"Working with Skyrocket on all aspects of developing the Groundwork brand was a rich process. Where I didn't have clarity, they found it." - Amrita Ahuja, CEO + Founder
What is Groundwork?
Groundwork is a system that brings peace and clarity into the lives of highly effective, but stressed and overworked people. It is targeted towards individuals who are interested in learning a new way of getting things done. This idea started about 12 years ago when Amrita ran her own business, a weight loss clinic in Vancouver. The daily schedule of a small business owner is no easy feat - it’s filled with client meetings, strategy talks, constant communication with clients, late working hours, and a lot of overwhelm. What she noticed was that in order for her to be able to accomplish everything and service as many people as possible and participate in the world around her, something had to change. She needed a new way to work and create a calm environment without succumbing to the pressure of deadlines and maximum productivity, two major pain points every working professional can relate to. Amrita wanted a peace of mind while being present in her daily activities. That’s where Groundwork came to fruition - a philosophy that marries these two things together.
A universal problem that many are experiencing - especially during and after COVID - is the constant stress, burnout, and the feeling of overwhelm. Groundwork helps answer the question working professionals often think of: How do I go through my daily to-do list while getting my personal needs met without feeling overwhelmed?
Groundwork x Skyrocket
At the beginning of 2020, Amrita began working with Skyrocket as a productivity consultant, teaching the Groundwork framework and principles and coaching us to be healthier and more productive as a team as well as on an individual level. That meant being less reactive to incoming requests, reducing stress, planning each block of time realistically and living out of our calendars, prioritizing taking time off for mental space and self care, working flexibly, and recognizing our individual ways of working. Constantly being bogged down by tasks and media noise bombarding us for a speck of attention everywhere we look, Groundwork is rooted in universal principles that can be applied to any profession and any person trying to get more out of life.
Working in a hyperactive environment
The digital marketing agency world is a hyperactive environment where we are constantly pushing to get tasks done and have very little time to breathe in between upcoming internal and client deadlines. In between staying on top of demands for clients, trying to find opportunities for growth, as well as handling a network of outside contractors, working in a digital agency environment can easily lead to burnout. Groundwork has been a great foundational teaching tool for Skyrocket to reflect on our hustling lifestyle. It has been embedded into Skyrocket’s onboarding training for the core team to find peace of mind and clarity in our daily lives.
Especially geared towards agencies, the Groundwork philosophy encourages us to dive deeper into the driver of our motivation by asking us to explore questions such as: Why do we work so hard? What’s our inspiration/motivation to do the work we do? Why are we moving so frantically in the world and how do we get ease from this?
Hundreds of individuals and several teams have integrated Groundwork into their process, some have even called it “life-changing”. An important thing to note about Groundwork is that it is not another productivity tip; in fact, it is a way of thinking first and foremost on how to maximize peace of mind and clarity in our everyday lives. With the tagline being “at ease in the world”, Amrita’s mission is to prevent burnout, as well as to help burnt out individuals explore deeper into the motivation behind their work and how to stay afloat amidst the everyday background noise.
