Episode #26: Productivity Hacks
In this episode, Julia & Kelly discuss the four categories that affect productivity; focus/clarity, organization, time management, and pace, and provide tips, tools, and hacks for each one.
Productivity Hacks Episode Recap
In this episode, we’re excited to share some powerful productivity hacks that have worked wonders for Kelly and Julia. As busy professionals and mothers, they understand the struggle of balancing work and family life while trying to stay productive and efficient. From time management to organization and focus, they’ve tried various methods and tools and are now ready to spill the beans on what really works.
In the podcast, Kelly and Julia delve into the importance of focus and clarity. They believe that being clear on your priorities is essential for productivity. They discuss the concept of “eating the frog,” which means tackling the most uncomfortable task first thing in the morning. While they agree on the idea, Julia also adds that sometimes she needs to be in the right mindset to tackle certain tasks effectively. Kelly recommends the book “Essentialism” by Greg McKeown, which emphasizes doing less but better and cutting out the trivial to focus on what truly matters.
Kelly and Julia pride themselves on their organizational skills. They share tips on using digital tools like Trello, Monday.com, and Basecamp to organize tasks and collaborate with their teams. The “Eisenhower Matrix” also gets a nod, providing a helpful way to prioritize tasks based on their urgency and importance. Additionally, they discuss the concept of a “swipe file” – a collection of inspirational ideas that can be used for creative brainstorming and problem-solving.
Time management is a crucial aspect of productivity, and Kelly and Julia swear by time blocking. They recommend blocking off dedicated time for specific tasks and avoiding the temptation to overcommit. They highlight the value of time-blocking Fridays to focus on critical projects without interruptions. Moreover, the podcast introduces the “One Thing” principle from Gary Keller’s book, encouraging individuals to identify the single most important task that will drive them toward their goals. As marketers, email inboxes can become a huge source of distraction. Kelly and Julia discuss their experiences with managing email overload and avoiding the compulsion to achieve “Inbox Zero.” They now set specific times during the day to address emails, flagging high-priority ones, and dealing with the rest during allocated time slots.
Being productive is a constant challenge, especially for busy working moms like Kelly and Julia. Through trial and error, they have discovered productivity hacks that have truly worked for them. By focusing on clarity, leveraging organization tools, managing time efficiently, and taking control of their inboxes, they have significantly improved their productivity and work-life balance. Whether you’re a mom or not, implementing these tried and tested productivity hacks can undoubtedly help you achieve your goals and find success in both your personal and professional life.
Understanding and embracing our unique work styles is crucial for maintaining a healthy work-life balance and achieving long-term success. While bursts of high productivity are essential for meeting deadlines and accomplishing tasks, incorporating periods of plodding allows for creativity, problem-solving, and overall well-being. As Kelly and Julia discovered, it’s okay to adapt and evolve our approaches as circumstances change. By doing so, we can not only excel in our professional lives but also create more fulfilling personal lives, nurturing our relationships and finding time for what truly matters. So, let’s all take a moment to reflect on our work styles and find the balance that leads to both productivity and happiness.
Episode Transcript
Julia
Welcome to the marketing moms Podcast. Today, our episode is productivity hacks Kelly and I have tried and that have worked. So basically, we are tired of seeing literally everywhere in email on social, everywhere. People promoting Oh, look, Kelly has them all.
Kelly
These are this is just a portion of all of them if you’re watching on YouTube, this is just a portion of all the productivity books that I have read, if it’s out there, I have read it, and some are more are better than others. So we’re going to talk about the ones that I like we like the most today.
Julia
Yeah, I mean, there’s like a zillion tools, concepts, systems, are they full of it? Right? What actually works. And some of them, I think work better than others, especially for our particular industry in our line of work. So I’m going to open up with talking about eating the frog. And apparently, I’m new to this right? concept. And I guess it’s like, Bs, I’ve been told it’s based on a quote from Mark Twain, but that Brian Tracy, you know, arguably the most famous sales coach of all really embraced it. So Mark Twain said, Eat a live frog first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day. And so basically, Brian Tracy says that if you get that eating the frog out of the way, that most uncomfortable thing, first, you will win the day. And I think this will we’ll talk about this as we get through today’s topic, right? Because I think a lot of things come back to this like is are that really directed at people who procrastinate? Is it a good motivator for being productive? Anyways, so
Kelly
there you go, when you first suggested these ideas in the notes, I laughed really hard, because I have honestly never heard that same before. So that’s a completely new one for me. very descriptive, very difficult to digest. And I really don’t like it.
Julia
Because who wants to eat like a live frog?
Kelly
I mean, but I agree with the concept and every single productivity book that I have read, and some of them I just showed you, they all say the same thing. Start with the hard stuff, do that hard stuff, the most important thing that you got to do in the morning, before anything else.
Julia
And I almost agree with it. Like I’m 95% there. But I also think that the other 5% For me, I need to be in a certain zone to accomplish, fill in the blank, whatever that is, right? If it’s, if it’s a creative thing, or if it’s a writing thing, or if it’s a strategy thing, I sometimes don’t want to do it. First thing I want to do something else. Anyways. Okay, so let’s talk about a that everyone will relate to. These are obstacles to productivity. So like, what are the things okay, I’ll give you three of mine.
So things that become urgent, right, and I’ll get into this too, because I think those urgent things sometimes are propelled by an email, which is just the death of all…
Kelly
There’s a saying, isn’t it? Um, Is it urgent? Or is it important? Because things that are in urgent are never important. Oh, right.
Julia
I actually did have one urgent important thing yesterday. But I would agree with you. I’m also multitasking I think is women too, right? We just multitask. I saw the funniest meme. Oh my gosh, we’ve got to share it on our social and it was like a dad coming to the car to take his kids somewhere. And the dad just like, walks to the car with his keys. Oh, and they have a mom and she has like the curling iron the Amazon package that has to be returned snacks for her kids a bag for later her purse. You know what I mean? Yeah, whole nine yards. And they’re wired. They’re wired differently than we are. Yeah, we’re just wired differently. So like multitasking, definitely, I think translates to work and can get in the way of productivity. Yes. And then Okay, the third one I’ll mention is knowledge. Like sometimes I will become unproductive because I’ll start a task and I’ll be like, Whoa, I actually don’t know enough. or I don’t have the right tools or you don’t have the right insights or, you know, I don’t have enough to keep the ball rolling. And so then I get stuck, right? Like, if it’s an easy, unstoppable thing, like, maybe I have to call someone or maybe I have to do a little research, but even then, like, if it’s more than 1520 minutes, then I start having anxiety that I’m going down a rabbit hole and wasting time. Yeah, and then ultimately, I’m unproductive.
Okay. So, Kelly and I have identified four categories that affect productivity in general. And we have tools, we’re going to give away the good stuff. We have tools within the force category, four categories. The first one is focus and clarity. The second one is organization. Third one is time. management and fourth is your pace. I think those are four awesome categories. If I do say, so myself, I agree. Okay, so do you want to start us off Kelly with focus and clarity?
Kelly
Well, okay, I’ve learned a lot. And I’m going to use my visual aids again. One of the books that really helped me with this idea of getting focus and clarity is the book called Essentialism by Greg McKeown. And the value proposition of essentialism is to really give yourself permission to stop doing it all stop saying yes to everyone. So you can make your highest contribution to the things that really matter. And the idea is that, if you could be truly excellent at one thing, what would it be? And there’s main tips, he’s has a couple of main tips that I will always remember from this. The first one is “do less but better.” The second is “cut out the trivial.” The next one’s a really good one, “say yes to the only top 10% of opportunities.” And the other this next one is one you already do quite successfully “practice extreme and early preparation.”
And my favorite that which blows my mind? “Is if it isn’t a clear, yes, then it’s a clear No.” And that really provides clarity on what you should focus on.
Julia
Oh, my gosh, that one last one gets me.
Kelly
Yes. And I, Kelly Campbell, who works with agencies, is the one who recommended that I read this book, and she made that quote, so I’m quoting, her quote was, which was from this book, which I highly recommend. And I’m going to give you a couple other pointing pointers, because I have recently hired a coach about a month ago. And his name is Andrew Lawless. And there are so many coaches out there, they all seem to contact me because I must look like I need a coach. I’m not sure what but I’ve talked to a lot of them. And for whatever reason, his process is what attracted me the most and his process. He was trained by Brendon Burchard, who wrote the book, “High-performance Habits,” how extraordinary people became that way. And this idea of high-performance habits is really attractive to me. And so I wanted to share what I liked most about his training. First of all, in addition to the book, you’re going to absolutely love this. Julia, there is a high-performance planner. Oh, yes. And inside the planner…
Julia
Is that 8.5 by 11?
Kelly
It’s a little bit bigger. And I, I bought a whole year’s worth of these and they’re different colors. But what they have every day, it helps you to focus on, for example what are your top three goals or priorities of the day, okay, the tasks that absolutely must be done today. And the people I need to, to connect with today in order to make this happen. And so your focus really should be on only those things that are on this list. And so each week, you’re writing those top three priorities, and you’re doing nothing else, but those things that are on their on your list. And that means any calls that you take any meetings that you have, and every single thing that’s on your calendar must be related to what you’ve already written down in that book.
Now, the other thing that is in this book in this calendar is something called a high-performance habits assessment. And you can take the assessment and it grades you on a wide range six habits, six high-performance habits, which is clarity, your energy. And for me that in since the pandemic has been really low, I’ve had a hard time keeping my energy up. So that was an area and you really need to work on productivity, which is not my problem, or your problem, that influence – which is your ability to influence or connect with others. Necessity. Are you making a success a must and courage. And you and I don’t suffer from lack of courage either, right? No. So some of these we share and the concept is once you get your score, you know what areas you need to focus on. And that that correlates with your long-term success for potential and if you take the test regularly, you can see how you’re improving. And so you know which areas are your superpowers which areas are your strengths, which areas are your weaknesses, and your problem areas and you want to make sure that you’re moving anything from weakness or a problem area into a strength. And I really that really kind of helped give a framework for what I needed to work on. And how he sold me on this idea of coaching was he pitched this idea to me that said if you were to rate yourself on your own performance on a daily basis on a scale of one to 10. How would you rate yourself? Let me ask you that question, Julia, this week? would you rate yourself on your own personal performance this week on a scale of one to 10? Actually,
Julia
This week, I would give myself a nine. Fantastic, this has been a great week, not gonna lie last week, not so much.
Kelly
I will 100% agree with that statement. And if I would have taken the test on Wednesday, I would have given myself a four or three. But by taking it yesterday, today, I would give myself a nine or a 10. And so his point was, what if I could tell you that you could be at a nine or a 10, every single day? And I said, Oh, great. I’m in and that’s why I started to do his coaching sessions. So what give me some of your thoughts and ideas on the same?
Julia
Well, I love clarity and focus. Yeah, I love the three things like what three things should I focus on today? Right? I think that is a great, like, very simple thing you can do. Do you ever, okay, I do this, this definitely gets into my head, I will write down on my list for the day, all the things I need to do plus the things I would like to do. And the things that would be great to do, like the added bonus. And so then I ended up having a really long list. And then it becomes overwhelming and that deters my productivity, right? And then sometimes takes away from clarity and focus correct. It totally takes away from clarity and focus. So maybe the thing that I should do is maybe continue doing my list, but I have like, literally I am the queen of highlighters. You probably didn’t know this about me.
Kelly
I did. I did know that highlighters and books, every color highlighter.
Julia
I love a highlighter. So maybe I highlight these right here.
Kelly
I need yours, though.
Julia
I have I have some of those too. But like, so maybe I need to highlight in a special color. The three things that have to get done, Matt. Yeah. Yeah, I love that. Okay, so the only thing that I would add is for focusing clarity, sometimes taking time for yourself and forcing yourself to break is helpful for focus and clarity, right? Like, it helps you become clear on what matters most. Sometimes, it’s not that thing at work that’s driving you nuts, right? Sometimes it’s the thing that’s, well, now that we’re working from home all the time, you know, the kid that’s upstairs or whatever, right? Yeah, one of the things that I used to do when I was at my last job was, we would all go to Pilates at lunch. I love that. And we did it at least two times a week. And it was the, like the 45-minute class. And we all went. And it was so great. It was a mental break. Um, and I would find that I would come back to the office so much more refreshed. So of course, now I still work out every day, but I do it before work. And so I have to force myself to take a break to refocus and get clarity.
Kelly
And that’s true. And you also have to do it with your own body rhythms. Right, like if like, I’m not a morning person, so to ask me to get out of bed and work out in the morning, it’s just not going to happen. And so, so for me, I schedule 430 to 5 pm Don’t tell anybody. I that’s when I do my yoga because that’s a good time for me. And it’s a way to kind of wind down the day and deal with the stresses. But you also have to think about you know, most people don’t come up with great ideas from nine to five. We’ve talked about this in the past. You know, sometimes there are great ideas that happened later. So focus and clarity aren’t going to come during certain times of the day. However, they do say that first thing in the morning is obviously the most where you are the most focused and you want to avoid that dead zone of 3pm which is kind of the worst time of the day for clarity and focus and attention and productivity.
Julia
Yeah, so I would say to wrap this focus and clarity section up I would say that I do agree with eating the Frog here. If I were to practice what I just said and write down or highlight the three most the three things that have to get done that day. I could then pick out the one that’s the gnarliest hardest one that I just am avoiding and just knock it out between nine and 10. Now here’s another thing that I want to say, though, when you talk about eating the frog, and let’s just say, let’s just generically say everyone is so much more focused and fresh in the morning, right? How do I avoid doing meetings in the morning because then I, if I have a whole morning, have meetings, by the time lunch is there, I am done? So, I mean, we’ll get to this where we talk about time management, but I’m throwing that out there. Probably to eat the frog, you’re gonna have to intentionally block time.
Julia
Okay. Organization. So you and I probably get a plus, plus, plus in this category, because we love being organized. Maybe it’s because we’re moms maybe because we’re women, maybe it’s our personality type. But yeah, I think we’ve got this one down. So let’s give our best tips here for organization. So let me start this off. I used to use Monday. COMM So Kelly, do you still use monday.com?
Kelly
I’m giving it up
Julia
Oh, you are?
Kelly
Yeah, I’m giving it up. I just we stopped using it. Some of our clients wanted us to transition to Basecamp. And so we’ve kind of moved over to Basecamp. And it hasn’t helped. We have you and I’ve been using Trello. And sometimes I like it, sometimes I don’t like it. So that’s helpful one because you can visualize maybe we’re not using it right? Because I think you know when you’re able to visualize the tasks, each on their own and different section that really helps a lot. So I do like Trello. Conceptually,
Julia
I love Trello. And I will tell you that for 2022, I am going to move all of my To-Do lists for every single client into Trello.
Kelly
Because I said something,
Julia
and here is why. And I was talking to my mentor about this a couple of weeks ago, and about my list problem that I have too many things on my list, right? And but if I jot down a note that like maybe it’s something that’s good for 234 months from now, right or year-end, it gets lost, it gets lost. In my note, yes, gets lost. And then I’ve lost that great idea. So I started to talk to her about
Kelly
You can’t read your own handwriting, which is my problem. Yes.
Julia
Or you don’t like, you know, oh, I wrote this note, kind of maybe this day or this week, and you end up having to look through 100 pages of notes to find it. So I really we started talking about this, like, how do you use your paper and your digital to really become even more organized. So I have decided that I usually take the last two weeks of the year not only to be with my family but also to do lots of just like, non-distracted things for my business. And like two years ago, it was to harness my accounting and get on QuickBooks so that everything is automated. Last year, it was to get organized for the entire year for my social media. This year, it is put everything on Trello. And that way I can capture the short-term and the long-term things. And that way as I build my team, we can start assigning things to people and everyone knows who’s in charge of what and what the, you know, urgent, important things are and what are not love, though. I love I have now come to the dark side of the Kanban boards.
Kelly
Yeah, love the Kanban
Julia
So let’s go back to the listing. Do you think Kelly you could ever ditch a paper planner and go more digital?
Kelly
This has been the bane of my existence since moving from working from the office to home. So I have decided similar to you that I need to digitize my note-taking system in some way, shape, or form. So I found an app on the Mac, where that I could download on my desktop, that’s yellow, sticky notes. So I put the Oh, important things on the yellow sticky notes. So that I wrote and I have one of them right now of the things that I need to do by the end of the day today. And it’s on my desktop. So that’s one thing I did, but talk a little bit about the thing that you and I are obsessed about right now.
Julia
Yeah. Okay. So as I said, I was talking to my mentor about my lists and about how I need to like have a hybrid approach, right? The list that I actually write on my paper maybe needs to be more short-term things to do things that I can check off and make me feel good. But I kind of hate taking notes on the computer during meeting, I still like handwriting. So you know, some amazing marketer has been marketing to me about the remarkable tablet. And I have like, I have gone down the rabbit hole of research on the remarkable. I really would love to be able to take hand notes that then can be searchable. So I could search for a keyword, or I could search for a date or a client name. And they all and ideally, I could download them and put them in my Trello boards as meeting notes so that everyone could see them right. So I don’t know it might make my Christmas list.
Kelly
So I when I saw your notes on this, I was like oh my god, that same marketers targeting me everywhere. So we must be the top two people on their marketing list, frankly. And in fact, we should get them free actually. Right now on the on the podcast. So we’ll let you know where to contact us. Remarkable. But I did officially put it on my Christmas list last night I sent it to my husband and said this is what I want. But when you’re used to using paper for so many years, it’s hard to pull back from that. But I officially have too much going on my desk, and I just want one system. So I agree. I want to move to 100% digital on that as well.
Julia
I was giving a presentation recently and I started talking to people about their swipe file. Do you have a swipe file, Kelly?
Kelly
Oh my god, what is a swipe file, Julia?
Julia
Oh my gosh, okay, my swipe file or things that inspire me. Maybe ads that I love an email headline that makes me open.
Kelly
Why is it called swipe?
Julia
Well, I save them. And then when I have like a big like project or something where he needs inspiration, I go back to my swipe file. And I swipe it for use in something that I’m working on. So for example, I was working I have been working for the past two months on two major email campaigns for clients. So major drips, lots of segmentation, things like that. And I need they’re more salesy in nature, and I needed some inspiration like for good headlines, good subject lines, even in some cases, like good layouts, to have con contrast, you know, and so I went back to my swipe file and found so many awesome examples of things that I loved. And I was able to swipe so many good things now. I did not copy let’s make this clear, right? Your swipe file is Inspiration, it’s to create…
Kelly
All good ideas are recycled.
Julia
Yes, all great ideas are recycled.
Kelly
So I love that idea. I also use Pinterest for ideas. And I have lots going on and my Pinterest, you’ll see the waves of inspiration of what I’m working on based on Pinterest.
Julia
Yeah, that’s like the perfect swipe file. Right? Okay, let’s get to the last few sections. Yes, um, time management. There are so many tools in this one. Okay. Yes. So I’m going to do the top two that I love. I do really love the Eisenhower matrix. And I guess maybe I should share my screen just so that everyone can see.
Kelly Callahan
You’ve shared this with me before. I know. Yeah. I love this. I was gonna print this out and put it as a sticky on my computer.
Julia
Yeah. Okay. So it’s, uh, the columns are urgent and non-urgent. It’s getting to what you were talking at the beginning, Kelly. And then the rows are important and not important, right? So yeah, if you have something in the top quadrant, which is urgent and important, you really should do it. Versus if you have someone something that’s in the top right quadrant, which is not urgent, but important. You should make a plan to attack that to do item, right? And then if you get into the not important, which is the bottom two quadrants, if it’s not important, but urgent, then you might want to delegate that. And then if it is not urgent or not important, maybe you should eliminate it. Reorganize it and refresh it. Anyways, I think that is delegate it. Yeah. Or delegate it? Yeah, I think that is a just, it’s a really helpful tool to figure out what should be on that top three things that you have to do that day.
Kelly Callahan
That makes it easy, to combine those two things together.
Julia
Then my second one is, write down 20 things that you want to accomplish in a specific amount of time. And then focus on five. And you have to have a commitment that you will focus on not doing the other 15. Because I always will write a list of 20. I’ll pick my top five, and then somehow I’ll be stuck on number six and seven. And that gets in the way of productivity. So there you go. Those are my top two, what are your top tips?
Kelly
Well, I was gonna say to add on to that you can use SMART goals write specific, measurable, achievable, attainable, relevant and time-bound to make sure that you’re adding those inappropriately within your top three things. I think five is a lot I think start with three. And then let’s just get into time blocking a little bit here because that’s really essential. And I just talked about time blocking for my yoga. My team and I time block when we know we have to get something done. So we got to do XYZ, a marketing plan will block out an entire day. And I’ll do that three weeks ahead of time of things I need to do to make sure that nothing goes in. So I had built that time into my calendar, I hate the idea of like sending a calendly link and Having someone pick a date on my calendar and put something in there I drives me nuts. I know it’s a salesperson thing. But it’s I’m never going down that hole because I want to own my own time. The other thing that my coach suggested, which is a really easy thing to do is change your meetings from one hour to 50 minutes, or 45 minutes. And why is it there always one hour. And if you do that you spend that extra 10 to 15 minutes to absorb the information that you’ve already received in those 45 minutes to finish your notes to collect your thoughts to take a deep breath before you move on to the next task. So that’s one that I’m going to start to change the meetings on you know, it’s either usually 30 minutes or one hour, let’s do a 4550 Max and see how they go and give ourselves the time to breathe.
Julia
I love that I block Fridays. Oh, I do. too I probably I’m probably successful at 50% of the time, but actually keeping meetings off the calendar so that I can truly focus and be productive.
Kelly
The other thing you know, you talked about the top five, I talked about the top three. There’s a book out there that I’ve read called The One Thing. There was a book. Yes, Gary Keller the surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results. And the book is all about at any given point in time, there’s only one thing that you should focus on doing that will propel you to the success that you want. And what is that one thing that’s going to move you closest to your goal. So that’s taking your five down to my three down to one thing. And I think to a certain extent, it’s going to be hard enough for you to get down to the three which I encourage you to move from five to three. Yeah, granted, both of us room to move to three down to one.
Julia
Last question before we move on to the last category, which is done did on inbox zero, which is kind of like patient zero, I guess. Like I think when we talk about distractions as obstacles to productivity, I think the email inbox is definitely the worst, the worst. I mean, probably more so than not definitely a distraction. And I am definitely always guilty of doing this is trying to get down to Inbox Zero. I just want to have no one emailing and asking for anything. Right, which is so unreasonable. It’s never going to happen ever. Yes. Um, so what how do you think about it? What do you think about inbox zero? And do you practice it?
Kelly
I used to and I stopped. I stopped, and I really stopped this year. And, you know, I read Tim Ferriss’s book, The Four Hour Workweek, which is worth a read, do you understand the concept but not possible? Sorry, Tim. It’s just not possible. Great idea. Sounds great. Never gonna work. Anyway, his idea is that you only read emails at 12pm and 4pm. Which I like the idea of looking at emails twice a day. But 12pm There’s no way in a client service business, you can’t look at things first thing in the morning. So no, I like his idea. It’s gonna be hard for me to get down to twice a day. But I’ve definitely tried to do it narrowed it down to three times today, once first thing, once midday, and then towards the middle of the afternoon. And I, I flagged my client email, so I’ll be able to see those. And I’ll scan things first thing in the morning, but I do not respond to things that are not on my priority list anymore. And so that has changed things significantly. Because you think about you’re getting so many emails from salespeople, and this and that, and not all of its 99.9% of it is not important, like urgent, not important. And so I don’t I leave it and then maybe on Fridays, I’ll clean it up and get them out. A lot of times, honestly, I’ll do it on a weekend. The other thing that I did with my team last year when we moved to the pandemic, is we added slack. And I know slack is kind of the bane of your existence. You love Trello, but not slack, I’m not sure why I am a huge fan of slack. And here’s why the majority of your email clog up tends to be your own employees right? And yourself by sending people emails about tasks that you’re trying to do. So we had a system where don’t send each other emails anymore unless it’s seeing an email to a client, anything goes on Slack that has to do with internal correspondence. And so we have folders within slack about different clients about new business, about social media about inspiration about continuing education, resources, you name it, it’s in Slack, I also turned off the notifications on my email, and on Slack. And I will look at them and I’ll see them. But I only deal with the ones that are important, but they’re not dinging all day, because part of that dinging is also stopping you from having your focus. So that helps me a lot. So I’m not getting as much email because the team is doing using slack. And we can communicate that way in real-time. And people can remain focus on what they need to do.
Julia
Okay, I’m gonna marinate on that one. Yeah, please. Okay, last one is your pace. Yes. So this is, you know, probably maybe the least important, but you know, like, pace should be different for different tasks should be different for client work versus agency internal work. There’s obviously I think, in our industry, we live on deadlines. You know, there’s always a hard deadline for something. I actually posted something on LinkedIn recently about bursting or plotting. And people really responded to this one. And it’s, it’s really a pace thing. Right? So are you a burst star? So you have your top three things that you need to do for that day? Do you focus on those for short periods of time? And try to get as far down on the road on those things as possible? Or do you plod? Do you break up something into little pieces and you know, pull it elongate it so that you’re doing little pieces at a time and not necessarily deadline? It more long-term deadline-driven? So that’s, I think that’s kind of my top tip, like figuring out if you’re a burster or a plotter, or if you’re both. And when is each appropriate?
Kelly
I love that I think that’s really helpful to think of things in that way. Because you do have to have both. And I believe that that’s one of the biggest improvement areas for me because I am a burster. and I’m a burster at 110%. I’m a zero to 60 person, I do it, and I do it, do it, do it, do it, do it. And then I’m dead. And I’m watching Netflix and unable to move. So I have to, I have to figure out a way to I can’t You can’t burst all the time. And I think I’m so used to operating at that level that I’m going to have to balance and adding in more plodding, because I can’t maintain my current level. And I think a lot of that is going to have to be included in some of the time blocking that we talked about and taking more breaks and shortening. The time periods of when the meetings are adding that extra 10 or 15 minutes to meditate to you know, to absorb, to stretch, you know, whatever. Take the dog for a walk, Edgar needs a walk loves a walk, I’m going to do that right now. And so I think that combination of both is really important. And you know, ultimate happiness is really your family, right? And you need to leave some energy at the end of the day to have family time. And while high-performance work is really important to me. I also need to leave enough gas in the tank for my family. And I haven’t been very good about that. So I to work at it.
Julia
I’ve have been terrible at it. I’m just way too focused on accomplishments and achievements. I can’t believe I’m actually admitting this. But you’re absolutely right. There has to be, especially as our kids get older, I was telling someone this and you probably can tell me if this is right, Kelly, I feel like as my kids get older, their needs become so much more complex. They’re not as exhausting as when they were little. Because when they’re little like you have to keep on them. And they’re constant, you know, but then when they’re older, they’re the problems and the issues and the things to talk about and work through or learn are just so much more complex, and it takes just a different type of stamina, right? So if I’m bursting all day at work, I am. I’m done-zos at the end of the day, I don’t have any more bursts in me, you know, and that’s not fair to my family.
Kelly
It’s another something we both will work on.
Julia
It’s key to productivity holistically. Well, I think those were as much as we could pour into an episode that we could. So thanks for a good one Kelly.
