Do More with Less (Repurposing While Busy)
You can do more with less. And you need to do more with less. It will take more to move further in and further up. You may want more, but you may also already be so busy and tangled up in the business of life that you don’t have any more to invest.
Creative twists and new perspectives can help you leverage the power of repurposing.
November launches a stream of holiday businesses. Someone had the brilliant idea take this already busy time an make it completely hectic with a boatload of challenges – from #NaNoWriMo to #NaPodPoMo there is literally a challenge for whatever you are tackling in your journey.
But we will come back to that.
For now, know that November can be the beginning of running around like a hamster caught on its wheel or it can be the start of something new with powerful repurposing. The difference will be a life with less work or a life with more business.
You choose.
As for me, I have always been one to want to work less, or at least avoid busy work. It always seemed smarter to me to find ways to work smarter and therefore less. It left more time to do what I wanted to do and not just do what I needed to do.
In school, working less is not always appreciated. I was fortunate to have teachers that supported my work smarter efforts. They even encouraged me to continue finding ways that allowed me to move forward with powerful repurposing.
I continued to grow and expand my repurposing knack when I married and started a family. You might be amazed at the number of different ways you can repurpose an old plastic grocery bag. I know I was. I continue to find new ways to use old objects in ways that will save time, save money, and make things useful again.
My most creative repurposing skills tend to show up in the kitchen. I love to cook, but once I moved into full-time work, while homeschooling, while writing, while juggling kids, I found I didn’t have much time life to play Top Chef anymore.
(For the record, juggling kids can take up time but it can also be an excellent upper body workout – especially as the kids get older and bigger *no kids were every hurt in the kid-juggling because it’s not really a real thing*)
To have my cake and eat it too, I discovered creative ways to cook extra for meal “A” and then repurpose that into meal “B” and “C.” I declared the meals “planned overs” because they were so much more than just reheated leftovers.
I began applying the concept of powerful repurposing to my work life and the words I crafted for myself and for clients. With a little encouragement from Cheryl Wray, I discovered that a twist of some words and the old article could be remade into a new article for a whole new clientele.
Writing can be a tough journey. Finding ways to creatively repurpose the words allowed me to make the words work for me as well.
Repurposing that Works
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- Start with an inventory. What do you have? You can’t make a plan to repurpose or rework what you don’t know you have in the first place.
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- Understand the needs. What outcome do you want? You can make a lot of things a lot of different ways with a lot of different outcomes. Having a direction will help you determine your repurposing.
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- Recognize leftovers. What difference will you make? There is a time and a place for the same ole same ole again, but that place is few and far between. If you are going to repurpose then you need to reshape what you are doing to look new even if it has the feel of what was there before.
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- Determine the outcome. What do you need? Each time you repurpose what you are doing, there needs to be a reason – otherwise, you are just making yourself more busy with the very action that was supposed to make you less busy.
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- Cut, past, and expand. It really is that simple.
Repurposing means taking what you already have and then making the changes that let it work in a whole new way.
Back to the November challenges. I determined to do them all, or at least enough to leave my fingers tired when I would type them out to share. This is not the first year I’ve jumped into the deep end.
The last few times I spent more energy trying to stay afloat than I did accomplishing anything substantial. This year I had a plan.
It started with an outline for podcasts that I wanted to record. I took the outline and expanded it into a blog post. I used the blog post as a guide to do the podcast. I then posted the blog post with a link to the podcast. I used the outline to create an image for the blog post to be shared on social media.
So my November challenges have been tamed by harnessing the power of repurposing.
How can you take what you have and put it to work in a whole new way?
Harness Your Repurposing Power
Kathryn Lang offers focus coaching. She will help you strip back the complicated caused by business and clutter to reveal the simplicity of your unique heartseed. Together you will plot a path of purpose with actions in purpose.
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About Kathryn
Kathryn Lang is a hopesmith, a dream ignitor, and an aficionado of inappropriate laughter: She knows that if you focus on making friends, helping out, and enjoying the journey then you can’t go wrong.
Words have always been a focus for Kathryn. Her dad will tell you that she didn’t talk until she was two but she hasn’t shut up since. She loves words and is always looking for ways to put words to work and wield the words that will challenge you to pursue your extraordinary.
Kathryn says, “I know you have a unique purpose and a designed path. Together we can find the way that works.” Visit SnarkyRainbows to connect with Kathryn today.
