Do you have those days when you are working on the tech stuff in your business and you get to the point where you’re so frustrated that you want to throw your laptop? 

I certainly do. 

And because I spend so many hours of my working time laptop dealing with tech I have had to develop some tools to help me in those moments. 

These are kind of like my rules of play or my rules of engagement for working with tech and how to deal with those moments of complete frustration. Those moments of just hitting the brick wall, being in some horrible vortex loop and hating it.

This can happen any time when using technology. 

Or you end up in a vortex – you want to do one simple thing and suddenly you’re being asked to sign up for another thing and then you have to pay for something else and then you need another tool to link those two up to each other and you don’t even really know what they do. Your head is spinning and the rage is rising.

So here are 3 things I adhere to when it comes to tech frustration:

1. Watch the narrative
2. Space clearing mist
3. Set a timer

If you are trying something new like setting up a website, running ads to Facebook or creating images in Canva and it isn’t working. What are you making this mean? What is your inner dialogue? Are you thinking thoughts like: “I am not techie”, “this is hard”, “Facebook sux” “this is not my zone of genius” {insert yours here}. 

It happens to me when I’m learning something new. I get to the wall or the vortex and I don’t like it. 

I am pretty tenacious and sometimes I think I can just push through and “make it happen”. 

And sometimes I do. 

And sometimes I get really frustrated and get totally disheartened. I get rejective and start wanting to tell a story about the whole thing being a really bad idea.

The same thing can happen to 100 people and there are probably 1000 stories you could be telling about that same experience.

One person might make it mean that they are learning something new and that is sometimes uncomfortable where another person might make it mean they suck and tech and can’t move forward in their business.

What you make it mean is the ONLY thing that is within your control.

If you can’t understand what I’m saying here or you find it hard to be aware of your thoughts I recommend meditation and a good life coach.

Those 2 things have helped me find the spaces between my thoughts and my awareness.

This is a powerful development that will help you in all areas of your life, as well as how you feel about tech.

I personally love Vipassna meditation and try to go for a 10 day retreat every year as well as meditating daily as my home practice.

Do you have a meditation practice?

It’s a business tool and a life tool you won’t regret acquiring.

I have 2 space clearing mists I love. I have the Australian Bush Flower Essence Space Clearing mist and the Anima Mundi Palo Santo Protection Myst.

Sometimes, if I am having tech gremlins or even just working with a client and we are getting a bit tense with our progress over a tech fart, I will spritz the heck out of my space with one of those 2 and just take a moment.

Traditionally, Palo Santo is for warding off evil spirits.

But what are “evil spirits” if not our own mental tensions, negative thought patterns and bad mental hygiene?

Sure, maybe your neighbour did put a hex on you.

Or maybe you just need to breathe and become aware of the  magic inside you.

Either way, I find that somehow, space clearing mists help. Even if they only smell good and there’s a placebo effect.
By the time I’m that pissed off I don’t really care what is helping if at all. Bring the nice smells and hex removal.

The other day I was working with a group of clients on Facebook ads. As well as creating and publishing ads for clients myself, I was mentoring a small group of women to set up their own ads accounts. 

I had a client with a pressing deadline and a decent budget and 5 ads rejected due to misleading claims with another client whose account was disabled due to circumventing Facebook ads policy. 

Then I had one of the students who I was mentoring have her catalogue rejected and another one whose Squarespace site stopped connecting to her Instagram as soon as she followed my instructions to set Instagram up in Business Manager. 

So as well as my own ads failing, and possibly failing my clients I was also failing to support students. 

I could have made this mean that I’m no good at ads and that I am not fit to teach others ads either. And then I could decide that Facebook ads are crap. And I might even decide that I’m not cut out for online business. 

What I did was contact support, and they told me there was a glitch which was making ads rejected when they shouldn’t have been. 

This gave me a red flag that Facebook’s servers might be having other glitches too and that it just wasn’t the day for working on Facebook ads. 

This is so often the case. 

As well as the old “turn it off and turn it back on” trick, I find this third approach a sanity saver. 

How long are you going to swirl in a vortex or headbutting a brick wall before you walk away? 

Some days, it’s better to just walk away. But how long should you try? 

I usually allow about 30-minutes maximum to headbut/swirl and then I walk away. Because most times I have those moments, I find out a week later that “Oh yeah there was a {XYZ} issue that day and everyone was {effected in some way}”.

So just choose a timer, do as much as you can and then walk away. Come back a day or 2 later. 

I actually just checked all of those disapproved ads now (24 hours later) and they are all approved! 

Oh Facebook…

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