31: 5 Proven Time Saving Hacks to Implement Today

Foreign.

Hi there. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to ask you an important question. Are you wondering why your hard work isn't reflecting in your bank account? If so, I've got something that could change the game for you. With my digital product accelerator one on one coaching program, I'm on a mission to help entrepreneurs like you bank consistent revenue without sacrificing your time, time or sanity. Imagine shifting from 90% client facing work to enjoying consistent revenue from your digital products, all while reclaiming your time. You already know that you don't need another course and a one size fits all approach isn't going to cut it. What you need is a strategic long term plan tailored just for you. So if you're ready to build the profitable, freedom giving business you've dreamed of, apply to work with me by going to destinycop.com apply. I cannot wait to learn more about you and your business.

Welcome to the Course Creators MBA Podcast. I'm your host, Destiny Kopp. And in this podcast we're covering actionable tips to grow your online course business. But before I begin, I want to let you know that this episode is sponsored by my free mini course, Course in a Box, which is your plug and play system with templates and videos to get your online course created. You can grab your free Course in a box by going to destinycop.com and this link will be in the show Notes. Today we're talking about time saving hacks for online course creators and I have a special guest here with me today. I have Alison Marshall with wonderlast.com and Alison has been a full time entrepreneur for over 10 years and she is obsessed with helping other online business owners profit more while working less through actionable planning, productivity and mindset strategy. She's an introvert turned creative unicorn from Kansas City who believes that work should be fun, business should be simple, and that being yourself always works best. Allison, thanks so much for joining me here today. I'm so excited to chat with you.

Oh my goodness, me too. I was having to stop myself for making little excited squeals while you're talking.

That's okay, just jump right in.

So you're an introvert also.

I'm an introvert. I'm actually an intj.

Do you know what you are? Oh my gosh, me too. I'm an intj.

They are true unicorns from what I understand.

Yes, they are one of the more rare breeds, especially in females. That's awesome. That is awesome.

So there's a little tip that's awesome to get started here. But before we begin, I have a ton of questions for you. Before we begin, can you tell the audience a little bit more about you, your entrepreneur journey, and how you got to where you are today?

Yeah. So you already know kind of what my speciality is. Just now you kind of covered that. But, yeah, I've been at it for over 10 years. Basically how I got started was I was living in California. I was pursuing the acting. I was living in Hollywood, and it was really expensive out there. So super expensive. And I was looking for ways to make extra money. And so I had kind of already felt like I wanted to have my own business someday. And so I was like, this is the perfect opportunity to start my own business because I need more money. And so I actually ended up starting a wedding planning business. And I, like, got certified and created a website, which back then, we're talking like 11 years ago, it was much harder, and my website looked awful. But I started that business and I got my first customer, and I realized that I actually hated wedding. So I was like, okay, scrap. That went back to just. I was working at Starbucks. I was working as a waitress. And about a year later, I ended up moving back to Kansas City because that's where I'm from. I missed it. All my friends and family were here, and I was like, I actually got married in 2009. I'm no longer married, but I got married. And the wedding photographers that I had were so much fun. And they were. It was a husband and wife team. They were having a blast. And I was like, I could totally see myself doing this. Like, I do love weddings. I'm obsessed with taking photos and documenting life and scrapbooking. So basically the day after my wedding, I was like, I'm going to start a wedding photography business. I didn't even have a real camera. I ordered a camera. I got my Facebook page up, pretty much everything within the first two weeks. And I was able to, through just like Facebook and posting personal photos, I was able to book enough customers in order to just go full time within a couple months. And so that was really when my online business started. And I really, like, I loved it. It was the first time where I had a job that I loved and where I wasn't dreading work all day. Like, you know, when you have a. That isn't something you enjoy. It's like you spend your whole life just dreading it. It's like when you're at work, you're wishing you were home, and then when you're home, you're dreading work the next day. And so this was the first time where I was excited to wake up and I was excited to work. And so as the years went on, I kind of fell in love with the business side. Like, I was really into branding and marketing and all of the business stuff, and people started asking me. I also was blogging and. And so people started asking me, like on the blog and Facebook, like all of these business questions. And so I was like, huh, okay, well, maybe I'll start like writing blog posts about business and things like that. So I started dabbling in it. And then eventually it was around like 2014. I want to say I'm losing track of time, but it was around then that I decided I kind of wanted to transition from my wedding photography business into an online business because I really had fallen in love with the business side. And as we already mentioned, I'm an introvert. And so while I loved shooting weddings, it was very draining on me. Like, I would be, come Sunday after I would shoot a wedding, I would be like spent. All my energy was gone. Not only that, but like I had the body of like an 80 year old woman. I felt like I had been hit by a truck. And so I was like, I just don't see myself doing this long term. And so that's when I really decided to make the transition into growing an online business. And so, yeah, that's kind of what I did. I really wanted to focus on helping as many people as possible start and grow their own business so that they could have that feeling of waking up in the morning, excited. And that's where Wonderlass began. And then of course, I created some online courses and that's what fuels my business. And here I am today, years later.

I loved your story. So you found out that you didn't like wedding planning, but you loved the photograph. Be part of it.

Loved it. Wow.

Okay, so. And when you started your own business in 2014 and decided to make that transition, or not started your own business, but decided to make that transition to online, did you have a niche that you started out with or was it.

Not really. I often. So I basically I had. I started a blog in like 2009 and I was pretty much blogging about all the things like it was the most jumbled mess ever. I was blogging about weddings, I was blogging about storm chasing, I was blogging about DIY crafts, I was dabbling in business like it was all over the place. So in 2014, I was like Okay. I have, like a hodgepodge of like, 10 different things that don't make any sense together. And so I started off very broad, but, yeah, it was in 2014 where I was like, I really want to focus on teaching business, because that's what I fell in love with when I was running my photography business. So it was that point where I kind of whittled out the other stuff and focused entirely on business. And then a couple months in online business specifically.

And today, you focus on helping people plan their productivity, their mindset. But I think a lot of the course creators who are listening here today, I'm sure you hear this all the time, too. They just say there's just not enough time in the day to get everything that they need to get done. You talk through some of the tips that you have or, you know, what do you have? What kind of suggestions do you have for this? For us, if that's how we're feeling?

Totally. So I know it's really common. I mean, I was there. I was. When I was making the transition, I was working my photography business full time, so I was shooting weddings on the weekends, and I was meeting with couples in the day, and I was editing photos and shooting engagement sessions. And on the side, I was also trying to start this online business and get it going. And so I know that it's a common thing to feel like there just isn't enough time. So the first thing that I would suggest, and this might sound a little silly, but the first thing I would suggest is just first of all, changing your mindset around time and your relationship with time. That's one of the first things that I did because I was in a place of, oh, my gosh, like, I'm overwhelmed. How am I going to do this? I was always telling myself that I didn't have enough time. There's not enough time in the day. And so I started by just changing my relationship with time. And I stopped telling myself, I don't have enough time. Time is the enemy. And I started viewing it as, okay, I have plenty of time. I always have enough time. I started with just kind of saying these positive phrases, and eventually they began to really sink in and just kind of trying to view time differently. So, like, that's the first tip I would say is try to start off by changing your relationship with time. Instead of seeing it as, I don't have enough time, just start saying, I have plenty of time. I know it sounds a little corny, but it really helped. And it kind of sets the Tone for everything else. So that's the first thing.

Okay. I love that. Maybe even journaling it, possibly.

Yeah, yeah. Like, it's just a mindset shift. You know, you have to just start thinking instead of seeing time as the enemy. Start being like, you know what time is, my friend? Time is on my side. I always have plenty of time. I would literally say that to myself. I'd be like, in the shower, and I'd be like, you know, my neighbors probably think I'm crazy, but I'd be like, I always have plenty of time. And I'd, like, be walking around my apartment, like, saying things about how I had plenty of time. I love time, and time loves me. So. Yeah, but you could. If you don't want to be crazy like me and walking around talking out loud to yourself, you could definitely. That is something that you could journal out as well. So that is my first tip. But the second thing is really be more. First of all, when you talk about, like, time management and productivity, I think a lot of people see productivity as trying to get more things done in less time. But that's not what I view productivity as, because you could spend eight hours doing all the things, and you could be super productive for eight hours. But that doesn't mean you actually did anything to move the needle or to get closer to your goals. And so I like to view productivity as focusing on the right things, not just trying to get more done in less time, but focusing on the right things. And so one of the biggest tips I can give for really reaching whatever it is you're trying to do is, first of all, getting clarity on why you want to be productive in the first place. Where are you going? What is your goal? Because that sounds obvious, but a lot of people, they don't really have clarity around what actually they're working towards. What do they want? What is the end goal? A lot of people kind of have a vague idea, but if you don't have a really clear picture of what it is you want and where you're going, you're not going to be able to work on the right things every single day. So that's like the first thing. You got to get that clarity on where you're going. What does your business look like 12 months from now? What are the three biggest clear, tangible goals that you have for yourself and also for your life? So that's the first thing. The second thing I would say after you get that clarity is you've got to clarity on your goals is you got to break them down and you have to start focusing all of your daily to do's. Like every task on your to do list should be directly in line with moving you towards those main goals that you have once you know where you're going. Because one of the things that I did in the beginning was I was super busy and I was working a lot, but I wasn't working on the right things or I was working on things that were really comfortable like tweaking my website for the hundredth time or playing in Canva or pinning things on Pinterest and I wasn't working on the things that were actually going to move the needle. And so once you have that clarity on, okay, this is what I want to do. For example, I want to, since we're talking with course creators, I want to have my course created and launched in 90 days, let's just say. So the tasks on your to do list should be directly in line with that. So anything else you gotta cut, you gotta, you know, just delete altogether or delegate it to someone else or put it on hold for another time. So that's also. I feel like I'm babbling and just rambling. I get really excited.

Well, actually you're not. And I'd like to take a. I like the example you just gave us and I like to expand on it a little bit more. We can use my, myself as an example because I'm in the process of not creating a course, but I'm updating a course. I'm getting going really in depth in some Facebook and Instagram ad training and my magic marketing for course creators and nice. It's been, you know, it can be challenging. Right? It's. So it's a lot to create this content. Right. You're creating all the slides you're recording on, you're creating workbooks and cheat sheets and all the stuff that goes with it. So I like what you said about getting clear clarity on where you're going. So kind of this is my goal, this is what I want to have at launch by and then breaking down all of your to do's, you know, to get there. So you know what kind of what I did, I did my outline, I use kajabi. So I kind of did the outline, if you would, in kajabi and how I'm laying everything out and I kind of use that as my to do. Yeah, this particular thing and you know, just went in there and just start, started, you know, knocking them out one by one.

Yeah, I think it's really important, like I'M obsessed with, you know, planning. I like to say the more planning you do, the more profit that you make and the more time that you're gonna save. So like a day of planning will save you probably weeks worth of wasted time. And so when you take a big like a goal like that, like you have your say, have your course totally revamped in 30, 60 days. However many days you're going after, like a big project like that can seem really overwhelming. So I think it's really important, once you figure out, okay, what is my goal, you gotta just brain dump every single activity that you need to do that you can think of off the top of your head. Because there will be other things that you will need to do that will pop up and you might not know everything, but just brain dumping everything that you can think of that you need to do every single task and then plugging it into some type of project management calendar app I think is essential. Like if it's not on the calendar, then it's not going to happen. So I think that's like one way to just break it all down and to make it seem not so overwhelming once you it's like, oh, okay, here's what I need to do. It's on my calendar now. I have a doable plan here. And that way you're also focusing on the things that you need to do every single day. And one other thing I'll say with that is it's really important to like prioritize your TO dos for the day. So like, if you've got a to do list that's like 10 items long, first of all, I don't ever Recommend Doing like 10, 15 things on your to do list every single day because you're gonna start the day off feeling really overwhelmed. And so I think it's equally important to really make sure that you're not overloading your to do list. Because that's something I used to do is I would kind of an overachiever. So I'd be like, I'm gonna do 20 things tomorrow. And then I would start my day and I would want to cry when I looked at my to do list. So it's also really important to make sure that it's like doable. You know, five items is good and then circle the top three. What are three things that are going to move the needle the most in getting me towards my goal and doing those things first? Before you do any work for anyone else, before you check your mail or social media is knocking the one to three most important things that you need to do that day off your to do list.

Hey there Destiny here and I'm the host of the Creators MBA podcast and this episode is brought to you by HelloContent Shop your Go to destination for content creation in your online digital product business. I understand how busy you are as an online business owner. I am right there with you and that is why I have filled our hello Content Shopify store with low cost digital products that you can use as a lead magnet or part of your paid programs like your online courses or memberships. We also have marketing templates like email swipe files and social media templates designed to save you time and money. So whether you're looking to streamline your content strategy, enhance your digital products, or just save some precious time, I've got you covered my friend. Now visit thehellocontent Shop today and take the first step towards effortless content creation.

So you mentioned having some type of project management system or a calendar app where you could do your rained up of everything that you needed to get done. Is there any particular project management system or app that you recommend?

Yes, so I use Trello. Okay. There's two that I recommend. I use Trello. You may have heard of it. No.

Yes, it's actually what I recommend too. So that's awesome.

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I use Trello but I also have used Asana before. I don't currently use it just because I ended up liking Trello more, but Asana was also really good and it's really good for people who are very list oriented. They like lists a lot. You can still make lists in Trello too, but I would suggest both of those. And it just kind of depends on personal preference. But I think it's an absolute must if you are just winging it or writing random to do lists everywhere, jotting down notes, you are going to be wasting so much time.

Well, what I liked about Trello are the boards. I just think it was so much more visual than Asana. But I've used Asana 2 in the past and I liked it also.

Yeah, me too. And that's one of the reasons why I moved over to Trello was because I liked the boards and I was like, ooh, I can create backgrounds for my boards and make them look all pretty and I'm very visual as well. So. Yeah, but Trello's awesome. And having some type of calendar project management system I think is absolutely essential for any business owner. Whether you're creating a course or you're not Creating a course. You've got to take the time to be doing that. Planning and getting clarity around what you're actually working on. That's number one, I think.

So you mentioned a few minutes ago or you touched upon social media, and I think a lot of us feel like social media can be a complete time suck.

Oh, yes, it can.

So what are your suggestions there? How do we avoid spending or wasting, quite frankly, hours a day on social media?

Well, this is something that I do. It wasn't easy at first, but I have. I never ever scroll social media ever. Didn't used to be that way. I used to waste a ton of time on Facebook and Instagram, but it's amazing how much time you can spend without even realizing it by just kind of mindlessly scrolling on whichever platform that you prefer. It's like, oh, you know, it's like society. It's like smartphones have trained us to want that distraction. Like anytime we have a free moment or our mind is like, oh, no, we're not thinking about something for two seconds. It's like that urge to, like, log on to Instagram real quick or, ooh, maybe just open your Facebook app and then you start scrolling and then you'll start seeing things and clicking on things and going down rabbit holes. And before you know it, you've just wasted like an entire hour. And so that's what I was doing. And I was also noticing that I just didn't usually feel that great afterwards. I would, you know, see a lot of things that either just kind of got me riled or I would see people arguing on Facebook or political things that would make me upset or whatever it may be. I would find my not feeling that great. Not only did I just waste an hour, but now I don't feel that great. And so I highly recommend putting social media, you want to call them, rules in place. But basically what I do is I don't scroll social media like I mentioned, but I give myself a set amount of time each day for checking social media. So I will, for example, check Instagram, and I use it strategically for business as well. So I'm not just scrolling. I never scroll. But I will get onto Instagram for 20 minutes a day. And that is actually blocked out in Trello on my calendar and it says Instagram, 20 minutes. And so I do not keep social media open on my browser ever. I do not have the notifications on on my phone. In fact, I frequently. I don't even have Facebook on my phone. I deleted it off. And so the Temptation is gone. And so for me, I get on for that 20 minute period. I'm intentional. When I get on, I do follow people on social media, but instead of scrolling, I will just manually look up their names to see what they're up to so their profile pops up. Or on like Instagram you can create collections. And so I actually have a folder on Instagram of all the people that I want to follow, whether they inspire me or whether they're people I want to connect with. And so I will just click on that folder instead of scrolling and I will just manually like look at all of their stuff, if that makes sense.

I love all those tips. Right? Just set aside, you know, certain amount of time. Like you do 20 minutes.

Yes.

Take off the notifications.

Oh my gosh, no, don't even get me started on notifications. Like speaking of time management, notifications just drive me nuts. Like they have. They train you to like get your instant attention. It's like a little bell that goes off like ding, ding, ding, look at me, look at me. And it's constantly breaking your focus and that leads to even more wasted time. So like turning off notifications for social media on your phone, but also email I think is key. That's a whole nother topic of conversation.

Well, let's go there. I mean, I agree email can also be a time sense. Times suck, if not even more than social media. So what's your recommendation there?

Both. So for email, when I. So I have a personal assistant. Okay, I just totally jumbled that I have. Okay, let's start over. I have a personal assistant now, but I didn't up until about a year ago. So for basically nine years I was a one woman show, which I don't recommend. I waited way too long to get help. But that's another point. But up until I had an assistant, I was checking email too much, wasting too much time. I would keep it open and you know when I would get the notification and it's so distracting. And so I began to put. So just like my social media, I also put email rules into place. And so instead of keeping email open all day long, which is extreme, extremely distracting, I set aside a specific time of the day where I was gonna check and respond to all emails. So like in the beginning I would check it usually mid morning and then I would check it around 4 at the end of the day. Now one thing I will say is I never recommend checking email first thing in the morning. Like so many people do that. Like they'll wake up and like the first thing they do is try to check their email and just kind of get it under control. But the thing that happens when you do that is you are putting other people's stuff before yours. You are trying to do everything else for everyone. You're getting all these requests coming at you and things that need to be handled and fires that need to be put out. And before you know it, you just spent your whole morning dealing with other people's things instead of working on your own things. So I recommend never, ever checking it first thing in the morning. And so I put these rules into place and I actually gradually put the email window open only once a day. So I only checked my email once a day from like 3:30 to 4. However long it took me. I would go in, I would knock out as many emails as possible. Done. And I would do that once a day, deleted it off my phone once again. And the other thing is, when you are responding to emails all day, not only is that taking your focus away, which is going to cause you to lose a lot of time time, because that's multitasking, which is another time waster, but you're also training people to expect instant responses from you, which unless it's like, urgent, urgent, their house is burning down and oh my gosh, help, we need you right now. Like, people don't need instant responses. Your time is valuable. Your priorities and your goals are valuable. People don't need to be trained to get instant responses from you all day long. And so that's just another little tidbit. So email rules, I think are key. Once a day, twice a day if you gotta, and being really intentional about never keeping it open, turning off those notifications. I've got an autoresponder on my email that says like, hey, thank you so much for contacting me. I really appreciate your time. And then I give them like the expected time window where they can hear back from me that, you know, I typically check my email X amount of times a week and so you can expect a response from me around 24 to 48 hours. In the meantime, here are my blog posts, here's my podcast, and I'll talk to you soon. Nowadays I only check it once a week because I have my personal assistant doing that. But before she came along, I was checking it once a day.

I love that. I love the fact that you have put rules not only in for social.

Media, but also for, oh my gosh, I can't even tell you how much I can. How much mental space that it clears because when you're constantly checking social media or email, your attention is getting muddled all of the time. And so when you're like, you can even. I'm sure you've heard of context switching. Have you heard of context switching?

No. Tell me a little bit about it.

Context switching, for those who want to know, you can Google it. It's an actual thing. But every time you switch tasks, and this is what makes multitasking so bad for productivity, contrary to what a lot of people think, is that every time you switch a task, it takes your brain 20 plus minutes to catch back up and get into that same zone of focus that it was in before. So every time you're switching tasks, you're losing your focus. And it's like your brain spends like 20 minutes just trying to get back up to the speed that it was going at before. And so every time you're looking at your email, every time that you're looking at social media and you're getting off your main focus for the day, it's like you're wasting time just trying to get your brain back in the zone. And if you're like, I am one of those people who sometimes I'll be on a roll and when I am working on something, I will get into the zone. I'm like focused, I've got laser beams coming out of my eyes, and then if I get interrupted or I have to go do something, I, I'll sit back down at my computer and it'll take me like half an hour sometimes just to get back to where I was before. So context switching is the thing that makes multitasking so bad for productivity because your brain is constantly trying to play catch up.

And when you're doing some of these, I should say, tasks that require a lot of brain activity, like putting together your marketing funnel, your sales funnel, or creating content for your online course. It takes a lot of brain power to do that.

It does. Oh yes. And it's. You need all of that. You need every ounce of brain power for those things, for the things that are important to your business, not for checking social media 20 times and responding to email 50, 100 times during the day. That is so true. And so I recommend, like, the way I do it is I will batch and I'll do time blocking. So like in Trello or my calendar or however you want to do it, I set aside every single day chunks of time where I will work on one thing and one thing only. I never, ever, ever, ever multitask. If you are listening right now and you want to get your course created or more done with the limited amount of time you have, ditch multitasking and start getting laser focused on setting aside however much time you have a day, whether that's, that's 30 minutes a day, an hour a day, and focusing on the one thing that is going to move the needle the most towards that goal that you've gotten clarity on already and just ignoring the rest.

I love that. Just ignore the rest. So, Alison, any last minute tips that you can think about for the course creators listening here today?

Oh, my goodness. I have like 50 tips.

Well, give me more if you got them.

Okay, let's see. Well, I would just say. Oh, man. I would say keep those blinders on. Get really clear on what it is you're trying to accomplish. Break it down, put it on the calendar. And every single day. When you're looking at your to do list, as you're going through each item, ask yourself, is this something that is going to move me towards my main goal? If it's not, then you should either move it to another time, delete it all together, or hand it off to someone else. And remember that you have plenty of time. We all have 24 hours in a day. It's really just a matter of focusing on the right things. You do not need to do all the things. In fact, I would say doing all the things is one of the things that keeps a lot of people stuck and it keeps a lot of people from seeing the growth that they want is because they're trying to do all the things. So don't do all the things. Just do like the one or two things. Less, grow more.

I love that. Do less, grow more. I'm going to write that down in do less, grow more.

That is true for me.

That's great. Do less, grow more. Alice, can you tell people where they can find you?

Yeah. So you can find me over@wonderlass.com it's W O n D E R L A S s. I have tons of free resources. I've got free courses, all sorts of things over there. And then I also have a podcast called the Take Imperfect Action podcast. It's on all of the itunes or the itunes and the Spotify and all the places as well. But you need a motivational kick in the pants to just get going. That'll be a good thing to listen to.

And I will make sure all of those links are in the show notes Allison, so they can find you. And I think you have like a mini trello course correct too.

I do. Yeah. I have a mini course. It is all about how I use Trello. So if you are looking to save time and get organized and just make major progress on your goals, and that is definitely something to check out. It is basically all the boards that I have in my schedule and I share how to actually put it into a project management system so that you can get things done. It's like your own personal integrator is how I like to see Trello.

Oh, I like that. I like that.

Like your virtual integrator.

I will definitely make sure that that is in there for them also.

Sweet. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I would love to connect with you. I'm also on Instagram @WonderLast, so, you know, find me in all the places.

And I will make sure all of those links are there. Course creators, thanks so much for joining us today. I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did in our chat with Allison. We'd love for you to rate and review the podcast on itunes or your favorite podcast platform. Have a great rest of your day. Bye for now.