034: Ask Tanya: Customizing Systems to Your Lifestyle

Hello, hello everyone. Welcome to Productivity Paradox. I’m your host Tanya  Dalton. This is episode 34. Now last week in our episode where we talked about why  to-do lists don’t work, I told you that this week we were going to be talking about my  favorite topic, automations. But, I changed things a little bit. Let me tell you why. I’ve  noticed that I’ve been getting a lot of questions about systems and how they work  and how you make systems work for you. I thought, “You know what? We need to  take a little break and I’d like to do an Ask Tanya episode where I answer some of  these questions to give you a little bit of an idea about how you can make these  systems really work for you in your life.” We’ll pick back up with automations next  week.  

 That’s what I really love about this community where we’re talking all about  productivity, I’m able to really listen when you have questions and try to see if I can  answer them so that you can start applying it in your own life. Let’s go ahead and get  started. I’ll get through as many questions as I can all while trying to keep this to our  regular 20 minute episode. Let’s get started.  

 My first question is from Salima from McKinney, Texas, which McKinney is just  north of Dallas. I lived in Dallas for a long time. I’m happy to hear from you Salima.  She asked, “How do you create systems to accomplish tasks during the week when  someone’s schedule is inconsistent? I try to keep up on the weekends, but it becomes  overwhelming. I don’t feel like I have any downtime.”  

 That is a great question. I think that’s one that a lot of people struggle with. I  agree when your weekends are filled with errands, and tasks, and 5 million other  things, it begins to feel like they aren’t really breaks at all. Really, downtime is very  important. I mean, we’re not robots. We can’t keep moving at a breakneck speed. We  have to build in some downtime into our lives. We act like we can keep doing our  best when we keep pushing and pushing and going without rest. I touched on it back  in episode 26 when we had that episode on making the most of your weekend.  Downtime is really important.  

 If you’re feeling like here in a time crunch, I would recommend using the time  banking methods and start looking at your week as a whole. I think that really start to  help. Start by thinking about what things in your schedule are consistent. Inconsistent  schedules can be really difficult, but start with what you do know happens on a  regular basis. Are there certain days or times in your schedule were things happen?  For example, I know that Kate has soccer practice at the same time and on the same  days each week. That’s something important. I want to make sure I’m popping those  into my systems first. You can use these consistent tasks and appointments as your  

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foundation for your systems. Plug in your known commitments into your weekly  spread or even your monthly spread if you want to look at a broader view. Then think  about how much time those are going to take you. Then plug in any other  commitments you want to make time for. Remember, you have 168 hours in a week,  not just the 24 hours in a day.  

 If you schedule is inconsistent day-to-day, instead of playing catch-up on the  weekends, set aside time every morning. When I say set aside time, I’m talking no  more than 10 minutes. Take that time to plug in your committed time into your daily  schedule, and then figure out what else you have time to commit to. Remember,  downtime and taking time for yourself is a priority, so make it one your schedule.  Plug in your self-care time into your schedule just like any other commitment and  make it happen. Treat it as you would a doctors appointment. It’s something that you  cannot miss, because it really is important for you and your health and your own  mental well-being. Those internal expectations need to fill in your calendar before  you start plugging in the rest.  

 You have to start thinking of your downtime not as a luxury, but really as a  requirement, because it is. Think of it like a flashlight. You switch a flashlight on, but if  you leave that shining all the time, it’s going to start to dim. Eventually, it will fade to  black. You need to give your batteries time to recharge, so you can really let you light  shine. I really want to start thinking about your downtime as something that is not  extra or something that you can maybe take or maybe not take. Think of it as a  priority and really start making the most of your weekends.  

 Okay, next question I have is from Laura from Oakland, California. She says, “I  was very inspired by your episode about creating a personal mission statement.  Thank you for sharing your own. I can how you are achieving your mission through  inkWELL Press and your podcast. I’m wondering how you get from mission statement  to every day goals. For example, your mission statement does not say anything about  starting a business, creating planners, or podcasting.”  

 This is such a good question. Here’s the thing, mission statements are your  overarching why. They lead you down a lot of different paths. someone with very  similar mission statement than what you have, could really follow a very different  path of achieving it, because we’re all unique people. Everyone’s different. Just to  

back up for a second and remind everyone, back in episode 4, I talked about that my  mission statement is, “I will use my passion and expertise in organizing and  productivity to inspire others to achieve their goals and dreams.” That’s my mission  statement. With that statement, I created a planner and then I expanded to a podcast  that you’re listening to right now and coming up this fall online courses, which are  going to be launching very soon. Someone else may have taken that exact same  mission statement and done something different. They could have taken it to mean  

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that they want to get certified as a professional organizer, someone who goes into  people’s homes and works one-on-one to clear the physical clutter.  

 Why did I do something different. Well, I looked at my own strengths to see  where I wanted to go with that mission. I knew I loved being an entrepreneur.  inkWELL Press wasn’t my first business. I knew I loved running a business, so I started  there. Then teaching has always been a big part of who I am. I used to be an  elementary school teacher. I loved doing business consulting. It’s always been a big  part of who I am. I always knew that this mission would expand somehow into  teaching. That’s why even from the very beginning, I always had videos that went  with my planners. I knew I wanted education to be a big component of my mission.  That said, I didn’t know at the very beginning I would have this podcast. As I started  to feel like I was working on my mission, I paid attention to what I was really enjoying  and what came naturally to me. I let my mission guide me with where I wanted to go  based off of what I really felt like I was enjoying and what I really wanted to do.  

 Once you have created that mission statement, what I would recommend  doing is that reflection sheet that I gave out back in episode 1 as part of our three part goal-setting series that I did. When you’re filling out, really look at what you  seem to gravitate towards and what you definitely don’t seem to enjoy. That’s going  to help you figure out the path that you want to follow while you use your mission as  your North star. That’s what I love the most about having a mission statement. It’s  that it’s your guide. As I said, it’s your North star. It’s really up to you to create that  path. That’s what I would recommend you do. After you figure out what you think  your mission statement is then you can do those three steps in the goal-setting  series. The reflection, projection and then the action. Each one I have as their own  episode. They’re episodes 1, 2, and 3.  

 Remember, what we talked about in that first episode of this season, number  27? We talked about eating the elephant. In this case, the elephant is your mission  statement. Just tackle one piece at a time and see where that North star guides you. I  hope that helped answer your question.  

 All right. Our next question is from Kristin from Midvale, Utah. She asks, “Is  productivity only about getting things done? I’m a stay-at-home mom, so I’m always  trying to be productive, but does productivity include making time for hobbies?”  

 I love this question, because I absolutely do not believe that productivity is  getting more things done. As you can imagine, I read a lot of productivity books and  articles. I feel like I see all these articles that say something like, “Answer 70 emails in  an hour,” or “How to accomplish 40 tasks in one day.” Well, that’s just getting more  things done. That’s not really being productive. To me the definition of productivity is  not getting more done, it’s focusing on getting the important things done. It’s living  with intention. Absolutely, making times for hobbies is productive. You know why?  

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Because it’s something that’s important to you. It’s something that you enjoy,  obviously, right? Or else it wouldn’t be a hobby. To me being productive means you  aren’t spending the majority of your day on the minutia, on the insignificant tasks. It’s  about finding ways so you can focus on the important tasks. In this case, of course,  the important is making time for a hobby.  

 Here’s the deal. We all have things that we have to do every single day. Things  that don’t necessarily align with our purpose or our mission. Yes, I think we need to  be mindful to live as much as possible in that important priority level that we talked  about last week, but there’s always going to be things that we just have to do, right?  Yes, it means streamlining and editing at times. It means batching your tasks. You do  that not so you can cram more into your day, you do it so you can bank up your time  and spend it on the things that matter most. Productivity can look very different for  everyone, because it’s about working toward your goals whether that goal is work or  home or hobby related. I have goals for my hobbies just as I do for other aspects of  my life. I feel productive when I worked on my hobbies, because I know I’m taking a  step in the right direction to feel even more fulfilled by the things I like to do.  

 Next time that you’re feeling guilty about wanting to spend time on a hobby, I  want you to stop and take a deep breath. Then I want you to change your mindset. I  want to think of it as being productive, because you’re spending time on something  

that’s important to you. Stop thinking that productivity means doing all the things or  being busy. It really means just the opposite. I hope that helped answer your  question. I hope that helps a little bit with feeling maybe a little more productive  when you are doing the things that you enjoy, because I really think happiness is what  life is really all about.  

 Okay, my next question I have is from Sarah who’s from Superior, Wyoming.  Sarah says, “I’m one of those who cannot cut out distractions or batch my to-dos at  work very well. Nothing I’m doing, training, lunch, anything is too important to not  pause and handle any requests that come from my managers, be it addressing an  envelope, adding a corporate seal, or just getting a purchase order. I have to stop and  do it. Emails have to be answered in the order that they come in. You recommend  mono-tasking or batching to cut down on errors. When that’s not an option, how do  you to stay productive and keep your errors down?”  

 Sarah, first I want to apologize that obviously in a work environment with a  manager who doesn’t quite understand what it takes for their employees to be  productive. I know that’s got to be so frustrating to be interrupted during your lunch  or during training to do little tasks like addressing an envelope. I think that this is  something that is not uncommon, unfortunately, and that really leads you to try and  be a role model for the type of person you want your demanding boss to be. You can  do this by taking the initiative to clearly communicate with your boss what they want  

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to have as a priority. When your manager comes to you with any requests, calmly and  rationally review it, where it says on the priority list that you are currently working.  

 Here’s what I would encourage you to do. I would encourage you to use the  priority list system that we talked about last week in episode 33 and keep it out on  your desk where it can be seen. Show it to your manager and ask them, “Where does  this new request rank in my system? Where does it go in the priority levels?” When I  say ask, I mean genuinely ask, not snarky ask like you’re irritated. Here’s why.  Knowing how they feel about this as a priority might give you some insight as to why  your boss thinks that the task or the interruption is so important. Maybe it’s part of a  bigger system that he or she is trying to avoid anything gumming up the works or  slowing it down. Although, granted, this is not an effective strategy on your managers  part.  

 Once you have that insight as to why your boss thinks it’s so important to drop  everything, maybe then you can start to create systems to help that run in a way that  doesn’t need to be a full interruption like adding the corporate seal. Can that system  be made so that all the documents get put into a certain location in your office that  you check twice a day so yo can affix these seals as the same time. If your manager is  worried about this process of getting these corporate seals put on these papers,  maybe that will be enough to appease them that it gets done twice a day. Then give  an estimate for how long this task is going to take and what if anything you need to  complete it. Offer a reality check on how this new assignment affects your other  ones, especially if there’s a potential for some missed deadlines.  

 There are some managers who’ve been taught that by being very demanding,  they’re going to get results. That doesn’t really mean you have to passively go along  with it. Stay positive and calm, I know probably sometimes that can be really difficult,  and to deliver the best results you can each time. Use positive reinforcement for  good behavior. When you plan ahead together and ensure your goals and deadlines  are reasonable and aligned, say something like, “I appreciate that you understood  that we’d have to push back the ABC project by a couple of days to tackle this new  initiative.” Celebrate your successes in the form of status reports. These can be quick,  concise emails to keep your boss informed of what you’re doing behind the scenes  and help them better understand how productive you are.  

 I’d also recommend trying to slowly enforce some small boundaries. I’d start  with lunch. It’s completely unreasonable for them to interrupt your lunch break on a  regular basis for something insignificant like addressing an envelope. Really, it’s all  about setting some boundaries. Let your manager know that you’ll get the task done  right away, as soon as your lunch break is up. The more you start to enforce this  boundary, the more mindful they’ll begin to be of it. I really feel like if you can open  up this door of communication between you and your manager, that might help  

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alleviate some of this. It can be that your boss doesn’t quite understand what it is  you’re doing all day and what all the different tasks are that you’re in charge of that.  Sometimes it’s just a matter of informing them. Hopefully that will help. I know this is  a very frustrating work situation for you, but I really feel like opening up the doors of  communication might make it a meaningful impact.  

 My question is from Liana in San Diego, California. She says, “I struggle to be  the best mother to my two toddler girls, a three-year-old and a two-year-old. I read  books on how to raise wonderful kids, but none of the ones I read talk about how to  implement tasks and chores into the routine. Do you have any tips on how to help  moms to start teaching toddlers on organization and chores?”  

 Liana, I have to be honest with you. You’re not the only one who’s emailed me  questions about how do we get other people including our children, our spouses, our  roommates, our bosses to really pitch in and help us out, which is the reason why I  decided to stop and ask Tanya episode. I changed the path of this season a little bit. I  decided from reading several questions similar to this one to do an entire episode  about delegating and how you can delegate to your teams. Teams included children  in your family. They include spouses. They include team members in your  organization where you work. I really feel like this is something that a lot of people  struggle with.  

 Ley me go ahead and tackle just a little bit about how it works with kids. One  of my favorite topics other than productivity is parenting, because obviously, I’m a  parent myself although my kids are much bigger than two or three years old at this  point. I’ve been through many different phases with them. Of course through my  teaching career, I’ve worked with a lot of children. I think the number one thing you  can start with is giving them the opportunity to help. Think about when your kids are  little, like Liana’s been there when a young, they’re always saying, “I help. I help. I  want to help.” They want to do little things. Really, it can be as simple as giving them  tasks when you’re at the grocery store, having them help you find the green beans,  having them help you put things in your carts. When you’re doing cleaning the  bathroom, having them grab a little corner of the sink. They’re not going to do an  amazing job. They’re little, but getting them involved while they’re young really can  make a difference.  

 One of the things that I did with my own kids is I created little charts for them  to make it even easier for them to feel like they had a job and that they could be  successful in them. I have one, actually, that you can download. You can find that  inkWellpress.com/chorelist. It’s a room inspection chart where I created a really  section chart where my kids knew exactly what I wanted done in their rooms to get it  clean. They have a little checklist. When I go through and I check their room, I use the  

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same checklist so that they know what the expectations are, and they feel  responsible for it.  

 Now, my kids are old enough to read, so it’s easy to do a checklist. When  you’re a little you can easily find Clip Art by doing searches on Google and making  little picture charts where they know in the morning there’s a picture of their bed and  there bed is made. Then there are the books put away on the shelf. Then there’s their  clothes picked up and put in the hamper. You can find little Clip Art pictures where  they can go through. You can take something like a clear contact paper or you can  take it to FedEx Office and get it laminated. They can even take dry erase markers  and check mark as they do each of these tasks.  

 One of the things that I did when my kids were where young and they were  able to read a little bit is I have place mats for them that I made that I laminated. They  had what they were supposed to get done for the day. Is their backpack ready to go?  Do the have their library in their backpack? Did they brush their teeth? Did they brush  their hair? I started to give them a little bit of responsibility for themselves. I think a  lot of times kids really react well to having these responsibilities.  

 Here’s the catch. The most important part of any system whether your kids are  teeny tiny or big kids like mine or you’re talking about a spouse or coworker, the most  important two words you can say to them is thank you. Everyone regardless of age  responds well when they feel that the work they’ve done is appreciated and that you  are grateful that they pitched in and did anything at all. I want to encourage you to  just start small. Give them tiny tasks to get them started. Create a little chart, so they  know exactly what to do. You can download my chart at inkWELLpress.com/chorelist  if you’d like to take a look at that. That room inspection chart has been a godsend for  me getting my kids to clean their room. I hope that something like that gives you an  idea of how you can move forward with your own kids.  

 I’m going to be doing an entire episode just on delegation. We’ll be talking  about all the different steps that need to happen to really get delegation working for  you. We’ll be talking about that in just a few weeks. We are out of time for today’s  episode. I love the questions that so many of you sent in. I cannot tell you how  amazing it is to be able to read what you guys are responding to in the podcast and  seeing how you’re implementing a lot of these things we’re talking about and the  struggles you’re having. If you do have questions for me, go to inkWellpress.com/ question and you can submit a question for a future ask Tanya episode. I have  another one scheduled later on this season.  

 This week promises to be a big week for me personally and in business,  because it is the launch of our 2018 planners on our website. For those of you who’ve  been emailing and commenting on social media, thank you all so much for your  excitement. It really does help build the momentum for me and gets me really, really  

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excited, because it’s been a lot of work. I’m so thrilled to finally get these in your  hands. While I’ll be tired, I promise to you back next week with that automations  episode. It’s going to be a good one. I really feel like it’s going to revolutionize and  change the way you look at systems. Until next time, happy planning. 

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

Tanya Dalton is a female time management speaker. She is a woman on a mission to redefine productivity.