Today's episode is inspired by How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days and Andie's gift of a love fern to Ben.

When he nearly kills the fern through a complete lack of attention, she goes into over-the-top theatrical hysterics, asking "Are you gonna let us die?"

How many of us entrepreneurs are letting parts of ourselves die in (alleged) service of our businesses? How many of us put our most joyful and restorative past times on a shelf so that we can focus on our online business or side hustle?

::sheepishly raises hand::

I am 100% guilty of having done this.

• Launching a business is hard work.
• Maintaining flow in an existing business is hard work.
• Finding time to do all the things that just plain old adulting requires is (you guessed it!) hard work.

But I also know that, if I don't carve out time for me, literally nobody else is going to do that. Life and work will gobble up any time I'm hoping to have left over for myself.

As Oliver Burkeman reminds us in one of my all-time favorite books, 4,000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals: “The day will never arrive when you finally have everything under control—when the flood of emails has been contained; when your to-do lists have stopped getting longer; when you’re meeting all your obligations at work and in your home life; when nobody’s angry with you for missing a deadline or dropping the ball; and when the fully optimized person you’ve become can turn, at long last, to the things life is really supposed to be about. Let’s start by admitting defeat: none of this is ever going to happen.”

Our full selves deserve better than leftover shreds of time and settling for slivers of ever-shrinking margins.

The real win is that, when we take time to roll around in something that is genuinely restorative, our lives and our work become infinitely better.

So consider the hobby or activity that you've shelved in an effort towards streamlined productivity and pull it back down off the shelf today.

A counterintuitive cosmic wonder is that you just might find that your work becomes more joyful and productive for the respite your reclaimed hobby gives you - in spite of the extra time it takes to really enjoy it.

A Few Resources Mentioned

Here's the article I mentioned: My Brain Is Itchy & There's No Cream For That

Here's the episode in which my friend Erik Fisher and I discuss taking restorative action: Practical Productivity For The Modern Parent

And here's the free mini course about naming your values: laurengaggioli.com/values

It is my great joy to share with you a conversation with my SEO client and owner of my very favorite local yarn store in the Puget Sound area, Mr. Benjamin Bentler.

As is true of so many entrepreneurs, Ben is no one trick pony. He is highly motivated, incredibly productive, and juggles a lot across his myriad businesses.

(Did I mention he's also my voice teacher? There's nothing this guy doesn't do.)

I find people like Ben incredibly inspiring. They make me feel less alone in the chaos and I hope his wisdom that he shares from the trenches of his many businesses helps you on your journey as well.

And - remember - if you need support as you traverse the tricky landscape of the online business world, I'm just a phone call away!

With my Phone-A-Friend Business Mastermind, you can schedule time for us to check in and work on your entrepreneurial mindset and online business strategy @ laurengaggioli.com/mastermind.

We meet most Mondays and Thursdays. Each 60-minute call is limited to just 4 entrepreneurs, so you're guaranteed plenty of time to talk through your challenges and receive feedback. Plus, there's no long-term commitment required and your first session is just $25 when you use the discount code FRIEND at checkout.

Click here to register for your first virtual mastermind call today.

See ya real soon!

Gosh we love our online businesses. But do you sometimes feel like it's a little too exciting?

In my last conversation with Nick Corona, he emphasized the importance of process over recipe.

Which, because I think in movie quotes, instantly made me think of Ben Stein's character from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Bueller. Bueller. Anyone? Bueller.

Because - let's face it - most of us are not here in the entrepreneurial world because we are methodical. We're often here because we love the dopamine rush of pulling all the levers available to us.

Social and services and conferences and products and mass emails and YouTube and masterminds and podcasts and...

I'm not alone here, am I?

It's a bitter pill to swallow, but the reality is that when we are engaging in too many activities that deliver a dopamine hit from variable rewards, we are seriously depleting ourselves and undermining our business's potential.

So let's let Nick's advice about brewing be a lesson to us all.

You want to win big? Take some time to focus on the "boring" minutae and track your results over time.

You just might find that it helps you hit the jackpot in way that shooting-from-the-hip grand gestures never did.

Free Resource To Help You Streamline Your Systems: laurengaggioli.com/toolkit