Latest / Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing / #32| How to Stop Wasting Time & Delaying Your Goals, Using Time Management with Vikki Louise

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#32| How to Stop Wasting Time & Delaying Your Goals, Using Time Management with Vikki Louise · Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing

• 0:04
  Michelle: Hey, I'm Michelle Gauthier and you're listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
• 0:09
  Michelle: Hello friends, thank you so much for joining today.
• 0:14
  Michelle: I have a guest today, my friend, Vikki Louise, who is a coach and a mom and a master of time.
• 0:23
  Michelle: She is amazing.
• 0:24
  Michelle: She has a podcast about time, that's all she coaches on; how to stop wasting time, make the best use of your time, and the way that she talks about it is very different than I've ever heard anyone speak about time.
• 0:36
  Michelle: So it's a great interview and I can't wait for you to listen to it.
• 0:39
  Michelle: At the end of the interview, she tells us how you can work with her.
• 0:45
  Michelle: But one thing I wanted to announce up front here, in case you want to sign up for it right away, is that she is offering a class this Thursday, November 16th, about how to get things done during a crisis.
• 0:57
  Michelle: She will tell her story at the end of the podcast, but she woke up in Israel on October 7th and woke up to sirens and rockets and said that her life is forever changed, and since then she said she felt like she had been almost in a trance, and now she has gotten back to work and is still taking care of herself, despite being in a crisis situation.
• 1:21
  Michelle: So if you are feeling affected by the crisis that's going on in the world right now and unable to concentrate, or you have a different kind of crisis happening in your life, she invites anyone who's feeling this way to come to her class.
• 1:36
  Michelle: It's a free class, it's one hour long, and if it feels like a good fit for you, sign up.
• 1:42
  Michelle: Okay, let's get into our interview.
• 1:45
  Michelle: Thanks for joining today.
• 1:47
  Michelle: My guest today is my friend and fellow coach, and also fellow mom, Vikki Louise.
• 1:52
  Michelle: She is an expert on time - how to make the most of it - which is something that every person who listened to this podcast needs, so I asked her to be on this episode and give us the scoop and give us some tips.
• 2:05
  Michelle: So, hi, Vikki, thanks for joining us and tell us all about you, where you live, how you got into time.
• 2:12
  Michelle: Kind of, tell us your story.
• 2:14
  Vikki: So, firstly, thanks so much for having me, thanks everybody for listening.
• 2:17
  Vikki: I'm really excited to be here.
• 2:19
  Vikki: I love the work that you do.
• 2:21
  Vikki: I ended up focusing on time, kind of by accident.
• 2:24
  Vikki: I started around anxiety and procrastination, which of course, are related to time, and then I, you know, after years of overworking and burning out and burning the candle at both ends and saying yes to everything and not wanting to miss out on a single opportunity and doing, you know, running a start-up while doing an MBA, while launching a podcast, while going into coaching, well, I mean literally all the things.
• 2:47
  Vikki: I ended up closing a business that I cared very deeply about because I was not growing it sustainably.
• 2:55
  Vikki: And that's when I went into coaching, which was my other passion, and I was in a mastermind and it was a great thing because I joined as the underdog and I got to be in this container and I, you know, went on to be to have the most growth and I got to see not only what my experience was but what was different about me versus those around me.
• 3:20
  Vikki: Not about me, but about what, you know, how I was showing up.
• 3:22
  Vikki: And I think within six months I'd hit my three year financial goals and two months later, I'd sold out of every way to work with me, and when it came to creating like a scalable product of my work in the world, that was not, you know, going to be me working one-on-one with people.
• 3:37
  Vikki: I really sat back and what I was faced with was the shattering of this belief that I'd carried and driven so much of my life, which was things take time and it takes time and therefore, if I want to get there, I have to give more time to date to it.
• 3:51
  Vikki: And it takes time and therefore that certain things that I cannot achieve because I don't have the time.
• 3:56
  Vikki: It takes time and therefore I'm going to put the you know, my own foot on the brakes intentionally, and it takes time and therefore I'm going to put my foot way too far and way too hard on the gas.
• 4:06
  Vikki: And what I realized that year, it was 2020, was like things don't take time, and that was kind of the first evolution of the work that I do now.
• 4:16
  Vikki: But really, as I delved further into it, I really saw how exclusive our time narrative is, our time rules, our time tools, our time structures to women, to working parents, to anyone that's neurodivergent as well.
• 4:32
  Vikki: It's not just this like fun, "I help you achieve results faster", which is something that I do help my clients with.
• 4:38
  Vikki: But also, you know how much are we losing by trying and forcing ourselves to fit into a box when we're a circle and criticizing ourselves because we can't operate the way that
• 4:52
  Vikki: you know, by design, we should be able to, and we've, you know, especially as women, we've entered a workforce and work structure and work rules that were really not a) designed for us and b) designed for us as parents.
• 5:05
  Vikki: And so if anyone listening I would simply say if what you are doing isn't working, if you feel like you've tried all the things and you still don't have time, you still can't get ahead, you still can't feel complete or satisfied at the end of the week, then the one takeaway that I really encourage you to really take from today's episode is it's not you, it's everything that you've been taught, told and trained in around time, which was not built for you.
• 5:30
  Michelle: Okay, that's such a great and also earth- shattering point.
• 5:34
  Michelle: Like what - and that's something that we talk about a lot on the podcast is these "rules", air quotes, rules that we're supposed to follow and we're supposed to be able to do all these things, but we didn't make the rules, we didn't sign up to follow them, but we just kind of end up doing it.
• 5:49
  Michelle: I'm interested, before you tell us a new way to think about time when you were working before, because you grew up in London.
• 5:57
  Michelle: Right, I grew up in Manchester, but I studied in London and I worked in London.
• 6:00
  Michelle: Okay, so you were working in London and you've lived, since I've known you, you've lived in several different countries.
• 6:07
  Michelle: Did you find that the story was the same the world around?
• 6:11
  Michelle: In your experience, that you're just supposed to work as hard as you can?
• 6:14
  Michelle: No, okay tell me about that.
• 6:18
  Vikki: There's definitely different, I call it time culture, and this is something that we're leaning more into with the work that we're producing this year, as we work and partner with companies and organizations, is time culture and, essentially, what are our beliefs around time?
• 6:32
  Vikki: What's the culture that we are creating?
• 6:34
  Vikki: And there is a definite difference in culture, based off of where you live and, I'm sure, based off of where you work, and I'm sure based off of what industry you are in and what seniority you are and whether you are self-employed or whatever it might be.
• 6:49
  Vikki: So I think that's been a really interesting thing for me to observe that there is no one size you know fits all narrative and yet it's still so broken in so many places.
• 7:01
  Vikki: I think for sure it allows me to see what's optional, whereas maybe, had I just stayed in London, that wouldn't have been so obvious to me.
• 7:09
  Vikki: And, on the other hand, I can honestly say that nowhere has really figured it out, because, unfortunately, I think more people are waking up to the fact that what we're doing isn't working.
• 7:20
  Vikki: But the issue is, the solutions that we're putting forward are also outdated, are also old fashioned and also don't consider us.
• 7:28
  Vikki: So what I found across everywhere that I've lived is people becoming more aware of this issue and unfortunately, the solution is still not viable.
• 7:40
  Vikki: I'll give you an example.
• 7:41
  Vikki: I was speaking with someone recently and they were saying in their country people just need to get on board with time management.
• 7:47
  Vikki: Like people don't even consider time management.
• 7:49
  Vikki: And I was saying that's actually an advantage, because what I find with so many of my clients is, it's kind of like you're still texting your ex when you want to start dating someone new and it's like you just stop dating the ex and then just you know you've got a clear pathway to the someone new.
• 8:07
  Vikki: And so often what we've got in so many countries is not only an unlearning of how we use our time, but an unlearning and a detachment from the tools that aren't actually solving the problem.
• 8:18
  Vikki: So, for example, let's speak about time blocking.
• 8:22
  Vikki: I'm seeing this everywhere and it's a great concept and it's not for everyone and I think it's laughable this idea that we can predict all week on a Sunday or Monday and know what's going to come up on a Thursday, especially as parents, especially in the fast moving technological world that we live in now and I think that we make ourselves oftentimes like victims to our Monday's decisions or employees to our Monday's decisions, instead of allowing for that room of like, maybe, as the week goes on, I will get smarter and detaching away from these like smart goals and this whole narrative of over- structuring our weeks, when I think it's a super skill this day and age to be flexible.
• 9:06
  Vikki: Okay, so what should we do instead?
• 9:10
  Vikki: There's lots of different schools.
• 9:11
  Vikki: I think the first thing I will say is stop giving time credit and stop giving time responsibility.
• 9:17
  Vikki: And this can show up in subtle ways like, oh, you know, I've not been promoted because I've only been here for some amount of time.
• 9:23
  Vikki: Or, you know, maybe this relationship isn't that serious because we've only been dating for x amount of time or been on y number of dates.
• 9:29
  Vikki: And then there's the more obvious ways where we say, oh, "it was just good timing, or I guess the time was right when something good happens.
• 9:39
  Vikki: One of the things I find, particularly with women, when I start to unravel this responsibility and credit that we give time, is they're quite quick to understand like, oh, it's not time's responsibility that I've not achieved the goal that I set out to this year, it's mine.
• 9:52
  Vikki: And they're very slow to take on, like, oh, it's not time that got me to where I am today, it's me.
• 9:58
  Vikki: And I just want to caution that with everyone that what I'm talking about here is radical self-responsibility and the fact that we are more powerful than time, the fact that time is fixed and known and predictable and it's humans that are different.
• 10:11
  Vikki: Right, the difference between your most and least productive day is not the number of hours in that day, it's us, it's humans.
• 10:18
  Vikki: I don't want anyone to take this as are we using this to beat up on yourself if you are not having your most productive day.
• 10:24
  Vikki: Again, I want to be very clear.
• 10:25
  Vikki: No one has literally sat down and taught you how to optimize your time and it is a skill, and as kids - I mean as parents we can see this with our own kids - we are taught to fill our time.
• 10:36
  Vikki: We are taught to fill it as much as we can and to be busy and to be occupied, and that's all great.
• 10:42
  Vikki: But as adults, we do start to have different responsibilities and we have different pulls in different directions.
• 10:48
  Vikki: And if we bring that time-filling habit to our work, to our relationships, to our children, to our households, we end up with not enough time and too much to do.
• 10:58
  Vikki: And what we have to do instead is start strategically thinking, like what does success look like for me?
• 11:05
  Vikki: What does success look like for me this week?
• 11:07
  Vikki: What does success look like for me in my work?
• 11:09
  Vikki: What does success look like for me in my relationships?
• 11:12
  Vikki: And that has to be kind of like the tunnel, the guiding light for the decisions that we make, for the things that we gift our time to and for how we show up for ourselves, for our goals, for our dreams, and for our people.
• 11:28
  Michelle: I love just the shift of thinking about time is set and predictable and it's one of the few things that we can know for sure.
• 11:37
  Michelle: Like there's 24 hours in this day and then I get to decide what happens inside of those.
• 11:42
  Michelle: So I follow you on social media and I listen to your podcast and all that stuff, so I know a lot more than some people might who are already being introduced to you.
• 11:51
  Michelle: So can you just tell us like a little bit about your personal - what one of your days might look like?
• 11:57
  Michelle: And you probably don't want to brag so much about how amazing your business is, so I'll do it for you, but you have a huge business and if you could tell us what that's like and how you manage that with your time and being a mom, and spending time with your husband and I love when you post, like today I'm taking a nap, or something that is so profoundly opposite that hustle culture that we see all the time.
• 12:22
  Michelle: So if you wouldn't mind just sharing a little bit with us about what your days looks like, you can inspire us with that.
• 12:32
  Vikki: Yes.
• 12:32
  Vikki: First thing I'll say is, no two days look the same.
• 12:32
  Vikki: If my husband is doing the morning routine, then I will stay in bed, and recently I have been, I'm even going to say this honestly, I've been waking up and going into my phone and into social media just because some things are happening in the world that are affecting me, and that's just where my brain wants to hang out.
• 12:48
  Vikki: And there's a lot of gurus out there that will say, like, don't wake up and pick up your phone.
• 12:52
  Vikki: And it's like you can wake up and pick up your phone, just don't beat yourself up about it.
• 12:55
  Vikki: It'll be amazed at what you can do and how much time you save when you just stop beating yourself up for the things that you are doing.
• 13:02
  Vikki: Right now we are launching our one to one coaching program, so it's like a six- week program.
• 13:07
  Vikki: So right now I know my priority is just getting the content out there and making sure enough people hear about it.
• 13:14
  Vikki: Now do we have other programs running?
• 13:17
  Vikki: Do we have, you know, lots of contractors and lots of people working for us?
• 13:21
  Vikki: Yes, but for me, I'm just going to be owning what the bare minimum is that I want to get done, that's going to make it successful, is so freeing, instead of looking for oh, I've got this time so I must fill it - kind of like what we spoke about, right?
• 13:35
  Vikki: Because unfortunately, if I fill it by making up work today, then I'm going to make more work for tomorrow.
• 13:40
  Vikki: For example, one of the things that I decided I wanted to create is a workshop on how to get things done in a crisis.
• 13:47
  Vikki: Now, I wanted to create this.
• 13:49
  Vikki: I went to my team and they said to me we can do this, but you have to drop something else.
• 13:54
  Vikki: And that's very much our narrative of like if we want to add something, we are dropping something, and I think it's very important for everyone listening to really consider that, because there are certain things that I don't do because it would require me to drop something else that I care about.
• 14:08
  Vikki: And there are certain things I will do, even though we'll require me to drop something else that I care about.
• 14:13
  Vikki: And in this day and age, it's so easy to just keep adding and adding.
• 14:17
  Michelle: Yes, and your point is so good that when you say yes to something, you have to say no to something else.
• 14:24
  Michelle: And that's always true, even if we're not consciously thinking it and doing it.
• 14:28
  Michelle: We are always so - when you're saying yes to something you really don't want to do or just choosing to fill in your time with whatever, especially as entrepreneurs, well, probably anyone listening who has a job, you could work forever, everyone could probably work forever, but to what end or for what point?
• 14:44
  Michelle: I love that.
• 14:44
  Michelle: Okay, sorry, go on.
• 14:46
  Michelle: The other team basically said we can do that, but you have to drop something else.
• 14:51
  Michelle: So what did you decide?
• 14:52
  Vikki: Yeah, so we're dropping something else.
• 14:53
  Vikki: Now, my view is that the thing that we're dropping, which is a live event next year, my view is we can definitely drop it now and, because this is something I want to run in the next two to three weeks, I'm pretty sure we can pick it back up again, but we're going to put it, it's fully gone to sleep now.
• 15:10
  Vikki: And also even the way I go about that, what I've said to them about that is like I'm not doing a big launch, I'm not doing a big sales push.
• 15:18
  Vikki: It's going to be very organic.
• 15:19
  Vikki: I don't care if two people show up, I'm doing this because I care about this work in the world and for me it's worth it to help those two people more than it is to grow my email list or whatever.
• 15:28
  Vikki: And this is what my Director of Ops said, she said this feels like it's a giving back project, and it is, and that's important to me.
• 15:36
  Vikki: Now, again, it's all about managing, especially as a business, especially with people that I pay in this business, it's not just me anymore.
• 15:43
  Vikki: I do have to be mindful of bringing in revenue and of growing the business at all times so that we stay sustainable, but I think also being realistic of like am I willing to earn less money this month in order to do this thing and give back?
• 15:57
  Vikki: And being like yes, I am, and the business is in a position to as well.
• 16:02
  Vikki: I also recognize that my business wasn't always in this position.
• 16:07
  Vikki: I think getting very clear for everyone listening of you cannot always be 'on'.
• 16:11
  Vikki: You cannot always be pushing, you cannot always be selling, you cannot always be giving, giving, giving, doing, doing, doing.
• 16:16
  Vikki: You have to allow yourself to ebb and flow, not just because of what happens in the world, but because, as humans, we experience sickness and grief and life happens to all of us.
• 16:26
  Vikki: And, unfortunately, one of the narratives that I'm doing the work of unraveling is this idea that we have to be consistent and we have to show up all the time and we have to be available for everyone all the time.
• 16:37
  Vikki: It's just driving us insane and burning us out and diminishing creativity.
• 16:43
  Vikki: So, getting very clear on what your goals are, not what you think they should be, not what someone else tells you that they should be, but what matters to you.
• 16:52
  Vikki: And the other thing that I will say is I still think about every week what's gonna make this week successful and I allow not every week to be successful, and I think not enough people are speaking about their fails.
• 17:06
  Vikki: The people that I've hired this year a lot of them actually were clients of mine that are now getting a behind- the- scenes of my business and the feedback that I'm getting is like oh, like, you fail a lot.
• 17:17
  Vikki: And I think and I do, and I love to fail because it's such juicy learning but I think unfortunately for so many of us we try to avoid failing by overplanning, by over calendaring, by writing 17 to do lists that we've lost, by having 40 tabs open on our computer also, that we can avoid failing when we're really failing ourselves.
• 17:39
  Vikki: And just having spent my 20s doing that, I'm just so unwilling to do that anymore.
• 17:45
  Vikki: I will fail everyone else above failing myself, and that's why I will have a nap in the middle of the day and that's why I will work 50% of the time from my phone and not from the computer, because that's how I like to work and it suits me and guess what?
• 17:59
  Vikki: I can.
• 17:59
  Vikki: And just letting things not get done, letting goals not be reached, and taking the learning instead of grasping to like, I must sacrifice myself in order to achieve this goal, and that, I will say, is a big difference that I see in myself versus a lot of business owners.
• 18:15
  Michelle: Yeah, I think that's amazing, and most of the people who are listening to this podcast are sort of type A, over achiever types, and so the idea of failing - I can say this for myself too - it just feels awful until you've done it and then you're like, oh okay, that didn't work out, let me just do something else.
• 18:34
  Michelle: It's like we're doing everything to avoid this feeling that we failed, and then when we actually do it, it's really not so bad as we thought and you can actually learn something and get to the point.
• 18:43
  Michelle: Like you said, okay, I love to fail, I love to try these things.
• 18:46
  Michelle: The other thing I think you said that just really resonated with me when you were saying it is that filling in time is kind of a security blanket, Like, okay, I have.
• 18:55
  Michelle: I just I've had this happen to me two times recently.
• 18:59
  Michelle: Once was when I launched this podcast and once was when I launched my group coaching, and both times I had - I have a background in project management, I love being organized, whatever - so I had everything done.
• 19:12
  Michelle: When I was ready to go, it was done, and then you sit kind of in that silence of just like waiting for it to happen or for it to work or to not work or whatever.
• 19:22
  Michelle: And immediately I'm like should I write more posts?
• 19:24
  Michelle: Should I do more things?
• 19:25
  Michelle: Should I talk to more people?
• 19:26
  Michelle: Should I send more emails?
• 19:27
  Michelle: And it's like no, you made a plan, you followed the plan.
• 19:32
  Michelle: It makes sense.
• 19:33
  Michelle: You don't have to just fill it in, but I was trying to avoid my own discomfort of not having anything to do.
• 19:38
  Michelle: There was nothing for me to do at that point.
• 19:42
  Vikki: Yes, exactly it's so - it's way more uncomfortable for us to rest and to do nothing than it is for us to keep doing.
• 19:49
  Vikki: But at what point is doing more actually harming?
• 19:52
  Vikki: Not even just neutral, like it's actually harming?
• 19:55
  Michelle: Yeah, yeah, I think it's really harming.
• 19:58
  Michelle: Yeah, I love the idea that, the way you said, stop blaming time or giving time credit or whatever.
• 20:04
  Michelle: What are some of the other things that you've talked about a lot, or like another tip you could give us around time?
• 20:09
  Vikki: Yeah, I mean.
• 20:10
  Vikki: So time hacking, just so everyone knows, that's my expertise, that's what we do.
• 20:14
  Vikki: We help people hack time and the idea is kind of to stop, one of the things we say is to stop using the T word, like I don't have time.
• 20:22
  Vikki: If it's not time, if you can't use the T word, what is it?
• 20:25
  Vikki: Maybe it's I don't have desire, I don't have care, I don't have connection.
• 20:28
  Vikki: I don't really want to do this.
• 20:30
  Vikki: I don't have confidence, I don't have belief in myself.
• 20:32
  Vikki: I don't have the tolerance to feel the discomfort, whatever it might be.
• 20:37
  Vikki: Let's just get very clear on what's going on, because time is like the excuse that the world loves.
• 20:42
  Vikki: Everyone will agree on it.
• 20:44
  Vikki: I always think if you go into the dentist's office and you want to relate to someone, you'll either complain about the weather or time, and everyone will agree with you.
• 20:50
  Michelle: It's so true.
• 20:54
  Michelle: Oh my goodness, that is very interesting to think about.
• 20:57
  Michelle: If you can't blame time when you're not doing something, what can you blame?
• 21:02
  Michelle: And I bet that helps pull out when you just don't want to do something.
• 21:06
  Vikki: Right, and the problem is we feel like it's a soft blow.
• 21:09
  Vikki: Like, say, a friend is like do you want to come hang out tonight?
• 21:13
  Vikki: And I'm like no, I don't want to.
• 21:14
  Vikki: Like it feels way nicer to be like oh, I don't have time, I'm so busy, and they'll be like oh, they're busy.
• 21:20
  Vikki: Instead of like no, it doesn't appeal to me to go stand out in the rain in Manchester on, you know, on a weeknight, and like I'm just, I just don't want to do that, so that she knows to not invite me again.
• 21:32
  Vikki: So that can't be a thing.
• 21:34
  Vikki: Right, we have to answer more honestly so that we create more authentic relationships, and also to ourselves, why am I not doing this part of the project?
• 21:43
  Vikki: Yeah.
• 21:43
  Vikki: Because I don't have time, because I've just been scrolling on social media or, because I'm so worried what my boss will think, I'm worried what my clients will think, or I'm worried I'm going to mess it up, or I'm worried I'm going to do it wrong.
• 21:54
  Vikki: Right, okay, now we have the real issue.
• 21:57
  Vikki: Oh, we can solve for the real issue, because if it's a time issue, there's nothing we can do.
• 22:01
  Vikki: Time isn't going to change, time is fixed.
• 22:04
  Vikki: But when we get to the core of it.
• 22:05
  Vikki: It's like, okay, just that we spoke about maybe I'm afraid of failing and that's why I don't want to do this.
• 22:11
  Vikki: This is going to expose me to potential failure.
• 22:13
  Vikki: Okay, so my option is to not fail by not trying and therefore definitely fail, or to change my relationship with failure.
• 22:21
  Vikki: What if failure is temporary?
• 22:22
  Vikki: What if failure is a stepping stone to success?
• 22:24
  Vikki: Can I think about times in the past where I failed and it served me and start teaching your brain to get on board with a temporary fail for future success?
• 22:35
  Michelle: I love that and I love just giving people the permission to say no and not using time for it, because one of the things we work on a lot is the idea of if it fits in my calendar, then I can say yes.
• 22:46
  Michelle: A nd it's like no, only if you're about to do - I think you just almost spit out your tea on that one! And so that's sort of what we're conditioned to think, I think, especially as women, like if you can do it, if there's an open space on your calendar, and someone asks you to do something, you should say yes.
• 23:05
  Michelle: And to pause and say, "Do I really want to do this?
• 23:09
  Michelle: Does it fit into the life that I'm trying to create?
• 23:12
  Michelle: If it can't be the time, what else is it?
• 23:14
  Michelle: That's just so powerful! Oh my gosh, thank you so much.
• 23:17
  Michelle: These are really really helpful tips just to get everybody thinking about it.
• 23:21
  Michelle: If they want to know more about you, where should they go?
• 23:25
  Michelle: What should people look for?
• 23:27
  Michelle: Tell us.
• 23:29
  Vikki: There's a podcast, since you're listening to a podcast.
• 23:31
  Vikki: It's called Hack your Time.
• 23:32
  Vikki: It's typically 10-15-minute episodes that pack a lot of punch, that leave you with something actionable to implement, that leave you feel supported and actually solving the real problems so that you can achieve more in less time.
• 23:44
  Vikki: I also have a guide called the Stop Wasting Time Guide that maybe we'll link to in the show notes.
• 23:49
  Vikki: I feel like I don't really speak about it enough, about how brilliant it is, but when you messaged me and mentioned it, I was like yes, unfortunately, so many of us are trying to stop wasting time and we are calendaring, we are writing lists, we are using alarm clocks, we're downloading apps, we're opening Excel sheets, whatever it might be.
• 24:07
  Vikki: It's been so over-complicated, it's become something else that takes more time away from us.
• 24:12
  Vikki: What I've identified are simply the four biggest time wasters and how to solve for them.
• 24:16
  Vikki: So we will link to that, I think, in the show notes as well.
• 24:20
  Michelle: Yeah, I think that would be a great resource to give people.
• 24:23
  Michelle: Overall, in general, I just really appreciate your approach, the way you talk about it, how many people you're teaching.
• 24:30
  Michelle: I feel like you have so many students and now coaches that you've hired underneath you to help, so maybe you will put a dent in the culture of time.
• 24:39
  Michelle: That would be wonderful.
• 24:40
  Michelle: That's the message.
• 24:42
  Michelle: We'll try.
• 24:42
  Michelle: The US might be the hardest nut to crack.
• 24:44
  Michelle: I don't know.
• 24:45
  Michelle: Was London on par with the American you- have- to- work- 24-7-n ess?
• 24:50
  Vikki: I mean, when I started my first job in corporate, I had to sign a document signing away my rights for a 40-hour work week.
• 24:57
  Michelle: Oh my gosh, I was just telling someone a story the other day.
• 25:03
  Michelle: I worked in Central Time in the US and most of my team was in India and they were 11 and a half hours.
• 25:10
  Michelle: I don't know how that half-hour time zone, but they were 11 and a half hours different.
• 25:14
  Michelle: So you just flip the AM and the PM.
• 25:16
  Michelle: And so I would often, when we were going live with something, because I worked in IT, set my alarm for 2 am, 4 am, 6 am.
• 25:23
  Michelle: I'd get up and do these check-in calls.
• 25:25
  Michelle: I'm like what the hell am I doing?
• 25:28
  Michelle: Oh my gosh, why is it not possible for the boss in India to manage this stuff?
• 25:34
  Michelle: Why, what is going on?
• 25:35
  Michelle: But it was just understood like, yeah, you're going to have to get on a call at 2 o'clock in the morning with the other side of the world and that's just part of your job.
• 25:42
  Michelle: Yeah, on a Thursday.
• 25:44
  Michelle: And then it was like Friday workday.
• 25:46
  Michelle: It wasn't like I had the day off or anything.
• 25:48
  Michelle: So yeah, it's crazy.
• 25:50
  Michelle: And I never questioned it.
• 25:52
  Michelle: It was just like, well, I want to get ahead.
• 25:54
  Michelle: So, yeah, that's what I'm going to do.
• 25:56
  Vikki: Right, and unfortunately, so many of us that then go on to have our own businesses take this unconscious, like unintentional way of doing and being and relating to our time with us, and it just is not a pretty sight either.
• 26:12
  Michelle: Yes, yes, and you are a great example of someone who can run a million-dollar business with employees and, you know, sleep in when you want to and do really impactful work.
• 26:24
  Vikki: Yeah, and I just want to point out that also, my employees have a lot of flexibility, because I think some people listening might be like, oh well, it's easy if you've got a big team.
• 26:32
  Vikki: But firstly, when I was pregnant and gave birth and I was put on bed rest like I didn't have a team, I had a VA.
• 26:40
  Vikki: And secondly, my team also have that flexibility to be like, oh, I'm moving house for a few days, ok, great.
• 26:47
  Vikki: Like I really think that it's important that we don't, I just don't want anyone listening to be like, oh, she's different to me, because, I don't want to get into the business and instead start thinking about if that could be possible for me.
• 27:00
  Michelle: What would that look like?
• 27:01
  Michelle: Yes, yes.
• 27:03
  Michelle: And when you were on bed rest, what did you do with your business?
• 27:08
  Vikki: So I stopped doing everything.
• 27:09
  Vikki: We repeated past podcast episodes, my VA repeated past podcast episodes and I hired a few of my clients to coach my community.
• 27:17
  Vikki: I cancelled launches multiple times.
• 27:21
  Vikki: I let the business go into the red, really got super comfortable with the idea that I would be, you know, going into debt, as I was prioritizing my health because my partner also was a full-time student.
• 27:34
  Vikki: We were living in France at the time, so it was really like I'm the sole income earner and I'm unable to work.
• 27:40
  Vikki: And the reason I share that is because I think that for so many of us, it's so frightening when you're actually faced with it, you do actually not have the choice to not take care of your health.
• 27:51
  Vikki: And I came back from that rest period and I think in one month we made more than we'd made in the previous 11.
• 27:58
  Vikki: So I think because I allowed myself to rest, because I allowed myself to switch off, because I prioritized my health, I was even more connected to my work and my people and they were just like wait, this is possible to really take care of yourself, and that's what I'll always be an advocate of.
• 28:13
  Michelle: Yeah, yeah, oh my gosh, that's amazing.
• 28:15
  Michelle: Good job, thanks for being a good example to the rest of us and obviously it worked out, yeah.
• 28:21
  Vikki: And again, I just think I don't want anyone to take from today's episode any kind of shaming or blaming.
• 28:26
  Vikki: It's really about understanding that you've just not been taught to think about time in this way and we are coming for you.
• 28:36
  Michelle: Do you want to talk about how to work during crisis and talk about who that's for?
• 28:40
  Michelle: Maybe any of your personal story that you feel comfortable sharing, why you're doing this?
• 28:46
  Vikki: Yeah, sure.
• 28:47
  Vikki: So on up to October 7th, I woke up at 6:20 am to my baby and 10 minutes later I was experiencing sirens and rockets and my partner had been camping and the last thing I'd heard from him was my phone's going to be off, I can speak to you tomorrow and you know, I was suddenly blown into a world of shock and grief and devastation on a level that I've never experienced before and I honestly spent a few days - my partner says I was basically in a trance, and he's right, I was, and just coming back and taking care of myself.
• 29:28
  Vikki: And then I think I took two, three weeks really doing the bare bare minimum, and then - I mean the most I do is a 15 hour work week - so the bare minimum is really the bare bare minimum.
• 29:39
  Vikki: And yet we sold, oversold the launch, and we did that because of the skill of time hacking, because we know how to get things done, get the most important things done, because we know how to prioritize, because I don't push through, because I let things happen as they will, because I'll allow ourselves to fail, because I was totally willing to prioritize what we needed at that time over the short term results.
• 30:05
  Vikki: And that always is how you produce better results, and so I've been thinking about how I can give back and how I can contribute, and I do think that time hacking is the super skill of the century and I do think it's a skill that so many of us need right now, and that's led me to create a workshop on how to get things done in a crisis.
• 30:24
  Vikki: Now, I do imagine that a lot of people will be attending are related to the current crisis that we are seeing in the world, and I encourage people to join, even if you don't feel particularly triggered by this crisis, but you've experienced crisis or perhaps you're exposed to potential crisis with elderly parents, whatever it might be.
• 30:43
  Vikki: I just think again, it's one thing to not have the skill of how to optimize your time so you can achieve more faster, and it's the other thing to not have the skill that allows you to be human, to be present in your life, to give what you need to yourself, to your loved ones, without compromising results.
• 31:01
  Vikki: I think suddenly we're seeing it's not an optional skill, it's a requirement.
• 31:06
  Michelle: Yes, and what I'm hearing from my Jewish friends here in the US and these are quotes from them are like, I can't do anything but think about this.
• 31:17
  Michelle: And that is so heartbreaking, and it also it doesn't serve the problem or them or their families.
• 31:29
  Michelle: So I think you offering something like this just being able to teach them how to not move on, not ignore, not pretend it isn't happening, but just to allow themselves to feel how they feel and also be able to work in this time of crisis, I think is such an important skill and I don't know where else people could go for that.
• 31:50
  Michelle: So I absolutely love that you're doing this.
• 31:52
  Michelle: So when will it be?
• 31:54
  Vikki: It's going to be next Thursday.
• 31:56
  Vikki: Let me just pull up my calendar - it's going to be Thursday, the 16th.
• 32:01
  Vikki: It is going to be at 1 pm UK time, because that's 3 pm Israel time, which does mean it's early morning for people in the US.
• 32:09
  Vikki: There will be a replay that people can sign on for.
• 32:12
  Vikki: There will be a training and coaching.
• 32:14
  Vikki: Actually, the replay won't include coaching just because I want it to be a really safe, ibut i but people cannot make that time and want me to one, i t's one.
• 32:23
  Vikki: It's something that I'm happy to do again as well.
• 32:26
  Vikki: So I really just recommend people get in touch.
• 32:28
  Vikki: I really recommend that you do show up for that and, just to be very clear, you can show up for my calls without being on video, in the comfort of your bed.
• 32:36
  Vikki: There's no requirements to this call, to anything except you showing up.
• 32:41
  Vikki: If you can only engage for five minutes, only engage for five minutes, I will be taking the training part and recording that.
• 32:49
  Vikki: So if you sign up, you can get access to that.
• 32:52
  Vikki: But the coaching part I am going to keep private for obvious reasons.
• 32:56
  Michelle: Yeah, okay, that's wonderful, though, because even watching the replay later, they'll learn some of the skills, and then they can always reach out and follow you in other different ways.
• 33:07
  Michelle: Well, thank you for doing that.
• 33:09
  Michelle: What a good way to give back.
• 33:10
  Michelle: I'm so happy to publicize that and open that up to anybody who is in crisis right now.
• 33:16
  Michelle: How are things right now, at the moment?
• 33:18
  Michelle: Like in where you are and in your home.
• 33:22
  Vikki: So I've been getting a lot of support.
• 33:24
  Vikki: That's my go to first - add a lot of rest and then I have a lot of support and that's the phase that I'm in now.
• 33:30
  Vikki: I think it was really helpful.
• 33:31
  Vikki: Like I said, I've have been in social media, I have been watching the news, all these things that I'm like.
• 33:37
  Vikki: This is not helpful, but there is a comfort that my brain and body is requiring to be informed, because my future is really unknown right now, not just my future in Israel, but my future in England as a Jew, and it feels very vulnerable and exposing and dangerous right now, and so I'm just not judging.
• 33:57
  Vikki: You know, whatever that is, I am staying relatively close to home and I've been hosting a call once a week that people can also get in touch with me on.
• 34:08
  Vikki: A lot of people have actually volunteered.
• 34:10
  Vikki: I've even had someone today literally offer a Reiki and I've been asking if they'll do it for groups, and so we've had Reiki, we've had trauma coaching, we've had somatic coaching.
• 34:19
  Vikki: I just think getting the support and allowing ourselves to be human and not judging if I do things like I'm on the phone when my kid is around, when I normally hate to be on the phone when my kid is around.
• 34:33
  Vikki: If I'm really engaged or talking with a friend who really needs support at that point, then I'm okay with that.
• 34:39
  Vikki: We're okay and just nervous.
• 34:43
  Michelle: Yeah, yeah, okay.
• 34:46
  Michelle: Well, I'm sending all my love and support to you and we will definitely publicize this link and hopefully other people who are having a really hard time during this crisis can join you and start following you too.
• 34:57
  Michelle: Thank you, appreciate it.
• 34:59
  Michelle: Thank you.
• 35:00
  Michelle: Thanks so much for being on.
• 35:02
  Michelle: I appreciate it, appreciate you.
• 35:04
  Michelle: Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
• 35:12
  Michelle: If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at michellegauthier.
• 35:16
  Michelle: com.
• 35:17
  Michelle: See you next week.