Chelsey Newmyer: When you start to factor in kind of real world stuff, you realize you’re going to get a lot done, but it just might take you a little bit of a better pacing than trying cram it all in and cause yourself stress.

Jade Boyd: Welcome to the podcast, Chelsey.

Chelsey Newmyer: Thank you so much Jade, I’m so excited to be here.

Jade Boyd: I am really excited to have this conversation about productivity and procrastination and routines, and we actually haven’t talked a ton about procrastination on the podcast so far, so I’m really excited to dig into the nitty gritty with you, but why don’t we start with just an introduction of who you are for those who don’t know you and how you got to where you are today.

Chelsey Newmyer: Of course. Yes. And procrastination is one of my favorite topics to talk about. So cannot wait to dive in more on that. But my name is Chelsey Newmyer. I am a time management productivity coach. I started my business in 2020, but really I’ve always been a nerd for all things organization and productivity and just trying to find ways to make my life a little bit easier and more efficient, and I was that person in the office kind of helping everybody else do it too.

My business started because I was reading just really terrible productivity advice. I would try these books and they just didn’t feel like the advice that was given in the books matched the real world, right? They’re written by big CEOs of companies where they had a lot more control over their time. And back then I was working a nine to five, I was going into the office, I was, I didn’t have a day where I could block off and say, oh, today’s my creative day no meetings, right? Like my schedule was not my own enough.

So I was just getting really frustrated. And the final straw was one of the books I read, I don’t even remember the title of it now, but he suggested taking a nap in the middle of the day. And I was like, okay, I’m done. Like this needs to be. This needs to be real world stuff. So I started my business to help nine to fivers to help entrepreneurs to help people who have too much to do and have enough time to do it, find ways to create productivity systems and time management systems that are personal for them that match the things that they already enjoy doing, that incorporate into their real life. I just, I’ve absolutely loved it. these days I work on my business as well as being a nonprofit consultant. so I balance both of those things. And then I had a baby four months ago and in early December, 2023. And so juggling that all has been so much fun.

Jade Boyd: I love that perspective. And I think a lot of people feel that way when they’re reading books about productivity and thinking like, there’s no hope for me because this is not going to match where I’m at right now. So I’m really excited to dig into not only what you’re teaching clients and working through with them, but also what this looks like for you, like you said, juggling so many things.

And I think procrastination is the same flavor of productivity advice oftentimes, people say like, here’s how you solve procrastination, but in reality there’s many different reasons why people procrastinate and the solution for everyone is not like this cookie cutter, just do this and you’ll be perfectly productive.

So can you start by like breaking down, how do we, especially as entrepreneurs and business owners identify and just realize what is causing us to procrastinate so that we can break our unique tendencies when it comes to delaying things and not doing the things that we really know we need to get done?

Chelsey Newmyer: 100%.

Okay. So I always start this conversation by preferencing that procrastination is not the same as laziness. Laziness implies that you just don’t care about the end result. Right? Like you see it and you don’t care that it gets done or not. Procrastination happens when we know the benefits of the end result, we want that end result, but there’s friction in the way of getting us there. And that friction is what causes the stress. So you’re not a procrastinator, you’re procrastinating, it’s not an identity a behavior. So it makes that much easier to change. We can easily change behaviors. Well, not easily, but we can change behaviors.

So I always talk about the six different reasons that people procrastinate. And this is where if, if you are bumping up against something, you’re saying like, gosh, I really need to get these Instagram posts written and you’re stalling all day. I’m going to read them through to you, but think about what is that friction, right? Like where, what is actually causing that, that delay?

The first tends to be an abstract goal. So if we’re picking on this example of creating Instagram captions, maybe you’re not really sure what you’re supposed to be talking about on Instagram. You’re not really sure why you’re doing it. You don’t know what it looks like. And so it feels very vague and amorphous and it’s hard to find your footing. So that could be one reason you’re procrastinating that.

Indecisiveness, you can’t pick what topic you’re going to talk about, you have so many ideas. You don’t know how to pick indecisiveness can often mask itself as research. So sometimes people will spend a lot of time kind of quote, unquote, researching when really they just need to pick one and make a decision and move on.

Jade Boyd: Sounds very familiar to me.

Chelsey Newmyer: For fear of failure is a really big one, especially in the entrepreneur space. We are consistently putting ourselves out there and therefore open to feedback and criticism and comments. So that opportunity to feel embarrassment or to have repercussions can cause delay, right? We don’t want to put something out there if it’s if it’s going to potentially cause us harm.

The next one is waiting for a deadline. And this one is actually tricky because it can be a super beneficial tool if it’s used in the right way. Everybody has a different threshold for a deadline, right? Some people, they know the deadline is coming in two weeks and they’re going to have that project done because two weeks away still feels like right around the corner.

I used to tutor high school students and high school boys, their threshold for a deadline is like minutes. Like they don’t feel pressure until we’re minutes away from the deadline. Everybody’s threshold is different. You just have to find yours and work around it, right? Because It’s okay for that pressure to help us focus and to help us make decisions and add clarity, and I love working under a deadline sometimes. But where we run into problems is when your computer crashes, your internet goes out, you don’t feel good. Right? We don’t prepare for the things that may delay that deadline.

Jade Boyd: So digging into that one a little bit further as business owners, we really don’t have any real deadlines for most areas of our business, we set our own deadlines, which can feel a little bit flexible and arbitrary. Like sure, my deadline for launching is September 1st, but in reality, nothing bad is going to happen if you keep moving back.

Well, I mean, there are repercussions for doing that, but it’s not a deadline that really is set in stone where you can’t launch if you don’t do it by September 1st. So what recommendations do you have for business owners who are struggling with that form of procrastination and continually setting their own deadlines and then not holding themselves to them?

Chelsey Newmyer: Yeah. I mean, this, is like a little bit of a tough love moment because unfortunately, there are downsides to procrastinating. Right? Like, yes, you’re right. Nothing bad is going to happen, right? You’re not going to get in trouble or no boss is going to come shake their finger at you. But if you’re consistently disappointing yourself, that’s going to add up and it’s going to start having you question or making it harder for you to put the work out in the first place.

So sometimes it’s just about holding that commitment to yourself. Making that promise to yourself of that’s the deadline, getting really excited and enthusiastic about it so that you want to hit that deadline that that’s the goal, but also giving yourself that, that grace and flexibility, right?

We’re running a marathon. It’s not a sprint. So whenever I ran half marathons, I always had, you had your PR, right? You had your, like, this is the best case scenario. This is what I want to do. This is the fastest I’m going to run. You had your like, okay, this is what I did last time. As long as I am better than that, I’m good. And then you have the like God, I just don’t want to die. Like, I just don’t want to walk right. Like you have the, like, I got to get to the finish line kind of mentality when it comes to those goals. So think of your deadlines in that way. If you’re struggling with this, what’s the best case scenario, what’s the better than last time. And then what’s the, like, it’s just got to get done by the end of the year kind of goal, but you’re shooting for that PR every time.

Jade Boyd: Yeah, I like that. I think another thing that I see coming up with this area of procrastination is that business owners oftentimes set really unrealistic deadlines for themselves where they’re like, you know what, I’ll finish this by next Tuesday. And then, like you said, when they don’t finish it by next Tuesday, they lose confidence in themselves, and it is a cycle that continues and the more that you see yourself as somebody who procrastinates, I love how you differentiated between being a procrastinator and procrastinating. It’s not your identity it’s a behavior, but the more you do a certain behavior, the more you see yourself as a certain type of person.

And I often see people setting deadlines that are so unrealistic that they’re going to do 10 things every single month, 10 big projects that they just don’t have the time to do and they set themselves up for failure when you’re right. That is so important when it comes to seeing ourselves in a certainly as an entrepreneur. So I’m so, so glad that you pointed that one out. So that was number four. There’s six, right?

Chelsey Newmyer: Yes. There’s two more quick ones. The next one is task aversion. So you just don’t like it, right. You just don’t like the task. And then there’s perfectionism, which is always the, it’s like the close cousin of fear of failure. I say, right. And that’s wanting or waiting for the end result to be perfect, and that’s another big one I see in the entrepreneurial space, because again, we’re putting ourselves out there open for people to like us or not like us in a very public way.

Jade Boyd: Yeah. So looking at these six different ways that people procrastinate, I also think there’s just such a thin line between procrastinating and then also self sabotaging, especially when it comes to achieving our goals and if you know exactly what you need to do, but you continually aren’t doing it, sometimes that’s procrastination and sometimes just like this insidious form of self sabotage. So can you talk a little bit about how you differentiate between the two?

Chelsey Newmyer: Yeah. Oh, man. Well, self sabotage, that has been my MO for a very long time until I finally realized that that’s exactly what it was happening. And that looks like putting 10 big projects on your calendar every single month. And most entrepreneurs I know, most people that I’ve worked with, myself included, they are wildly impatient and very easily to be excited about these new kind of silver or shiny object syndrome right? .

So unfortunately, it’s a little bit of discipline and just slowing down and pacing it out appropriately. You could always work ahead. Right? Like nothing’s ever stopping if you’re, if you’re in a good groove, you’re feeling it, you can always work ahead, but if you schedule things out in a way that feels much more consistent and better and capitalizes on your personalized productivity systems, the things that you’re already good at, considers your energy throughout the day, throughout the month, especially as women, our cycles impact our energy and our ability to focus and what tasks we work best on throughout the month, when you start to factor in kind of real world stuff, you realize you’re going to get a lot done, but it just might take you a little bit of a better pacing than trying cram it all in and cause yourself stress. And that self sabotage piece is also to your point too, of like, I always joke to sometimes like, I’m not a very competitive person, so sometimes I’ll joke that if you don’t play, you can’t lose. Right? Like if you don’t post anything, you’re definitely not going to get criticism. You’re also not going to make a difference, but you’re also not going to make money. You’re also not going to help your clients or help your potential clients. So when you think about it like that and what you’re kind of losing out on by not just putting your foot in the race, hopefully that can be a little bit more motivating to just try it, to just do it, to just see what happens.

Jade Boyd: I think when, at least for myself, when I think about procrastination, my mind immediately goes to but, what do I do about it? What is the action step and what is the next thing? But what I don’t necessarily think as much about is the mindset shifts that need to happen in order to take those actions. So I know that you help your clients shift their mindset around how they’re viewing productivity and how they’re viewing themselves and even the cycle of procrastination.

So what are some of the common mindset issues or even mindset shifts that you see needing to take place before entrepreneurs can get out of this cycle of procrastinating and self sabotage?

Chelsey Newmyer: I think being aware of if they’re identifying as a procrastinator is one, right? Like if you’re just, assume that you’re a lazy person or you’re not giving yourself adequate time to actually rest, and take that break and not feel guilty about it. Then that like, rest doesn’t need to be earned, right? So really making sure that that is a priority in your schedule, that taking care of yourself will, I think is a huge mindset shift because again, we want to be go, go, go. We want to kind of crunch through, right? We want to kind of get through it all, but you have to prioritize that rest because it’s going to happen either way. Right. And that’s, there’s a great quote, right?

You’re going to rest whether you want to or not, because eventually your body’s going to get sick or something’s going to happen.So that’s the first mindset shift. The other one, for perfectionism specifically, I remind myself and my clients quite a bit that no one’s paying more attention than you are to the things that you’re putting out in the world. You are likely the first person who’s going to spot that spelling mistake or that random comma, right? Like, or that that photo was a little bit off kilter. No one else is paying that much attention. They’re just going to be excited about the things that you’re putting out there, especially if it’s helping them.

Well, if I read, I read a lot of newsletters, I read a lot of posts, right? I follow a lot of people that I look up to and admire. And if I see a little misspelling mistake or something, honestly, I don’t even bump on it, right? Like I just keep going about my day. If a link doesn’t work, I just assume someone else is going to fix it, or they’ve probably already noticed, I’ll wait for that fixed email, right? Those oops emails or subject lines.

So I think just recognizing that everybody has to start somewhere. And so the more you can just put it out there, keep trying, make the tweaks along the way, the better it’s going to, you’re going to feel you’re going to build up that confidence.

Jade Boyd: So I think another thing entrepreneurs struggle with is knowing when being gentle with themselves and resting is productive in a way that, okay, I’m taking care of myself versus when are they just leaning into behaviors that they know are not helping them? And there’s a fine line between having like a low energy day or a stressful season of life and being gentle with yourself.

And then there’s the other side of things where you could also be doing the exact same things, but not actually being gentle with yourself, doing things that are unhealthy for you and leaning into procrastination, but giving yourself the excuse. So how do we know if we’re making excuses or if we’re being gentle with ourselves?

How do you tell that for yourself and how do you kind of navigate that, that spectrum?

Chelsey Newmyer: Yeah. Oh, Jade this is such a tough question because it’s so unique to the individual too. Right? And recognizing if this is a consistent pattern that you have, had in the past, I will say that as far as like for the procrastination piece of it, like self care, yes. Making sure that we would have food, rest, water, right? Like we still click where plants, right? We need sunshine. We need water. We need all of the things that help us feel good. But if you find yourself sitting down with a plan in place, you have all the tools and the resources that you need, and you’re still picking up your phone instead and playing, you know, scrolling on Instagram or scrolling on Tik Tok, or you’re still washing all of the dishes instead of creating that Instagram captions, then that’s where we go back to that list and say, okay, what is actually, what is actually causing this friction?

Did I actually sleep really crappy last night? And maybe a 15 minute nap will reset me. Do I actually just hate doing this? I don’t want to do this Instagram caption, and I need to find an easier way for me to get it done. Like just taking that second to pause and say, where is this friction coming from?

And it might be, but being honest with yourself, it might be self care, right? It might be like, you know, I just need a snack, I need to go for a quick walk, I need to like spruce myself up sometimes, like I’m going, if I work at home, cause sometimes we’ll just take like a body shower in the middle of the day and like reset a little bit, and if that doesn’t work, if you’re still showing up and can’t get the work done, then we need to go back and say, okay, where is this coming from? What do I actually need to get this work done? Cause it’s important to me, right? That’s the end of the day too. Like, is it important to you? Can you make it a priority? Cause if it’s not important, then let’s find something that actually really is. Maybe you could just skip it.

Jade Boyd: Yeah, I love that you pointed out that it comes down to identifying patterns of behaviors. And one of those pieces is self awareness and being even recognizing that you’re procrastinating the moment that can be a hard place to get to if you’re just like automatically slipping into those habits.

But, scrolling your phone one time a day on a day that you didn’t get good sleep is different than finding yourself every single day, finishing the day without doing the one thing that you know, that you really wanted to get done. And so I love that you pointed out that if it truly is procrastination, it’s probably not going to be a random thing that you do once in a while. It’s probably going to be a pattern that you’re repeating over and over again.

But again it’s even hard for patterns to be recognized if you’re, if you’re not intentionally thinking about that and stopping, like you said, to ask yourself, well, what is the friction here? Why am I doing this right now? And getting really honest with yourself, because that can also be hard to do. We like to, tell ourselves things that aren’t true, unfortunately.

Chelsey Newmyer: I think 90 percent of the conversations I have around time management and productivity are about being intentional with our time. And so it’s not that I’d say you can’t scroll on your phone or, you know, like, it’s not that I’m dissuading anyone from doing those things if they’re fun for you, you enjoy them, but just make sure like, okay, you know, I have six minutes before my next meeting. I’m just gonna, like, casually scroll while I’m walking around the house tidying up, and making that be a decision versus, okay, I really need to get this thing done and you look at your computer and then all of a sudden you’re on Facebook or all of a sudden you’re deep in blogs, random stuff, right?

Like that’s what I knew. Like it’s, it’s all about that intentionality and just about awareness of what you’re doing, how it feels, throughout the day.

Jade Boyd: Yeah, 100%. And I think part of that and something that you help your clients do as well is creating routines so that you have those healthy patterns that you can slip into automatically that do create the behaviors that you want to see without so much effort. Because if you’re putting effort in every single day and working really, really hard to get the important things done, it can get really exhausting over time and routines are one way to make that a little bit easier to focus on what actually matters and being intentional in a way that doesn’t feel like you’re using 100 percent of your focus every hour of the day to get things done.

So in your experience, what types of routines are the most helpful and necessary, especially for business owners to be thinking about in order to take back a little bit of control over their time and of their life, really?

Chelsey Newmyer:

I want to start this answer to this question with the difference between a habit and a routine because this was super eye opening for me and really made me feel a lot better about myself, quite frankly. So a habit is something that we do without much thought, right? You wake up, you brush your teeth, you don’t even really think about it. It also feels weird when we don’t do it. So like, if you walk out of a public restroom without washing your hands, all of a sudden you like feel weird, right? You like, you’re like, I need to go sanitize. I need to do something like that feels icky.

A routine is a series of behaviors or series of steps, a series of tasks that we do all together, but it requires a lot more thought and effort, and planning, often. It’s easier to skip a routine. Working out for example, is a routine. It’s not a habit. There’s a lot of decisions that go into working out. What are you going to wear? Where are you going to go? What are you going to do? Right? Like what time do I have to get up? It’s a lot of things that you’re considering versus you could wake up at five o’clock in the morning and brush your teeth. You could wake up at eight o’clock in the morning, brush your teeth, 10 o’clock in the morning and brush your teeth. So that made me feel so much better about myself because for years I was like, kicking myself, why can’t I wake up and work out first thing in the morning? That should be a habit. Why can’t I just do it?

And it’s because it’s not, it requires a lot more extra steps. And I had to put all of those pieces into place. So I’ll just preface all of them by saying, don’t beat yourself up. Then I want to also preface the habit and routine conversation with, with routines the ones that are going to set you up for success the most are the ones that make you feel really grounded. So I love a morning routine. I think that’s most obvious, right? We hear them talk about all the time, but where we don’t talk a lot about is that work opening routine. Like when you get to your desk, when you get ready to work, what do you do first?

What tabs do you turn on? What like list do you have in front of you? What does your setup look like? Because that puts us in the frame of mind to get stuff done. That hopefully helps turn off the part of our brain that’s all about grabbing your phone or those kinds of default bad behaviors. So long way to answer your question is the two most important routines that I recommend clients start with are your morning routine and your work ritual or work start routine.

Jade Boyd: So when you’re saying that routines take a little bit more effort and they’re easier to skip, when you’re thinking about creating even those two types of routines at a really practical level, are you just writing out morning routine and then what time you’re doing certain things, or is it just the order of things that you want to do every morning, knowing that they are harder to stick to if there’s many, many steps involved and every day looks a little bit different, especially like the season of life that you’re in.

So I would love to know your tips for practically, what does it look like to create a morning routine that will stick?

Chelsey Newmyer: So decide what the intention of that routine is going to be first and foremost. So if the intention of your morning routine is to get grounded and get moving, okay? Like those are very vague, very loose things, right? So sometimes that could look like, three mile run. Sometimes that could look like a 10 minute walk, right?

The goal is, oh, you got moving. Getting grounded, that could look like journaling, that could look like meditating, that could look like, you know, listening to, a guided meditation. So you can set up kind of that best case scenario. It goes back to like the running analogy set up that best case scenario for, okay. If I wake up exactly on time, these are the things I’m going to do in the order that I’m going to do them in. And if I wake up a little late, here’s how I can adjust to make sure that I’m still moving and I’m still feeling grounded every morning.

Sometimes my morning routine will happen at lunchtime, because the morning just gets chaos, especially right now. Like my son sleeps in a weird schedule or doesn’t sleep at all. Like sometimes it just happens at lunchtime and that’s okay. Because the intention is I’m going to get moving and I’m going to ground myself. And so I don’t put the pressure of that all or nothing on me on any of the routines, because it’s not that if I sleep in, I’m just skipping all of it. Right? That defeats the whole point. So give yourself some of those good, better, best scenarios for all of your routines, and if you can hold yourself accountable to that, you’re going to get more consistent with it along the way. And it’s just going to feel better and easier. And you’re going to feel proud of yourself, right? Because again, you’re going to, you’re going to commit that to yourself and you’re going to stick to it.

Jade Boyd: Right. Because you can show up even if you don’t five minutes and still do something rather than an all or nothing mentality. It’s something that you actually can commit to. I really love that.

So speaking broader of routines and exercise you also do with your clients is building your ideal day and knowing that every single day looks different. It’s hard to imagine an ideal day actually playing out in reality. So can you speak a little bit more to the purpose of an exercise, like building your ideal day and how that’s used in practice, especially as business owners, who’s every day is different and who have a lot going on outside of work as well, how can having this exercise or template of what an ideal day looks like, help us be more productive.

Chelsey Newmyer: Yeah. The ideal day is having you think about your real energy management throughout the day. So when do you work best on what thing? And I always joke that it’s an ideal work day because most of us, our ideal day would involve like being at the beach or like on vacation or like at resort, right? Like ideally we don’t have to do any of this, but I also love my job. I love working. I love my business. So, I do have an ideal day that includes work, but it just makes me think, okay, I would wake up if in a perfect world, I would wake up at this time because this is the time that I wake up most naturally. Right. Then I would have this morning routine that included X, Y, Z again, I don’t love working out in the morning.

I don’t love getting out of bed and working out. That’s not like it just doesn’t work well for me. I’ve tried it for years and I kept failing and kept thinking that there was something wrong with me. And I realized like, no, actually just everybody’s telling me I’m supposed to work out in the morning and I don’t have to.

So my ideal day would involve my morning routine. And that’s like the last thing I do. And then I get ready for the day, I take care of my son, all that, you know, and I sit down at my desk and then I, this is like a silly example, but like, I’m an extrovert. So I love morning meetings because I get to talk with people , I get energy from those conversations. And then I focus way better in the afternoon. If you’re an introvert, maybe it’s opposite for you. Maybe you really need that focus time. Unburdened in the morning, so you’re going to get all your focus work done. Then you do your podcast interviews or your client meetings in the afternoon when you don’t have to think as detailed oriented.

And then what do you want your evening to look like? So the exercise gets you thinking about the way you are going to work best in all the morning, workday, evening. And then how can you start taking really small steps to help build that for you? You need to go to bed a little bit earlier so that you can wake up a little bit earlier.

Or are you more of an evening person and maybe you’re forcing yourself to go to bed when you’re not actually tired? Because you think you’re supposed to wake up at five o’clock in the morning, when reality is you could get a really good chunk of work done between nine and 11, go to bed a little bit later and just wake up a little bit later.

Maybe you need to start telling your clients like actually I’m available in the afternoons for those meetings. Are you available at one o’clock instead of offering them the 10 o’clock time slot. Again, it comes back to being really intentional about where your energy is going to serve you best throughout your day. And then just start making small steps towards that.

Jade Boyd: Yeah. I think it’s so important to point out that you have to make small steps towards it because I think most people do an exercise like that. And again, with the all or nothing mentality, they try to show up the next day and do this ideal day perfectly. And when it doesn’t work out, they say, well, that didn’t work, but in reality, it does take very gradual changes in the right direction.

I really liked the ideal week exercise. And so when I my clients do this, I often tell them like, it’s great if you want to have that version of your ideal week, that is going to be ideal eventually, but let’s start with the version that you’re going to do next week. That has that one small change that you can actually use as a tool that you show up and do consistently, and then gradually we’ll get to the, like the ideal, ideal week, but what can you do next week or what can you do tomorrow?

Small steps are not exciting and it’s not as energizing to look at a day that has one small change to it because it doesn’t feel like it’s going to change your life. But in reality, you have to make gradual changes. We’re all human.

Chelsey Newmyer: Of course, and it doesn’t always work. I mean, this is a great example, right? We were supposed to record this last night. My husband got delayed at work, so we rescheduled it to the following morning. So it’s not always going to be perfect and someone asked me the question once of, oh, well, I don’t, you know, if you say I don’t do morning meetings, but then you talk with someone else that only does morning meetings. Then what do you do? I was well, then you, you’re going to like one of you is going to have to compromise and that’s okay. Right? But again, it comes back to you’re making the decision and can know how to adjust when those reschedules or those things move or something comes up versus that scramble or that people pleasing and just saying yes and allowing everything else to dictate and control your schedule.

So I love that. I love that ideal week, it’s something we’re working towards and it’s going to take a long time if ever to get it perfect. And your ideal schedule might change depending on the season of life you’re in, depending on what else is going on. And that’s totally okay too.

Jade Boyd: Yeah. That’s the perfect segue. And we’ve alluded to this a lot, but you have a five month old, almost five month old now. And so I’m really curious to know how your views of time management and your strategies for managing time have changed since you’ve entered this new season.

Chelsey Newmyer: Oh my gosh. Okay. So. Babies don’t follow routines. They don’t, there’s no time management there. And it’s been such a rough lesson because you’re sitting, especially in the newborn stage, you’re spending all day and it feels like all you’re doing is sitting on the couch. Like that literally feels like all you’re doing.

And you were going to put that baby to bed and say, I didn’t do anything today. Reality is, you kept that whole baby alive. You fed them, you change them, you cleaned up their spit up. Like there’s so many things that you’ve done. And it’s such a hard lesson to learn, especially at the very beginning, especially if you’re used to, here’s the list of things I’m going to do.

And I’m just going to do them. Right? So it’s a lot of grace. It’s a lot of that self awareness and recognizing where you’re causing yourself that stress of that pressure, like to, to do all of the things, even though your baby doesn’t care and they need, they need you. Period. And the other thing that I’ve been working on personally, like recently is so at five months, sometimes it’s not for 30 minutes. Sometimes they’re an hour and a half, but you don’t know what you’re going to get until it happens.

So,I used to try to juggle a lot of different things where I would try to work on something a little bit while he’s playing, but then of course he’d get interrupted and then I would like get frustrated that I couldn’t focus on the task.

Yeah, no, it’s kind of like one thing at a time a little bit. Like this is a great example of like deciding like multitasking can work, but deciding what you’re going to multitask is really, really important because they asked, you can fold laundry while your baby’s hanging out with you, but you, that deep work, you’re going to need quiet time and space, and that’s going to look different.

So that’s something I’ve been working on and same with like what I can get done in nap time. And you have like, that’s, that’s where prioritization becomes key. It’s like, I can get, this is the most important thing I have to get done. This is the second most important thing. And you just kind of keep going until you’re right at the time.

Jade Boyd: Yeah, I love that. This was a bonus question, but I’m really curious. Are there any specific like productivity hacks or strategies that you’re experimenting with right now?

Chelsey Newmyer: Yeah. I think for a long time I didn’t really realize like, the baby can come with you kind of thing. So not just yes, physically baby wearing is great, he naps so much better during that, but also like, he can hang out with me while you’re doing something, you know, while you’re putting the dishes away.

Right? And you just kind of like chat with them. Like, sometimes I also want like, just that one on one attention of playing and giving myself permission to do that. So right now, prioritization. It’s not a new thing, but it’s something I’m really, really thinking about because I only have, like four and a half hours a day of childcare. And I need to get as much as possible during that time,

Jade Boyd: Yeah. So in this season, have you found that you are doing less or are you getting the same amount done in less time and just being way more efficient than you have in the past?

Chelsey Newmyer: Man, it’s a little bit of both have also cut back on a lot of things. There’s also just a lot of things I’m saying no to, or a lot of things I’m, I I’ve cut out because I can’t make it a priority and making that decision feels way better than just not getting to it. So if you can make the decision ahead of time, like, you know what, my Facebook page is this going to take a backseat during this time. And that’s, you know, you just being okay with that. it just relieves a lot of that pressure. Like as of this recording, my podcast is a day late and that is what it is. because there’s other things that came up that were more important to me.

So I think this is just the season of grace and trying to yes, get a lot done, I’m still, fairly pretty happy with what I’m able to accomplish each day, but also making the decision like some things are just not a priority right now.

Jade Boyd: Yeah. One hundred percent. I love hearing that perspective because oftentimes we think saying no is going to feel horrible. And for some people, they really do struggle and feel really bad saying no to things, whether it’s to, like the example you gave not showing up on Facebook, that really only impacts your own business. There’s usually not a ton of people who are going to be devastated if you don’t show up on a specific marketing channel or you’re not exactly on time. It’s more of like an internal hard to say versus external can be a little bit harder saying no to other people and opportunities and things that you don’t have capacity for, but I love that you pointed out that it can feel good too, if you let yourself feel good about it and you let yourself be proud about what you are able to take on and just accept that this is a different season.

And maybe in a year, it’ll be time to say yes to more things, but I think that there can be a very specific joy that comes from saying no as well. And so I love to hear your perspective and how right now, at least it feels good to let go of those things.

Chelsey Newmyer: It really does. And it is hard. I completely agree with everything you said. It’s especially again, that overwhelm is sometimes overwhelmed by things that are really exciting to us and all of the things that we want to do, the great ideas. And I just have to have this faith that things work out the way that they’re supposed to. And so it’s not a, no, it’s just not right now. It’ll come back when those right opportunities are available.

Jade Boyd: Yeah. So in closing, I have so appreciated this conversation. So many good nuggets in here. I’m definitely going to have to go back and re listen for myself. But for the entrepreneur who’s listening to this, who maybe has more on their plate than they even have time for, who’s feeling overwhelmed and stuck in that cycle, what one piece of advice would you leave them with?

Chelsey Newmyer: I think it goes back to what we just were talking about, which is really that every day is going to look a little different and that’s okay. We are not expected, nor should we expect ourselves to have the same level of productivity every single day. So plan for that best case scenario but give yourself lots of grace as things come up and adjust accordingly. That would probably be my, my biggest takeaway. Cause when we don’t do that, that’s when we start feeling that overwhelm and that, that pile that comes up unnecessarily.

Jade Boyd: Yeah, that’s a great place to end it. So for those who are listening and want to get involved in your space and dig deeper into your content, where can they find you after the show?

Chelsey Newmyer: Sure. So on Instagram, I’m chelseyncoaching and that’s Chelsey with a Y and I also have a podcast called from Overwhelmed To Under Control. So I dive into all these different topics as well, but those are the two best places to find me.

Jade Boyd: And we’ll make sure those are all linked in the show notes. So thank you so much again for being here, Chelsey. This was great.

Chelsey Newmyer: Thank you. Happy, happy to be here.