The Play Project

What really happens in the daily life of a solo business owner with two kids under five? Is is organised chaos? Is it mostly being a snack bitch? How do I focus? And why does my list keep growing and include items like 'bananas' and 'duct tape for sunglass case'? In this episode, I’m taking you behind the scenes of my actual day - and all the little tiny productivity hacks (that ar...

Ever feel like your brain is constantly buffering at like, 34%? Have you ever wondered why you find deciding what to have for dinner when 5pm rolls around every night? That’s decision fatigue, friend. And it’s quietly draining your mental energy every single day. In today’s episode, I’m diving into: ✅ What decision fatigue is and how it impacts your mental energy every single day ✅ Why tradition...

I didn’t choose to learn EVERYTHING I could possibly learn about productivity because I wanted to help women in business work more. I chose it because I felt pretty damn frustrated (and, let’s be honest, still do) that despite more women working than ever, our society STILL places the brunt of time stress on- Women. Outdated social expectations around childcare, family, and household responsibilit...

I had a really confronting realisation over the holidays. 😱 I took a TOTAL switch off from everything to do with my business for two weeks - clients, emails, content, admin, building my course, my podcast - EVERYTHING. And I loved it. So much that I didn’t want to go back. 😓 In the past, I’d usually take this as a sign that something big needed to change. This would look like: ❌Scrolling seek.c...

If I had a dollar for every client or business owner I know who's said: 'I'd love to do x but I just don't have time' 'I just wish I had more time for y' 'I know I need to prioritise - but everything feels like a priority!' I'd be a very rich, erm, podcast host. In this episode, I'm taking you through 5 unconventional ways to gift yourself an extra 5 hours a week - unconventional because none of t...

What do you actually want more time for? Most solo business owners crave more time and feel like we never have enough of it, and traditional productivity culture will have us believing we can multi-task and plan and work our way into more time at the end of some magical to-do list. But the truth is, we all have the same 24 hours in a day. So how can you work with the time you do have to create the...

You wouldn't ghost a lunch date with a friend in favour of doom scrolling on the couch - so why are you doing it to yourself? The end of year-it-is is already coming in hot, with most of us panicking about the goals languishing on our vision boards or Gantt charts that we (yet again) haven't brought to life. But if you're planning on doing a repeat of last year and sailing into 2025 with a fresh p...

The default thought process when we think about reducing our working hours (especially if you're a service provider, coach or solo business owner) usually looks something like this: less time equals less capacity equals less money . But it doesn't have to be like this. In today’s episode, I'm sharing the seven step process I used with my client Alyssa to show you how you can make the shift to shor...

I've had a bit of a business breakthrough recently - and it's not the kind you might be expecting. A few weeks ago, I recognised that I was in a constant repeating cycle of business burnout. I'm talking repeated periods of frenzied work, focus, downward spiral, distraction, exhaustion - aaaand repeat. It wasn't until recently that I realised it was something I was repeating again and again - and t...

Procrastination is your brain literally doing its job. When it comes to taking the action you need to take to bring your goals to life - the problem isn't you. Procrastinating on your goals is your brain reacting to something that feels hard. Procrastination kicks in not because you’re lazy, terrible at what you do or don’t want it badly enough - but because your brain loves COMFORT. In this episo...

Can Your Period Really Help You Be More Productive? Spoiler: YES Ever feel like no matter how much you plan, you're constantly out of sync? Like you’re trying to follow someone else’s playbook? Babes, that’s because you probably are. Our entire society—and that includes the way we approach productivity—is built around a 24-hour cycle that works… for men. But if you're a menstruating human,...

There's a HUGE concept bouncing around in productivity land that I'm absolutely ready to raise an eyebrow at. It's something you probably talk about every single day - without even realising it.  Saving time.   The productivity industry largely centres around the idea of saving time as the ultimate goal - streamlining and systemising and planning and shredding and multitasking and all...

Last week, I shared why I wanted to tear my business up into tiny little pieces and throw it all in the bin. If you've ever felt that way or you ARE feeling that way, this episode is for you. In this episode, I walk through: - What it looks like inside a personal brand, service provider business two years in - The process I'm working through to take my business back to basics - What to do...

Something hasn't felt right lately. Over the past few months, something's just felt... off. I started my business back in 2022. I had a very clear idea of exactly what I wanted at the time: freedom, creative opportunities and ultimately, time. I made a decision to prioritise time over money and at first, things felt good. But two years in, it hadn't really turned out how I expected. In...

Something that’s always bothered me about all the productivity content out there ⬇️ The powers that be have made it so much about what we’re LACKING. Where we’re FAILING. Take a shot for every time you’ve ever said to yourself: ‘I’m so easily distracted’ 🥃 ‘I just can’t focus like I used to’ 🥃 ‘I’m such a procrastinator’ 🥃 ‘I’m so behind’ 🥃 ‘I’m just addicted to cheese’ 🥃 Okay, maybe put the...

PSA: this podcast episode does not contain any content on MRR, my secret 17 step formula to making 7 figures in 3 hours, digital products, starting a side hustle to your side hustle, or anything to do with the usual suggestions you'll find online if you Google 'how to stop trading time for money'. If you're a booked out service provider and you've hit a time-slash-income ceilin...

Before you listen to this episode, ask yourself this question: how many people have you listened to today? There's a HUGE roadblock getting in the way of your ability to focus on the things you want to get done - and it's nothing to do with time blocking, how well you can pomodoro or the type of planner you buy. Completely separate to the conversations and social interactions we have with...

We're FINALLY starting to see through the transparency of #overnightsuccess as... well... not really being overnight success. While there are always exceptions to the rule, we're really starting to talk about the fact that as a business owner, to build anything, grow anything and achieve the goals you've set for yourself, consistency is the new viral. So how do you stay consistent when...

It’s happened, petal. We’ve passed the point of no return. The 2024 halfway mark is upon (and behind) us and besides the sub-zero temperatures inside the homes of Australia (thanks, un-insulation), there’s something else lurking amidst the solo business owners among us. The looming list of goals we set for ourselves at the beginning of the year. If you’re anything like me, your goals chart would l...

*Worksheet link I share in this episode is incorrect... visit https://theproductivityproject.com.au/ and click on Newsletter to subscribe and grab the worksheet as soon as it's available. If I were a service provider (check) with two kids (check) who wanted to take a week off every single month... Here's what I'd do. In this episode, I'm sharing 4 productivity shifts that will allo...

That's it, guys. I'm done. (And I'm back. Confusing, I know). In this return to the airwaves episode, I'm sharing what I've been pondering as a result of a big period of reflection on the way I work, my business and how I spend my time. I talk about: - Expectations vs. reality when it comes to your time after your start a business - Why starting a business alone won't solve...

I'm challenging myself to improve my productivity by changing the way I use my phone over 30 days. We’re at DAY 6 PEOPLE, day 6 and my goodness. PICK UPS ARE A THING. I’ve ALWAYS had a sneaking suspicion that my phone is a HUGE factor in WHY I’ve increasingly felt like a seagull in a chip factory when it comes to being able to focus on anything for longer than 5 minutes. In this episode, I spi...

While my jam is helping service providers simplify productivity so they can work when they want (and not when they don’t) - by day, I AM that service provider. I’m a virtual assistant specialising in content creation. My phone is, well, how I do a hay-uge proportion of my job. But as far as distractions go, our smartphones are one of THE biggest suckers of our concentration and focus. And it feels...

A few months in to starting my own business, I felt this niggling feeling that something just wasn’t right about the way I was able to work. How long I was able to concentrate. What I was able to do in a day. I couldn’t figure out what to do next and I wondered if I’d ever be able to concentrate for more than 10 minutes again. The Kat story had always included words like ‘organised’, ‘efficient’ ‘...

Starting your own business shines a glaring, back of your iPhone hits you in the face style spotlight onto everything you think you know about the best way to work. In the midst of all this fluffy freedom and flexibility frippery floating around on the internet, what they DON’T tell you is that running your own business or working for yourself will EXPLODE the amount of hours you need to work - if...