Strange & Charmed

10 Small Business Productivity Time Savers

10 Small Business Productivity Time Savers

Hello My Charmed Ones!

As someone who has been running their business online for almost 8 years full time as a solopreneur- I know a thing or two about setting up systems in your business to help save your time and energy. It’s what I’ve relied on for nearly a decade to keep my business consistent, growing and converting sales.

Implementing any one of these hacks is going to make running your business so much easier, but if you can get to a place where you have all ten of these tips in place in your business, you’re going to start realizing how easy business can be when things are well organized into systems.

So, review this list, decide what you may need to put in place first, and then work your way through this to bring your business to the next level!

#1: Save Links to Your Products, Sales Pages & Opt-ins

This will help you keep your links organized so you can easily access them, even from a mobile device, making selling and sharing about your work easier!

Save links into folders in your web browser, a Google Doc and/or a notes app that syncs across your devices.

The syncing aspect is key because you want to be able to access this information quickly from any device, instead of having to search for links or log-into the back end of websites or applications to find this information.

#2: Create an FAQ Page

An FAQ, or frequently asked questions, page will help cut down on inquiries and drive potential followers and customers to the information they are looking for!

Set up a page on your website, blog, shop, or if you don’t have a website, you could collect this information in a Google Doc to share with followers.

Collect the questions you are repeatedly asked about and lay them out with their answers on the page.

When you are first getting started and don’t have many questions yet, I recommend researching similar business’ and seeing the the types of information they have on their FAQ pages to help you craft your first page.

Your FAQ Page is a living document that you will want to keep updated often and the better the answers on the page are, the more engagement and sales you will have, while minimizing unnecessary emails, DMs and comments.

#3: Set Up an Email Autoresponder

An email Auto-Responder is an automatic message that is sent to anyone who emails your business email, and can be a great customer service tool that sets expectations with your customers while also helping them at the same time.

All major email platforms allow for auto-responders (think out of office email reply) so you can likely find a set of directions for setting yours up quickly by doing a google search.

The email auto-responder should be a welcoming message that helps your customer understand when they can reasonably expect to hear back from you, and provides them some insight to help direct them in the meantime.

Example: Thank you so much for your email! Please know that your email has been received and your inquiry is important to us! Due to the volume of messages we receive, you can expect a response within 48 hours outside of weekends. We do monitor for and prioritize more urgent customer service requests, but your patience and understanding is greatly appreciated. In the meantime, the answer to your inquiry may be one of our frequently asked questions, so we encourage you to click here to review our FAQ page for a more immediate resolution.

#4: Use Canned Responses

Canned responses are pre-written emails or message templates that can be used to quickly compose a reply to a customer email or message. They are usually based on frequently asked questions, but are great for making sales when a customer needs a recommendation, guiding an assistant who may be helping with emails and messages, and can help prevent PR nightmares when you are asked triggering questions or dealing with a particularly unhappy customer.

Populating answers onto your FAQ page is a great way to help minimize customer emails and messages, however, when you do receive a message from a customer, it is not always appropriate to send them a link to the FAQ page and send them on their way (not if you want to do good customer service) and it dismisses a key point of contact where you could be making a sale or driving engagement to a platform/content/opt-in.

As you reply to customers messages, get into the habit of saving your good responses to their questions and organizing them in a Google Doc, or a notes app- again, something that syncs across devices is preferable.

Adjust your original message into a template by removing customer specific information and giving the message a more general but clearly actionable response. That way you can easily copy and paste the message for a future customer message.

#5: Use an Editorial Calendar

An editorial calendar is plan for what content is to be published on specific days by platform. It helps take the guess work out of what to post when, and helps you easily bulk create content.

To create your editorial calendar, first choose the duration of time you want to plan for. One month to one quarter at a time is pretty standard, but you could plan as far in advance as a year if that works for you.

Next, define the schedule you will be working on per platform: so what days/times will you be posting content across a week.

Then brainstorm your content ideas and assign them to the schedule so you have a clear publishing plan created.
Finally, schedule specific time to bulk create content on a regular basis. This could be one day a week where you create all your content and set it to publish on schedule for the next week.

#6: Use Social Media Scheduling Software

Social media scheduling software like Meet Edgar, Hootsuite, and Planoly help you to schedule and promote your content across platforms.

One of the biggest mistakes business owners make with their content marketing is that they don’t continue to promote content once it’s been published to a platform- and then they wonder why the content isn’t getting much engagement and continue to create more and more content in an attempt to drive traffic.

It’s much easier to create one piece of content and push it out to other platforms to increase the reach and impact of the content.

Social Media Scheduling Software helps you to automate this process by uploading the content once and then setting the content to publish across various platforms, and can even continue to promote the content on a recurring basis so it’s not getting lost in a stagnant feed.

#7: Use a Marketing Calendar

If an editorial calendar is the plan for what content will be published at what time, your marketing calendar is the plan for what promotions, launches and sales you will be marketing across your year.

A business that isn’t continually marketing itself in some form or another is one that isn’t generating much revenue!
At the start of the year (or right now!) it’s a good idea to map out the different promotions and marketing you will do across the year so you always know what you are selling at any given time and can better organize your efforts to get the maximum results.

This doesn’t have to be complicated, simply choose how often you feel comfortable running marketing campaigns, and start filling in your calendar with marketing ideas that make sense. Make sure you give yourself enough time between campaigns to prepare for the next one.

#8: Theme Your Work Days

Theming your work days means that you will set aside specific days or blocks of time on certain days to do specific work for your business.

Themed work days help you to work more efficiently by remaining focused on specific tasks, and helps you to fit all your tasks and obligations into your schedule across the week so you know you have time to get everything done.

In order to effectively theme your work days, I recommend keeping track of all the different activities you do for your business on a recurring basis over the period of a few weeks to a month, and then grouping like items together and creating daily themes or work blocks on a specific schedule to ensure you have the time set aside to complete those tasks.

#9: Systematize Everything!

A system is a codified process for how you reach an end result so that you have an easy to follow list of tasks to help you achieve a similar result every time you go to complete that objective. For example, a recipe is a great example of a system. It’s a specific process for how you get a specific result, a meal you are trying to prepare and the steps to follow to make it.

All of the recurring work you do for your business should be turned into a system to help you take the guess work out of planning how you will complete a specific action in the future and creating the system gives you the opportunity to perfect exactly what your process is so you spend less time and effort but get a greater result each time.

So, every time you do a task in your business, start tracking the steps on a project page. When the task is complete, review your steps and what you learned from that recent experience to create the ideal step by step plan for completing that activity in the future. Write the final draft of the plan on a project or system planning page and refer to it every time you need to do that task so you don’t have to waste mental time and energy thinking about how to do it.

#10: Get Help

Getting help so that you can more effectively run your business can take many forms, some of which don’t require you to spend money, hire an employee or to delegate business related to tasks to others.

The first level at which you can get help is within your own family. If you have a partner or children old enough to delegate home life tasks to, reach out to them first to ease your daily work burden so that you have more time to focus on your business tasks.

The second level at which you can get help is to hire out home related tasks in the form of a cleaning service, baby sitter, meal prep service, dog walker, task rabbit etc- again to take home burdens off your plate so that you have more time available for business work.

Next, consider how you may be able to use your network of other small business professionals to do a service swap where you take on work that you are skilled at for another business owner, and that business owner takes care of some work for you that they are more skilled at.

The final level at which you can get help is to hire virtual assistants, contractors or employees to complete specific work for your business.

Start Your Money Making Business!

Hey Small Business Owner!

Everyday hundreds of great, creative, and innovative new online businesses are formed around the world, and then close their doors after a matter of weeks or months due to a lack of clear purpose or profit.

That does NOT have to be your business story!

After 8 years running an online business myself and working with hundreds of women in my community to get their business visions off the ground, I know first hand what it takes to lay the right foundation for a business that reflects your passions and fills your bank account.

Let me guide you through some simple activities that will help clarify your business vision and work you through early stage market research so you can move forward with confidence knowing that you have laid the foundation for a Money Making Business!

Click This Image to Get Your Free Copy of the Money Making Business Booklet!

Watch the Video on YouTube

I hope these 10 tips help save you time and energy in starting, building and growing your own online business!

xoxo,

High Vibe Mindset Personal Development

Copy My Daily Mindset Work

Copy My Daily Mindset Work

Hello My Charmed Ones!

I’ve been feeling really good lately.

I mean like mentally, emotionally, spiritually!

I’ve just been feeling so good and positive and like life has been pretty effortless.

And I attribute this feeling to getting back into the habit of daily journaling.

Over the years I fall into and out of my daily journaling practice, and at the start of April I designed some new daily mindset work for myself and it really just clicked that daily habit back into place for me.

I think we all have those things, those habits we know are good for us and make a difference but sometimes we have a hard time sticking to it.

Well one of those habits for me is journaling daily, and what often makes daily journaling a hard habit for me to stick to is that I feel a lot of pressure to having something to write when I sit down to do the journaling itself.

When it comes to journaling, a blank page can have me stumped, but at the same time I know it’s so good to do it everyday.

So, having a framework for what I’ll be journaling really helps.

That is were my current daily mindset work comes in.

Don’t worry- I’m going to link it for you below because I give you full permission to copy it and use it for yourself!

This structure has worked so well for me because I am not just building that daily writing habit and getting my thoughts out of my head and onto paper, but also because this journaling structure is really great for identifying goals and rewriting limiting beliefs.

So, let me walk you through the structure and explain how to use it.

Top 3: This is were you will list out three goals you are currently focused on achieving. Even if you don’t think you can achieve them in the near future, write them out here. These should be your three highest priority goals.

Beliefs & Self-Talk: In this prompt I want you to think about each goal and identify what you would need to believe to be true of the world and/or yourself in order to attain the goal. Often our own beliefs of what is realistically possible end up limiting us. So, forget about being logical or realistic about your goals and decide what you need to simply believe and trust is possible for you in order to make your goal a reality.

Inspired Actions: Thinking about each goal as though it has already happened, what is the next action you feel inspired to take knowing you can’t mess things up because your goal is guaranteed. It might take you a moment to sit in the feeling of knowing, believing and trusting that your goal will be attained before the inspiration strikes. And the inspiration could be anything directly related to your goal or not. But if you get a sudden burst of inspiration to do something- that is the action you need to follow from your intuition in order to move towards your goal.

Now, that is the basic framework for the Daily Mindset Work and journaling I have been doing, but I also have been adding a few affirmations at the end of my practice as well.

Affirmations: Usually these are a clearer restatement of the beliefs and self-talk I wrote out earlier, but they could also be encouraging or inspirational words I feel like I need to hear.

You can’t mess this up, just try not to judge yourself as your journal and follow the lead of your instincts or intuition.

One more thing I want to remind you about this daily mindset journaling is that although it would be great for you to start your day with this work, the morning is not the only time you can do it.

I often do this work in the later part of the morning before starting my work tasks, or even in the middle of my day. And if I have a busy or distracting day that prevents me from being as present or intentional as I’d like- I will even break out my journal in the evening while watching tv, eating dinner, or even in bed before I go to sleep.

The thing about having a daily habit is that you do it every day, even if you can’t do it at the same time every day.

Getting it done is the most important part.

AND if you are curious, the notebook I have been using to do this Daily Mindset Work in has been the CEO Journal.

It’s a notebook I designed with a date selection grid at top and a squared page layout that is perfect for journaling, note taking and even bullet journaling if you want to plan with it.

The pages are numbered too!

You can get your copy on Amazon for what I believe is a very reasonable price.

I sincerely hope this Daily Mindset Work helps you to establish the habit of journaling in your day, and helps you to feel that same sense of ease, flow and happiness I’ve been experiencing for the last month.

Let me know how your practice goes!

xoxo,

Functional Planning

May Monthly Plan With Me

May Monthly Plan With Me

Since May is officially in full bloom, I thought it would be helpful for me to do a monthly plan with me video to give you some planning inspiration and instead of just talking about the tasks and plans I am writing down, I thought it would be much more motivational if I gave you a little pep talk on an important topic about planning.

So, grab your planner, your pens, highlighters and a beverage of your choice and let’s settle in to to do our May monthly planning together and discuss the topic of What it takes to make lasting changes to your productivity?

Pep Talk | What it takes to make lasting changes to your productivity?

As many of you may already know, last week I went live on my youtube channel for a productivity check up where I walked you through my Productivity Assessment. If you haven’t done the assessment yet, as we are planning today, schedule some time this week to complete the assessment because it is something I’ve been working on for a long time, and it’s essentially a self-reporting test to help you identify what you’re specific productivity and planning issues are and it gives you the framework for actually making lasting changes that will cause a ripple effect into so many areas of your life.

Identifying and improving skillsets related to planning and productivity are what will actually cause real visible changes to your life and the results you get from your life.

For years, on Youtube, my blog and even on Instagram, I have been teaching what I know is really good, actionable information on various planning and productivity topics, but something I noticed very often was that the same people in my community would continue to come to me asking how to solve the same productivity issues over and over, even though I had shared tons of content showing how to solve those issues. I began realize that although many people were watching my videos, many of them were not practicing what I was teaching, or they would give is a shot once immediately after learning it, but then failed to follow through over time to see real measurable changes.

They were getting the information, but not implementing. And that implementation is the thing that makes the difference if you want to change your life through planning and productivity.

Once I really realized that was the issue for most people, I became focused on how I could not only provide great information and strategy, but also how I could create a framework to ensure the women in my community were using the information to improve their skills and make long term changes.

And that was my major motivation for creating the Charmed Life Master Mind. To help women learn and do so they could finally experience true changes in their lives.

The work we do in the Charmed Life Master Mind truly matters to me because I know how impactful and empowering it is.

Women join this Master Mind feeling behind in life, overwhelmed by their to do list, and completely goal-less, but then shift into a state of clarity, empowerment and confidence.

That shift is the deliberate result of the way I have structured the Master Mind through information, resources and accountability, that create a very strong process you can follow to change your mindset and behavior.

→ The information you learn through this experience will give you a fresh perspective on your life and what you need to do to make change.

→ The resources I’ve intentionally designed based on research backed strategy will give you practical actions to take to build new skillsets to put that change in place.

→ The accountability the group provides keeps you on your path by providing check in points to motivate you to show up and do the work, even if you fall off course for a bit.

For those who truly desire a shift and transformation in their productivity and lives, this structure works if you show up to do the work.

And I make it as easy as possible for you to follow along, with live classes, on-demand replays for everything we do together, digital/print-at-home resources and a private community were we can remain in constant contact with one another!

Yes, there is a lot of value inside the Charmed Life Master Mind in terms of the content and resources that far exceed the membership price.

But the most valuable part of the experience is the structure and framework intended to help you quickly implement change that would otherwise take you months if not years to achieve on your own.

So, now I want to think- what is truly holding you back from joining me in this master mind experience and making true change in your life?

I have heard from master mind sisters in the past that they were hesitant to join because they were worried that the paid content would be the same as my free content, would be repetitive, or that I wouldn’t be as present in the private group as I claimed. It sounds like those are issues that people have commonly experienced in joining other memberships groups for creators they follow, but let me assure you the Charmed Life Master Mind is different.

If you already enjoy my free content, you are going to love the content in the master mind because although I talk about some similar topics, we go much broader and deeper than I ever do in YouTube videos, blog posts or on Instagram. There is no duplicated content, my free content is completely separate from the content I produce in the master mind. And I understand that perhaps in some other membership groups, the figurehead may only check in once in a while, or go MIA for periods of time- but that is not me and that is not what happens in the Charmed Life Master Mind. I post prompts every day Monday through Friday. I have never missed or even rescheduled a live class- we have always run completely on schedule, and I check the master mind group every single day to answer questions and do coaching with my master mind sisters. So if you join and you post questions, get ready for me to give you direct attention and coaching because I am extremely active in the group!

Now, as for other reasons why you may not have enrolled yet, I also personally question how comfortable people feel with the idea paying for additional content, and now that the number of creators who have started memberships or patreons has grown, it likely feels as though you are being asked so often to join a membership to support a creator you like to “support their work”.

Something that makes the Charmed Life Master Mind different than those other situations, is that this membership isn’t simply about buying more content from me- it’s about learning and doing together. Taking what I teach and creating practical tools and resources so you are implementing what you learn. Then of course having a structure for accountability with the monthly live calls, the Slack posts and the opportunity to bring your questions and issues directly to me for one-on-one coaching and strategy.

If you truly desire change in your life,

If you want to know what it feels like to experience clarity and confidence in your actions,

And if you want to start seeing the new results that can only come from true change,

I welcome you to join me in the Charmed Life Master Mind!

CLICK HERE TO JOIN US NOW!

Watch the May Plan With Me Video

Functional Planning High Vibe Productivity

Feng Shui Your Planner for Positive Productivity Energy

Planner Feng Shui Tips!

Hello My Charmed Ones!

Today I am sharing more on Planner Alchemy- tips for using your planner to manifest productivity and success in your life. Specifically, I want to share some tips for how to Feng Shui your planner to attract positive productivity energy.

Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese practice of using and directing universal life force energy or qi into areas of your life to achieve balance, harmony and improvement.

When we hear about Feng Shui, we often hear the practice used in terms of organizing and decorating our homes, but we can also apply Feng Shui principles to our planner and so I want to share five such tips with you today.

Tip 1. Keep your planner open whenever possible: If you are working at your desk, keep your planner open, even if you are not actively using it or referring to it, because this helps to clear the air around your planner and attract positive chi as part of the Feng Shui Philosophy.

Tip 2. Clear out clutter: a main principle of Feng Shui is to keep your spaces clean and neat. One of the tenants of Feng Shui is that positive energy or qi can’t flow in a hoarded room. So, good qi also can’t flow into a hoarded or messy planner. I regularly remove unnecessary pages from my planner and either discard them if they are not needed or save them in an archive or storage binder for future reference, as this will help clear the energy of my planner for positive qi!

Tip 3. Fill your planner with beauty and happiness: In Feng Shui, the way an area looks and feels has a major impact on the type of energy that is attracted to it. So, make sure you leave inspirational images and quotes in your planner so that positive energy is attracted to it. Keep some tokens of happy memories tucked inside extra pockets or punched inside your planner. I’d also recommend taking notes of achievements and positive events on your agenda pages as this will also help to make your planner a destination for positive energy.

Tip 4. Choose your ink color purposefully: In Feng Shui color is a powerful quality meant to strategically attract energy into your life. Consider choosing the ink colors that you use inside your planner, in terms of your pen and highlighters, strategically to correspond to what energy you are looking to attract more of in your life.

Here are the Feng Shui Color Correspondences:

Black: Career + Life Path
White: Children and creativity
Grey: Helpful people and travel
Blue: Knowledge and personal development
Turquoise: New beginnings and confidence
Green: Growth, family and health
Brown: Stability and security
Purple: Spirituality, adventure and prosperity
Pink: Relationships, partnership and romance
Red: Fame and reputation
Yellow: Power, health and patience
Orange: Health and happiness

Tip 5. Store your planner in a clean and well lit space: Don’t keep your planner shoved in your bag or in a drawer for hours on end, leave it in a place of respect out in the open where it will not get damaged and will be like an ornament in your life. If you have respect for your planner and treat it with respect, positive energy will also continue to flow to it, attracting success, abundance and productivity into your life.

Watch the Video on How to Feng Shui Your Planner

So, those are my top five tips to apply the principles of Feng Shui to your planner to start attracting positive productivity energy into your life. I hope this gives you some new inspiration for using your planner to attract more abundance, productivity and success in your life.

xoxo,

books Functional Planning Productivity

I WROTE A BOOK | The Functional Planning Handbook

Introducing the Functional Planning Handbook

Yes, it is true!

I have finally written and published my book on planning and productivity called the Functional Planning Handbook and it is available right now for sale on Amazon.com.

Click here to purchase your copy and support my book launch!

Those of you who have been following me for a while know that this book is something I’ve been talking about writing for years, and I’m so excited to finally launch it publicly to the world!

As you can surmise from the title, this book is my official guide to functional planning, and it was truly written to be a companion to your planner as you can see from it’s petite 4 x 6 inch size!

It’s a book you can learn from by reading through it, sure, but it’s really meant to be a reference guide for you as well because if you have been planning for any period of time, you know that it’s not about learning the strategies once and you suddenly know exactly how to plan and organize your life.

Functional planning is truly a skill and a practice that you develop over time and I wanted this book to be your pocket reference guide and handbook that you could reach for when you had a question about how to perform your daily planning routine, but also to be a source of inspiration and motivation for you to get things done. That’s why several chapters of this book are dedicated to discussing time, task and energy management strategies you can implement quickly and easily in your life.

This book, like much of my content, is direct strategy- no fluff or filler- that is actionable and practical for the variety of women and lifestyles in my community. If you are an ambitious woman in my community who desires a more organized, intentional and successful life, and knows planning and personal organization are strategies that can help you achieve more with less time, stress and effort, then the functional planning handbook is for you!

And, of course, for those of you who support the launch and purchase your copy this month, I have a special bonus gift for you- A Functional Planning Routines planner insert with 21 prompts that you can use to support your daily, weekly and monthly planning routine so that you make better, more complete plans that you feel confident executing on to make your ideal life a reality!

Click here to validate your Amazon purchase and receive your FREE Bonus!

I sincerely hope you love the book, the bonus and will consider leaving me a positive review for the book on Amazon so we can get this essential functional planning information in the hands of more amazing women who need it!

Thank you all so much for your ongoing support and encouragement, this won’t be the last you hear of the book- we will certainly be discussing it more in the coming weeks, so you can understand more of the behind the scenes of what finishing this major goal looked like for me!

Thanks for joining me on this journey and we will talk soon!

xoxo,

Functional Planning Productivity

FREE TRAINING: How to Plan for a Balanced + Successful Life

Hello My Charmed Ones!

→ Have you been struggling with your planning and personal organization?

→ Do you question how to best set up your planner for the year?

→ What inserts to include?

→ How to establish a regular planning routine?

→ And how to ensure you actually use your planner to get more done with less time and effort?

Learning how to properly set up and use your planner is the first step to ensuring you have the systems in place to confidently plan a balanced and successful life.

One where you have visibility to all the important tasks in your day, the time set aside to get them done, and still have room each day to care for yourself, your family and the other priorities in your life.

Whether you work for yourself, another company, are a stay at home mom, student or even retiree, having a reliable planning system at your fingertips is the difference between a balanced, intentional and fulfilling life and one where you feel completely disorganized and out of control.

That’s why I have created a NEW FREE TRAINING Class called:

How to Plan for a Balanced and Successful Life!

I’m hosting this new training live on Saturday, January 22nd at 2pm EST and you are invited to be part of the inaugural class.

In this FREE Training, I am going to teach you:

✔︎ How to set up a functional planning system, one with the inserts you need to ensure you are capturing all of lifes tasks, and then how to establish a simple routine to ensure you are utilizing your planner to get things done on a daily basis.

✔︎ I am going to teach you how to use your planner to create a system to ensure you are able to quantify and track your work to make your planning process easier, and also to make organizing your tasks and scheduling them into your life a seamless process so that there is a time for everything and everything gets done.

✔︎ Finally, I am going to teach you ten time, task and energy management strategies to help you complete a long to-do list. These are simple, practical strategies you can implement immediately in your life for a greater sense of productivity and satisfaction with your work.

You are going to walk away from this training armed with knowledge that you can put to use immediately to finally commit to a planner system that works for you, to help you get all your tasks organized and to ensure you know fundamental productivity strategy to work smarter not harder.

Greatest of all though, you are going to walk away from this training with a sense of confidence and clarity that you know how to handle the endless stream of tasks that life brings to you!

Embodying that sort of confidence will immediately bring you more ease, intention and balance to your life because you will begin to recognize that you don’t need to hustle to get it all done. You don’t have to sacrifice your personal goals, time with your family, your wellbeing and even your sleep just to complete a to-do list.

As Elton John sings in the Circle of Life, “there is more to do than can ever be done” in this life! The to do list is always going to grow no matter how much we check off each day, so utilizing systems to manage the work is the best way to bring yourself a sense of peace and trust that you are in control of your life and it’s direction!

YOU GOT THIS!

And I’m here to help!

→ Hope to see you live in class on Saturday!

CLICK HERE TO CLAIM YOUR FREE SEAT

I’ll be emailing you reminders and the link over the next few days so you don’t miss out, but make sure to mark your planner and set an alarm on your phone now so you have the time blocked off!

In the meantime, let me know your biggest planning and productivity struggles. Leave me a comment and let me know what specific questions or issues you have and I’d be glad to help.

xoxo,

Productivity

How to Create Your Productive Daily Routine

Hello My Charmed Ones!

Today I want to teach you the productivity strategy that every functional planner, creative entrepreneur and female business owner needs to create a balanced and successful year: A Productive Daily Routine!

For those of us who seek to find balance in our lives between our work and personal priorities, structuring an intentionally productive daily routine is an activity that will help us create a dedicated time and space for what matters.

Although I don’t believe it is necessary for any two people to have the exact same daily routine, I do know that there are research backed habits that are essential to your productivity and success. So for me, fitting those non-negotiables into my schedule creates the basic structure of my productive daily routine and helps me to create a day and life with a sense of intention and flow.

Let me walk you through those habits and how to structure your productive daily routine in this weeks video below!

Video: Creating Your Productive Daily Routine

I hope you’ve enjoyed this video and learning how to create your own productive daily routine to support a balanced and successful life this year!

Now I want to hear from you in the comments, what non-negotiable habits are you making time for you your daily routine?

xoxo,

P.S. If you are looking for more inspiration and accountability to build your ideal productive daily routine, the Productivity + Planning Mastermind is ready and waiting for you!

Members of my Productivity + Planning Mastermind get weekly accountability check-ins with me, as well as both group and direct coaching. Plus, members of the mastermind get a library of planning tools to help them get organized and manage their time and tasks better. They also get masterclasses that walk them through setting their goals, changing their habits, working on their mindset and other ongoing education topics.

Click here to enroll in the Productivity + Planning Mastermind and join my inner circle of ambitious women all learning to lead a productive, organized and successful life in 2022!

Functional Planning High Vibe Metaphysics

7 Crystals to Supercharge Your Planner

Hello My Charmed Ones!

Today I want to share with you 7 crystals that you can use to supercharge your planner!

Many of you ask me about my crystals, which ones I have and what I use them for and I thought this would be a fun themed video for all my planner lovers.

If you are new to crystals, they are beautiful natural earth elements and stones that are believed to hold a specific energy based on their color and structure and therefore have metaphysical properties that may support you in different areas of life.

Any one crystal can be used a number of ways, but today I want to introduce you to seven that hold specific energies that I believe are helpful for planning and productivity.

Video: 7 Crystals to Supercharge Your Planner

I hope you’ve enjoyed this video and learning about how crystals can help support your planning and productivity needs.

Now I want to hear from you in the comments, which crystals or stones are you interested in picking up and using with your planner?

xoxo,

CEO Strategy High Vibe Productivity

CEO Strategy Productive Daily Routine

CEO Strategy Productive Daily Routine

You are only as productive as your daily routine!

As we kick off off the New Year, now is a wonderful time to reevaluate and establish a more productive daily routine.

For those of us who seek to find balance in our lives between our work and personal priorities, structuring an intentionally productive daily routine is an activity that will help us create a dedicated time and space for what matters.

I like to think of my daily routine in four segments:

☀️ Morning
💻 Afternoon (Workday)
🍽 Evening
🌙 Night

And within those segments of time, I have specific productive activities to perform.

Although I don’t believe it is necessary for any two people to have the exact same daily routine, I do know that there are research backed habits that are essential to your productivity and success. So for me, fitting those non-negotiables into my schedule creates the basic structure of my productive daily routine and helps me to create a day and life with a sense of intention and flow.

☀️ Morning
Wake Up + Make Bed
Meditate
Journal
Morning Hydration
Plan for the Day

💻 Afternoon
First Work Block
Take a Break
Second Work Block
Make + Eat Lunch
Third Work Block

🍽 Evening
Movement
Make + Eat Dinner
Tidy Up
Family/Relationship Time
Personal Time

🌙 Night
Bath/Shower
Skincare Routine
Evening Hydration
Reflection
Sleep

Feel free to use my structure to create your own Productive Daily Routine and let me know in the comments what your daily non-negotiable habits are for 2022!

xoxo,

Functional Planning Personal Development Productivity

9 Ways to Stay Productive + Organized in 2022

Hello My Charmed Ones!

Imagine this scenario: It’s the first week of the New Year and you are desperate to get your ish together so you can finally become that productive and organized woman with the amazing business or career- plus a perfectly balanced life where you remember everything important, achieve all of your goals, and even make time for your own self-care!

I don’t think this is a difficult scenario for any of us to imagine because this week is the first week of the New Year, and the woman I described is that ideal woman we all wish we could be. That includes ME! I know many of you may feel like I am that woman already, and perhaps I am in your standards, but a collective problem we all face is that the standard for that ideal woman we want to be is different for all of us, and no matter how much we have achieved, we all feel like we have much more work to go until we become her.

Realistically, I think as we continue to grow, expand and evolve, so does our vision of that ideal woman, which accounts for why most of us aspire to be her, but few of us ever feel like we embody her.

But guess what?

Whether or not we are setting a realistic expectation for the ideal woman we want to be, I know there are practical, action oriented steps we can all take right now to get and stay productive and organized this year, and at least intentionally move in the direction of what life as our ideal selves would be.

So, I have broken this work down into nine practical steps we can all take to organize our lives, get clear on what we are trying to accomplish this year, and put ourselves on the path to productively achieving the results we desire.

Are you ready to get started?

Awesome, let’s jump right in!

Step #1: Choose and Use a Planner

This first step should surprise precisely none of you, because you know I am all about organizing my life, time, and tasks with the help of an amazing, custom productivity tool, aka my planner! But, I have to mention this step because it is in fact the first step we need to take, and we know common knowledge isn’t always common practice- and this post is all about practicing what we know we need to do to become the organized and productive woman we want to be.

So, have you figured out your planner of choice for the year yet?

It doesn’t matter to me if you use a custom paper planner situation like I do, or if you decide you are going to use a digital system. I just want you to have a dedicated planner that can do the following for you:

Act as an inbox where you store all your ideas, tasks, schedule, key information etc
Organize information in a streamlined way so you can make the most of time, task, and energy management principles to literally work smarter, not harder
Give you a clear line of sight to what you need to be working on each day, week, month, quarter of the year to remain on track with your goals and vision for the year

This needs to be one single planner or digital system because if you have multiple inboxes and schedules and task lists, you won’t be able to get that big picture view of everything you have going on.

Also, this really should be one single system you commit to using for the complete year because, again, all the information in all the places really becomes a disorganized mess. That mess translates into your productivity, organization level and success for the year, so you do you, but I say one planner for most people is all you need.

If you want to use the same system of inserts that I use, click here.

Your planner is a tool, not a toy, so choose wisely!

WATCH: How to Choose the Right Planner for 2022

Step #2: Plan and Schedule Your Year

Once you have your planner picked out and/or set up you now need to start populating it with information so you can start planning and scheduling your year. I know, I know, another revolutionary tip, but set your snakiness aside, because I know that many of you reading this right now have a planner and are not putting all the important and necessary information you have into it.

I know some of you have information for your schedule or appointments or kids school calendars someplace else. Another calendar, another app, someplace other than the one planner I said needed to act as your ultimate inbox!

And what is actually worse, I know some of you have that beautiful planner that you are really vibe-ing with at the moment but you have some tasks, ideas, meetings etc that you have decided you are just going to remember the details of… like remember in your brain as opposed to inside your planner. Recipe for disaster!

I don’t care how fresh in your mind some of that information is- I know you are going to forget some or all of it by the time you really need to have that information in front of you. But still, you continue to defy my practical advice. I promise you, things won’t change for you this year unless you start making changes. So, please, populate all the information you know about for the year into your planner so you have a line of sight to it.

Go ahead and write it in pencil if you are afraid plans will change, or write the information on a sticky note and put it in the right area of your planner to act on later. But, please populate what you know as soon as you can, and continue to add new information as you receive it.

If you aren’t sure what information to add to your planner, the video linked below will help provide more details and recommendations.

WATCH: Planning and Scheduling Your Year

Step #3: Set New Habits + Routines

You already know, the habits you have established by this point in your life are the make it or break it for your overall success. We are what we repeatedly do. The reality we see around us is the result of the actions we take on a habitual or routine basis.

And I’d venture to guess that you have some bad habits that you know are holding you back from achieving your goals and becoming that ideal woman you want to be!

So, we have to get our habits under control and to do that we need to get clear on two things:

We need to know which habits are keeping us stuck with the results we currently have, and…
We need to understand the process for replacing habits so we can make a meaningful change to adjust our results

If you need help with changing your habits to change your life, the video below will provide you a framework of practical steps and advice to guide you.

WATCH: Setting New Routines + Habits

Step #4: Decide what you want your life to look like

Now, before you can actually make any real meaningful change in your life, you are going to need to get clear on what it is that you want your life to look like. And the wonderful thing about this is that whatever you imagine or desire for your life is something you can create and bring to reality.

Many people hold themselves back from the life they want, simply because they can’t get clear on what it is they actually want. They think they are just indecisive, but let me tell you, indecision is a decision!

So, when you are looking around at the areas of your life thinking that things need to change, and you look at the opportunities and paths you have before you, if you don’t choose one and take action, that is a choice to stay exactly where you are.

I know making choices can seem intimidating.

What if I make the wrong choice?
What if I go down the wrong path and I end up further behind than I already feel?
What if make a change and things don’t work out?

Yea, that can happen! And if it does you can choose again and keep trying. BUT staying where you are can also be the wrong choice. Not changing paths and remaining where you are can also put you further behind. And keeping things the same means things that aren’t working out for you right now, will continue to not work out for you. You think making a decision and making a change is a risk, but you take the exact same risk when you choose to be indecisive and don’t make any change at all.

One of my favorite quotes from Einstein says “The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.”

So, if you desire a change in your life, trust that this feeling will lead you to an opportunity and a path where your desires will be fulfilled. The path may not be a straight line to fulfillment, it may require time and patience and a period of uncertainty, but if you stick it out and keep choosing the new path everyday, you will absolutely make it to a better destination. Because I don’t believe following your desires and following the calling of your heart can ever lead you astray.

It just can’t! You can’t mess it up as long as you choose a direction and see it through. Because God/Spirit/The Universe uses our feelings and desires to guide us and God/Spirit/The Universe has a much better view of our life and all the possible paths we could take.

So there is a lot of power in deciding and doing and trusting, so if you are feeling indecisive the video linked below is going to walk you through a simple but powerful activity you can do to understand what you want to for your life right now.

WATCH: Understanding What You Want to Accomplish This Year

Step #5: Set your goals and get them mapped in your planner

Once you decide what it is that you want to accomplish this year you can go ahead and set actual goals for achieving those results and changes you desire. Now, I know that for many of you, you have tried to set goals in the past and failed to achieve them. So for some of you the idea of setting goals seems like a waste of time and not worth the effort.

If that sounds like you, I want you to know that this is the start of a new year, it’s a new day, a new week and a fresh opportunity for you to start over and achieve whatever you desire. But first, I’m going to need you to forgive yourself for messing up in the past because actually, that is the toughest part of the process of goals and achievement.

Like you, when I get off track with a goal or feel like I’ve messed it up entirely, I experience a lot of guilt and that guilt, more often than not, is the reason I can’t continue to take action.

It can make me feel like a failure, like I made the wrong choice of a goal or like I am not worthy to receive the outcome I was working towards…

BUT IT’S ALL LIES!

You can never really mess anything up until you give up on it entirely, and I don’t think you are ready to give up on that goal yet that is weighing heavily on your heart.

So, repeat after me:

Even though I have lost track and perhaps even lost faith on this goal, I still truly and deeply love and accept myself.

I forgive myself for believing I wasn’t capable of achieving my goal.

I am worthy to receive every goal I set and every outcome I desire.

Doesn’t that feel much better?

Now, it’s time to recommit to your goals!

The video below will talk you through what you need to do to set your goals for the new year if you’d like some additional guidance.

WATCH: Setting Your Goals + Mapping Them Across Your Year

Step #6: Create a vision board

If you have never created a vision board before, you are definitely in for a treat with this step because I love making a fresh vision board each year. It’s one part fun crafty activity, one part practical productivity tool, and one part mindset reprogramming tool.

A vision board is a collage of images that represent your goals brought into fruition. So, image what having each of your goals would look and feel like to you. Your vision board gives you the literal ability to see what those goals look like in your life and when you can actually see an outcome, it becomes much easier for you to achieve it.

Vision boards work based off real science too. There is a network of neurons in the human brain stem known as the reticular activating system (RAS), and this network governs multiple different bodily activities and reactions, but an interesting activity it is responsible for is the information that our brain filters to our conscious minds. The human brain actually receives and filters through a tremendous amount of data and information about our bodies and the world around us. Most of which, we are never consciously aware of because our brains don’t give us information it doesn’t think we need. Using a vision board begins to train your RAS to adjust that filter so that we become aware of specific data and information related to the images on our vision boards. It’s one of the limited ways, we as humans, can actually reprogram the processing and computing power of our brains to work for us in pursuit of our goals.

So I definitely recommend creating a vision board if you are going to set any sorts of goals for your life because it can be a powerful tool you use to help program yourself to achieve the precise success you desire.

If you need more specific direction on how to create your vision board, definitely check out the video linked below.

WATCH: Creating Your Vision Board

Step #7: Cultivate a positive and strong mindset

Like many who have accomplished any amount of success, I attribute much of my achievement over the course of my lifetime to my mindset. It’s pretty well accepted now that mindset, your beliefs and outlook on life, play a key role in what you are able to accomplish, also known as manifest. Mindset is often the “secret ingredient” that gives specific individuals an edge in their pursuits. Where many have failed, a positive mindset is often the deciding factor in why one prevails.

Of course, there are still plenty of people who label mindset work as a type of pseudoscience that isn’t real. This doesn’t surprise me, as mindset is often difficult to quantify, and therefore nearly impossible to test for or measure in any way that would allow us to understand its precise role in patterns of success or failure.

That doesn’t prevent or deter me from believing in and working on my mindset, in order to manifest the outcomes I desire for my life. If self-reporting counts for anything, I certainly can attest that working on my mindset with tangible strategies has, in fact, made me a more productive and successful person.

When I actively work on my mindset, I hit more of the goals I set for myself, and show up more fully and intentionally to my tasks for the day.

I certainly prescribe to the idea that “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right,” – Henry Ford

When I choose to “think I can” I am more focused and accountable to seeing my goals through to fruition.

So finding ways you can cultivate a positive and strong mindset, are essential to whether or not you will be successful this year at getting and staying productive and organized on your pursuit to become that ideal woman you want to be!

For more strategies on how to work on your mindset, check out the video linked below.

WATCH: Working On Your Mindset

Step #8: Continue focusing on personal development and educating yourself

Did you know that reading is considered to be one of the most universally acknowledged success habits?

Statistics are thrown around all the time about how many books millionaires and CEOs read in a year. It’s always something crazy like 4+ dozen! I know for some people, that number seems intimidating. They say the average American reads less than one book per year.

But personally, I don’t believe that it’s the exact number of books read that really makes someone successful. What I think is a more accurate predictor of success is that you are someone who values ongoing education and the way that is most commonly and easily practiced is by reading.

Look, if you are truly trying to have a wonderful, productive and successful year and you don’t feel like you are someone who normally achieves that, you are in fact requiring that you do some personal development work in order to upgrade or up level yourself into that ideal woman you want to be.

Personal development can take so many forms and be practiced in so many ways, but focusing on continuing to educate yourself through any means available or interesting to you is going to need to be an essential part of your daily life moving forward into the new year.

So find some ongoing education practice that works for you and find a routine way to follow through with it on a regular basis.

If you need more ideas, the video below can definitely help.

WATCH: Strategies for Ongoing Education

Step #9: Join an accountability group

Now we’ve made it to the ninth and final step in this productivity and organization process and if you took the time and put in the effort to review and act on steps one through eight, some you are going to be in excellent shape for the new year.

BUT- despite all that prep, many of you could still flub your best intentions and goals for the year because you are missing one very small, easily overlooked element of success.

That element is accountability, specifically, external accountability.

That’s right, having some form of external accountability is going to be crucial for many of you if you want to follow through with your plans and goals for the new year. That’s because for many people, their own internal accountability is not enough. And, let’s be honest with ourselves here… if you are reading this you most likely aren’t someone who does a good job at keeping themselves accountable to their goals.

And I know many of you right now are probably rolling your eyes and acting like you don’t need any external accountability, that you are sure you can do it alone, but if you have tried and failed in the past, that’s likely a pretty solid indication that you can’t do it alone. I think you know this on some level. But really, the negative reaction you are having comes down to one or both of the following very common issues.

You don’t want to have to bother someone else for help
You don’t feel comfortable sharing your goals with others because what happens if they don’t happen and you look foolish

I know asking for help is hard. I know asking for support and accountability feels vulnerable and feels like you are giving up control on some level. But for most people out there, external accountability is absolutely the deciding factor for whether or not you will follow through.

Look, it’s human nature. Change is hard, even when it’s a change that would bring us into alignment with a wonderful and ideal future for ourselves. Part of becoming a successful human is learning from your past mistakes and avoiding them at all costs so you aren’t doomed to repeat the past. So, if you tried to go it alone in the past and you weren’t able to keep yourself accountability- learn from that experience now and find some support or accountability.

So, if you need ideas for finding support and accountability, the video linked below will definitely help you generate some great ideas!

WATCH: Finding Support + Accountability

And, guess what?

That accountability you need can be me!

Members of my Productivity + Planning Mastermind get weekly accountability check-ins with me, as well as both group and direct coaching. Plus, members of the mastermind get a library of planning tools to help them get organized and manage their time and tasks better. They also get masterclasses that walk them through setting their goals, changing their habits, working on their mindset and other ongoing education topics.

Essentially, you could check off each and every step of this process right now, by enrolling in the Productivity + Planning Mastermind!

So, what are you waiting for?

Click here to enroll in the Productivity + Planning Mastermind and join my inner circle of ambitious women all learning to lead a productive, organized and successful life in 2022!

xoxo,