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Productivity That Actually Fits Your Life (Without the Grind) · Candid Coach Conversations

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Hi there! Have you ever wondered how productive people get so much accomplished?
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And then maybe you're working on something and you look over and you
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see them just banging it out, and you're like,
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dang, how does that happen? Well,
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that's our topic for today. I'm Kimberly Boyd,
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founder of Live Life Fully, and welcome to Candid Coach Conversations.
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Today I have with me Amanda Kaufman,
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author and certified Live Life Fully coach.
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Hi Amanda!
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Hey Kimberly, how are you doing today?
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Doing great. Doing great. Today I'm so excited.
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I love the topic of productivity.
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I do think it's one of my most favorite topics.
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I don't know, I probably said about a lot of topics,
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but I really do like productivity.
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And so I love that you're here to talk with us about this topic.
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And so to kick us off, Amanda,
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when you hear the word productivity,
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what comes to mind? Or what does that word mean to you?
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Okay, so I also love productivity.
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So buckle up, folks. I when I hear that word,
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I think we're getting things done,
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you know? And I get really excited about it.
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And I I used to have a very different relationship to productivity.
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I used to wish I was more productive and I used to
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think, okay, well, it's gotta have color-coded Gantt charts.
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You know, those little charts that have the blockouts of the time and everything.
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or I've got to have this this this software is gonna help
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me finally feel productive. So I'm I'm really excited about this topic,
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really. and I think that I first started changing my attitude towards
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it when I became a mom. And I was ~ it was no longer an option
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to simply grind through getting everything done because I didn't want to
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be a mom that was never home because I was always like working until nine o'clock.
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I was in a career that like I one million percent could work to midnight seven days
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a week, no problem. There would always be something to do.
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And I think when you get to a certain level of leadership and a certain level
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of contribution, that becomes very true that you really could do the
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work of three people a day if you would just stay awake for 24 hours.
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but when I became a mom, I was like,
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well, that's not acceptable. Like I want to be present.
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I want to be connected. I I do not want to resent
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or resist motherhood at all.
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It's very important to me. And also I worked my tail off to
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become what I became in my corporate job at the time.
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And I was being met with kind of this question that I think a lot
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of young ladies end up facing,
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which is like, do you choose the career or do you choose the family?
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And let's just say I'm like real stubborn and I'm like,
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I choose all of both. Option C.
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Right.
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And productivity was was my gateway to being able to do that.
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Yeah.
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It's so interesting. I was gonna say funny,
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but not funny. It is so interesting that you brought up motherhood because that
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question was asked of me, gosh,
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years ago. Like Kimberly, when was a time when you think you were most productive
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in your life? And I was like, it's when I became a mom.
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And then ten months later became a mom to twins.
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and then a year later had another child.
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So it was four within three years.
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And people have often asked, like,
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Kimberly, how'd you ever do it?
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And at the time, people, how do you do it?
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How do you do it? I'm like, I just do.
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but it it really no butts to it,
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actually. And that was when I was the most productive because I too did
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not want to resent being a mother.
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I loved early motherhood. I did.
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And I didn't want to have regrets and I wanted to also work.
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And so I was productive, I believe,
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because of scheduling. Now I did not have the color coded GAMP cook schedule.
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I didn't have
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that.
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You didn't use productivity software to manage your four children?
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No, I did not. What I did though is I had system after system after system.
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We were color coded though. That's so funny.
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I've not thought about this in so long.
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We were color coded. So our oldest son,
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Andrew, everything was blue. Blue cup,
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blue plate, blue, blue, blue, blue,
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blue. Chandler
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Because the twins were so premature and they freaked me out at
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the hospital and scared me about every virus and every illness.
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I was like, they can't share cups.
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They can't. Everything's gotta be separate.
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So Andrew was blue. And then Chandler was red.
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Harrison was green. And Meredith was pink.
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And then Meredith wanted to be blue.
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And it's like, you don't get to be blue.
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He's blue. So we were
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Blue is taken.
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blue is taken. And I think for early she wanted to be like her brother.
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And I'm like,
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Doesn't work out in this system.
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You have a pink cup and a pink plate.
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So we were color-coded in that way.
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But I think too, that helped me be more productive because when I think back
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to the twins being in their high chair,
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or actually all three boys being in high chairs,
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and I had the ~ three bowls with three spoons,
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and it was blue spoon for blue bowl.
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Green spoon for green bolt. I think I'm about to talk about red fish redfish,
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blue fish. Dr. Seuss here. But anyway,
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I think that helped me be productive.
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because I didn't have to think.
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I knew blue was Andrew. Like that took away some of that decision making
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and that decision fatigue. The system worked.
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Yes. That's where so
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much productivity is lost. ~
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Yes.
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my my sister calls. So the reason that a lot of people struggle with productivity,
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I think there's many reasons for that,
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but one of the main reasons is your relationship to decision making.
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~
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Mm-hmm.
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my my sister and I, we have sister dates.
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She lives in Canada. I still live here,
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so we we'll have we'll talk for hours on the weekend over WhatsApp.
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It's great. And
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One of our ~ things that we love to talk about is actually productivity when
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it comes to our finances, personal finances.
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And she talks about this idea that she has to watch herself because
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she re-litigates decisions. And I'm like,
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that is a $50 word. What the heck do you mean by that?
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And she goes, I already decided what the budget was.
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I already decided what the priorities were.
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I already decided all of that.
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And what was happening is like new money would come into my accounts,
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or I would like do a job and I would get a big payout.
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And I found myself redeciding the same decision that I had already made.
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And she shared with me, she's like,
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when I stopped doing that and I started trusting the system that
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I had already established for myself,
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money got really easy. And I was like,
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~ yeah. So
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Yeah.
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A lot of productivity
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It's cute.
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is making a new decision and not either never arriving at and landing in what
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is the decision I need to make here,
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or like my sister was doing, relitigating it,
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making the decision, but then questioning the decision that you made
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and then making the decision over and over and over again.
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Instead of saying, This is the template,
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this is the way we're gonna do it,
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this is the procedure, we're going with this.
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Yeah.
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Yes. I love that. Yes, because that re is re-re.
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Sounds exhausting.
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Yeah. Yeah. And I love
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I love relitigate. I'm like, it sounds like you're taking it to the courtroom.
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Like it sounds like you're turning it into this huge production.
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And she goes, I am. And I'm like,
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Okay. Well, I mean, yeah. But that that gets in the way of productivity
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all the time.
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Yes. So I love that you brought up finances and productivity around finances.
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~ something that well because I've learned that,
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right? We need to be productive with our finances.
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And so having at least, at a minimum for me,
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a monthly check-in about those decisions.
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Like how much is going to be set aside and to what account and where
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and how we're going to do that at least once a
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month.
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for us. And then that's it. And then we can re evaluate the following month.
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Yeah.
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Totally.
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Totally. I I would say for me,
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it started out daily because I frankly just wasn't prepared,
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I guess, as an adult with really good habits or strategies around money.
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So I think that's really useful when you're thinking about productivity.
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Like any area of your life that you're not getting the results that
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you feel you should be having for the amount of effort,
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it's worth asking the question.
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Do I actually have the skills in this space that I can do it once and have
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it be done? Cause I think sometimes we want that.
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We want to just check in on something 12 times a year and let that be good.
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And depending on where you're at with like that skill set or with
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the reality of your situation,
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sometimes you need to check more.
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So when I very first started to like decide that I wanted to get better with wealth
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and finance, one of the first things I did is I actually increased that
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to a daily check.
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And it wasn't to be obsessive,
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it was to be able to actually observe.
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I think one of the funny things about money from a productivity perspective
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is you're both measuring the input and the output is actually the same thing.
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It's still just money. So
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Yeah.
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and that can be kind of tricky,
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right? Because it's like, you know,
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you're making money or you're earning money through your job or whatnot.
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And then you look at the bucket of money at the end and you're like,
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this doesn't seem as productive because I haven't actually grown any of
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the piles of money.
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Like, well, we did make a decision to go to work,
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and that's good. But what do we do about our decisions around how we're spending?
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And then when you become a business owner,
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this becomes super important because then you're like,
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okay, literally every decision you make as a business owner has a financial
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impact. And so
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Absolutely.
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I started looking like every single day,
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not because I wanted to judge myself for it,
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but because I wanted to really understand how are the decisions
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I'm making translating to
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my reality. And once I really started to get that captured and understood,
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then I could take it down to like checking 50 times a year.
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So right now I'm at like a weekly check kind of a standpoint.
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but yeah like I I thank you for saying that because that led me on a whole thing.
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Like some pe one person's productivity strategy may
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Yes.
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fit them for where they're at and where they are.
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Never feel badly if you need to put more effort into something because
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you have to build skill or it's just a season or something like that.
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It's okay to give more to to something as compared to somebody else because
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everybody's on a different journey and we all have different things that we're
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working with.
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Yeah, and there will be seasons,
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I believe, where people, even if you are on a once a month,
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there's gonna be seasons, maybe around November,
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December, January, February, where you
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That part.
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do where you do need to check more frequently.
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And what I love about that and giving yourself permission to be where
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you are and start where you are,
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is that we have to build the habit.
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I don't think our society has done a fantastic job about teaching.
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~ wealth management and how to create your wealth.
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I I just don't think we've done a great job about that.
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And so as a society. So yes,
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checking weekly or daily that is building that muscle.
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It is creating the habit. And I love what
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Mel says about creating wealth.
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And it's make that if your savings,
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for example
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Have something go into savings every week.
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Like do it so it's a habit. And it's just an automatic,
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no negotiation, it is. And it doesn't have to be an astronomical amount.
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You can start with a dollar, a dollar a week while you create that habit
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and get used to it.
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Yeah, that's so good. I, you know,
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when I ~ think about productivity and we're talking about finances right now,
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what came up for me immediately next was the transition from corporate
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to entrepreneurship. You know,
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so many people want to jump out of the frying pan of a job and into
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the fire of entrepreneurship. And this is me too.
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Like I believed that I was going to experience more freedom and I did,
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but I I didn't understand.
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That freedom, freedom is the ability to make a choice.
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It doesn't doesn't remove the consequences of those choices,
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you know? And so
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Right. Yes.
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~ like so many people who jump out of a frying pan and into the fire,
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productivity actually ended up being one of the most important skills that
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I brought with me into that fire.
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You know, like you, I I had my ~ when I got married,
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I already had two bonus kids. So I got a little bit of a warm-up season where they
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were young and they were there kind of every other weekend sort of situation.
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So it wasn't like the full the full motherhood experience just yet.
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You know, it it was a change,
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Okay.
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but it wasn't it, you know, not a 247 thing.
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And so when I had my first child,
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my productivity also went up.
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Like my first birth child. my productivity went way
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up because the demands of at home and a desire,
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like a very hot, fiery desire to do everything I could to be the best I could
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as a mom. And at the same time,
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what what I really struggled with actually at the time was ~ a lot
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of my ~ colleagues and mentors at work,
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their attitude towards me shifted dramatically.
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And a lot of them said, like even out loud,
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so when are you going to quit?
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Like when are you going to take another job?
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Or what, you know, what's your plan?
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Dot, dot, dot. And they would kind of trail off.
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And I was like, how come you're not asking him that question?
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Yeah.
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Like
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they literally, like, ugh, it drove me so crazy for a minute there.
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Boy, boy, enough to quit. But ~ I was like,
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you know, I'm not gonna quit because I'm not able to do this job.
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I'm going to quit because I decided to go and pursue something better.
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And so productivity became kind of this this obsession that I had,
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actually, where it was like, I am going to constrain my work hours so that
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I can be fully present when I'm at home and I'm still gonna beat you.
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I'm gonna work half the number of hours and I'm going to run circles around
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you with these deliverables. Like that was that was literally my attitude.
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I was so fired up about it. And
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I'm so grateful that happened because then when a few years later
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I was pregnant with my second and I had pregnancy complications,
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I really got confronted with it matters where like
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control over my calendar matters.
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Control over where I can be in the world matters.
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Control over my
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Yes.
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health decisions matters, right?
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And I at the time I didn't I didn't feel that autonomy.
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Because I was accommodating so much with the with the career
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and really confronted with that choice.
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So that's when I really decided to take entrepreneurship very,
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very seriously with joy, but still taking it so seriously.
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And I invested in the coaches and the mentors and you know,
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my last pregnancy, I don't know a lot of people
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who would sign up for that amount of work because I was working full time.
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pregnant, working also full time to get this business going.
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Like I was productive, but I was also every weekend,
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every evening, and every morning,
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I was working on my business somehow.
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And then I would work in
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Yes.
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my bit in my job doing what I needed to do to not get fired to make
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it to maternity leave. And then,
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you know, like that's also a physically extremely taxing season for any woman.
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And productivity was a thing that helped me keep the wheels on,
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helped me understand my goals and what I wanted to do.
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And to also like not worry about what other people's opinions about it were.
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And I'm really
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Huh.
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delighted to say that I did come back from maternity leave.
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I worked for a grand total of I think it was two weeks before I turned
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in my resignation because I got this business off the ground.
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Yes.
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And that's what
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productivity should be, I think,
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about for people is like there's a goal and you're getting after it.
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Right. Even so in what you were just talking about health and stuff,
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I mean we can have productivity around our health.
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~
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Thousand percent.
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yes. And so
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Yeah.
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and people ask, well, but it's not that or they'll say it's not that easy.
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And so I really tried for myself not to think of it in terms of easy or hard.
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But thinking about it in terms of my choice.
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And I love what you said earlier is that freedom is the ability to make a choice.
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And so I do want that personal freedom around my health.
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And so it's choices that I have to make.
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So I can plan and prepare for the week.
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Because again, it's gonna go back to that decision fatigue,
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holy moly. And making the decision,
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what did your sister call it? Relitigate?
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Is that the Okay, so you can plan and
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Yes. Yeah. Like yeah,
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re argue the whole decision, like starting with the evidence at the beginning.
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It's like, whoa, that sounds exhausting.
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Right. And so you can plan and prepare for the week.
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Like have a meal plan. What do I need to have on hand?
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Place the grocery order. That's one of the greatest things I think ever invented
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is being able to place it and pick it up or place it and have
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it delivered because then I don't have to make all those extra decisions about,
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well I like this. It's not on my list,
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but I like it. And so I'll get it.
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Those are all decision-making things that decrease your productivity.
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So, but making that plan for the week and then roll around Wednesday,
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do we really want to have this or do you want something else?
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Nope. Decision was
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made. Stick with it. 'Cause it will it is.
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Yeah. And it's okay to want something else for dinner.
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I think, you know, sometimes
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sometimes we we were talking the other day and I shared this quote with
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you that's really stuck with me over the years,
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which is never let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
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So like a lot
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Yes.
18:43
of times when people are like,
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I'm finally gonna get my health and I'm gonna finally make the time
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and I'm finally gonna do this.
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I really have to watch this for myself.
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That's the reason I like the saying so much.
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Is like we then tell ourselves the lie that if I don't do it perfectly,
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then I might as well not do it.
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And
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Yeah, that's not true.
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that's not true at all. Like if you do ~ let's just say you're doing a meal plan,
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because let's be real, 80% of your health concerns can be taken care
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of by planning better nutrition.
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and so if you if you do that, and like let's say Wednesday does roll around.
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And you're like, I will die if I don't have Thai.
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Like, I have got to have Thai food tonight.
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Yes.
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You know, like I think it's important to maintain your agency through
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the whole process. But then I
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Yes.
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think it's also really important to notice.
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So, like, if the next day, let's say you break with your plan that you
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had when you when you set how you're going to be productive as it pertains
19:43
to your health goals, and you do deviate and you end up
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doing something that was in some way maybe a lesser choice for you.
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Maybe it was more expensive than you planned to spend,
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or maybe it was not the right nutritional mix for you.
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Okay. Well, let's let's review that.
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How are you feeling about yourself after that?
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Like was that actually a choice that you would make again?
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If it's not a choice you would have made again,
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then I think it's worth taking some time to evaluate and assess and and look
20:18
at and journal about. Like you really were the one that made the choice though.
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So what led to what led to those
20:24
Yes.
20:25
circumstances that it felt so desperate for you to stay to to deviate
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and to deviate
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Right.
20:30
in that one particular way?
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And was there anything leading up to it,
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particularly the seventy two hours before that decision was made,
20:37
that we could learn from to help us either stay on track
20:43
or be okay with having what we want on the Wednesday?
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One or the other.
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Right.
20:48
And I'd love that you brought that up too.
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Like the day one, okay, and notice,
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observe it, because studies do show that after three days,
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like if you have a course, something you've laid out for yourself
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and it's something that you've committed to and you let it go for three days
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in a row, it's I don't even remember the number,
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but it's like a bajillion, not really,
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but it's a lot harder to get back on track.
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than it would have been had you caught it at day one or day two.
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So so yes. We've gotta have Th now I'm gonna be for time.
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I'll I'll I'll give you an example 'cause I just like I'd love
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a good I love a good example. So this weekend my husband decides he's gonna take
21:28
me for a date. And so we go on this date and he got me a cigar.
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And I have not had a cigar since before the pandemic,
21:37
quite on purpose, right? But that night I was like,
21:42
you know what? I'm gonna do it.
21:43
I'm gonna have this cigar. I'm gonna sit outside.
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I'm gonna I'm gonna enjoy. And so I did.
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And you wanna know what? The next day,
21:51
little stinky, but I did actually really enjoy my cigar.
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The end, right? So does that mean that I'm gonna go become a cigar smoker?
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Am I gonna do it every single night and until forever?
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No, right? Was it the plan? I'm like,
22:09
not specifically. It really wasn't,
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you know. I I I tried to generally be a healthier human.
22:14
And the opportunity arose, and I thought.
22:17
I'm gonna roll with this. And then the next day when I evaluated it,
22:21
I was like, that was actually crazy fun.
22:24
I enjoyed myself. I don't like the the smell and the taste and everything
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the next day. It's not my favorite experience.
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But I don't I don't think that I would have made a different choice,
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you know, and that's that's how I evaluated it the next day.
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And I'm like, then that means it was a really good decision.
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Was it the opposite of my productivity towards optimal health?
22:45
Yep.
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Right? Big time. And it was one step off of the trail,
22:51
not
22:51
Right.
22:52
like let's throw our hands up and not make any more progress.
22:57
Right, exactly. Yeah.
22:58
Yeah.
23:00
I do, I love this
23:01
whole idea of productivity because it really does apply to all areas of life.
23:06
You know, a lot of
23:06
It does.
23:07
times when I'm working with people,
23:08
those when I talk to them about productivity,
23:11
they think it's about ~ completing tasks,
23:14
which of course, sure. And there is so much more to it.
23:19
I mean we can have sleep productivity by having a routine to prepare for sleep.
23:25
and our morning routine to to prepare for our day.
23:31
yeah I do. I think productivity is very important.
23:34
I love the idea of planning and preparing.
23:37
I think it's super important for me to plan for fun.
23:42
And so I have my
23:45
social dates on my calendar just as much as I have my meetings
23:50
on my calendar because it is important and it helps with my productivity
23:55
to be able to have fun.
23:57
I love that. I I I know when I first started down the rabbit hole of productivity,
24:02
I was very like thinking about it in a career kind
24:06
Yes.
24:07
of a context. And I'm like, in box zero,
24:10
baby, right?
24:11
Yeah.
24:12
and you know, I I think I think certainly productivity in the workplace
24:16
can be really, really powerful.
24:18
But I think that like a personally led productivity is even more powerful.
24:23
And like, you know, we we homeschool our our young kiddos and so they have
24:27
to manage their calendar and they have to have an awareness of like,
24:33
hey, my focus isn't where it needs to be for me to be able to accomplish this thing
24:37
or
24:38
You know, when they show up to do a lesson,
24:40
it's all correspondence, it's all like done in advance.
24:42
So they they might show up to a lesson expecting that it's gonna be about yay long,
24:46
and it turns out it's actually yay long,
24:48
right? And I'm actually super pleased that they're getting that exposure
24:55
to like I'm planning to do the work,
24:57
I own my time, I own my focus.
25:00
Things happen on the journey. I wasn't expecting like the much,
25:03
much longer lesson or that math concept that's harder to understand than
25:07
you expected. And to recover from that.
25:11
I think sometimes when we talk about productivity and having it so task focused,
25:16
it turns into this competition of like execution.
25:20
And I can get into that too. And
25:23
Sure.
25:23
productivity.
25:25
When I'm co when I'm doing my group coaching,
25:27
I always tell people, I'm like,
25:28
what is productivity anyway? And productivity is the to me,
25:34
it's the study of the processes to turn resources into outputs.
25:39
That sounds like it's lots of lots and lots of words,
25:43
but what I'm saying is, is you only have so much time,
25:45
money, energy, effort, and emotions,
25:47
right? And productivity is really saying like
25:50
How's the quality of your decisions when it comes to the gifts you have?
25:53
And if those gifts are leading to more free time,
25:58
more connection, more wealth, more health,
26:01
then you're doing great in life.
26:04
You know? You're doing awesome.
26:04
Yeah.
26:07
If you're receiving wealth or you're receiving money
26:10
or you're receiving opportunities and you consistently squander those opportunities,
26:15
and you're always going to let some stuff slip.
26:17
So, like, don't get it twisted.
26:18
But
26:19
What I am saying is like a lot of people that struggle with productivity,
26:22
again, it kind of loops back to what we said at the very beginning
26:25
is making a decision that it matters.
26:27
So do you prioritize this health?
26:30
Do you prioritize building wealth?
26:32
Do you prioritize your role in the family or whatever is important to you?
26:37
Have you gotten that clarity about what's important?
26:39
And it doesn't matter what tracking software you use.
26:42
If you don't know what's important to you,
26:44
you end up becoming a human task doing instead of a human being.
26:49
Right.
26:50
Yeah.
26:51
Y'all write that down. You will become a human task doing rather than a human being.
26:57
It's super important.
26:59
Yeah, that's it.
27:01
my gosh. I love this conversation.
27:04
Me too. Me too. I I really could wax poetic about productivity,
27:08
so we might have to just do this another time.
27:10
Yeah, it is. It's such a good topic.
27:13
I love it. I really love it. And I love the fact that you've pointed
27:17
out like how important it is to know the reason,
27:21
like your reason for your decision and what is important.
27:25
Cause yes, when you answer that,
27:29
it productivity happens automatically.
27:32
It does. It does. And
27:33
Yeah.
27:35
like I can I can tell you listener,
27:37
like if you if you watched Kimberly and I sit next to each other working,
27:40
super different style when it comes to how we personally approach productivity.
27:46
but I but I also think like we have very different perspectives about how
27:50
we look at the world and different ways that we process the world.
27:53
And I just really super appreciate that because you are one of
27:57
the most productive people that I've
28:00
met in a long time and you do do it real different to me.
28:03
And but I appreciate it so much because I think it's really I I think it's really
28:08
good testimony that that, you know,
28:10
productivity, just like any other any other aspect of personal growth really
28:14
is a personal journey.
28:16
Yes, I agree. Definitely
28:17
Yeah.
28:20
a personal journey. Yes. my gosh.
28:21
Big time, big time. And and
28:23
I think like I know I keep going on.
28:25
Like I said, I love this topic.
28:26
it's also okay, y'all, just everybody,
28:29
anybody who's listening, it's okay for your goals to shift.
28:33
~ Yeah, because
28:34
Yes, yes indeed.
28:36
I think one of the biggest productivity traps is you get a good routine going
28:40
or you get a good set of skills going and you're actually winning,
28:45
but it's kind of lowercase W winning.
28:47
It's like, yay, you know, and
28:50
Like the light is going out of your eyes because it's just it's all figured out.
28:54
And y you know, that kind of productivity can be absolutely soul sucking.
28:59
So I would I would very strongly encourage that if you're a kind of a person
29:04
who you you feel like you've maybe figured it all out,
29:07
you're in huge trouble. Huge
29:09
Yeah.
29:09
trouble. Like you need like please,
29:12
please hear me. This is I hate shoulding.
29:16
So I'm gonna try and find a different way of saying this.
29:18
you're bigger, you're bigger than you think,
29:20
you're bigger than you think, and you can accomplish far more than you dream.
29:23
If you think you've got a handle on life,
29:26
that's when life is gonna show up and it's gonna show you that it's it's you know,
29:32
that you can't plan for everything.
29:33
You can't have a routine for everything.
29:35
Like there's gonna be disruptions in your life.
29:38
That's just what it is. And that doesn't mean that you're
29:43
Just because you're getting thrown off of what you figured out before does
29:46
not mean you won't be product productive.
29:48
It just might mean that you need to take a beat and ask yourself the question
29:54
if I had so much more energy, if I had three times,
29:57
five times, ten times more capacity,
30:00
what would I be doing? And productivity actually gives you that answer because
30:04
productivity gets you to ask the question not have I figured everything out,
30:08
but rather
30:09
How do I direct resources? So like the people who have really done stuff,
30:14
they they realize productivity isn't just what I individually do on my task list.
30:19
It's also how do I enroll others to support this vision and this mission
30:23
for what I'm actually doing? And if you're the kind of person that just kind
30:27
of figured it all out, like work with a coach.
30:30
Just like sign up for a coaching session.
30:31
Ha ha ha.
30:31
I'm
30:33
just gonna say it to you, right?
30:35
Because you might really value.
30:37
Having somebody ask you from the perspective of belief of like you really could
30:42
be doing a lot more. Maybe you're doing the most in your unit of whatever,
30:47
if it's family or work or whatever,
30:49
that doesn't make that the limit of your capacity at all.
30:54
Right. Yes.
30:54
Right. So
30:56
And I love that you said that because my gosh,
30:59
I hear it all the time. Like I've done X,
31:01
Y, and Z and I never had a coach or I never had a teacher or what have you.
31:06
And from my own experience, I started a business.
31:10
I've been in that field forever.
31:11
And I didn't have a coach. When I started that business,
31:15
I did not have a coach. I took what I learned in school and figured it
31:19
out along the way. And then I hired a coach,
31:22
and boy, howdy, did my life take off.
31:25
And not that it was negative or bad to begin with.
31:29
But huge shifts. So yes, I'm with you,
31:32
Amanda. If you think you've got it all figured out,
31:34
y'all, life is gonna show you.
31:35
And here's what I also love. If you know what your reason is and you
31:39
do have a desire and you know purpose sometimes throws people off.
31:45
So
31:46
When you have your purpose and something does occur that throws you off,
31:49
I love to remind myself, like,
31:51
hey Kimberly, that's proof you're on the right road.
31:55
Because if the road is easy,
31:58
mmm, you're playing small. And so if there are bumps and humps and hoops,
32:04
you're probably doing it right.
32:07
And that is your
32:09
So I
32:10
~ even more evidence.
32:13
building that you can. So yes,
32:16
and I'm with you, Amanda. Y'all
32:17
That's so good.
32:18
get a coach. Or at least have a strategy call.
32:20
Yeah, I get a coach.
32:21
Cause I think it is surprising when you do have that initial call with a coach,
32:26
I think it is very surprising for a lot of people the shifts that can occur,
32:32
the aha's that happen within that first 20 minutes.
32:35
Big time, you know, and and I I think like the thing about working with
32:39
a really trained coach is it actually really does not matter what that coach does,
32:45
you know, in terms of what their background is or what their story is.
32:51
That's one of the coolest things about coaching actually,
32:53
is because it's it is really all about about you.
32:57
Like I think about some of the clients that I've had over the years who
33:02
Honestly, when they first were like,
33:04
I'm interested in coaching with you,
33:05
and I'm like, Me? You know, I kind of have like this moment of like you are,
33:09
you know, I have so much respect for what you have accomplished and achieved,
33:13
and like, wow, you know, and I'm like totally blown away by like their business
33:16
or their life, or just you know,
33:18
even sometimes their their personality.
33:20
I'm like, wow, you know, I'm just in awe of how cool this person is.
33:25
And then we get
33:25
Yes.
33:26
into the coaching conversation and ask.
33:28
questions that are designed specifically
33:32
to get the person receiving them to think bigger.
33:36
So I think one of the coolest things about being a coach has been getting
33:41
to witness people who honestly have better track records than I,
33:46
more influence than I, turn around and do things that are so huge.
33:51
And I got to play a role because I asked the question.
33:54
So you know, it's fun.
33:56
Yeah,
33:56
it is amazing. I have to agree.
33:59
A bazillion percent. Yes. It is.
34:02
It's so cool.
34:04
Yeah. my gosh. Well Amanda, thank you for joining us today.
34:07
I think this call has been awesome.
34:09
I love the topic. We will definitely have to talk about this topic again
34:13
in the future. yeah, any parting thoughts or things that you want people
34:18
to be thinking about or considering as they go on about their day?
34:23
You know, you would think I'd be used to you asking this question.
34:26
there seems to be a template here.
34:28
I I could have prepared. ~
34:30
Ha ha ha.
34:31
No, seriously. ~ the thing that that sprang to mind immediately
34:34
was actually like the one caution around pursuing productivity
34:39
is be careful not to weaponize it.
34:43
And what I mean by
34:44
How?
34:44
that is like some people, and this has been me too.
34:48
So when I say some people, I mean like we.
34:51
Okay, Royal, we we can we we can take accountability for this.
34:54
sometimes we take like that task list and we use it
34:59
as evidence of enoughness. Or we look at
35:04
the calendar and we see how it could have been double,
35:08
triple, or quadruple booked, and we question did I make the correct decision with
35:14
the time that I had that week?
35:16
Right. So
35:17
I I think like my cautionary note as you pursue productivity,
35:20
the goal is not to have it kind of recreate your your school days drama of
35:27
did I do A plus, did I do A minus?
35:29
Did I get a B minus? Right. Like don't use it as a grading system
35:34
and certainly don't use it as a referendum on your worthiness,
35:39
you know, as a human. So like that that would be my cautionary note about it.
35:45
and
35:45
And when you have data, such as,
35:49
you know, I was at a ~ entrepreneurship group for women last week
35:53
and somebody made a crack. She's like,
35:55
you know how it is, ladies, you have that to do list that's as long
35:58
as a CVS receipt, and the whole room just burst out laughing,
36:03
right? Because we're just so used to having so much on the to do list.
36:07
What I
36:08
Right.
36:08
would say is that.
36:10
You can pay attention to your calendar,
36:13
your inbox, and your task list to use it as information.
36:18
Where are you perhaps overcommitting resources you do not have?
36:23
So for example, if you keep committing to something because it takes quote five
36:28
minutes, but then you actually measure this five minute task,
36:32
and I'm using Airbunny quotes if you're listening to on the on the audio only.
36:36
your five-minute task is in fact a 35-minute task,
36:41
then that's a 35-minute task, boo.
36:44
And if you keep saying yes real quick to like five five minute tasks that
36:48
are actually like 35 minute tasks,
36:51
you've just given up like a workday.
36:53
So it's so
36:54
~ so easily. Yes.
36:57
easy and slippery to do. So my final,
37:00
final, final thing is
37:02
Look at all of it as data. Get in the habit of writing down what
37:05
are you committing to. Get in the habit of tracking how long something actually
37:09
took, not what you hoped or dreamt that it might take.
37:12
And start getting really good at that.
37:14
I'm wearing a t-shirt that you could probably see the top of it.
37:17
It says non, which is French, and it's my grumpy cat with a beret.
37:20
It says non.
37:22
That is a ~ that's probably the most important productivity word you can ever,
37:27
ever learn is no. I will not
37:29
Yeah.
37:30
allocate time, attention, resources,
37:32
energy, or network to that priority because I have said
37:36
yes to these priorities. And then you'll be okay.
37:40
Absolutely.
37:42
Absolutely. Yes. my gosh.
37:45
So good. So good. I love it.
37:50
Thank you for tuning in to Candid Coach Conversations.
37:52
Remember to live life fully and enjoy every moment.
37:56
We'll see you soon.