How To Enhance Your Productivity with Tips, Tactics & AI With Paula Rizzo

Settle in and cozy up.

We're about to dig in.

Let's get ready to go.

Cheers. Welcome to our weekly coffee meeting. I'm excited that you're here. If you could have coffee with anyone in the world, who would it be?

Dead or alive.

My guess is that you picked somebody interesting or funny or talented, maybe even famous. Well, we're going to do the same thing right here, right now with somebody interesting that you may or may not already know about. I started these weekly gatherings because I realized that I was meeting fabulous, interesting people, founders, CEOs, executives. I was getting all of these aha moments and little gems from them, but I realized, why should I be the only one getting all of this goodness? Way more CEOs Eats should be at this table, which is why I decided every single week we should get together and we should sit down with these amazing people, steal all their secrets, and use it in our own lives. If you're new here, there's time for you to grab something warm or cold. If there's wine, I won't tell. And get settled in as we get ready to learn about interesting people with awesome jobs and lots of tips and tricks for us to steal. Two pieces of homework before we start. One, follow me here on LinkedIn if you haven't already. That way you can stay up to date as things happen. And number two, get ready with questions because I want you to be able to ask your questions in real time here with me.

That's right.

You have a seat at this table too, which means I'm counting on you to ask amazing questions, make good points, and be in this conversation with me. Of course, you could be a bystander, but that's never as fun. If you haven't already, let me know where you're coming in from. Maybe what's in your cup, how the weather is outside. I want to know exactly where you are in the world and exactly what you're experiencing so I can share where I am too, and then it can feel like we're in the same cozy coffee shop together. I'm finishing up making my tea now, and I'm getting ready to settle in with you.

Hey friend, happy Wednesday wherever you are in the world. I hope you're having a fabulous start to the week. I'm glad to see so many of you made the time in your busy schedule to be live here with us. Big hi to Paul and Jeff and Liz and Shelpie and Britta. Ah, it's always good to see your names pop up in the chat. If you are new here, welcome! We are a really fun bunch and you are going to get a lot of goodness by looking at my face or hearing my voice, but you are also going to get a lot of goodness right over here in our live chat because that is where a lot of the good stuff goes down. So a ton of tips, tactics, resources. Also, if you yourself have tips, tactics, resources. You know, it's more fun to share than it is to keep things to yourself. So I hope that you will pop, pop, pop and type those in and send those into the chat. If you are listening to us later on your favorite podcast network, whether that's Spotify or Apple, while you are doing the dishes or doing the laundry or going for a run and you can't type in your own productivity hacks tricks or things that work for you, that's okay. You can always come back and add them later. You can ask me questions later. You can ask our guest Paula Rizzo questions later. You know, there's no rules around here. We make our own rules. So don't feel like anything is off limits because like I said, we're a great fun bunch here. We love to collaborate and learn together. So I hope you will feel quite at home here with our merry bunch. Today's session was something that I felt selfishly was going to be really great for me, and then I awkwardly hoped that it would be helpful for everybody else. And I say that because a couple weeks ago— I, I'm always one of those people that's trying to refresh the way that I'm thinking. You know, we all have strengths and weaknesses. One of my weaknesses— I guess you could see it as a strength, depends on how you look at it— is I'm a creature of habit, right? I order the same things at restaurants. I do things the same way, which in some ways feels really like safe and consistent. But it can be a weakness because it means that sometimes I'm not gravitating towards the latest and greatest and what's working well because I'm like, oh, well, I've been doing this technique and sort of like, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But if it ain't broke, don't fix it doesn't necessarily work all the time because there are newer techniques and newer things that work. And so it's kind of a goal of mine every quarter, every month to really try to break out of my natural habit, which is, you know, kind of keep doing what I've been doing and instead really take the time to actively learn, actively get better. Figure out if there are ways that I could be working smarter, not harder, which is something I think that we all wanna work smarter, not harder. We all wanna do more things with less time. And so as I was kind of on this hunt about productivity and how I could do more with less and how I can maximize, um, of course our favorite algorithms, the minute you start like thinking something in your brain and you type in like a few words in a Google search or a few words into LinkedIn Learning, like the algorithm, like knows everything about you. And so it was no surprise that about 2 days later, when I logged into my LinkedIn, that LinkedIn was like, aha, we know what you have been thinking about. And I was in my newsfeed and being fed all of, Paula Rizzo's courses. She has 9 of them on LinkedIn Learning, all about productivity and how to do things better from being a manager to optimizing your to-do list. And so I was like, I see you, LinkedIn Learning. You and I, You and I are on the same page of reading my mind. And so I was really excited when I reached out to Paula and she said that she would join us today to share some of her favorite tips and tricks and things that she does to stay productive. If you are not familiar, please do yourself a favor and do a quick Google stalk, if you will. You have about 30 seconds to stalk her before she joins us. So do a quick cram session. Like I said, she is a LinkedIn Learning instructor. She is also an author. She's a speaker. You can check her out anywhere, but especially on LinkedIn where she pushes out so much goodness daily. So wherever you are in the world, please help me by raising your coffee mug or your glass or your wine glass or whatever you have and welcoming Paula to coffee with us. Hello.

Thanks for having me.

Oh, well, thank you for joining us. We really appreciate it.

Well, it is so nice to be able to talk productivity and list my favorite things, but also to help people make their lives a little bit easier because that's what it's all about.

Well, we definitely want some of that because like I said, you know, I feel like I'm one of those people that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And so one of my first questions to you is when you are working or speaking or doing any of these things and you meet somebody like me who is sort of like stuck in their ways and kind of like, oh, but like this kind of still works. What are some points that you bring up that you're like, "Yeah, but it could be better on the other side"?

If it does work, I don't want you to upset the apple cart and then change your whole productivity scheme. I think it's okay, but it is important to stay on top of this to say, "Okay, this served me well before, but it's not really working anymore and I haven't changed in any way." I recently had this happen to me where I make my list the same way. I do it at night right before I leave my desk every day. I've always done that. As a television producer. And then recently I was like, you know what? I read an article from a friend of mine, Polly Campbell, who's wonderful, great author. And she was talking about how she was making her list a little bit differently. Like she had different buckets that she was putting things into so she could prioritize what she was doing. She wasn't just looking at like a list of things she had to do or a timeline. It was more about like, you know, does this actually need to happen today? Who, you know, how am I connected to each of these pieces? And I was like, hmm, that's interesting. So I did try it for a couple of days that way. I did it. I did go back to my old way, I have to say, but it was a good experiment. And it sort of like when I feel like when I'm not being productive, I can look at that system and say, okay, let me just shake it up a little bit and try something new. And it worked for that day or two. It got me out of my funk and then I kind of went back to my old way. So I think a little bit of both is good.

Well, I love that because it feels for me, it feels like a safety net. Like, okay, we're going to try this new thing for a week or two weeks, but always know that you can kind of safety net back to Back to what works. You know, as you're talking about, you know, writing a list at night or brain dumping, you kind of talked about different buckets. For someone that might be joining us today that is like, what the heck is Paula talking about with these buckets? I just write my to-do list, you know, 1 through 72, just kind of all things equal. Like, talk a little bit more about how you organize yourself that way.

So I do like to make the list every night before I leave my desk. It is my shutdown strategy for the day. I always have done it, even when I worked in corporate America. Now that I work for myself, I do it. It's that last thing that I'm like, okay, I'm going to put, you know, the period on the end of the day and move on to the next thing. So I like to do that so that when I come in the next day, I can sit down and say, okay, here are my intentions, right? It doesn't always work out exactly the way that I mapped out, but it's a good way to sort of have something down on paper so that the day doesn't get away from you and you know what you intend to do. The way that I do my list is in chronological order, in the order that I will do it. And this comes from my days as a television producer, just sort of like knowing time, knowing how long things take me, knowing my own personal productivity style. I write about that in my book, Listful Living. Knowing yourself is very important. I'm not going to tell you to become a morning person if you're not a morning person, you'll be cranky. I mean, I've tried it. It just doesn't work. So to be able to, to best use your energy at the times that are peak for you is really important. So knowing that and then creating your to-do list that way around that. So in the afternoon, if you're a little bit more sluggish, right, you don't want to do the deep thinking things or the writing or all that. Put that in the morning when you're going to be at your best. I'm the actual opposite. I don't like to do that stuff in the morning. I like to do it in the afternoon. So you have to know yourself. Um, and that's sort of how I, I've been doing my list for a long time and it works.

And then do you find that most people, you know, when they're prioritizing, or are most people keeping one to-do list? Like, so for example, I actually have two to-do lists. I have a work one, which is kind of like everything that I have to do for work. And then I have like what I call a life one, which is like, I need to mail a thank you note because I stayed with, you know, a friend over the weekend and I need to get my nephew a birthday gift. So How do you organize, I guess, like when you're thinking about lists and to-dos, I guess work versus personal life?

That is A++ list-making, I have to say, Kim. Very good. Because having two separate lists is very important. Something that I talk about a lot because it's hard when you put everything you have to do in every aspect of your life on one list, your brain doesn't know what to do with it. It really, you know, it can't differentiate. It's like, oh wait, was I supposed to buy that card? Or Or am I supposed to go, you know, on that interview or do a podcast or what?

You know what I mean?

Like, it just— your brain, it's too much to handle. So I also do, um, I keep it on the same piece of paper. So I do daily lists. That's how I do my lists. And I find that to be really helpful to just do one day and the next day and the next day. Uh, and I do on my left-hand side is all my work to-dos. And then on the right-hand side are my home to-dos or things that I have to remember, or, you know, I have to go meet a friend for dinner after work or whatever it is. So it's kind of a look at my day all on paper. And I do it, I still do it paper and pen. I mean, as much as I still, you know, I do use Asana and I use my calendar and I use, like, I use all those things and it, it's a little redundant because it's there too, but I like to write it down. I like to have it here next to me so I can look at it and I can scratch it off at the end of the day.

Well, I was going to say, because one of the stats you talk about is this stat that you're 33% more likely to remember something if you physically write it down. And I, I'm glad you brought that up because it's something I wanted to ask about because I think, you know, obviously now everybody has these things attached to us at the hip and to, to what you said, Asana or Notion or all of these different ways. Where do you think is the, is the right mix or a good mix of we need digital platforms to communicate in an async manner with teammates or people that could be not necessarily with us in person versus there is a real benefit to paper and pen, writing things down, having something in front of you. What do you think that balance is or what have you found? Obviously, you've coached thousands of people at this point, hundreds of thousands of people. Where's that balance?

Well, you're not only 33% more likely to remember, but to actually do it. So there's the difference, right?

It's not—

you could remember it and be like, meh, you know, I remembered to do it, but I didn't actually do it. There's a difference. But this takes it to the next level. Writing it down cements it in your brain. It does something to your brain chemistry, and it really gets it going. So for me, it's been the best. I, you know, I can't discount the phone. It's a great tool to be able to have so that you can remember things. It pops up, you know. I use it sometimes to remind myself to put something on my list. Like, it really does help. Help. Um, but I think it's a balance, and sometimes people want to know the exact right way to do it, and it's hard because it takes trial and error. It takes what works for you. What works for me, that might not be the same thing. I could give you tips all day, every day. I ask you to try them for at least 2 weeks, and if it doesn't serve you, let it go into the world and find a new app or a new way of doing things, and that's okay. But it really— I, I think we can't get away from doing things digitally. You have to. I mean, even, even a meeting invite, right? Like You want that on your calendar, but I take it that step further and I also write it on my list so that I'm looking at this list and I'm saying, okay, at 12:45, I'm getting on to make sure that my audio works for this interview. And that's part of my day, right?

Yeah, no, totally. So Liz, to answer your question, she had written in the chat, how long do you take? 2 weeks is what Paula Rizzo is saying. 2 weeks to test a new system to see if it works for you. And after 2 weeks, If you don't like it, if you feel like it's just not your jam, then alas, you can go back, move on straight back to whatever system that you had. But Jeff brings up a good point, you know, for someone who wants to expand not just on their productivity in terms of like what I'm gonna face today, but really thinking about their productivity in terms of a calendar week, or I have 5 days in the office or 3 days in the office and 2 days virtually. How do you look at different days and different tasks and how do you, I guess, zoom out and look not just like your daily to-do list, but maybe zooming out to a larger picture?

I love batching tasks. It's such a good use of your time and also of your brain energy to be doing a specific type of task all in one shot. So you wouldn't be doing your laundry one sock at a time. So I also don't think that you should be paying bills one bill at a time, right? You can save it up and do them on Thursdays or whatever it is, right? And so I had done this even as a television producer for many years. I would only do shoots in the field on a certain day, so I knew like this is the day, so I didn't have to, you know, open my schedule and have everybody do, you know, take whatever day you want. That's crazy, it's mayhem. So I, I have always tried to, to block time that way. And when I started working for myself Oh my gosh, almost 8 years ago now. At first, I was like, "Hey, free for all, open the calendar, see what happens." And quickly I noted that I was exhausted and I had been using Zoom before anybody else, right? Because I'm a media trainer as well. So I coach and media train people to be better on camera and talk about their books and all these things. And I had been using Zoom and I was exhausted. I was doing 4 or 5 Zoom calls a day. I didn't remember who I was talking to or what was going on. I mean, everyone has now experienced that through the pandemic and now you get it. But I had done this way before. So I said, "All right, I need to rein this in because it's just too much." So I do have blocks of days. So Mondays, I typically do not do any meetings on Mondays. That is all for me. That is to go through the calendar and say, "OK, what's going on this week? Do I need to write something? Do I need to—" It's quiet time, quiet work for me. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, that's when I do things, right? When I do interviews or when I meet with clients or whatever it is, and I have specific blocks of time that I work within. Do I sometimes not adhere to that? Totally. You know, sometimes I'll change things up and I'll be like, whatever, I'm gonna do it at this time. So that time, sometimes I do that. Uh, and then Fridays, and I have done this for a long time, I hold for creative work. And I did that because I guess it's about 5 years ago when my second book, Listful Living, came out. Um, I had a very short deadline of when I had to— I had 3 months to write that book. And so I was also doing everything else and I thought, how am I going to do this? So I blocked off Fridays for just that creative work. And now I just, I kept it. Like I do not let anything go on that Friday. It's creative work. And so I've written now a novel and I did it on Fridays. So I, you know, it's nice to have that and I look forward to it. And I'm a big fan obviously of batching and having specific days for specific things as much as you can.

I love that. I feel like it's also just really to your earlier point, it's getting to know yourself and getting to know what is going to work the best for you on a consistent, repeatable. Because I always tell people, it's one thing, it reminds me of New Year's where everybody says, I'm going to get a six-pack and go to the gym. And all of January is amazing and they're killing it. And then in February, everything falls off a cliff. So I think it's really, to your point, knowing yourself and what's going to hold and stick, because everyone can go through these sprints or like, yes, this whole month I'm going to be really great about no meetings on Monday. But if that's not actually realistic for you in the long term, then it's kind of like you really need to know yourself. Yes. More so than anybody else.

For sure. And sometimes you have to be flexible. Look, I couldn't do that when I worked with other people. I couldn't be like, hey, you know what? I know Monday is the day we're doing that meeting, but I don't do meetings on Mondays. Like, you can't do that, you know? So you have to make it work for you.

Be like, oh no. Yeah. I'm curious now, obviously in the last couple years, you know, ChatGPT has become such a thing. AI has become such a discussion point. And I'm curious with you, you know, obviously whether it is your LinkedIn Learning courses or your speaking engagements, I'm just curious, because you're in this field a lot, like, how many questions are you getting about AI? Like, are you really leveraging it? Are you digging into it? Are you kind of like anti-AI? Like, what's your, what's your take on it?

I, I mean, I have a love-hate with AI a bit, uh, especially with ChatGPT, because as an author, you know, it's a little hard because they've trained themselves on our stuff without our permission. And so there's a whole murkiness going on there, uh, so that's like the hate. And then the love is like, wow, this is actually a pretty great tool. This really helpful. It does help you to sort of get, uh, past procrastination. I find that it's a really good tool when you're thinking about like, oh yeah, I have to write that outline and I don't feel like it. So to be able to give you sort of that like push as almost like a thought partner to say, hey, what's like the basic draft that I could do in this outline? Or what are the 5 things I could talk about in this, in this talk that has— that maybe I didn't think of, or whatever it is. But you really have to treat ChatGPT and AI like your intern, right? These are summer interns that are very, very eager to be helpful and to find information, but they're not that good at it yet. You know what I mean? Like, you have to make sure that you double-check them and that you tell them, you know what, that was a good idea, but it doesn't make sense because of this other thing. So you sort of have to treat them that way. You know, it's not going to completely take over creative people's work or, you know, writers. I don't think that, but it's It's a good way to get a jumpstart on a lot of things that maybe you've been procrastinating.

What do you use, like if you had to pick 2 or 3 things lately that you personally have been using AI for, what would, what would those 2 or 3 tasks be?

So a lot of it has to do with travel. I travel a lot. I love traveling. And so I, I, I like to have sort of like a list of like, you know, what are the top 5 restaurants in Portland, Maine that cater to a gluten-free diet? Do you know what I mean? And so they'll go through and find a bunch. So then I'm like, okay, great, let me go look at those and see. So I do that a little bit. Um, you know, sometimes outlines for things where I, you know, I have a talk coming up in October and I'm sort of like throwing around ideas for it and I'm like, I don't know if that really makes sense, let's see. So, you know, to try and get some more ideas. Um, I've also used it for, uh, finding podcasts or media outlets to pitch and things like that. Because it is hard sometimes to find, you know, if you Google, you know, what are the top productivity, you know, podcasts, you don't always get all of them or the most recent ones. So I find that to be helpful too.

One of the things that I've really been using it a lot for lately, and I'm forgetting, I think maybe Ali, who we had on a couple months ago, told me about this. But there is a feature specifically on ChatGPT that you can use voice instead of typing. Yes. And that to me has been such a game changer because one of the things that I sometimes do, usually in the morning, but honestly it could be late at night as well, is things will pop up into my head or I will want to brain dump, but I will be washing the dishes, or I will be folding laundry, or I will be doing something. I'll be like, oh gosh, yes, I do need to get avocados, or oh yes, we are out of AA batteries, or whatever it is. And I will turn on that voice function and I will just ramble. I will be like, by the way, I always say like, hello. I'm like, hello, ChatGPT.

You should be nice to them. You never know. I'm like, hello.

Today you're going to listen to me brain dump. And I will just literally talk. I mean, my husband probably thinks I've lost my marbles because I'm just wandering around the house being like, and avocados and batteries, and I really need to get the car wash now that I'm thinking about it. Like, I will just talk to the thing as if, I don't know, as if it's like a person. And then what I do after I've rambled incessantly is, you know, you hit send, and then my next follow-up is, can you please number this? In a list, 1 through, you know, whatever it is. And at least then when I get back to my desk, whether it's the next day, whether it's later that day, whatever, I can open ChatGPT on my desktop. And at least there, it's to your point, like it's not necessarily in buckets, it's not divided between personal and work, but it, it's, it's at least somewhere. It's a record. Yeah, yeah, it's in a typed form. So I've been using the voice function a lot of that, that, that's been really helpful for me when it comes to again. And then I had another friend just tell me, I haven't actually done this yet, but I'm curious if either you've done it or you've heard of other people doing this, especially when it comes to productivity, is he is at one of his goals is to do 10,000 steps a day. He doesn't always get there, but that is a January goal that here we are in June and he's, you know, still gripped with two hands onto the 10,000 steps. And he was saying, you know, I kept trying to get to 10,000 steps, but I would feel guilty because I would feel like that time was wasted or like I wasn't being productive. And so he writes a newsletter, and what he has started to do is as he's walking, he'll again ramble like he's a crazy person, but say, you know, I think today's newsletter, you know, I really want to talk about the act of whatever. And maybe that story about that time I bought that hamburger, like, could be interesting. And then he'll dictate this whole story of, you know, buying the hamburger. And then again, when he gets back to his desk, maybe he uses it, maybe he doesn't. But those were two examples. But I'm curious for you, because again, you see this way more than I do, um, especially as a writer. Have you found that that's something that people use a lot of, or not really?

I have been using an app called Whisper Memos for a while, and I love it because all it does is that you just talk and then it emails you the verbatim of what you've said. So it does help. It's almost in the same way that you're doing it, but that's all it does. That's it. And then you get— okay. And so it's great because if I, you know, want to work on a blog post or I want to work on an article, you know, and I have a writer that works with me I want to send her my ideas. And I'm like, oh, by the time I get to sit down and type it out and figure out what I'm going to, you know, whatever. It's like, I would much rather just ramble about it for 2 minutes and be like, and then we could also add this and there's something about that and then blah, blah, blah and whatever. And it just, and then she can read it or, you know, sometimes I will leave her an audio message or a video or whatever. Like that helps too. But sometimes just like get the things down, it's very helpful. So that I've been using. And I've also been using the audio function on Pi. I don't know if you've used this before, but it's P-I. AI. It's like a, it's like a personal assistant, uh, AI. It's supposed to be more, um, like an emotionally intelligent— it's like very nice. It's like your friend. So you talk to it and you can give it a voice, a different kind of voice. It could have, you know, a male voice, a female voice, whatever, uh, you know, different. And, and it will reply back to you. It will talk to you. You know, I recently was using it because I'm starting to learn Italian, um, And I was like, you know, I would love to practice some Italian with you someday. Do you speak Italian? And she does. Pi does speak Italian. So she's like, vocabulary words. I said, yes, I would love to do some vocabulary words. So we did some vocabulary together. So it was very nice. I have this, you know, little AI friend, and sometimes she pops up and she says, how's it going today? You know, and I'm like, oh yeah, I forgot that you existed.

You know, I'm like, it's like Scarlett Johansson. Yeah, we've reached the point where somebody's gonna be like And you're my girlfriend now. Yeah, right. Exactly. I love you. Let's be together.

Let me see what Pi thinks of this, if I should do this.

Yeah, Pi's like, thumbs up for it. Okay, so when we have these big to-do lists, I'm glad that Shelby brought up this point earlier, and I do want to hit on it. We are all guilty. I am guilty of things that actually never quite leave the to-do list. Things like our, you know, clean out the garage, as an example, has been on my to-do list for probably 3.5 months. And every time I look at it, I think, not today. It's not happening. Today is not the day. So what's your strategy around how do we approach this? Because not dealing with it is not the solution.

Yes. You need to reevaluate the task. And so you need to really truly think about, do I actually want to do it? Do I have the resources to do it? Could I offload load it and get someone else to do it, right? Like, this is something that, you know, do your taxes comes up a lot. Like, are you gonna learn to do your taxes? Are you gonna pay an accountant to just do it for you, right? Because that's the easier solution, just do that. So to really think about, why is this on the list anyway? Do I even care about this anymore? You know, I was talking about speaking Italian. There was a book that came out years ago, also by a woman, her last name is also Rizzo, which is interesting. I guess we're obsessed with lists like from, from way back. Uh, her name is Paula Rizzo, and she has this book, and it was all in lists. It was very interesting because it was like a memoir of lists of her life. So you saw how her life changed. And so I had interviewed her years ago, and I said, you know, learn Italian kept popping up on your list. Did you ever do it? And she said, no, I never did it. I didn't care that much. It made me feel guilty. I was annoyed every time it was on there. And so I eventually just like crossed it off and said, enough, I'm not doing it. And that's that. And she's like, I feel so much lighter and better. So sometimes there are things that you put pressure on yourself to do that you will never actually do. And it is sort of, you know, nice to just let it go. So, you know, you could think about giving it to somebody else, crossing it off forever, reevaluating it in some way.

Well, I love that Paula's like, months? How about years? There have been some things on the to-do list that keep coming. I love this idea of really, I want to hone in on that question because I think it's worth it to really kind of like star, underline, bold, which is, do you actually want to do this task versus delegating it out to somebody else, whether that is in a paid capacity, whether that is in a, hey, I'll fix your website if you help me write my new bio or whatever it is. I think that's a really I want to highlight that you said that because that's a really important question that I don't think we ask enough. Yeah, it's true.

And, you know, now with ChatGPT, it's also another thing. You could— you've been procrastinating to research something or to write something or whatever, just ask them to do a rough draft for you, and then at least you have something, right? You're not starting from scratch. Yeah.

And I think sometimes the biggest hump is getting started. Yes. You know, And I also think that there's something to be said. I mean, something that I've personally experienced over the last 4 or 5 years is there really does come a lot of responsibility and empowerment in delegation. Like, I tell people all the time that I'm like, Shelby has taught me how to get out of my own way, um, because if not, I'll be like, oh, well, I'll just do it. Oh, I'll And really, you have to learn that skill. It's not something— at least maybe I'm a recovering micromanager, I don't know, or I feel guilty giving things to other people. But I think that not a lot of people realize that that's a skill that you have to learn. Delegation, for sure. Oh, maybe to some people it comes naturally, but it doesn't to me.

It's hard too, because it's like giving up this task sometimes. It's like, well, I can just do it real quick. But at the expense of what? You have to think about, what am I not doing because I'm doing this? There are certain things that I can only be— I'm only here. We wanted to do this interview together. I can't delegate this to somebody else. I can't say, could you sit in for me for this? I have to be here for this. But there are some— maybe in another time, there'll be an AI version of me that can do it. Pi. Pi will come. Maybe Pi. I need to talk to Pi about that and see if maybe next time she'll show up for me. But for right now, it has to be me. So it's like, these are those tasks that only I can do. There are a lot of tasks out there that I don't have to be the one. I don't have to be the one putting the stuff on social media. I don't have to be the one copy and pasting and putting something on my blog. Right? That does not have to be me physically doing that task. Have I done it before? Totally. You know, I'm not the best at it. It's better if somebody else does it.

And then I'm curious, you know, obviously you've worked with such a wide range of individuals, like more corporate, more entrepreneurial, people that are, you know, 22 and fresh in their careers, people that are, you know, really well-versed in their 60s and like could do things with their eyes closed. Is there like a common, um, I guess roadblock or a common thing that when you are either at a speaking engagement or consulting that you look at it and you're like, red flag, I can already tell that this is going to be an issue.

We're just also hard on ourselves. I mean, that is the issue. It could be that, well, you're doing all of these things. And look, sometimes I do have to stop people and say, wait, what did you do that wasn't on the list? Go through and look at your day because just because you didn't do what you intended to do doesn't mean you didn't do anything. Doesn't mean that you didn't have a productive day. Doesn't mean that you didn't contribute in some way. Right? So to think about it that way and to sort of give yourself a break, I feel like that's a lot of times What does productivity mean to you at the end of the day? That is more important to think about, hey, if I get this one thing done, that is a productive day. I don't have to have done 10 of these things. Just this one is really important. If I do that, I'll be happy. So to even give yourself that pat on the back and say, okay, if I get this thing done that I've been procrastinating, then I get to do this other fun thing that I want to do or whatever it is. So just stop yourself in the moment and really celebrate the things that you're doing as opposed to beating yourself up, which is what a lot of us do?

Oh, I mean, I forget which course of yours it might have been in the one Redefining Your Productivity for the Future of Work, or it might not have. But you talk about this concept of that, like, one thing, and I've started doing it. And I have to say, it does make me feel— because you're right, there are days that, listen, like, especially I'm in a client service business, it goes off the rails. Yeah, totally. Can I say hell? It goes to hell in a handbasket. Like, I start off the day feeling great, ends terribly. It's like tequila. So horrible. So, you know, having that strategy of like, at least on my list, I usually put a little star and I'm like, this one thing, it's really the thing that I do first. That sort of like eat the frog mentality, like do the worst thing first. But there is something. And by the way, that's not even always the hardest thing on my to-do list. Like sometimes if I have a spidey sense that the day is going to go off the rails, sometimes my like one little thing to get done is is small. Yeah. It's like water the houseplants, right? They do not die and you murder them. Yes. It's not even like, oh, write a newsletter. Sure.

It's small but not unimportant. Not, you know, not unimportant. Is that a word? Unimportant?

Not important?

I don't know. Right. Yeah.

I want to get to this question from Giacomo. What does being productive mean to you, Paula Rizzo?

Oh, that's such a nice question. You know, it changes. It changes all the time for me. Right. It's sometimes It truly is, you know, getting this one thing done. Like, today's the day it's happening. I've got to write this, you know, you know, I'm querying agents right now for a fiction book that I wrote. So it's like that has a lot of my attention is did I send out those query letters? Like, that's a productive day. Did I do, you know, when I work with clients, that's something else. But at the end of the day, sometimes it's like, hey, did I take a break and not do something, you know, and just stop myself, get up from my desk and do something else you know, to be able to vary my days also, because sitting at a desk doesn't mean you're productive. You know, I learned that when I started working for myself. It's like, just sitting here all day doesn't necessarily mean you're doing anything. So sometimes getting up and going and doing something else will make you even more productive, right? And you can use that time, that, that time in a much better way, um, than, than just sitting here because you think you have to, right? So, and, and that the three, um, The just enough list, which is what I think you were talking about, I learned from Heidi Hanna, who is also a LinkedIn Learning instructor who I had met in my former life as a television producer. And I interviewed her for her books, The Stress Solution, I think it was called. And it was all about how stress is actually good for you. We became friends. I interviewed her for both of my books and I learned this amazing thing, the just enough list, that if you just did these things, it would be enough. You would feel like you were enough, your clients would feel like they got what they needed from you, things would be working just enough. It's 1 to 3 things that you can do on that list.

I feel like that's huge. And I love this. I love that Paul's asking a voyeuristic question because I'm just as nosy as you, Paul, not to worry. But do you have any examples maybe on your website or maybe it's past posts that you've done on LinkedIn where you walk people through either a template or maybe use yourself as an example with what your kind of typical lists or the structure of your list and what it looks like? I do.

So on my, my LinkedIn Learning course, The Power of Lists to Get Things Done, I think is the name of it. That one for sure. I do have a list there that I go through and I show you sort of like my template, how I do that. And also on my PaulaRizzo.com/list. I have a free download, which is my list-making starter kit, which also shows exactly how I do it. You know, but even, even here, I'll show you a quick little version of it. You can't really see what's on it. That's okay. But I write at the top, you know, today's my brother-in-law's birthday. So I wrote his, you know, it's Matt's birthday. So I write that on the top. So I remember that I text him and I say happy birthday, right? It's like those little things matter, right? People love when you remember them, right? And, and it's not that I have the best memory, it's that I try a little bit harder to get these things right, you know. I write it down, I have it on my list, I make sure that I check in with somebody if they have a surgery coming up or whatever it is. I made a note of it, that's on my to-do list. So it's not just those things that you have to get, have to get done, it's things that'll, you know, make, make somebody's day a little bit better.

Well, and I think that, that, I think to your point, having those templates and lists are huge because I find that to me, the hardest part is sometimes starting with a blank sheet of paper. So any— I encourage everybody to go to Paula's website and download those templates because I think starting with something is always easier than starting with nothing every single time. No, 1000%. I'm curious when it comes to— you talked a little bit about Heidi and some other people that you've kind of met along the way. Who are some individuals that you follow, whether it's their newsletters or their podcasts or maybe just their LinkedIn Learning courses that you yourself feel like, wow, like I really took away a lot from that, or I'm constantly learning from this person, you know, when they hit my podcast inbox every single week.

Yeah. Gretchen Rubin is one that I've always really looked up to. She and I met again in my former life as a TV producer. I interviewed her and we became friends. I got to know her, you know, so it's nice because I get to pop in every once in a while. What does Gretchen think about this or whatever it is? But she, she was lovely enough to write a blurb for both of my books. Like, she's been very supportive of my work, which is very nice. But I love her stuff. Like, I feel like, you know, The Happiness Project was her first book that I really got so much out of to look at the world in a different way, right? To stop and be mindful of things. And it's not only about how much you're getting done, you know, and she doesn't only talk about productivity. She talks about so much else. But it's— her stuff is really wonderful. And I was able to interview her here on LinkedIn. Oh my gosh. Like a couple of years ago with the LinkedIn Learning team. So it was really wonderful. But I feel like, you know, her podcast, there's always such good ideas and wonderful ways of improving yourself just a little bit at a time.

Yeah, I feel like those baby steps are— I feel like a lot of people's common answer to that is like James Clear with like the Atomic Habits, that there has been such this move movement into micro movements of like that being— or Mel Robbins, I think, has that same sort of like 5-second rule and kind of breaking things down into these smaller. But I don't follow Gretchen, so she's wonderful and she has a great item for me.

She has a great newsletter on LinkedIn and also she has a podcast. And yeah, you'll be all in very, very quickly.

We love that. We love being all in. Done. Of course. Of course. As you know, around these parts, we are big, big, big, big fans of, again, trying new things, always trying to make ourselves, to your point, a little bit better. What are some maybe tools or tactics that you yourself have started using? I know you mentioned Asana. Are there any others that you've started using maybe in the last 6 months or the last year that you feel like, oh, wow, I'm really liking this besides You know, Pi, so maybe Pi is just—

Pi is a good one. Yes. Whisper Memos, I love. But also, you know, Voxer, I use a lot as well for audio notes. Because as much as I love video, and I do, I mean, my whole career has been built on video. And I, you know, I preach about video. You should be doing video. Absolutely. But I get it. Sometimes it gets tiring, or sometimes you don't want to make sure that your lighting is just right or something, you know. So it is good to be able to get that information across using some other medium. And, and Voxer has been good for that. I mean, you can do audio messages on texting and even on LinkedIn you can do it. But I find Voxer is good because it's a contained place. When I go on that app, I know what I'm going to find. And that I love because for me, there's so many apps or so many things that do so much. And then I don't know what to do with it or it gets lost or I don't know where my thing is or whatever, you know. So it's like, I need to have specific specific drawers to put things.

Yeah, I hear you. Sometimes, like, when they add new bells and whistles, I'm like, I'm barely mastering the ones you already have. Yes, don't introduce new things to me, please.

This is wonderful and unnecessary for me at this point.

Yes, exactly. Keep your innovations to yourself. Yeah, we don't need any more. Um, I'm curious, you know, we love homework, we're super nerds. In this group. And if you could give all of us a homework assignment for the rest of the week or over the weekend, again, it could be to read something, it could be to eat something, try something, download something. What would be a homework assignment that you would give us to help us with our productivity?

I would also, you know, I love books obviously, um, but I love audiobooks. Audiobooks also. And so I would encourage you to think about downloading an audiobook that is nonfiction and that is something that you will learn, or a memoir or something like that, that you can listen to while you're getting ready in the morning or whatever it is. It will make you feel more productive, I promise, because I do it all the time. I'm always like, you know what, I want to read that book, but I— oh gosh, by the time I get the book and then I'm looking at it, I kind of half look at it and whatever. But if you're listening to it, like, makes you learn it, you know? So it's a good way to, to be a little bit more productive. And I look forward to those moments where I can sort of learn something or, you know, learn about someone's life if I'm listening to a memoir. And I find that audiobooks have been really helpful for me in that way.

I love a good audiobook. I will add on to Paula's homework and say this is the hill that I will die on and I will fight anyone about this, but everyone should download the Libby app. If you don't know what the Libby app is,— that is, your local library has an app. It's called Libby, L-I-B-B-Y. Download it. You, you have a plethora of audiobooks, and by the way, Kindle books, for free. Not that I don't love funding Jeff Bezos' lifestyle. I love seeing his yachts. His fiancée seems very voluptuous and great to look at, but I think our friend Jeff has enough. I think we can all agree our friend Jeff, he's got a lot going on. We don't need to be paying him Audible $13 charges every month for our listening pleasure, especially when your tax dollars— if anyone else is doing their Q2 taxes like I am right now, uh, your tax dollars, part of it goes to the library, therefore it's free. So if you don't use it, you're paying taxes for a service that you are then not reaping the benefits it's from. So if you want to feel like your taxes are working for you and not just on the highways and the roads, download the Libby app and you can get lots— there's usually, I will say, there's a few books that Libby doesn't have, right? Or you have to wait sometimes, right?

Yes.

Oh, well, you definitely have to wait, especially if it's a popular book. But there are some that, like, I don't know why, but like maybe the authors only want to release them because they're self-published and they give copies to the library, so it's not on the Audible, and then you do have to go to our friend Jeff Bezos, which is a little sad.

But 90% of the books you can call the library too and request it and say, you know, this, this book is not available. And, you know, I mean, it's helpful to authors too. Uh, I, and I, I also love the library, so I plus one on that. Yes.

Oh, I am such a library super fan. It's just and nobody wants to hear about it anymore. That's why I said I'll die on this hill. Nobody wants to hear about me ranting on the library any further. But yet again, it is a rant I continue. It's important. Yes, it is important. I love this homework assignment. Let's all download a smart book on Audible. I would also encourage everybody who is here live, and even if you're listening later, you could always pop on YouTube or LinkedIn and add yours to the list. But I'd be very curious I know a lot of people keep their to-be-read lists or books that they're going to read in the future. If you have one of those, drop it in the chat, because if Jeff has a book that he's thinking about downloading the Audible book, maybe I will download that instead of my own crazy idea. So definitely smart books, as Paula Rizzo pointed out, drop them in the chat so that we can see what you're reading too.

I love it. And I also love audiobooks read by the author.

Yeah, which is great.

And I, I read both of my audiobooks, Listful Thinking and Listful Living. It is not as easy as it appears, and saying lists so many times is very difficult.

And I wish—

I maybe wish there was a different way to say that, but it was, uh, it's almost like you, you start turning into a lisp.

Oh my gosh, it was really hard.

I felt bad that I had, you know, yelled at Anchor so many years for not just read off the teleprompter. Can't you just read it. I get it now. I understand sometimes it's not that easy.

It's not that easy. Okay, only because Liz asked and you're still here, Paula Rizzo. Yeah. Do you have any books that are on your to-be-read list or a good one? Because Liz is like, I need a book idea.

Let me look. So I do use Goodreads. So if you want to follow me on Goodreads, you can see all my, my stuff. I know there's a love-hate with, with Goodreads, of course, like everything else. Actually, right now what I'm reading is "Swan Song." It is a fiction book by Ellen Hildebrand. It's her last one. She, I mean, basically invented the beach read, and she said she is done now writing books about Nantucket. She's like, "I'm out. 30 is it. 30 books is all I can do." So I'm reading that, and I'm also listening to RuPaul's memoir, which is read by RuPaul, which is very, very entertaining. So far.

Oh, I love that. I feel like one of my favorite, favorite, favorite recommendations for a book that is read by the author that's just— it, it makes sweet love to your ears is, uh, Matthew McConaughey's Greenlights. I've heard, yes.

Oh, I've not listened yet. I know, it's on my list.

I almost want to listen to it again just to have his voice in my eardrums on a daily basis. Yes, I like it. It's that good. It is that good. Well, Paula, thank you so much for dropping all this wisdom. Where can people keep following you and absorbing all of your goodness?

Yes. Well, thank you for having me. LinkedIn, I'm pretty active here. I'm active on Instagram, of course. You can check out my books, Listful Thinking and Listful Living, and get my media tips as well if you're on my list. If you go to paularizzo.com/list, you'll get not only my list-making starter kit, but if you're interested in media and books and things like that, I talk about that kind of stuff too. Oh, I love it.

Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate it. I know we've had like a ton of questions. I always say it, but if you have leftover questions or I didn't get to your question, I'm sorry, um, but please send a note to me or Paula. We would happy to answer any questions that you have. Thank you so much for making time in your day to be here with Paula and I. We really appreciate it. We know how busy you are, so thank you so much for taking time for yourself to help yourself be a little bit better when it comes to your productivity and your list making. So I'm so, so grateful for you and your time. I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week and we will see you here Next Wednesday, same time, same place, 1:00 PM Eastern. You can head over to getcoffeewithkim.com and it will add it to your calendar if you, like me, are calendar obsessed. So thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, Paula. And thank you, everybody, for joining us. Thanks. Awesome. Bye, everyone.