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Time Management Tips in 20: Tools, Coaches, and Resource Reccos

Deborah Corn and Productivity Coach Sarah Ohanesian discuss tools, coaches, courses, and podcasts for improving your time management and productivity in the workplace. (Transcript below)

 

Mentioned in This Episode:

Sarah Ohanesian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahohanesian/

SO Productive: https://www.so-productive.com/

Command the Chaos Course: https://www.so-productive.com/productivity-course/ 

Deborah Corn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborahcorn/

Print Media Centr: https://printmediacentr.com

Partner with Print Media Centr: https://printmediacentr.com/partnerships/ 

Subscribe to News From The Printerverse: https://printmediacentr.com/subscribe-2 

Project Peacock: https://ProjectPeacock.TV 

Girls Who Print: https://girlswhoprint.net

drupa: https://www.drupa.com/

drupa Next Age (drupa DNA): https://www.drupa.com/en/Program/Forums/drupa_next_age

Girls Who Print Conference at Americas Print Show: https://girlswhoprint.net/girls-who-print-at-americas-print-show-2024/

Tools:

 Coaches: 

Courses:

Podcasts: 

PDF Transcript

 

[INTRODUCTION]

 

[0:00:04] DC: It takes the right skills and the right innovation to design and manage meaningful print marketing solutions. Welcome to Podcasts From the Printerverse, where we explore all facets of print and marketing that creates stellar communications and sales opportunities for business success. I’m your host Deborah Corn, the Intergalactic Ambassador to the Printerverse. Thanks for tuning in. Listen long and prosper.

 

[EPISODE]

 

[0:00:31] DC: Hey, everybody. Welcome to Podcasts From the Printerverse. This is Deborah Corn, your Intergalactic Ambassador. More specifically, we are here with the Time Management Tips in 20, which means, I am here with my very productive cohost, Sarah Ohanesian, from SO Productive. Hello, Sarah.

 

[0:00:50] SO: Hello. Good to see you again.

 

[0:00:53] DC: Good to see you again. Thank you so much for investing some time with us today, which is actually the topic of today’s discussion. It is March when we’re recording this, which is Women’s History Month, which is also Women’s Print History Month, which we celebrate at Girls Who Print.

 

In Women’s History Month and Print History Month is also International Women’s Day. The United Nation’s theme this year for International Women’s Day was invest in women. We are carrying that through, and I asked Sarah to give us some resources for the things that she has invested in in her time management journey, and the sources, and resources that she uses, and the people that she pays attention to. So we can invest more in our journey, besides just listening to Sarah and going to her website, and seeing her courses and how you could work with her. All that information is in the show notes below.

 

For right now, let’s start this off with something we speak about a lot, but we’re going to be do a little more of a robust list today. Which is the Time Management Tools. Maybe, first, just start with giving a little framework about why tools are very helpful.

 

[0:02:20] SO: Well, I think with many things in life, it takes a village, it takes an arsenal of things. Ironically, Deborah and I had a conversation recently about being in your lane and knowing what you’re good at, and potentially what you’re not good at. It’s very hard to be good at everything. I hope, today, gives people some permission to outsource some of the things that they might need help with. There’s a gap in their knowledge, or their ability, or their time they want to spend on something. Then, I also really believe in just reinvesting all the time in yourself, in education, in improvement. I think, I’m a lifelong learner, I think there’s always more books to read, and podcasts to listen to, and things that you can use to improve your own life and your work life. Hoping to share some of those things with everybody today.

 

Deborah, should we start with the actual tools? I know, some of these we’ve touched on before, but wanted to share some of the most favorite tools that I love. The first two are going to be very familiar to you. Two tools here that I recommend are for task management and project management. My favorite tools are Asana, and also, Todoist. These are task management, project management tools where you can put all the things that you have to do, all the things that your team has to do, all the things you’re collaborating on with people into one location, so you can find everything in one spot, and then, organize it by priority, by due date, by who needs to do what. Deborah, I know you used Todoist. I use Asana every day. Anything else you want to share on those two?

 

[0:03:50] DC: Yes. Actually, I do use Asana as well. I am working with Drupa, which is a big global trade show that happens every four years. I am hosting one of their theaters called drupa DNA, and we have to come up with a schedule. Drupa has the entire schedule of drupa on Asana. If you can imagine the beast that that is, and my group has its own section in this giant spreadsheet. I didn’t even realize; you can upload photos to task. I mean, it is really robust. To your most excellent point, I can just log on anytime I need to, to see what’s going on, to see if anything was added. There’s no emails. It’s just – I mean, people know what spreadsheets are, and things like that. But this is like a spreadsheet on steroids. Of course, depending upon how you use it. I don’t even use everything in it. I know that I don’t. There’s no way. It’s really helpful

Now, I don’t really think of Todoist as a project management tool. I thought that that was interesting that you refer to it as that. Todoist is what I call my digital to-do list, but I guess it could be a project management tool. Again, I don’t use it to its fullest effect. It can remind you if I actually had things that would do today, it tells me but you know that I use it more for ongoing things, so I don’t forget them versus what I need to do today. That’s what I would add. Just one more thing. As I’ve mentioned many, many, many times, Todoist is the best thing that has ever happened to me, and I thank you so much for that. No more going back through notes trying to figure out what was that idea I had, no more emailing myself at 1am in the morning, when it come up with something clever.

 

[0:05:42] SO: Your most brilliant ideas happen at night, of course.

 

[0:05:45] DC: Seriously, those are my golden hours. I told you; I keep vampire hours. So yes, that has really changed my life. I don’t know how much time it’s cut out of my week, but I’ll take the 20 minutes, I’ll take the half an hour, I don’t care what it is, or the two hours if I really need to organize things.

 

[0:06:02] SO: Yes. That actually is a really good segue into the other tool I wanted to recommend, which is called Harvest. Harvest is a time-tracking tool. To your point, if you actually wanted to know how much time are you saving by you using Todoist, you can track your time in Harvest. Now, I recognize the fact that for some people, this is like gross, I don’t want to do it, that feels like weird and a waste of time. It could be – so I tracked my time for, oh my goodness, probably five to six years at this point. If not, longer. For the purpose of, it really helps, one, it keeps me accountable. So sometimes, you can get carried away and you think, “Ugh, I just spent four hours on something. That really should have taken me 30 minutes. I can’t believe I essentially wasted so much time on something.”

 

It also helps me to make sure I’m allocating an appropriate amount of time in my week to the right activities. Then, the other thing that helps me do is actually project out for clients. So retroactively, I can go back and say, “Okay, it takes me about this long to really create this type of service, or offering for a client. This is how long it takes me to service this type of client.” It really helps me with accurate detailed pricing going forward. Because, I realistically, not in my gut, but real with facts, know how long something takes. Again, I know that can feel a little, “I don’t want to do that.” If that’s you, maybe just use it for a week or two, get a sample so you essentially know what you’re really working on. It’s very, very eye-opening for clients.

 

[BREAK]

 

[0:07:30] DC: Calling all fierce, fabulous females. Girls Who Print is waiting for you, and our global mission to help empower and connect the women of print is stronger than ever. Join our 10,000-member growing women-only LinkedIn group, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Celebrate Girls Who Print Day and find out who wins our Annual Girly Award. Join our ongoing initiatives, online events, in-person conferences, and global mentoring program. Visit Girls Who Print for information on how to get involved and get empowered. Links in the show notes.

 

[INTERVIEW CONTINUES]

 

[0:08:09] DC: Yes. I mean, when I worked in an advertising agency, you had to do your timesheets, and you had to apply them. I’m sure everybody listening to this podcast has had some experience with timesheets or having to tell clients how long things take. But it’s interesting, because when you first mentioned that I was like, “What would I do with that as a solopreneur?” But you’re right, sometimes when I’m trying to figure out like, how much should a podcast cost or how much should this cost. I don’t factor in the fact that I share these podcasts for years for a year minimal through my channels. That actually takes time each week to make sure it gets out on social, and the shares are updated, and things like that, but I don’t factor that in. So, great point. You have one more tool on your tool list.

 

[0:08:55] SO: One more tool, which is probably the simplest one is Gmail. I love Gmail because of its ability, and we recently did an episode more of a deep dive into this. You can go back and listen to this, but filtering, and having stuff presorted as it comes in. So, Deborah, you’ve got a filter in my Gmail. When something comes from you, I know it from you. It’s tagged as you, it goes into the podcast section. I can easily see those things, find them. Setting up your Gmail well is really, really a time saver, a game changer. For me, again, it’s an investment because you got to take a little bit of time to set those things up. But once you do, on the other side, really saves you a lot of time. It’s a much more powerful tool that I think people – again, they’re probably not utilizing Gmail to its full potential.

 

[0:09:38] DC: Yes. I mean, I’ve always had the option to set up my Mac mail, like to put it through Gmail, and I don’t. I just use my Mac mail tool, and it doesn’t always – it’s not a productivity tool, it’s an email tool, so I totally understand. Okay, next topic. Coaches have coaches, you have resources. We’re not saying, don’t look at what Sarah offers, you definitely should. But I did ask Sarah if she could share some of her resources with all of you, and she generously has.

 

[0:10:11] SO: Yes. I think too, there’s seasons of life where you might need a different coach. So you might want to work with me for a season. Hopefully, we get you through that lack of productivity, time management you might be having. Then, you’re ready for a different season, and a different coach, or a different topic of coaching might be really helpful to you.

 

The first coach I want to recommend, and she’s now turning this into a company, reigniting this as a company brand as well is Jena Viviano Dunay is her name, and she runs a company called, Recruit the Employer, which is pretty cool. She’s a career coach, and she is launching some new services around, if you’re going through a career change, how can you be so attractive in the marketplace that the employers are coming to you. So you’re recruiting the companies to you. I’ve worked with her as I was deciding coming out of my professional career in corporate, going into more of my solo business, and launching my business. She really helped me through that process, so I cannot recommend her enough. Also, she’s a great follow on LinkedIn, tons of resources.

 

The other person I highly recommend is Mark LeBlanc. He is a business coach out of Minnesota, and I recently did his, he calls it the Achievers Circle Weekend. It is a very intensive mastermind-style workshop weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, very intensive, but we really got through so many topics. He’s just an open book, he shares, he gives you feedback, so he’s another great resource. Two coaches that I’ve invested in and really, really believe in working with.

 

[0:11:42] DC: Thank you so much. You also wanted to recommend two courses for people besides the ones you offer, of course.

 

[0:11:50] SO: Of course, yes. The one I – and this is a larger investment of both financial and time. This was more of a school year that I was in their program. It’s Called Heroic Public Speaking. It’s out of Lambertville, New Jersey, but they attract people from all over the world. I worked with them to hone my craft of speaking, learn more about being a better presenter, crafting a better message, presentation skills. That was just a tremendous program for me. If you are at all interested in speaking, or if speaking is part of your job – I know that in a lot of corporate positions, you have to pitch, you have to sell, you have to be in front of investors, you’ve got to speak at the trade show. They’re just a wonderful resource there. Again, they have a lot of good follows on social media that you can follow them as well.

 

[0:12:37] DC: I just want to mention that I met Sarah when she was speaking at an event, and I was like, “I love you.” So, it worked. Thank you, Heroic Public Speaking.

 

[0:12:45] SO: Yes. Also, if you’re in marketing at all, I think speaking is a great way to just get your message out in front of people, so it can be a wonderful marketing tool as well. But I also realized public speaking is quite scary for many people. That’s a course that I really, really recommend. Then, Amy Porterfield runs a Digital Course Academy. When I was creating my digital course, I went through her program, and it was really, really helpful for me just to break down, what are the steps, what do people want, and how do you organize it. She recommends Kajabi as the platform. There’s so many ways you could do something.

 

I find with coaches and courses, they’re just a guide for you. They’re just there to kind of provide you a path they’ve gone before you, they know what to do, what works. They share it with you. Could you do it yourself? Certainly, but working with these kinds of people, coaches, and courses, saves you a lot of time.

 

[BREAK]

 

[0:13:38] SO: I’m Sarah Ohanesian, founder of SO Productive, a productivity training and consulting company. Teams I work with get more done. They experience improved processes, greater productivity, and increased efficiency, all without stress and burnout. If you want to improve your performance, or the performance of your team, visit so-productive.com, and get started today. I offer conference keynotes, one-on-one coaching, and hands-on corporate workshops, all focused on increasing productivity and time management. Let’s discuss how SO Productive can supercharge your organization. Links are in the show notes.

 

[0:14:21] DC: Our last category of resources to invest in your time management journey are podcasts or a podcast that you love. Now, obviously, we do a podcast together. If you are listening to it, you already love it as much as we do. We can just say thank you so much for your time, and your attention, and for investing your time in this program. If this is your first time to the program, Sarah and I basically talk about very specific, usually a single subject that we can apply time management and productivity to help people.

 

When I say people, the audience that we’re trying to help are salespeople, marketing people, and people who work in corporations, and things of that nature. They’re trying to get some of their life back and make their lives a little – or their communication, at least streamline it because of remote people. You’ve got your Slack things, and people are WhatsApp’ing a lot now. So we really focus on that. But you did list a few other shows, including a new podcast that you’re coming out with. Why don’t we start with that one?

 

[0:15:38] SO: Yes. The show we’re about to launch is called The Productivity Spectrum, and that’s speaking to the different brain types on your team. What different brains are on your team? How can they work together? There’s terms as we talk about in the neurodiversity space that you might not know what those terms are. We’re calling these are neuro spicy moments, we’re sharing what those are, and some definitions, even. Because again, for a lot of people, this is a space they haven’t spent a lot of time in. Part of it is education, and the other part is, what can you actually do to help all the people on your team thrive no matter what type of brand they have. That will be launching later this spring.

 

The next one I have is a time-saving one, for me, at least. One of the things I noticed was a lot of – back when people do time tracking, one of the things some of my clients were noticing is how much time they spend consuming news. Then, also, talking about the news, complaining about the news. One of the podcasts I love is called The Excerpt. It’s by USA TODAY. It is your news in about 10 to 15 minutes. I listen to it at about a 1.5 speed, even, so I get through it really, really quick, while I’m putting my makeup on in the morning, I get my news. If there’s something that really interests me, I can choose to go consume more of it. But for the most part, I’m like, “Okay, I got it. I know what’s happening in the world.” That’s a really good one for – if you want to stop potentially wasting time on news, get it quickly in the podcast.

 

Two more are work related. One is called Work Life with Adam Grant. Adam Grant is awesome, he’s a professor at Penn, does a lot of great research and work in that space. That’s a lot around the psychology, organizational spaces at work, talks a lot about different work topics. Then, the other one comes from Harvard Business Review. It’s called Women at Work. I know, Deborah, that’s close to both of our hearts. What are some of these topics that are really relevant to women in the workplace, and what’s trendy, and what are we doing about it. Those specific topics that really affect women especially. Those are a few of my favorite podcasts.

 

[0:17:37] DC: Excellent. Before we end this podcast, I just want to go back to our course section, and invite you to share about the courses that you actually offer and how people out there could work with you.,

 

[0:17:49] SO: Yes, love it. Do coaching and courses. The course is called Command the Chaos. It is my four-step process to help busy professionals get more done. There are seven modules in the course, they release once a week. It’s really on-demand learning, it’s do it at your own pace, and there’s a lot of actionable activities. One of my big things was – I hate when you take a course, or you go to a conference, and you come back, and you’re like, “What a notebook full of things, but I don’t know. Wait a minute. I don’t have time to implement.”

 

I actually installed inside the videos, I was like, “Ten minutes, right now, do it now.” I think that that’s been really helpful for people. Then, of course, offer coaching as well for one-on-one coaching that really – let’s take some of those principles you hear on this podcast that you might get in the course. How can we implement that in your own life, and in your real life, and the realities of the work, the job, the family that you have?

 

[0:18:42] DC: Sarah will also be part of the Girls Who Print Conference at America’s Print Show, coming up in Cleveland, Ohio on May 8. Thank you so much for joining us there. Thank you so much for joining me here, and really investing your time, and helping the Printerverse become more productive. All the links for everything we mentioned today, except that jabi thing.

 

[0:19:03] SO: Kajabi.

 

[0:19:04] DC: You have to send that to me. But don’t worry, everybody, if you’re listening to it, the link is down there. Otherwise, everything else has been provided by Sarah, it’s in the show notes. Feel free to get in touch with us if you think anything is missing. Until next time, everybody, print long, be productive long. and prosper.

 

[END OF EPISODE]

 

[0:19:26] DC: Thanks for listening to Podcasts From the Printerverse. Please subscribe, click some stars, and leave us a review. Connect with us through printmediacentr.com. We’d love to hear your feedback on our shows and topics that are of interest for future broadcasts. Until next time, thanks for joining us. Print long and prosper.

 

[END]

 

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