I made a rookie mistake when I started my consulting business. I was still working full-time 9-5 on a hospital neuroscience team and using all my free time to start my side hustle: figuring out how to design my website on my lunch break, staying up past midnight to write emails and use all vacation days, weekends, and even some sick days to see clients.

Then one day I put my then two-year-old daughter in the bathtub half-dressed and then locked myself in a stairwell. Twice. In the same week.

I had burned my brain – a rookie mistake, especially for a neuroscientist.

I knew my schedule was unsustainable. So I had the brilliant idea to call for support – and it makes sense, right? I have 230 things on my to-do list. It’s impossible for me to do them all. I’ll hire some help. (Here’s rookie mistake #2.)

So I hired an assistant to help me with my podcast and a second to help me create social networks messages. It was a disaster! I was more stressed more exhausted and overwhelmed than ever – and it was my fault.

My assistants were great. They did exactly what I asked them to do. My brain was the problem. I had brought all my trouble productivity habits with me as chiefincluding:

• Overwork
• Setting insanely high standards for myself
• I felt like if I didn’t move forward, I was failing.

The end result? I just took more work. I felt obligated to keep my team busy. That was my job as boss. So I signed up more clients and turned my podcast into a circus of audio and video clips and blogs. I was still working 60 hours a week, still exhausted, and I still didn’t feel like I was really making progress in my business.

So if the solution isn’t to hire help, what is?

Maybe it’s the AI, right? I’m not sure about you, but my Instagram feed is full of ads about how AI can save my life as a small business owner: “Create a month’s worth of social media posts in 30 seconds with AI!” “Write your book in 2 hours with AI!” “Launch a new online course every day with AI!”

The point is, I don’t want AI to do my creative work. I love doing creative work. I like to write. I love thinking about new program ideas. I even like to come up with fun ideas for social media posts (if only I could have a drone follow me to record B-roll, that would be awesome).

What I want AI to do is do my laundry, pick up the pile of Legos on my living room floor, or make dinner for my 7 year old to eat so I have the time and energy to devote to my creative work. — work that impacts my business and is fun for me.

I thought: I am a neuroscientist. If I had my own personal AI robot, what would I really want it to do?

The answer? Remove some of the mental load.

In my TEDx talk, I noted that we have approximately 6,200 thoughts every day. When it comes to productivity, time is not your most valuable asset. It’s your energy. So the more you can transfer that mental load, the more capacity you have for the projects that make you money in your business.

3 ways to optimize your productivity

How to do this without hiring a large team? I recommend these 3 strategies to “clone your brain,” so to speak, and free up time, energy, and brain space in your day:

1. Automate with biohacks.

Remember: we want to make the days easier on your brain, to get rid of some of those 6,200 thoughts.

Automation can mean using technology, and it doesn’t have to be complicated. Reminders, alerts, timers: they all save brain space. Automation can mean routines and habits (think small changes like biohacking). Automation can even mean a little pre-planning so you have less to think about when you get to your desk.

Anything that makes life easier for your brain. This takes away yet another thing that you no longer need to think about.

2. Delegate with systems.

Solopreneur? No problem. You don’t need a team to delegate. Again, it’s about managing that mental load.

I delegate as much as possible to technology to save brain power – and it doesn’t have to be fancy AI. Think about templates, repeatable workflows, and decision making frames here.

3. Throw out trash and eliminate to-do list clutter.

For me, it’s about eliminating decision fatigue in my brain.

Your brain wakes up every day with a limited amount of processing power. Every decision you make – from what to eat for breakfast to how you’ll market a new program – drains some of that power. I eliminate as many simple decisions from my day as possible.

How I Used These Strategies to Save 5 Hours a Week

1. I made up my morning routine and my shutdown routine to stop wasting brain power during my maximum performance hours.
2. I created simple workflows for tasks I do every day, like posting on social media, so I can handle them quickly without feeling overwhelmed.
3. I eliminated clutter from my to-do list. I’ve learned to identify my peak productivity tasks and catch myself when I get caught up in productive tasks. procrastination.

I was able to optimize my own efficiency so that I could let my two assistants go, while still saving an extra five hours per week in my own schedule.

If you are growing a small business, the time will come to hire a larger team if you want to scale. And when your own brain is optimized first, you can fully reap all the benefits of that extra support when that happens.