BMP222 Amber De La Garza ~ How to Structure Your Business To Improve Productivity & Get Things Done

Today’s Guest

About Amber

Listen to this episode

  

What You’ll Learn

• The mindset you need to have in order to improve your productivity
• The biggest challenges people have when it comes to personal productivity and getting things done
• How to balance intuition and structure so you actually get things done
• The one question you need to ask yourself when planning your days
• How to implement time blocking in your system (and how time blocking actually allows you more flexibility)
• The two types of time blocking that will help you to get things done
• How to implement theme days in your schedule (and specific examples from Amber’s business)
• How to bookend your day for success with four morning and evening routines
• Specific examples of how to put together your daily routines

Connect with Amber

• Website
• Podcast
• Listen on iTunes
• Facebook
• Instagram

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Related episodes

• 274: Holly Worton ~ Getting Back on Track
• 266: Holly Worton ~ What to Do When You Don’t Feel Like Doing Anything
• 252: Holly Worton ~ How to Commit to Something, Follow Through, & Make It Happen
• BMP226 Holly Worton ~ What To Do When Fear Of Overwhelm is Keeping You Stuck in Business
• BMP223: Tina Conroy ~ How to Use Daily Routines to Get From Chaos to Flow
• BMP183 Holly Worton ~ How to Get Things Done YOUR Way
• BMP177 Jo + Holly ~ How to Focus & Get Things Done in Your Business
• BMP 146 Jo + Holly ~ Should You Only Do It If It’s A “Hell Yeah”?

Transcript

The transcript for this episode can also be downloaded here (no opt-in required).

Transcript

The transcript for this episode can also be downloaded here (no opt-in required).

Holly:   Hello and welcome to the Business Mindset Podcast, episode 222. This is your host Holly Worton and I am here with today’s special guest Amber De La Garza. Amber is a productivity coach, trainer, speaker, writer and podcast host, with more than 15 years of experience in Real Estate management, training and coaching. Welcome Amber!

Amber:          Thank you, thank you for having me, I am so excited to be here today!

Holly:   I am so excited to talk productivity with you! So why don’t we start out by having you tell us a little bit about your background, and your business journey; and how you got to where you are today with the productivity world?

Amber:          Yeah, excellent; so, well I will summarise it – it is quite lengthy – so I will pick you up on the tail-end of my corporate coaching career: I worked for a very, very, large real estate company, here in Las Vegas, and during my time there, one of my positions was coaching the top sales executive on business systems, team building, things like that. During my time coaching them, and working with the sales executives, it was over and over that I would hear the same things: I am overwhelmed; I am out-of-time; I am too busy working in my business instead of on my business. And I didn’t get it because I really approached, I guess my business, or my workflow, in a different way, so, it really intrigued me. And, I had my son seven years ago, and I had every intention of going back; and I had him and my whole world changed. I realised that being with him, and being on maternity leave, and talking with my husband, I at that point decided I wanted to stay home with him the first two years. So, I went in, and I resigned from my position there, I had been with the company for nearly 15 years, in one aspect or another, and the CEO said: you know what, good for you for picking your family over business, would you like to stay on as a consultant? And I was like: I don’t know, I came in here to quit my job, let me talk to my husband! So, it was very fortunate, I was able to remote in from home on nap times and night-times, go in for meetings, my son was generally with me; and so, they were really flexible on working with me and during that time I got the bug for entrepreneurship and consulting and what that looked like. And so, I set out to create a company from scratch, helping entrepreneurs with personal productivity; time management; and organisation. I passionately feel that this is a skill-set that – if one chooses to improve – it will improve their business, their stress-level; their life; and overall profits. And now I have been in business for five years and I am just sharing the message and teaching as many people as I can about methods to improve their personal productivity.

Holly:   And what kind of mindset do you think people need, in order to be able to easily improve their personal productivity?

Amber:          Now, first of all, mindset is of the utmost importance to productivity. One of the pillars that I coach to with personal productivity is mindset. And when I am talking to potential clients that’s what I start and end with to find out if they are ready for this journey of improving themselves, because how we feel every day, our mindset about our work, our relationship with time; all of that is about mindset. And, I can teach you every strategy, and tactic, and tip, and all of those little hacks – like cool things that people want – but at the end of the day what they need is the right mindset to be able to execute on their strategies on a consistent basis.

Holly:   Mm, you have really got to be open to making changes and improving the way you manage your time.

Amber:          Absolutely; when I speak to anybody about the journey of improving their personal productivity, I ask them if they are ready to make changes. It is not a magic wand, it is not a secret pill, it is making the choice to specifically, strategically, make behavioural and habit changes in the way that you manage your time, manage yourself, manage your business.

Holly:   And would you say that you have always been a really organised and productive person, or has that improved and changed over the years?

Amber:          Oh yes, it has definitely improved over the years. I remember, I was kind of manic with organisation as a child, actually; and, my room would either be so messy that you couldn’t walk into it, or I would spend an entire weekend pulling everything from every drawer and every cabinet and putting it on my bed and then finding the perfect place for it. So, with organisation it was kind of different at different phases in my life. As I grew up, and obviously with my professional career, the truth is Holly, people don’t wake up and go: I think that I need to improve my productivity; or: I think that I need to work with a productivity speciality – they don’t even know they exist – but what people really say is: I want to achieve my goals; I want to get from A to Z quicker. And for me, productivity is the vehicle, or the means to doing that, so that’s why I really enjoy improving my productivity, because at the end of the day the pay-off is a business that is growing that I am so proud of, or profits in my business, or being present for my family. And so, it is really the rewards of productivity that drive me to improve it. And, I think that’s very likely for a lot of other people who choose to pursue and improve their personal productivity.

Holly:   What would you say are some of the biggest mistakes that you see people making when it comes to personal productivity or getting things done?

Amber:          Well I would say that the number one mistake – and I hate using that word – but let’s just say challenge that people have is consistency. And so, it is January and they have New Year’s resolution to be more productive and manage their time better. Or, it is September and the kids are back in school and they are going to do it differently now, and those are great intentions; but you have to have not just the strategic plan of how you are going to make these improvements but the tactical plans of how you can make small incremental changes that over time will make a huge difference. And, so, it is the mistake of not being consistent to see it through and to see the results that are desired in improving personal productivity.

Holly:   And you see entrepreneurs making that… challenge, mistake, whatever… {laughing} when it comes to running their businesses because I think a lot of times people will get excited about entrepreneurship; get into entrepreneurship; it doesn’t go as planned and then they give up and go back to their day job. So, that’s also kind of an issue with being consistent. Do you feel like, maybe if people were more efficient in their personal productivity, perhaps some of those people that give up, wouldn’t give up?

Amber:          Yes! In fact, Holly, I am so glad you said that. So, I have this huge desire to help entrepreneurs that feel overwhelmed, because everyone that becomes an entrepreneur has some special talent that they are sharing with the world, they are sharing, or educating, or have a product, whatever that is, and if they do not have good personal productivity skills, it is like that fire in them gets damped, that passion gets stifled; and it’s because they are so overwhelmed with the logistics, the operations, their time management. And, I think that that is to me…that hurts my heart – that’s a saying I say with my son – it hurts my heart to know that the world doesn’t get to see your talents, because you are so overwhelmed that it just burns you out. And so, I feel that this is a skill-set that if improved upon, you will be able to kind of run the marathon of entrepreneurship and hopefully be in it for the long haul.

Holly:   I love that! I think it is really sad to see people give up, and go back to work, when perhaps they could run the two things alongside, until they get it right. But, it really does, as you say, require the skill set of tapping into your productivity and being really efficient with your time.

Amber:          It does, and I see a lot of newer entrepreneurs in my journey of helping people and I fell maybe they are just not quite prepared, or they don’t know what it takes to go from A to Z; and they are comparing other people’s successes, like that it looks easy and when it is not they get discouraged. And I am here, if anyone is listening, to tell you that entrepreneurship is the hardest thing that I have ever experienced and that to be true for many of my clients that it is a choice of personal development.

Holly:   Yep.

Amber:          So, the person that I was, when I started my business, is nowhere near the person I am today; because that person five years ago would never have been able to succeed or make the five-year journey if I had stayed that same person. So, I am always educating people – not just to help grow my business – but I am also stretching my mindset, or beliefs, or challenges or endurance. I will tell you this, I have had quite a week, this is just being straight honest; I get my son ready for school today, and he was getting his shoes on and he was like: mummy, you look different today, are you tired or not wearing lipstick?

Holly:   {laughing}

Amber:          And I said: baby, it’s both, get your shoes on you’ve got to get to school! And so that’s the reality, some days you feel like you are on top of the world with owning a business, and other days you are like: oh my gosh, I am exhausted. And you have to have the people around you to support you, I texted my husband and told him what my son said, and he was like: baby, you need to get to sleep earlier tonight. And I said: you are right I am going to bed much earlier tonight! And that’s just the day-to-day, you never know if you are going to have one of those crazy days in owning a business that wears you out, no matter how much planning you do.

Holly:   Exactly. And that’s a perfect segue into one of the things that I wanted to ask you about, because a lot of the women in my community are very heart-centred, intuitive women, and they run their business very intuitively and they also try to run their schedule very intuitively. And sometimes that works and sometimes that doesn’t. So, I honestly don’t think it is an either/or intuition or structure, I think you can have both, but I think you have got to figure out how to mesh those together. So, how would you suggest that a very intuitive entrepreneur manage her schedule, manage her business, in a way that is intuitive but also structured so that they get things done?

Amber:          Oh, that’s such a great question! So, I believe that you do need to be present in what you are currently intuitive to, but I believe that being intuitive can happen not just the minute before you choose to do something, but it can happen when you are planning your week. Just tap into your feelings, or your heart-centred-ness about what is next for your business. Asking yourself: what’s the next right thing for myself and for my business? And, I feel, in my experience, that if we leave it up to how we feel, when we are making decisions of how we are going to approach our business, because our feelings tend to be…and I will say ‘our’ feelings very loosely; so, I will just speak about myself, day-to-day, as a woman specifically, I feel different every day, some days I feel: oh my gosh I am just going to get after it; and other days I may have lower energy and not be in the right mindset or headspace to get after it. But, if we fall prey to the way that we feel each day, our businesses are going to see those ups and downs too, both in profit and in growth; and, so, if you are really in tune in what works for you, then build your schedule, your routines, your goals around that.

            And what I mean by that is, I am always telling people: that while I have strategies and tactics, everything needs to be unique and authentic to who you actually are. And so, if you hear me say: plan your day the night before, you will always hear me say it with a caveat that says: unless that doesn’t work for you. But the key is to plan your day. So, if planning your day with a cup of coffee, after yoga, and watching the sunrise, is the best time for you, and that feels right you, and you can do it consistently, then do it. Because the strategies that I share are things that I believe will absolutely help with your productivity so long as you are consistent with it. And so, we kind of have to get out of: how I feel for that day. With that being said there are some days, I will give an honest truth, yesterday I had seven back-to-back meetings and at 4 o’clock I was supposed to record my own show and I did not have the energy levels to do so; I then had to make a decision: do I do what I planned, what I tactically did? Or, do I say: okay, you are tired what, even if you force yourself your audience is not going to feel that energy and it is more important that my audience hears me present, and excited about what I am doing, instead of just having to do it. And so, because I use time blocking, I was able to take that block of time and find another time this week, prior to my deadline, when I would feel that I would have higher energy. So that was a way that I feel that I was true to myself, and I was clear that I wasn’t going to show up my best self and…I call it re-negotiating with myself. So, don’t do that all the time, you are choosing another time, because sometimes when we renegotiate with ourselves, guess what, nobody wins, because you are negotiating with yourself. But, what I negotiated was just a new time instead of saying whether I was doing it or not.

Holly:   And this is a perfect segue into the next thing I was going to ask you about anyway, which is time blocking. Something that I use in my schedule and I love it, specifically because it makes it so easy to plan my day, to see how much I can fit into a day, and as you just said, shift things around if you need to. So, tell us what time blocking is and how you use it and how you recommend implement it, because it is so powerful!

Amber:          Absolutely, if I ever feel like my productivity is dragging, it is because I fell off my time block for whatever reason, whether it was a day or an afternoon. Time blocking is the very first thing that I do with all of my clients because it is so powerful. So, time blocking is when set specific times on your calendar for specific activities. There are two types of time blocking: i) is that you would have the same schedule week after week, a very similar schedule rather, week and week; and ii) the other type of time blocking is to look at your to-do list and the projects that you have, and then look at your calendar and then put a block of time that’s dedicated towards that one task. What this does is really help bring the future into the now: so, what am I doing for the next 60 minutes, what am I doing for the next 90 minutes? Whatever time block you utilise. And then you have a goal of what it is that you are going to accomplish during that time. It makes sure that you are single focussed, it reminds you to eliminate distractions during that amount of time and essentially it is setting a goal for a specific amount of time and then achieving that on your calendar.

Holly:   I love that! And I find that with recurring tasks and things that I do every week, or every month, I find it really useful, because if I know that something is going to take me half-an-hour, or an hour, then it is so easy to block out my time for future days, and weeks, and months. Whereas, otherwise you are just kind of guessing: well, I have to do this thing, I have to do this other thing, how long is this going to take, I don’t know…but if I see it visually in my calendar that really, really helps me plan things and get things done.

Amber:          Absolutely, so, being that say the recording yesterday was visually on my calendar I knew that I could literally drag and drop that hour and find another open time that would be ideal for my energy level and to complete that task. So that’s an example of manoeuvring and time blocking. One of the other strategies I use for time blocking are theme days. Theme days are that you can say: every Tuesday I do x, y, z; and every Wednesday I do maybe social media, and every Thursday I work with clients. I guess the best way to share this would be to share my theme days. So, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are my meeting days. So, if I have to meet with someone, all my coaching happens on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Friday has always been, and in five years I can tell you the number of times I have ever taken a client on a Friday I can count on one hand. My Friday is my catch-up day, because I run at speed during the week, meaning I keep a really quick pace in my schedule, so Friday is my administrative day, my strategic day, my weekly review day; and planning out my next week, so it is crucial that I am not scheduling appointments on Friday. And then Monday is my content creation day: it is working with my team, setting them out for the week; it is recording podcasts, or interviews generally, I really try to keep those on Monday. That’s the rule in general and then if I have to break it, it is a choice that I am choosing to make a different thing. So, my recording, as you have heard, was yesterday, and yesterday was Wednesday. But, I am in the United States we had a holiday on Monday, so I didn’t record on Monday, so I moved that to Wednesday, and now obviously moving that to Friday, but I am still so far ahead with my workflow, that that still works for me. And I am just trying to give your listeners some real examples, because if you looked at your business, maybe you need a full day to write, like if you are doing a book, if you want to write a book. And so, theme days really help with blocked schedule as well, so that you are putting the blocks in there that tie to that.

Holly:   And what about weekends? Are you good about not working weekends to give your brain a rest? Or do you let a little bit of work creep in?

Amber:          Yeah, so up until recently, I would say the last six months, I don’t work weekends at all; but, I have been taking a lot of trips and so, if I need to work a Saturday because I took some trips either with the family, or conferences, I have negotiated working a half-a-day on Saturday to make sure that I am set up for a successful week. And for me, I use that as a strategy to make sure I am behind, or not having as many days in the week because I wasn’t in town, bleed into the next week, but I don’t take client appointments. If I work I am working from at home, from my bed, just kind of while the family is around, trying to get caught up on maybe some administrative stuff. Or, I will come into my office and I have specific projects that I plan to work on. So those are the two options for a Saturday if I choose to work.

Holly:   Excellent. And another thing that you talk about a lot, which I would love to discuss with my audience, is book-ending your day with morning and evening routines. I think this is something that can really add a beautiful structure to people’s days and a lot of people don’t consider this, because maybe they haven’t heard of the concept. So, can you tell us a little bit about morning and evening routines, what they look like, some ideas, how you can implement this?

Amber:          Yeah, thanks Holly for asking. So, I experience a lot of people that are like: oh my gosh I cannot be put on a blog schedule, I don’t want to be on a schedule, that seems too icky, or confined, or…they want to be more free-flowing or they are creatives, so the solution is to ensure that there is some structure to your day, while leaving the middle of your day to less structure. So, the book-ending your days, what I refer to it as is: that you have four routines each day, and these routines are habits that are stacked upon each other, and those habits come from bit-by-bit, little-by-little achieving goals. So, I believe these habits should all be in line with how they serve you. And, when I say goals, I mean not just professional goals, that will make more sense in just a second. Let me share with you the four routines Holly, so, the first two routines are your morning routine; I believe everyone needs their own morning personal routine: how they get ready for the day, how they invest in themselves. The truth is that productivity does not start with when you get to the office; it starts by investing in yourself. Then when you get to the office, or you open your laptop, or you are sitting at your kitchen table, wherever work is for you, once you decide its work time, I think you should have a routine that sets you up for success that day. Some of those could be: reviewing your day, looking at your appointments briefly, reading your goals, so that you are setting some intention for the day, there are a lot of small habits that you could integrate that will ensure that you are in the right mindset, so supporting a positive mindset, preparing you for the day, so that you are not reacting to your day but more proactive with how you are spending your time. And then the last two routines, Holly, are going to be evening routine, so I think you should have one business evening routine and one of the biggest routines that I am a proponent of, is planning your day. And I call that five-daily-planning-papers and you can definitely read about that in my blog; or I also have a podcast episode about that. I share with you the five steps that it takes to plan your day for the next day, and it shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes, generally 10. And that’s a great evening routine for work. And then the other one is – mini-entrepreneurs are challenged with clutter or disorganisation – so I really recommend spending a few minutes clearing your desk, so that when you come back the next morning you are totally focussed, and you are not adding to the visual clutter and being overwhelmed.

Holly:   May I ask you a question: how often do you do like a deep declutter of your office, or do you not need to, because you are doing it every day?

Amber:          Personally, I don’t have a need for a deep…I am kind of a minimalist I guess; there is really not much stuff on my desk. I hate stacks of paper, so I use a magazine folder, what are those called?

Holly:   The vertical ones?

Amber:          Yeah, the vertical ones. And so, each one has a different category, so it is not stacks of paper but rather, I can just stick it in there and they are kind of pretty. I don’t really have to declutter. Now if we talk about my closet…I definitely need to declutter my closet, yeah!

Holly:   {laughing}

Amber:          And then the next routine, after your business routine, would be an evening routine for yourself. And just winding yourself down, whatever that looks like that you are pouring into yourself; and so, for the personal routines I love to see things like reading, or listening to some personal development; getting some exercise in there; meditating or quiet time, journaling. There are a lot of great resources and these are not just my ideas, there is a great book called: The Miracle Morning, I cannot wait…I am on episode 17 of my podcast, so I am going to wait a little longer and I am just going to keep putting it out there to anyone listening, I want Hal on my podcast, I think that he is such a phenomenal…it is so simple but it doesn’t mean that it is easy, right?

Holly:   Yep.

Amber:          So, it takes a commitment planning out your morning routine and then sticking to it. So, those are some of my tips for the routines and I call it: bookending your day for success, because, really if your entire day goes awry and you don’t stick to your schedule, you have still got to invest in yourself and invest in your business in the morning. And sometimes the routines are also more about what you are not doing, so when you get to your office, is the first thing you do check email? Then maybe you are just going to work on doing something differently than checking your email that is more proactive towards your goals.

Holly:   I love that. Now, how long do you think it takes the average person to implement these morning routines and really make them a part of their day rather than just falling off the bandwagon after the first week?

Amber:          Yeah, so I don’t know, I don’t personally have statistics, I feel like everyone is different, I think it is consistency and it is not crash-dieting. So, when I think routine, if you have no routines right now, like don’t go and make four of them today. Just start with morning personal routine, and keep it simple, and then once you build momentum then build upon that. If you have no morning routine, then don’t start out the gate with a 2-hour morning routine. So those are some tips for making it stick and being more consistent and then you build more upon those when… I actually had a very good friend of mine, her name is Linda Fogg Phillips, she had an episode on my podcast, and she shares that if you really, really focus on the small habits, they can take hold within three days. And so, those really tiny habits are not an entire routine it is that, her example is: after I brush my teeth, I will floss one tooth, meaning: it is path of least resistance and then once you floss one, obviously you are going to continue and floss others and so… If you want to learn more about that you can find the episode for sure (http://amberdelagarza.com/012-planting-seeds-tiny-habits-linda-fogg-phillips/) but so for her, it has really taken her to the most simplest and building, and building, but you only get to build if you are consistent with it, so it all falls back to consistency.

Holly:   Yeah, I think that is really, really important. So, Amber, how can our listeners learn more about you, and work with you, what are the different ways that you work with people?

Amber:          Yeah, so I work with entrepreneurs in almost all industries, one-on-one productivity coaching; I am also getting ready to start a mastermind and a group-coaching. So, the mastermind and group coaching I am taking wait-lists, or interest-lists rather, no commitment but if you are interested. But, right now, I mostly train, speak and do one-on-one coaching. You can find out all about that at: http://theproductivityspecialist.com just click on the link work with me, and if you are not quite yet ready to work with me and you want just to keep hearing some more about personal productivity for entrepreneurs, you can listen to my podcast at: http://productivitystraighttalk.com or search for it anywhere you can find podcasts.

Holly:   Excellent. Where else can people find you online? What are your favourite social networks?

Amber:          My favourite social network is Facebook, then Instagram. So, Facebook you can go to my page: the productivity specialist. Or, Instagram it is Amber_DeLaGarza and those two are where I visit every single day.

Holly:   Excellent. It has been so much fun talking to you about productivity, I love your tips they are super practical.

Amber:          Oh my gosh, thank you so much Holly. I hope this has helped your listeners and brought so much value to them; I am going to leave your listeners with the same thing I leave my listeners with: no change, no change. If you are not going to take a change on what you have learned today, then you have wasted time and that’s not what I want, so if you have just picked up one nugget that would be a benefit for you, then I urge you to take action on that and let that build and you will see the results in your business.

Holly:   Excellent. Thank you so much for joining us.

Amber:          Thank you Holly.

Holly:   Thanks. And thank you for listening and remember to visit: https://www.hollyworton.com/222 for the show notes on this episode. Thank you.