November 16, 2023 • 25 mins
Ever felt lost in a sea of tasks, distracted, burnt out? Take a breath and step into a transformative conversation with Jerry Anathan, a celebrated peak performance coach. Jerry has a knack for unlocking the optimal state of consciousness – the flow state, where productivity thrives and burnouts are banished. She's here to demystify and share her neuroscience-backed techniques that can help you tap into this power state, ensuring you perform at your best.
Get ready to turn the chaos of your day into a well-charted journey, with planning as your trusty compass. Picture this - your planner, akin to a weather forecast, equipping you to face the deluge of data and distractions. Jerry reveals how smart time blocking and effective planning can be your game-changer, enabling you to navigate obstacles and work smarter, not harder. By mastering self-care and time management, you're set to unlock a life that's not just productive, but also deeply fulfilling. So, strap in and prepare for a journey to peak performance. Jerry is here to guide you every step of the way.
Jerry's contact information: CLICK HERE
Link to purchase Plan For Success digital downloads (both digital planner for iPad and printable PDF pages available): CLICK HERE
YouTube video on how to use Plan For Success and Lauren's tips for time blocking: CLICK HERE
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everybody.
Real quick announcement beforewe get into today's podcast,
which happens to be all aboutplanning your time effectively
and working smarter, not harder.
I have a planner for sale andthe link is in the description
of the show.
You can also go tonursingstudentcoachcom and click
on the planner tab and you'llfind everything you need right
(00:22):
there.
It is a digital download thatyou can put right away on your
iPad and use with programs likegood notes, notability, things
like that, and then I also havean option to print pages if you
like to have a physicalsomething to work with with pen
and paper.
And, coming soon there will bea hard copy on Amazon, but for
(00:45):
now it is a digital download anda printable PDF file that you
can purchase at a discountedrate on nursingstudentcoachcom.
I also have a YouTube videothat came out today.
I'll put all the links in thedescription of today's podcast
and that gives you sort of astep by step how to guide on how
to use this particular plannerand my strategies for time
(01:08):
blocking.
And now on to today's show.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
It's the nursing student coach.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Hi everybody and welcome back to nursing student
coach.
My name is Lauren Chapnick andI am your host.
This is a show for nursingstudents to be more successful
in nursing school.
This episode is not only fornursing students.
It is for anybody and everybodywho wants to get themselves in
(02:06):
a better mental state, to bemore productive.
And we are speaking with JerryAnnathon today.
She is a phenomenal person andshe really speaks my language.
She is all about establishinggood habits to be the most
productive and get into the beststate that you can get into, as
she calls it, the flow state,and she is a peak performance
(02:31):
coach.
She will tell you exactly whatthat means.
She is the founder of Annathonadvisors, as well as
neuroscience for leadership.
She is also a brain healthjunkie and avid hiker, so I
would like to welcome JerryAnnathon.
Hi, jerry, I'm so glad thatyou're here with us.
(02:53):
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
It's my pleasure, lauren.
Thank you for inviting me, ofcourse.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
So, jerry, you are a peak performance coach.
What exactly does it mean to bea peak performance coach?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yes, so that's a great question.
I work with a lot of leaders,but you know, in day to day life
we're always leading, we'releading ourselves, and I think
that's really the most importantaspect to what I do as a coach.
I help people get into what youmight think of as a flow state.
So I'm very much into flowstate research and flow state is
(03:28):
really that optimal state ofconsciousness where you feel
your best, you're performing atyour best and you're really
literally performing at yourpeak, and that could be anything
from studying to doingsomething athletic or something
creative.
So I help my clients tap intothat through a variety of ways
neuroscience, habit forming,behavior, all kinds of things
(03:52):
like that.
So I started as a life coach.
I worked with a lot of youngerpeople, people in college.
I helped a number of people.
Some of my first clients werepeople who were in nursing or
medical school and it's justamazing to see where they are in
their lives now.
This was 10 years ago, so Iunderstand the struggle of being
a student and all of thepulling priorities a person may
(04:17):
have when they're going throughthat experience.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
That's amazing I didn't know that that some of
your first clients were nursingstudents.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
That's so exciting yeah yeah, and a couple of them
I'm still working with.
The work does pay off and Ithink it's all about you.
Know how do you control thehere and now in a way that feels
good and avoid burnout at thesame time?
Speaker 1 (04:36):
So Definitely so.
We are talking about planningyour time, and time blocking.
So what would you say ifsomebody has never used a
planner before, they've nevermapped out their day in advance?
Can you tell them why you thinkthat is such an important thing
to do?
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Sure, it's sort of a kind of a funny analogy is you
know you might really be intohiking and so you decide you're
going to do a pretty monumentalhike.
Well, you might get to the baseof the mountain and just have
you know you've got yourequipment with you, but you have
no idea where you're going orwhat it's going to look like.
You don't know what thelighting conditions or the wind
or weather conditions are.
Having a plan and preparing fordistractions and obstacles is
(05:23):
super important.
Not only will it help thestudent or the person do more
work and do it well, but it alsopsychologically sets you up for
success, because you'rebeginning to take control of all
of the data that's coming atyou and organize it in a way
(05:44):
that you're controlling itrather than it controlling you.
You know, and the basis of thatis knowing what goes where and
when and getting back to thatstate of feeling calm about it.
I think what happens in a lot ofcases is that the idea of all
this planning creates a strugglein the mind and it sets off
(06:05):
neurochemicals like cortisol andnorepinephrine and we start to
get, we feel the friction.
You know, you can just start tofeel that sense of friction,
you start to tighten up, and ifwe can sort of methodologically
take control of that, of what'scoming up for us, it really
helps in a number of ways.
So I would say, if you've neverdone it before or you've just
(06:28):
done it minimally, you know,just be open to try new ways of
planning.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
And it's not.
It's using a planner andplanning out your day.
It's not there to bring youmore stress or to think that you
have to do exactly what's onyour plan.
It's just a forecast.
I think of it sometimes as aweather forecast, and I love
your analogy of climbing themountain, because something as
daunting as doing well on anexam or passing nursing school,
(06:56):
for example, it's this hugething.
And so how are you going to getthere?
And play for it, Just thatmindset I think is so important,
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
You know not to go too deep into flow and flow
state, but there is a cycle offlow.
So we're never always in flowlike, oh, everything's great,
I'm in flow.
We're lucky if we get to flowfor an hour a day because of
just the way life is set up formost people.
But it's that struggle phasewhen we're planning to plan or
sitting down to plan, that'swhen you start to feel a
(07:28):
struggle because at that momentit's still very overwhelming and
that's a natural.
That means you're getting readyfor success.
That feeling of anxiety andstress and as we sit down to our
desk to do those things, thatstruggle is the precursor for a
flow state.
The flow is the actual deepwork where you're sitting down
to study or you're sitting downto go through those formulas or
(07:50):
memorizing terms or processes.
That's the flow state.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
You think the flow is when all your neurotransmitters
are just connected, like youare just in it, and you are 100%
focused on that one thing thatyou're doing Exactly, you're
focused on that one thing.
It's like a tunnel.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
It's like a tunnel and not to get super nerdy but
there is a chemical release, aneurochemical release.
Yes, it creates a state likethis particular combination of
neurochemicals doesn't happenany other time, unless you're in
flow state, and what happens isyour prefrontal cortex kind of
takes a backseat and it relaxesand allows the release of these
(08:30):
five particular neurochemicals.
You've got things happeninglike dopamine, serotonin.
All the good things arehappening at once and it's
optimal.
So you don't feel anxiety, youdon't feel excited, you just
feel connected.
It's that state where hours cango by and you don't even know
what happens.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah, it's wonderful.
It's when, for me, I feel likethat's when I'm connected with
my true purpose, like that'swhen the universe aligns with
what I'm doing and it feels likewhat I'm doing is the right
thing and I am so focused on it.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yeah, is that right?
It is, and I know you and Iknow that you tap into that and
you have had to really createthe time and the energy and the
space to do that and you do itfrequently and I think you have
a wonderful way of having set upyour life.
It takes a lot of pre-planningto do that and it takes a
commitment to yourself.
You're not committing to anyoneelse to do this kind of work.
(09:23):
Thank you, your community tohave a more optimal lifestyle.
And this was really studied inhigh performing athletes, people
who took a lot of risks.
You can watch some of theseclimbing movies and Alex Honold.
It's incredible informationthat was derived originally from
(09:45):
these athletes.
But now we're able to take thatsame kind of those processes
and bring them into day-to-daylife and that's really the.
That's when you really takemastery of your own life, to say
, hey, I really do want to dothis right, I want to give
myself a chance to live in thisstate that feels so good.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah, and I think ironically I just did an episode
about feeding your soul andrecharging yourself and how you
really can't get to the state ofbeing productive if you're not
caring for yourself and kind ofhitting the reset button by
performing things like self-care, like doing your morning
(10:25):
routine and exercising andthings like that.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
That's absolutely right.
Part of the flow cycle includesboth this release and the
recovery, so those are just asimportant as the actual flow
state itself.
So taking that time for what'scalled active recovery, where
you're not necessarily zoningout watching Netflix, but you're
taking a walk or you're doingyoga, nidra, or you're doing
something really special foryourself, but it's helping you
(10:52):
to kind of rebalance any kind ofadjustments with dopamine and
just getting you back to a nicecalm baseline before you go back
into that struggle phase andthen repeat the cycle.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yeah, it takes work and I think all of us probably
just want to hit that magicbutton.
It should be like put me in theflow state because I have to
study Exactly so planning andtime blocking is one way that I
definitely do that.
But for somebody who's new totime blocking and planning and
has or maybe has struggles withit, what would you say?
(11:24):
What is time blocking first ofall, and how would you start
doing it if you've never done itbefore?
Speaker 3 (11:31):
So time blocking is.
There are a number of ways totime block.
Basically, the simplest way oflooking at it is on a Sunday, I
would sit down with myself, havea meeting, map out just an hour
.
It doesn't have to be a lot ofhard thinking, but you're just
going to make a list of all thethings that you need to get done
that week.
This is on Sunday and ideally,because self care is so
(11:55):
important, the first thing youdo for those let's just imagine
you're only planning out Mondaythrough Friday the first thing,
the most important thing, is tomap out when you are going to a
exercise, whatever that meansfor you.
It could be yoga, it could berunning, it could be hiking,
whatever.
So ideally, every day you'regoing to reserve some time for
(12:17):
yourself for that type of selfcare.
As hard as it is to reallybelieve this and not roll your
eyes, that is more importantthan any other test, any other
exam, anything, because withoutthat level of self care you're
just not going to be able toperform.
It's just the way it is.
It's a fact.
So I agree, you will feel achange in your neurochemistry
(12:39):
when you reserve that time foryourself, because you're
actually taking care of yourself.
You're saying I'm important andI'm taking care of myself, so
you map that out.
Then you don't want to have anymore than three really high
projects, goals or tasks eachday.
You know I mean three chunkyones.
I think one or two is actuallyenough.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
And I call it your must for the day.
What is your one thing?
You must get done.
Yes, that's great.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
And then you think, well, okay, here's the thing.
Let's say, study for exam.
Well, that's not very specific,so what are you going to study?
What pieces are you going tostudy?
And you put those into a block.
You know If it's reading oneparticular chapter and looking
at one research paper, that'sawesome.
Put it in the time block.
And what I like to do, I use aregular planner, like a paper
(13:32):
planner, but I also use my.
I use the simple Mac calendaron my Apple, but I have, like,
yellow means a workout, greenmeans my master's program or you
know, a darker green iscoaching.
So when I quickly look at myday, I'm like there's my yellow,
I'm taking care of myself andgreat, I have a lot of clients
today.
Or great, I'm doing a podcastor a talk or something like that
.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
I love that you can pull out different highlighters
if you use a planner Exactly, ordo it on your computer.
I think that's really smart,and if there's no yellow or
whatever color you've deemedyour self care, you better put
that in Exactly, exactly, yourpriority, exactly.
I love that.
And I love what you've told mein the past too, which is don't
beat yourself up if one of thetime blocks has to move,
(14:14):
absolutely.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
That's light.
Think of them as little likepieces that you can just pick up
and drop somewhere else.
That's no problem.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
What about planning the day before for the upcoming
day?
Can we talk a little bit aboutthat?
How important it is Because Ido one day at a time.
I do make my list for the weekon Sunday, right For the week,
and then I kind of look aheadand say, okay, I'm going to do
one day at a time because youdon't know what you're going to
accomplish.
No, you don't, you don't.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
You know, if there's something like if you know, for
example, you've got an exam andyou've got a meeting with a
professor, at least you canblock those out later in the
week, like you know the realthing.
But for most of us you're right.
Oh, I got more done on myproject on Monday, so I don't
need to do a Tuesday or theopposite.
Oops, I didn't quite get toeverything.
I thought I could Got to bumpit into the next day, but the
(15:04):
more granular you can kind ofchunk things down.
So everything from maybe whatyou're going to wear the next
day to what meals you're goingto have the next day.
I know it sounds so like, oh,I'm in second grade and I'm
laying out my clothes for thenext day, but it honestly takes.
It just eliminates all of thatneed to.
You know, it makes us clear, itmakes us intentional and it
(15:26):
eliminates any distractions thatmight come our way.
So the way you see it on thenext day it's like you're not
even you know you don't havedecision fatigue where you're
like what should I work on?
You know, should I study forthe test or should I send some
emails?
You know specifically whatyou're going to do and you do it
, so I just give it a try.
I know, lauren, when you and Ifirst talked about it, you were
(15:47):
like the night before.
That sounds good.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
I know now I can't not do it the day before and it
just makes so much more sense Ifyou've never used a planner
before, if you never really mapout your day and you just kind
of wing it.
You have a day and you say I'mjust going to study or I'm going
to get work done.
Try mapping it out, tryplanning it a little bit and see
(16:11):
how it works for you.
Because I think the people whodo it and the people who stick
to their plan they are labeledas motivated, like they're so
driven, they're so motivated.
I wish I had that motivationand I always say there's no such
thing as a motivated person.
Nobody's motivated.
They just do it anyway whenthey don't feel like it and then
(16:32):
they get to that place of flowof Exactly no productivity.
So if you just take the stepsto do it, knowing why you're
doing it you want to be a nurse,you want to get a promotion at
work, whatever it is then it'ssuch a beautiful thing you can
do for yourself to plan.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
It is, it is.
And you know I think a lot ofpeople are probably thinking but
wait a minute, I have how am Igoing to?
You know, I always have torespond to emails.
I have, you know, things I needto do for my kids, all of this
other stuff.
Well, certainly we do.
We have that.
So chunk those out too.
So, for example, we all havethose little.
So it's as Cal and the Newportwould say you know, we have deep
(17:15):
work and then we have more likeshallow, what I call splintered
work.
Splintered work would be likereturning emails, paying bills,
you know, checking our bankingaccount, checking the stock
market, whatever it might bethose little things that
distract us.
So you create a time block justfor those things and you list
them and you just bang them outand you check them off either
with your hand or with a digitaldevice, and it feels so good
(17:37):
Like you're like getting alittle dope.
I mean because you're nailingall those little things, but you
don't want to do those specificthings during your peak time.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Right, all those extra things like the laundry
and scheduling appointments.
They feel so important, andthen you check them off and you
say, oh, I checked off all thesethings, but then your major
task isn't done.
So I think the thing that isyour must for the day, the one
thing that you have to get done,are the two things schedule
those first.
(18:07):
Yeah, yeah.
And then you feel like, if Idon't do anything else, at least
I got those two things done andthat that was the most
important thing.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Yeah, yeah, that's great.
Another thing you know when you, if you, if you're using a
paper planner or even a digitalone, it's fun to.
I had one guy that I workedwith for years.
He had ADD ADHD, like many ofus do, and so for him he needed
every single piece of every dayto have a color, whether, in
(18:36):
other words, there were no gaps,there were no non assigned
times in his day, and it waseverything from eating, working
out lectures, talking to hisgirlfriend on the phone, calling
a friend like we built in.
It's very important to have ourconnections, our social
connections.
So, you know, you build in timeto reach out to a friend and
(18:57):
that gives you a sense ofsatisfaction as well.
It's super.
But you can be as elaborate asyou want.
There's no pressure to be thatdetailed, but it works for him
and it works for a lot of people.
You have to find the sweet spotthat works for you.
And back to leadership.
You have to lead yourself.
Not only, you know, alwaysdoing what's most comfortable or
(19:19):
kind of the easy way to getthrough the stuff, but sitting
back and saying how can I mostbe engaged in this time in my
life?
You know, how can I make thisjust an amazing experience that
has meaning, and is theremeaning in learning the terms
for certain neurochemicals orcertain pharmacological elements
(19:41):
?
Sure there is, but you can alsoreally kind of love it and find
a way to bond with it.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, I agree, that's the ideal.
Yeah, for sure.
What would you say to somebodywho has made a plan and then
they just didn't stick to it atall and they feel like giving up
and they're really down onthemselves.
Who's like, ah, this is nevergoing to work for me.
What would you say to thatperson?
Speaker 3 (20:06):
You know it's interesting.
I was listening to I don't knowif you've heard of the Huberman
Lab podcast, but he's reallyinterested in bringing science
and protocols together.
He's great.
But I was listening tosomething on motivation this
morning and someone had writtenin to him saying you know, I go
through these bouts of likebeing totally motivated and then
(20:26):
completely like a completeinertia.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
You know and.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
I think it's natural to go through those ebbs and
flows.
Typically what's happening whenwe're lacking that motivation,
it's not our minds, it's wehaven't rested, we haven't like
let our sort of neurochemistryeven out, we haven't been good
to ourselves, so we're literallyburned out from even the idea
(20:50):
of what might be coming ahead.
And so that's the time whereyou just have to sort of like
wipe off your boots and whateveryone called lace up your
boots, say you know, startingtomorrow I'm going to change
this, and so with almost any ofmy clients that I work with one
on one, if they're going throughthat, you know it's like okay,
this Sunday, buddy, we'regetting on it you know we're
(21:11):
going to start with the protocol.
We're going to start right after.
You're going to start planningyour week Every day.
At the end of the day, you'regoing to just be gentle with
yourself, be loving to yourself.
But you know, let's get a fewthings done.
Let's just see what thismomentum might feel like.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Just start just start yourself.
Give yourself some grace.
Yeah, take a reset, listen toyour body and then just start
again.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Absolutely, absolutely.
And, as we know, and more andmore research is coming out all
the time, we have to get thatsleep, even if we're staying up
super late to study, we've thengot to make it up somehow, you
know, trying not to havecaffeine within like eight hours
of going to sleep, which isreally hard, so sure I don't
know about that, jerry, butwe'll see I know right.
And if you can't sleep, don'tbeat yourself up.
(21:59):
Get up and do something youknow, yeah, yeah.
I agree with you, it's okay.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Yeah, just get a little grace to yourself and
just start again is Right theway I look at it.
Yeah, and then you're not gonnastick to it every single day.
It's just it's there, it'sthere is your roadmap, it's
there as your GPS and, yeah, youcan change course and still
kind of get to the end, exactly,yeah exactly and knowing that
(22:26):
you know there will come a time.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
You know While you're in that flow state it's not
gonna last five hours.
We're lucky if it lasts acouple of hours.
So you know building in, youknow there are different
techniques 25 minutes working,five minutes Not working.
Come back, start right whereyou left off, or just sticking
with like an hour and a halftime lock whatever it.
You have to figure out whatworks for you.
But do experiment with it, doit with intention.
(22:50):
Make notes about hey, I'mFeeling really good at in the
morning and by 2, 30 pm I'mfeeling a little bit of a leg.
Just start really interactingwith yourself in that way and
give it one week ofexperimentation and, you know,
make notes about it so you canreally see the progress that you
make.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
I think that's really good advice and I love the 25
minutes on five minutes off.
I do the 27 three, which is 27?
I like the 27, it works for me.
The 27 three, it's really good.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
The most important thing is to know what you're
going to do, so that when yousit down to do it, there is
nothing that could take you awayfrom it.
Yeah, you know, short of a fire.
You know short of a fire.
So the biggest thing to planfor Is everything.
Yeah, I'm your water Bespecific with those time blocks.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Yeah Well, jerry.
Thank you so much.
This was so helpful and such agreat conversation.
If there's anybody out therewho wants to contact you, what
would be the best way?
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Um, I think the easiest way you could go to my
website it's a newer website,it's not built out, but there's
a contact button there and it'seasy to to remember because it's
neuroscience for leadershipcom.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Great.
I'll put the link in thedescription of the show.
People can contact you there.
Well, thank you so much.
This was so much fun and we'lltalk to you soon.
Thank you, thanks, lauren.
Thanks a lot, bye, bye.
Well, that's it for today.
Jerry, thank you so much fortaking the time to speak with me
.
I know that so many people willbenefit from listening to that
(24:25):
conversation and I thank you somuch again.
You can go to nursing studentcoach calm to join our mailing
list.
I will put all of jerry'sinformation in the links to the
show if you want to get in touchwith her and, as always, it is
my personal mission to help putmore great nurses into the world
(24:46):
.
Thank you for your help indoing that by listening and
sharing the show with someoneyou know and love, and if you
could pull out your phone andgive us a quick five star rating
, I would appreciate it so much.
Have an awesome day and we'llsee you the next time.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Bye, bye, thanks for tuning in to the nursing student
coach podcast.
Hi everybody.
Real quick announcement beforewe get into today's podcast,
which happens to be all aboutplanning your time effectively
and working smarter, not harder.
I have a planner for sale andthe link is in the description
of the show.
You can also go tonursingstudentcoachcom and click
on the planner tab and you'llfind everything you need right
(00:22):
there.
It is a digital download thatyou can put right away on your
iPad and use with programs likegood notes, notability, things
like that, and then I also havean option to print pages if you
like to have a physicalsomething to work with with pen
and paper.
And, coming soon there will bea hard copy on Amazon, but for
(00:45):
now it is a digital download anda printable PDF file that you
can purchase at a discountedrate on nursingstudentcoachcom.
I also have a YouTube videothat came out today.
I'll put all the links in thedescription of today's podcast
and that gives you sort of astep by step how to guide on how
to use this particular plannerand my strategies for time
(01:08):
blocking.
And now on to today's show.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
It's the nursing student coach.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Hi everybody and welcome back to nursing student
coach.
My name is Lauren Chapnick andI am your host.
This is a show for nursingstudents to be more successful
in nursing school.
This episode is not only fornursing students.
It is for anybody and everybodywho wants to get themselves in
(02:06):
a better mental state, to bemore productive.
And we are speaking with JerryAnnathon today.
She is a phenomenal person andshe really speaks my language.
She is all about establishinggood habits to be the most
productive and get into the beststate that you can get into, as
she calls it, the flow state,and she is a peak performance
(02:31):
coach.
She will tell you exactly whatthat means.
She is the founder of Annathonadvisors, as well as
neuroscience for leadership.
She is also a brain healthjunkie and avid hiker, so I
would like to welcome JerryAnnathon.
Hi, jerry, I'm so glad thatyou're here with us.
(02:53):
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
It's my pleasure, lauren.
Thank you for inviting me, ofcourse.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
So, jerry, you are a peak performance coach.
What exactly does it mean to bea peak performance coach?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yes, so that's a great question.
I work with a lot of leaders,but you know, in day to day life
we're always leading, we'releading ourselves, and I think
that's really the most importantaspect to what I do as a coach.
I help people get into what youmight think of as a flow state.
So I'm very much into flowstate research and flow state is
(03:28):
really that optimal state ofconsciousness where you feel
your best, you're performing atyour best and you're really
literally performing at yourpeak, and that could be anything
from studying to doingsomething athletic or something
creative.
So I help my clients tap intothat through a variety of ways
neuroscience, habit forming,behavior, all kinds of things
(03:52):
like that.
So I started as a life coach.
I worked with a lot of youngerpeople, people in college.
I helped a number of people.
Some of my first clients werepeople who were in nursing or
medical school and it's justamazing to see where they are in
their lives now.
This was 10 years ago, so Iunderstand the struggle of being
a student and all of thepulling priorities a person may
(04:17):
have when they're going throughthat experience.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
That's amazing I didn't know that that some of
your first clients were nursingstudents.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
That's so exciting yeah yeah, and a couple of them
I'm still working with.
The work does pay off and Ithink it's all about you.
Know how do you control thehere and now in a way that feels
good and avoid burnout at thesame time?
Speaker 1 (04:36):
So Definitely so.
We are talking about planningyour time, and time blocking.
So what would you say ifsomebody has never used a
planner before, they've nevermapped out their day in advance?
Can you tell them why you thinkthat is such an important thing
to do?
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Sure, it's sort of a kind of a funny analogy is you
know you might really be intohiking and so you decide you're
going to do a pretty monumentalhike.
Well, you might get to the baseof the mountain and just have
you know you've got yourequipment with you, but you have
no idea where you're going orwhat it's going to look like.
You don't know what thelighting conditions or the wind
or weather conditions are.
Having a plan and preparing fordistractions and obstacles is
(05:23):
super important.
Not only will it help thestudent or the person do more
work and do it well, but it alsopsychologically sets you up for
success, because you'rebeginning to take control of all
of the data that's coming atyou and organize it in a way
(05:44):
that you're controlling itrather than it controlling you.
You know, and the basis of thatis knowing what goes where and
when and getting back to thatstate of feeling calm about it.
I think what happens in a lot ofcases is that the idea of all
this planning creates a strugglein the mind and it sets off
(06:05):
neurochemicals like cortisol andnorepinephrine and we start to
get, we feel the friction.
You know, you can just start tofeel that sense of friction,
you start to tighten up, and ifwe can sort of methodologically
take control of that, of what'scoming up for us, it really
helps in a number of ways.
So I would say, if you've neverdone it before or you've just
(06:28):
done it minimally, you know,just be open to try new ways of
planning.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
And it's not.
It's using a planner andplanning out your day.
It's not there to bring youmore stress or to think that you
have to do exactly what's onyour plan.
It's just a forecast.
I think of it sometimes as aweather forecast, and I love
your analogy of climbing themountain, because something as
daunting as doing well on anexam or passing nursing school,
(06:56):
for example, it's this hugething.
And so how are you going to getthere?
And play for it, Just thatmindset I think is so important,
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
You know not to go too deep into flow and flow
state, but there is a cycle offlow.
So we're never always in flowlike, oh, everything's great,
I'm in flow.
We're lucky if we get to flowfor an hour a day because of
just the way life is set up formost people.
But it's that struggle phasewhen we're planning to plan or
sitting down to plan, that'swhen you start to feel a
(07:28):
struggle because at that momentit's still very overwhelming and
that's a natural.
That means you're getting readyfor success.
That feeling of anxiety andstress and as we sit down to our
desk to do those things, thatstruggle is the precursor for a
flow state.
The flow is the actual deepwork where you're sitting down
to study or you're sitting downto go through those formulas or
(07:50):
memorizing terms or processes.
That's the flow state.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
You think the flow is when all your neurotransmitters
are just connected, like youare just in it, and you are 100%
focused on that one thing thatyou're doing Exactly, you're
focused on that one thing.
It's like a tunnel.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
It's like a tunnel and not to get super nerdy but
there is a chemical release, aneurochemical release.
Yes, it creates a state likethis particular combination of
neurochemicals doesn't happenany other time, unless you're in
flow state, and what happens isyour prefrontal cortex kind of
takes a backseat and it relaxesand allows the release of these
(08:30):
five particular neurochemicals.
You've got things happeninglike dopamine, serotonin.
All the good things arehappening at once and it's
optimal.
So you don't feel anxiety, youdon't feel excited, you just
feel connected.
It's that state where hours cango by and you don't even know
what happens.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah, it's wonderful.
It's when, for me, I feel likethat's when I'm connected with
my true purpose, like that'swhen the universe aligns with
what I'm doing and it feels likewhat I'm doing is the right
thing and I am so focused on it.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yeah, is that right?
It is, and I know you and Iknow that you tap into that and
you have had to really createthe time and the energy and the
space to do that and you do itfrequently and I think you have
a wonderful way of having set upyour life.
It takes a lot of pre-planningto do that and it takes a
commitment to yourself.
You're not committing to anyoneelse to do this kind of work.
(09:23):
Thank you, your community tohave a more optimal lifestyle.
And this was really studied inhigh performing athletes, people
who took a lot of risks.
You can watch some of theseclimbing movies and Alex Honold.
It's incredible informationthat was derived originally from
(09:45):
these athletes.
But now we're able to take thatsame kind of those processes
and bring them into day-to-daylife and that's really the.
That's when you really takemastery of your own life, to say
, hey, I really do want to dothis right, I want to give
myself a chance to live in thisstate that feels so good.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah, and I think ironically I just did an episode
about feeding your soul andrecharging yourself and how you
really can't get to the state ofbeing productive if you're not
caring for yourself and kind ofhitting the reset button by
performing things like self-care, like doing your morning
(10:25):
routine and exercising andthings like that.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
That's absolutely right.
Part of the flow cycle includesboth this release and the
recovery, so those are just asimportant as the actual flow
state itself.
So taking that time for what'scalled active recovery, where
you're not necessarily zoningout watching Netflix, but you're
taking a walk or you're doingyoga, nidra, or you're doing
something really special foryourself, but it's helping you
(10:52):
to kind of rebalance any kind ofadjustments with dopamine and
just getting you back to a nicecalm baseline before you go back
into that struggle phase andthen repeat the cycle.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yeah, it takes work and I think all of us probably
just want to hit that magicbutton.
It should be like put me in theflow state because I have to
study Exactly so planning andtime blocking is one way that I
definitely do that.
But for somebody who's new totime blocking and planning and
has or maybe has struggles withit, what would you say?
(11:24):
What is time blocking first ofall, and how would you start
doing it if you've never done itbefore?
Speaker 3 (11:31):
So time blocking is.
There are a number of ways totime block.
Basically, the simplest way oflooking at it is on a Sunday, I
would sit down with myself, havea meeting, map out just an hour
.
It doesn't have to be a lot ofhard thinking, but you're just
going to make a list of all thethings that you need to get done
that week.
This is on Sunday and ideally,because self care is so
(11:55):
important, the first thing youdo for those let's just imagine
you're only planning out Mondaythrough Friday the first thing,
the most important thing, is tomap out when you are going to a
exercise, whatever that meansfor you.
It could be yoga, it could berunning, it could be hiking,
whatever.
So ideally, every day you'regoing to reserve some time for
(12:17):
yourself for that type of selfcare.
As hard as it is to reallybelieve this and not roll your
eyes, that is more importantthan any other test, any other
exam, anything, because withoutthat level of self care you're
just not going to be able toperform.
It's just the way it is.
It's a fact.
So I agree, you will feel achange in your neurochemistry
(12:39):
when you reserve that time foryourself, because you're
actually taking care of yourself.
You're saying I'm important andI'm taking care of myself, so
you map that out.
Then you don't want to have anymore than three really high
projects, goals or tasks eachday.
You know I mean three chunkyones.
I think one or two is actuallyenough.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
And I call it your must for the day.
What is your one thing?
You must get done.
Yes, that's great.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
And then you think, well, okay, here's the thing.
Let's say, study for exam.
Well, that's not very specific,so what are you going to study?
What pieces are you going tostudy?
And you put those into a block.
You know If it's reading oneparticular chapter and looking
at one research paper, that'sawesome.
Put it in the time block.
And what I like to do, I use aregular planner, like a paper
(13:32):
planner, but I also use my.
I use the simple Mac calendaron my Apple, but I have, like,
yellow means a workout, greenmeans my master's program or you
know, a darker green iscoaching.
So when I quickly look at myday, I'm like there's my yellow,
I'm taking care of myself andgreat, I have a lot of clients
today.
Or great, I'm doing a podcastor a talk or something like that
.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
I love that you can pull out different highlighters
if you use a planner Exactly, ordo it on your computer.
I think that's really smart,and if there's no yellow or
whatever color you've deemedyour self care, you better put
that in Exactly, exactly, yourpriority, exactly.
I love that.
And I love what you've told mein the past too, which is don't
beat yourself up if one of thetime blocks has to move,
(14:14):
absolutely.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
That's light.
Think of them as little likepieces that you can just pick up
and drop somewhere else.
That's no problem.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
What about planning the day before for the upcoming
day?
Can we talk a little bit aboutthat?
How important it is Because Ido one day at a time.
I do make my list for the weekon Sunday, right For the week,
and then I kind of look aheadand say, okay, I'm going to do
one day at a time because youdon't know what you're going to
accomplish.
No, you don't, you don't.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
You know, if there's something like if you know, for
example, you've got an exam andyou've got a meeting with a
professor, at least you canblock those out later in the
week, like you know the realthing.
But for most of us you're right.
Oh, I got more done on myproject on Monday, so I don't
need to do a Tuesday or theopposite.
Oops, I didn't quite get toeverything.
I thought I could Got to bumpit into the next day, but the
(15:04):
more granular you can kind ofchunk things down.
So everything from maybe whatyou're going to wear the next
day to what meals you're goingto have the next day.
I know it sounds so like, oh,I'm in second grade and I'm
laying out my clothes for thenext day, but it honestly takes.
It just eliminates all of thatneed to.
You know, it makes us clear, itmakes us intentional and it
(15:26):
eliminates any distractions thatmight come our way.
So the way you see it on thenext day it's like you're not
even you know you don't havedecision fatigue where you're
like what should I work on?
You know, should I study forthe test or should I send some
emails?
You know specifically whatyou're going to do and you do it
, so I just give it a try.
I know, lauren, when you and Ifirst talked about it, you were
(15:47):
like the night before.
That sounds good.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
I know now I can't not do it the day before and it
just makes so much more sense Ifyou've never used a planner
before, if you never really mapout your day and you just kind
of wing it.
You have a day and you say I'mjust going to study or I'm going
to get work done.
Try mapping it out, tryplanning it a little bit and see
(16:11):
how it works for you.
Because I think the people whodo it and the people who stick
to their plan they are labeledas motivated, like they're so
driven, they're so motivated.
I wish I had that motivationand I always say there's no such
thing as a motivated person.
Nobody's motivated.
They just do it anyway whenthey don't feel like it and then
(16:32):
they get to that place of flowof Exactly no productivity.
So if you just take the stepsto do it, knowing why you're
doing it you want to be a nurse,you want to get a promotion at
work, whatever it is then it'ssuch a beautiful thing you can
do for yourself to plan.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
It is, it is.
And you know I think a lot ofpeople are probably thinking but
wait a minute, I have how am Igoing to?
You know, I always have torespond to emails.
I have, you know, things I needto do for my kids, all of this
other stuff.
Well, certainly we do.
We have that.
So chunk those out too.
So, for example, we all havethose little.
So it's as Cal and the Newportwould say you know, we have deep
(17:15):
work and then we have more likeshallow, what I call splintered
work.
Splintered work would be likereturning emails, paying bills,
you know, checking our bankingaccount, checking the stock
market, whatever it might bethose little things that
distract us.
So you create a time block justfor those things and you list
them and you just bang them outand you check them off either
with your hand or with a digitaldevice, and it feels so good
(17:37):
Like you're like getting alittle dope.
I mean because you're nailingall those little things, but you
don't want to do those specificthings during your peak time.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Right, all those extra things like the laundry
and scheduling appointments.
They feel so important, andthen you check them off and you
say, oh, I checked off all thesethings, but then your major
task isn't done.
So I think the thing that isyour must for the day, the one
thing that you have to get done,are the two things schedule
those first.
(18:07):
Yeah, yeah.
And then you feel like, if Idon't do anything else, at least
I got those two things done andthat that was the most
important thing.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Yeah, yeah, that's great.
Another thing you know when you, if you, if you're using a
paper planner or even a digitalone, it's fun to.
I had one guy that I workedwith for years.
He had ADD ADHD, like many ofus do, and so for him he needed
every single piece of every dayto have a color, whether, in
(18:36):
other words, there were no gaps,there were no non assigned
times in his day, and it waseverything from eating, working
out lectures, talking to hisgirlfriend on the phone, calling
a friend like we built in.
It's very important to have ourconnections, our social
connections.
So, you know, you build in timeto reach out to a friend and
(18:57):
that gives you a sense ofsatisfaction as well.
It's super.
But you can be as elaborate asyou want.
There's no pressure to be thatdetailed, but it works for him
and it works for a lot of people.
You have to find the sweet spotthat works for you.
And back to leadership.
You have to lead yourself.
Not only, you know, alwaysdoing what's most comfortable or
(19:19):
kind of the easy way to getthrough the stuff, but sitting
back and saying how can I mostbe engaged in this time in my
life?
You know, how can I make thisjust an amazing experience that
has meaning, and is theremeaning in learning the terms
for certain neurochemicals orcertain pharmacological elements
(19:41):
?
Sure there is, but you can alsoreally kind of love it and find
a way to bond with it.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, I agree, that's the ideal.
Yeah, for sure.
What would you say to somebodywho has made a plan and then
they just didn't stick to it atall and they feel like giving up
and they're really down onthemselves.
Who's like, ah, this is nevergoing to work for me.
What would you say to thatperson?
Speaker 3 (20:06):
You know it's interesting.
I was listening to I don't knowif you've heard of the Huberman
Lab podcast, but he's reallyinterested in bringing science
and protocols together.
He's great.
But I was listening tosomething on motivation this
morning and someone had writtenin to him saying you know, I go
through these bouts of likebeing totally motivated and then
(20:26):
completely like a completeinertia.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
You know and.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
I think it's natural to go through those ebbs and
flows.
Typically what's happening whenwe're lacking that motivation,
it's not our minds, it's wehaven't rested, we haven't like
let our sort of neurochemistryeven out, we haven't been good
to ourselves, so we're literallyburned out from even the idea
(20:50):
of what might be coming ahead.
And so that's the time whereyou just have to sort of like
wipe off your boots and whateveryone called lace up your
boots, say you know, startingtomorrow I'm going to change
this, and so with almost any ofmy clients that I work with one
on one, if they're going throughthat, you know it's like okay,
this Sunday, buddy, we'regetting on it you know we're
(21:11):
going to start with the protocol.
We're going to start right after.
You're going to start planningyour week Every day.
At the end of the day, you'regoing to just be gentle with
yourself, be loving to yourself.
But you know, let's get a fewthings done.
Let's just see what thismomentum might feel like.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Just start just start yourself.
Give yourself some grace.
Yeah, take a reset, listen toyour body and then just start
again.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Absolutely, absolutely.
And, as we know, and more andmore research is coming out all
the time, we have to get thatsleep, even if we're staying up
super late to study, we've thengot to make it up somehow, you
know, trying not to havecaffeine within like eight hours
of going to sleep, which isreally hard, so sure I don't
know about that, jerry, butwe'll see I know right.
And if you can't sleep, don'tbeat yourself up.
(21:59):
Get up and do something youknow, yeah, yeah.
I agree with you, it's okay.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Yeah, just get a little grace to yourself and
just start again is Right theway I look at it.
Yeah, and then you're not gonnastick to it every single day.
It's just it's there, it'sthere is your roadmap, it's
there as your GPS and, yeah, youcan change course and still
kind of get to the end, exactly,yeah exactly and knowing that
(22:26):
you know there will come a time.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
You know While you're in that flow state it's not
gonna last five hours.
We're lucky if it lasts acouple of hours.
So you know building in, youknow there are different
techniques 25 minutes working,five minutes Not working.
Come back, start right whereyou left off, or just sticking
with like an hour and a halftime lock whatever it.
You have to figure out whatworks for you.
But do experiment with it, doit with intention.
(22:50):
Make notes about hey, I'mFeeling really good at in the
morning and by 2, 30 pm I'mfeeling a little bit of a leg.
Just start really interactingwith yourself in that way and
give it one week ofexperimentation and, you know,
make notes about it so you canreally see the progress that you
make.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
I think that's really good advice and I love the 25
minutes on five minutes off.
I do the 27 three, which is 27?
I like the 27, it works for me.
The 27 three, it's really good.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
The most important thing is to know what you're
going to do, so that when yousit down to do it, there is
nothing that could take you awayfrom it.
Yeah, you know, short of a fire.
You know short of a fire.
So the biggest thing to planfor Is everything.
Yeah, I'm your water Bespecific with those time blocks.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Yeah Well, jerry.
Thank you so much.
This was so helpful and such agreat conversation.
If there's anybody out therewho wants to contact you, what
would be the best way?
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Um, I think the easiest way you could go to my
website it's a newer website,it's not built out, but there's
a contact button there and it'seasy to to remember because it's
neuroscience for leadershipcom.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Great.
I'll put the link in thedescription of the show.
People can contact you there.
Well, thank you so much.
This was so much fun and we'lltalk to you soon.
Thank you, thanks, lauren.
Thanks a lot, bye, bye.
Well, that's it for today.
Jerry, thank you so much fortaking the time to speak with me
.
I know that so many people willbenefit from listening to that
(24:25):
conversation and I thank you somuch again.
You can go to nursing studentcoach calm to join our mailing
list.
I will put all of jerry'sinformation in the links to the
show if you want to get in touchwith her and, as always, it is
my personal mission to help putmore great nurses into the world
(24:46):
.
Thank you for your help indoing that by listening and
sharing the show with someoneyou know and love, and if you
could pull out your phone andgive us a quick five star rating
, I would appreciate it so much.
Have an awesome day and we'llsee you the next time.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Bye, bye, thanks for tuning in to the nursing student
coach podcast.
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