Tapiwa Matsinde
Do you find yourself constantly generating ideas that you find too irresistible to ignore? And as a result, you become distracted with all these ideas begging to be brought to life. Welcome to the life of the multi-passionate (also referred to as multi-hyphenate).
While it can be fun exploring all these ideas on the flip side the constant urge to pursue every idea that comes your way can wreak havoc with work schedules as we try to keep up with doing too many things at once. This leaves us feeling tired, exhausted, irritable, overwhelmed, and ultimately miserable as nothing seems to get done.
As a multi-passionate entrepreneur, myself I know this all too well. And have often found myself battling to keep on top of things as I navigate my way through all that needs to be done.
Being organised is the superpower every multi-passionate entrepreneur needs to master especially if like me you are a creative entrepreneur prone to giving in to spontaneity and getting lost in that beautiful place called the creative zone which can throw your schedule out of sync.
I have found that I can manage my multi-passionate workload for the better by focusing on the following:
1. Setting aside time to explore your ideas
This can be a few hours or day once a week or month depending on how much time you can spare.
I call this a ‘play day’. A dedicated time in my weekly schedule to put aside business tasks and focus on exploring my ideas. Giving them a voice before deciding if I want to commit to and share them with the world. Because the thing with being multi-passionate is that when an idea strikes it’s like an itch begging to be scratched. Ignore it and the itch becomes persistent.
And I have learned that some ideas just want to be acknowledged and will happily disappear as soon as they have seen the light of day.
2. Recognising that not all your ideas need to become a business or be monetized
In the early days of my entrepreneurial journey, I tried to turn every idea I had into some kind of business with varying degrees of success. Needless to say, I wasted a lot of time and effort in doing this. There were occasions that having spent precious time bringing an idea to life I would lose interest after a few months and move on to the next thing.
This is why having a ‘play day’ is important; using that time to see if your idea is something you, really want to turn into a business, are happy to let go of, or can turn into a hobby.
I have found it so helpful to sort out my ideas into a bucket system under the following categories: Will it form part of my existing business, Will it need to be a new business, Am I happy to keep it for myself as a hobby.
And to help me decide what goes into which I have a set of questions that I ask myself such as: how much time will I need to commit to this?, will it cost money and if so how much?, do I have skills required to do this?, is there enough interest in my idea to justify turning it into a business?.
3. Making space in your schedule for your passions
Having a schedule that can accommodate your different passions is crucial to managing not only your time but also the energy you have to give to your different interests.
Once you have decided if and where your idea fits into your business you need to make space for it in your existing schedule.
By making space for your idea you not only free up mental space from having to constantly remind yourself of what you need to do, but you also commit to giving it the attention it requires.
Your schedule also needs to be flexible enough for you to shift things around should you need to yet still enable you to work on all that requires your attention.
4. Batching, automating, and delegating what you can
It is hard enough running one business let alone 2 or 3 or one that has multiple branches.
And having multiple businesses can mean that growth may be slower than if you were focusing your attention on just one.
This is where batching, automating, and delegating tasks can make an enormous difference to the multi-passionate entrepreneur’s workdays.
Batching and automating asks can transform the workday of any business owner but for the multi-passionate entrepreneur running separate businesses, it can prevent you from feeling like you are doing things in duplicate.
And going a step further recognise what you don’t need to do yourself and delegate those tasks. When it comes to delegating letting others into our businesses can be hard, and the multi-passionate entrepreneur would be wise to heed that delegating is a necessity and not a luxury.
Delegating will help you manage your time more efficiently. Because trying to do everything yourself will just lead to overwhelm and burnout. And by delegating to a team or outsourcing tasks you free up your mind to properly focus on doing what you do best.
So be honest with yourself about what you can do but are not great at that someone else could do better, and quicker than you, and hand it over. Yes, you may save money by doing it yourself, but at what cost to your sanity?
5. Making self-care a priority
Above all with so much to juggle taking care of yourself needs to be your number one priority.
Multi-passionate or not you should be making it a regular habit of stepping away from your work to nourish mind, body, and soul. Because if you are not at your best mentally and physically then how can you expect to bring your best to your work and life?
Keep in mind that some of those ideas that you decide not to turn into a business could become part of your self-care programme. The personal projects you choose to do because they bring you joy and help to keep you sane.
These are just a few ways of managing the multi-passionate entrepreneur schedule.
Managing my multi-passionate interests is a work in progress. But by allowing myself to acknowledge my ideas and to organise how I bring them to fulfilment, I am enabling myself to lean into the rewarding and enriching experiences that come with being a multi-passionate entrepreneur. And I wish you the same.
Tapiwa Matsinde is the founder of atelier 55 an acclaimed platform that shines the spotlight on Africa’s designers and creatives by sharing the stories of their work. Through her consultancy Tapiwa curates for and advises organisations, galleries, and museums interested in African design, connecting them to designers for global opportunities that increase their visibility. Through the atelier 55 Academy Tapiwa helps startup and established creative entrepreneurs develop and grow international standard brands that command attention. Tapiwa is the author of several books including Contemporary Design Africa the first art book to showcase and survey a generation of innovative designers from across the continent and beyond who are putting the diverse expressions of African design on the world’s stage. Tapiwa’s podcast Behind The Design introduces an inspirational series of conversations with some of Africa’s exciting designers.
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