Is It Taking All of Your Time?

Some activities will suck up all of your available time, if you let them.

Certain things in life will take any time you give them.

Like a dry sponge soaking up water, this activity will soak up all the time available.

I realized that farming is one of those things, and so is business.

Photo by Victoria Aleksandrova on Unsplash

There's always more you could do on a farm, or in your business.

Because these types of ventures have no end in sight.

There’s potential for growth everywhere you look.

The limiting factor? You.

Your energy, your time, and your ability to set boundaries. 

And realistic expectations. But who are we kidding? Our expectations are always grand, especially when we can see the potential on the horizon.

When we moved to the farm 4 years ago, we wanted to do everything. Get all the animals, plant all the trees, and set up all the infrastructure.

We quickly realized we were operating unsustainably.

Kind of ironic for a farm that we hoped would be sustainable, if not regenerative.

After tempering our expectations and working on a plan that had us adding just a few animals, just a few trees per year, and infrastructure as time allowed... it's much better.

Now fast forward to the last month since I’m no longer at the helm of AccessAlly.

I have more time to give to the farm, so I assumed I could fly through all of my farm to-do items.

But there's always more to be done.

Plus the more you do, the more you have to do.

By planting more trees, I've got more trees to maintain.

Our sheep flock has expanded to 17 sheep for the season, and our recently hatched chicks bring us up to 50 chickens and roosters.

Then there's the greenhouse that I need to cultivate and harvest from.

Just like there's always more you could do in your business... one more post, one more article, one more ad, one more campaign.

The more you create, the more you need to maintain. The more you promote the more you need to deliver.

These aren’t inherently bad things. They lead to growth which is great.

But sometimes we need to step back and decide that it's enough for today. 

We don't need to overdo it.

There's always tomorrow.

It’s okay to take a nap, slow down, or decide to take something off the list entirely.

I’m writing this as a reminder to myself, a recovering Type A overachiever. 

As Dr.

Amanda Crowell

says, sometimes giving a task your “B level” effort is all that’s needed, too. 

For time-sponge activities, you get to decide what size sponge you want to offer and thus how much time you’ll devote to it.

Some days we have more energy and we can go after that extra project. On other days, getting the basic farm chores or business operation items done is more than enough.

Then there’s the busy seasons. Maybe you’re launching a new offer or lambs are being born and there’s more time-sensitive stuff to do.

Knowing that this busy season will pass can help you get through to more manageable times.

Don’t let a time sponge activity take all of your time indefinitely.

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About Nathalie and the Momentum Memo

Nathalie Lussier is a writer, technologist, and regenerative farmer. Ten years ago she founded AccessAlly, a WordPress course and membership solution, which she recently exited.

She publishes The Momentum Memo which features nature analogies to make sense of the modern world of business and creativity.