My 7 sanity savers

And understanding yourself before anybody else

I find that knowing your customers (one of my favourite topics to write about) is not enough in business. You need to know yourself first.

It all starts with you. With us. With what energy (or absence of it) we bring to the table every day. Whether you work in a team or run your own show, knowing how to manage your energy levels has a positive impact on your work (and life), your customers and community.

When batteries are depleted, we tend to take longer to make decisions, to complete simple tasks and get more easily triggered when customers aren’t doing as we expected them to do.

I realised sometime in my late 30s (yes it took me THAT long) that my energy was finite. I’d bought into the toxic productivity narrative that if I just put my mind to it, if I just tried a little harder, I could be the best version of myself all the time. Everyone would be happy: my partner, my kids, my colleagues, my manager (when I had one) and more recently, my own clients and customers.

These days I manage my energy as if I were lost in a foreign city with 1% charge left on my iPhone. When I get this right, I can show up in my business (and my personal life) with more aplomb.

My sanity savers change depending on the season (both the weather and the life kind) but this week I’m sharing what’s working for me right now.

These are my current 7 sanity savers:

1. Drinking mostly alcohol free options

   If I drink, I’ll pay for it the next day. Simple as. With the sunny warm weather in the UK at the moment I want to drink beer. Current alcohol free favourites include Brooklyn Brewery’s Special Effects beer, the Brewdog Hazy AF and Punk AF and I recently tried Lazy Crush from Beavertown. Breweries have really upped their game when it comes to taste and I’m here for it.

2. Moving my body.

   Boring as hell but the most basic stuff often is. Twice a week gym (once with Ricky my PT and once alone) and increasing opportunities to walk. Haven’t taken the lift in my co-working space for weeks (a decrease in lift mirror selfies being the only downside so far) and now head to the fifth floor for my tea. Dog walks with Thunder🐾 2-3 times a week.

   

   (last of the lift selfies)

3. Naps

   Not sure exactly when naps became a staple on days spent at home but if I am home (which is at least four days a week) it’s lunch, coffee in the garden with my partner and then 25 min nap. We are night owls in our family so a nap is always a welcome sleep top-up.

4. No news, good news.

   I trained as a news reporter and spent so much of my 20s and 30s absorbing ALL the news. Radio, online and print. These days I never watch the news on TV, only click on the BBC or Guardian app if there’s really something I want to check out. To be clear, this isn’t about being ignorant about what’s happening in the world, it’s about choosing how I engage with it and when.

5. Home boundaries

   I try to organise my week so as not to bring important work home. Important means something that NEEDS to be done by Monday (like this newsletter which I am ironically writing at the weekend - am not saying I’m 100% there yet). When at home, I want to be able to lean into the unpredictability of parenting our two brilliant kids who have a 6 year gap and very different needs.

6. My life until 9am

   When did we start letting the whole world (and I literally mean the whole world) in our head before 9am? Wake up. Pick up phone. Check emails. Check news. Check everyone else’s showreel on social media. See something triggering. Mind starts wandering. And then we ask ourselves why we are already feeling shite before 9am.

7. AI enhanced

   I use ChatGPT daily to help structure my days/weeks, work through decisions I need to make and help reduce the countless hours I spend hounding Local Authorities about the lack of support for my daughter’s education (letter, report and complaint handling). Sanity saver of the 21st century.

Staying sane in the world requires some effort and intention but I’m trying my best.

That’s it from me this week. Look after yourselves and everything else usually works itself out.

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P.S Wrapped and sent off my first direct book order this week to a lucky Laura. I have no idea who she is and she didn’t even like my post on LinkedIn but she bought it shortly after I posted it anyway. Keep posting about your offers folks as you never know who’s watching.

I’d love to send you my personalised author book bundle 🐧🍑 for those of you still on the fence about buying my book. It includes a personalised signed copy, a sticker pack (penguins and peaches of course), a souvenir bookmark - beautifully wrapped in paper and sent free (UK only) in the post in eco-packaging. And it’s one of the most useful books you’ll read this year about understanding your customers and building stuff they want and buy. Seriously what is not to love? All for £11.99 (cheaper than anywhere else).