019: Listener Q&A: Tanya Best Advice for Peak Productivity

Hello hello everyone. Welcome to Productivity Paradox. I’m your host, Tanya Dalton, and this is episode 19. Today is going to be a really fun day because this is our  very first Ask Tonya episode. And I came up with this idea because I’ve been  receiving a lot of emails from many of you asking me questions about how you can  apply some of the productivity tools, and tips, and tricks and things that I talk about  into your own life. So I came up with a little form for people to fill out, and then every  now and then we’ll do another one of these Ask Tonya episodes. So I’ll try to tackle as  many of these questions as I possibly can in our 20 minutes together. Whatever I  don’t tackle, I’ll save for the next episode. So let’s go ahead and get started.  

 My first question is from Arumi who’s in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. And she  asked, “What’s your advice for being productive in a hectic environment when you  can’t plan because you get asked tons of things during the day?” That’s a great  question because hectic environments make everything feel so much more urgent. So  it’s really easy to fall into that trap of tackling those things first. As I’ve mentioned  before, there’s a big difference between urgent and important. It’s just that those  urgent items are ringing out like a five alarm fire. So they tend to get our attention  first. And when you’re dealing with urgent tasks, you’re in a reactive mode. When  you’re dealing with what’s important, you’re really being proactive. And what we  really want, is we want you to be more proactive because, in turn, that makes you  more productive. And it’s really hard, I know, because when you’re being asked to  tons of things throughout your day, I’m willing to bet most of those things you’re  being asked to do really aren’t important. And by important, I mean really moving  you towards your goals and your priorities at work. Right? Generally when other  people are pushing their agendas, or their tasks, on us it’s really easy to forget what  we really want to do. And it’s really easy to fall out of alignment with where our goals  are. So that’s all well and good to know, but how do you actually deal with this?  

 Well, I noticed that she said, “You can’t plan because you get asked to do lots  of things each day.” So I’m going to actually encourage you to make sure that  planning your day is the first thing you do when you get into the office each morning.  Don’t leave your calendar wide open for others to push their tasks into your day. Fill  your time slots with the tasks that you feel are important. You want to definitely leave  a few openings in your time slots for tasks you can do for others, but fill in your time  slots first. It’s like that old adage about the rocks. Putting in the big rocks first, we’ve  all heard that story about the professor who talks about putting in the big rocks firs  before you put in all the small rocks. So you want to put in your big rocks first. The  things that are important, and then you let the small rocks fill in. You don’t want to  start with the small rocks. And the small rocks are most of the things that other  

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people are wanting you to do. But here’s the catch. No matter what, not all the rocks  are going to fit. So you’re going to have to say no sometimes.  

 So if this is your boss or a higher up, that gets really difficult. So here’s what I  would recommend. You can accept the tasks from your boss or your supervisor, but  with a little bit of a no attached. And here’s what I mean. When you push back in a  gentle way, you can remind them that you have a lot on your plate already. Usually  they’ve already given you a pile of work to do, right? And now they’ve just added to  that pile. So you could say something like, “Great. I’m happy to do this. I’m working  now on the project you assigned on Tuesday. Is this new task a higher priority? If so,  I’ll need to push back the deadline of project X. I just want to make sure I’m working  on the tasks you think are most important.” Or something along that vein. It’s a  gentle reminder to your boss or you supervisor that you already have tasks that were  deemed important on your plate. Sometimes it’s really a matter of reminding people  that you already have other things that you’re working on. Other things that they  have also deemed as important.  

 And if it’s co-workers that’s a bit of a different story. It may be that you need to  assess whether your really saying no enough. If you’re saying yes each and every time  you’re asked to do a task people, whether meaning to or not, they get used to that  and they start to assume that you can always take on more tasks. So it’s not really  their fault. People don’t know your boundaries unless you show them. And that  doesn’t have to be ugly. Back in episode seven we talked about five ways that you  can say no without coming across rudely. So I would encourage you to use those at  work too. You might just have to modify them a little bit to fit. So I hope that helps  Arumi.  

 And now let’s get to question number two. And this one is from Lauren in San  Francisco, California who says, “Sometimes I feel as if I’m spending more time  planning and outlining how I want to spend my day, week, or month than I do actually  getting the things done. Any tips on how simplify and streamline planning so it  actually helps me accomplish my goals rather than get in the way?” And I have to say,  this was a really popular question. I had several people ask different variations of this  question like Maritza Ray in Northern California who said, “How do I get back in the  planning bandwagon once I’ve fallen off without feeling overwhelmed?” So because  this was such a popular question, I wanted to make sure and address it. Because what  I don’t want to have happen is that your planning becomes a vehicle for  procrastination. I don’t want you to spend so long planning that you miss the best  part. The actions themselves. Right? The activities. You don’t want to miss the forest  for the trees. Planning doesn’t need to be one of those things that eats away a lot of  your time. I know some people love to spend a long time making their planners  beautiful with stickers and illustrations and I think that’s fabulous if it’s something you  

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really enjoy doing, and as long as it doesn’t keep you from taking those plans into  action.  

 I want to give you permission though, that it’s okay for your planner, or your  plans, to be messy. You’d be surprised at the number of people who apologize to me,  and tell me that their planner is messy. That’s okay. Life can be messy, right? The  most important part of planning is that it helps you create the road map of where it is  you want to go. So how do you do this? Well, I really think it helps to automate your  planning so it happens around the same time every day, every week, or every month,  and then set how long that planning session should take. The amount of time is really  up to you. Your planning, and your productivity, is personal. So figure out what  amount of time works for you. And I know I talked about creating your ideal planning  system back in episode 12, but I’ll just review it here quickly and kind of go over how  long it takes me to do it.  

 For me, I sit down on late Sunday afternoons and I write out my weekly task  list of what I want to accomplish. I basically do a big brain dump on my weekly  kickstart. I literally just write it down. I don’t assign it a day, and I give myself 30  minutes on Sunday to do this brain dump because I actually do two of them. I do one  for work, my husband and I do that one together since we work together, and then I  do one with my family. I don’t sit all afternoon and plan. I don’t sit for more than an  hour. I sit for 30 minutes.  

 So what we do when we’re together as a family is we go through and each of  takes two or three minutes each talking about our week. And that gives me a touch  point to know what projects my kids and my husband have going on, and it allows  me to support them in being responsible for their own work. I hold their hands, but  my goal is to have them fly my nest someday. So they’re responsible for creating  deadlines for themselves, and for turning their work in. I’m there for support and  encouragement, and, if I’m being honest, the occasional kick in the pants. I’m not  going to lie. But if we have time, we talk about meals too that they’re requesting. So  that helps me with my meal planning. And that’s it on Sunday. 30 minutes. I don’t  write anything down in my planner. Seriously, nothing. I just do my brain dump. And  then each day I spend ten minutes at the beginning of each day planning. And I plan  that day. I block off my time for important tasks just like I talked about in that last  question, putting in my big tasks first, and I write out what I want to get  accomplished for that day. I use that weekly kickstart as my springboard to let me  know what I need to do.  

 And at the end of the day I take a few minutes to reconcile that weekly  kickstart and make sure all the things on my weekly list that were accomplished get  checked off. And then spend five minutes at the end of the day doing my daily  download. So all told, I spend about a total of 15 minutes each day planning.  

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Sometimes less. So when I first started this system I set a timer for myself to make  sure I didn’t spend too long getting caught up in my planning. I don’t have to do that  anymore because now I have the system down. And the reason I started with the  timer is because tasks like planning can easily expand to fill the time. And that time  could maybe be used more productively. So by setting a timer for your planning,  you’ll most likely get your work done quickly and find the tasks that absolutely need  to go in your planner and discard those that you don’t.  

 One tip too I want to mention, is that it could be that you’re putting too much  in your planner. Try using that priority that I discussed back at episode six, and put  only the important tasks into your planner. Once those are done, then you can you  tackle anything else on your master list. So that’s my planning in a nutshell, and that’s  what I would recommend for any of you really wanting to implement a system. It  doesn’t have to take a lot of time, it’s just a matter of giving yourself a little bit of a  compartment to work in.  

 Okay, moving on to the next question from Jill in Cincinnati, Ohio. Jill says, “I’m  a stay at home mom, my kids are seven and nine, and I have six hours to myself to get  personal and household to dos accomplished. And I feel as if I failed each day. It’s  almost like I have too much time, yet I don’t have enough. What advice do you have  for domestic engineers? I work out, run errands, worry about my kids, prep dinner, et  cetera, but somehow I’m falling short. I’m reactive instead of proactive. I don’t have  time to develop my hobbies and interests. I feel like I’m missing some key tip in life, so  how am I supposed to get it all done without losing my sanity?” Okay, Jill. First of all,  give yourself a little of bit grace because it sounds like you’re actually getting a lot  more done than you realize. I was a stay at home mom myself for quite a time, and I  remember it when John would come home and ask me what I had done, and I  wouldn’t be able to think of a single thing even though I had done laundry, taken the  kids to the park, read 5,000 books, did craft time, and about five million other things.  

 So make sure that you’re really giving yourself a little bit of grace. If you really  don’t feel like your finding the time to be proactive, especially with your hobbies and  interests, I would recommend you schedule it. Don’t wait for the time. Make the time  happen by slotting it into or day just like you would an appointment. So that’s what I  want to encourage you to do. Pick two times a week to start you off. And then block  off for the things you want to do. Since your kids are both in school, schedule it  

during the day. And that maybe will help eliminate some of that mom guilt you feel.  And I want you treat this like a priority. If you had a dentist appointment at 11:30 in  the morning you wouldn’t miss it, right? You wouldn’t push it to another time. I want  you to treat this the same way. And for those people who have littles, you may need  to slot that time during a nap. Yes, there is a mountain of laundry that could be done  during that time. But there’s always a mountain of laundry. Take the time you need to  help you make sure that you are taking care of you. There’s reason why they tell you  

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on the airplane to put your oxygen mask on first. You have to take care of you so you  can take care of others.  

 And here’s the other thing. You ask how you’re supposed to get it all done  without losing your sanity? You don’t have to get it all done. Are there things you  maybe need to say no to that are really pulling at your time? I’d love for you to step  back and assess if all the things you’re doing in your day are really important. I’m  really excited because I think that an episode we have coming up, number 22, where  we’ll be talking about begging up time, I think that’s really going to be helpful for  you. So that should be … Let’s see, we’re in episode 19 now. So just in a couple weeks  from now I have a really great episode planned where we’re going to be talking just  about that.  

 Next up I have a question from Pagnia in Raleigh, North Carolina just up the  road from me. And she says, “Inkwell Press is an incredible company. And as Steve  Jobs once said, ‘You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect  them looking backwards.’ So when you were first starting out, what were the three  most important things you did that you believe led to the success of your company?”  

So, first of all Pagnia, thank you so much for the sweet words. I really appreciate it.  Running a business is something I’m truly passionate about. But it is a lot of work.  And I love that quote from Steve Jobs because I think it’s so true. Hindsight is  definitely 20/20. So if I were to pinpoint the three most important things I did when I  was first starting out, I would say first of all, I treated it like it was a big goal.  

 When I made the decision to close my former business and open up Inkwell  Press, I created a timeline very similar to the goal action plan I talked about back in  episode three. The big goal, of course, was launching but there were so many little  mini goals I knew I needed to hit along the way. Things like, first of all, learning how to  use graphic design programs because I literally had no training. So I had to give  myself a mini deadline for that. And then I had a deadline for finding a manufacturer.  A deadline for finalizing my files, and so on. I didn’t worry about the big goal. That  would’ve overwhelmed and scared me. I focused instead on these smaller goals and  that’s what kept me on track.  

 Secondly, I think making sure that I blocked off time to really work on my  business made a huge difference. I scheduled it into my day. As I mentioned, when I  made the decision to open up Inkwell Press I still had my other business. And there  were a thousand things to do to keep that running until I felt like I had saved enough  to shut it down. I had to schedule my time in my day that was dedicated to Inkwell  Press. So I blocked off chunks. I couldn’t give it my whole day, so I gave myself 90  minutes in the morning, 45 minutes after lunch, and a good three hour chunk after  the kids went to bed each night. That time was nonnegotiable in my mind. If I didn’t  treat it as such, I wouldn’t have kept myself on track with those goals I mentioned.  

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 And lastly, I always treated my business like it was larger than it was. And by  that I mean I created and wrote down policy as I made decisions. Even when it was  just John and I doing everything possible. And that allowed me to take a lot of the  thinking out of it. And when you’re doing 20 different roles, you need to do that as  

much as possible. So when I helped answer a customer service question, I would  write down the answer. That way I didn’t need to rethink it the next time it was asked.  I’d already spent the time thinking it through. So when I figured out the fastest way to  package orders, I wrote down the process. Yes, I was packaging 99% of the orders  myself, but doing that made it so much easier when I did need to have help. Even if  that help was my mom or my dad. I could give them a sheet of paper showing them  exactly how to package up an order. And that allowed me to scale up and bring on  new people as needed, especially during hectic times like launches, or holidays. That  way everyone knows exactly what to do without me having to stand over them. That  way I can focus on other tasks, and we’re doubling up our work.  

 My kids even come in, still today, to help out. They make boxes, they cut  bubble wrap, they take out the trash, and they know when they get to work they have  to read through the process so they’ll do it the way it needs to be done. So all the  cogs in the machine are working well together. So those are the three things I would  recommend if you’re thinking about starting up a business.  

 Okay, I’m rushing through so we can get through as many of these as possible.  So let’s go on to Kate in Seattle, Washington. “Do you have any tips for managing  interruptions that cannot be turned off, like children when you’re working from home  when you are a stay at home mom with kids?” So Kate, my first several years in  business I actually worked from the house with my kids who were preschool age at  the time. So I’m really familiar with these types of interruptions. Kids are tricky. But  the good news is, they can be trained. Although sometimes it may not feel that way.  One of the things that I did was I had two different phone numbers for my cellphone.  So you can get a free system through something that Google Voice. So my cellphone  had two different ringtones. One for business calls, and one for personal. My kids  learned that when the business ringtone went off, I was in work mode. And that  meant no interruptions. Yes, even when they were little bits they totally understood  that because I had a plan in place so they knew exactly what to do.  

 So they knew I had a little sheet hanging up with images of what they could do  because they couldn’t read yet, there were pictures. Reading a book, watching a TV  show, playing in the backyard, and when my phone rang I would point to the activity  for them to do. And if they came to me while I was on my call, I would silently point  to the activity again. After my meeting I would give lots of positive reinforcement on  how grown up they were for not interrupting. So we practiced this. I’m a former  elementary school teacher, so I treated it just like I did when we had fire drills at  school. And I’ll be honest, the kids thought this was great fun. I would pretend to get  

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a phone call, we would act the whole thing out. I would totally ham it up and overact.  The whole nine yards. And they thought it was funny. But sure enough, when the  phone rang, they knew exactly what to do.  

 The other way I taught them not to interrupt was this little trick I learned.  When I’m talking, or working on something, and they needed me they would come  and put their hand on my wrist. And I would acknowledge that they were waiting by  silently placing my hand on theirs. Then I’d wait for a pause, praise them for waiting  so patiently, and then ask them what they needed. This worked really well when  you’re meeting with other adults. And to be honest, my kids still use it today and  they’re ten and 14. It takes work, they won’t get it right away, but keep at it just like I  talked about with the fire drill practice, it’s the same thing. It’s no different than how  they get those little preschoolers to walk in a straight line and raise their hands in  class. It’s constant practice and praise when they do well. I promise you this can be  done so that you can work without interruptions. It’s going to take a lot of  redirection. It’s going to take a lot of training, but it can be done.  

 Okay, I’m just a hair over the 20 minute mark, but I want to take this last  question from Jasmine in Zurich, Switzerland. And Jasmine asks, “What tips do you  have to stick to a planning routine and forming new habits for those of us that deal  with chronic procrastination and an almost ADD brain?” So when I read this question I  went to my best resource on this. And that is Liz. Now Liz works with me in my office,  and she helps me with the podcast, she helps me out with a thousand different  things. I don’t know how I’d get by my day without Liz there. But, Liz is a recovering  procrastinator which I think is so funny because she’s so productive. But I knew she  would have some great insight on this. And she told me this is still something that she  struggles with at times. And what she’s found is that’s really helped her is being very  direct with herself. And she asks herself “What do I want to do right now?”  

 So she says that changing this question from “What I do I need to do,” to  “What do I want to do,” has helped her frame her tasks more positively and makes  them more enjoyable. This is especially true when she’s thinking about sitting down  and watching TV even though she knows there’s a thousand other things that are  more important to do. She says that usually you can put an answer to that question  with one small task. Like when the whole kitchen needs to be cleaned, she decides  she wants to put away the dishes. That’s the task that she really wants to do. So you  do that one task, and then you ask the question again. “What do I want to do right  now?” And you find another small task to work on, and allow that to build.  Procrastination and overwhelm are closely related. Their like a pair of evil cousins.  You know you have a lot to do, but all yous see are these big tasks in front of you. So  you end up not wanting to do anything.  

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 The best thing is to break those tasks down into these little bits and do bit by  bit. To make this work, consistently stop and reward for yourself for every couple of  steps you get done. This can mean a piece of chocolate, going for a walk outside,  reading for 10 to 20 minutes, watching TV, et cetera. Whatever it is that acts as a  reward for you, use it. Help yourself stay positive, so that you want to do the things  you need to do, and the rewards help push you along. “Don’t forget,” she says, “To do  a daily download as well to help celebrate the things you worked on and you got  done during the day.” So one of the things that she wanted me to mention to you, is  that one of the biggest things that’s helped her is to have notifications pop up on her  phone that reminds her how long she’s been on her phone that day. Which, for most  people, is our biggest source of procrastination. So I’m going to be sharing a great  resource for that coming up in episode 22 when I talk about begging up time. I go  into a lot more detail on how that works. So you might want to listen in for that  Jasmine.  

 Okay, as I said I’m a little bit over time. I like to keep us to a 20 minute episode,  but there was just too many questions that I wanted to tackle and there were a lot  more I didn’t quite get to, so what I’d like to start doing is doing this Ask Tonya  episode a little more regularly. So I’ll have a little link on my website, or you can go to  inkwellpress.com/question and it will lead you to a little type form questionnaire  where you can ask questions for the next episode I have of Ask Tonya. So that’s it for  today’s episode, keep the questions coming though because I love reading and  finding out how you’re doing with the work we’re learning in the episodes and all of  the different activities and exercises you’ve been going through. I’m really really  enjoying this podcast, and I’m so happy that you are too.  

 Now next week I will be back with a regular episode. We are going to be  talking about is the four hour work week real? What’s the idea amount of time you  need to spend working? And we’ll be talking, of course, about editing, and  streamlining as we continue through season two. So I look forward to that episode  going live next week. And in the meantime, if you do have questions you’d like me to  tackle in the next Ask Tonya episode, just go to inkwellpress.com/question and you  can fill out the questionnaire there. All right. Until next time, happy planning.  

**This transcript is created by AI, so please excuse any typos, misspellings and grammar mistakes.

Tanya Dalton is the best woman keynote speaker on topics like productivity, time management, goal setting and finding purpose.