#73: 3 Productivity Hacks that Will Change Your Life

All right, welcome in everyone. Hello! It has been a hot minute since I have recorded a solo episode for you all, so I am actually really excited for this. I'm excited to come in and share some things with you all. Um, first I want to do a quick update, just a personal update of how things are going and what's happening in, uh, my neck of the woods, as we say here in Georgia. Uh, if you're a first-time listener, welcome in to Aligned and Wealthy. I'm Lindsay. I am a marketing coach. I am a mom. I am a consultant. I am a wife. I am a student. I'm a friend. I'm a sister. So I welcome you here. I hope that you find something valuable and that you find something that you can go and apply to your life. My motto or my mission, really my mission for this podcast is that wherever you are in your journey and in your wealth building journey and your business journey, your career journey, whatever the case is for you, is that you are in a constant devotion to both alignment and building your version of wealth. You know, I think that it's, it's a taboo topic sometimes to talk about money and to talk about making money and, and building wealth, and it can feel really uncomfortable, especially if you are just starting to dive into this world of becoming financially free, or if you are, you know, starting your own business, or if you are making a career change, or if you're just maybe not where you want to be right now and you have big goals and you're not quite there yet. I know that it can feel a little scary to talk about these things. So my hope is that through this podcast, through coming into this Community, immersing yourself in this Community, is that you feel safe. It's that you feel safe talking about these topics, that you know that you are not alone and you know that we are all in this together. So without further ado, welcome in everyone. I'm actually going to keep this podcast episode a little bit shorter than usual. Well, I mean, you guys know I can talk, so this may— it may not be super short, but my hope is actually to keep it around 10, 12 minutes. I want this to be very actionable, very implementable. Is that a word? Implementable. I want you to be able to apply this to your life. Okay, so before we get into today's topic, I do want to share with you a few personal updates. So I have been loving life. Life, life is so good, you guys. Like, I have taken a step back from social media and I know that some of you have reached out and, and just checked in on me. So thank you. Thank you. I love you all so much and I miss you all. And I just, just like, it's just, I just been living, you know, I've just been living life and I've been traveling with work and with some things happening. In the business and professionally. I am also starting grad school this month, so that is news. I think that that's the first time that I have announced that to the public. So welcome to Lindsey Goes to Grad School. Welcome, welcome. It's so funny because, you know, 3 years ago, whenever I left teaching, I was all, I'll never go back to school. You know, this college is a ripoff, you know, all those things. And, and it's And it's okay to change your mind. Let me just say that it's okay to change your mind. And I am very, very excited for this opportunity. It's funny though, because even whenever I was making those statements back then, 3 years ago in like 2019, early 2020, like knowing that I was gonna be leaving my teaching career, I still like, I love learning. I love going to school actually. But in that moment I felt as if everything had sort of been a lie. I guess it was like that self-discovery moment where you realize that, oh my gosh, I went to college. For 4 years, 4+ years for me. It took me a little bit longer because life. And I went to school, did this thing, and now I'm making an entire career change. Like, that was a waste. And in reality, it's not. In reality, it's really not a waste if that's what you value. And I do value education. So even then, even whenever I was saying that, I still knew how valuable education was. So anyways, all that to say, it's okay to change your mind. I will be pursuing my master's degree in business administration, and I'm just really excited for that journey to, to grow with other people and to learn from my professors, to learn from the, from the university community, and to dive into that, uh, world of education because my formal education is in psychology and, um, elementary education. So anyways, welcome to Lindsay Goes to Grad School. Few other personal updates: my son, my baby, he just started pre-K. He, uh, turned 4. He also started pre-K. My daughter's been about to turn 6. What in the world? It's so weird. I don't have toddlers anymore. And yeah, I've just been loving, been loving life. Take a step back from social media. I have some really, really cool things in the works for you all. I have been expanding my team, so we've brought in 2 new team members who are working in, in the backend, working behind the scenes on some things, getting our courses back up and running, getting things going. I, I'm just so excited for what the future has in store. Uh, also looking at bringing in someone else for some, for some branding stuff and some design and, um, some things to make the courses and the coursework even better than it already is. So doing some hiring, doing some growing, doing some big girl moves over here. So that is where I have been. I would love to hear where you all have been. Where have you been in your life lately? Where have you been in business? Where have you been in your professional development? Oh, oh, I also started a new workout routine. That, that's a new thing for me. So this is, I'm following Lauren Simpson's workout routine. It's called— what am I doing? I'm doing Power Booty. That's right, Power Booty. I don't have like an affiliate link. I should, I should find one though. But that is what I'm working on right now. I'm trying to get some glute gains in my life. So Yeah, tell me what you guys have been working on. What have you been doing? How was your summer? Please reach out on Instagram @lindsey.badillo, B-A-D-I-L-L-O, and feel free to message me and let me know what you've been up to. All right, so that's that. Those are personal updates. Let's jump right in to today's topic. And this one's like so straightforward. It's 3 productivity hacks that have changed my life, and they'll probably change yours too if you can adopt these. All right. So number 1, I live— this is not— this is the preface. This is not the, the hack. Okay? This is not— this is not the, the teaching point here. But the preface is that I live by Google Calendars. Like literally my friends and family know that if I say, if I put it into my Google Calendar, it's happening. Like if it goes in the calendar, it's happening. If I don't put you into the calendar, it's not gonna happen. And, and that's because I'm busy and I have 2 kids and a husband and a dog and a cat and like a business and like all these things. And if it just doesn't go on the calendar, it's not happening. Now here's the thing though, I'm also a very, very avid to-do list maker. Hands up for to-do list makers. Yeah. So if, so I, I love making to-do lists because things, again, like all these different things that you're juggling, if you don't write it down, it's also not gonna happen. That's how it is for me at least. So what will happen though is that I will create these big, huge, long to-do lists and then I will sit down for focus time. And every day I have 2 hours worth of focus time on my calendar Monday through Friday. And that is time that I am like literally sitting at my desk doing work. I'm not on calls, I'm not traveling, I'm not doing anything else. I'm sitting down focusing on things that get done, which, which would entail things on my to-do list. Now the issue with this is during that time I realized that whenever I was sitting down to do the things, I would look at this big, huge, long to-do list and I would end up just kind of task hopping from like 7, 8 things and not really completing any one thing. So this, this became an issue because now it's like you've got all these different tasks. It's like having tabs open in your brain. It's like having tabs open in your to-do list and everything's kind of halfway done and you're realizing that this is not efficient. This could be more efficient. So I actually learned this from a client on one of our group coaching calls. And this was, this was something that I'm giving credit where credit due. I can't remember who it was. We have so many people inside of Seven Figure, but This was a hack that someone in there taught me. I tried it and I'm bringing it to you all. So what I started doing was I started giving my priority tasks a home. Okay, so for an example, if the task was— if I had several things on my to-do list and I've got my list right here in front of me, let's just say a few things right now are write a re-engagement sequence. Write a note for the teachers for KAC. That's the thing for my kids. And then go through my speaking pitch sheet. Those are 3 different things that I need to do, and I know that those are priority things, and there's like a list of 20 other things on here. So what I would do is I'm saying, okay, these are priority. So now I'm gonna go give these things a home on my calendar. So I'm gonna literally pull up my, my Google Calendar, and I'm gonna give Let's see, that first one was re-engagement sequence. Gosh, I just— emails take me forever. I'm a perfectionist. I want it to be just right and it just literally takes me forever. So it's going to take me like 2 blocks of focus time to do that, probably. So what I would do, or what I will do, is I will say re-sequence, re-engagement writing time, and I'm going to make that an event on my calendar and I'll probably put it in there for an hour and a half increment and then I'll go make another increment for an hour and a half. And I'll say re-engagement sequence writing time. And so now it literally has a home on my calendar. Okay, going on to the next priority list was write a note for Allison's, for my daughter's and Atlas's teachers. That would not take long whatsoever. That's just like 20 minutes of me just blocking out the time to do it. Probably even less than that. I'd probably do it for 15 minutes. So what I would do is I'd open up my calendar and I'd make a 15-minute event, like literally an event for 15 minutes, write notes for teachers. Save it in the calendar. Okay, the next thing was go through the speaking pitch sheet. So I'm literally going to make a, a time on my calendar, and I would actually get a little bit more specific on that one and say, like, what do I actually want to accomplish during that time? Not just go through it. So this one, I probably need to create an SOP for this. Like, this is probably gonna take about an hour because I have to figure out that SOP. So I would say create SOP for speaker pitches and then I plug that into my calendar for an hour. So that way, whenever I sit down, I know exactly what it is that I'm working on during that time. Absolute game changer. Changer. All right. I thrive under pressure, which is like a blessing and a curse because, you know, I can wait until last minute to get things done and it's really kind of chaotic and I don't want to be that way. I don't wanna be that way. Take it away. So this has really, really helped me just get ahead of things and actually be like a week in advance of my due dates. And, and it really has been so helpful. So let me know if you're gonna give that a try of giving your tasks a home on your calendar. So I say next 3 to 4 priority things, give them a home on your calendar so you know exactly what it is that you're working on when you're sitting down to work. Okay, now second productivity hack that will probably change your life. Let's say that you just have like really big, like big freaking projects that just, you just, you have no idea how you're gonna get through them and you're really not even sure what the actionable is. You're really not even sure where to start on it, but you know you need to put it on the calendar. You know that you've got these things to get done instead of giving everything a home. So say you tried that, that works. Okay, now this other, this, this next tip is actually going to— I wouldn't say counteract, but it's almost kind of like, okay, if that doesn't work, try this, try this, this thing. It's committing to one thing per day. Okay, so for an example, my one thing per day today, like literally in my life, Tuesday, August 16th, my one thing today is to record these podcast episodes. That's my one thing today. So outside of all of my calls, I had team meetings today. I've got coaching calls, like outside of all of these things that require me to be exerting energy outward. My one project that I committed to today was knocking out some podcast episodes. I needed to get these solo podcast episodes out. I, I've really been wanting to do this. I was excited to do it, and that's the one thing I told myself that I could commit to today. So that's what I'm doing. So pick one thing per day to knock off your list. Okay. That one's really short and easy. And you may be thinking, Lindsay, I can do way more than one thing in a day, and that's totally fine. Maybe you can, but also maybe your time is limited and you have calls like literally all day and you've got this thing and you got to go to an appointment and all these things are happening. Or maybe your energy is just really low and you just, you know, don't have the energy to focus on all those things. So commit to one thing a day. Okay? That's going to help you make forward movement. All right, last but not least is to delegate something somewhere. All right, now this, this can absolutely mean if you have a team. Yes, this could mean if you have a social media manager, maybe you have a bookkeeper, you have a CPA, maybe you just have a partner or a friend, and maybe you can just delegate something to them. You can ask them for help. So this can, yes, definitely mean like a team that you have hired and they— and you pay them to do things for you. Or it can be like someone that's just emotionally connected to you and you need to ask them for help. And you say, hey, you know, for example, my husband, you know, on Wednesdays he goes and gets the kids from school. So it's like, hey babe, can you make sure that you get the kids today? That's me delegating. Like, even though it's like, it's not as like cold as delegation, you know, as cold as that sounds, it's asking for help. It's getting help. It's looking at your list of all the things that you need to do and saying, okay, does this really require me to do it? Do I really have to do this thing? And then being okay with, with just asking for help. And I, I'll also add to this point, not making, like, not putting so much pressure on yourself to get the delegation absolutely perfect. Okay. I think this one goes more towards the people with a team, or maybe you're starting to hire a team, or maybe you're wanting to bring in, you know, a social media manager, or you're wanting to bring in a VA, or you're wanting to bring in like one person into your team. And, or maybe you already have and you're a little worried about coming off this way. You're not really sure how to delegate stuff. You're not really sure how to give direction. Just start somewhere. Okay? Say please. Say please and thank you a lot and just start and it will get easier. And ask how you, how you can support your team. 15 minutes a day to check in with those people that you're delegating something to, saying, hey, how can I support you today? How's everything going? They'll let you know if they need help. They will let you know. And then you say, awesome, great. Here, I also have— I also have this for us to do today. And asking for help whenever you know that, like, okay, I am ready to grow, I'm ready to scale, I'm ready to, you know, move into my next level. Whether you're working or not, like whether you're working a corporate job or you're running a business, whatever the case is, there comes a point to where you just can't do everything, and, and you should not have to get to the moment of suffering before you realize that. You should not get to the moment of absolute, like, desperation before you start delegating or asking for help. Okay, so recap, here we go. Number 1, we're gonna give our tasks a home. We're gonna put them on our calendar, give them an actual event so that we know what it is that we're focusing on. Number 2, We are going to commit to completing one thing every single day. If you can commit to one thing a day, that's 5 things in a week. I think we can absolutely do that. Okay. And number 3, we are going to delegate something somewhere so that we are not putting everything on ourselves. We can ask for help and we can receive support. Fun fact, there used to actually be a Post-it note on my desk that said, I allow myself to be supported.. And this was, uh, really pivotal in me just being okay with asking for help and being okay with, you know, allowing myself to be supported through systems, structures, automations, people, resources. I just allow myself to be supported, period. Okay? So maybe you need to write yourself a Post-it note and, and put that on your desk, whatever, whatever it takes. You know, we're just doing our best out here. All right, so that is our 3 productivity hacks. For today that have changed my life and will probably change yours as well. I told you all I would go over 10 minutes, like I knew it would happen. But this is a wrap, everyone. Come let me know on Instagram. I'm not like super duper duper on there all the time. Like I used to be like posting stories every day, but I'm always checking my messages like at least, you know, like once, once or twice a day I'm in my messages. So come and say hello to me. Let me know what you've been up to. Especially if we haven't talked in a while, or if you're new here, come and say hello to me. I would love to connect with you and I love getting to know you all. So I will see you all soon and keep your eye out for the next episode of Aligned and Wealthy. Bye. Hey gang, it's Lindsey. If you enjoyed today's show, it would mean so much for you to take 1 to 2 minutes and leave us a review right here on your podcast platform. You can click directly on the link to our podcast page, scroll to where it says reviews, and leave us a 1 to 5 star review. 5 star preferably. To really be the gold star student, you can share with us what episode or what episodes you've enjoyed most and what you'd want to hear more of. I personally read every single review, and I would love to be able to share your review on one of our next episodes. So thank you so much for listening, and I will see you in the next episode.