20 | Productivity for Lactation Private Practice

Annie: Leah, it's been so long. We took the whole summer off.

Leah: Welcome back. I'm so excited to be back. But wow. This summer was a whirlwind and went by so, so fast. So it was great to have a little break from recording and I'm ready to jump back in. How about you? How was your summer?

Annie: You know, as summers go, not enough of the good stuff, too much of how did this happen? Why didn't I spend more time at the beach? I always say that at the end of every summer, but I am really happy to be back because I feel like these talks that we have when we're podcasting are such a nice anchor for me, just business-wise and thinking about things with my private practice. So over the summer I did feel like ...and it's good to have that time off, that little break where you're not thinking about everything all the time, but I'm ready now. I'm ready to get back into the swing of things and I'm ready to get productive.

Leah: Yes. That's our topic today. We're actually going to talk about why we need to be thinking about productivity as small business owners and lactation consultants, and some different productivity tips and techniques that we can use. I've been researching some because I've been feeling like I have to get back in the swing of things. The kids are back in school. I've got to get myself more productive, not in leisurely summer mode anymore. So I've been researching and I can't wait to share some of the techniques that I've learned and I know you have some good ones too.

Annie: I love this topic and I'm super excited to talk about it. And before we dive into our content, we have a sponsor for this week's episode. Leah, can you tell us about our awesome, amazing sponsor?

Leah: Yes. So Alyssa Schnell and her colleague have created a course for her Breastfeeding without Birthing. If you haven't read that book, it is amazing. If you're supporting families that are relactating or inducing lactation, it's an amazing book. And now they have created this awesome course. So excited about it. Have you had some experience with that book, Annie?

Annie: I love that book. I mean it's the go-to for all things about induced lactation, adoptive lactation, anything outside of what is that traditional, typical, biological process it's covered in that book, and she's so good at explaining things really clearly and not making them over-medicalized so you could really take what she's teaching you and communicate that well to your clients. And so her course is going to launch October 1st, 2019 and they're having special intro pricing through October 8th. So if you sign up - I think the signups are going to open on October 1st and if you register before October 8th, you're going to get this special pricing. And if you want to sign up, you're going to visit www.sweetpeabreastfeeding.com/propack, and we're going to have that link in the show notes so you can click to sign up. It's going to be live around October 1st and I'm sure if you go there now you can sign up for her mailing list. I definitely recommend doing this and we're just really thankful that she wanted to sponsor the episode so we could have this opportunity to get the word out about this great educational offering. So we're going to be talking about, as we said, productivity today and Leah, I understand your marketing tip has to do with productivity. So what do you have for us?

Leah: Yes. So one of the productivity techniques that we're going to talk about today is called time blocking. I'm going to get a little bit more into that as we get started, but I have found that time blocking my content creation has been really, really valuable. So having a set time, whether that might be monthly or weekly, whatever works for you is to chunk it down. Like, this is the time, 30 minutes, I'm only going to spend working on this content creation is a really, really helpful way to not make it overwhelming. If you're trying to squeeze it in randomly here and there, it can get so overwhelming when you're thinking about content creation. So I like to just chunk it down into this little block of time. I know this is what I'm going to do for this next 30 minutes or an hour, and I have it on my calendar. And I think that's a great way to make sure that you're creating new content in that time set aside for that. So let's talk about some of the time blocking. Have you ever heard of time blocking before, Annie?

Annie: I have and I've used it and what you're saying about using it for social media. I do think it's really great for tasks like that because for me, time blocking is really about getting my mind in one place and keeping it there.

Leah: Yes, which I think is like one of the hardest things for us as small business owners. You're thinking I have all these tasks because with business and then you're also trying to support the families you're working with. So all these tasks related to supporting families and it just gets so jumbled up and if you have a family or just other responsibilities in your life, then those get thrown in the mix and before you know it, you just have this whirlwind of to-do's on your mind and things can slip through the cracks, and I've found setting times aside, knowing that Monday at 9:00 AM I'm going to be doing this and Fridays at 2:00 PM I'm going to be wrapping up my week, and having certain tasks and having it set out can really, really pay off, especially if you're the type of person... I mean I'm totally unofficially diagnosed, but I self-diagnosed as ADD. I just feel like my brain just bobs around, so like you were saying, it really gives me a chance to know I'm only going to focus on this. Only going to do this one task and not going to let any other interruptions come in. If something else pops up, I'm just going to write it down on a piece of paper and keep moving forward. I think this helps too if you're finding yourself really backed up with charting and reports. If you have a set time of the week that you wrap that all up, I think definitely before going into the weekend, Thursday or Friday have like a wrap up. I'm just going to check all my charts, make sure crossed every T, dotted every I, sent my reports out, those kinds of things. Having a set time that you know for sure you're going to wrap up, I think helps you go into maybe a more relaxing weekend.

Annie: I think there are some tasks where you might be thinking, Oh it'll just do it as I go, and what can happen with that is if you don't get to it cause you ran out of time, so like sending a paediatrician report for example, you're like, okay, I'm totally going to do it. I'm going to get all my charting done during the consult and I'm going to hit send on that paediatrician report before I even leave their house or in the five minutes between consults at my office and then it doesn't happen. And then without something like time blocking set up, you don't really have a place in your schedule to get back to that and then it's hanging over your head and that is really how you end up with a backlog of things that you didn't do. And so instead, if you say every Friday at 4:20, from 4:20 to 4:55 for example, - let's get really specific.

Leah: I know. Really specific.

Annie: That is when I'm going to send all of my paediatrician reports. And what's great about doing that is the time is there, and guess what? If you were really on top of things and did send those paediatrician reports before you left the house or during the office, you get to end early. So it's like a present you give to yourself.

Leah: That's awesome. I think that's a great way to look at it. And it also just makes sure that you're setting time aside to clean up behind yourself, because there is always going to be the random consult that you don't get out in time and you're struggling to even write one thing down on the chart. There's always going to be those one off things, and so you have this kind of set time that you don't have to go like, when am I going to fit that in? Oh my gosh! The kids have this tonight and I have to go to this thing on that day. I'll never be able to fit this in. We just know, okay, it'll get done. I know it'll get done. So I love time blocking. This is something new to me. I have never used it before until this summer. I'm a mentor of mine said hey, have you ever tried this technique? Cause with summer, everybody's going 20 different directions. I could not keep my head straight. And so I was like, I've got to find a new technique. I've really been trying to implement this more and more and I'm really, really liking it. I think it's a great technique.

Annie: I love using time blocking and it has really changed my life. I've been doing it for a while now and what happens with me is that when I think of something, I just really want to do it right that second and get it done. I'm very much like I want my inbox to be zero. I want to have nothing undone, and that can be really crippling in terms of your productivity because everything becomes urgent. And when I've got an idea, I'm like, Oh, I better get it done. Otherwise, when am I going to do it? And when I have time blocking, then it's going to get done. And examples of things that end up taking up way too much mental space when I don't have a time block for them are things like planning my route between my clients and seeing when I'm going to eat lunch. So say I have three consults. I really like to map out where I'm going, and how long is it going to take me between consults? I sit down with Google maps, I plot them all in and then I'll say, okay, I actually want to eat lunch. Maybe I want to move this client. I can move them 30 minutes later and then I can eat lunch, and I like to find where I'm going to eat lunch. And so I've started doing that Sunday nights or first thing Monday morning, kind of depending on when my week is starting of consults, if I'm doing consults on Mondays or Tuesdays. And that has really helped to just say don't think about it all the time cause otherwise all the time I'm like, Oh hey, wait a second. Where am I going again? How am I getting there? What's my path? What's my route? Where am I eating lunch? But if I say, okay, you Annie have a date with yourself to plan this. I am going to give myself permission not to think about it until that time when I'm going to think about it, and that really helped calm my brain down and get me out of this loop I get in where I'm just running through logistics and boring, boring stuff. None of it is any fun.

Leah: Yeah, it's tedious. It's so tedious. It's so tedious. Yeah. I think that's a great way to use time blocking and it really helps you clear your mind so that you can stay productive on the thing that you are working on and you don't have to go, Oh wait, it's bopping back and forth in your mind. You're trying to focus on something else and then you're like, Oh, but I got to do that, but I got to do that. You just trust yourself that later there's a time for that. So I really like this. I hope to continue to cultivate this more in my day to day, and I'd love to hear from other listeners who are doing this type of productivity technique because I think it's really great to hear how other people are using it. So you guys definitely let us know how you're using this. I think it's a great, a great technique. And when I learned about this, it kind of coupled with another technique that I've also been using and I've actually been using with my kids because it's really worked well for homework. Gosh, we already have homework. It's only like a little bit into school and we're already bogged down with homework. So it's called the Pomodoro technique - not a tomato - or I think Pomodoro is a tomato sauce or something, but which I thought was really funny, but it is using short blocks of time to focus your attention. So you set a timer and you work for 25 minutes and then you take a five minute break, and then you work for 25 minutes, take five minute break and after four rounds, then you take the longer, maybe 15 minute break and they encourage you in that five minute break to get up and stretch and kind of relax your mind for a second in whatever way that works for you and then come right back at it. I have found this super helpful when tied in with the time blocking. So I have this time blocked and then I set my timer for the 25 minutes and if my time block is longer, say my time block is an hour, I can do two of the Pomodoros in that time. It's really helped me manage my attention during that time cause I know I'm going to work for 25 minutes and then I can take a break and look at something if I need to look at something. I'm not going to ignore it for the rest of the day, but anyway, that's really helped me and kind of coupled with it, especially for tedious tasks. My brain doesn't like tedious tasks. Have you ever used something like that, Annie where you've kind of set a timer and said, okay, I'm going to work on this for a certain amount of time.

Annie: I think it sounds a lot like what you do when you're kind of doing if anybody's ever done a couch to five K, and you're like, okay, I'm going to start by walking for one minute and running for four seconds or whatever it is, and then you gradually build up to where you're running longer and longer. So for things like those tedious tasks, if you're just really don't want to do this, I can see the Pomodoro technique working as you are going to make yourself work on it for 25 minutes and then at the end you get a five minute break, so that can be helpful for making you motivated cause that break is like that's my break. I get a break, I don't have to do this till it's done. I just have to do it till I have a break and then you can focus. I also see it being good for people who have the opposite problem, which is me where I can't stop working and so when I'm doing something, like when I'm writing, when I'm working on a book or I'm building someone's website, and so like a super creative task that I get really immersed in and I'm enjoying myself and when I'm doing that, I could go for a really long time without actually getting up out of my seat. I'll sit there and be like, I've had to pee for 15 minutes, but I'm so immersed in what I'm doing. I don't want to take a break because I get so focused and so in that creative task and so I definitely feel that's not healthy and there is a certain point where my creativity gets impacted. The longer I go doesn't necessarily mean better output. So it's kind of like pumping. I tell my families who need to pump for supply that it's better to do more frequent, crappy pumps is what I call them than to try to wait until you have time to do a really long one, and so this strategy feels like a way to protect yourself from your own worst tendencies, if that makes sense.

Leah: It can go definitely both ways for sure, and I love that. I mean, I'm so jealous that you have such immense focus. That's so awesome. But I could see where your brain just gets worn out after a while. So taking those five minute breaks kind of gives you a refresher. You could have a snack and drink water. I tell moms that all the time. I'm like pump for 10 minutes, get a snack and a drink of water and then pump for another 10 minutes and you're out. But maybe substantially different than if you just pumped straight for 20 minutes. Sometimes things like that can make a big difference. I also think it's a helpful way to train you on time in general. So as you practice doing these 25 minute bursts, you're going to get really good. Your body's going to get really good at knowing when it's been about 20, 25 minutes, and that's helpful for organizing your time during a consult, especially when get in those consults where things get super intense. It applies to that workflow as well, where you have the consults that go pretty straight forward, but then you have the ones that go in a different direction. So I find for me, those are the ones where the client is sharing with me a lot of feelings about their birth or what's going on and I'm doing a lot of that empathetic listening and motivational interviewing and where we're not really doing the clinical stuff if the baby's asleep, whatever it is. Again, I go into that super focused place where I'm not really mindful of what time it is, and that's not good for us during consults either. We do need to be the ones steering the ship when it comes to our time management in our consults. So by practicing that at home, and I do see this Pomodoro technique as being really good way to train you in better time management techniques and being able... yeah.

Annie: I definitely think so. That's a great way to tie it into the work that we do. I think that's really, really helpful way to look at it as well. So what other techniques have you used, Annie? I know you've told me a couple of other ways that you've been more productive.
Annie: So I'm a really big fan of bullet journaling and so I'm going to preface that by saying I can't draw. I have this girl who used to babysit for us and she's got her Instagram. It's so beautiful what she does with bullet journaling. It's unreal, like with the pens and the pictures and everything. Her calendars are always ... This month it's Gothic cathedrals.

Leah: Oh my goodness.

Annie: And it's amazing, and so that's not how I do things. My handwriting is terrible. I can't draw. That's fine. So what bullet journaling is though, it is where you're not using any kind of pre-packaged planner. You're not taking anyone else's framework. You're creating your own free form way of keeping track of tasks and reminders and things you want to do. So back when I was like - I guess I don't know. It was a long time ago - was working for a film producer and basically his whole thing was he would come into the office in the morning and then just start telling me things. This was before .... I'm going to tell you what year it was... it was 1997. I didn't have a computer or I did have a computer, but I turned it on later in the day. We did not have internet, so I had my spiral notebook and so everything he would tell me that he needed me to do, I would write it down and I would put a little dot next to it and then leave a little space and then write the next one down and write the next one down. So then I would have everything he wanted me to do. Then I could look at them and say, okay, I would start to prioritize what's important, what's less important, what are the things that are clearly time-sensitive like where he said, at 12 o'clock we are calling this person, and then less time-sensitive would be like, I want you to read this script and tell me what you think. And so then I would kind of know what had to be done. And so every day before he would show up, I would review. Anything that I did got checked off. Anything that I hadn't done yet got checked off and then rewritten, so if I hadn't read that script yet, I would check off where I wrote it the first time and then I would write it again as a brand new entry, and like with bullet journaling, they'll use symbols like a little arrow. For me in a spiral notebook, if I rewrote it again, then it felt like, oh right, don't forget to do this, and then I could go back and see what I missed. So I still have continued that, and so with bullet journaling, I like to do a monthly overview. What do I want to accomplish this month? What do I want to accomplish? What needs to happen this week? And those are for things that are not time sensitive, like project stuff and then what needs to happen today. And so that's a mix of things that are personal, like call my kid's paediatrician and schedule their appointment or things like pay estimated taxes, so those kinds of things go in there. And for me, everybody knows me as the paperless person and I do love my paperless, but I use pen and paper.

Leah: I am a pen and paper girl too. Oh my goodness. So I have maybe a modified bullet journal. I literally carry this notebook with me everywhere, and if I have a thought or something, I just do so much better writing it. I know so many people that use their phones and the notepad on their phones and I've tried so hard. That would be so much easier than lugging this notebook with me. There really is something to just the act of writing and how it solidifies in my mind. I almost can photographic memory my to-do list when I write it, but I cannot do that when I type it on my notes section, which is so interesting on how our brain works when we tie in the two sides of our brains. I definitely think this is such a helpful technique and I do use the little arrow thing where I arrow over to the next day. My question for you is, since you've been using this longer, do you put your business stuff and your personal stuff together or do you separate it? If you have, today I want to accomplish five personal tasks and three business tasks, is that all on the same page or do you block it off separately? How do you do that?

Annie: Everything is mixed, because I don't want to look at two different places. I have been experimenting. So what I've been doing for a really long time is just using the notebooks, the like term. Those are the bullet journal notebooks that everybody loves and the paper is so creamy and beautiful. But I do like to use coloured pens. That's one of my favourites, and I switch back and forth between what color is my current favourite color that I want to write with. I like getting the lemon yellow notebook and carrying it around. So I do have that. But then I was experimenting with Michael Hyatt who's a productivity guy and I don't know - I have feelings about his book, his book called Free to Focus. It has some good tips in it, and he is big on time blocking but he's big on time blocking like 'and when you come home from the office, that is your leisure time' which I'm telling you, any working parent knows or any working person who has responsibilities, any kind of caregiving responsibilities, which is a lot of us in these helping professions, we also have kids or we have aging parents or we're involved in our communities. We know that that idea of block off time for leisure is kind of a joke. But there was a little bit of I'm going to say - white male privilege wrote that book. However there's good tips in there and then he has a planner called the Full Focus Planner and I've been using that for a couple of months. It's a bullet journal format. It is pretty free form but the structure is like you set your big 3 for the week. So here are the big 3 things I want to accomplish. So for this week my big 3 were podcasting with you, getting my kids' transitioned to school, and then the third was I have some one-to-one clients that I'm building websites for and doing customizations for that I wanted to focus on. So those are my big 3. And then there's a list, this is how I'm using it, where I just kind of brain dump everything that I need to get done this week. Like everything! and so it's personal, it's business, it's for my private practice, it's for my coaching business that I have. It's for the podcast. It's for the stuff you and I are doing. Everything - even get movie tickets. Go see a movie. It all goes in there and then I look at each day. It has a two page spread for each day, and then I take those tasks and I copy them into the day where I think I'm going to do them, and then I can also write down, I have a consult at this time. I have to pick up my kids at this time, all of those little things. And then you do a big three for the day. What are the three things that I want to make sure I get done today? And those are also a mix for me of personal and business. So it's first day of school for my older daughter, first day of school for my younger daughter. Those are priorities and that's really actually helped me back to the whole time blocking, work-life balance thing that I really struggled with. Just physically writing down that spending time with my kids is a priority, or even over the summer I had a lot of days where all three of my daily priorities were beach, cause we were going to the beach. That is my priority, and it just really helps me curb, cause I do really struggle with wanting to just work all the time. I really struggle with turning that off and I do feel like thinking about it, keeping everything mixed together has helped me with that. I don't know if I'm going to keep up my subscription to this thing because I'm not filling every page. I'm not using everything and it's kind of expensive.

Leah: You could then just transfer those things that you're using the most into your bullet journal that you already have.

Annie: Yeah. I can go back. I want to try a green journal next time. I can go back to my pretty coloured journals that don't have ... his ones, they're black and just executive looking, and I don't think of myself that way. I'm a lactation consultant. I drive a Subaru and wear Birkenstocks.

Leah: It's nice to have the creative flair. That's one thing I have also liked about my semi bullet journaling is just the occasional creative flair, like just using fun pens and just making the process of trying to be more productive, trying to make to-do lists not so just tedious and it's just ore work to be done in this ugly black pen. It's just like, Oh look, it's so pretty. I wonder if I can draw a flower. Look how cute that is. I can't draw either, but I have found that to be ....and yeah, I read the Michael Hyatt book, and again, some of it I thought was really helpful and some of it I was like, okay, whatever, but I do think it's important for us to think about the things that we do want to have balance in our lives and not forget to put that into our productivity too. We also need to be productive with connecting with the people we care about and be productive with our self-care. That's a lesson I'm learning big time right now. I'm really, really reminding myself all the time. You have to time block even your self-care. Today on my top three is also going to be, I really want to be able to sit in a bath for 15 minutes or I want to be able to go take a walk with one of my kiddos, things like that. Time blocking, even that again for all the same reasons we can be productive in our business, assuring ourselves that these tasks will get done. If you time block your connection with the people you love and your self-care, you can also be reassured that those tasks will get done because those are so important for just the joy and the happiness that we also have in our lives and that balanced feel.

Annie: And we talked about that in a previous episode, in our compassion fatigue episode where you and I talked about how overwhelming this work is that we do, and I would say that's probably the number one reason to get serious about productivity. It's not because we're these start up founders trying to conquer the world. Maybe that's who you are. Some of you out there are doing really innovative tech forward stuff. That's cool, but a lot of the productivity stuff is for a different kind of person than a lactation consultant. Our goals are we really want to have the space and the energy and the attention and the compassion for our clients, and when our brains are clogged up with all kinds of tasks and worries and we're not organized with our time, that eats into our ability to give to our clients what we want to give to them. And so it's not about I'm going to time block or Pomodoro or bullet journal because I'm a crazy entrepreneur who has a gazillion, bazillion ideas and I've got to make them all done and I'm going to scale my company to 50 people or whatever it is. I'm going to go on Shark Tank and advertise a baby product that actually is helpful for babies and not totally damaging to their development and psyches, but that's a whole other story. But really, we want to be organized so that we can give to our clients and so that we're having that work-life balance to avoid compassion fatigue and avoid burnout. Definitely recommend checking out that episode on compassion fatigue if you haven't listened to it yet because we have gotten a lot of great feedback since then that this is something that we're all struggling with.

Leah: This is big, and I think it's just such another layer because we all wear so many hats. Most of us aren't just getting to go see moms and be done with it. Most of us are also having to manage running a business or at least being part of running a business and that just adds another layer. But I think the thing that productivity techniques give me the most is just presence. If my brain is quiet because I know tasks are going to get done and are getting done and I can kind of trust myself to just stay in this present moment that I don't have to keep this swirled in my head to make sure I get it all done, like when I'm in the family's home, I'm there and I'm not thinking, Oh, I have to make sure I write down duh, duh… duh, duh, or did I call the paediatrician for my kids' well-check? I'm not having to think those thoughts when I'm present with the family, and then when I'm present with my family and the people I care about, I can also just be there because I have the set time to do the other things. So I think this is a gift you can give yourself. I really encourage all of us to be continuing this conversation because I think it's so, so helpful as we are continuing to grow as lactation consultants running these businesses. But as we do that, Annie, I know you have a productivity hack for our tech tip today.

Annie: I do, and this is taking advantage of the ability to schedule your posts on social media. So those of you who are running Instagram accounts or Facebook pages for your private practices, you can schedule those posts. So on Facebook, it's really easy on a page. You can just schedule it. And so a great time block to-do is to say, I'm going to write could be 4 social media posts for my Facebook page and you're going to write them and you're going to schedule them, and now boom! You have a month of content, once a week content, which is more than content,

Leah: Isn't that amazing? And that could take you 15, 20 minutes. Bam, bam, bam and you're done. It's so awesome. It's so awesome, and if you set that time aside and you can be assured that it's going to happen.

Annie: And for Instagram, I use a service called Tailwind. You do have to pay for it. I investigated others and this one I've liked the best and that lets me upload photos and write captions and even add hashtags and tag people and then schedule them to be distributed throughout the month. So I can do all of that and that is a way that I use a time block is that at the beginning of every month, I block out a set period of time where I'm going to just seed my month with some Instagram posts and I don't have it set to post every day. I'll do twice a week. So then that way I also have room in there for spontaneous posting or reposting other great things that people are sharing. So that way at least I know that I'm not going to be social media dark for a month, and that way I don't feel that urgency that I have to come up with something.

Leah: Right. Absolutely. That's a great tip. I love it. I love it. Well, it has been so fun to be back together again and I'm so excited for this journey back to podcasting now that we've had a little break , and for all that we have coming up.

Annie: And speaking of things we have coming up, you're going to want to be watching our website www.lactationbusinesscoaching.com and also our Facebook page because we are going to be announcing a little new offering, and we're not going to say too much about it right now, but it's going to involve us talking to you, you talking to us, getting your questions answered and we're going to keep it really low cost, so that it's not going to kill you to get the help that you want with your business cause we're all about helping people be their best lactation consultant they can be.

Leah: Yes, I'm excited about that too. So stay tuned for more information. Awesome. Well, it's been great talking to you today, Annie, and I look forward to our next time together.

Annie: You too. Bye Leah.

Leah: Bye.