Episode Transcription

David Pisarek: Are you tired of waiting until the last minute? Do you always put off really important jobs and work until the absolute last second? Hang out with us. Listen to this episode. We’ve got Chelsea Newmyer here with us, a productivity expert. Tune in and hear what we’re going to be talking about.

Welcome to the Non-profit Digital Success Podcast. I’m your host, David, and in this episode, we’re going to be talking about all things productivity. And I’ve got Chelsey Newmyer here with me. She is a nerd for time management and productivity. She started her business to help non-profit leaders and business managers maximize their time by getting the personalized productivity they need to reach their goals. She’s also living right now in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. She’s a Navy spouse and she lives with her husband and her dog… Leia? Is that right?

Chelsey Newmyer: Yeah, like Star Wars!

David Pisarek: Awesome. She’s also got an undergrad degree in biomedical engineering, and now this is what she does. She’s a non-profit consultant. Super excited to have you here, thank you so much for joining us on the show.

Chelsey Newmyer: Thank you so much, David. I’m excited. I love this.

David Pisarek: Productivity is so important. Why do you think it’s important?

Chelsey Newmyer: I think it’s that missing piece in so many elements where you all know, we could all learn this strategy, we can all learn all this great information. But if you don’t have the skills or resources you need to actually implement it to actually get it done, then you’re just adding stress and overwhelm to your play unnecessarily. That’s why I think productivity is so important for everybody to really master those skills.

David Pisarek: So let’s just… You know, elephant in the room here… How can somebody be more productive? How can they prioritize their time?

Chelsey Newmyer: So I define productivity as working on the right things at the right time to help you reach your goals. So it’s not about a bunch of hacks. It’s not about just getting things done for the sake of getting things done across things off our to-do list, especially in the non-profit world. So as you mentioned, I have an undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering, which has lent itself to this really strategic analytical brain, but I spent a decade in the non-profit world, and I’m actually also a non-profit consultant in addition to running my business.

So I really know and understand how many things that non-profit leaders have to balance and manage on a day-to-day basis. And by the very nature of the job, it’s a little bit reactive. You get a call from a donor, you get a call from a board member, you get your database all of a sudden is on the fritz. There are so many things that can come up that don’t let you have the best-case scenario. So what’s great about having productivity skills in your background is that you can build that ideal schedule.

You can build those systems and those tools and resources that work in an ideal way. But you also know how to adjust when something comes up, we can learn to adjust.

So again, we’re not robots. We have to take care of ourselves. That’s always my number one piece of advice, is making sure that we’re practicing self-care on top of all of this because we’re by nature givers. We’re by nature people who want to help others. We’re by nature people who want to step up and do the right thing, which often we are kicked to the bottom of our own list.

So my number one piece of advice (I know it sounds super cheesy) is making sure that we’re prioritizing our own self-care, first and foremost, is going to be a great place to start to avoid burnout.

David Pisarek: And I think COVID has really brought that to the forefront. We were talking just before the show about the lines being blurred between personal and professional life. And that goes back years before COVID actually happened, where people were getting devices from work and it buzzes and it hits that cortisol level. And you’re like, “Oh, cool”. And you’re looking and you’re checking and you want to take a little bit of an extra lunch or meeting a friend or something like that.

And then part of your evening is eaten up by catching up on the work that you procrastinated with. That’s like the antithesis of productivity here. But how can we create a system to try to, I guess, keep track of what it is that we need to do? And how do we sort it out? You mentioned making sure that you’re doing the right thing at the right time. How can we strategize around that?

Chelsey Newmyer: Yeah. So I love that you mentioned working from home because it is a blessing and a curse. I’ve been working from home since COVID too, and I love it. I have my own office. It’s a game changer because before I was in the living room of a one-bedroom apartment. So now this is definitely an upgrade.

So that is what really makes a difference too, actually. It just doesn’t need space. It doesn’t have to be an office. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but just really designating a spot for work so that you can disconnect from it in some way. If you find yourself carrying your laptop into every room in your home, you’ve now made your whole home a place to work, and that makes it really hard to, again, disconnect.

And then when it comes to prioritization, one of the things that I love to recommend to people, if they’re starting to feel overwhelmed, especially, again, thinking about the marketing and the communications components of a non-profit, you always have to be thinking ahead.

We all lay those beautiful plans at the beginning of the year about, “Oh, we’re going to try all these new things” and then again, reality hits.

So as you said… -laughs- I love your beautiful board. I love it. But then again, reality hits where we want to take advantage of a new idea that someone has and we want to jump onto it.

So again, I’m coming back to really implementable and actual strategies. Every week I recommend people do a brain dump list. This is just an opportunity for you to get all of the things out of your head onto a piece of paper. It doesn’t have to be pretty. It doesn’t have to be in any order.

Just dump it all down because that’s when you are going to hopefully remove some of that feeling of, “Oh, my gosh, I forgot”, or “I’m never going to get to this”, or just that swirly that tends to happen in our brain. So get it down onto a piece of paper. This will also help what’s a priority naturally raised to the top. You’re going to write something down and say, “Oh, crap. That has a due date. I have to get that done by the end of this week”. Or, “Oh, there. I really need to start working on that because so and so needs to review it”.

So that’s just a great first step to really start dumping at least once a week. I don’t recommend doing this daily because otherwise, you’re going to procrastinate the plan. So you’re going to… So just do it once a week to start out with. I think that may help a lot with reducing that overwhelm and helping you identify what’s truly a priority.

David Pisarek: I love the idea of doing that brain dump. One of the things that I practice at the end of my day is that anything that I didn’t actually do, I write on a Post-it note. I’ve got a bunch of Post-it notes on my desk here, and I put down whatever needs to be absolutely done on that Post-it note. It’s on my desk and it’s the first thing that I tackle the next day, and it really helps setting those priorities.

But also it puts my mind at ease. It lets me go to sleep, not going, “Oh, I need to remember to do this. I need to remember to do this. I need to remember to do this. And then an hour later, I’m still awake. No. Write it down, get it out of my brain. I’m not going to forget it because it’s actually there. And one of the interesting things that happen is you can look at what’s there and go, “Yeah, I don’t need to actually do this”. And then I take the Post-it note, trumple it, and it goes in the garbage. And it’s not necessarily a priority. Sometimes it’s absolutely a priority. I’ve got different coloured Post-its and they mean different things to me.

Chelsey Newmyer: I love that.

David Pisarek: That’s what it is. And that’s the system that works for me. It might not work for everybody, but you’ve got to find something that works for you. And I think that’s a great place to start with the weekly brain dump of here’s what we need to focus on for the coming week.

Chelsey Newmyer: Yeah. And that’s actually, I’m so glad you explained that because it goes back to one of the fundamentals that I talk about is that productivity is personal. Whatever works for you is going to work best for you. Thinking a little bit back to building that work-from-home balance life, also really recognizing: are you a morning person or are you a night person?

Are you a paper and pen person or are you a digital tool project management system?

Those are all the kinds of questions that you can ask yourself and do a little bit of research on and then lean into those strategies. One of the biggest challenges I see is people trying to copy-paste the morning routines of the rich and famous. And if you don’t like waking up at five o’clock in the morning, then forcing yourself to do that is not going to help you.

If you are a night owl, then carving out time in your morning for your deep work is not going to be as impactful as carving out time in the late afternoon or evening to do that deep work.

So these are all just really important things to be thinking about so that you can optimize the time that you’re working and be super productive in that small window so then you can go enjoy lunch with your friend or take the evening off and relax and chill out and watch some Netflix.

David Pisarek: Absolutely. And I think it’s also important to know you can change your habits if you want to but it is a long, sometimes very frustrating, thing to do. It can take upwards of 60 to 90 days of doing something on a daily basis to make it a routine that ends up being comfortable. So what does that mean?

If you are a night person and you find that you’re going to bed really late, you’re going to bed at one or two in the morning, but you have to be up early because maybe you have a child, you need to get them ready for school, you need to get them out the door so you’re getting five hours of sleep a night, you can manipulate yourself and put in processes and set alarms for yourself to be like, “All right, I’m going to stop at 11. I’m not going to work until one or two”, and then shift that. The first while is going to be a little bit painful, for sure.

Chelsey Newmyer: Yeah. I’m definitely a night person, but because I live in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, it is really hot here, and I’m also a runner, so I have to get up early to get my run out before it becomes too hot to bear. So yeah, you can absolutely change something and start manipulating it a little bit. But again, lean into your strengths.

So if you are a night person, maybe you do sleep in, maybe you can work in an afternoon nap or something, you can be a little bit more strategic about that.

And I also love to talk about the difference between a habit and a routine because I think people also beat themselves up a little bit because they try to make something that is actually a routine into a habit. So a habit is something you do without a whole lot of conscious thought. It’s like you get up, you brush your teeth, you don’t even really think about it. And it also feels weird if you don’t do it. You’re so used to it that if you don’t do it, you feel that effect. A routine is a series of behaviours that are done repeatedly and typically in some predetermined succession.

So working out is more of a routine than a habit because it requires a lot of steps. You got your dress, put your shoes on, figure out what you’re going to do for your workout, and get out the door. That’s a lot of steps. Making that a habit is so much harder because I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t really feel bad if I miss my run.

When you’re thinking about that, each of those little pieces can be a habit, but don’t ever try to beat yourself up because that routine is taking a longer time to become a habit. That’s what it is. Just a series of events requires a lot more conscious thought and requires conscious effort. So use that time to set yourself up for success by laying out your clothes the night before, and determining what your workout is going to be the night before. You can set yourself up for success in all those ways. But I think, again, people try to beat themselves up a little bit when it comes to building habits and routines.

David Pisarek: Absolutely. I think part of that is maybe the feeling of overwhelm, just going, “Oh, there’s so much to do. How can I do this? How can I ever actually accomplish this?” I think we tend to beat ourselves up over that. You don’t do something and you feel bad about it. Maybe not entirely, I can’t believe I did that. I’m never going to succeed. I don’t think maybe to that extent, but if you’re pushing something off, I think there’s a psychological thing there. You’re allowing yourself to put that thing off.

My personal goal is to only push something off once. If I have to push it off a second time, I use my calendar.

I mentioned I’ve got Post-it notes on my desk, but I live and breathe by my calendar. If it’s not on my calendar, it doesn’t get done. If I need to remember to do something, it goes right in there right away. I only allow myself to move something one time. If I have to move it again, I take a moment and go, “Why am I moving this again? What is stopping me from actually accomplishing this thing? Do I need to get somebody else on my team to do this?”

Maybe I don’t think it’s important enough. Maybe I don’t see the value in it. I think it’s important to prioritize and figure out the right method, that right system for you so that you don’t feel overwhelmed and get that. I guess my question is, what’s the best way to move forward when you’re feeling overwhelmed?

Chelsey Newmyer: Yeah. First of all, love that strategy. That’s brilliant. And we can definitely talk about the procrastination piece there too, because if you’re moving something off, it tends to be evidence of procrastination in some ways. And we can definitely talk more about that. But to answer your question about overwhelm, that’s why I think it’s that brain dump list, get it all out, see it all in one spot. So that way you’re not grabbing 100 different Post-it notes. You’re not grabbing lists from your email. You’re not feeling like things are bombarding you. You have it all in one spot.

What’s also nice about this system is it’s the same thing. If you are carrying the same thing three to four weeks is usually when I tell people. “If you’ve written the same thing on your to-do list for three or four weeks, you got to make a decision about whether it’s actually a priority. Put it out to the universe. Don’t take it off your list. It’ll trust it’ll come back to you when you have time to work on it”. But I know it’s going to sound super counterintuitive, but take a break.

That’s the moment when you need to decompress and walk away from your computer. If you have three minutes, like washing your hands, just remove yourself from the place where you’re feeling overwhelmed.

Go for a walk, reset, get a glass of water, just something to be able to come back with a fresh set of eyes, a little bit more energy so that you can then be more present when you’re making the decisions about what to work on next.

And there’s some, again, productivity is personal. So some people need to get that, like the eat-the-frog approach where they’re tackling that hardest thing first, get it off your to-do list, and be done with it. So that way the rest of your day is a little bit easier. Some people need a ramp-up period. I personally like a ramp-up, I give myself an hour in the morning. I’m like, “All right, what kind of silly, easy tasks can I get done?” Get me into work mode. So maybe you do some of those things. You set a timer and just get back into the groove. Maybe it’s just closing out your email for an hour.

Just close your emails down and work on what you have to do without feeling bombarded by other people. So really identify where that overwhelm is coming from. Is it coming from people just constantly coming at you and you need a break, or is it that you don’t even know where to start on your to-do list? The project is so big, you don’t even know where to start. So again, it’s really making sure you’re understanding where that’s coming from as well. But take a break first. Take a step away.

David Pisarek: Absolutely. I love what you mentioned in terms of closing your calendar down or closing your email. The dings, it’s all about those dings are so distracting. What’s dinging? Is there something really important I need to deal with? One of the things I like to do to try to tackle that is I do calendar blocking.

Every day I’ve got got a calendar item that’s called a focus block, and it sits in my calendar and it blocks it off so people can’t book meetings with me during that time. Once in a while, there’s something that comes up and I need to put it into there. But it also gives me time for, like I said, focus, actually spend some time doing the real work that needs to be done, or sitting and thinking, or strategizing, or figuring out the next marketing play, or how I could connect with potential donors, or things like that, and figuring out the best way to move forward on a project.

And I have a little bit of a story about stepping away from a computer and stepping away from the screen years ago. About 10 years ago when I was working at the hospital, my colleague and I were sitting there and we were working on coding something.

I don’t remember what it was, but we were trying to figure it out. I think it was something for a touch-screen interface. So when you came into the hospital, you can touch and play. We had this big 65-inch thing and there’s a problem. It wasn’t working. It wasn’t working. I’m staring at the code and trying to figure it out. And I was like, “Forget it!” and it was 11 in the morning. I’m like, “I’m just taking an early lunch. I’m done. I need a break”. I came back, I saw the problem instantly.

There was a colon instead of a comma and throughout the code changed that and it fixed it and everything just worked beyond that. So yes, taking some time, getting out of it and then coming back at it with that fresh set of eyes is really important and it’s helpful and it brings more clarity. Whatever it is, whether you’re coding or you’re marketing or you’re emailing or you’re strategizing, it’s important to take a breath and step away from it.

Chelsey Newmyer: 100%. Our brains are naturally always problem-solving too. So that’s why we get really good ideas. I actually have a notepad in my shower, which is by far the best thing I’ve ever bought. And I’ll get great ideas in the shower. I’ll figure out a new theme for a campaign I want to run in the shower or on a walk. And I’ll take my phone out and email myself a quick note.

Our brains are problem-solving in the background. So trust that even if you do walk away, if it feels scary to detach for a minute, trust that you’re going to figure it out.

That’s just giving your brain the space to disconnect from the distraction and problem-solve. So it’s all good. It’s going to help.

David Pisarek: Absolutely. The best things that happen to our bodies are the rest that happens at night. Our brains recoup rate, our muscles recoup rate, the things that happen, the balances and chemicals and all of that. And stepping away from looking at a screen that is shining light into your eye all day, going outside, looking out a window, even for two minutes, a minute, or 30 seconds will help reset and shift your focus.

And I think in terms of shifting with the focus, one of the things that people could do, I think calendar blocking is a really great way to help with that, but we need a list of things that we need to work on. Most of us tend to keep it in our head or we use our inbox as a to-do list. What’s an effective way to create a to-do list?

Chelsey Newmyer: Yeah, I always love the memes that say something along the lines of the biggest lie tell myself is “I don’t need to write that down”. A to-do list should have three to five things when you start your day. So I love, for example, when you say, “Okay, the day before I always write down what my to-do list is for the next day. So we’re recording this on a Wednesday, si the end of our day today, I will write down what I’m working on for Thursday”. And really, that just helps you with decision fatigue. Now you’re going to walk into that focused time that you have on your calendar with a plan.

So give yourself that plan. And I always recommend starting with three to five things on your to-do list because you’re like, “Chelsea, I have way too many things. Three to five, that’s ridiculous”. “Of course it is. You’re going to get more than three to five things done today. That’s a guarantee”. But if we start with 10, you’re going to get out of a meeting with three more things you got to do. And now we’re at 13, and then we’re going to be at 15 and 17 or 20 by the end of the day. So set yourself up for success, give three to five, knowing that more things are going to get added as the day goes on.

And you can decide in those moments, too, “Is this something I need to get done today? Does this go on my big brain dump list for later on? Is this something that gets pumped onto my calendar for later this week?”

You can make some decisions about where those to-do’s fit, but really setting yourself up, three to five things. And honestly, I’m such a funny… On the screen here, this is my to-do list. It’s a half sheet of paper with scribbles on it. I don’t use any sophisticated or sexy planners. It is literally a half sheet of recycled paper that I write down my plan for the next day. And it just makes me feel confident that when I walk into my office and I’m ready to work, these are the things I’m going to get done today. Stuff will come my way and I know that I’ll be able to accommodate it.

David Pisarek: Something that I want to touch on with that, is sometimes we’ll put this really big, hairy, audacious goal, task, massive thing that needs to be done on that list. Maybe it’s 20 or 30 hours of effort. You can’t obviously complete that in a day unless you’re superhuman. Or maybe you’ve got a team working with you. Maybe you’ve got some outsource partners or whatever, and you’ve got this really big monumental thing, and it’s the biggest thing and it needs to be done for the week.

But I think when you’re putting things down on that paper if they are a little bit bigger, it could be, “I need to email this donor”. That’s a quick thing. That’s maybe 10 minutes between wordsmith and figuring out the right messaging and whatever. Okay, maybe a half hour. No big deal. But if you’re looking at something that’s maybe two hours’ worth of time and effort, I would highly recommend that you set it up as a SMART goal. I just want to talk about that for a quick second. Smart, it’s an acronym. It means Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and that it’s Time-bound. You might have this really big thing that needs to be done.

Let’s say it’s a 10-hour type of project. You know that you need to work on it today. Put a time on that. Be like, “All right, I’m going to work one hour on this today”. Straight. Period. Done. You’re dealing with that. Is it realistic that you can fit an hour into your day? It depends on how busy you are. But if you’re blocking your calendar and you’re doing that, absolutely, you can do that and you can make it and work and chip off pieces of the big project to get it done for when you actually need it done.

Chelsey Newmyer: Absolutely. I love that. And I always say make them really… You want to give yourself a place to start. So that’s a great point. Thank you so much for reminding me to mention that, too, those three to five things should be super actionable things. So it should not be “Plan my 2023 Marketing Calendar”. That’s not the task. The task would be “Set up a meeting with another team to talk about their goals for the year”. It could be “Plan out three months of the theme”, or “Decide the theme of the year”.

You want to give yourself something super actionable to get started on because otherwise, that’s where procrastination comes into play.

That’s when you’ll keep kicking that task down your list or down the week because you just don’t even know where to start. And so give yourself a really clear, actionable beginning and end to that task.

David Pisarek: And the task could be “Take your 2023 calendar programming and figure out all the different steps that need to be done”. You can probably do that in a half hour.

Chelsey Newmyer: Yeah, brainstorm all the tasks you have to do. Yeah, great.

David Pisarek: And then you’ve got for the next two weeks, the 10 tasks that need to be done on a daily basis to get to that part where you’re actually done in two weeks or three weeks or however long it happens to be.

Chelsey Newmyer: Definitely.

David Pisarek: I think breaking it down into smaller chunks will relieve you from that overwhelm because you’ll look at it and go, “I could totally spend 20 minutes doing this. No problem”. And you’re getting closer to actually completing that bigger project.

Chelsey Newmyer: “. I will always throw a caveat in here because, again, I mentioned “procrastiplanning”. This is my preferred method of procrastinating is, “I will plan that count. I will brainstorm the list of all the things I have to do for my 2023 marketing strategy. I will come up with these beautiful goals and all these plans and get it all the theme. It’s going to be beautiful”. And then I won’t execute it at all.

So just make sure that you’re also spending that appropriate balance on planning out how you’re going to accomplish the task with actually accomplishing the work that needs to get done. So just a fair warning because I will fall victim to that strategy.

David Pisarek: I think at some point we all fall victim to procrastination for one reason or another. There are things that happen in our lives that sometimes take priority. Certainly, the last few years have proven that you get sick, somebody gets sick, and you need to care for them, whatever it happens to be. But how can we adjust our schedules to also include those moments of rest or things that we do for fun?

Chelsey Newmyer: Again, it comes back to recognizing when you are going to work your best. If you are a morning person, we want to hold that time secret on your calendar for the deep work and the most important things for your day. Then maybe the afternoon is when you schedule some time for a call with your friend, whatever is going to provide that rejuvenation.

I think it’s also really important to be intentional about what your breaks are. It’s so easy for us to have a meeting that ends 10 minutes early and it’s your third meeting of the day. You’ve been in meetings for three hours, one ends 10 minutes early. And instead of taking that 10 minutes to stretch and grab a snack and refill your water or your coffee or just get a breath of fresh air, you spend it scrolling on your phone or you spend it checking your email.

So when we can plan our schedule ahead of time, we can be really intentional about the time that we have. There are different kinds of rest, making sure that we’re having well-rounded and the different types rest there are. And you’re choosing to do things that really bring you joy that are really important to you, spending time with the people that are most important to you, and spending time on projects you love.

It can look a little bit different and it should look a little bit different every day, but again, that planning ahead and holding that time sacred, that’s the piece of the calendar that you don’t get to shift, and I think that’s the hardest part, too, is also just being accountable to yourself, making that promise to yourself and then keeping it. But thinking about it like that, it does a promise to yourself that “From 6 to 7, I’m going to go for a long walk” and whatever, right? Just hold that promise to yourself, if that’s what makes you happy and keeps you rested and rejuvenated for the day.

David Pisarek: Yeah. I think it’s very important to spend that time and do, as you mentioned, self-care. It’s not okay to be staring at a screen all day as we’re looking at our screens right now. This podcast here, it’s a little bit ironic there, but it’s important to take that time. It’s good for our eyes, and our physical body to every so often hang a picture on the wall and every so often just look at it and just take a moment to focus on something other than the fixed screen depth, whether it’s like two feet in front of you or whatever happens to be. It’s important to take that time physically as well as mentally.

Chelsey Newmyer: Absolutely. One of my goals this year is to take a sub-read during my lunch fix, sit outside and read. And so making sure that I have that time locked on my calendar. I’ve made it a different colour on my calendar because I love to read and I want to be outside and enjoy the weather all I can.

David Pisarek: Absolutely. In an effort to help me organize, I have 14 different calendars and each one is a different color. And so when I’m looking at my calendar, it does give me a sense of overwhelm because I’ve got meetings and meetings and I’ve got my team and projects and podcast bookings, but I’ve actually blocked time for lunch on a daily basis. Then I have those focus blocks. Some days I have two focus blocks so that I could actually take care of the work that needs to get done, to take time to step away, to have wash and breaks, to fill up my cup, and to take that time away from actually doing the work, to stretch, to get the blood flowing, and all of that. I think that’s really important. But for people that are struggling with it, what are the one or two tips that you can give them on how they can just stop procrastinating?

Chelsey Newmyer: Yeah. I love what you said, too, about the calendar. I just want to say one other tip I have there is I think we have these blocks and then you’ll say, “Oh, but, David, what if someone wants to meet with me at that time?” The answer is “You’re unavailable”. I know that it’s so hard to say that it’s hard to think like, “I feel so uncomfortable to just say no to someone like that”. But the answer is “Unavailable. I’m so sorry. I’d love to meet with you. Can we meet at this time instead?” You just have to hold the boundary. And again, trust your calendar and hold that to what you’ve set for yourself.

David Pisarek: In the calendar we trust.

Chelsey Newmyer: In the calendar we trust. Yeah! Someone said, “Marry your calendar” and there are all different ways to put it. But again, if you are blocking that calendar and then allowing other people to say, “Oh, I really can’t. Can we meet at noon?”, “But that’s when I have lunch scheduled”. Again, you can make the decision. There are always exceptions to the rule. I say, “I’m so sorry, I’m not free”. Then “Can we meet at two o’clock today or two o’clock tomorrow?” I just offer them a different time. 99.9% of the time it works out and it’s no big deal.

But you don’t always have to just instinctively say yes, which I think so many people are just instinctively saying “yes” when those opportunities or those meetings come up.

But talking about procrastination, we talked a lot about giving yourself a really clear place to start. That’s one of the best strategies that you can have because one of the main reasons people procrastinate is because the goal is too big. They don’t know exactly where to get started. So taking a few minutes to write down all the steps, making them very clear and actionable is going to be a great place to start.

The other way I see procrastination come up for a lot of people is their fear of failure. They are scared of putting themselves out there. They’re scared of the repercussions of getting a bad review, or again, if we’re thinking about marketing and communications people, maybe you’ve drafted something and it’s going to come back a red pen. So we have a little bit of that fear of failure. That can be one of the reasons. Perfectionism is another big reason people procrastinate, or they are stuck in a decision loop where they’re thinking about what to do next instead of just making the decision and trying and moving forward.

So really thinking back, like you said, too, “Why am I moving this thing on my calendar? What am I bumping on right now to get this task done? What is causing that?” Is going to be a really, really important and valuable tool for you to then figure out, “Okay, what do I get to do next?” If you are stuck in a place where you are a perfectionist, we can work on that. That is something that’s just a mindset thing, and you just got to keep trying to work through that.

But what you can do is have a more practical approach, is to give yourself a bad first draft. Just do it badly, walk away, and come back and fix it. That’s a great, really actionable thing to do to just get that started. If it’s a fear of failure thing, I know I personally still hate sending mass emails.

Every time I have to hit send on an email that has more than 1,000 people on it, I freak out with hives. But I always think, really, “What’s the worst that’s going to happen? “Asking yourself, “What’s the worst that’s going to happen? I’m going to get maybe a cranky response because I missed a period somewhere along the way, and that’s probably the worst that’s going to happen”. So just keeping that perspective can be really important if you’re in that fear of failure space. If you are someone who responds really well to a deadline, definitely set fake deadlines for yourself. Set it up where you have to deliver it to someone early so that they can review it. I can work through all of these. There are a lot of different strategies. I could have a whole episode on it because I love talking about it.

But again, recognizing where that procrastination comes from is going to be the most important first step that you can do.

David Pisarek: One of the things that I like to do when I’m looking at my task list, my to-do list, is if something is done, great, cross it off. I get a lot of satisfaction, again, like the Post-it note thing, if it’s written down or piece of paper, whatever, or I have a checklist in my computer as well. I love checking it off, taking it, crumpling it, throwing it out.

There’s a really great sense of accomplishment by actually taking something and physically throwing it out, lighting it on fire, ripping it up, whatever it happens to be. There’s something so visceral about it that it’s just like… It’s so awesome to do that.

And by building on that time and time again, you’re, “Oh, this is great!” and you get this really great feeling of joy out of it. If you’re into to-do lists electronically, checking them off, it’s a really great feeling looking at and seeing that line strike through. And it’s so great. In terms of the fear of failure, something I want to mention, we’re all human.

Chelsey Newmyer: None of us are perfect despite the “A-type personalities” and “perfectionist personalities” that are out there. Everybody at some point makes some mistake. Let’s not beat ourselves up on it. Let’s learn from it and move forward and do our best.

Something that I really struggled with is the perfectionist thing. As an agency owner, I want to make sure that what goes out to our clients, what we send out in terms of our own marketing and stuff, that it’s all perfect. It was really hard for me to get into the mindset that this is good enough. Not to say that we’re producing an inferior product, but maybe the spacing is just slightly too much here. Okay, we can adjust that. Let’s do that later on. Let’s get the MVP, the Minimal Viable Product out the door. Let’s review it with the client. Let’s come back and make sure that it’s fixed. That goes to your point, right? Drafting an email, drafting a communication, a publication, an annual report, a letter to the community, whatever it happens to be, and it coming back, red pen, who cares? You get it back, you fix it, move on. Let’s just get it there and start working towards the completion and the goal.

David Pisarek: I think that’s a really important tactic there. For me, something else that also works is something called the Pomodoro method. I see you shaking your head.

Chelsey Newmyer: Yeah, I love that.

David Pisarek: So tell everybody about this.

Chelsey Newmyer: Pomodoro is typically 30 minutes or 20 minutes on 10 minutes. There’s different timing for it, but you essentially have a work time and then a break time, and a work time and a break time. I know people who set their entire day up in Pomodoro, so they speak in Pomodoro, so they say, “Oh, I got three Pomodoro for the work today”.

So you can think about it like that. As I said, I use the word sprint, but it’s just a really great way to stay super focused during that time because that 20, 30 minutes, 50 minutes, whatever that stretches is going to be dedicated work time to that project. It’s a really single-tasking, it’s focused work time, knowing that you’re going to have the break on the other side to reset and refresh and do whatever you need to do at the end. I think that’s a great strategy, especially if you struggle with wanting to be multitasking all the time. It’s a really good exercise to practice.

David Pisarek: Yeah. So the way I do it is I actually have a Chrome extension in my browser, and there’s a little tomato up there. This whole thing started, I think, in the 80s when somebody was looking at a timer that they had in their kitchen and it was shaped like a tomato.

I think it has something to do with making cherry sauce or something like that where you have to stir for 25 minutes and then you let rest and simmer for five or something like that. I do 25 minutes where I work and try to push and get as much done as fast as I can. And then five minutes, stand up, walk away, do something else for that five minutes, and then go back through and keep doing those sprint cycles like you’re talking about. It actually is really great because pushing towards a goal, that goal is the 25 minutes, whether you accomplish the task or not, doesn’t really matter.

Ideally, you want to accomplish your task, but maybe it is a two-Pomodoro or two-sprint piece that you need to do. But setting that time or giving yourself those guidelines and the restrictions around that and going, “Okay, this is only 25 minutes”.

It’s not that long. Push and do as much in as fast as you possibly can. You’ll be amazed at how much you can actually accomplish. So, everybody that’s listening to this, I want to challenge you. If you want to use your phone or your watch or a timer or whatever it happens to be, do this for a day. Take a task, set a 25-minute timer, 20-minute, whatever it is, and then a 5-minute timer or a 10-minute timer afterwards to just stand up and walk away. And then come back if you need to do it again, do it again. But take one or two of your tasks and give it a try, and see how it works for you.

Chelsey Newmyer: I love this approach, especially, again, on days when I’m feeling particularly scattered, I will set up a couple of sprints. I decide ahead of time what that break is going to be. I think that’s really important to decide what you’re going to do during that little window you’ve given yourself. I often get the thing done in less time than I’ve set for myself once I’ve closed out everything else that’s just shocked me and set that timer.

David Pisarek: One of the things that happened during COVID was we bought a ping pong table. I would go, my kids were at home, not homeschooled, but virtual schooling, and we would go downstairs and play ping pong for five, six minutes in between. And it was just a really great way to do something extremely different than sitting at a computer and doing that.

Chelsey, awesome conversation. We could probably talk about this for another five or six episodes. Absolutely. Amazing insights about productivity and how people could maybe level up what they’re doing and how they’re doing and maybe even improve their productivity.

I hope people listening have been able to get some great advice from our conversation that we’ve had today. And again, I want to challenge everybody, to try Pomodoro for one day, just one day. It’s not that long. 8 hours work day, 7 hours work day, 10 hours work day, whatever it happens to be, just try it. Let me know how it goes.

Chelsey Newmyer: Yes, please.

David Pisarek: Totally curious. Before the show, we were talking about a really cool free gift that you’ve got for people. So tell us about that.

Chelsey Newmyer: Yes, I have a private podcast series called Productivity is Personal. It’s 10 really bingeable episodes. They’re all under 10 minutes long. It just gives you some really actionable advice about time blocking, procrastination, inbox management, about all those kinds of things that are just opportunities to, as you said, level up your productivity, and improve your time management so that we can start executing on all of the brilliant ideas that you have. So you can check out that podcast series that we can listen to it on the go, too. It’s much easier to put it on as you’re going for your walk, taking your break. You can catch an episode and have a productive break, too.

David Pisarek: That’s awesome. So we’ll have a link for that on our show notes page. If anybody wants to get in touch what do they need to do?

Chelsey Newmyer: Sure. So you can find me on Instagram @chelseyncoaching, and that’s Chelsey with a Y, or on my website which has all the different ways you can work with me. I love inbox management stuff you didn’t even touch on, but that could be a whole other episode, too. And that’s all at ChelseyNewmyer.Com.

David Pisarek: Awesome. So on our show notes page, we’ll have a link to that. Thanks again so much for joining Chelsey. It’s been great having you here on the Non-profit Digital Success Podcast. Everybody listening, as we mentioned: the links, the resources, and a full transcription of all this as well. Just head over to nonprofitdigitalsuccess.com. Click on this episode for all the details. And until next time, keep on being successful.