In this episode, I’m talking about the divide between embracing structure and organisation versus creativity and freedom.
If you feel like there’s a bit of a battle going on for you, or you’re avoiding structure and organisation because you want to maintain more creativity and freedom, I think this is going to be a really powerful conversation for us to have.
Here for the links referenced in the show notes?
Heart-Centred Business Planning System: tashcorbin.com/planner
Let’s dive in…
The first thing that I want to say is that if you automatically think that the opposite of creativity is structure, then we need to ensure that we bring that to the surface first and foremost.
The number one reason people give me why they don’t embrace more structural planning in their business is because they want freedom. They want creativity. They want to go with the flow.
Actually, what they’re doing is seeing those two things as opposites of each other. We always see it as organisation versus creativity.
However, in reality, one feeds the other.
We are wired to see these as opposites, but they aren’t.
The big challenge for entrepreneurs – especially creatives, people who identify as neurodivergent, or people who are those real freedom seekers (I’m all three!) – is to remember that it’s not two ends of the opposite.
It’s not organisation versus creativity. It’s not that the more structure you have, the less creative you are, or the more organised you are, the less freedom you have to be flexible.
In a lot of cases, the opposite is actually true.
I want to give you an example before we go any further.
In the Take Off program, we have a little structure around what the key things are to do on social media each day.
I teach this strategy that I used to use when I was posting consistently in Facebook groups, where I’d have this spreadsheet and it would have the groups that I’m in, in order of most relevant to least relevant.
It also had the theme days and the link to the group there so I could go through, set a timer, go into the group, do my post, engage with other people’s content, and then move on to the next one.
I was doing this in a really strategic way with a timer set for 20 minutes.
In 20 minutes each day, I could know all my Facebook group stuff was done.
I was talking about this in the Take Off program and someone mentioned that her time on Facebook and in groups wasn’t just for growing her business. It was also her fun time.
She felt like doing it with structure would suck the fun out of it.
This was my response…
“Seeing as your social media time for business and for growth (your strategic social media time) and your social media time for fun are all mish-mashed together, what is the vibe that you feel most of the time when you’re on social media? Even though right now you’re not structured about it, does social media time always feel really fun? Or are you often worried about whether you’ve done your posts for the day? Do you get to the end of the day and realise you’ve been on Facebook for three hours throughout the day, but actually haven’t done anything to grow your business?”
And that was absolutely the case for this student.
She wouldn’t put her posts into the Facebook groups until the evening because she had been having fun on Facebook all day, but she hadn’t necessarily done those basics.
My advice to her was to experiment for a week with the 20-minute process, and to see all other time on Facebook as fun time.
She could still have fun in the 20 minutes that she was doing for her business, but she was also ticking off some really important milestones.
I told her to see what that does in terms of her time spent on Facebook, but also the level of fun she could have.
Her feedback was that she did a little 20-minute routine and it meant that when she was having fun on Facebook, there was no pressure. She wasn’t trying to remember to post something while she was on Facebook, she was just having fun.
It was true just-fun-time on social media outside of that little structured piece, and she spent far less time on social media because she got more fun from her fun time faster.
That’s an example of where a little bit of structure actually creates that sense of freedom, play and creativity.
It’s really not about organisation and structure versus creativity and freedom.
It’s not a matter of organisation and structure versus creativity and freedom.
The other thing that you do in that Facebook strategy is the posts on your Facebook page for the day.
What this person also realised was that the only time she really remembered to do her posts on her Facebook page was when she was trying to make sales and she needed to do promos.
All the in-between content (the fun stuff, the engaging stuff, and the I’m-just-sharing-because stuff) was being forgotten. What that meant was the posts on her Facebook page were more often than not just promos and her page was starting to really lose its reach and its engagement.
By creating that structure around her Facebook time, it meant that she posted on her Facebook page every day, not just on promo days.
That little bit of structure created more results and consistency.
It also meant that at the end of the day, if she wanted to do an extra post on her social channel, she was free to do that and to do a really creative post because she didn’t have to put pressure on that post to do another job.
She knew that all her promos were scheduled. She knew what she was doing on her socials for the next 6 months. So if she had an idea to do an extra little Facebook Live just because, she could do that.
She had the space to be creative because she knew the basics were taken care of.
Creativity peaks when we can relax. Freedom peaks when we can relax.
If the thing between you and being able to relax about your business is a little bit of structure, I would argue that structure is the source of creativity. Organisation is the source of freedom.
Just that 20 minutes of structured time on social media meant that there was more space and more time to be creative and have fun with social media, which was the thing that the person was resisting it for in the first place.
It’s really powerful.
It’s also important to note that some types of structure increase our stress.
I’ve played with a couple of apps for people who identify as neurodivergent, but I find that they really just overschedule me. That sense of over-scheduling does not create spaciousness and creativity for me.
Not all structure creates freedom. Not all structure works for all people.
But I believe that seeing structure as one of the sources of creativity and freedom, allows us to be more open to ways we can simplify, streamline, and be more considered in ways that work for us.
Another example of this would be if you were to buy a planner.
You possibly already know that I have the Heart-Centred Business Planner.
Every year, I sell a yearly planner with a system of how to manage yourself throughout the year to maximise what you achieve in your plan.
The Heart-Centred Business Planning System has been going since 2013, and in that system, I’ve created a process and a structure that works for online business owners who may have some executive dysfunction, or who aren’t someone who loves to manage themself within an inch of their lives.
I created it for myself and then sold it to people who needed the thing that I needed.
I’m someone who doesn’t think that you should be working 12-hour days, regardless of how excited you are about your business. I’m someone who looks for the laziest way to achieve my goals and get things done.
This means that the planner I create is going to be very different from a planner that someone who gets up at 5am would create.
That’s why it’s important that we recognise not all structure is going to create that sense of freedom and creativity for us. Not all structure fits me and suits me, just as it doesn’t fit you and suit you.
There are certain business mentors that I love because they’re amazing, they’re successful and I have great conversations with them.
But I also know they work 12-hour days.
I will not be buying any kind of how-to structure from those people. I will not be getting advice from them on how to outsource. This is because I know that for their outsourcing to work, they have to work 12-hour days. I will not be getting advice from them on how to maximise organic reach online because in order for them to do that, they work 12-hour days.
I’m not interested, thank you very much.
That’s an important thing to pay attention to when we’re considering structure and being organised. What are some of the alignments that you have with that person, versus what are some of the ways that you’re different?
Speaking of planners, I’m currently in the process of launching the 2024 Heart-Centred Business Planning System.
If you would like to find out more, you can do so at tashcorbin.com/planner.
One of the big pieces of feedback that I get from the planning system every year is that the most creative and freedom-craving people who join the Planning Posse are the ones who give the biggest most amazing testimonials. They recognise that the problem was not organisation. It was the way they were trying to organise themselves.
The Planning Posse way of organising ourselves and creating structure around our goals is clear enough that it’s taken away the big decision-making on a daily basis (so we’re not getting decision fatigue), but it’s also flexible enough that we can work within some loose structures so we don’t need to be a perfect specimen of a neurotypical human being in order to get results and be able to win on our goals and actually implement our plan.
If you’ve got any questions about the Planning System, please do feel free DM me on Facebook or Instagram, or send an email to support@tashcorbin.com.
Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of the Heart-Centred Business Podcast about structure and organisation versus creativity and freedom.
I hope I’ve planted a seed here that structure and organisation are not necessarily the enemy… It’s just about finding the ones that contribute to the most creativity and freedom for you.
Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.
