by soco_admin | Jul 20, 2018 | Blog, Featured
As creators, we push ourselves daily to do our best work. This often involves finding inspiration outside of work.
Yet American culture is notorious for long work days and poor work/life balance.
This tension is one reason work/life balance is a trending topic in the work community right now. It feels like a life-sized version of Jenga that– quite frankly – is impossible to win!
As Marc framed it,
He’s not the only one who feels this way.
In July, members gathered together in Slack to chat through this issue. What does balance mean? Is it possible? How do other gig workers handle this?
Read below for some of their insights.
Two definitions of work/life balance
Picture a set of scales where work is on the left side and life is on the right side. For many members, work/life balance means keeping these scales in equilibrium.
Others, though, enjoy work so much that they have little interest in the “balance” described above. These entrepreneurs find work energizing; they have little interest in other hobbies.
For this second group, balance is devoting the maximum amount of time to the work they love, without adverse effects to close relationships.
What we stand to lose
Members who’d like to equalize life and work lose far more than Netflix-and-chill time when the scales tip heavily toward work:
There are real emotional, mental, and physical side effects to overwork. Noticing those side effects is one way we can recognize when we’re imbalanced.
How we walk the line
Balance is difficult, but it is not impossible. Members use a variety of creative constraints to strike balance and avoid the adverse side effects of overwork:
Speaking of exercise, we wouldn’t be surprised if a SOCO kickball team came out of this comment:
When things get out of whack, hit reset
Life will always toss us curve balls that throw off our balance. When members reach inevitable tipping points, they reboot in a few ways:
One other balancing act secret…
Turns out, one other way members find balance is SOCO! (We’re blushing.)
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Want to join in the next discussion? You’ll need to be in our #Slack_Sessions channel as a member. Check out memberships here. We’d love to chat with you about our spaces and benefits!
Already a member? Awesome. Join the #Slack_Sessions channel today so you can stay up to date on the next chat!
by soco_admin | Jun 13, 2018 | Blog
If you’re like us, you just clenched your jaw and hunched your shoulders. Understandably so – it’s an intimidating topic!
At SOCO, we know members have mixed feels about finance. But we also know finance is closely connected to our stress levels, work satisfaction, retirement goals, and freedom. For those reasons, it’s worth talking about.
That’s why we gathered members together in June’s Slack Session to discuss managing money in healthy, helpful ways. We wanted to hear how members are saving up, slipping up, and working toward financial independence.
Here’s what we learned.
Finances are a means to an end
SOCO members want to rock personal finance so they can have:
- More autonomy
- Protection against worst case scenarios
- More cash to give away
- The ability to buy a family member a home
- Means to travel extensively
- Flexibility to buy sweet gear (#swag)
One word that came up over and over again was freedom.
Personal finance matters to members because it gives them the freedom to travel, take time off, work jobs they want, and spend their money how they want.
We’re human and finances are hard
Members want to dominate their finances, but it doesn’t mean they are.
For example, a lot of us blow our budget on food –
And many of us have made painful financial mistakes. Things like:
- Buying a car without calculating taxes
- Choosing universities that left us with major student debt
- Not saving for retirement until way late
- Not investing in skills, like cooking, that save money over time
- Paying business taxes late
- Cashing out retirement
- Impulse buying (we see you Amazon Prime)
All this to say, finances are hard and everyone stumbles. Even members who are very good about finances now have made plenty of mistakes – and been in plenty of debt – in the past.
Actually using a budget helps
If you’ve ever tried to budget, though, you know: sticking with it is tough. Members experienced this and have developed frameworks, tricks, and hacks they use to stay on top of cash flow.
Seasoned budgeters also recommended:
Compound interest is money-making magic
There are a few ways to make quick cash, but compound interest is the real ticket to success. That’s where you grow the money you have now into more money over time.
Some really smart ways members do this:
Other compound interest tips included:
- Avoiding debt (and getting out of it quickly)
- Setting up a Roth IRA, then maxing it out while tax brackets are low
- Utilizing a 401k
- Setting up automatic withdrawals
- Saving money as soon as your start working (even if that’s 15 years old)
The holy grail: Financial Independence
When members think of financial independence, many of them think of the freedom to work on whatever they want, whenever they want, without needing income.
Thanks to this conversation, more members are working toward financial freedom and are equipped to do so. One member even upped his monthly IRA contributions within a week of conversation!
Don’t you dare miss the next Slack chat.
Already a member? Join the #Slack_Sessions channel in Slack for details on the next hangout.
Not yet a member? Schedule a SOCO tour today – it’s free and you’re guaranteed to meet a few of our rockstars. Membership at SOCO gives you access to conversations like these and the people who contributed their smart insights.
by soco_admin | May 13, 2018 | Blog
We have this idea that some people are “creatives.” As if they’re a special breed of human.
We picture them as whirlwinds of color, music, and poetry. We imagine they wake up with a kind of magic, overflowing with whatever creativity is.
And then we picture everyone else. The management jobs, legal jobs and logistical jobs that aren’t, you know, artsy.
This isn’t accurate, though. People in artistic roles often feel uninspired and people in “those other jobs” are often mindblowingly creative.
At SOCO, we see this all the time. It’s why we gathered our diverse members together in May’s Slack Session to talk about creativity – where they find it, how they lose it, and how we all can cultivate it.
Here’s what we learned from each other :
The source of our creativity
For many members, creativity starts with asking a question. Curiosity about people, places, and processes lead to experiences that inspire our members.
Problems also have a way of sparking our creativity. There’s nothing like an impasse that makes us stop and look at things differently.
And, of course, alcohol has some inspirational effects.
The bane of our creativity
Travel, reading, meeting new people, and problem solving all spark our creativity. Other factors, like clutter and micro-management, actually snuff it out.
When asked what all dampens their creativity, members responded:
Fostering the creative spirit
As we’ve seen before, though, our members aren’t the kind to throw in the towel when something opposes them. They’ve found all kinds of ways to cultivate their creativity, in spite of forces that work against them.
Rest and boredom play a surprising role (as do nerf guns).
And when it comes to finding inspiration, our members are nothing short of relentless.
Carry on, members, carry on!
Don’t miss out on future insights.
Want to join in the next discussion? That requires you actually be in our #slack_sessions channel as a member. Check out memberships here. We’d love to chat with you!
Already a member? Awesome. Join the #Slack_Sessions channel today so you can stay up to date on the next chat!
by soco_admin | Apr 22, 2018 | News & Notes
We’re better when we work together.
That’s one of the reasons SOCO exists. It’s also the reason Slack Sessions exist. Slack Sessions are monthly chats hosted in SOCO’s Slack community. They’re focused on helping members work better, think bigger, and live life on their terms. From productivity to creativity, these sessions are a way for members to tap the collective brain power of the SOCO Community. They’re facilitated, real-time and relevant. They exist because this community believes we all do better work when we work together. And we’re sharing insights with you because one of SOCO’s core values is growing and learning together.
SOCO kicked off Slack Sessions earlier this year and, for the very first session, members gathered together for an online chat about productivity.
Why productivity?
Because there’s only one of you! Not to mention some of the world’s most successful people have mastered their workflow and days so much that it feels like they have clones. That means real productivity is totally possible. The tough thing is, you can find a million click-baity links on the topic of productivity but tried-and-true applications are scarce. What actually works? How do creators and business owners get stuff done? How do our members apply an internet’s worth of advice to their real-life work days?
Our community is full of folks who have hammered out these questions – and incredible work – for years. So for insights deeper than clickbait, we turned to them. Check out four takeaways (just a fraction of the conversation!) below.
1. Tools are pretty darn helpful
It’s no surprise that this tech-savvy crew has the low-down on the best productivity tools. A few apps you might recognize:
And then some tools that might surprise you:
We’re not kidding about that last one. Check out Jordan’s response to see how that tool has saved her hours.
2. The secret to using tools well? Having an overall approach.
Turns out, our members’ biggest secret to productivity isn’t what tool they use but how and why they use it. Some of the top approaches included:
- Making lists, on paper or in a digital format
- The rule of 3: identifying the three things that need to happen in a day
- Following model work weeks
- Creating and managing deadlines
3. You’ll get more done if you’re proactive about distractions
Members know they lose a lot of time to the internet, meetings, Twitter and phone notifications. But they’re not the kind of crew that sits back and does nothing about that:
4. It’s fact: some tasks are boring.
So it’s important to self-motivate. You could do that with a healthy dose of structure and deadlines, plus a sprinkling of consistency.
Or you could do it by building a sense of accomplishment.
Or if neither of those help, members shared that they’re particularly motivated by visualizing the end result and keeping the overarching “why” in mind.
This is good stuff. Don’t miss out on insights.
Want to get the whole scoop? That requires you to actually be in our #slack_sessions as a member. Sound like a community you want to be a part of? We’d love to chat with you, too. Check out memberships here.
Already a member? Awesome. Join the #Slack_Sessions channel today so you can stay up to date on the next chat!
by soco_admin | Feb 27, 2017 | News & Notes
I have historically not been a strong advocate for Goal Setting. I mean I’ve set goals and worked towards them, but the official “setting of goals” thing… You know writing them down and all that. It always seemed like the goals I was hearing other people set were just pulled out of thin air. For example; Generate $100,000 of income this calendar year, or lose 30lbs by this time next year. They always just sounded hollow and not very thought out to me. My thinking was why not just live life better and do what you say you’re going to do… right?
I am at least humble enough to admit when I am wrong…
About three years ago I met Mark Divine a Navy SEAL and founder of SEALFIT, among his many other accolades. Knowing him and utilzing him as a mentor he has changed my life in so many ways, but the one that has affected me the most is the way he sets goals. In his book The Way of the Seal: Think Like an Elite Warrior to Lead and Succeed he outlines a system called P.R.O.P. that helps you develop a clear course of action to work toward and accomplish your goal(s). P.R.O.P. stands for (Priorities, Realities, Options, and Path). The details go like this:
- Priorities: First of all a good goal is something that is of high-value to you personally. Make a list of a half dozen really important things in your life and then pick the top three.
- Realities: Be honest and clear with yourself about your current situation in life and how much influence it will have on your goals. How does your current situation help or hamper your ability to achieve those goals.
- Options: After you’ve reviewed your prioritized goals and thought through your personal situation as it relates to them, write out three things you can do to achive each of your goals. It’s ok to combine things from other goals as well here.
- Path: Now that you have a few choices for a course of action, which one fits you the best right now? This becomes your path for developing a real plan to accomplish your chosen goal(s).
One of the big secrets is to literally write this stuff down. Make it public if you dare, do whatever helps drive you to complete your tasks that push you to the finish line on achieving your goals.
I have put together a worksheet, that you can download, based on an older model that Mark Divine sent me that I have tweaked over the years to suit how I work. I am sharing it with you now in hopes that it will help you focus in on your own set of personal goals and find lasting success.
Good luck!
If you like the concept behind this post on goal setting, join us March 22nd for our Create Your Life Series as we explore the Warrior Mindset to learn to lead and succeed in life and in your business.
