It’s about time we had Anna, our time management guru, on again. Anna is a wealth of time management knowledge and we love hearing her tips and tricks to take control of our time. In this episode Anna walks us through her newest role and how she is adjusting to the continuous changes of life. We talk about how useful it can be to know your own personality when planning your time and that time management cannot be a one size fits all approach. We talk about how to build good habits and Anna even shares which time management tip is the most impactful with her coaching clients. You can find Anna on her podcast, It’s About Time, as well as on instagram @annadkornick.

The following is a rough transcript provided by Otter.ai.

0:01
Over mood motivated from my second cup of coffee and be like, I’m sorry, I probably just woke you up again by apologizing. Oh my gosh. Okay, I’m logging off. Oh my god, I’m so excited. What is it?

0:13
It’s called the shiny things list.

0:18
I’m like you don’t think I’m loving Hi, y’all welcome to hustle humbly. It’s Alyssa and Katie and we are two top producing realtors in the Baton Rouge market.

0:31
We work for two different companies where we should be competitors. But we have chosen community over competition. The goal of our podcasts is to encourage you to find your own way in business to stop comparing yourself and start embracing your strengths. Hey, y’all, it’s that time again, Agent systems is back available on March 8. For a limited time. Putting good systems in place is going to help build competence if you’re new and systems will get your time back. If you’re overworked. If you aren’t sure what to do first to put your business on the right path, then this is the course for you. And y’all know I love a code review. So here’s one from Leanne. So let me just say I am so pumped. I just did the intro and lesson one and cannot believe the amount and quality of the resources that Katie is reviewing and putting at our fingertips. And this is coming from someone who’s been around and in real estate practically her whole life. Wow, the doors are opening you guys on March 8, and I won’t be offering agent systems again until August. So if this is the summer you want to be your best head on over to agent systems one Oh one.com to learn more. I can’t wait to see you there. Hi. Hey, Katie. How’s it going? Alyssa going great. Okay, it’s episode number 134. I haven’t named it yet. I’m gonna see how

1:46
it goes. We know we did come up with the name.

1:48
What did you call it? Oh, you

1:49
did? You did time and time again. Because today we have Anna Dearman coordinate with us. Correct? Oh, yes. About time again. You should have kept up her bio.

2:01
We just read it. I know. That was a failure. No, I haven’t. Right. Perfect. Hello, please. While Elissa gets the bio for an undetermined chord short, medium

2:11
or long. Which one so she she is so organized. She sent me to a website that has a short, a medium and a long bio. You want 50? Or how about short or medium you

2:21
pick? Give me Give me medium? Okay. 92 words.

2:24
This is great. Okay. Thank you. Anna Deerman Corman kornek is a Time Management Coach, wife and mom who helps busy professionals and business owners master time management so they can stop feeling overwhelmed, and start spending time on what matters most as the host of it’s about time, a podcast about work life and balance. Anna shares time management tips, productivity strategies and real life advice to help her listeners make the most of their time. In addition to teach teaching actionable takeaways, Anna interviews other go getters to find out how they navigate family, friends, fulfilling careers and full schedules.

3:05
Oh my god, all the s the alliteration was.

3:08
Thank you good. Oh, good. Thank you very

3:10
much. You want to add anything to that? Anna?

3:12
I think that just about covers it. Thank you once in 92 Words

3:16
92 Words or Less? Yes. It was with us once before on episode 22 Way back in the in the infancy of both of our podcast I really want and now we’re like old hats. So old hat Well,

3:30
life has changed so much since episode 22. No doubt and time has changed and everything just with like the pandemic and there was nothing on your schedule. And now we’re getting things added back to our schedule and people are having trouble adjusting.

3:47
I am yeah, you are. You might want to Anna to die and you’re having

3:50
trouble adjusting podcast therapy. Therapy on

3:54
time. Okay, so before we get into that, will you just give us a little background on what you do currently. Sure. And I don’t know whatever you want to tell us about your current situation

4:07
the current so it is really crazy. I love time and time again. That’s a perfect fit and life really has changed so much since the first time we met up I don’t think I had published my first episode of the podcast yet. Oh my god. I think I we were still record. I was still in the early recording phases. It’s so funny. I seriously think I wore a blazer to come to your house to record

4:28
I just remember you had really cute jeans and boots on. Thank you. And I bought them I bought the jeans after Oh,

4:34
I love that. Blazer.

4:36
I cannot remember the last time I wore like a blazer to something Well, well, you were very efficient because of how life has just changed. And today

4:47
you write that professional and like nothing serious anymore. Yeah, everyone’s

4:51
gradual. Everything is so much more casual now so that to me like that’s one big change that’s happened things are much more casual. I own way more pairs. Have joggers than I did. When we came last time. I only had one child last time. Yeah.

5:06
You also had a giant notebook last time I did.

5:09
I had a talking point. And now we’re just like, let’s chat it up. I yeah, I literally just walked into your house. Friday, like you just were like,

5:17
ding ding walked, right? I was like, Oh, she’s

5:19
here. Yeah, it is like a lot has changed. So something else that has changed. So I am still a Time Management Coach, I am still host, it’s about time, all those things have changed. I’m still a wife and mom, although now I’m a mom to two girls, instead of just one, which is definitely an adventure having a three year old and an almost one year old. Gosh, I can’t imagine. I mean, you kind of can.

5:44
Difference. It’s a big difference having a five year old helper crew, because I

5:49
have a five year old. I have a three year old who says no to everything. So in addition to those changes, I’d say the biggest change is that back in September of 2021, and I stepped into a new role as head of community for an amazing company called clockwise. Clockwise is a time orchestration tool. And the company is on a mission to help the world make time for what matters by helping you to find more focus time in your day. So clockwise, learns your schedule, learns your preferences, learns the preferences and schedules of your team members, and rearranges meetings that can be flexible so that you can create longer blocks of time to focus in your day. So as a result of moving about 4 million meetings clockwise has created 2 million hours of focus time for its customers. Like this is like right up your alley. Oh, it’s amazing, right?

6:45
It’s like if a company was created to follow your mission, this was the one

6:50
I just did they find you or you find them. It

6:53
you know, it’s really funny. A lot of times whenever you know, I have this website contact form, you know, where someone can Oh, my contact page, or somebody can send me a message. Most of the time, it’s spam. Not saying most of the time, it’s spam. When people want to email me, they typically just emailed me right. And there was a message in my inbox from my website contact form from a guy named Fran, who wants to talk to me about coming to work for a company named clockwise. And I’m like, this is spam. Thank you. This is gotta be fake. And so I did some googling. And I was like, You know what, I’m not gonna wait any longer. Let’s just find this out. I wrote back to him within five minutes and said, Alright, let’s talk this afternoon. And so we set up a call that very day. Wow, I’m still not exactly sure how they found me, I will tell you that I did have some thoughts about time management and work life balance published in a Washington Post article earlier that week. So I do wonder if that was the link, that might have been the link because as a result of that Washington Post article, I did start to get more speaking invitations and more podcasts interviews, and it just was a really amazing opportunity. And so after, over the course of about a month and a half talking with free and the conversation went from providing thought leadership content on a contract basis to joining the team full time. And so now in my role as head of community, I am leading the company’s social media strategy. I’m developing our community strategy. I am the face of our YouTube channel. I also host a live office hours time management, workshop. Communication, so many questions at all. I know. It’s a lot. Yeah. So anyway, I do those things. Are they flexible with your hours? So I am, the company keeps up Pacific Time. Pacific time schedule. Okay, Pacific working hours is the best way to put it. And so one of the ways that I really organize my time and streamline the way that I think about everything is that from nine until 11 that is focused ADK coaching and podcasting time, okay, and then starting at 11 is when I switch over into clockwise mode because it’s nine o’clock Pacific. And so that’s when my clockwise day begins.

9:23
When does your clockwise day ends? Since they’re in Pacific, are you?

9:27
Sure so my clockwise day ins at? Let’s see, I think so that would be at about seven. And so typically, one of the great things about clockwise the product is that it enables you to set meeting preferences, the hours within your workday that you are willing to do meetings, right. And so my meeting preferences are set so that I typically don’t have any meetings after 530 or six. I actually have one today our time okay, I actually have a meeting today from 530 to six, but it’s actually a pretty rare occasion right? And then in that time from I’m 537 Maybe I’ll be wrapping something up, maybe. But typically, I’m just sort of on call when I’ve got my slack out, I’m responding to messages, but I’m not engaged in deep work during that time. So that’s how I do both. Very interesting.

10:18
It is very interesting. As a mom now have two children. And now basically two roles that are at least they coincide in, in the topic and the subject matters. Yeah, like left field and right field Exactly. All in the several hours. Right. Okay. But how? Where are your challenges, I guess? Because we are all always trying to figure out multiple roles as realtors and moms or, you know, maybe you have a side hustle, or maybe some realtors. And they come on part time to start with, like, what, how do you navigate that?

10:56
Yeah, so I’d say that the first critical piece of the puzzle is having an ideal week in place. So an ideal week is essentially a framework or a template for how you want to spend your time in the week ahead. My ideal week maps out when I will specifically work on clockwise when I will specifically work on ADK. And not only that, I also at the beginning of each week, as a result of doing a weekly planning session, I identify how I am going to time block the different clockwise and coaching responsibilities within those two sections of my day. So

11:34
doing your ideal week is pretty pivotal every week. But you can’t you can’t skip that step.

11:40
It’s really the the weekly planning session and the ideal week in a way is your Yeah, I know week is kind of it’s not a one and done because you really have to go back and reevaluate it every time you have a major change in your life. So for example, every time bit sees Betsy is my youngest, every time her feeding schedule changed, my ideal week would change because her feeding schedule impacted how I spent my time during the day. So there were a lot of changes leading up to her being about six to nine months old. But now I’ve got an idea week in place that doesn’t change the core of it doesn’t change that much from week to week. But it’s what goes within those time blocks. And that’s what that weekly planning session time is for. I actually I have podcast episodes about an ideal week and a weekly planning session.

12:27
So I’ve listened to the weekly planning session. It’s really good. I can’t remember offhand what

12:31
the episode numbers are. But I’ll share those to you.

12:34
Perfect. Well, and so many of your episodes are helpful and really hone in on a specific thing. Like I think one of my favorites is about to do lists. But like really getting in there on the nitty gritty of one specific

12:47
topic is so helpful. So helpful.

12:50
Okay, so Alyssa is very interested in how to go from your pre pandemic life to your lockdown life or your schedule clears out and to now, your post ish pandemic. Yeah, or your schedule starts to fill back up, but you’re struggling with what to add back? Yeah, yeah. Do you have any advice?

13:12
So the first piece of advice, or the first thing that we’ve got to remember is that everything is temporary. Okay, okay. So I think that’s one of the one of the biggest things that has been sort of, in our face the biggest reminder throughout this whole pandemic, pandemic, and that’s what it is, yeah, pandemic is that in the beginning, we had our schedules, we had our pre pandemic, then the world was turned upside down. And then things changed. And then things changed. And then things changed again, and it’s just been this constant series of navigating all these different changes. So the sooner that you can reckon with the fact that, hey, things are probably going to change again in about two weeks, from some unknown, whatever. So let me hold on loosely to my plans to my tendency to be rigid about structure, because I feel that I, especially pre pandemic, I’ve got my schedule, how dare you it asked me to move my time block. But now, especially having two kids, we can get a call from daycare at any moment. Yeah, we can find out any moment that daycare is going to be closed for the next two weeks. And so the sooner that, you know, it’s like it’s very except, except exactly, except that everything is temporary. It makes dealing with the changes just a little bit easier.

14:45
It’s funny that you say that because we are having to make a decision right now on where Haven will go to kindergarten and I thought I was a flexible person that was good with change and handled it gracefully and I have not handled this gracefully. We’ve had some some things that different different schools and things change based on where we thought we were gonna go and whatnot. Some of it pandemic related. Yeah. Anyway, it has just been like, so crazy and hard for me to make a decision. Yeah. And Tanner, my husband said, You’re acting like whatever we choose is on its permanent. Termina. He was like, wherever she goes, if you are unhappy, we can change it at any time. And I was like, Oh, yep. Yeah, it was so freeing to have that mindset, right. I felt like I was making the biggest decision of

15:37
the rest of her life, or she’s gonna go to college. Um, yeah, have you? Have you ever taken Strengths Finder or Clifton Strengths?

15:45
No. Okay,

15:45
I would highly recommend doing it. What is this Clifton Strengths, it used to be called Strengths Finder, they changed the name of it not too long ago. What it does is, it’s an assessment that gives you your top, the like, cheaper, or the free version, I think gives you your top five strengths, you can actually buy the full report, and it will give you your 34. There there. So there are 34 different strings, okay. And it will give you these ranked one through 34. Typically, people really hone in on their top five, because when you know what your top five strengths are, it enables you to zero in on the type of work the type of roles the type of collaboration, like what you bring to a team how you achieve and succeed. And it’s it’s just fantastic. Highly recommended, but on the bottom and knowing what that 34 is knowing what stirring just less, but when you’re aware about your of your weaker strengths, okay, gives you an opportunity to not try and turn those industries, because that’s a waste of time, right? But how to be aware and see how you can grow. Right? I my number 34 strength is adaptability. Oh,

17:06
okay. My funny because we think we’re okay at it, because we do it all the time. But it could be done a lot smoother, could

17:12
be done a lot smoother, and the internal friction that I feel when certain types of change happen when I feel like I don’t have the control. But because I know that my number 34 is adaptability, it helps me be mindful and remind myself, look, this is going to be hard for you. So what can you do to prepare yourself being prepared is huge. As a Time Management Coach, one of the things that I do with my clients is create product, personality based productivity solutions for them, we work together to figure out based on their personality, what’s going to work best. And that’s where things like Myers Briggs, and that’s where things like Strengths Finder comes in, because what works for me is not necessarily going to be copied and pasted over to you or to you. And so knowing yourself is just one of the most important things,

18:09
even when you talk. So we have a leadership class at our local board. And Anna came and taught the leadership class and did the Myers Briggs Personality Test. But you said something in that class about something being personal. Was it Time management is personal, or? I don’t I can’t remember. But I think it was like, you know, everyone wants the answer to time management. Right.

18:32
But it’s not a one size fits all. Yeah, it’s

18:34
not one size fits

18:35
all. And I thought that was good. People forget that. Yeah, definitely.

18:39
I mean, we want to know what the most successful people do in the morning. But just because that works for them doesn’t mean it’s gonna Katie’s not a morning person. Yeah. And it’s not either.

18:48
I mean, my kids make maybe a morning person. But before kids and I can only imagine in you know, 10 years when I don’t have to get someone up and go to school that might shift. I am much more productive at 5pm than I am at 5am. Yeah, for sure. And everyone’s like, what’s tell me about the Miracle Morning. I don’t care about your miracle morning. Because that it’s hard for me to get out of bed. Like it’s a miracle to get out of bed. Yeah, in the best decade. But also, we don’t typically celebrate our strengths. We more often kind of feel down on our weaknesses. Yeah, exactly. What are you focused on? Well, guess what? I’m great. If at the end, let’s do some do a

19:27
really funny, you were talking about 30 more strength. So on this retreat, I just went on they, we did this exercise where they gave us an affirmation sheet. And we’re supposed to think of somebody else like we’re affirming. I’m affirming Katie. Okay, so this sheet has about 50 Really amazing adjectives on it. So you take a highlighter and you highlight all the things that make you think of Katie and then on the right, you pick the top five, okay, so someone did it for me, but all I could see was the things that they didn’t highlight. I’m like, you don’t think I’m like Maybe like they highlighted about everything on there, but the only thing I saw was, but why didn’t you highlight this one? I felt like I’m this way, but you don’t think. But that was where I went. We do the same thing with the strengths and weaknesses. You look at number 34. And you’re like,

20:21
oh, how can I fix this? Yeah, we just talked about, Oh, I’m so good at number one, right? How can I do more of that

20:28
instead of being flattered? I was like, really hard on myself about not being a certain way.

20:35
I mean, that’s an Enneagram. Three, you’re right. I am we can’t be all the way. No, right. And I don’t want to be all the way right. Maybe they’re No, no, not at all. Okay, actually, I

20:46
do, but you need

20:48
to be free and you talking. Okay, let’s, let’s get into some logistical stuff. Okay. What about let’s talk about routines? Because yeah, it was we’re obviously all shook up by this pandemic life. Yeah. Now we’re getting back into as towards the beginning of the year. Now, this is gonna air. We’re still in the first quarter.

21:07
I’m calling it fresh start February.

21:09
I love that. Because everyone already gave up on the 100 over motivated things they did. That’s our new favorite term, motivated, motivated.

21:17
Have you heard of it? No.

21:19
We heard it. Where did we hear that? Think we read it in an article? Yes, yes. Yes, it’s a it’s a term that people get, maybe they’ve had a lot of coffee, or they’re having a really good day or beginning of the year, it’s the beginning of the year, like something is triggering over motivation got in the moment of over motivation. They fill their schedule, the list gets longer. I’m going to work out every day. And I’m going to make this many give

21:43
up sugar, get up and

21:45
write letters every day. And then when the motivation wears off, they never implemented routines or habits or made actual changes, and then they quote unquote, fail. Right. And then they don’t trust themselves to make give us Yes, again. Right. So they just are in this slump. Yeah, yeah. Over motivated.

22:08
Hey, Alisa, Hey, Katie, what do we mention almost every episode, email template, you’re right, we sure do. And after every time, we mentioned an email template, do you know what we get

22:20
emails asking if they can have copies of the email template,

22:23
send me a copy of that template? I never heard would like that. That sounds great. And you know what the good news is, you can get all of our email templates from our course, email templates, one on one, tell the people about it,

22:35
our course has all of the email templates you would need to send to your buyers and your sellers and your clients that are buying and selling at the same time. Exactly. To get through every step of the transaction and giving them information that they need for where they are in the transaction. It’s great, because you never forget to tell them something. Yes. And we’ve already done all the work for you. Yeah, we wrote them. And you can personalize them. Yes. And just feel organized, knowing that you have all the information where it needs to be.

23:04
And if you purchase email templates, 101, you do get lifetime access. So occasionally, we like to go in and make updates based on the market or if we find a new best practice. So we put that right into the template and you get that updated straightaway.

23:17
It just goes straight to your core. Yes.

23:21
It’s already there. It’s just already in there. You don’t have to worry about it. Email will say updated. That’s great. Where can they find these email templates? You can find the email templates at email templates with an S one Oh, one.com email templates. One Oh, one.com. Yes. Head over for reviews and all of the specifics. Wonderful. Okay, enjoy. So in reference to routines, how do you feel like we can implement good routines? What are some tips for not getting over motivated and then not doing the thing? Like?

23:54
Yeah, your thoughts? Okay, so I love that I do think that we kind of have to separate over motivation and routines for just a second because routines do tie into tackling over motivation. But I really believe that routines are the foundation of your day, regardless of if you’re over motivated or under motivated care. And that it really starts by implementing by having what I call the five essential routines. And those routines are a morning routine, which helps you you know, kick off your day, whether you do a miracle morning or you just roll out of bed write an evening routine, which helps you wind down for a restful night’s sleep. Adults really need between seven and nine hours of sleep in order to be at their best, both physically and mentally.

24:43
On the news this morning, they said if you add an hour and a half of sleep each night, you will lose 10 pounds in a year without changing anything else.

24:55
I would completely believe that amazing. There have been there have been studies studies done on high performing, like athletes, where they increased the amount of sleep that they were getting and then measured how they were performing. And it there was definitely a huge correlation like sleep is huge. Yeah, sleep is huge. So the next is your workday startup routine, which helps you rev up and get into the mindset of working for the day.

25:27
Oh, I like that. Yeah, I think people think that’s just part of their morning routine. But morning is like getting the kids out the house. Exactly. Just dressed and showered. And whatever you do, yeah.

25:38
So workday start up. Other end of the day is workday shut down. This one? Yes. This one is key. I’d say this is probably my second favorite routine. If I could have a second favorite. I like that second. So the workday shutdown routine is what gives you that mental mindset shift from work brain to not work brain that helps you set a clear boundary between primary working hours, and let’s be real, if you’re a realtor, you’re you still have things that pop up in the evening. But during your workday shut down, you make the decision, and in there, what you’re willing to work on in the evenings. Yeah. And then the fifth one is the most important, which is your weekly planning session. And so most important, before you start thinking about all of the things that you’re over motivated to do, having these five routines in place really serve as just the foundation of the rest of your life. Well, and it’s a daily foundation.

26:37
Yeah, like, these are things you’re going to repeat every single day that the shutdown routine literally blows my mind, because I sort of had come to it myself, not knowing what it was. And you you affirmed me and like shutting your laptop and walking out of the room. That is my office at home is actually my shutdown routine.

26:55
Yeah, something about the noise of closing the laptop, I feel the same way

26:59
is done. Thanks time. I

27:01
mean, sometimes I treat my laptop like it is because that’s all I have. I don’t have a desktop, but I sometimes act like it’s a desktop like, oh, it’s in the office. Yeah, okay, come out. There. Yes, that is where the work happens is where the life happens. And we got to try and make it

27:16
100%, the lines are blurry. But you’ve got to figure out how to try and make it separate. You know, our brains are built to try and protect us from danger, okay, like at the core of it, our brains still think that we’re like, I don’t know, living right in prehistoric times or something. But any time that we have something unfinished, open tabs, someone that we’re waiting to hear back from a project that’s not complete, yet, our brains continue to cycle through this in our minds, which means that we’re not restful, and we’re not present when we’re supposed to be with our families or in our downtime, and that shutdown routine closes the loops, it doesn’t mean that you’re finishing every single project, it just means that you are having a point where you’re saying, I am finished for today,

28:05
right? Yeah. I think I’ve shared before that, before I walk into daycare, I make sure everything is addressed. That doesn’t mean finished. But that may mean like so whenever I’m in the parking lot, I pull up at her school. And I just check because it’s early. It’s you know, 334 o’clock. Yeah. So people are still working. And but my kids go to bed at seven. So I have this small window. Yeah, with them that I need to make sure is not interrupted, right. So I go through my email and see if anything came through. And I reply with great, I’m going to do this first thing tomorrow morning, about however many times I need to say that if it’s anything time sensitive, maybe it requires a little bit more of this or that. But I will sit in my car, sometimes. Five minutes, sometimes 10 minutes. I the longest I’ve ever had to sit there was 45 minutes. But I won’t go in until I have at least told everybody what to expect. Yeah, right. And then it’s just so freeing to know that is, well I put that off until tomorrow and that’s okay. It’s okay. But people think they have to handle it. Right then like nothing can be put off, you know, all right,

29:20
just because someone else said it was urgent doesn’t actually mean it’s urgent for you correct as long as you tell them what to expect.

29:28
And I really appreciate that example that you are setting for others who are listening. And they have this assumption that they have to handle things as soon as they come in, and they have that feeling that they can never be off and that they’re constantly pulled in all these different directions. But it really is a decision that you make if you can do it. They can do it for sure. Yeah,

29:50
well, the thing that a lot so I just got back from a realtor conference and there were agents there that I’m friends with across from the States. So we don’t see each other often, but they’re like, how are you here? When you have two kids and like you have your business and you’re doing your transactions and and then I tell them, you know, I have boundaries. And this is if I don’t have boundaries, I’ll burn out. Yeah. So to stay well at work, I have to be well at home and, and they’re just like, I could never do that. But why, but what but it is a mindset thing. And it was really kind of fun, because there was one girl in particular that I had a lengthy conversation with talking through it. And it was fun asking that question like, okay, so what if you did tell them that you would do that first thing tomorrow morning? Or then she kind of was like, like, she had never even thought that thought had never occurred? To tell a client to wait. Yeah. And they don’t care. They don’t mind waiting. But they do want to know what to expect. Yeah. And then if you do that, and to see the light bulb come on, was really exciting. You know about and then I was like, Okay, now go listen to these podcasts episodes. As your list, yeah, go, I went in copy and pasted of our list of episodes by category on boundaries. And I was like, Here you go.

31:11
Go. Yes, yeah, go for us go forth and do. All right. I have a question. Sure. In your coaching, yes. Do you find that there is kind of across the board? I know time management is person specific. But is there some time management practice that seems to make the most impact repeatedly?

31:28
Oh, my gosh, there is yes. Oh, my God, I’m so excited.

31:32
What is it?

31:32
It’s called the shiny things list. Shiny, shiny

31:37
things. I have my notes shiny.

31:39
I have another show YouTube. It’s like right here.

31:43
I am not sure. Did we talk about the shiny things list and the last episode.

31:48
But have you seen this? Yes, this is it’s so good. You want to take one home? All right, tell us

31:55
okay, so Katie knows all about the shiny things list. And one thing that I have found is a common thread across all of my time management coaching clients, no matter the industry, whether they have kids don’t have kids, it’s distractions. It is distractions, we are hit with a distraction somewhere around every 43 seconds, especially when you’re sitting at a computer or an ad, or they have your phone nearby. So that means that a vibration a ding a ping a buzz, something is is there to distract us. And so first of all, we’re constantly being hit by all of these external distractions in the past year and a half to what two years, how far are we into this now of the pandemic, more of us are working from home than ever before, which means that our environments are giving us more distractions than ever before a kitchen sink with dishes is a distraction, your spouse who is also working from home, a distraction, your kid whose virtual schooling, super distract, super distraction level, I don’t know how you’ll do it. And then on top of all of those distractions, there’s the shiny things that bounce around in our heads. And so let’s say that you have turned off all of your notifications, you have put your phone on airplane mode, and you’ve set expectations with your family, and you’ve cleaned up your environment, and you’re ready to actually sit down and focus and get work done. But then you remember that you’re out of toilet paper.

33:25
Okay, right? Up on Amazon real quick.

33:28
Exactly. Let me just hop on Amazon. And so you go to Amazon, and you remember that your mom’s birthday is coming up. So you search for something for her real quick. And then you remember something else, and you remember something else. And then you remember that you need to update the second paragraph of that report that you’re working on. And the next thing you know, an hour and a half has gone by that you had set aside for important work right? And you’ve gotten almost nothing done, right? Wow. Even though you’ve shut out all of the other distractions. So

34:00
what should you do when you remember the toilet paper?

34:02
When you remember the toilet paper, when you remember it’s your mom’s birthday, have a notepad next to you on your desk, you sit down have a notepad on next to you on your desk. And at the top of this notepad or a blank sheet of paper or notebook, whatever, it doesn’t matter. What we’re going to do is we’re going to decide how long are we going to work during this time block? What is this time block? What’s the start time and what’s the end time Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to fill the time allotted. And so what we’re doing is we’re creating a boundary we’re deciding what that end time is, once you write literally one o’clock to 230 on your paper below that you write off a list of 123 no more than three things that you are going to do in order during that time block that you’ve just created. So let’s say the first is all of my March social media posts. The second thing is that you’re going to write a blog post in the third day means that you’re going to, I don’t know, plan a party, whatever, right? Three things. Because you’re prioritizing, you’re being very clear and specific about how you’re going to use that time. Then below that draw a line. line in the sand. That’s the boundary below that right the word shiny they

35:16
show this again to the YouTube.

35:19
Actual, can you see it? I hope you can. Yeah, they look so good. She put instructions, there’s instructions

35:25
on the back

35:26
of a buy this. They are

35:29
not right now a shop. Shop. It’s an it’s an, it’s an exclusive gift for

35:36
Okay. When you open, let us know, yes, I will. We need the shiny pillar.

35:42
But she’s telling you how to do it. I know. It is delightfully beautiful it is you can do it with a piece of piece of

35:47
paper and a piece paper out. There’s your template, exactly.

35:50
We drew the line, I drew the line, you’ve written shiny things, because we’re going to call them what they are. And whenever something pops into your head, you write it on the shiny things list and you get back to work. You need toilet paper, write it down, get back to work, you’ve got something else that pops into your head, I need a reservation for whatever, write it down and get back to work. And then at the end of that time block, that’s when you go back to your shiny things list. And you look at the list. And this is where you have the opportunity to decide, okay, what do I need to do right now? What can I defer or schedule for later? What can I delegate to someone else? And what if this really isn’t that important? And I can just delete it altogether? All these?

36:29
Did you catch them? Do it, delegate it, delete those other ones, defer defer.

36:34
I love alliteration. I do too. Me

36:37
too. Me too. So

36:38
I find that that has been the most universally successful strategy for everyone that I’ve worked with, was so great about that. A lot of us all of us, like to overcomplicate things. And it is really the it’s a that is a very simple practice, pick and manage time, do your top three the things you’re supposed to be doing in that time, and then draw a line and write shiny things. It’s very simple. It’s very easy to implement. It doesn’t require you to buy a new planner, or go get some kind of, you know, fancy tool or device or app, you just get a piece of paper don’t need an app really easy. And I think we all want to believe that it’s hard. And that’s why we’re not doing it. But it’s not hard.

37:20
It’s not hard. It’s free. You just need a paper, you can use the back of a grocery bag.

37:25
I love it. I love it. Okay, so everyone should try that today. What else what you got on my conference? Because you’re female actually, right? It’s actually writing notes while I’m

37:35
on Yeah, I’m taking. Are you over motivated from your conference? Over my

37:39
motivated for my second cup of coffee? I love it. But yes, so one thing that I thought was interesting, when you were talking about routine, is that how you said it’s not based off of motivation? Yeah, the routine is just something you don’t think about it. You just do it. It just is something that you have implemented? Yes, yes. So it doesn’t matter your energy level. He talked about that sort of. And he said, for example, for him, I thought this was a good tip. He was trying to figure out why no matter how many times he told himself, he would do push ups in the morning, he never did the push ups. There was like he couldn’t motivate himself to do the push ups every morning. So he said that putting a prompt in place was helpful. Okay, something mindless that you don’t think about, you just do it. So he said his prompt, his push up prompt is every time the coffee is being brewed. Okay, he just gets on the floor in the kitchen and does push ups. Okay. He doesn’t have an internal debate about what he wants to do now. Like he sleepily walks in, puts the coffee in, gets on the floor does push ups until it’s done. If A then B, yes, yeah. So it was like a mindless thing. And I was like, that’s a kind of a good idea. You know, I mean, it still takes a little bit of like, he said, the biggest thing is not letting yourself debate with yourself exactly, like follow the prompt.

39:05
So we talked about, the original question was about over motivation and routines, right? I talked about routines as a part of our foundation. So here’s the thing, when you are over motivated or just normal motivated, and you want to start something new, you’ve got to design a system in order to make it happen. What we get tripped up with is that we decide I’m going to do this, but we don’t design how we’re actually going to do it. And so setting yourself up with a habit to do that thing is what you really have to do. And so that looks like designing a habit with intention. Right. So when he said that the pushup prompt, there are three distinct pieces of a habit, the anatomy of a habit. There’s the cue, which is the thing that that triggers you to do the habit, that’s a push up prompt. Okay, so when the coffee dings, his cue triggers him to do the second part, which is the routine, the routine is the doing of the habit. And then the third part is the reward. And so the reward very, unfortunately, is the thing that most people leave out, which is the reason why hire don’t stick. Okay? An example. So rewards can be both intrinsic like I did push ups, I am amazing. I’m gonna put whipped cream on my coffee. That is an that’s an external reward. So honey, okay, pudding, whipped cream on your coffee as a is an external reward. And it’s something that you can look forward to intrinsic rewards that feeling amazing after you do push ups, that’s the type of long term reward that’s going to truly keep you doing it. But it’s the external reward the whipped cream on your coffee, that’s going to keep you doing it short term, while we’re waiting for those intrinsic rewards to really kick in. A lot of times results take a long time, like it’s going to be a while before he starts to see a change in his body. And it’s in that in between time that we lose steam. And so let’s say that you want to start a new habit. Maybe it’s up. I don’t know, checking start starting that wind down habit that you do before. You pick up your kid your child from daycare, you have a cue, decide what will that Qb, oh, it’s pulling into the parking lot. I’m here. So now I do it, then you do it. What is the reward? Honestly, that reward is going to be the amazing feeling that you have after. But so clearly design, what that cue routine and that reward will be

41:45
and even how you’re talking about shiny things even so I do my shutdown routine. But if I look at my phone for anything, after I pick up the kids, you can bet there is a list of things, even if they’re not important. Yeah, they catch my eye, they distract me while I’m thinking about it and hearing Mommy Mommy, that’s when I like I’m like, Hey, give me a second. Like, you know, that’s when you lose your cool. And it’s like only because I was I allowed myself to go somewhere else mentally, when that wasn’t in the plan. Right? So you’re so correct that I think putting it away. And that’s when you really do have to use paper or something else. Because if you open your phone to write it in your note,

42:30
no. Yeah, everything else. Yeah, we’re absolutely conditioned at this point to without thinking open our phones and go to the most the app that is most addictive for us and then check all of them. And then Okay, check off speaking

42:43
of that, I had in my notes at an put this on here, I don’t think to ask you about how you set limits on scrolling like Instagram, Facebook, anything Pinterest, whatever. I mean, how do you set boundaries for yourself? There?

42:58
It’s a struggle. Yeah, like, I’ll fully admit it. It’s a struggle. I’ve certainly had periods of time where the first thing I did in the morning was reach, grab my phone and wake myself up by looking at my screen. That’s some like, in the past has been the last thing that I look at before I go to bed at night. Yeah. And I just recognized that it was not a healthy pattern that I wanted to continue. I did not like the way it made myself feel. So I think you have to first if you want to implement boundaries, regarding screentime and scroll time. First, you have to really identify why. Why is it that you want those boundaries? Is it because you want to feel better? You don’t want that weird brain fog feeling? Is it because you recognize that you have like shameful feelings about it that you don’t want to feel anymore? Is it because you want to be more present with your kids? Whatever it is, the first thing you have to do is articulate why? Because if you don’t, you have no true reason to stick to it. It’s just going to be arbitrary. So after you recognize why the The baby must have baby steps, is literally to just decide what time in the evening, you’re going to put your phone away. What time in the evening, you’re going to put your phone away whether you set an alarm on your phone that is called plugging the phone or you there’s a time or there’s a milestone in your evening. I typically put my phone away after I read Millie bedtime stories. So I finished bedtime stories which that time can change right from night to night. That’s your prompt but that’s it. That’s it like that’s my trigger. That’s my cue. That’s my I know Alright, I am done for the evening. I’ll do one last check. And then I’ll go put it away because I want to be present with Scott during the time that I have left before we go to bed and I don’t want to fall into the trap of looking at Instagram late at night. Yeah, because of decision fatigue. That’s when we’re more likely to make bad decisions design and impulse buy

45:00
That’s an impulse buying. I have bought many things off of Instagram. Yeah, some of them were okay. Melissa sweater. That worked out. Terrible sweater. It was so funny.

45:10
You’ll take a look at it. Yeah, she posted these

45:13
with a very big yes,

45:14
I have a short neck, so I can’t do a lot of times it’s so funny. But um, that would be my first thing.

45:22
It’s hard to put your phone away at night if you’re used to it. And if you’re a, like, mindless scroller, while you’re also watching your shows, then you need a better show. Because I cannot pick up my phone while

45:32
I’m watching Yellowstone. Right? Like, you want to be present there. I’m like, Yeah, miss anything. What’s the quote? That’s like, find friends that make you want to put your phone away? Yeah, you know,

45:42
right, like, well, right? What is entertaining enough to hold your attention? They’re like, and I’m like, Okay, let’s watch the show. I don’t want my phone. And then in the morning, sometimes I’ll see that because I’ve turned on to Silent pretty early on, but I’ll see that I have like a text or an email or whatever. I’m like, nobody died because I didn’t answer. Right. And then I

46:02
think they realize from the non response that oh, it’s late.

46:06
Yeah. Then I would I would get in my head though. If I texted somebody too late, and they didn’t respond, then I’ll be like, Oh, God, sorry. Are they mad at me?

46:15
I feel like the apology text and be like, oh, sorry, I probably just woke you up again by apologizing. Oh, my God. Okay, I’m logging off.

46:23
Okay, I think when I made the questions for this episode, and I was like, yeah, how can I get Anna to tell us all the things of two years worth of her podcasts and 45 minutes? Did I do that?

46:34
We did a lot of really important a lot of important topics.

46:37
I guess my point is, we don’t have enough time to talk about all of the time management things we could talk about. But I think that everyone can go and then listen to your show. And they the topics are very specific. So they can be like, Oh, I I don’t have problem on my to do list or man. I sure don’t know what to do about this to do list and then they can go listen to that one. So I think just scroll by topic and see whether there’s a lot of options there. Tons of good content and I love you know when you interview people who then tell us how they do it to you because everybody’s different. Yeah. One last

47:10
question. Please. Please do you sleep with your phone by your bed? I don’t you put it away. Yeah, but

47:15
I don’t I actually have my phone plugged in across the room on our dresser. Okay. And so, to let you in on like a peek of what life has looked like lately. I’ve been getting up at around, okay, I have an alarm that goes off at 505. Okay, alarm clock alarm, well, like my phone goes off, that would make me insane. I get up to turn it off. But you gotta do and then I go in the bathroom and I turn on the heater. And then I get back in bed. Okay. So I’m not going to tell you I’m not going to tell anybody. There’s one way to get up in the morning. Again, I’ve hit my phone in the bed with me and I have a second alarm set for five warranty. Okay, so I like get back in the bed and but somehow between like 505 and getting up to do the heater and 520 like I just kind of start waking up. Okay, um, I get out you’re looking at your phone not okay, you just have it for the alarm. Yes, just have it for the alarm. Get up and then I like get dressed. And then I like head to the office for a little bit of like early morning focused quiet time. I’m working on a book proposal right now. And so that definitely requires some, you know, quiet time for the day starts. And that’s so that’s what my mornings have looked like lately. And it starts by having my phone plugged in, across across the room. Okay,

48:42
so when you put your phone away after bedtime stories, that’s where it goes. Yeah. Okay.

48:47
Anything else? She’s covered. Okay, that was great. Thank you. We can have you back every week and talk about time management. Do you have a toast?

48:58
Yes. To I would love to toast my husband Scott.

49:03
I think Scott is hilarious. Yeah, I’m

49:05
a big fan of him. I’d actually like a big reason why I’m married and this guy

49:11
because she was there to the Altair

49:13
since you’ve last been here. I got to sell you

49:16
and Scott i Oh, yeah. Quite the thing so fun. Funny guy. He He’s a lot of fun. But yeah, I’ve gotten to experience the Katie Caldwell like the whole folder experience the organization scene at all. It’s amazing. Huge fan. Huge,

49:34
huge fan. makes me so happy. Okay, Scott. Yeah. Got

49:38
a huge fan of him as well. So Right. So Scott actually stepped away from his stepped away quit his full time job in January and is now working from home in my business and is just such an amazing support to our family. I mean, he already was before but it’s so awesome because we’re now working together. He’s really beginning to learn the ins and outs of a coaching business a podcast. He’s now basically my podcast, you want to serve a J? Yeah, you gotta J and wow. And on top of all the amazing things that he does in the business, he starts prepping dinner at around to like three. So that dinner is completely done by the time he goes to pick up the girls and so we’re just able to go straight into family time and dinner and with help with me working pacific time hours.

50:36
Well, when you said that I was wondering like I was the logistics, I can’t imagine being

50:40
but he like he meal plans. He groped he does the groceries. I’m just so grateful for just all of it. Yeah, and it’s just fun to like work from home with him. It’s going really well. I love it. So yeah, cheers to Scott.

50:54
Scott. Scott. Man making it happen. Yeah, okay, well, everyone please go listen to it’s about time actually tell us where they can find you before we

51:04
jump off yeah, so I would love for you to tune into it’s about time wherever you listen to podcasts. I have new episodes that drop every Monday on a Time Management topic or like Katie says an interview with a go getter to find out how she is getting things done. And also come find me on Instagram let’s be Instagram friends I love hanging out over there send me DM asked me time management question or just asked me a question about anything and let’s let’s talk it’s a in a Deerman kornek Ana de born okay it’s got the Deanna Deanna born and it’s German kornek was too long. That is kind of it is. Yeah, okay. You do the right thing in a Deke like okay, Goodbye, everyone. Bye bye.

51:45
Thank you so much for tuning in to the hustle humbly podcast. Let us know who we should toast to for the next episode. Be sure to

51:52
follow us on Facebook and Instagram at hustle humbly podcast. If you have an episode, topic or question please email us at hustle humbly podcast@gmail.com

52:01
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. See you next week. Bye. This is the goodbye