Penny Casselman:
Productivity is one of the key areas of focus inside high performance coaching, and it's why I am so passionate about what I do because it's not about working harder. It's about getting ahead by being intentional and strategic with how you view your activities and what truly needs to take a priority in your life. Welcome to the Pivot with Passion podcast. Hi. I'm Penny Casselman. I believe everyone is deserving of a phenomenal life. Regardless of where you came from, life is what you make of it. And when you learn to pivot with passion, your world explodes with opportunities.
Penny Casselman:
Go grab your favorite beverage, and let's shake things up as we explore how to pivot with passion. Hello, director. Welcome back to another episode. If you are new to the show, thanks for hitting play. I'm excited to have you here this week so we can dive in and talk about how do we show up to be our best self? How do we put one foot in front of the other every day, every week, every month, and keep going towards a phenomenal life. So what are we celebrating today? Kinda might start asking it at the top of every show. Why is that? We don't celebrate enough. Right? Celebrating our accomplishments is not like a birthday.
Penny Casselman:
It doesn't come around once a year. We have things we can celebrate every single day that we do, but we're so trained to just keep pushing forward, take the check mark, move on to the next thing. And while, yes, check marks do help us move in that direction of our success, not recognizing and giving yourself credit for those check marks, that's something we can definitely correct. So what are we celebrating this week? For me, I'll kick it off. I am celebrating installing a second monitor on my desk. Yes. It seems utilitarian, and why would I celebrate that? However, having a second monitor is going to help me when I deliver webinars and be on Zoom meetings so I can reference things without losing the person that I'm talking to in front of me. So that's what I'm celebrating this week.
Penny Casselman:
What are you celebrating? And side note, I would love to know what you're celebrating. Shoot me an email, let me know. That way I can celebrate with you. Now the title of this episode is How to Work Less and Actually Get ahead. This is something that has truly been resonating for me. I am kind of in a season of hustle right now. I'm curious. Have you ever found yourself hustling hard, but not actually feeling like you're getting more accomplished? You might be caught in what I call the productivity trap.
Penny Casselman:
And the productivity trap is kind of like running on a treadmill. You're moving, you're sweating, you're working hard, your feet are going, but are you going anywhere? No. And that's what the productivity trap can feel like. You're doing all the things, you're staying busy, but you look around and realize you are no further along than you were before. And today's topic dives into one of the key pillars of high performance coaching, and that is productivity. Because when you shift how you think about getting things done, that's when you can be selective about what activities you're doing and pick those that help you move the needle the furthest, the fastest, and the most efficiently. It's time for a clarity cocktail. Today's clarity cocktail comes from my mentor, Brendon Burchard, and he shares.
Penny Casselman:
Beware. The inbox is nothing but a convenient organizing system for other people's agendas. Woohoo! Boy I got to tell you that one hit. And when you think about it, isn't that what the inbox is? Think about all the promotional emails you get from stores. Their agenda is to have you buy more of their stuff. That's not your agenda per se, it's what drives their business. That's their agenda. They're extending an offer to you, but that is what it is, an offer based on their agenda.
Penny Casselman:
I'm sure you can think of other examples that you find in your inbox where it is simply nothing but other people's agenda. How often are you starting your day in a reactive mode? Now, hand raise, this used to be me. I do sleep with my phone next to my bed, not the best habit, although I have trained myself not to look at it first thing in the morning. I'll celebrate that as well. That is progress. But in the old days, I might pick it up before I even get out of bed, and I would look at my email to see all the messages that had come in since the last time I saw it. And then I would have this urge to respond to emails or requests rather than anchoring myself into what really is going to move the needle that day. I was derailing my productivity for the day by allowing my brain to start absorbing other people's agendas.
Penny Casselman:
I'm curious, how might you minimize distractions that will help you maintain priorities? Because in doing that, is the only way that you are going to be effective at going after what you want. I'll read Brendon's sage advice one more time. Beware. The inbox is nothing but a convenient organizing system for other people's agenda. Think about that the next time you pop into your inbox and ask yourself, how can I stay focused and effective? And how might you minimize distractions to maintain your priorities? And now back to the episode. Cheers. Circling back to this idea of how to work less and actually get ahead for me right now, I am in a season of hustle. I am putting together a webinar, which is requiring a laundry list of things that I wouldn't have necessarily thought about before I jumped in.
Penny Casselman:
It's all good, I'm excited about it because I know that by putting in some hustle right now means that I will free up some time on the other side of getting everything in place. So I know that my season of hustle is temporary, and that by focusing my priorities, making good choices, this hustle will actually result in me working less in the future while still getting ahead. Here is the nuance however, hustle without intention leads to burnout. Just like that treadmill that I mentioned earlier in the episode, if you are hustling, if you are on that treadmill and you are running and sweating and moving fast and you find yourself looking around asking why aren't I further ahead? My guess is your hustle doesn't have enough intention, and you are on the verge of burnout. And let me just say, it happens to everyone. There are definitely times, heck, in the last five years where I had to step away from my business because I had let my focus slip and had completely hit the wall, burnt out, and needed to take care of myself and refocus what I was intentionally going after. And it's easy to fall into the productivity trap. If anyone was to ask you, how are you doing? And your response was, oh my gosh, I'm so busy, they would think, yeah, good for you.
Penny Casselman:
I mean, who isn't busy these days? Right? But there is no honor in a busy badge, because you get too many of those badges and you are down for the count. Now I wanna share some actionable strategies that you might employ as you start thinking about productivity and how you might become more intentional to ensure that you are not burning yourself out, to ensure that you are making progress towards that vision you are holding. However, I want to be clear that productivity and being busy can happen in any given situation. This is not only a corporate America problem, nor is it simply a personal problem, because productivity can impact others as well. I bring that example up because I want to ensure you are thinking big enough and broad enough when it comes to how you might employ strategies to help with intentional productivity. Here are four actionable strategies that you might employ as you move forward with being intentional with your productivity. First one, schedule creation time like it is sacred. What does that mean? Well, I scheduled creation time when I was in the process of developing my webinar.
Penny Casselman:
I knew that on the weekend, I would have to devote several hours to the creation and development of what I ultimately wanted to deliver. There was no way around it because one of the things I'd done is set a deadline for myself, and there is nothing like a deadline to keep you moving forward. So I embrace the fact that I had to hustle, schedule time on my calendar, and felt at ease with my decision because it was intentional. The second thing you can do is say no to say yes. Rephrased another way, what did you not do this week in order to move forward with an activity or a goal or a dream was most likely because you had said yes to something that you should not have. Makes sense? This past weekend, when I was scheduling time to devote to work, I had to say no to other opportunities. I told myself this weekend that was not going to happen because I needed to be intentional with my productivity and focus on the webinar. The third thing is add fun for fuel.
Penny Casselman:
Knowing that I was going to have to work intently this past weekend, I allowed myself to have some fun on Friday night. I released any expectations that I was going to get work done, and instead went out with some friends, and I enjoyed myself, because I knew the weekend held deliberate plans, but Friday I gave myself some fun, so that when I stepped into a weekend of hustle, my social cup was full. You see, sprinkling in joy or lightness helps avoid burnout. If I shut down every ounce of fun during a season of hustle, I will burn out twice as fast than if I had allowed myself time to enjoy. The fourth thing you might entertain is create a not now list. In the corporate world, we would always call this the parking lot. If someone had an idea that we could not take on right now, we would post the idea and put it in a document. Now in my entrepreneurial coaching journey, I put things on post its and place them on my wall that help me release things out of my mind, put them on a piece of paper so I'm assured I will not forget, so that I can take that intentional focus and move forward with productivity.
Penny Casselman:
Because truly that not now list or that parking lot helps get the mental clutter out of my mind, which allows me to stay focused and intentional with what I'm doing. Throughout this episode, I touched upon working harder is not the goal. It's working smarter and being more intentional. Before I was exposed to the concepts and strategies behind high performance coaching, I found myself on the treadmill a lot. I would constantly strive for a badge of busy, because in my mind, that's what I thought moved the needle towards success. I realized it truly is about working smarter and more intentional, not working harder. Productivity is one of the key areas of focus inside high performance coaching, And it's why I am so passionate about what I do because it's not about working harder. It's about getting ahead by being intentional and strategic with how you view your activities and what truly needs to take a priority in your life.
Penny Casselman:
If this episode resonated with you, I would love to hear your thoughts on productivity. Shoot me an email. I respond to every single one. And if you are looking for support in changing your approach to productivity, let's talk. At any time, you can go to my website, fill out a form, and have an hour long session with me to figure out how we can move the needle in your life, whether that's a clean house, buying a new house, or a promotion, or more family time, or a magical vacation. Whatever it is, I promise I can help you get unstuck and start moving towards your big goals. If no one has told you this yet today, director, you are doing amazing. The world is waiting for you to claim your phenomenal life.
Penny Casselman:
Until next week, go make it happen. Friend, thanks for listening to this episode of Pivot with Passion. If you've been feeling stuck, exhausted, or frustrated, this is your permission slip to go grab a red marker and claim the life you desire and deserve. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend, and then hop over to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts. Because my goal is to put a red marker in everyone's hand, and I need your help to spread the word and make that happen. Until the next episode, go grab a red marker, get excited for your future, and make your first move to pivot with passion.
