Productivity Redefined: The Key to Efficient Entrepreneurship

I had a client who was complaining because he had all these 8am meetings on his calendar. And I said, well, how did they get there? If you don't like 8am meetings?

That's a good question. How did they get there?

And he said, oh, because that's the client wanted. And so some of it is also backtracking a little bit to say, like, we need to be accommodating, right? Like there's some flexibility, but we don't need to bend over backwards or apologize for holding our time sacred and special. My biggest recommendation is to just spend a week or two just being really intentional and thoughtful about your time. Just paying attention was giving you energy. What's not? Where in the day are you most focused and able to get things done quickly and efficiently? What is taking too long? Like, what are you doing every day that is taking longer than you think it should? And where can we find some shortcuts around that? So that would be my first recommendation to everybody is take yourself out of that normal routine or just watch it from kind of a bird's eye view and start questioning how things are actually supporting you.

Well, this episode is so incredibly right on time. If you find yourself with a full calendar, if you find yourself overwhelmed, teetering on burnout, wondering what you're going to do with all of those things you need to squeeze into your day and how to navigate your energy and your time and productivity, this is the episode for you. Chelsea Neumeyer is a nerd for all things time management and productivity. After years of reading frustrating productivity advice that did not match her life, she started her productivity and time management coaching business to help solopreneurs and nonprofit leaders maximize their time by getting the personalized productivity they need to reach their goals. Keyword in there personalized. She currently lives in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba with her husband and their dog. I'm excited for you to dive into this episode with Chelsea and it is a beautiful conversation and I cannot wait to see what your takeaways are. Let us know with a review or find me on instagram @amber McHugh and let me know if any of this resonated with you because I love to connect to you. Without further ado, let's dive in. Chelsea, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for being here.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to chat with you.

Oh, this is going to be so fun. You cover and talk about one of my favorite topics topics productivity, time management. How did you get here? How did you get into this?

Oh, absolutely. So I have always been kind of a time management productivity nerd, right? Like, I was that kid who loved the middle school notebook with like the scratchy cover that they gave and just always had a list ready and ready to roll. And then after high school, I went to college to become a biomedical engineer. So it was like, I'm not an engineer now, but I was surrounded by people who were working really, really hard. I was obviously running clubs. I was still working. Like, I just had to figure out how to balance everything that was going on. And then knew probably around sophomore year that I wasn't going to be an engineer. But I was kind of a little too far in to change my mind, so I stuck with it. And I have no regrets about that. But immediately started getting involved in the nonprofit world and so working for independent schools and in the fundraising space. And once I got into the kind of real world or the working space, I realized how many people really struggled with time management productivity, how many people were impressed with how efficient and effective I could be. That was just norm for me, right? I didn't. I just had to be that way to get through college and to get through high school. So I was that person in the office that people would come to and say, like, listen, I've been playing with a spreadsheet for 20 minutes. There's got to be a faster way to do this. Or, you know, I was kind of, my motto in the office is, there's got to be a faster way to do this. So I realized again that this wasn't taught in high schools. This isn't something that people are just kind of necessarily naturally good at. And the final straw for me to really start my business was actually, I was reading a productivity book and it was written by some high level corporate executive and his advice was to take a nap in the middle of the day. I was like, lovely. Who's going to tell my boss that I'm going to nap in the middle of the day? Great. And then to multitask during meetings by reading articles and like not paying attention. And again, that's great if you're some high level corporate executive. But I was running the meetings. I had to be present and just have your assistant prepare everything. I was like, okay, you know what? This is enough. There has to be a better way to do this. It has to be re personalized. I'm not someone who's going to wake up at 4 o' clock in the morning, but I can still be super productive. And so that was again, that was the inspiration to Start my business to helping solopreneurs and nonprofit leaders really just dive into how to put the personal in productivity.

Oh, my gosh, the tips just kept getting better and better. Like, don't be present during the meeting meetings. Do something else. Oh, it's terrible when you're on a meme. Like, wait, I. We're gonna. Okay, I'm gonna say this again. And then they're gonna have to say it again because they didn't hear, like, oh my gosh, how inefficient and how frustrating for everyone else in the room. And, you know, But I do have to confess on the napping, I. My mind immediately went to me being in corporate, returning to work after having babies, going out to my car to pump and getting a nap. While I was out there, I was like, yeah, we're going to be warm in the car, pump and take a nap.

I love it. Again, if you can make that work for you, go for it. My whole point is that it's personal. It has to work for you. Yeah.

Oh my gosh, I love this. Oh, this is so cool. So what is a shift that you made? You're like, okay, that isn't going to work for everyone. It's going to work for some people. There's some beautiful things about that, including those naps. But what did you find? Like, no, this works better for me. Or what were some of the things that you identified in contrast to that?

Absolutely. So, for one, I'm not a morning person. I spent years trying to be that person who, like, got up and immediately went to the gym and I hated it and I failed every time. And so finally it dawned on me one day, why am I trying to force this? Like, why am I trying to make this happen? Just because when you Google morning routines, all the rich and famous people are getting up at 5 o' clock in the morning. And not for nothing, rich and famous people also have personal trainers. They have someone else help out with that, you know what I mean? Like, their time looks different than ours. So then I started to just revamp my morning routine to say, you know, I'm going to wake up on the earlier side, but I'm going to give myself a morning routine. I'm going to have a cup of coffee, I'm going to have a slower start to morning, and then work out after I've been up for about an hour. And that has made me so much more consistent because that's just works better for how I wake up and how I function in the day. Another great Example is I'm pretty extroverted. So I would much rather have my meetings in the mornings because then I'm getting energized, I'm getting all that talking and energy out. And then in the afternoon I'm much more focused. So if I can keep my afternoon clear for that deep work, that works so much better for me. When conventional wisdom is that, you know, everybody's most focused in the morning and that's again, everybody's a little bit different. So figuring out what that rhythm is, what your energy flow is throughout the day, and being really intentional about that, it can be a game changer for how you structure your time.

Oh my goodness. So good. I have a little bit of a problem right now. I'm going to share with you because you have some good ideas. So when I am in warm country or warm locations like California, when I lived in California, I could wake up 5am no problem. It was beautiful out in the winter, not so much. But here I in Cote d', Ivoire, it gets dark early. I'm in the Ivory coast. In Abidjan, Cote d'. Ivoire. Yeah, Ivory coast in English. And so it gets dark pretty early. We're close to the equator, so it's basically dark same time every day. Winter, summer, all the things, you know, I'd say right around 6:15, which is early. So my body's like, okay, by 8:30 I'm ready for bed because we're wrapping it up. I don't necessarily. I end up like laying in bed reading, talking to my husband, getting the kids in bed. Like it's 10 o' clock by the time I fall asleep. But my body is calming down. Unless I have a work call. Sometimes I have work calls in the evening here. But in the morning it is my time and I love it. I get the kids to school, they're okay, they're off and running. This is beautiful morning that we have together. It's pretty calm these days. And then I will exercise, I will meditate, I will journal, I will read, I will, you know, just sort of do whatever I am feeling in that season. And I'm struggling because that would also be really productive time for me. I'm the opposite. In the afternoons. I get a little bit more tired. So I have my meetings then. Because when I get on the phone with someone, I can like, okay, yeah, it picks my energy back up. So it's a good flip for me. But I am not sure where to fit my productive work because I want my mornings all to myself. I mean Sometimes I'll be in the pool doing laps, or I'll be meditating. I'm like, great idea. Go execute that now. And I'll shower real fast. Or maybe I won't. I'll come in dripping wet and just, like, get to work, because I'll be in flow, and I'll pull through from that. But so hearing this and hearing my challenge, I'm sure you've dealt with this so many times. Where does the deep, focused work fit?

Well, I was gonna say, it sounds like that morning is incredibly productive because you're getting those ideas out, your taking care of yourself, and you're giving your brain time to rest before you get into that work. So let's not discredit all the things that you're doing as being productive. And productive to me is making sure that we're working on the right thing at the right time in order to help us reach our goals. So all of those things fit within that, because I'm sure that they're all aligned with some kind of goals you have anyway. And if you're coming back into your space, whenever that is, focus, energize. Feeling like you look at all what you've already accomplished in the day, then I would just keep doing what you're doing if it feels good for you.

That's so good. I love that you said right thing, right time to help us reach our goals, because that is so very right on time. And, you know, I think you're right. That is absolutely productive time. But it's a different kind of productivity. It is, like, fueling my soul and lighting up creative parts of my brain. And then, like, I have this really important thing I need to get done to help me move the needle toward those goals. And as I'm hearing you talk back and reflect, like, I think it fits right after, like, and this is something we tend to do. So I turn this into question for all of us, guys, because you can tell I'm processing as we go. Like, this is good. This is good. There's an endless pile of things to do. And when you get everything done, something new will emerge, and it just keeps coming. I heard a friend recently said to me, David recently said, work begets work. Like, yeah, it will just keep coming. So I have a philosophy for how I approach, like, the week and how many things I should try and take on and what that should be. But how do you do that? Because I'm thinking, like, I need to leave that morning and just have one thing I want to get done that's it. Or maybe not. Not all days. Just have a few things a week is more my style. And then it fits in beautifully right after that. But how do we manage all of the things?

Absolutely. So when we look through the right thing at the right time to help us reach our goals, the right time piece goes back to the energy management. Right. When it's going to make sense the most for you to be focused, undisturbed, and in the right kind of setting and mind space to get those things done. But the right thing is directly correlated to what your goal is. So if your goal is to make $10,000 this month. Right. I'm just throwing that out there as a random goal. Right. We kind of hear that a lot in this space. Then, you know, changing all the colors on your website, probably not going to help you get there. But sending out five new DM connections or lead connections to set up a sales call that will help you reach your goal. And so if we can keep all of those tasks through the lens of helping us reach that really specific goal, then it helps us keep our eye on the prize and avoid that kind of shiny object syndrome. And it's not to say that you're not going to have all these other things pop up that either must get done because at the end of the day, your website might need a revamp. Right. Like, I'm not discrediting some things like that, but we can then take those bigger projects and break them up to the smallest possible pieces and map them out in a way that is much more conducive to what else has got we have going on in that day or that week. And so we can kind of keep that cadence going of the immediate versus the non immediate that you're working on every day and every week.

So good. What do you as. As you were talking, I was thinking about organizing this and how I organize the big project to the small steps and what I do. But what do you recommend for breaking down those parts and pulling it through to something actionable?

Yeah, so I always start with a big brain dump. I try to think through all of the steps that I'm going to need to take, all the things I have to do. But if I'm talking about a specific project, it's every little step that's going to need to be taken. And then you can kind of organize it and lump things together, look for things where you can batch the work.

Right.

What's that creative work? When you're in a creative mindset, what's the more kind of tactical, analytical stuff that you can do when you're in that mindset. I am super old passionate. I just love pen and paper. I've tried all of the great tools and there's so many really, really good ones. Asana ClickUp Monday. They're all fabulous and I can support clients through all of them. But I. My to do list is I have a sheet of paper every day. It is like very unsophisticated, but that's what works for me. So it's really just about breaking it down to super actionable items. We want the task to be something that you can accomplish within 30 minutes or less and that you have a very clear beginning and definitive end. So you don't want the task to be, I think back to my days as a tutor. We wouldn't write write English paper. That's not the task. The task is create your outline. The task is identify three sources. Right. So we're going to get super specific so that you feel like you're making momentum and you know exactly what you have to do to feel successful and to feel accomplished.

Yeah, this is good. Break it down, break it down. It's got to be something that you'd be like, I did it. There were a couple times last week. I'm in a season of shifting and trying and experimenting. And that requires I be a little bit more fluid. And I don't always know, like, is it done? Like, are we done? I don't know. I'm like, in this creative space. I was like, man, okay, now you've got to flip to having tangible outcome. You are out of brainstorm ideation mode. And like, what are you sitting down to do? This is one of the mindsets I try and embrace. If you don't know what you're sitting down to work on, you don't need to sit down. Do not turn on that computer. Because it's just a little bit of a rabbit hole sometimes. And you mentioned the 30 minute increments. What's your take on time blocking or how do you sort of break down the workflow of a day?

So I love time blocking, but I think that people can get a little too specific or too overwhelmed with it. Right. And it's hard to say that every Monday is going to be the CEO day, every Tuesday is going to be. Right. Like, and so there's kinds of ways to put those parameters around it. But honestly, I just do my week. Typically Sunday nights, I look at what I have. I'm also a nonprofit consultant, so I have to balance all that work in addition to running my business, in addition to a life, and all that kind of fun social stuff. So my week looks a little bit different every week. And that's okay. I try not to. I'm not going to force myself into a routine because then again, we're just getting frustrated. But you can't maintain that.

Yeah.

So I look for those big blocks of time as much as I possibly can, and I give myself, you know, one or two things I want to accomplish within those blocks, and not even always that specific. Sometimes I'll just take a look at the week and say, all right, what are my meetings? When am I going to have free time? I think a lot of people are a little too loose with their calendars. So one thing that I've tried really hard to do is I use a calendly link to schedule podcast interviews or pep meetings or client calls, and that is blocked to smithereens so that I don't have those kinds of meetings peppered throughout my week because it's really frustrating to jump in and out of things. So as much as lump those things together so that you're not breaking up your day a bunch of times, that's really what I'm looking for as I map out my week is how can I batch things together as much as possible, and how can I give myself the flexibility to have breaks and know when I'm going to be a little bit busier or when I'm not going to be busier so that I can take care of myself appropriately?

Yeah, you mentioned something important in there. And the breaks. Is there a recommendation that you have, or how do you approach building breaks and how many and what should that look like? I know personalized, but how do you. What's the framework for thinking through that personalization?

Yes, I have made a commitment to myself so far this year to take lunch away from my computer. Just like, walk away. That has been a really important thing I've committed to. I haven't. I try to give myself a lot of grace. So I'm not saying, oh, it's an hour lunch break every day. Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not right. I have to see again. I try to give myself that flexibility, but definitely eating lunch away from my computer. And so I'll either sit outside or I'll read or just I'll go do some chores around the house. Depends on what feels good in the moment. And then, luckily, I have a dog, so she insists upon walks in the morning and evening. So that holds me accountable. For that. And then I think there's also being really intentional about transition times. So if you have a meeting and then you have a 30 minute gap, decide ahead of time what that gap, what you're going to do with that gap. Is it going to be a break or is it going to be. You're going to find two quick things that you can check off your to do list really fast where you need to follow up on that meeting. But the biggest pitfall I see people do is that we have that 30 minute break and then you pick up your phone after the meeting and then that 30 minutes is gone and you haven't accomplished anything. But you also don't feel particularly rested because you just wasted it or, you know, played on your phone.

That's good. Being intentional with that break time. And you mentioned going to the to do list if you're breaking up your tasks into about 30 minute task chunks. Oh, I got 30 minutes, grab one, go. Or I've got 15 minutes now that meeting went long. Or it was a 45 minute meeting instead of an hour. I've got a break in that moment. Set the intention. If you're like, okay, I can't do that. I had planned to do, you know, a 30 minute to do or call someone. Don't have time for that anymore. Reset a new intention. Mine would have been going to get coffee.

Exactly. Yeah. Sometimes it's just a coffee break or stretch. I mean a little dance party, whatever.

Exactly.

Whatever you need. And I think it's also really important to think about. Like I always have, I recommend like 3 things ish on my to do list every day. Like bigger things like client deliverables. Right. Things that I need to make sure are completed for the day. Inevitably that list gets longer. Right. Things come up. We have a meeting, a follow up. But we start with two to three things I also have on my big brain dump list like those 15 minute tasks, those really short tasks. And so if I have a little bit of time and I'm feeling like I can just do it, then I have those quick things I can go to. Like, all right, what are like two or three things? I can just make a phone call or send a quick email or those like annoying little pepper tasks that follow us everywhere. So that's also how I work in those. And I have those random little blocks of time.

That's good. I love that. It's interesting. I go through seasons, obviously we're all going through seasons of change. Right. Winter is different than summer is different than season of Life where we're starting a business versus we're preparing to sell a business. Like, whatever these things are, they're going to be different work activities and different life activities that go along with these. And I go through seasons where I'm like getting it done. I've got the list, I've got it all. And then as I mentioned, more creative free flowing. Do you see that in people as well? Like, all right, this is a get it done season or this is. Yeah, I'm seeing you not. I'm just gonna pause and let you dive in.

Yeah, absolutely. And not only that, but I'm actually learning a lot about women in general. Have monthly cycles. Our cycle impacts our productivity so much. And so this is something that I am learning a lot more about and trying to be more intentional about how I structure my week so that I'm, you know, when I'm in a certain period of my cycle, I am like working on the right things. And there are some days where I literally can't even focus. So I'm just going to try not to. I'm not going to try to put the heavy stuff on those days. So I think not only are we monthly and we need to think about that a little bit, but absolutely, we see those times in our life when we can really dig into something and get really excited about it. And then there's the maintenance periods. There's, you know, there's growth periods, there's creative periods, and then all of that requires a little bit of different thinking and structuring. But that's why I love the work that I do and how I like to think about it. Because it doesn't necessarily mean it's right or wrong. You don't have to be strict with something. You can be routine. Right. We want to build in those routines, we want to build in that consistency. But just because you can't do something one day doesn't mean you're a failure. Right. Just because you're not feeling it. And so I think relieving some of the expectations we have for ourselves and giving that additional grace when you need it is really, really important.

Yeah, I agree. I think that grace upon grace, so important. And then really embracing this right on time, like it didn't happen today, it doesn't mean it's not happening. But we will shift some things around because life comes up because of the way I'm feeling. Yeah. Constantly adjusting and adapting how with routine, like you have some framework and then we adjust and adapt as needed. It's interesting, I think this approach and the way that you're coming, you speak about productivity is so beautiful and it's so aligned. When clients step away from working with you, what are some of the things that they feel or that have shifted for them in the work that you do together?

I think the best example of this I can give is I was working with a client who she was like a social media coach. And every time she had a meeting, she was handwriting her notes because she preferred pen and paper. And then she would spend time afterwards retyping all of those notes, and it would take some time. Right. You know, and I just asked the simple question, why? Why are you doing this? And she was, oh, I thought I had to have everything digitally. And it's not like she was doing anything with those notes. She wasn't sending them over to the client. She wasn't, you know, using them for content or anything like that. It was really just because she thought she had to have it as a digital option. And by me just saying, let's just put those in a binder, let's just put those in a folder for you. So you have them handy. And every time you meet with that client, you can reference them quickly. But if you're not referencing the digital pieces, and there's no rule that says everything has to be digital. And that saved her a couple hours a week. And so our goal is to just be kind of taking some time to really think through the stuff that we're just doing, because that's the way we've always done it, or we're doing it because we saw some article somewhere that said, this is how the productive people do it. And so if we can just step back and question some of those things and make sure that they're actually making sense for us or actually working in the way that we need them to, it can save you hours a week.

There's something beautiful about asking the right question. Like, we get into habits and we get into routines. Whether they're intentional or not, they emerge and we're flowing with it. And this beautiful opportunity to just, oh, is this what I want? Is this working for me? Why am I doing this? And so if people want to start looking at their way of being, their way of being productive, their way of being efficient, and the energy management, where would you recommend people start with this?

Another great example of this actually is I had a client who was complaining because he had all these 8am meetings on his calendar. And I said, well, how did they get there? If you don't like 8am meetings.

That's a good question. How did they get there?

And he said, oh, because that's what the client wanted. Some of it is also backtracking a little bit to say we need to be accommodating. There's some flexibility, but we don't need to bend over backwards or apologize for holding our time sacred and special. So that would be my biggest recommendation, is to just spend a week or two just being really intentional and thoughtful about your time, just paying attention. What's giving you energy, what's not. Where in the day are you most focused and able to get things done quickly and efficiently? What is taking too long? Like, what are you doing every day that is taking longer than you think it should? And where can we find some shortcuts around that? So that would be my first recommendation to everybody, is take yourself out of that normal routine or just watch it from kind of a bird's eye view and start questioning how things are actually supporting you.

Yeah, yeah. Okay. This is good. Track it. Check it out. Observe. I oftentimes when I'm going through a little reset, we'll make notes around. All right, where is my time going? And in that moment, to your point, what was my energy? This was terrible. Big sad face, you know, never again. Little reminders so I can come back to that. And then I'll review it at the end of the couple of weeks and then implement those changes in my schedule. Talk to my team. Right. Whatever it may be, some may take longer to implement because, oh, we've got this reoccurring thing that drops off in a month. Okay, I'll leave it for a month. And this is something else. As you, you know, I mentioned I'll leave it for a month or these seasons happen. How long does it take right, to move out of overwhelm, to move out of this space of I'm drowning, I am drowning. Help, Right? Realistically, I know there are some quick changes we can make, but as you move through this shift and how you approach your days, your life, your time, your energy, how long does a shift take?

I just had a great conversation this weekend with someone who's like a stress management burnout coach, and we were talking about the feeling of overwhelm. That feeling like when you're on the edge of burnout or you're already there and the consequences and the impact that that can have. And this is going to be really scary. Terrible advice. But sometimes we have to say that is so hard for overachievers or people pleasers or people who are just genuinely super excited about stuff that we're doing. And it can be hard, it can be a little scary. You can feel bad about it. But again, when we start thinking about what are really our goals are, then sometimes it just doesn't align. So as hard as. As terrible as advice as that may sound, sometimes the first step is often deciding what you can let go or deciding what's not gonna serve you. And it's not no forever. Maybe it's just no right now. Right? Let's say starting a podcast that' haunting you for six months and you haven't been able to make time. It's. It hasn't been able to be a priority, but you feel this guilt of it just sitting on your to do list. Let it go. Release it from your to do list. Trust that it's going to come back to you when the time is right. You're still doing all of the right things to support your business, to grow the things that you're wanting to do, and it's going to switch. Or if it really is that important to you, look at what could actually, what else can go right? What are you currently working on right now that you can outsource or you can pause for temporarily so that you can make this a priority? Not everything can be a priority. That's often the biggest challenge I see with my clients is they just put too many things at the top of the list. So sometimes you got to let it go. And I know that that's. It's harder advice for me. I'm the worst client when it comes to this stuff.

I know. And it's practice. You know, there are things that we all know, like somebody you may have just heard this and thought, I know, I know. And I am hearing this, thinking, I'm pulling up a quote. I'm in note card mode right now for my to dos. And I made a. Not a few weeks ago when I was listening to a presentation and oh, ah, shoot. I don't have his name on the quote. I love to. I want to cite this. Oh, my gosh. Okay, I'm gonna put the. The name of the person who said this in the show. Notes. He said, when there is too much on the plate. Anybody there? When there is too much on the plate, you will never reach the top. And of course, the top is relative. Your personal best in the industry, right in your niche. But when there's too much on the plate, you will never reach the top because it can't all be a priority. We can't do all of the things. And I'm reflecting on this because when we moved to the Ivory Coast, I kept those mornings that I mentioned that I love super clear and actually more clear than they are now. I'm still doing all of those things, but I, like, go somewhere for some of the movement and now versus doing it all at home. And just that little time out of the house is like time where I'm moving and I'm emotion and I'm connecting. And it's a different energy than when I was just steady at home saying no to everything external. And so slowly about the first six months, I really protected that space. Volunteer opportunities came up. Like, no, no, no, no. This is space to. To process, to rethink, to re. Evaluate and. And then New year came and I've said yes. I let a few more things get in there. I'm like, okay, now we're four months, not quite four and a half, almost five months into the new year. And like, okay, now I have to think through what's going to go because I've added some things. Should these things stay? Are they the new priorities or just something else need to go? So I think there's almost this overlap of, all right, your productivity and your efficiency and your flow and your energy might be a game. A game. And then, okay, we're going to shift, we're going to evolve. Life's going to happen. Not a game anymore. And what do you think about this? Do you see this? Do you have things that are coming to mind?

Absolutely. Those things kind of creep in. And again, they're from a good place. It's things that we're really excited about. And so whenever this happens, I try to think like, how can we work it in and where can we be flexible? So, you know, protecting that morning routine. My morning routine, first thing I do is make myself a cup of coffee, because that's life for me. And then I journal. I do my habit tracker. I read a little bit of nonfiction. Okay, those are the top three things that I do every single morning. Some days I read four pages of my nonfiction book. Some days I read two paragraphs. But the goal is that I read. And so when we can get building that buffer time or that the identifying that. The. What's important of that morning routine is that I have a morning routine. What's important is that I spend some time journaling, I spend some time tracking my habits and keeping things updated, and I spend some time reading. That's what's important. It doesn't have to be strict it doesn't have to be so rigid that it's all or nothing. And so if we can remove that from it, you'll find the space to pepper in something fun or go to the coffee shop instead, or walk to the coffee shop instead of going for that normal walk around the block. And that's okay. If you. A friend calls and says, hey, I'd love to meet at 8 o' clock in the morning, you're not going to say no because, oh, I can't release that morning routine. You're just going to say, oh, great, I'll just, I'll walk to the coffee shop and meet you there. And that's going to be my exercise for my movement for the day. So it's really just thinking about what's really the most valuable piece out of this activity or this thing I have to do and then how can I adjust it. I used to go for runs to get quarters for laundry. I used to go to runs to whole food to like pick up herbs or something I needed for dinner that night. Like sometimes it's just we had to be creative with it. But I was never going to release the things that I love to do because the timing was weird. Right?

Oh, that's beautiful. I love that. Yeah. And there is a point, and this is the space I'm in. Like, no, something's gotta go because I have that feeling. And how do you see that people know or what are the signs when, like it's not all gonna fit.

It's a very tough question, Amber. Very big question. And I want to say something wise and you know all, like, you're gonna know, you're gonna feel it. But like that's not always true. Right. Sometimes it just is a crappy decision and someone's going to be disappointed and you have to be okay with that. Even if you're just disappointed. Like you've disappointed yourself.

Yeah.

And it goes back to that. It's going to come back around. The opportunity will be present, be creative with how else you could potentially, you know, maybe it's not running that new program. Maybe it's just supporting someone else. Maybe it's not. You know, you can be creative about it, but sometimes it just sucks.

And I love that you brought it back to the trust also, like trust. And for me that's very relevant. Even in this example, I am processing out loud and very much so in my head right now that trust that you will know what to release right on time. And I find myself like exactly what you said, right thing, right Time to help us reach our goals.

And.

And there may be a greater goal than what you can see right now, but you might just feel it and you might just get a clue. Or we talk about the nudge. Like, I got this little inkling. I have no idea what it is yet, but I'm just going to keep looking for it and watching for it. And I completely agree that you're like, it's going to suck sometimes. It's not always going to feel good. And that space between doesn't. But you keep listening, you keep adapting, you keep being flexible, and then all of a sudden, okay, now I have clarity. Okay, I don't like the answer. Yes, agree. But this is what it is. Like, if we evaluate, it might be later, it might be, no, let go of that thing you really love. It might be, wait, it's right on time. It is right fricking on time.

Yeah. A really funny example of this is I did Junior League, which is a women's philanthropic organization, for years when I was in the D.C. area and I was nominated for a leadership position. But I was working full time, I was running my business. It was like just at the tail end of the pandemic stuff. Like, we were potentially moving. It's a lot going on. And I was talking about with my husband, I was like, man, I really want this. It'll be such a cool opportunity. And he said, chelsea, you know that you can be in Junior League without running it, right? I was like, no. That had never occurred to me. As I think when I'm working with. Most of my clients are high achieving people. They're not people who are quote unquote lazy or procrastinating because they don't want to get the things done. They're ambitious and they're excited and they want to do it all. And so sometimes it's just paring it down to what is the most important thing. How can we make sure that there's self care worked into that and that's not the first thing to go? And how can we just make things work a little bit faster and a little bit more efficiently so that you can focus on new and exciting things that you want to do? But it always comes back as it didn't even occur to me that I couldn't just be in charge of it.

That is so cool. The other thing that I love is that you're playing this out with someone. You're exploring it and someone asks a question. Oh, which is why it is so powerful to get in conversation with people Whether it's a bff, a partner, a sister, a friend, a coach, a mentor, like, ok, yeah, just be a member at large.

Yes.

Oh my gosh, that's incredible. I am so grateful for this conversation. In your time, is there anything you're like, y', all, we did not talk about this. Or is there anything that's happening right now that's current that people need to know? Or did we get it all?

We got a lot of it. One of my favorite topics to talk about is procrastination and we certainly don't have time to dig all into that. But I often find with people I'm working with, the content that resonates most with folks is that just because you're procrastinating does not mean you're lazy and really making sure that we're digging into the root. So if you make your to do list, if you plan out your week and all of a sudden you find yourself stalling, you just can't get going. Instead of getting into that spiral of like, oh my gosh, I'm never gonna get anything done. I'm not motivated. You know that place, it's like, what is blocking me right now? Do I need to make this more fun? Do I need to make this more bite sized piece? Does this align with the vision I have for the work that I need to do in my business? Just take that pause before we start the spiral because once you figure that out, you can get right back on track.

I love it. No need to push through that. Look at what's happening. And to your point, maybe it's not the right time. Maybe we need a smaller step. All of it. So good. I am so glad you brought that up. Where do people find you?

Sure. So I am on Instagram at Chelsea and coaching. It's Chelsea with a Y. And then my website is Chelsea newmeyer.com and that's where you can find all my programs. And then I have a podcast called From Overwhelmed to Under Control as well.

So good. We'll link all of that up. Thank you for being here. Have an amazing day, week, year. You are incredible.

Thank you. You.