Raise your hand if you feel like you have to find time to live your life in the margins: 30 minutes in the morning, an hour in the evenings, and maybe some time on the weekends.
Most of us live in a world where it seems like expectations are constantly being raised, and everyone is working later and harder to “prove” themselves. And because we have the technology to be reachable 24/7, we’re expected to reply at all hours.
It feels robotic. Like being on autopilot. And while you’re technically alive … that kind of existence is certainly not the same as living.
So, if you’ve been over-working and under-living, you’re in luck. We recorded a brand new Side Chat for you about how to live more and work less.
This is perfect for you if you’ve been craving more balance, flexibility, and freedom, but have been unsure of how to actually get it.
We’re talking about how you can:
- Ask for the ability to work remotely (even if you think it’s impossible),
- Shave a couple hours from your workday, while still exerting less effort than you did before,
- Plan relaxing, inspiring outings for yourself during the work day,
- Do all of this without getting too much criticism, judgment, or pushback from the people around you,
- And more, including plenty of client examples and stories from our own lives.
It’s about 30 minutes, which is the perfect length for your commute, a walk, or a break from the office. You can either play it right here on the page, or download and save it for later.
{Press play to listen now or download by clicking the arrow in the top right corner.}
And after you’ve listened, we want to hear from you! What’s one thing you could change in order to work less and live more? Come share, in the comments.
NEVER HEARD OF SIDE CHATS?
As you can imagine, when two best friends run a business together, there’s SO MUCH MORE good stuff — insights, revelations, struggles — that we’re talking about behind the scenes than what you’re reading in blog posts.
Our random back-and-forth conversations — while we’re supposed to be “working,” while we’re eating tacos, while we’re chilling in sweatpants on the couch — aren’t planned at all, and that’s why they’re good … anything can and does come up.
We always find ourselves having these good conversations and thinking, “It’d be cool if people could listen in to this, fly-on-the-wall style.”
So, we decided to just press “record” and start sharing with you.
We’re calling these “Clarity on Fire Side Chats,” and there’s no big plan for them. When inspiration hits, which is usually at random, we’ll press record and share another with you. The freer it flows, the better it usually is, anyway!
Want to catch up on previous Side Chats? Check out the archive.
Enjoy!
Much Love,
Kristen + Rachel
Wow, this side chat hit so close to home for me! I always thought I was lazy for wanting to live more and work less since it seems all my peers are so into their jobs. The hard part for me is that in my current role (social media manger) it literally only takes about 1-2 hours a day to do my job and do it well… the other 6-7 hours I’m left bored out of my mind staring at a computer all day. Also, I don’t have an office(whoever invented open office plans anyway?) … thanks for another great side chat, ladies!
Hey Abby! Wow, it must be frustrating to have a job where you need to “look busy” for a vast majority of the day! It sounds like you need some sort of plan, or project, that can keep you meaningfully occupied without drawing too much attention to yourself (the open floor plans are a total downer). I wonder what you might be able to do – courses, podcasts, writing – on your phone or in a journal?
Well, I usually read your blogs, listen to side chats, and am starting the PPVE this week so that will hopefully keep me occupied for a while :p
Oh good! I’m so glad you’re doing the PPVE. I was tempted to ask you about whether that might be a good fit for you, but I didn’t want to get too nosy in a comment. 😉
I can relate to Abby’s comments, get most of my work done by mid morning and spend the rest of the day trying to look busy. Usually wasting time on the internet. Will definitely have too look at learning something via an online course. I don’t mind my job just the time where I could be doing something productive at home.
It’s a big problem for a lot of people, but not something that we often feel comfortable talking about! I think giving yourself some sort of purpose beyond just the work you’re supposed to be doing (that clearly doesn’t last long enough to fill up your day), makes the work day flow MUCH smoother! I always liked the idea of assigning myself some sort of “curriculum;” where I unofficially decide to get educated or experienced in a particular thing, and then plan things to do accordingly. Kristen once wrote a blog about that which might help: https://clarityonfire.com/major-in-life/
What a great talk ladies. Thank you for sharing all your practical ideas. I love Greg McKeown’s book ‘Essentialism’ too! It’s one of my favorites and a great book you can read over and over. I’m so excited to dive into a the PPVE this week. See you there!
I’m glad you’ve already read Essentialism, Ashley! We go into it in even more detail in Week 4 of the PPVE, so I’m excited to have you incorporate what you already know into what we’re going to teach you! 🙂