EP 219 - The Thing Successful People Manage Instead of Time

Ever notice how truly successful people never seem busy? They take vacations, have time for friends, and somehow stay calm while running thriving businesses. What's their secret?

It's not that they have more hours in the day or that they face fewer challenges. It's that they've figured out what to actually manage - and it's not what you think.

In this episode, I'm sharing the mindset shift that changed everything for me (and saved me from complete burnout), plus the four simple habits that my clients use to go from chronically overwhelmed to completely in control.

What we cover:

• Why "time management" is actually impossible (and what works instead)
• The mindset trap that keeps high achievers stuck in overwhelm
• How I went from "I'm too busy" to never saying those words again
• The difference between productivity and high performance (game-changer!)
• Four non-negotiable habits that create lasting change
• Real client results: How Maya and Dr. Loise saw changes in just 1-2 weeks

This isn't about cramming more into your day. It's about operating at your highest level while actually enjoying your life.

If you're tired of feeling like you're always behind, always stressed, and never quite in control of your own schedule, this episode is for you.

Ready to stop managing time and start managing what actually matters? Let's work together. Book a complimentary consultation at https://stairwaytoleadership.com

Transcript

Hello everybody. Welcome to Diamond Effect podcast, episode 219. As promised last week, today we're back to a regular structured podcast to teach you something to think about, implement, improve on, and really. Take this time as the CEO of your business to work on something that in long run will help you.

Today it's all about time management, or so-called time management. When you look at successful people, successful business owner. What I mean by successful is not just in a financial sense, and then they're constantly busy, exhausted, their personal life is falling apart and they're burning out and so on.

But actually holistically successful people. They all have in common the [00:01:00] fact that they are never busy. They are never chronically overwhelmed. They have time to take vacation, play golf, time to focus on their friends. They seem calm and grounded, and that's because they've mastered what we call time management.

I will explain what that really is, and that truly we cannot manage our time, but more our attention, our focus. And our schedules, because the time passes for everybody the same way. But how we perceive it and where we focus on where we put our attention to or how we fill that time up changes in not only what we can accomplish, but how we feel about it day to day.

Another [00:02:00] term that I want to discuss is productivity, because we always combine oh, if I manage my time, then I'm productive. Meaning in this sense that I can accomplish a lot of things or all the things that my to-do list within the time that I have. And for me, productivity is a little bit of.

Old of a term that maybe comes from manufacturing ages where it was all about. Creating X amount of units and X amount of times on a manufacturing line. And in today's day and age, especially for US leaders and business owners, it's not about pumping through a hundred units of some production in a certain amount of time, but it's how effective we are.

With the time as we have, meaning what kind of impact and results we can create within the time that we allocate for [00:03:00] our businesses, or even how effective we are with our personal time in terms of how we invested or spend it on things that matter to us. So what I like to refer to in terms of being effective, managing your focus and attention properly, being in charge of your schedule is high performance, meaning you as the business owner.

Operating at the highest level, thinking at your best, feeling at your best, but also taking action at your best. And that comes with certain sets of habits, certain sets of routines, and the proper mindset. And that's what I wanna talk about today. And when you are high performer and you have these ways of thinking.

Routines and habits established. You [00:04:00] also learn how to create systems, right? You're creating systems in your own life to support your business goals, your personal goals to really create life that you love, but also this way. You teach yourself how to think in systems for your business. 'cause there is no business that can scale without systems.

So always starts with you. And when you learn how to do that, and let's just say so-called time management, it'll help you scale your business overall.

So how do you become a high performer? It always starts with a mindset, which is really a way of thinking about something, the perspective that we take. And just from my own story, before I started. Creating habits and routines and going the path of high performance. I thought of myself as a very [00:05:00] effective leader.

I was accomplishing a lot within the time that I had, even though my to-do lists were never ending and things were piling up, I was still thinking oh, I'm a woman. I can multitask. I'm getting things done. So I thought highly of myself, but in the meantime, I was stressed and getting overwhelmed and not doing as well, and not being grounded and feeling good about the entire area of my life.

One of them was being a mom and not being patient with my kids and so on, right? And at the same time, in the beginning, I didn't think that there was anything that could help me, right? I had this snowflake type of syndrome. Seeing well, my situation is unique, the industry I'm working is unique.

The job that I'm doing is unique and my whole situation is unique. Nothing can help me and that, meditation, for example, is not for me because [00:06:00] I'm a high achiever who thinks all the time and has million thoughts per hour. I cannot be sitting and doing nothing and all these thoughts. That prevented me from actually trying things earlier until I started burning out, until I started really realizing that if something doesn't change, I'm not going to be the best mother I wanna be for my kids, and I'm going to be chronically tired and not enjoying my life,

I do believe that I, life is too short not to have fun. Life is too short not to, benefit from all the joys of life that are out there. And I didn't want to just work.

So having challenges and how I showed up for my kids was definitely a moment that made me pause and look for solutions. And [00:07:00] I started on the journey slowly until I burned out. And that was the critical moment when I knew that if I didn't change something right away.

It is gonna only get worse. Now, I would love for you to avoid that situation or find yourself in the situation. That's why I wanna give you a mindset and certain perspective and invite you to adopt it. So you can start on high performance journey now without being prompted, let's say by something tragic or burnout that I experience.

So here is the first perspective. Be open to change, right? Only because you're maybe juggling and managing things right now. Does not mean that you cannot do it much better, with much less stress, be much more effective, and actually feel [00:08:00] better and operate better, so don't listen to the excuses that the brain gives you that your situation is unique and maybe you've tried something and didn't work and you've tried many different things that didn't work.

The reason why they might have not worked is because you didn't believe they would work or they weren't the right solutions for your situation. Second is acknowledge that you can improve. In the beginning I thought, okay, I'm this great multitasker. I'm super effective. Therefore there's nothing I can improve.

But it's not true. We can always improve. No matter the level of high performance we have. We can always improve. I've been at it for good seven years now if no longer, and I know and I see the areas where I can improve the same way. Even the best basketball player in the NBA has areas that they can improve and get better at.

[00:09:00] Three have patience and self-compassion. They think about building certain habits and practices to get really good at ditching overwhelm. At ditching, the feeling of being busy and actually being in a place where you. Don't say you're busy, where you are not overwhelmed most of the time. And where you feel really in control takes time.

Now, it doesn't have to take forever, but it doesn't happen in one day. There's no magic pill, right? So having patience of building the habits, testing things, trying things, adjusting things to suit your current situation. And also self-compassion and not expecting yourself to be perfect right off the bat is a critical way to think when you want to become a high performer.

Then the next thing is actually [00:10:00] stop telling yourself you are busy. If you tell yourself you're busy, that means you don't have control over your own schedule, your own life, right? And.

When we feel out of control, we give our power away. We feel hopeless, right? By focusing on what you can control and by developing routines and habits we'll talk about, you can change that. I'm at the point where I never say I'm busy. My schedule might be filled right? My time blogs in my schedule might be super filled, but it's.

99% of the time, it's intentional. I do have room or tools that when unexpected things happen in my life, I can re reject things and reschedule and still feel like I didn't fully lose control. I'm not [00:11:00] overwhelmed a hundred percent of the time. I treat the feeling of overwhelm as a signal that the way I'm running things.

Stops working and a signal to adjust and change something. Therefore, my overwhelm doesn't last, right? Because I recognize that, oh, I'm starting to feel overwhelmed. Why is that? I look at how I run my days to what's going on in my life, and I adjust accordingly to eliminate and go back, to go back to more of a grounded and in control energy.

Okay, so I gave you the mindset. Now there are some skills that you need to either develop or master. You might have some of it in order for this to work. First one, first skill is, or

the first thing is. Getting super clear on what's important to you and not what you [00:12:00] think it's important, or you think you should deem important based on what other people think, or maybe based on, what you're seeing out and thinking maybe I should be doing, but truly what's important to you.

Because it's aligned with your values, with who you are and what makes you feel fulfilled. Okay? And that clarity is important not only in your business but also in personal life. Once you have that clarity, the next skill set is prioritization. Knowing how to prioritize the tasks and responsibilities that come from those important things on.

Some of them might need to be done sooner than later. Some of them can wait. Some of them need to be scheduled and treated as if they were urgent, even though they're not. The skill of prioritization is critical. Every [00:13:00] effective, highly performing leader and successful person has that down to a mastery.

They know very quickly if something comes their way. If this isn't. Important thing or not, and where would it fit in their calendar? Meaning do they may have to make room for something because it's so important that needs to be done right away, or whether it can wait while their other obligations are getting done first,

with prioritization comes being comfortable of saying no to certain demands that do not align with those important things. As you run your business, there will be always more to do than hours in a day or hours that you have allocated to running your business. Whether because there's always more to do in business, whether because you're a creative person and you will always have new ideas and project and so [00:14:00] on, right?

So it's critical to say no. Forever or not for now to certain things. It's also critical to learn the next skill, which is delegation. So certain things will need to be done, but you are not the only one who can do them, or you shouldn't be the one doing them as the CEO of your business. Now, this is where as your business grows, you'll wanna establish certain systems to protect yourself from constantly having to decide and say yes or no, and so on.

If you think about the biggest CEOs, they have gatekeepers, right? They have executive assistants or virtual assistants, depending on where you are in your business. Who guard their schedule, who are very clear on what's important, what's the priority for this month, this quarter, and they say no to everything.

So the [00:15:00] decision making, the leader doesn't have to make all those decisions all the time because of course if there was a lot coming your way, that drains the energy, even making those decisions. Now what helps is having habits and routines that I'm gonna talk about next

here. For most basic high performance habits and routines that I teach all my clients I've implemented in my life, that then you can build on and create systems around and include your team members as needed, but the first one is your morning grounding routine to ensure that you start your day not with the pressure, high spinning and already overwhelmed, but you start the day as grounded and calm as possible to prepare you to deal with whatever comes your way.

That routine [00:16:00] can be. Five minutes, or it could be an hour or two depending on what you can do, what you need to do and what you want to do. I remember in the beginning when I started, my routine was literally two minutes, and it consisted of just breathing technique to calm myself down. Ground myself and start my day just because I didn't feel like I had time for more.

Fast forward, my routine right now is about hour and a half because. My lifestyle allows for it, and I've built it up over the years to serve me right in this moment. It doesn't mean it will never change. I actually changed my routine multiple times throughout the years. As my life circumstances were changing.

But right now this is what works for me.

Second habit is. [00:17:00] Weekly planning with time blocking. So the decisions that you need to make, what makes the schedule, what doesn't? What aligns with the priorities, what doesn't? Instead of doing that multiple times every day of the week, I highly recommend, and this is what I do for myself, is doing it during one 30 minute sitting, first thing, Monday morning, Friday, Sunday, whatever works for you.

For the entire week. And of course you can't predict everything that comes your way, but the things that you already have, you can decide it then. So then your cognitive load is much less during the week. You make less decision. You can serve energy during weekly planning. You also time block to ensure that you can do what's the most important.

That you might need to reconsider other things that you thought you could do, but you realistically don't have time. So you might [00:18:00] need to reprioritize. You might need to delegate. You might need to make some tough decisions, and it's easiest to do when you have a set aside time rather than in a daily kind of meal trying to do it in between meetings.

Those decisions are not gonna be serving you as well as when you sit. In a separate time slot and do it.

I actually recorded a specific episode on weekly planning and project planning where I explain how to do it well. And that's episode 148 from May 10th, 2024. The next habit or routine is an evening wind down.

So in the evening. Allowing yourself to wind down so you can have good quality sleep. Rest is critical in being a high performer because that's where you restore, that's where you regenerate and you gain energy for another [00:19:00] demanding day. So having a wind down where you can, you're not on your phone, you're not watching news that are probably, making you stressed out even more.

Maybe deciding on some critical things the next day or reorganizing things will allow you to fall asleep better and not think about things and ruminate and not sleep well. And then the last thing is breaks throughout the day. So taking proper break to eat. Or lunch. And even breathing breaks in between the meetings so you can reset.

So you can, put the meeting that you just had into one shelf and get back to it when needed. And then be able to refocus your brain on the next thing ahead of you so you're not in a meeting thinking about what you had or what you're about to head, that you really. Present. Those are critical to [00:20:00] sustain your energy, your focus, and your attention on the things you decided and really be effective with that time.

I know that all I've mentioned might seem like a lot, but. It's really simple and not difficult to implement when you do it step by step, and it doesn't have to take years for you to see the results. For example, my client, Maya, whom we've coach already for about 10 weeks, she saw results of some of those habits within a week or two.

Same with my clients, Dr. Louise, who's after a couple of months, not only. Reduce her stress and overwhelm, but now she's seeing how she actually has more time than she thought. She's starting to learn how to create time, so she's working less, making the same amount of money or more, now being able to think about long-term success of [00:21:00] their business, the direction she wants to take it, and so on.

So yes, you have to do it in small chunk, step by step. But when you are guided and you do it week after week, those are very simple things that don't take a lot to learn and don't take a lot to apply very quickly. Those things compound and within couple of months, your life can be transformed.

I promise you. I've seen it in me and I've seen it in all the clients that I coached on it.

So feel free to go back to past episodes of Diamond Epic podcasts where I talk a lot on time management, high performance, good habits, and you can learn from there and implement one by one, or if you want, really focus and guide it. We can work together.

Go to my website story leadership.com. Book a free consultation with me and let's talk about how I can help you with this.