Put on Your SPF: Do Less Achieve More Series

Read time: 2 mins

Hey there!

Today I’m sharing the SPF 50 Strategy, a simple way to protect your time before burnout hits.

If you live in Australia, you know you don’t mess around with the sun ☀️

You would never head out for a full day without protection and hope for the best.

You slip, slap, slop, and get that SPF 50 on.

Before the damage is done.

But in business, often owners do the opposite.

They wait until they’re exhausted.

Short-tempered.

Behind.

Overwhelmed.

Then they try to “fix” their time.

That’s why the final idea in our Do Less, Achieve More summer series is this:

THE SPF STRATEGY 🧴

Protect your time before you burn

A lot of Time-management advice focuses on optimising your time.

Better calendars.
Better apps.
Better to-do lists.

You can’t miss it – every second Podcast has some productivity bro waking up at 4.00am, cold-plunging, colour-coding, and telling you that this system will finally fix everything.

But by the time you need another tool, the damage is already happening.

The real problem isn’t productivity.
It’s taking on too much. 

Too many meetings.
Too many decisions.
Too many interruptions.
Too many things pulling at you all day long.

No sunscreen.

This isn’t about squeezing more into your day.It’s about stopping the burn before it starts.

1. Put boundaries around your best hours

Most people give away their best thinking time to everyone else.

Your “SPF 50” move is to protect it.

Block 2–3 chunks a week for deep work, planning, or the projects that actually move the business forward.

No meetings.
No “quick calls.”
No inbox.

Just protected time for you to do real work that moves your business forward.

2. Decide what you’re not doing this quarter

People don’t typically burn out because they’re doing one hard thing.

They burn out because you’re doing ten hard things at once.

So pick your priorities, and then set a “not now” list.

Examples:

• Not adding a new service yet.
• Not rebuilding the website this month.
• Not saying yes to every opportunity.
• Not attending meetings you don’t need to be in.

This is what calm growth looks like. 

It’s not more energy. It’s better focus.gs.

3. Build a “default no” filter for your calendar

If your calendar is open, it will get filled.

A simple rule helps:

If it’s not revenue, delivery, team, or strategy, it needs a very good reason to exist.

Try these filters:

• Could someone else attend and give me the summary?.
• Could this be handled in a short message instead?
• Do I actually need to be there?
• What decision are we making, and what happens if we don’t meet?

Decision fatigue is real, and most business owners are carrying far too many “tiny” decisions that add up.

Your next step is to standardise and delegate.

Choose one area:

• pricing
• client onboarding
• internal approvals
• how quotes are handled
• how customer issues get escalated
• who decides what

When you remove unnecessary decisions, you get time and energy back.

⭐ Bottom line

Sunscreen doesn’t stop the sun.
It stops the damage.

Time protection doesn’t remove responsibility.
It stops your business from consuming you.

If you want this year to feel calmer and more productive, start with protect your time first, then decide what deserves it.

Hope you loved this series, see you next week for a new one!

Speak soon!

Lynne & Steve

 

 

TLDR

🧴 The problem isn’t productivity, it’s taking on too much

🧴 Protect your best hours before your week fills up

🧴 Create a “not now” list for the quarter

🧴 Reduce meetings and decisions, and you reduce burnout too

And if you want help with this, check out our Business Consulting services page, or get in touch with us here.

 

P.S.

If you know a business owner who’s feeling a bit crispy right now, forward this to them 😉