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Sept. 9, 2024

Mastering Your Minutes feat. Alexis Haselberger: Time Management and Productivity Coach

Mastering Your Minutes feat. Alexis Haselberger: Time Management and Productivity Coach

This episode of the Small Business Origins podcast features guest Alexis Haselberger, a time management and productivity coach from San Francisco. She shares her personal journey into entrepreneurship and coaching, as well as advice for improving efficiency, prioritization, planning, focus, and more. You'll hear all about how she got started, and how she can help you.

Main discussion points:

- Alexis' transition from working at startups to starting her own business

- Common time management myths and mistakes

- Strategies for productivity, planning, prioritization

- Building sustainable habits

- Managing distractions and notifications


Guest Bio:

Alexis Haselberger is a time management and productivity coach who helps people do more and stress less through coaching, workshops and online courses.  Her pragmatic, yet fun, approach helps people easily integrate practical, realistic strategies into their lives so that they can do more of what they want and less of what they don't.  Alexis has taught thousands of individuals to take control of their time and her clients include Google, Lyft, Workday, Capital One, Upwork and more.


Key Quotes:

"I had worked in startups and I was familiar with entrepreneurship...I just didn't think about it for me." (00:05:47)


"There are a number of different traits, tendencies, scales where they have something to do with how we get things done. And knowing about ourselves helps us to build sustainable strategies." (00:20:39)


"I teach science backed habit strategies that help us with that...we also talk about strategies and teach people strategies so that they can sort of create focus out of thin air when you need to because sometimes you need to." (00:28:32, 00:29:47)


Links Mentioned:

Guest Website

Guest Instagram

Guest Facebook

Guest YouTube

Guest LinkedIn

Beefy Marketing

Trust Your Wingman (Sponsor)

John Kelley's Links

Please don't forget to leave us a review, subscribe to the show to get notified of new episodes, and share each episode with a friend! Thank you for your support.

Transcript



00:00:00 Origin Stories of Entrepreneurs: A Dive into Small Business Beginnings




[00:00:00] Intro: Tell me your story.


[00:00:01] John Kelley: Tell me your story.


[00:00:02] Intro: How did it all start?


[00:00:03] Intro: Do you remember?


[00:00:04] John Kelley: Oh, I know what happened.


[00:00:05] John Kelley: How did it stop?


[00:00:06] John Kelley: You're now tuned Intro the Small Business Origins podcast.


[00:00:10] John Kelley: I love an origin story.


[00:00:11] John Kelley: Each week, we dive into the real stories of entrepreneurs and businesses from across the nation.


[00:00:16] Alexis Haselberger: Who is he?


[00:00:17] Alexis Haselberger: What's his origin story?


[00:00:18] John Kelley: Who started with just an idea, and they're now making waves.


[00:00:21] Alexis Haselberger: I told you this was a good idea.


[00:00:23] John Kelley: This is Small Business Origins.



00:00:30 Interview with Alexis Haselberger on Time Management and Productivity




[00:00:30] Intro: Yeah, what's up everybody?


[00:00:31] Intro: Welcome back to another episode of Small Business Origins.


[00:00:35] Intro: You're tuned in.


[00:00:35] Intro: It's our nationwide search for entrepreneurs that have a story to tell.


[00:00:40] Intro: And joining us virtually in the studio, I've got an entrepreneur that wants to do just that.


[00:00:44] Intro: From San Francisco, I have Alexis Hasselberger with Alexis Hasselberger Coaching and Consulting.


[00:00:50] Intro: Alexis, welcome to the show.


[00:00:52] Alexis Haselberger: Thanks so much for having me, John.


[00:00:53] Alexis Haselberger: I'm excited to be here.


[00:00:55] Intro: Yeah.


[00:00:55] Intro: It is my pleasure.


[00:00:56] Intro: This is an interesting episode for me because my weakness is time management.


[00:01:03] Intro: It is just I'm one of those people that always complain I never have time in the day.


[00:01:08] Intro: And I am fully aware of the fact that all of us have the same amount of time and some of some of us are more productive than others.


[00:01:16] Intro: And so the, the difficulty that I have with that is all on me.


[00:01:23] Intro: It's my fault.


[00:01:24] Intro: I recognize that.


[00:01:25] Intro: It is just as an ADHD person who has a million things, a million irons in the fire, it is hard for me sometimes to put those things in order and kinda tackle them the way that I need to.


[00:01:37] Intro: So some days are better than others, but I'm excited because I know I'm gonna learn from you today.


[00:01:41] Intro: And, but before we hop into all of that, we always start out with an icebreaker question.


[00:01:46] Intro: So we have to go that route first.


[00:01:48] Intro: And today's icebreaker question is all in all, who is more likely to cry during an emotional moment, you or your spouse?



00:01:55 Interview with Alexis Haselberger on Emotional Moments and Gender Stereotypes




[00:01:41] Intro: And, but before we hop into all of that, we always start out with an icebreaker question.


[00:01:46] Intro: So we have to go that route first.


[00:01:48] Intro: And today's icebreaker question is all in all, who is more likely to cry during an emotional moment, you or your spouse?


[00:01:56] Alexis Haselberger: Oh, a 100% me.


[00:01:59] Alexis Haselberger: Like, that's that's not even a question.


[00:02:01] Alexis Haselberger: I mean, I think, like, you know, I have been with my with my spouse for, like, almost 20 years, and I think I've seen him cry twice.


[00:02:09] Alexis Haselberger: And it was both when people died like that, you know, like,


[00:02:13] Intro: severe issue.


[00:02:14] Intro: Yeah.


[00:02:14] Alexis Haselberger: Yeah.


[00:02:14] Alexis Haselberger: I mean, and I know I'm not a big crier either.


[00:02:16] Alexis Haselberger: Like, I don't cry very often.


[00:02:18] Alexis Haselberger: But if it if it were a showdown between the 2 of us, I'm the one crying first.


[00:02:22] Alexis Haselberger: But what my kids will tell you is I actually just cry at inappropriate moments.


[00:02:26] Alexis Haselberger: Like, I'm like, oh, it's like a tear warming commercial, and then I'll get teary or something like that, but I don't cry at, like, the big stuff.


[00:02:33] Intro: See, that's me.


[00:02:34] Intro: I'm I'm very similar.


[00:02:36] Intro: I'll cry at the big stuff too.


[00:02:37] Intro: I'll just go out and say 100% that, you would think stereotypically, you're correct.


[00:02:44] Intro: And stereotypically, my and my wife's relationship is incorrect.


[00:02:48] Intro: Because, you know, if you're just going by stereotypes alone, it's the woman's gonna be emotional and cry and all that kind of stuff, not saying I agree with it.


[00:02:55] Intro: It's just how society views it.


[00:02:57] Intro: And for us, it's the opposite.


[00:02:59] Intro: It's me.


[00:03:00] Intro: I'm like the big softy that I'll be scrolling TikTok, and then I can just hear the sound.


[00:03:06] Intro: Like, the big one for me is the to infinity and beyond.


[00:03:09] Intro: And then it's got this the, like, sad music behind it.


[00:03:12] Intro: Instantly tears.


[00:03:13] Intro: Don't even know what it's about.


[00:03:14] Intro: I'm just crying already, you know?


[00:03:16] Intro: And so my wife kinda like pokes fun at me for that because we'll just be sitting in bed and she'll hear that audio and then just look over at me because she knows, and then she'll just see like my eyes are watery and she's like, Oh my God, what are you watching?


[00:03:28] Intro: I'm like, Don't worry, you're getting it too.


[00:03:29] Intro: And then I'll watch her watch it and she has no reaction emotionally.


[00:03:33] Intro: And I'm like, You're so cold hearted.


[00:03:36] Intro: And she's not, but it just we always kind of get at each other for that because I don't know, I think it was after I had kids.


[00:03:42] Intro: Before I had kids, I was the type of person that and I still am this way a little bit, like, in the moment.


[00:03:50] Intro: Like, for instance, when my father passed away, I was 16 years old, and I was cracking jokes at his funeral.


[00:03:55] Intro: You know?


[00:03:55] Intro: And it wasn't in a disrespectful manner.


[00:03:57] Intro: That's just how me and my dad were.


[00:03:59] Intro: So that's what we were gonna do.


[00:04:01] Intro: You know, if if it was me, he'd have probably been doing the same thing.


[00:04:04] Intro: Like, we're gonna crack jokes because that's just how we deal with that situation.


[00:04:09] Intro: I have gallows humor.


[00:04:11] Intro: So I deal with sad situations by trying to not be sad and laughing through it.


[00:04:15] Intro: But you're right, those inappropriate moments when it's like some sappy TV show or TV commercial or a TikTok video, big time tears.


[00:04:24] Intro: Oh my gosh.


[00:04:24] Intro: And like all of the tired dad videos and the little kids growing up into big kids or to adults, all of them get me every single time.


[00:04:35] Alexis Haselberger: Well, the next time your wife pokes fun at you for this, I want you to just tell her, hey, I'm doing the really important work of breaking down gender stereotypes.


[00:04:42] Intro: That's right.


[00:04:43] Alexis Haselberger: And I'm showing my kids that it is totally normal for men to have emotions.


[00:04:47] Intro: 100%.


[00:04:48] Intro: I am just setting my kids up for success in the future.


[00:04:51] Alexis Haselberger: You are.


[00:04:52] Intro: Yeah.


[00:04:52] Intro: It's Yep.


[00:04:53] Intro: You know, and that is The


[00:04:53] Alexis Haselberger: kids will have less therapy because you cried.


[00:04:56] Intro: And and as much as it is a joke that we're saying it, you know, it is it is kind of a serious thing too.


[00:05:01] Intro: Like, I have no shame in the fact that I'm an emotional person sometimes because you have to, no matter who you are, you have to deal with the emotions in some way.


[00:05:10] Intro: And and here's the deal, everybody's emotional.


[00:05:12] Intro: It's just some people may come home and kick the dog, or unfortunately go to domestic violence or child abuse or something else, but they're still expelling those emotions in some way.


[00:05:22] Intro: So So it's like, deal with it in a healthy way, you know?


[00:05:25] Intro: Totally.


[00:05:25] Intro: I know this is supposed to be a more lighthearted podcast.


[00:05:28] Intro: So we'll get back to that.


[00:05:29] Intro: Let's make it all about you just like it actually is.


[00:05:32] Intro: You know, Alexis, where did you come from?



00:05:35 From Employee to Entrepreneur: A Journey of Self-Discovery




[00:05:35] Intro: What's your origin story?


[00:05:36] Intro: How'd you get into entrepreneurship?


[00:05:38] Alexis Haselberger: Yeah.


[00:05:39] Alexis Haselberger: So I honestly, like, I'm one of those people that never John, entrepreneurship was actually, like, not a thing that I was thinking about when I was younger at all.


[00:05:47] Alexis Haselberger: Like, I I don't know what I wanted to do, but I worked in startups for the first 15 years or so of my career.


[00:05:55] Alexis Haselberger: And I'm in, you know, San Francisco, Silicon Kelley.


[00:05:57] Alexis Haselberger: Like, there's you work for startups because that's what there is here.


[00:06:00] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:06:01] Alexis Haselberger: And one thing that I, you know, that, you know, happened over that time is it's like you just see people burning out around you because they're working really long, hard hours, all that like, you're trying to build something from scratch.


[00:06:13] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:06:14] Alexis Haselberger: And you're trying to do it against, you know, the race of time and all of these things.


[00:06:18] Alexis Haselberger: And so I I worked in startups and I was familiar with entrepreneurship.


[00:06:22] Alexis Haselberger: Like every boss I've ever had was the CEO of a business.


[00:06:26] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:06:28] Alexis Haselberger: And so I just didn't think about it for me.


[00:06:30] Alexis Haselberger: I thought I'm too risk intolerant.


[00:06:32] Alexis Haselberger: And then what happened is the last startup that I worked for, went out of business as many startups do.


[00:06:38] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:06:38] Alexis Haselberger: Like, 90% of startups.


[00:06:40] Alexis Haselberger: And I had worked for the same CEO at 2 different companies, like, across the last 10 years, and I had built up a lot of autonomy and a lot of trust.


[00:06:49] Alexis Haselberger: And I felt like I didn't have a boss even though I did.


[00:06:51] Alexis Haselberger: And so the prospect after that shutdown of, like, me trying to go get another job was so distasteful.


[00:07:00] Alexis Haselberger: I was like, I don't wanna do that.


[00:07:01] Alexis Haselberger: I don't wanna go prove myself to somebody else.


[00:07:03] Alexis Haselberger: Like, I don't I'm not interested in that.


[00:07:06] Alexis Haselberger: I know what I'll do.


[00:07:07] Alexis Haselberger: I'll start a business.


[00:07:08] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:07:08] Alexis Haselberger: Like, that'll be better.


[00:07:09] Alexis Haselberger: And it has been a lot better.


[00:07:12] Alexis Haselberger: But also, it it's kind of you know, it's interesting because I just didn't see myself as somebody who was super I don't know, risky.


[00:07:19] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:07:20] Alexis Haselberger: And I still think starting a business is risky.


[00:07:23] Alexis Haselberger: But once it became like, hey, it's that or go work for somebody else again, it was a clear clear path for me.


[00:07:29] Alexis Haselberger: And then in terms of what was I gonna do, time management and productivity stuff is stuff that people have been coming to me for for advice for years.


[00:07:38] Alexis Haselberger: Because I never worked long hours when I was working at startups.


[00:07:41] Alexis Haselberger: I mean, I that that same CEO, I remember he used to say, Alexis can do in 20 hours what anyone else can do in 60 hours.


[00:07:48] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:07:49] Alexis Haselberger: And so that had that seemed like it was an obvious product market fit of there is a Kelley set I've developed that isn't something that comes easily to a lot of people.


[00:07:59] Alexis Haselberger: And honestly, it didn't come super easily to me either.


[00:08:02] Alexis Haselberger: I, you know, I actually you mentioned you, have ADHD, and I actually learned last year that I also got diagnosed with ADHD.


[00:08:09] Alexis Haselberger: And so it's kind of like a lifetime of coping mechanisms that now I can help other people with.


[00:08:14] Intro: Yeah, I did the same thing.


[00:08:16] Intro: I found out like 3 or 4 years ago, or I don't know, I've lost track of time.


[00:08:20] Intro: Yeah, but same thing.


[00:08:21] Intro: I was an adult.


[00:08:22] Intro: So I never realized why I had all of these issues.


[00:08:26] Intro: And why it was so hard for me to stay focused on things.


[00:08:29] Intro: Why I prefer, you know, a couple bite sized tasks versus one large task that takes a long time and you don't get to see your progress in it very often.


[00:08:40] Intro: And, like, I realized all of these things about myself, but then I didn't understand why, and I would just cope with it, just like you said.


[00:08:47] Intro: Mhmm.


[00:08:47] Intro: I mean, that makes perfect sense.


[00:08:49] Intro: We talk to so many entrepreneurs that kind of make things out of, you know, their businesses born out of necessity or kind of accidentally because they find out they're good at something.


[00:09:01] Intro: What exactly did the transition look like of working for someone and then going to working for yourself?


[00:09:09] Intro: I mean, was that a voluntary thing, or was it because of the shutdown of the business that you just it was like sink or swim?


[00:09:14] Intro: If I wanna eat next week, I'm just gonna have to figure it out.



00:09:17 Starting a Productivity Coaching Business




[00:09:17] Alexis Haselberger: Yeah.


[00:09:17] Alexis Haselberger: I mean, we were like, I knew in advance.


[00:09:19] Alexis Haselberger: You know, I was on the leadership team.


[00:09:21] Alexis Haselberger: So it's like, I knew this was all happening.


[00:09:22] Alexis Haselberger: So I had started thinking 6 months in advance, like, what am I gonna do after this?


[00:09:27] Alexis Haselberger: And this idea of helping people with time and productivity and, you know, also, I think we should just mention that, like, when I say time and productivity, like, I am not, like, one of those productivity bros that's like, let's do all the things all the time.


[00:09:41] Alexis Haselberger: Let's, like, make the most out of every single moment and never relax and never sleep.


[00:09:45] Alexis Haselberger: Like, that is not what this is about.


[00:09:47] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:09:47] Alexis Haselberger: But I realized that, that that was something I could help people with.


[00:09:50] Alexis Haselberger: So I just started thinking about, like, how could I do it?


[00:09:53] Alexis Haselberger: And I had been in consultative roles for a really long time.


[00:09:57] Alexis Haselberger: You know, I was managing HR and dealing, you know, help I was an outsource, HR consultant for many different startups and CEOs and like dealing with very kind of coaching, like, consultative things.


[00:10:08] Alexis Haselberger: And so I thought, okay, well, maybe I can be a coach.


[00:10:11] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:10:11] Alexis Haselberger: Maybe I can help people through this.


[00:10:13] Alexis Haselberger: It's kind of like teaching, which I have some experience in.


[00:10:16] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:10:16] Alexis Haselberger: And so, so that's how I started thinking about it.


[00:10:19] Alexis Haselberger: And then once it once, you know, everything was starting to wind down, I just started putting some pieces together.


[00:10:26] Alexis Haselberger: So, like, the first very first thing I did, get a domain and, like, get a Squarespace website up there because it's like, you know, I have to have a place to send people when I tell them I've started a business.


[00:10:36] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:10:36] Alexis Haselberger: I have to have some sort of legitimacy there.


[00:10:38] Intro: Say it again for people in the back.


[00:10:40] Intro: Yes.


[00:10:41] Alexis Haselberger: Yes.


[00:10:42] Alexis Haselberger: Yes.


[00:10:42] Alexis Haselberger: Like, you like, you gotta have some place to point people.


[00:10:44] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:10:45] Alexis Haselberger: Because that makes it it also kind of it makes it real in some way.


[00:10:48] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:10:49] Alexis Haselberger: So I did that, and then I started thinking, okay.


[00:10:52] Alexis Haselberger: Well, I need to I need to, like, codify my my curriculum or whatever that was gonna be.


[00:10:56] Alexis Haselberger: So I just started actually writing, and I started writing best practices documents about everything I thought I knew.


[00:11:03] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:11:03] Alexis Haselberger: Like, everything I thought I had thoughts about.


[00:11:06] Alexis Haselberger: Like, how do we have better meetings, and how do we best use our calendar, and what if you need to do a calendar audit, and how should we keep track of our tasks, and, like, what happens if you procrastinate, and, like, all of these things.


[00:11:18] Alexis Haselberger: And then I eventually was able to start putting that together into groups to form out the curriculum of my coaching program or my first iteration thereof.


[00:11:26] Intro: Yeah.


[00:11:27] Intro: Side note, what, do you view meetings as and not I mean, obviously, anything that's all inclusive and says everything is great or everything is terrible.


[00:11:38] Intro: Like, that's generalizing is so bad.


[00:11:40] Intro: But Yeah.


[00:11:41] Intro: As a whole, do you think meetings are kind of a waste of time?


[00:11:46] Alexis Haselberger: I think we have to flip the the, the kind of default is the way I think about it.


[00:11:51] Alexis Haselberger: And so right now, right, especially with remote work, work from home, all of this stuff.


[00:11:56] Alexis Haselberger: And, you know, since the beginning of the pandemic, meetings are up 250% across the board.


[00:12:00] Alexis Haselberger: Like, that's what the stats show.


[00:12:01] Alexis Haselberger: And so I think that most meetings are not well run, and most meetings actually probably shouldn't be meetings in the first place.


[00:12:08] Alexis Haselberger: Yes.


[00:12:09] Alexis Haselberger: So there are a couple of right?


[00:12:10] Alexis Haselberger: There I think, like, we need to default to asynchronous first, and then a meeting only when we actually need to.


[00:12:16] Alexis Haselberger: So the way that I think about it is, like, if you're trying to schedule a meeting with someone, if you're like, oh, I need to meet with someone.


[00:12:22] Alexis Haselberger: The first question you should be asking yourself is, have I actually thought through this thing on my own?


[00:12:27] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:12:28] Alexis Haselberger: And if you haven't, you don't have an agenda for this meeting, you don't know what you wanna get out of this meeting, you don't know what the goals are, not time to schedule the meeting.


[00:12:36] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:12:36] Intro: Right.


[00:12:37] Alexis Haselberger: If you're like, yep.


[00:12:38] Alexis Haselberger: I have thought through it.


[00:12:39] Alexis Haselberger: I know exactly what I need.


[00:12:40] Alexis Haselberger: I know what the agenda is.


[00:12:41] Alexis Haselberger: Then the next question is, do I actually need to do this in real time with someone, or could I send them an email or a text message and still get the information I need?


[00:12:51] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:12:52] Alexis Haselberger: If so, do that.


[00:12:53] Alexis Haselberger: And then only if you're like, yes.


[00:12:55] Alexis Haselberger: I've thought through it.


[00:12:56] Alexis Haselberger: No.


[00:12:56] Alexis Haselberger: It can't be done.


[00:12:57] Alexis Haselberger: Like, I I need outside perspective, and it can't be done asynchronously.


[00:13:01] Alexis Haselberger: That's when you would schedule a meeting.


[00:13:03] Intro: Yeah.


[00:13:03] Intro: If if it wasn't recorded, I would ask you to say it again.


[00:13:06] Intro: But I can just click this and put it on all the social media channels and say it over and over again because that's, you know, of course, by the time that this airs, this may be old news, but that's kind of over the past couple months what I've been hearing and seeing and and then realizing in in my own business is



00:13:23 Meetings vs Working Sessions




[00:13:23] Intro: All of these meetings that we're having, the majority of the time, they seem like a waste.


[00:13:26] Intro: That's what I just told my wife today.


[00:13:28] Intro: I was like, there's no reason that we should have to have a meeting for someone to find out x, y z.


[00:13:33] Intro: They should have a place they can go to find that out.


[00:13:35] Intro: Or Right.


[00:13:36] Intro: You know, where we're all on the same page already because you have a system in place.


[00:13:39] Intro: Or, you know, it's something that can just easily be a follow-up email, a recurring email every week that says, hey.


[00:13:47] Intro: You know, let's check the status on this or this or this, and then answer that back to me.


[00:13:52] Intro: You know?


[00:13:52] Intro: I I just I know it's a little sidebar there from our conversation, but I was thinking about that pretty heavily today.


[00:13:58] Alexis Haselberger: No.


[00:13:58] Alexis Haselberger: I think you're totally right.


[00:13:59] Alexis Haselberger: And I think that, you know, when we think about meetings, right, and, like, what how much time are we spending in them, you know, regularly, I have clients who come to me and we all start doing their calendar audit, which is something I do with all my clients.


[00:14:11] Alexis Haselberger: And one you know, sometimes they have 40 hours of recurring meetings a week.


[00:14:16] Alexis Haselberger: Oh.


[00:14:16] Alexis Haselberger: And then they're, like, wondering how they're not getting enough done or, like, why they're working at 11 PM.


[00:14:21] Alexis Haselberger: And I'm like, this is why.


[00:14:22] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:14:22] Alexis Haselberger: Like, if you're in meetings all day, there's no time to do the actual work.


[00:14:26] Alexis Haselberger: And just like you said around status updates, I think status update meetings and informational only, like, one way type type of presentation meetings, like, these should not be meetings.


[00:14:37] Alexis Haselberger: Like, you have an all hands thing you wanna, like, record and send out to people.


[00:14:41] Alexis Haselberger: Great.


[00:14:41] Alexis Haselberger: Let them watch it on their own time.


[00:14:43] Alexis Haselberger: They can speed it up if they want to.


[00:14:46] Alexis Haselberger: Status updates, like, let's use a shared task system, then we don't need to have these meetings.


[00:14:51] Intro: Yeah.


[00:14:52] Intro: No.


[00:14:53] Intro: I mean, it's a great point.


[00:14:54] Intro: And I guess I didn't even think about the fact that it obviously plays into the topic here because it is sometimes a waste of time.


[00:15:01] Intro: Or at the very least, as you said, if you're over scheduling your meetings, I mean, I assume that something you teach people is to allot a certain amount of time for these meetings and then a certain amount of time for the work to occur after that.


[00:15:13] Intro: And if you're not properly scheduling those things, you're gonna find yourself in that conundrum.


[00:15:18] Intro: I know one thing that we like to do here at BP that I think is pretty, I would say, efficient is that most of the meetings we have are working meetings, where work is getting done during that meeting.


[00:15:30] Intro: So for instance Mhmm.


[00:15:31] Intro: Yesterday, you could say that I was in a meeting from 9:30 AM until about 3:30 PM, And what we did was just work on a project together, you know, and it included several pieces of information that we needed to talk about together, discuss, talk through, like, plans for the future that we had to make, and then the rest of it was building this project.


[00:15:53] Intro: So it just kinda played hand in hand.


[00:15:54] Intro: It went really well as far as Mhmm.


[00:15:57] Intro: Using our time.


[00:15:58] Intro: We got all the work done, something that's been on our plate for a long time because we're both ADHD.


[00:16:02] Intro: So it's just like Yep.


[00:16:03] Intro: Getting us together is like 2 blind squirrels trying to find each other.


[00:16:06] Intro: You know?


[00:16:07] Intro: And so we finally got to sit down, get together, hammer out all that stuff, and then get the work done while we're there.


[00:16:13] Intro: Because if we don't, like you said, it's gonna wind up with that.


[00:16:16] Intro: My laptop's gonna be on my lap at 11 o'clock at night, and I'm gonna be working until midnight, 1 AM.


[00:16:21] Intro: And then he's gonna be doing the same thing all because of this one project or because of the fact that we took up most of our time during the day with something else that, you know, could have easily been replaced with productive stuff.


[00:16:33] Alexis Haselberger: Yeah.


[00:16:33] Alexis Haselberger: I love it.


[00:16:34] Alexis Haselberger: And I think that sounds like a working session, not necessarily a meeting.


[00:16:37] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:16:38] Alexis Haselberger: Like, I would I would count those differently.


[00:16:40] Intro: And and Yeah.


[00:16:41] Intro: I think it's kind of intentionally scheduled that way so that instead of just because there were meeting topics that I would say probably most people traditionally would just, hey.


[00:16:51] Intro: Let's call a meeting and talk about these things and figure out which way we went ahead and how we're gonna do this.


[00:16:56] Intro: And then after that, you know, everyone had their individual tasks of, okay.


[00:16:59] Intro: Well, write up this for me so we can add it to the project and then make sure that we have this, gather this content, you know, all that.


[00:17:05] Intro: And it was like, okay.


[00:17:07] Intro: We can talk about it and then work separately, or we can just sit down and make it a work session instead of a meeting.


[00:17:11] Intro: And Yep.


[00:17:12] Intro: You know, it just kinda works out better that way.



00:17:15 Professional Organizer's Impact on Companies and Individuals




[00:17:15] Alexis Haselberger: Totally.


[00:17:15] Alexis Haselberger: Yeah.


[00:17:15] Alexis Haselberger: Yeah.


[00:17:15] Alexis Haselberger: I think there's a lot there's and also, I mean, just as a random aside, if you're both if you both have ADHD, another reason that that probably works well is the concept of body doubling for folks who have ADHD, where just having somebody next to you, even if they're not doing what you're doing, is gonna be much easier to actually make that thing happen.


[00:17:33] Intro: Yeah.


[00:17:34] Intro: I mean, I I could not agree anymore.


[00:17:37] Intro: I find that all the time where it's like, I always just attributed it to misery loves company.


[00:17:42] Intro: It's like, I have to do this task.


[00:17:44] Intro: I don't wanna do this task.


[00:17:45] Intro: But Yep.


[00:17:46] Intro: If Andrew's there, even if he's just saying a couple of things every now and then and I'm doing all the work, it Kelley, and he absolutely does that to me all the time.


[00:17:53] Intro: Like, hey.


[00:17:53] Intro: I need your help on this.


[00:17:54] Intro: Okay.


[00:17:55] Intro: And then I'm just sitting there and it's like, so we worked on this project for 2 hours and I answered 2 things.


[00:18:00] Intro: Like, did you need me or did you really just need somebody there as, like, your support system, you know?


[00:18:06] Intro: Yeah.


[00:18:06] Intro: But it works.


[00:18:07] Intro: So as long as it works, the work gets done.


[00:18:09] Intro: Hey.


[00:18:10] Intro: I'm all for it.


[00:18:12] Intro: So I know that you have some really awesome accolades.


[00:18:17] Intro: Like, I I don't know if you'd call it accolades, but, like, you've worked for some really powerful companies and done this.


[00:18:22] Intro: So we know this is a big topic.


[00:18:24] Intro: Like, this isn't just something where, you know, if you just got extra money you wanna throw away and have somebody come in and say that they're making a difference for your company.


[00:18:32] Intro: Like, this is something that people actually value.


[00:18:35] Intro: So can you tell us about what it is exactly that you do for companies like Google, Lyft, Workday, Capital 1, Upwork Yeah.


[00:18:44] Intro: You know, all of those that are on your resume, why are they hiring you, and why should I, as a small business or as a medium sized business, consider hiring you as well?


[00:18:54] Alexis Haselberger: Yeah.


[00:18:55] Alexis Haselberger: Great question.


[00:18:56] Alexis Haselberger: So there's a few ways that I interact with, companies.


[00:18:59] Alexis Haselberger: And I also work, you know, for individuals also.


[00:19:02] Alexis Haselberger: So it's like you could you could come to me via your company, or, also, you could just come to me completely irrelevant to your company because you need help in these areas.


[00:19:10] Alexis Haselberger: So both of those avenues work for me.


[00:19:13] Alexis Haselberger: When I work with companies, there are 2 ways that I do this.


[00:19:15] Alexis Haselberger: So one way is that I do, really hands on workshops.


[00:19:19] Alexis Haselberger: So I might come in for 90 minutes.


[00:19:21] Alexis Haselberger: We're gonna do a really targeted workshop.


[00:19:23] Alexis Haselberger: In fact, I have one called making meetings better.


[00:19:25] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:19:26] Alexis Haselberger: That is specifically what we're gonna go through.


[00:19:28] Alexis Haselberger: Like, what when should we schedule a meeting?


[00:19:31] Alexis Haselberger: Why?


[00:19:32] Alexis Haselberger: What about recurring meetings?


[00:19:33] Alexis Haselberger: We're gonna be talking about how to do a meeting audit.


[00:19:36] Alexis Haselberger: We're gonna be practicing doing a meeting audit.


[00:19:38] Alexis Haselberger: We're gonna be, you know, like, we're really gonna be targeting something specific, so that we and those are usually larger format.


[00:19:44] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:19:44] Alexis Haselberger: We're having, you know, depending on the size of a company, anywhere from, like, 20 to 500 people or even more can be in one of these workshops.


[00:19:50] Alexis Haselberger: We're doing that altogether virtually.


[00:19:52] Alexis Haselberger: Awesome.


[00:19:52] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:19:54] Alexis Haselberger: Another way that I work with come both companies and individuals is through coaching.


[00:19:57] Alexis Haselberger: And so I have group coaching and I have individual coaching.


[00:20:00] Alexis Haselberger: And often, you know, with a lot of those companies that you mentioned, I will be coming in and coaching specific individuals or a group of individuals.


[00:20:07] Alexis Haselberger: And what I do with that is I I take everybody through an arc.


[00:20:12] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:20:12] Alexis Haselberger: Everybody thinks that their issues are unique to them, but they're not.


[00:20:17] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:20:18] Alexis Haselberger: The reality is we're all we're all struggling with a lot of things.


[00:20:21] Alexis Haselberger: Now are you a unique individual who might need different strategies for the things that are going wrong or that are not going as well as you want?


[00:20:28] Alexis Haselberger: Yes.


[00:20:28] Alexis Haselberger: But we still approach it through the same arc.



00:20:24 Maximizing productivity with effective time management strategies




[00:20:17] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:20:18] Alexis Haselberger: The reality is we're all we're all struggling with a lot of things.


[00:20:21] Alexis Haselberger: Now are you a unique individual who might need different strategies for the things that are going wrong or that are not going as well as you want?


[00:20:28] Alexis Haselberger: Yes.


[00:20:28] Alexis Haselberger: But we still approach it through the same arc.


[00:20:30] Alexis Haselberger: So I'm gonna run through it.


[00:20:31] Alexis Haselberger: If it's alright with you, I'll just run through it


[00:20:33] Intro: real quick.


[00:20:33] Intro: I'm all ears.


[00:20:34] Alexis Haselberger: Yeah.


[00:20:35] Alexis Haselberger: Okay.


[00:20:35] Alexis Haselberger: So I start with knowing yourself better exactly as you are.


[00:20:39] Alexis Haselberger: Because I think I found that there are a number of different traits, tendencies, scales where they have something to do with how we get things done.


[00:20:46] Alexis Haselberger: And knowing about ourselves helps us to build sustainable strategies that we're not gonna have as much trouble hanging on to.


[00:20:54] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:20:54] Alexis Haselberger: They're gonna be easier for us to build.


[00:20:56] Alexis Haselberger: And so I'm gonna give you an example of this.


[00:20:57] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:20:57] Alexis Haselberger: One of the things is our chronotype.


[00:20:59] Alexis Haselberger: Like, some people are morning people, some people are night people.


[00:21:03] Alexis Haselberger: There's a lot more that go into it.


[00:21:04] Alexis Haselberger: But, like, for me, I'm a night person.


[00:21:06] Alexis Haselberger: I've been a night person my whole life.


[00:21:08] Alexis Haselberger: I have certainly tried many, many times to become a morning person.


[00:21:12] Alexis Haselberger: Doesn't work.


[00:21:13] Alexis Haselberger: Waking up is the hardest part of my day, has been the hardest part of my day since I was 5 years old.


[00:21:19] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:21:19] Intro: Same.


[00:21:20] Alexis Haselberger: It does not work that you could talk to me until I am you're blue in the face about why I should get up at 5 AM and, like, you know, get on it just before my kids wake up and, like, have that me time, whatever.


[00:21:32] Alexis Haselberger: Ain't gonna happen.


[00:21:33] Alexis Haselberger: Mhmm.


[00:21:33] Alexis Haselberger: Never gonna happen.


[00:21:34] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:21:35] Alexis Haselberger: Not for lack of trying, but just because eventually, like, I can do it for a short amount of time, and then I snap back to who I am.


[00:21:41] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:21:41] Alexis Haselberger: So there's a lot of things like that where we wanna find out who are you actually so that we don't have to work so hard.


[00:21:46] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:21:47] Alexis Haselberger: So that we can build strategies around you.


[00:21:49] Alexis Haselberger: We also start with some time tracking.


[00:21:51] Alexis Haselberger: So, like, what are you doing for a whole week from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed so that we can look at it and ask questions.


[00:21:58] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:21:58] Alexis Haselberger: Around yeah.


[00:21:59] Alexis Haselberger: Do we what are you surprised by?


[00:22:01] Alexis Haselberger: What are you spending too much time on?


[00:22:02] Alexis Haselberger: What are you spending not enough time on?


[00:22:04] Alexis Haselberger: How well are your actions aligned with your goals and your values and all of that?


[00:22:08] Alexis Haselberger: Then we move into task management.


[00:22:10] Alexis Haselberger: So task management is is time management.


[00:22:13] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:22:13] Alexis Haselberger: It's about what are the things that we need to do, where are we keeping track of them, and how do we keep that engine rolling?


[00:22:19] Alexis Haselberger: Lots of people are keeping them in their brain.


[00:22:21] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:22:22] Alexis Haselberger: And so getting things out of their brain, or if they're not keeping them in their brain, they have a notebook on their table and also post it notes, and they're using Asana, and they're using reminders on their phone, and they've got a 1,000,000 places where things could be.


[00:22:34] Alexis Haselberger: And so we're gonna build a single trusted system so that everything goes in one place and that we can prioritize lane prioritize linearly.


[00:22:43] Alexis Haselberger: Then we move into the prioritization, which is like, what do we say yes to?


[00:22:46] Alexis Haselberger: What do we say no to?


[00:22:47] Alexis Haselberger: What are we gonna extract ourselves from even if we already said yes?


[00:22:51] Alexis Haselberger: How do we prioritize in time?


[00:22:53] Alexis Haselberger: Not high, medium, low, but, like, when are we going to do these things?


[00:22:57] Alexis Haselberger: What are the things and when are we gonna do them?


[00:22:59] Alexis Haselberger: Because you and me and everyone else, like, we are all gonna die with a big long list of things we didn't do.


[00:23:05] Alexis Haselberger: Like, that's just part of it.


[00:23:06] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:23:06] Alexis Haselberger: We're not gonna, like, quote, do it all or get it all done.


[00:23:09] Alexis Haselberger: And so I teach people how to prioritize in such a way that the things that they did today, they know were more important than the things they didn't do.


[00:23:19] Alexis Haselberger: Because there's always John to be things you didn't do.


[00:23:21] Intro: Yeah, I feel attacked.


[00:23:24] Alexis Haselberger: Sorry, sorry.


[00:23:26] Intro: It's spot on accurate.


[00:23:27] Intro: Like, you couldn't be any more correct about Yeah.


[00:23:30] Intro: I'm the guy that I've got my calendar, which is synced across all devices, which is great.


[00:23:36] Intro: I'm sure that you love that.


[00:23:37] Intro: It's on my phone.


[00:23:38] Intro: It's on all of my profiles for Gmail, everything.


[00:23:42] Intro: Yep.


[00:23:42] Intro: But I also have the notebook.


[00:23:45] Intro: I also have Post it notes.


[00:23:47] Intro: I have, you know, a scatter desk of this was this project.


[00:23:51] Intro: This is that project.


[00:23:52] Intro: Like, the notebook is a big one for me where it's just page after page of I'm writing everything John, and this is what I need to do.


[00:24:00] Intro: This is where I'm at on this project.


[00:24:01] Intro: And it's like, I guess I should say it was a problem for me.


[00:24:06] Intro: You know, I've started to move more towards, because we have our own software here, Wingman, where we're doing a lot of our pipeline work and CRM stuff


[00:24:15] Intro: As well as just the overall tracking client for client, all of that stuff.


[00:24:19] Intro: So it's it's a really nice way to keep up with everything without being in the dark ages anymore.


[00:24:25] Intro: But Yeah.


[00:24:26] Intro: You're right.


[00:24:26] Intro: It's a lot of it winds up in my brain too.


[00:24:29] Intro: Because it's like, you know what?


[00:24:30] Intro: Right.


[00:24:30] Intro: Maybe I don't wanna transfer it to that CRM right this second or to my calendar.


[00:24:33] Intro: Mhmm.


[00:24:34] Intro: And it's like Mhmm.


[00:24:35] Intro: It's like when you and I tell ourselves, I'll get gas in the morning before I have to head to the office or to somewhere else.


[00:24:41] Intro: And it's like, you know, good and well, you're gonna be walking out the door 5 minutes later than you wanted to, and you're not gonna have time to stop and get gas.


[00:24:48] Intro: And I do that to myself all the time.


[00:24:49] Intro: Like, I'll put that in my calendar as soon as I get home tonight.


[00:24:52] Intro: Or you know what?


[00:24:53] Intro: I don't need to put that one in my calendar.


[00:24:55] Intro: I'll remember it.


[00:24:56] Intro: It's fine.


[00:24:57] Intro: Yeah.


[00:24:57] Intro: And then when a client's calling me mad, you know, that day or something else is happening, I'm like, yeah, you're an idiot.


[00:25:03] Intro: You should have put it in your calendar.


[00:25:05] Alexis Haselberger: Right.


[00:25:05] Alexis Haselberger: And it's just well, don't call yourself an idiot, but, also, it's I think this is, like, prioritizing our future selves, and humans are bad at that.


[00:25:12] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:25:12] Alexis Haselberger: We are like, today, I always say, like, 8 AM you and 8 PM you are totally different people.


[00:25:18] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:25:19] Alexis Haselberger: 8 AM you is, like, great.


[00:25:21] Alexis Haselberger: After dinner, I'm gonna, like, go work out, and then I'm gonna go organize all my photos, and then I'm gonna, like, blah blah blah blah blah.


[00:25:26] Alexis Haselberger: And 8 PM, you is like, whew, the kids are Kelley?


[00:25:29] Alexis Haselberger: Let me just go to bed.


[00:25:30] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:25:31] Alexis Haselberger: And, like, it is so hard for us to build that muscle of, okay.


[00:25:37] Alexis Haselberger: I, like, I am going to opt for the the shorter version of the pain instead of the longer version of the pain.


[00:25:43] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:25:43] Alexis Haselberger: It's like, yeah, it is painful to, like, put something in your system right at the moment, but it is more painful to not do it.


[00:25:50] Intro: See, that's that's me.


[00:25:52] Intro: Like, right now, I'm on a weight loss journey.


[00:25:54] Intro: You know?


[00:25:54] Intro: So at the time of recording this, I've lost about £25 give or take.


[00:25:58] Intro: Yeah.


[00:25:58] Intro: Just depends on the day, the time, and what I had to eat for lunch today.


[00:26:03] Intro: And so all part of that was my wife and the people around me, the people I work with.


[00:26:09] Intro: It was like, we are each other's accountability.


[00:26:11] Intro: Let's eat better.


[00:26:12] Intro: Let's work out more.


[00:26:13] Intro: But then when they're like, hey, you know, my wife will get home and be like, Hey, I'm thinking about after dinner, I'm gonna go to the gym.


[00:26:19] Intro: I'm like, yeah, God, I don't wanna go to the gym.


[00:26:22] Intro: And it's like, we just talked about this.


[00:26:23] Intro: And you said you wanted to do this after work.


[00:26:25] Intro: And Kelley like you said, yeah, what I said when I was all motivated and ready to wake up at 4 AM and go work out, have an ice bath, and that was a different John Kelly.


[00:26:35] Intro: Like, this is John Kelly now.


[00:26:37] Intro: And Yeah.


[00:26:38] Intro: I kinda wanna just pop open some ice cream and watch Blacklist on Netflix.


[00:26:41] Intro: Like, I don't know.


[00:26:42] Intro: There's something else we can do.


[00:26:43] Intro: You know?


[00:26:44] Alexis Haselberger: Yes.


[00:26:44] Alexis Haselberger: Yes.


[00:26:45] Alexis Haselberger: Totally.


[00:26:45] Alexis Haselberger: Totally.


[00:26:46] Alexis Haselberger: And so so, yeah, I mean, I'll quickly kinda run through the rest.


[00:26:48] Alexis Haselberger: But, like, after we after we pre learn to prioritize, then we do some planning.


[00:26:53] Alexis Haselberger: So some really high ROI, low effort, high reward types of planning, like quick daily planning and quick week planning.


[00:27:01] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:27:02] Alexis Haselberger: So that, basically, we wanna separate the planning from the doing.


[00:27:05] Alexis Haselberger: Because just like you you mentioned, right, like, we don't always make the best decisions in the moment.



00:27:11 Increase productivity and time management with effective strategies




[00:27:11] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:27:11] Alexis Haselberger: Or if you've ever been staring at your computer and being like, oh, I have this half an hour.


[00:27:15] Alexis Haselberger: What should I do next?


[00:27:16] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:27:16] Alexis Haselberger: You spend the Alexis 20 minutes trying to figure out what to do, and then it's time to get on the next call.


[00:27:21] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:27:21] Alexis Haselberger: So we want to provide some ways that people can plan a little bit for the week and then have, like, a little bit of time of planning for each day so that you can basically say, is my plan that I made for the week still does it still make sense?


[00:27:34] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:27:34] Alexis Haselberger: We wanna plan for the time that we actually have instead of what most of us do, which is planning for the time we wish we had, where we're like, here's a laundry list of 30 things that I hope to get done today.


[00:27:44] Alexis Haselberger: Instead of looking at your calendar and being like, well, I actually have 2 and a half hours, and here's what fits Intro this.


[00:27:51] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:27:52] Alexis Haselberger: We also wanna be able to disconnect from work at the end of the day, and it's really hard to do that if you don't have a plan for the next day.


[00:27:58] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:27:58] Alexis Haselberger: And it also you have to use all that activation energy in the morning if you don't have a plan because then you sit there for the first half half an hour looking at your email, looking at your tasks, and being like, okay.


[00:28:09] Alexis Haselberger: What should I do today?


[00:28:10] Alexis Haselberger: But if we plan in advance, then we just get to start the day rolling.


[00:28:14] Alexis Haselberger: We also do a calendar audit.


[00:28:15] Alexis Haselberger: Like I mentioned, we get everybody to inbox 0 and have a way to stay there on all of their different inboxes that doesn't involve spending all your time in messaging.


[00:28:24] Alexis Haselberger: We move into habits.


[00:28:25] Alexis Haselberger: So just like you mentioned with the the gym.


[00:28:27] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:28:27] Alexis Haselberger: Like, there's there's motivation and there's willpower, and those do not a habit build.


[00:28:32] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:28:33] Alexis Haselberger: And so I teach science backed habit strategies that help us with that.


[00:28:36] Alexis Haselberger: So for you, like, with the gym, I might say, you might wanna use the strategy of pairing where you maybe you watch Blacklist only when you're on the treadmill.


[00:28:45] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:28:46] Alexis Haselberger: So it's like you're tying something you do enjoy to something that you don't enjoy yet, right, or that you're trying to build.


[00:28:52] Alexis Haselberger: So lots of different habit strategies, which also are gonna vary based on what we learned about you in the beginning, because some strategies are gonna work really well for you and others won't.


[00:29:01] Alexis Haselberger: Then we move into efficiency.


[00:29:02] Alexis Haselberger: So these these things like outsourcing, delegation, batch processing, templates.


[00:29:06] Alexis Haselberger: Like, how do we decide once, think once, do the work once, and not have to recreate the wheel constantly?


[00:29:12] Alexis Haselberger: And then lastly, we end on focus.


[00:29:14] Alexis Haselberger: So this is equal parts continuing to remove distractions, but also, how do you I mean, have you ever been alone in your house?


[00:29:21] Alexis Haselberger: No.


[00:29:22] Alexis Haselberger: Your kids are at school.


[00:29:23] Alexis Haselberger: Your wife's not there.


[00:29:24] Alexis Haselberger: No distractions.


[00:29:25] Alexis Haselberger: Your phone's not even there.


[00:29:26] Alexis Haselberger: It's in another room.


[00:29:27] Alexis Haselberger: You sit down.


[00:29:27] Alexis Haselberger: You're like, I'm gonna do this thing, and then you still can't focus on it.


[00:29:30] Intro: Yeah.


[00:29:30] Intro: Because I can just go to sleep at that point.


[00:29:32] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:29:33] Intro: Because I don't have my phone to wake me up or give me things to do.


[00:29:36] Intro: I don't have my kids.


[00:29:37] Intro: Yeah.


[00:29:37] Intro: I would just go


[00:29:38] Alexis Haselberger: to sleep.


[00:29:39] Alexis Haselberger: And so we also talk about strategies and teach people strategies so that they can sort of create focus out of thin air when you need to because sometimes you need to.


[00:29:47] Alexis Haselberger: And so that's that that is what I do.


[00:29:50] Alexis Haselberger: That is what I take people through so that at the end of working with me, they have a working set of productivity systems that work pretty well in their life.


[00:29:58] Alexis Haselberger: But also they have a toolbox full of tools so that when things change again, when they have another kid, when they get a different job, when their team doubles in size, when they move to a different country or whatever, they can then rejigger their systems to meet the needs of their new circumstances.



00:30:15 Tips and Tricks for Productivity from Alexis Haselberger




[00:30:15] Intro: Yeah.


[00:30:16] Intro: I mean, you know, that's that's the hard part too is there are a lot of people out there that have valid excuses.


[00:30:22] Intro: You know, there are people like myself.


[00:30:24] Intro: My listeners know I've got a full time job.


[00:30:26] Intro: I've got a part time job that really is full time.


[00:30:29] Intro: I'm also a business owner of not a startup, but still very heavily growing phase of a company.


[00:30:37] Intro: And then I've got, just everything else, 3 kids, wife, like, hobbies that I would like to go enjoy.


[00:30:44] Intro: You know?


[00:30:45] Intro: So it's just one thing after another that pops up in your life.


[00:30:48] Intro: And it is easy too to blame that stuff, to let that be the scapegoat and say, well, you know, I've got a lot going on.


[00:30:54] Intro: So it's just it is what it is.


[00:30:55] Intro: And it's like, yeah, it's not really an acceptable reason to not be productive and squared away, but it does make it more difficult sometimes.


[00:31:04] Alexis Haselberger: Right.


[00:31:04] Alexis Haselberger: Kelley, and also, it's I think so much of this is just about choices.


[00:31:08] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:31:08] Alexis Haselberger: It's like, you know, we're not gonna be able to do everything all at once.


[00:31:12] Alexis Haselberger: We can't most of us cannot have, like, 3 side projects happening all at the same time and expect to be making significant progress on all of them.


[00:31:20] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:31:21] Alexis Haselberger: We this it's kind of moving from being reactive where it's like, yeah, there will always be more like, if you go to your inbox any time of day, there's always gonna be something for you to do there.


[00:31:31] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:31:32] Alexis Haselberger: Always.


[00:31:33] Alexis Haselberger: Always.


[00:31:34] Alexis Haselberger: There will always be more work.


[00:31:36] Alexis Haselberger: Like, you and I, we could both work every single day for 18 hours a day for the rest of our lives, and there would still be more work tomorrow.


[00:31:44] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:31:44] Alexis Haselberger: Always.


[00:31:45] Alexis Haselberger: And so it very much becomes about how do I want to use my time in a way that feels good to me so that you can have room for some of the things that that you're trying to make room for.


[00:31:56] Alexis Haselberger: Will you be learning to, like, throw pottery and learning to play the guitar and having, like, 3 hours a day to read all at the same time while you also have a full time job in children?


[00:32:06] Alexis Haselberger: Probably not.


[00:32:07] Alexis Haselberger: Can you make room for a couple hours a day to do things that you want to do?


[00:32:13] Alexis Haselberger: Probably.


[00:32:14] Intro: Absolutely.


[00:32:16] Intro: What, just let me see if if I'm correct on this.


[00:32:19] Intro: If I'm not, feel free to to tell me I'm wrong.


[00:32:20] Intro: But your workshops, I'm assuming this is where I would attend as someone who wants to get better, and you're gonna teach me the tips and tricks to put into place myself in my own life.


[00:32:32] Intro: And then the 1 on 1 coaching is gonna be more of the I'm not only going to teach you how to do that and fuel you with the motivation and ability to do it, but I'm also going to kinda make those suggestions and, you know, more of a done with you type strategy.


[00:32:48] Intro: Is that right?


[00:32:49] Alexis Haselberger: Yeah.


[00:32:50] Alexis Haselberger: So well, I would say, like, workshops are that's something where like, I don't run public workshops.


[00:32:54] Alexis Haselberger: Like, you as a person couldn't show up at a work I mean, very occasionally, but, like, that's not a huge part of what I do.


[00:33:00] Alexis Haselberger: So for companies, it's gonna be about a specific topic.


[00:33:03] Alexis Haselberger: You're right.


[00:33:03] Alexis Haselberger: You're gonna get tips and tricks.


[00:33:05] Alexis Haselberger: We're gonna be interactive the whole time because, like, nobody wants to sit around listening to somebody talk for, you know, a long time when they can't participate in something like that.


[00:33:13] Alexis Haselberger: So we you know, every 5 to 7 minutes, we're doing an activity.


[00:33:15] Alexis Haselberger: We're, like, you know, really implementing this stuff.


[00:33:19] Alexis Haselberger: But coaching, on the other hand, is, like, that whole arc I shared, that's what we're doing through coaching.


[00:33:23] Alexis Haselberger: And it is, like, the like, when we're doing task systems, like, you're you're screen sharing with me, and I'm like, tell me about that.


[00:33:31] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:33:32] Alexis Haselberger: Okay.


[00:33:32] Alexis Haselberger: What is the next action for that thing?


[00:33:34] Alexis Haselberger: When can you actually do it?


[00:33:35] Alexis Haselberger: Oh, I wanted to do it yesterday.


[00:33:37] Alexis Haselberger: I'm like, well, it didn't happen yesterday.


[00:33:38] Alexis Haselberger: When is it actually gonna get done?


[00:33:39] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:33:40] Alexis Haselberger: And so that's a much more of a hands on bespoke individual kind of a thing.


[00:33:45] Alexis Haselberger: And I run a group coaching program as well that still gets some of that too because it's like, there will be a a volunteer who's gonna share their screen, and we're all kind of chiming in chiming in there as well.


[00:33:55] Intro: That makes sense.


[00:33:56] Intro: So are you doing any type of education online, whether it be, you know, go to the website and find out more information, go to YouTube and watch some of my videos, you know, social media?


[00:34:05] Intro: Are you releasing this info to the public?


[00:34:07] Alexis Haselberger: Yeah, I am.


[00:34:08] Alexis Haselberger: So I have I write a blog post every single week about these topics, and I send that out to my email list.


[00:34:14] Alexis Haselberger: People can certainly join that.


[00:34:15] Alexis Haselberger: That is free.


[00:34:16] Alexis Haselberger: I have a YouTube channel.


[00:34:18] Alexis Haselberger: Also, I produce a weekly video on the same topic as the blog post.


[00:34:21] Alexis Haselberger: So for people who are different learning in different modalities or just want some double doubling up there.


[00:34:26] Alexis Haselberger: You know, of course, I'm on the the socials and things as well.


[00:34:28] Alexis Haselberger: And then I do have 3 online courses and a 4th one that is going to be released next week, actually.


[00:34:33] Alexis Haselberger: So I have an online course, and the these courses are through Udemy John Udemy.


[00:34:38] Alexis Haselberger: And so you can either access them as a person, you know, you can just go buy a course.


[00:34:42] Alexis Haselberger: They're very inexpensive.


[00:34:44] Alexis Haselberger: Or if you have a Udemy for business subscription as many companies do, then you can just access those as part of your subscription.


[00:34:50] Alexis Haselberger: So I have courses on, time management, kind of the basics, the things that we talked about.


[00:34:55] Alexis Haselberger: I have another one on hybrid leadership.


[00:34:57] Alexis Haselberger: So, you know, how do we manage our hybrid teams?


[00:35:00] Alexis Haselberger: I have another one on how to work from home productively, and that was a direct result of 2020 and Yeah.


[00:35:06] Alexis Haselberger: All my clients being like, what?


[00:35:08] Alexis Haselberger: How do I do this?


[00:35:09] Alexis Haselberger: You need to put something up there immediately.


[00:35:11] Alexis Haselberger: And then I have another one coming out, next week about, that's actually done with a colleague who is a parenting coach, and it's about how to survive and thrive as a working parent.


[00:35:21] Intro: That's what I'm definitely gonna have to look out for.


[00:35:24] Intro: So if there's like one thing, if you could have the entire world's attention, and it's like, this is maybe the one thing I've seen in every person I've talked to or the, you know, the one message you would wanna spread to the world and just kinda get across to everybody.


[00:35:38] Intro: You know what that would be?


[00:35:40] Alexis Haselberger: Can I have 2?


[00:35:41] Intro: Sure.


[00:35:42] Intro: Let's do it.


[00:35:42] Alexis Haselberger: Okay.


[00:35:43] Alexis Haselberger: So the first one is going to be don't rely on your memory.


[00:35:47] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:35:48] Alexis Haselberger: Our memories are not a great place.


[00:35:50] Alexis Haselberger: Even for those people who do not have ADHD, and that is many of my clients as Kelley.


[00:35:54] Alexis Haselberger: Our memories are not a great place for storing information.


[00:35:57] Alexis Haselberger: We want to I mean, long term memory, sure.


[00:35:59] Alexis Haselberger: But for everything you have to do, externalize it.


[00:36:02] Alexis Haselberger: Get it into a system so that you're not spending your brain cycles worrying about, did I forget something?


[00:36:07] Alexis Haselberger: Is something gonna drop?


[00:36:08] Alexis Haselberger: Where did I miss the ball?


[00:36:10] Alexis Haselberger: Etcetera.


[00:36:11] Alexis Haselberger: And then the other one would be, just turn off all the damn notifications.


[00:36:15] Alexis Haselberger: Like, you do not need to know that an email has just come in.


[00:36:18] Alexis Haselberger: You do not need to know that somebody liked your Instagram photo.


[00:36:21] Alexis Haselberger: You do not need to know that, like, your favorite TikToker has a new video up.


[00:36:26] Alexis Haselberger: These things destroy our ability to concentrate and and be productive.


[00:36:30] Alexis Haselberger: And there are studies that show that every time we get distracted or interrupted, even when it's our own brains, like, we're working on something and then we're like, oh, my kids' shoes are getting too small.


[00:36:39] Alexis Haselberger: Let me, like, open up a tab and just search on Amazon really quick.


[00:36:42] Alexis Haselberger: Even when we do that, that it takes us John average 23 minutes to refocus.


[00:36:48] Intro: Yep.


[00:36:49] Alexis Haselberger: Not 23 seconds, 23 minutes.


[00:36:51] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:36:51] Alexis Haselberger: And so if you remove 5 notifications a day, right, you're getting back, like, an hour, over an hour.


[00:36:57] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:36:57] Alexis Haselberger: Like, oh, you know, an hour and a half.


[00:37:00] Alexis Haselberger: So that would be Kelley passionate about



00:37:03 Discussion on Notifications and FOMO with Alexis Haselberger




[00:37:03] Intro: notifications.


[00:37:04] Intro: I'm sorry, I asked, you know, because I have FOMO.


[00:37:08] Intro: Okay, I've got the fear of missing out.


[00:37:11] Intro: So I am like the, I would probably make your skin crawl if you look at my screen time on my iPhone, because you would see how many hours I spend on certain applications every single week and be like, John, you don't need any of my classes.


[00:37:27] Intro: You don't need any of my training because as you can tell, like, this whole show, I've been nodding because I've I've heard what you're saying.


[00:37:34] Intro: Like, this is not you're not telling me something I haven't heard before.


[00:37:38] Intro: There are a few things.


[00:37:39] Intro: I'm not discounting you.


[00:37:40] Intro: I'm not saying it rudely.


[00:37:41] Intro: I'm just saying, like, I know these things.


[00:37:43] Intro: Like, surprisingly, I've heard this stuff.


[00:37:45] Intro: But if you looked at my screen time, you'd be like, well, if you delete TikTok and Facebook and Instagram and, you know, like, all this stuff, then you would have instantly, I don't know, probably 20 hours a week right back in my time.


[00:37:58] Alexis Haselberger: But you know what's interesting about that?


[00:38:00] Alexis Haselberger: You're not gonna you're not gonna delete TikTok, and neither am I.


[00:38:03] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:38:03] Alexis Haselberger: I like TikTok too.


[00:38:05] Alexis Haselberger: It's just, like, there are, like, tweaks that we can make.


[00:38:08] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:38:08] Alexis Haselberger: And so, you know, I think TikTok is actually, like, the only form of social media I've ever Kelley, like, had an addicting pull.


[00:38:13] Intro: Yes.


[00:38:14] Alexis Haselberger: And so I just have, like, really strong boundaries around it now.


[00:38:17] Alexis Haselberger: It's like, with TikTok, I know I don't have self Intro, so I only let myself access it on the weekend.


[00:38:23] Alexis Haselberger: And other than that, I I just don't.


[00:38:25] Alexis Haselberger: And and also, if you turn off the notifications, then you won't have as much FOMO because the FOMO comes from seeing that there's something there and then having to resist.


[00:38:34] Alexis Haselberger: It's much easier for humans to remove temptation than it is to resist it.


[00:38:39] Alexis Haselberger: And so you don't need to get rid of it all entirely.


[00:38:42] Alexis Haselberger: Just make it a little bit harder for yourself to access.


[00:38:45] Intro: Yeah.


[00:38:45] Intro: And if you don't believe as a listener in the things that Alexis is saying and that I'm saying right now, then watch the social dilemma on Netflix Yeah.


[00:38:53] Intro: And see that it's not just it's not just you being my guest expert on this subject and just saying, like, this is a really cool, profound idea that I have.


[00:39:02] Intro: Like, this is a very well known documented thing that they are scientifically going and trying to make you want to get back in because when they have your attention, they're selling you to other people, plain and simple.


[00:39:16] Intro: Like that's what they're doing.


[00:39:17] Intro: So you're a 100% correct.


[00:39:19] Intro: And I've actually a lot of people like somebody in my neighborhood actually told me that.


[00:39:22] Intro: He was like, when I get home at 3 o'clock, I turn off all notifications on my cell phone.


[00:39:27] Intro: So I don't get your phone call, your text message.


[00:39:30] Intro: When I want to check it, I will get it.


[00:39:33] Intro: But other than that, it's not notifying me that I need to look.


[00:39:37] Intro: I'm going on my own and saying, Hey, I wanna take a look now.


[00:39:40] Intro: And that's what happened was like, I called him at like 5 PM or something.


[00:39:43] Intro: And he called me back later at like 7 or 8 o'clock and was like, Hey, you know, this is just now I have time away from my family.


[00:39:51] Intro: I'm not with my kids anymore currently.


[00:39:54] Intro: So I can I can take your phone call?


[00:39:56] Intro: And I respect that.


[00:39:57] Intro: Like, I get it.


[00:39:58] Intro: I'm like, Hey, that's, that's really smart.


[00:39:59] Intro: I wish I had that willpower.


[00:40:01] Intro: Maybe I will get there sometime.


[00:40:03] Intro: Yeah.


[00:40:04] Intro: But it's definitely something I totally agree with you on.


[00:40:07] Alexis Haselberger: Yeah.


[00:40:07] Alexis Haselberger: Well, you should think of it as an experiment and not as a model of willpower.


[00:40:11] Alexis Haselberger: Right?


[00:40:11] Alexis Haselberger: It's like, try it for a week and see what happens.


[00:40:14] Alexis Haselberger: Like, I think I'm more like your friend.


[00:40:16] Alexis Haselberger: I don't have notifications on ever.


[00:40:17] Alexis Haselberger: Like, my phone's always on silent a 100% of the time, except for that I do have emergency bypass turned on so that, like, if my kids text me while they're out or something, then that can punch through.


[00:40:28] Alexis Haselberger: But I only did I did that begrudgingly.


[00:40:31] Alexis Haselberger: I don't even want that.


[00:40:32] Alexis Haselberger: I only did that for safety reasons.


[00:40:36] Intro: Yeah.


[00:40:36] Intro: I hear you.


[00:40:37] Intro: And I need to get there one day.


[00:40:39] Intro: It's it's a really good idea.


[00:40:40] Intro: I like it.



00:40:41 Boost Your Productivity with Alexis Haselberger




[00:40:41] Intro: So, you know, I I know this is this has been like a great episode for me.


[00:40:45] Intro: I've I've got so much good information here, and I just, you know, I know you've got other commitments you'll have to get to at some point today, and I wanna be respectful of your time, especially since you're a stickler on productivity and efficiency.


[00:40:57] Intro: So, I think it's a a good place to just say all of your links, everything you mentioned.


[00:41:02] Intro: We're gonna put that in the show notes.


[00:41:04] Intro: We're gonna have that available for all of our listeners right now.


[00:41:07] Intro: So if they wanna learn from you, we will absolutely send them your way.


[00:41:11] Alexis Haselberger: Great.


[00:41:11] Alexis Haselberger: Thank you.


[00:41:11] Alexis Haselberger: Thanks so much for having me on.


[00:41:12] Alexis Haselberger: It's been a really fun conversation.


[00:41:14] Intro: Absolutely.


[00:41:14] Intro: Thank you so much for being a part of this and coming in and sharing your information with us today.


[00:41:19] Intro: So that's, that's it for us, man.


[00:41:22] Intro: Thank you, listeners, for tuning in to another episode of Small Business Origins.


[00:41:26] Intro: We couldn't do this thing without you, and supporting entrepreneurs just like Alexis is the whole reason that all of us are here right now.


[00:41:32] Intro: So thank you for taking time out of your day, hopefully, in a really good productive efficient manner so Alexis doesn't, like, hunt you down and find you and make you a customer one day.


[00:41:41] Intro: No.


[00:41:42] Intro: I I hope that you do become a customer because I know this is something we can all benefit from.


[00:41:46] Intro: This is something that even I need.


[00:41:48] Intro: And, you know, like I say, every single episode, it doesn't take anything to like, to share, to just check out the content that Alexis has online and learn from her absolutely free already, and then maybe sign up for a course, maybe sign up for some coaching or tell your your boss, hey, we need to hire her to come in and do this workshop for all of our people.


[00:42:09] Intro: So that's it for us.


[00:42:11] Intro: It's been another week, another entrepreneur, and another great episode.


[00:42:14] Intro: We'll see you on the next one.


[00:42:15] Intro: And as always, stay beefy, my friends.


[00:42:21] John Kelley: Thanks for listening to another episode of Small Business Origins.


[00:42:24] John Kelley: I love an origin story.


[00:42:26] John Kelley: If you like what you just heard, leave us a review.


[00:42:29] John Kelley: Subscribe and share with a friend.


[00:42:31] Alexis Haselberger: You guys, check this out.


[00:42:32] John Kelley: They're gonna love it.


[00:42:33] John Kelley: You're gonna love it.


Alexis Haselberger Profile Photo

Alexis Haselberger

Time Management and Productivity Coach

Alexis Haselberger is a time management and productivity coach who helps people do more and stress less through coaching, workshops and online courses.  Her pragmatic, yet fun, approach helps people easily integrate practical, realistic strategies into their lives so that they can do more of what they want and less of what they don't.  Alexis has taught thousands of individuals to take control of their time and her clients include Google, Lyft, Workday, Capital One, Upwork and more.