. Just remember to keep being consistent or you’ll have to redo the process over again.

Elimate Distractions

The third thing is to eliminate distractions. This is very very similar to the first one, except this is for each task that you’re doing.

So instead of just getting rid of your phone entirely, just hand it to someone until you’ve finished studying. Rather than completely getting rid of these things from your daily life, you can get rid of them for specific tasks you need to do.

You need to match your addiction level to your dedication level. If you know that you literally can’t stop getting on your phone when studying, you need to lock it in a box and give someone else the key.

A lot of people tend to slack and just think ‘meh, I’ll just put my phone in the next room’. And then you see their ass waddling off to grab their phone after 2.5 seconds of studying. Don’t be this person.

Set Up Consequences

Yeah, this one really sucks but I promise you that you’ll get your tasks done.

So for me, if I watch YouTube for over 30 minutes in a day, I have to deep clean an entire room in my apartment. My boyfriend holds me accountable so there is no way I can get out of it.

So, let’s use the studying example again. You can give your friend an embarrassing picture of yourself to post if you don’t complete the homework assignment.

You can even take it a step further and tell them you have to send them proof for them to not post it.

Trust me, if nothing cures your procrastination problem – this definitely will.

View Failures as Progress

If you’re someone who always seems to fail at being more productive, first off, forgive yourself right now. Literally, apologize to yourself. Right now.

Have you done it yet? Good.

I had you do that because it’s crucial for these next few steps. If you’re actually wanting to be productive you have to stop thinking about past failures and start to view failing as progress.

Another thing I’d like to point out – failing is a good thing. I love failing because it allows me to reflect and figure out what went wrong. Instead of shaming myself, I accept that I’m human and I make steps to improve the process. I immediately remove my emotions from the situation and think, “it’s okay, what went wrong and how can I do it better next time?”.

Take Responsibility for Your Time

Do you ever notice that something ALWAYS seems to be going wrong? Does it feel like whenever you get started on a project you can’t finish it and everything keeps getting in the way?

You’re probably not taking responsibility for your time.

From time to time, it’s okay for something to take longer than expected, or for your schedule to get ruined by an unforeseen event.

But if you’re finding that this is always happing – more than likely, the problem lies with you.

It’s easy to blame others for our misfortune, our emotions, ruining our schedule, or just being too much to deal with. But in reality, this is actually our responsibility to deal with.

It’s your responsibility to make and use your time wisely. No one is going to hold your hand or ‘save’ you. No one is going to make you do anything – it’s entirely up to you.

It’s up to you to control and work through your emotions, it’s your job to make sure your schedule is followed, and it’s your job to tell others no when needed.

If you cannot accept that the time you’re given is your responsibility to take care of, then you can’t expect to do the things you’re wanting to in life.

Set up Realistic Goals

You also need to be setting up realistic goals. You can check out an article here if you’re wanting to know how you can do that.

The Psychology of Perfectionism

“Self-oriented perfectionism is imposing an unrealistic desire to be perfect on oneself. Other-oriented perfectionism means imposing unrealistic standards of perfection on others. Socially-prescribed perfectionism involves perceiving unrealistic expectations of perfection from others.”

-Psychology Today

Believe it or not – there is a version of healthy perfectionism.

Healthy perfectionism involves having high but realistic standards for yourself and others, being conscientious, and being persistent in the face of adversity.

I created this little chart from another blog post talking about how people can stop half-assing everything:

The green circle is where you should be!

Typically, perfectionism is caused by two things. Either fear of failure or the avoidance of harsh judgment.

You also probably fail to set proper expectations for both yourself and others. If you’re not a very forgiving person, it may stem from your other-oriented perfectionism.

Individuals with perfectionism also routinely shrug off compliments. We don’t believe we’re good enough – so why would someone else?

I’ve noticed that some people even get offended when people compliment them. They believe the other person is lying or trying to manipulate them.

Or you may find yourself constantly seeking approval from others. You become this validation machine that needs someone to tell you you’re good enough. And honestly, it’s toxic. Instead of focusing on ways you can improve yourself and help others, you’re focused on how others perceive you and think of you. Not only that – but you may do things in an attempt to make the person think more highly of you or to like you more. (This is actually manipulation.)

I’m not sure if anyone has told you this before but it’s none of your business what other people think of you. 

If you were to ask all of your family members what they think of you, they’d all say different things. 

We are all entitled to our opinion and we are all entitled to withhold any opinions of our choosing. 

How would you feel if people were constantly asking you what your personal opinions and judgments about them were? You’d get annoyed and feel like you had to lie to appease them.

Basically – focus on yourself!

How You Can Overcome Your Perfectionism

So if you’re wondering, “well how do I even get started with mastering my perfectionistic tendencies?”

In my experience, perfectionism is slightly harder to overcome because you can’t rely so much on others to help you. 

Perfectionism is something you’ll have to work on and practice by yourself.

Look at Your Core Beliefs

“Core beliefs are deeply buried assumptions that guide our behavior, how we see ourselves and perceive situations. These beliefs impact how we feel, how we relate to others and guide our success and satisfaction with life and relationships.”

– https://eddinscounseling.com/uncover-core-beliefs-can-change/ 

Growing up, you may have been constantly criticized, only shown love when you accomplished something, being compared to others by your family, or you were in a toxic environment.

Looking at your core beliefs will help you to understand what assumptions and beliefs you created as a child during these situations.

This is relevant to perfectionism because people typically have the core belief that they’re not good enough or they aren’t valuable.

If you feel this may be you, feel free to look into your core beliefs so you can start to challenge them.

Free Yourself From Your Comparison Mindset

There will always be someone better, stronger, more attractive, smarter, more accomplished, etc, than you.

You should always work to be better than yourself. Healthy competition is still good but just make sure that you aren’t viewing yourself as less valuable because you aren’t as good at something as someone else.

Just do it. Just get started. Stop planning everything.

Something I find very prevalent with perfectionism in myself and others is the need to plan out everything and to have the first draft be the best draft.

If you’re unable to start something, the way to start it is to just do it.

Just get started already!

Create very small goals for yourself (like just picking up your pencil). And just do your project.

Guess what, if you hate it, you can just restart. The faster you make mistakes, the faster you can learn to do it the correct way. 

In fact, you should practice failing. I’m not even kidding. I’m thinking about adding a section to my bullet journal listing all the ways I’ve massively failed throughout the year.

Failures are used to teach, motivate, and encourage you to do better next time.

You’ll be surprised that when you fail or mess up, it won’t be as big of a deal as you were making it out to be.

Stop Seeking Validation

Feel free to go back to the section above to see how you can stop seeking validation!

Be Compassionate & Forgiving of Mistakes

You need to learn to be more compassionate to yourself and others. A lot of the time when we see someone do something we think, “ugh I wouldn’t be able to live if I acted like that.” 

That’s you being hella judgemental. While I personally don’t struggle with this as much, I did have a friend that struggled with being super judgemental.

The more judgemental you are towards others, the more judgemental you are towards yourself. Learning to be more compassionate and understanding of others’ mistakes will allow you to be forgiving of your own mistakes. Which will help tremendously with your perfectionism.

We’re all stuck on a planet and just trying to make it to another day – there’s no reason to make it harder on ourselves or others.

Learn to Trust Yourself

It can be very hard to trust yourself, especially if you feel that you’re not able to follow through with promises that you make. 

By trusting yourself, you start to follow through on your actions and you stop relying so heavily on others to tell you if you’re doing the right thing.

To completely stop perfectionism, start to trust that you will be consistent. Even if you fail, you’ll always get started again.

What Your Results Should Look Like

Before I finish this article, I would like you to know that it’s completely normal for you to slack of sometimes. 

It’s honestly a part of the human experience to need breaks and to not perform at 100% all the time.

If you expect to perform 100% all the time after this article, you need to reread the perfectionist section.

Ever since I’ve integrated all of these tips into my daily life, I’ve found that I’ve started to love getting things done on time. I’ve also noticed that completing my daily tasks is easier because they’re now a habit. You also end up surprising and motivating others in your life. It’s a bit weird but when you start to work on yourself, others take notice and they want to do it as well.

Remember to be kind to yourself and to work towards being a better you. Also, keep in mind to be forgiving and to work on your self-care. 

Basically – once you implement these you’ll start to love doing your daily tasks. You’ll feel more fulfilled and slowly build trust in yourself.

Good luck with your venture into the unknown and enjoy the journey.

The Truth About Work-Life Balance: Stop Feeling Overworked

If you’re looking for someone to help build your site and complete your busywork, then do feel free to get in touch. I’m a virtual administrative assistant that would love to help grow your business with you. 💜 Get in touch here.

I hate the feeling of dreading work, of dreading going home, and of dreading life in general. 

The main cause of this dread was constantly feeling and being overworked. Most individuals don’t stop working at work, and we blur the lines between our work life and our actual life.

We all know that person at work who doesn’t want to be there. Nothing makes them happy, and they always seem to be stressed about literally everything. I was this person.

If you’re wanting to know how you can stop feeling like this, how you can stop being so overworked, and how you can finally start living your life, this is for you.

I hope by the end of this post you feel confident in your ability to be actually productive and a happy, fulfilled person. 

I want you to have a new outlook on life and a burning passion to change. If you don’t feel this way after this post – that means either I’ve failed or you’re not in a position or mindset to change.

Because of my personal ties to this subject, I hope you understand that I won’t sugarcoat anything. Before we get into the thick of things, I want you to have a basic understanding of where I’m coming from.

and in the beginning… there was confusion

Honestly, my newfound knowledge of why we’re actually overworked came about three weeks ago. I was watching a YouTube video about how to enter into a deep workflow and afterward, I felt completely dumbfounded. A few weeks prior to this incident, I had been listening to a podcast about time management and busywork. 

This podcast had made me realize that what I had actually been prioritizing, was the wrong things. This made me a bit embarrassed because, well, I literally spend my days writing about how we can be more productive. 

After the video on deep workflow, I decided to deep-dive into this newfound knowledge to discover whether or not these key pieces of information worked. And well, here we are.

The Series of Unfortunate Events

Before all of this, I always felt frustrated, annoyed, and tired. When I finished work it felt as if I hadn’t accomplished anything. This was so frustrating!

I’m sure you probably understand this feeling as well. You feel guilty for taking time out of your day for yourself when you have so much to do. You feel as if you’re not actually getting any important work done and your job doesn’t make you happy anymore.

Sometimes this causes our productivity to come in waves. One week, or maybe just a single day, we’ll be super productive. We feel a burning passion to change how we work and to develop a more positive mindset.

Then comes the day where we head home, sit on the couch, and just feel like crap. Yep.

And then we’re burnt out for weeks. We procrastinate because when we were working, it didn’t really feel like we were even doing anything. 

Then, you head on over to your friends. They tell you that you’re being lazy, or maybe they tell you they have the same problem. It feels like, under the surface, we are all being overworked, we just don’t want to be seen as a complainer or a negative nancy. Or the newer term: a Karen.

Well, I was tired of feeling like crap. I was tired of feeling as if I had worked on my days off, I was tired of trying to balance work and life, and I was sick and tired of always having work in the back of my mind.

I was especially sick of feeling guilty when I wasn’t thinking of work. How sad is it, that we feel guilty for not working when we aren’t supposed to be?

My Results

This is when I acknowledged that something wasn’t right. I remembered Einstein’s quote: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”

…with me being the insane person that was doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting a different outcome.

So I decided that I would dedicate the rest of my life, if I had to, to figure out how I could stop these feelings. And to finally feel relaxed when I wasn’t working.

I took a deep dive into reading productivity books like the four-hour workweek, reading nearly 100 articles about how to overcome being overworked, and spent my free time thinking and breathing about living a more productive life whilst being happier.

As I’m now at the end of my road I’ve nearly eradicated any procrastination I was dealing with. I also don’t view my work as work anymore. I’m able to stay in flow and the creative juices are flowing.

I’m able to spend time in the present moment, which has greatly improved the time I spend with family, and I even sleep better!

Overall I can say, without a doubt, that I spend my time more meaningfully and I actually appreciate the time I’ve been given.

The Actual Process

There are a few key concepts that I started to implement in my daily life. These are just things that will kickstart you into gear and will make the process of eliminating stress a million times easier.

What’s Your System?

Before I had even started this journey, I already had a to-do list. I’m assuming that you also have a system that you use to make sure you get your daily tasks done. 

That’s great, but if you’re really wanting to kick your productivity into high gear, use time-blocking instead of just regular to-do lists. 

This will ensure that you’re getting your high-priority items done at the beginning of the day and that you’re being realistic when it comes to tasks you need to complete.

It also has the added benefit of ensuring you make time-oriented goals, even if that wasn’t your intention.

“Why do I need to do the most important things at the beginning of the day?” You ask. 

Good question, you do these first because if something happens that ruins your schedule, your friends want to hang out, your mother calls, or just something very inconvenient, you still get the most important things done.

“How do I categorize my tasks by the most important?” You ask.

Another good question!

Behold, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:

I’d be lying if I said that Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs didn’t change my life for the better.

Maslow’s is the backbone of effective time management. If you’re wondering what you need to be prioritizing in your life, start from the bottom up.

The quick answer: You do whatever will make you happiest and will take you the farthest in life, first.

I like em big, I like em Chunky (Madagascar, if you’re wondering)

Did you know that on average, people only spend 3 out of 8.8 hours actually working? The first time I heard this I almost fell over.

3 hours!? And I felt like I was being unproductive when I only worked 7 instead of 8 pshhh.

Knowing this information, I want you to cut your work hours into 2 or 3 chunks.

The first chunk you’ll work for 3-4 very focused hours. This chunk of time should be completed at the same time every day. (The routine helps you to focus better, set expectations for yourself, and improve your creativity.)

When I say focused, I mean:

• No distractions
• No social media
• No human contact
• No fumbling with papers
• No checking email
• No checking your calendar

I mean:

• Complete immersion in your project

The ONLY time you take a break during these four hours is if your flow has been broken, and you’re not able to get back into it.

When you do take a break, do not:

• Check social media
• Check your email
• Work on other things
• Watch a YouTube video
• Write a to-do

Essentially, don’t work or do things that will heighten your emotions or will give you ‘easy/immediate gratification‘. (This is talked about later in the post).

A break should be activities like:

• Stretching
• Meditating
• Talking to a friend
• Getting a drink (preferably water)
• Coloring (yes, I’m an adult that colors)
• Listening to music

For the second chunk, you’ll do busywork for 1 to 3 hours.

If you’re wondering what busywork is, it’s essentially low-value tasks that you need to do. If you’re unsure if something is busywork or not, just contemplate whether or not you’d be able to do it while sitting downstairs with your family.

These tasks should be easssyyy. A few of these tasks may be more time-consuming or need a little bit more concentration, but overall, it’s not SUPER important.

(If you can, you can always hire a personal assistant to do this work for you!)

Mixing your busywork and your highly focused work causes a lot of problems. 

Usually you end up doing your busywork because it’s easier and your highly focused work gets neglected. This is bad because your highly-focused work is the thing that’s actually going to make sure that you go where you need to in life!

The last chunk will be anywhere from 10 minutes to 3 hours. During this time, you’ll just reflect on the state of your work and any improvements you can make. Make sure you set up your time blocks and you know 100% of what you’ll be doing during your focused work for the next day.

Don’t let Distractions Control Your Life

Are you noticing that you’re getting really distracted by your phone when trying to do focused work?

Throw it in a blender.

I’m not kidding.

But seriously, don’t allow something as stupid as wanting to check your phone distract you from work that may change your life.

If you’re not wanting to go the blender route, put your phone in a very inconvenient place until your 4 hours are up.

DO NOT RELY ON WILLPOWER. I used to always assume that after a while I would ‘toughen up’ and I’d stop wanting to get on my phone while working.

When actually, I was just getting distracted and hoping that I’d stop checking my phone at some point.

Keep Track of Your Thoughts

When you’re sitting at the dinner table with your family, do you ever think, “huh, I forgot to do this” or “I should check my email” or even “what am I going to do during work tomorrow?”.

Or maybe it’s really small things. The other day, I was thinking, “hmm this is a really good idea for a blog post!” and then… I realized. 

I simply wrote the idea on a sticky note, and left it.

This is what you need to do with your work. Leave it wherever the fudge you work.

You shouldn’t even be thinking about work when you get home. Work should be the LAST thing you have on your mind.

I was taught that you should always bend your back over to get that raise, to get people to like you, or to just be a valuable person. (The last one is a little sad, but true for me.)

Some cultures do a really good job of keeping work at work, but sadly, a lot don’t.

If you’re wanting to stop feeling overworked and lazy, you have got to stop bringing work home.

100% of your work should be at the office, no exceptions.

If you work in an environment that doesn’t allow for this, then you need to either get out asap, quit, or accept that you’ll feel burnt out for the rest of your life.

Truthfully, this is probably the second most important thing to stop feeling burnt out.

I hope by this point you’ve decided whether or not you’re willing to make the changes necessary to finally love your job and to love your life.

My Personal Journey: Why You Should Work on More Than Just Your Finances

At the beginning of my journey, I realized that I was just going through the motions and existing. What was the point of trying to be a freelancer if I couldn’t even enjoy it? 

It was that realization that I decided to just stop. Stop lying to myself. So I grabbed a piece of paper, drew Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and just started writing.

I circled where I was on it and wrote down the problems I was having. And I accepted all of this. I accepted myself for myself and decided that I was done.

And then I started to work towards changing the parts of my life that I had control of.

By truthfully looking at myself and allowing myself to be vulnerable, I was able to truly understand where my problems were, and I could take steps to fix them.

If you’re wondering how you should be spending your time best, this is how. You shouldn’t be working 24/7, you can’t possibly be happy by doing that. 

At this point, you’re probably wondering: “so what’s the lesson?”.

Good question.

The lesson is that you need to learn to enjoy things outside of work. Above, I mentioned that a lot of people get home, plop on the couch, and just exist until tomorrow.

You have to stop this cycle now, and start working to enjoy the things you’re doing. I’m not saying that you should never watch Netflix, but I am suggesting that you need to take a look at yourself.

Are you truthfully happy with where your life is?

Are you chasing an unrealistic version of ‘success’? If so, stop. Take a look at Maslow’s and have an honest discussion with yourself. Involve the opinions of those you trust if possible, and just work on YOU. 

A lot of people think, “ah as soon as I get [insert goal], then I’ll be happy.” “as soon as I get the body of my dreams – that’s when I’ll be fulfilled.” 

I lost the weight that I spent months shaming myself for. Telling myself that I wasn’t good enough and that others must think I was lazy.

But actually, I looked in the mirror and just nodded. It was me – but just skinnier.

There wasn’t an ‘aha’ moment and I didn’t like myself any more than I did before. Once again, it was just me, but skinnier.

This put things into perspective. Not only did I shame myself the entire way through weight loss, but I also expected my life to be drastically different when I lost the weight.

If you’re someone who thinks that once you’re rich and your career is successful, you’ll then be happy – you’re greatly mistaken.

In order to truly be happy and fulfilled, having a good career is only one aspect out of many. 

It’s crucial to enjoy your life outside of work. This is a key component to stop feeling overworked all the time. 

I know it’s easy to drown your problems in work, but it’s not healthy.

At this time, I also decided to dabble in other things that I thought would improve my time outside of work.

Meditation

I honestly used to think that meditation was something that ‘spiritual’ people did.

Meditation has a lot of benefits like improving your patience, self-awareness, creativity, imagination, skill-building to manage stress, and it improves your self-awareness.

Honestly, this is why people think meditation is a hoax. How could something as simple as sitting and concentrating on your thoughts do all of that? 

Try it for a few months and you can thank me later.

Stop Giving yourself Easy Gratification

It’s really easy to spend 20 hours a week binging your favorite Netflix series. But doing this is actually making you stressed out. 

By partaking in things that are tricking our brain into having large dopamine dumps – we’re making everything else in life seem grey and boring.

Think about this for a moment.

SCENARIO #1

Let’s say that you’re stuck in a small light brown room with only a single light hanging above you. You’re being fed only rice and beans for an entire week.

At the end of the week, you find a book in the vent of the room. 

You will be 100% ecstatic to have that book in your hands. You will cherish the book and love it like it’s your own child. 

You’ll read the book, dream about the things in the book, and you’ll think of ways that you’ll apply it to your life once you get out.

Now let’s take a turn.

SCENARIO #2

You’ve been hanging out all day eating pizza, chips, and drinking a large diet soda. You’ve been binge-watching YouTube and have been checking your social media in hopes that people are liking what you posted.

You find some random book on your shelf and you don’t even take a second of your day to think about reading it.

Why would you? When instead of reading you can just watch movies, eat pizza, and troll people on the internet? 

It makes reading a book seem like the most boring thing you could spend your time doing.

This is why easy gratification is so dangerous. It can make us hate the things that don’t make us feel amazing right now.

Once I removed most of the things that were giving me huge dopamine hits and offering easy gratification – I really started to see a change in my personal and work life.

Work is no longer boring. Work is actually fun to do. I can appreciate the little things in life and I’m happier overall.

Taking away easy gratification during, before, and after work will ensure that you stop feeling burnt out all the time. Your work actually starts to become something you look forward to and you have fun with.

Note: I’m not saying that you can no longer do these things. Just do a lot less of them. It will make you a much better person for it.

A huge way to do this is to only do things that you find intrinsically motivated to do. By finding things that make you intrinsically motivated, you’re much more likely to go into ‘flow’ when you’re working.

Life is too damn short to not enjoy your work and personal life.

Keep a Consistent Routine

Unless you’re someone who really despises routine, having a consistent routine will ensure that you’re able to keep your work and personal life separate.

A consistent routine helped me to really define what was and was not work. This helped me to enjoy the time I spent outside of work stress-free.

If you do all of these steps and you decide what you’re really wanting to do with your time – I promise you’ll stop feeling so overworked.

The Krabby Patty Secret Formula

When you read most articles about being overworked, they don’t actually tell you the process to fix the feeling. They usually suggest you try things that just cover your feelings or to be more mindful.

But this is for people who actually want to stop feeling burnt out. Forever. Not just today, tomorrow, or next week.

So here’s the actual process to stop feeling so overworked. If you pair these with all of the suggested processes above, you will start to love all parts of your life.

1 Chunk your Work

The first thing you need to do is to split up your work. This was talked about above, and it’s very very important. You need to make sure that you’re working on the highest value items first. 

2 Enjoy Your Work

The second thing is that you have to do what you enjoy for work. If you’re in a position where you’re working a career that you find boring, get out. 

A lot of people use the excuse of not having enough money to not make a change. I guarantee 99.9% of people could have the career that they love or be their own boss if they wanted to. 

If you’re really against that, then you need to find a flexible workplace that will accommodate that need.

Would you rather spend the rest of your life complaining that you always feel overworked or would you rather take a chance to change your life and possibly be the happiest you’ve ever been?

I mean – you’re not losing out on much in my opinion.

Find something you love enough to go into a ‘flow state’. If you’re unable to find anything, I suggest that you stop giving yourself instant gratification. This will fix the problem and you’ll find what you truly love doing.

3 Love What you Do Outside of Work

Also mentioned above, you have to love what you do outside of work. You’ll never get rid of the burnt-out feeling if you feel as if all you ever do is work.

To find things to do outside of work, have a look above at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. This will give you a general idea of where you are in life and what you should be working on. 

Making money and having a successful career is only one out of many things that you need to be a fulfilled person.

4 Review & Revise Your Work

One challenge I personally faced when starting my new routine was the fact that I felt as if I was never getting things done the way I envisioned them. A lot of people have this problem, and it’s completely normal.

The way I fixed this was by having one day out of the week where I sit down and review all of my work for the week.

I look at everything and I write down areas where I slacked, what I need to work on for next week, and how I can do better next time. 

Going through this process will help to put your work into better perspective and will help you to avoid half-assing things. It helps in this way because it forces you to go back and fix everything – which discourages slacking off in the present moment.

You’ll usually find that all of these smaller improvements can be worked on throughout the week during your ‘busywork’ time. 

5 The Krabby Patty Secret Formula

Now, let’s talk about the actual secret to never feeling overworked.

It’s not much of a secret – it’s actually obvious and it makes a lot of sense.

How you spend your time before, during, and after your first working session will determine whether or not you feel burnt out.

That’s literally it.

Do you really want to stop feeling burnt out and like you never accomplish anything? Master the art of focused work.

Before you do your most important work of the day, you need to make sure that you feel good. You can do this by journaling, working out, meditating, or a combination of things.

During this time you really want to avoid anything that will give you ‘easy gratification’ or that heightens your emotions in any way. 

Then you want to have an ‘opening ritual’ to state to yourself that you’re now in working mode.

By doing this, it’s like it hits a switch in your brain. You’re able to easily go into a flow state and your creativity is on fire.

This is obviously important, but how you spend your time during and after is just as crucial.

Like I stated in the ‘chapter’ above, how you spend your breaks and what you do during these breaks matter.

Essentially, spend your break doing very easy, mindless, and entertaining tasks. (Not easy gratification like social media or YouTube).

When you do take a break it should be in a ratio of about 1:3-4. So if you worked for an hour, give yourself a 20-minute break.

You ONLY take breaks when you find that you keep falling out of your flow state.

If you decide to take a different route – like the Pomodoro technique – you’ll find that you will interrupt your flow state. Which completely destroys the purpose of your focused work. You’ll miss out on the many benefits of being in a flow state like increased attention, improved performance, learning and skill development, huge increase in productivity, increase in task enjoyment, increase of creativity, and so forth.

Basically, you want to stay in this flow state for as long as humanly possible. (I’d also like to point out that flow is different from hyperfocus for those of you who are interested. Take a look at the differences here.)

You should also try to do similar tasks during your focused work time. For me, I write the entire time. All of my editing and marketing is done during my busywork time.

Completing similar tasks at the same time every day will allow you to get in the flow state quicker and stay in it longer.

After your session of focused work, have a ‘closing ritual’ as well. A closing ritual can be stretching, coloring, listening to a podcast, or even meditating.

During this time you want to shift your focus from work to what you’re going to be doing the rest of the day. Imagine yourself just enjoying doing your everyday tasks and relaxing.

The main goal of this session is to get your mind off of work and what you’ll be focusing on for the rest of the day.

If you’re willing to make the change to do everything I mentioned in this post, you’ll never feel overworked again.

Resolution & Extra Info

To end this post, I just wanted to provide some more tips for you and just discuss some of the good and bad changes that you’ll see from following this. 

You want to make sure that during this process you let go of both perfectionism and half-assing.

Perfectionism will cause you to criticize every mistake you make and you will never be able to just enjoy your life. By trying to avoid making mistakes, you actually end up just halting your learning and personal growth.

Half-assing will hurt future you, make you have to redo your work, waste your time, and will ensure that you will not get where you need to go in life.

Perfectionism and half-assing will both cause you to not succeed and will make you feel stuck. If I were you, I’d spend some time trying to improve in these areas.

The changes the steps in this post have made in my life:

In my personal life, using this method has allowed me to really love and appreciate my work. I also never procrastinate anymore because I find my schedule to be enjoyable, fulfilling, and time-efficient.

I strongly encourage you to implement all of the things talked about in this blog post into your life and career.

You may have to modify some of these things – especially if you work a conventional 9 to 5, but the application should be very similar.

You’ll find it crazy how much ‘mental’ work you were doing instead of actual work. You’ll realize how much control over your life you actually have and you’ll stop blaming others for everything going wrong in your life.

You do have to work on getting rid of procrastination, learning to embrace routine, quit giving yourself easy gratification, and to stop working during non-work hours.

But I promise you, the benefits greatly outweigh the cost.

Happy learning, living, and working!