November 18, 2025 • 35 mins
Ever feel like you’re spinning your wheels in your business—working hard but never quite gaining traction on the big stuff?
If you've ever said, “I just don’t have time for that project” or caught yourself stuck in procrastination mode, today’s episode is going to change the game.
I’m joined by productivity expert Julie Miller Davis, who helps high-achieving business owners break through overwhelm and finally get the important things done.
We’re talking about:
- The real reason business growth gets stuck
- How to make space for big projects (even in a packed week)
- A simple way to beat procrastination and focus on what moves the needle
Connect with Julie Miller Davis
Julie Miller Davis is a driven entrepreneur who serves others by helping them reach their own levels of excellence. She works with business owners and leaders to get them laser-focused and efficient at conducting their daily business and working through their current roadblocks.
Facebook: Facebook.com/juliemillerdavis15/
LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/juliemillerdavis
Instagram: Instagram.com/jmdproductivity
Website: juliemillerdavis.com
Grab her Daily Productivity Planner and see how 5 minutes a day can help you prioritize and get the right things done! --> https://juliemillerdavis.com/daily-productivity-planner/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carrie Saunders (00:00):
Ever feel like you're stuck spinning your
wheels on your business, workingharder, but never quite gaining
traction on the big stuff?
If you've ever said, I justdon't have time for that
project, which I know I have, orcaught yourself stuck in
procrastination mode, today'sepisode is going to be a great
one for you.
I am joined by productivityexpert Julie Miller Davis, who
(00:21):
helps high-achieving businessowners break through overwhelm
and finally get the importantthings done.
We are talking about the realreasons business owners get
stuck, how to make space for bigprojects even in a packed week,
and a simple way to beatprocrastination and focus on
what makes the needle move.
Plus, Julie shares afive-minute daily tool that can
(00:43):
help you gain traction thisweek.
Let's dive in.
Struggling to turn websitetraffic into real sales, you're
not alone and you don't have tofigure it out all yourself.
Welcome to Smarter OnlineBusiness, the podcast for course
creators, coaches, ande-commerce entrepreneurs who
want their websites to convertvisitors into buyers without the
tech overwhelm.
(01:03):
I'm your host, Carrie Saunders,a website strategist and
conversion expert with over 20years of experience.
Each episode delivers simple,proven strategies to help you
generate more revenue and makeyour website your smartest sales
tool.
Welcome back to the show.
And today we have a specialguest with us, and her name is
Julie Miller Davis.
She is a productivity coach,and her expertise is helping
(01:26):
business owners get unstuck withtheir problems and anything
within their business.
So welcome to our podcasttoday, Julie.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for havingme, Carrie.
So I just gave like a reallyshort brief of who you are and
what you do, but I know there'sa lot more to you.
Could you give us a little bitmore information about who you
are, who you serve, and how youhelp others?
Julie (01:48):
Julie Miller Davis
So my business is JMDProductivity Training.
So I'm a productivity andresults expert.
So I work with entrepreneurs tohelp them number one, stop
juggling everything and wearingall the hats so they can
actually prioritize the thingsthat matter and will cause them
massive growth.
And that also means that I'mworking on strategic planning
(02:14):
and implementation.
And because a lot of times weplan, but we don't implement, or
we have intentions and we'renot getting intentional.
So that is what I do.
And it's um not your back-endsystems, it's really your
front-end habits and patternsand how you are approaching your
day, your goals, um, and whatyou want out of your business
(02:37):
without spending more time onyour business.
Cause that's the fear, right?
Is that if I do that, I'vealready got all the stuff on my
plate, and now I'm not gonnahave time to for my life and my
family and my friends and allthe things.
And that is the exact oppositeof what happens.
Carrie Saunders (02:54):
I really love that because like I can so
relate as a business owner ofover 20 some years, almost 23
now.
I feel like I get in that loopof the ideas and not getting the
implementation implementationdone because I'm so busy doing
all the other things.
I love how you look at it froma perspective of not adding more
to a business owner's plate orCEO's plate, but how do we
(03:17):
relieve them of this work bygiving them a great plan of
action and getting the thingsdone and getting unstuck?
So, speaking of gettingunstuck, like, and I know that I
mean, I feel like a lot of whatyou're gonna tell me today is
gonna help me as well.
I'm sure many of our listeners,but I do find that I have lots
of roadblocks sometimes.
So, what do you see is thebiggest roadblock for business
(03:38):
owners to grow?
I feel like sometimes it's me,but I'd love to hear what you
see on your end.
Julie Miller Davis (03:43):
Well, it I it's a hundred percent the
business owner is one of thebiggest blocks because we're
choosing or deciding forwhatever reason that like we
can't delegate, and that makesyou the bottleneck.
Um, we don't have time to dothat that big idea that we know
(04:03):
could change everything in thebusiness.
We like it's and and delegationa lot of times has to do with
time.
So there's a lot of issues thathave to do with time, and it
all comes down to choices thatwe're making.
We're letting other people'sagendas run our calendar or our
day.
We're letting ourselves hijackwhat our intentions were for the
(04:26):
day.
We're 100% in our way.
So it's getting superintentional about um, these are
things that I could get off myplate.
And I want you all to knowdelegation doesn't have to cost
a lot of money.
Um, and it can save you so muchtime and open up so much space
that then you can get to thethings that you know are gonna
(04:48):
grow you.
Um and the other thing is Ithink so many times, Carrie, we
are so mired in our businessthat we can't like our nose is
right up against a tree in theforest, right?
So we can't see the path.
And we have to be able to takethat step back and have that
(05:10):
30,000-foot view.
And sometimes it takes a coachor it takes somebody to start
asking you questions to get youto think about your business
differently because we arecreatures of habit.
We do things how we do them,right?
Carrie Saunders (05:25):
I can so relate to especially that last point
because I know I can helpbusinesses so much easier than I
can help myself because we dolike you know, technical
strategy for other businessesand implementation of website um
programming and all kinds ofcrazy stuff.
And I'm so much better athelping advise somebody else
than I am to advise my own selfon what's the best next steps.
(05:50):
Um, and let's go back to thedelegation too, because I feel
like you know, other peoplemight be like me where they
delegate some, but not all.
You know, what are thosesignals that should help you
understand?
Okay, this task should bedelegated.
Is there some signs or signalsthat can tell us that you know
(06:12):
we shouldn't be doing this taskanymore?
We should look to delegate this.
Ju (06:17):
Julie Miller Davis
delegation like rules.
So um, so first and foremost,it doesn't have to be an all or
nothing, like you don't have todelegate everything, or you
don't you can you can dabble init a little bit.
My delegation journey was Iinitially hired a gal that
(06:37):
worked on like I would buy abundle of hours from her and
then she would work throughthose hours.
And it was like I was figuringout what I could delegate
because some of you are like, Iknow I need to delegate, but I
don't even I don't even knowwhere to start.
So if you can find someone thatI I I would pay her like, I
don't know, a few hundred bucksand she would work through that
(06:57):
money because I knew I didn'tneed someone yet.
My business was pretty small,was baby, was new.
Um, but I needed somebody to dosome of the things.
Like, can you get in my CRM?
Can you make this thing onCanva that I'm gonna take four
hours to do that you'll probablytake 15 minutes to do?
So that's one thing.
Like, is someone gonna dosomething faster than you can
(07:20):
because it's in their area ofexpertise or skills that's not
in yours?
Like you do websites and stuff.
I I have no business being inmy like my website.
I have never been in the backend.
I have no desire to go there.
My web people would probablyfreak out if I ever went in
there because goodness knowswhat's gonna happen, right?
(07:41):
I don't, I don't know that.
That's not my area.
I I always say that's not mydepartment.
So um the other piece is askingyourself, is this something
that only I can do?
Am I the only one that can dolike I'm the only one that can
do the podcast interview, but Iwasn't the only one.
My assistant filled out a lotof the assets that you needed
(08:03):
from us.
She did that, not me.
Um, she asked me what I wantedto do, what what gift I wanted
to give today.
And, you know, we went back andforth, but I didn't have to, I
didn't fill out all the forms.
Um, because I'm I again, I'mspending time doing the things
that are gonna, you know,meeting people and networking
(08:23):
and teaching my courses and allof that.
So that's one thing that'sreally important is figuring out
what are the things that onlyyou can do and what could
someone else do.
And also that you don't have tolike delegate it all at first.
And then my rules of 80 are ifsomeone can do it 80% as well as
(08:44):
you can, it's delegable.
It is because 80% as well asyou, in many cases, most cases,
is good enough.
And the other piece is that wealso don't have to hand off the
whole of something.
If someone could do 80% of itand we do 20, it's delicate.
(09:07):
Like, what if you that's 80%time and now you're doing 20%?
So you either do the front orthe back 20, and they do the
rest, the 80.
How much time does that saveyou?
It's getting it out of yourhead or hands and into someone
else's, which is so freeing.
Carrie Saunders (09:27):
I I like those strategies of of the 80-20, and
this kind of not ever beensomething I've heard anybody
say.
Like it is something I do insome of my areas of our business
is, you know, I will I willhave the ideas and then I will,
you know, so I'll do like the20% of the ideation, and then
I'll give it to one of our staffmembers for the implementation.
(09:49):
But I don't think I've everheard anybody articulate that.
And I think that is a greatdifferent way to look at it that
some people might not bethinking about, like myself.
You know, I I kind of naturallydo that sometimes, but to have
that put into words and have itpermission to, you know, you
don't have to step all the wayout of it.
You could do the 80, the 20%that you need to do, or that
(10:12):
you're coming, you know, thatwould make you more comfortable
and have somebody else do theother implementation.
So I think that's a reallygreat key for our listeners here
to give them that permission todo it that way.
Julie (10:24):
Julie Miller Davis
And and it gives you it, itstill keeps your your fingers on
the pulse of whatever you'redelegating.
I had a um, I had a client whoum I still have her, but she
when she first we first startedtalking about delegation,
because I a lot of my clients,we that's what we do.
We get them to the point oflike now it's time to it's time
(10:44):
to offload some stuff.
Um, and she she takes so muchof what I teach so much of what
I teach is applicable, you know,everywhere.
So she um was having companyfor like a big holiday dinner
with family and everything.
And her husband was like, I'lluh, or she said, can you clean
(11:04):
up the house and I'll I gotta goshopping or whatever.
And she came home and like thedishes were done, but they
weren't put away.
The vacuuming and stuff wasdone, but the vacuum was sitting
there.
And she started getting likemad, right?
Because it wasn't done.
And she was like, wait, wait,wait, wait.
What did you what did Julie say?
He just did 80%.
All I have to do is put awaythe dishes, and all I have to do
(11:26):
is put away the vacuum.
It totally changed herperspective on what happened,
right?
So um, just a little, you know,a little way for you guys to
think about it in outside ofyour business, but it might also
help you think about it insideof your business that way.
C (11:45):
Carrie Saunders
And I I could just totallypicture myself in that same
situation coming home and askingmy husband to clean things up,
and it's about 80% done.
But you know, he did do hiseffort and you know, his best
effort towards it, and you know,just didn't think about the
other 20%, but that's okay.
He did the 80% that wasprobably the percent that you
(12:05):
didn't really want to do anyway.
So I love that that story andperspective.
So then let's talk about bigideas.
So I have had lots of big ideasthe past few years.
We've been revamping ourbusiness and stuff like that.
So when someone has a big ideaor a big project, but they don't
have the time to do it, kind ofplays into this delegation part
(12:26):
too, possibly.
How do you help them get itdone quickly?
And with low stress, like Ifeel like sometimes I get so
stressed when I have this greatidea, but it's kind of a big
idea.
There's so many moving parts.
How do we help help people getit done quickly?
Julie Miller Davis (12:43):
That's such a great question.
Um, I want, I would love forthe listeners to think about
something that you have beenwanting to do or thinking about
um for a while.
Like I had a client who hadbeen, she was, she's a writing
coach, and she had been wantingto implement a um a writer's
(13:06):
workshop class where people likewrote their book um in like a
five-month period.
And she sat on that class forthree years.
Three years.
And when she started workingwith me and using, I'm gonna,
I'm gonna talk about it in justa second.
We launched that course.
She started working with me inMarch.
We launched that course in June.
(13:27):
Like so it took her three yearsand three months, right?
But with with what what I dowith people, it took three
months, right?
Um so here's the mistake thatpeople make, Carrie is they
think if they start, they haveto finish.
Like it's like, I gotta spend aweek making this thing so that
(13:49):
it'll it'll be ready to launch,or it'll be ready to go, or
it'll be ready, you know,whatever, whatever your word is.
Um and here's the truth of thematter.
Our businesses, as Carrie, asyou said, have many moving
parts.
And if we decide to createsomething new or launch a big
(14:10):
project or create, you know,whatever it is, get it done, the
rest of the business doesn'tstop moving.
So we have to figure out a wayto integrate.
And that comes from, I call itreverse chunking, and it's
taking reverse engineering astep further.
So a lot of you know reverseengineering.
(14:32):
Like you're gonna, what's thelast step?
What's the step before the laststep, the step before that, the
step before that, step beforethat?
You're gonna back it out sothat you can think about all the
steps.
My reverse chunking method thatwe go through is you assign it,
assign yourself a deadline.
(14:52):
When do you want to have thatdone by?
It doesn't matter if it's 30days, 90 days, like it doesn't
matter how long you giveyourself, but you're going to
set a deadline.
And then each of those stepsthat you just reverse
engineered, you're going to giveeach of those steps a deadline.
And then you're going to createum time in your calendar to
(15:14):
work on each of the steps.
So each of the deadlines goesin the calendar, and then each
of the time to work on each stepgoes in the calendar.
And then carry, like, you know,time is fluid.
So um things take longer orshorter than we thought they
would.
So it's all adjustable.
It doesn't have to bepressurized, it doesn't have to
(15:35):
be a pressure cooker, but you'remaking progress that you
weren't making before.
And you have you, you guys,there's enough time.
There's enough time.
You have a two to three hours aweek or whatever it's going to
take to work on the thing.
And it doesn't have to be donetomorrow.
That's the permission that Iwant to give you all.
(15:57):
Let's get started, get adeadline in there, and let's
make it happen sooner ratherthan later.
Ca (16:05):
Carrie Saunders
deadlines of each of thedifferent, you know, chunks and
steps, it helps you prioritizemaking that time in your week to
get that thing done.
And you feel less overwhelmedbecause you have a smaller
project to get done in that timeframe.
So I love how you kind ofreverse chunk that and help us
(16:29):
look at each of the each of thesmaller deadlines to get us
towards that big goal and thatbig deadline because it can be
overwhelming.
And as you said, our businessdoesn't stop when we're building
something new, especially whenwe already have an established
business.
Or even if we don't have anestablished business and we're
new to business, our lives andwhatever we've been doing
doesn't really stop when we'retrying to build out this new
(16:52):
thing.
So I love how you broke thatdown, yeah, into chunks for us
with deadlines.
Ju (16:58):
Julie Miller Davis
them mini deadlines to get youtowards the big deadline.
And those mini deadlines arelike your um your signposts,
your checkpoints, like you canactually see your progress.
And so it's so much easier forus to wrap our head around the
(17:18):
small pieces rather than thegiant end product.
Because our brains, um ourbrains always want to take the
easy way.
Always.
Even if we don't mind doinghard things in our lives, our
brains want to take they want totake the path of least
(17:39):
resistance.
So we're sitting down and gonnalike hammer this thing out.
Our brains like, yeah, thatseems really hard.
So um, we're gonna find about75 other things that we could do
today and not that.
C (17:58):
Carrie Saunders
sometimes.
And it's as somebody who is onethat loves to get stuff done
and be very productive, it canbe very frustrating and very um
hard to receive within yourself.
And when you're talking, itreminded me of something my
youngest said.
Um, he's a bit wiser for hisage.
(18:19):
I feel like he was, I think, 16or 17 when he said this.
And he was like, Mom, I findthat when I'm working on a large
project, if I stop wherestarting it back up is easy, I'm
more likely to pick thatproject back up and keep going
with it.
So doing your little blocks, Ifeel like helps you start it at
(18:39):
the next time you're working onit at an easier point because
you're not looking at the bigpicture.
Yes.
Julie (18:46):
Julie Miller Davis
Smart, smart, smart kiddo.
Carrie Saunders (18:53):
Zmeit doesn't always apply his own advice, but
he's definitely working on it.
So as a perfectionist and arecovering perfectionist, I know
that procrastination issomething that come can come out
of being a perfectionist aswell.
And I know that a lot of peoplewill procrastinate these bigger
tasks and the things that willreally move the needle forward
(19:16):
in their business.
And it's something a lot of usstruggle with.
So, what is something that youcan do to combat it and to get
these important things done?
Even sometimes when we chunkthose tiny blocks, sometimes we
still get stuck and kind ofprocrastinate.
So, how do we how do we getbeyond any procrastination
hurdles we run into?
Julie (19:33):
Julie Miller Davis
sticky situation.
Um and we're all we all do it.
Everyone, everyone does it.
Even, you know, I'm a I'm ago-getter, I teach about all of
this stuff, and I'm still Istill procrastinate the things
that I I don't want to do or Idon't feel like doing or
(19:56):
whatever the the reason is.
And I have a whole um I have awhole course that I teach on
procrastination.
But um James Clear wrote a bookcalled Atomic Habits.
Um, most most people have readit by the at this point, but if
you haven't, pick it up.
Um and he talks about uhgetting started, or or yeah, and
(20:25):
he and he also talks about tinywins.
So the getting started piece ishuge.
And so when you're in thatspace of being really stuck
around around doing doing thething, um ask yourself if I
could do one thing today onthis, one thing, what would I
(20:47):
do?
And answer that question andthen do one thing.
And what happens is you gainmomentum.
So that leads you to the nextthing, the next thing.
Like, and he uses the um heuses the example of um I'm I'm
(21:09):
gonna I'm gonna train for a 5k.
So um if I could do one thingtoday to do that, what would it
be?
Well, I would need to put on myrunning shoes.
So I'm gonna put on my runningshoes.
Okay, well, I have my shoes on,I may as well walk out the
door, right?
So it's like it's there's somuch power in one thing, one
(21:33):
thing, one thing leading to thenext.
So much power in in the gettingstarted.
And the other piece is the tinywins, which is like, what is
some little um celebration youcould do when you engage in that
task that day?
And it needs to be somethingthat you wouldn't normally do
(21:56):
for yourself, and it doesn'thave to be huge, it doesn't have
to be a huge thing at all.
Um, and there's all there's allkinds of things that people
that people do.
It's like, oh, when I get thatdone, I get to do this other
thing.
I get, I have one one um, she'sa graphic designer and we've
(22:17):
been working on this bigproject.
And when she works on the bigproject, which doesn't have a
lot of creativity, thecreativity piece that she likes,
then she gets to work on one ofher graphic designs.
Like it's another work thing,but that's her favorite part of
work.
So when she does this thingfirst thing in the morning, then
she gets to jump into hergraphic designs.
(22:38):
So we create, you know, youkind of have to, you have to
kind of um dig into your ownjoys and what are your favorite
things, and that's what you getto do, the tiny win, right?
Car (22:51):
Carrie Saunders
doing many times is like in themorning, I'll put the things
that I need to do, only I can dothem, but don't really like
doing them that much.
And that way I can get to doingthe other parts of the business
that I like later on, which isnetworking or helping a client
(23:12):
or something like that.
So I try to do like the quotesin like the harder project
management type of things in themorning, and then that lets me
get to the creative work,creating podcast episodes, you
know, right helping write a blogpost with one of my staff
members or you know, having anetworking or podcast interview
like this.
So I can see that that thatreally does work.
(23:35):
It is definitely something thatI need to maybe be even a
little more intentional about tohelp me do the things that need
to be done by me.
But I, you know, been doingthem for 27 years.
Sometimes that's just notjoyful anymore to do the things,
you know.
But it's still somethingnecessary.
Julie Miller Davis (23:54):
You bring up a super important point,
Carrie, that I didn't say is wegotta do the hard things first.
We gotta do the hard thingsfirst.
I used to be uh I I taught highschool English um for 17 years.
And it's it's like when I wouldtalk to my students about doing
(24:14):
homework, you know, they'd theywould not be getting whatever
done.
And and I think about myself inhigh school, um, I loved
English.
I hated science.
So, you know, you do yourEnglish homework and everything
first, and then it's late andyou're tired, and now you got
chemistry left.
(24:34):
So you guys, how much smarterwould it have been to do the
chemistry first and the Englishlast?
Because the English didn't takea lot of effort.
I loved it, all of that.
So we've got to rip thatband-aid off first.
So do the hardest, biggestthings in the day first when you
have what um uh Gary Keller inthe one thing.
(24:57):
He calls it your willpower.
We have a finite amount ofwillpower.
I will do it every day.
And two o'clock in theafternoon is not when we have
the most willpower.
We have we have the mostwillpower at eight or nine in
the morning, 10 in the morning,not at two or three in the
afternoon.
Ca (25:15):
Carrie Saunders
self-assess.
Like, we need to figure outwhen is our willpower the
strongest.
Most people, it's definitely inthe morning.
I also have a second, secondwind or willpower win in the
afternoon because I'm a nightowl.
So, like you've got to listento your body, I feel like, in
your brain.
You know, for me, doing a fewmundane tasks that first hour
(25:36):
gets my brain warmed up to dothe things that I need to do
hard first.
And then I get to do some funstuff, but then I gotta layer in
some more hard things and morefun stuff.
That's kind of how my brainworks.
So I feel like we gotta listento how does our brain work?
And I don't know if you ever dothis with one of your with your
clients, but one thing I'll dosometimes is I will take a whole
(25:57):
week and I'll literally writedown what I do minute by minute.
Julie (26:01):
Julie Miller Davis
Carrie Saunders (26:02):
Every all day, like, and it's like it's not
really grueling, but it's a lot,it's a long list, right?
It's a very, very long list.
And every time I task switchand every time I do something
new.
And I don't know if you do thatwith your clients too, but it
helps you be self-aware.
What am I spending my time on?
Where where am I wasting mytime?
Where am I spinning my wheels?
Where am I task switching toomuch?
(26:23):
Do you think do you things likethat with your clients?
Julie (26:25):
Julie Miller Davis
I do.
One of the um one of thecourses I teach is called
Prioritize with Power.
And the first thing I have themdo is for five days, they have
to write down, they don't haveto write down minute by minute,
but every hour they have to stopand write down what they just
did that last hour, and theyhave to be super honest.
I checked, um, I checked fivetext messages while I was trying
(26:46):
to do this other thing.
Oh, and I jumped over to myemail two times.
Oh, and I jumped up and I wentand did the laundry.
And I, you know, like theystart to realize how much
they're interrupting themselvesand task switching and how they
said they were working for anhour.
But generally, um we're workingmaybe two-thirds of an hour.
(27:10):
Maybe we're actually workingtwo-thirds of an hour.
Um, the stat is that we arewasting at least 20 minutes of
every hour on non on notfocusing, like on being on
distractions.
And so um, we don't know wherewe left off.
We never come back to the thingthat we were working on in the
(27:32):
first place.
You know, all kinds of thingstake us away.
And then, and if you thinkabout that, that's if you're
working a traditional 40-hourwork week, that's two hours a
day.
That's 10 hours.
So that's like over an entireworkday that you're missing out.
So, what would you do with awhole extra day in the week?
Carrie Saunders (27:56):
Yes, it's a bit mind-blowing when you really
think about it.
And I've seen statistics likethat, and it's just like, wow.
And then, you know, I haveemployees too, and I'm thinking,
wow, what if we all could be,you know, more efficient?
And you know, how how muchfurther could we, you know, help
customers and move the businessforward?
Um, and even myself, you know,it's it's so easy to get pulled
(28:17):
off onto something else.
It could seem important too, orbut it could you're still
getting pulled off, you know, asyou're still getting in that
task switch.
So I tend to try to batch umsimilar tasks together um to try
to avoid that.
Awesome.
But it's hard to do sometimes,you know, it's it's it's life,
it's hard to do sometimes.
Julie (28:38):
Julie Miller Davis
Everything feels urgent, butit's it's not all things are not
equal.
Um, and we are so getting soentrained with technology, um,
to we're like Pavlov's dog.
We're so we're so entrained tolike if the phone buzzes or
dings or you know, whateverhappens, like we're entrained to
(29:02):
jump and respond.
It's we're so um instantgratification, right?
Instant response.
And it's like, you know, I usedto only be able to answer the
phone when I was near a phonethat was um, and people
survived, it people were fine,so it's those boundaries that
(29:27):
have gotten more and moreinfringed upon, and the
boundaries are are less and lessclear, and um, everything feels
urgent.
Car (29:38):
Carrie Saunders
our systems and hard on ourstress systems, yeah.
And and so you have let me knowthat you have a daily
productivity planner.
We feel like this is a greatway to lead into this freebie
that you have because we want tohave our days effective.
I mean, we don't want to beworking ourselves to the bone.
Obviously, we want to take thebreaks when it makes sense.
(29:59):
But we also want to make surewe're being very effective with
our businesses.
And you have a dailyproductivity planner.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about that?
Julie (30:07):
Julie Miller Davis
So we all have a calendar thathas appointments on it.
And most of you, I would say90-some odd percent of you have
task lists as well that are likeamendments and addendums to the
calendar.
And so my daily productivityplanner is an is the amendment
to your calendar.
(30:28):
So it's what is my brain dumpfor the day?
What are the, I call them thebig three, my things that are
the things that only I can dothat are not events in the
calendar that I need to getdone.
Um and then there's some otherthings on there that help with
like what are thenon-negotiables and what is I
call I have a box calledawesome.
(30:49):
I'm looking at it right now.
It happened called awesomestuff.
I love the word awesome.
And I just think that we haveto live, we have to notice the
small things that are cool thathappen to us throughout a day.
Um they don't have to be giant,but sometimes we take for
granted some cool stuff thathappens during the day.
And some people love this thing.
Um, because then you take yourbig three and you you look at
(31:12):
your calendar and you're like,what time am I doing this?
And you actually put them intothe calendar.
Like number one might be doneat 10:30, and number two might
be done at one, and number threemight be done at 3:30.
Like they don't have to be donein the same block, but it
really helps you get your day inorder and your mind like dumped
out so that you can takeadvantage of your and and make
(31:36):
the most out of your day.
Ca (31:38):
Carrie Saunders
really focus on those needlemoving activities.
Um we will be sure to have thatlinked in the show notes.
So make sure you visit our shownotes at
smarteronlinebusiness.com sothat you can get that from her.
So to wrap up, is there anyother advice, Julie, that you
would like to give us to um justhelp us be more productive or
(32:01):
move our business forward orjust any takeaway that you think
that we should wrap up with?
Julie Miller Davis (32:06):
Yeah, I I um I actually think that the best
thing that you can do is not hitthe ground running any given
day.
Take five to ten minutes, maybewith your cup of coffee, maybe
while your coffee is brewing orwhatever.
Five to ten minutes and justlook at your day so that you
(32:31):
aren't so scattered and you'renot doing anything with any
intention.
I think that the worst thingthat we do is go through a day
with intentions.
I said it earlier, withoutgetting intentional.
And that five to ten minuteshelps you just like focus in,
get intentional.
(32:52):
You know what you're gonna getdone, you know how you're gonna
get it done.
And now you have a betterability to hold boundaries and
to get those things done, andnot at the end of the day, say,
I was so busy and I have no ideawhat I did.
So take those five to tenminutes and just hone your day.
C (33:12):
Carrie Saunders
There's nothing worse, I feellike, than ending your day and
wondering where it all went andnot being able to really point
to those neat moving activitiesbecause you were just too
reactive and you didn't takethat five or ten minutes to plan
out the rest of your day.
Thank you so much for being onour show, Julie.
I so enjoyed this conversation.
(33:34):
I know that it's going todefinitely help me, and I'm sure
our listeners will enjoy it too.
So thank you so much for beinghere.
Thanks for having me, Carrie.
Ju (33:42):
Julie Miller Davis
Carrie Saunders (33:45):
I so love this conversation with Julie, and I
hope it gave you the clarity orkickstart you need to move
forward on your next level ideaor project.
If you're ready to stopspinning your wheels and start
making intentional progress,Julie's free daily productivity
planner is a must-have.
It just takes five minutes aday.
It's designed to help youprioritize the right things so
(34:07):
you can grow your businesswithout burnout.
You can grab it at our shownotes or at
smarteronlinebusiness.com.
Just search for Julie MillerDavis there.
Thanks for listening to ourpodcast, and we will see you
next time.
Ever feel like you're stuck spinning your
wheels on your business, workingharder, but never quite gaining
traction on the big stuff?
If you've ever said, I justdon't have time for that
project, which I know I have, orcaught yourself stuck in
procrastination mode, today'sepisode is going to be a great
one for you.
I am joined by productivityexpert Julie Miller Davis, who
(00:21):
helps high-achieving businessowners break through overwhelm
and finally get the importantthings done.
We are talking about the realreasons business owners get
stuck, how to make space for bigprojects even in a packed week,
and a simple way to beatprocrastination and focus on
what makes the needle move.
Plus, Julie shares afive-minute daily tool that can
(00:43):
help you gain traction thisweek.
Let's dive in.
Struggling to turn websitetraffic into real sales, you're
not alone and you don't have tofigure it out all yourself.
Welcome to Smarter OnlineBusiness, the podcast for course
creators, coaches, ande-commerce entrepreneurs who
want their websites to convertvisitors into buyers without the
tech overwhelm.
(01:03):
I'm your host, Carrie Saunders,a website strategist and
conversion expert with over 20years of experience.
Each episode delivers simple,proven strategies to help you
generate more revenue and makeyour website your smartest sales
tool.
Welcome back to the show.
And today we have a specialguest with us, and her name is
Julie Miller Davis.
She is a productivity coach,and her expertise is helping
(01:26):
business owners get unstuck withtheir problems and anything
within their business.
So welcome to our podcasttoday, Julie.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for havingme, Carrie.
So I just gave like a reallyshort brief of who you are and
what you do, but I know there'sa lot more to you.
Could you give us a little bitmore information about who you
are, who you serve, and how youhelp others?
Julie (01:48):
Julie Miller Davis
So my business is JMDProductivity Training.
So I'm a productivity andresults expert.
So I work with entrepreneurs tohelp them number one, stop
juggling everything and wearingall the hats so they can
actually prioritize the thingsthat matter and will cause them
massive growth.
And that also means that I'mworking on strategic planning
(02:14):
and implementation.
And because a lot of times weplan, but we don't implement, or
we have intentions and we'renot getting intentional.
So that is what I do.
And it's um not your back-endsystems, it's really your
front-end habits and patternsand how you are approaching your
day, your goals, um, and whatyou want out of your business
(02:37):
without spending more time onyour business.
Cause that's the fear, right?
Is that if I do that, I'vealready got all the stuff on my
plate, and now I'm not gonnahave time to for my life and my
family and my friends and allthe things.
And that is the exact oppositeof what happens.
Carrie Saunders (02:54):
I really love that because like I can so
relate as a business owner ofover 20 some years, almost 23
now.
I feel like I get in that loopof the ideas and not getting the
implementation implementationdone because I'm so busy doing
all the other things.
I love how you look at it froma perspective of not adding more
to a business owner's plate orCEO's plate, but how do we
(03:17):
relieve them of this work bygiving them a great plan of
action and getting the thingsdone and getting unstuck?
So, speaking of gettingunstuck, like, and I know that I
mean, I feel like a lot of whatyou're gonna tell me today is
gonna help me as well.
I'm sure many of our listeners,but I do find that I have lots
of roadblocks sometimes.
So, what do you see is thebiggest roadblock for business
(03:38):
owners to grow?
I feel like sometimes it's me,but I'd love to hear what you
see on your end.
Julie Miller Davis (03:43):
Well, it I it's a hundred percent the
business owner is one of thebiggest blocks because we're
choosing or deciding forwhatever reason that like we
can't delegate, and that makesyou the bottleneck.
Um, we don't have time to dothat that big idea that we know
(04:03):
could change everything in thebusiness.
We like it's and and delegationa lot of times has to do with
time.
So there's a lot of issues thathave to do with time, and it
all comes down to choices thatwe're making.
We're letting other people'sagendas run our calendar or our
day.
We're letting ourselves hijackwhat our intentions were for the
(04:26):
day.
We're 100% in our way.
So it's getting superintentional about um, these are
things that I could get off myplate.
And I want you all to knowdelegation doesn't have to cost
a lot of money.
Um, and it can save you so muchtime and open up so much space
that then you can get to thethings that you know are gonna
(04:48):
grow you.
Um and the other thing is Ithink so many times, Carrie, we
are so mired in our businessthat we can't like our nose is
right up against a tree in theforest, right?
So we can't see the path.
And we have to be able to takethat step back and have that
(05:10):
30,000-foot view.
And sometimes it takes a coachor it takes somebody to start
asking you questions to get youto think about your business
differently because we arecreatures of habit.
We do things how we do them,right?
Carrie Saunders (05:25):
I can so relate to especially that last point
because I know I can helpbusinesses so much easier than I
can help myself because we dolike you know, technical
strategy for other businessesand implementation of website um
programming and all kinds ofcrazy stuff.
And I'm so much better athelping advise somebody else
than I am to advise my own selfon what's the best next steps.
(05:50):
Um, and let's go back to thedelegation too, because I feel
like you know, other peoplemight be like me where they
delegate some, but not all.
You know, what are thosesignals that should help you
understand?
Okay, this task should bedelegated.
Is there some signs or signalsthat can tell us that you know
(06:12):
we shouldn't be doing this taskanymore?
We should look to delegate this.
Ju (06:17):
Julie Miller Davis
delegation like rules.
So um, so first and foremost,it doesn't have to be an all or
nothing, like you don't have todelegate everything, or you
don't you can you can dabble init a little bit.
My delegation journey was Iinitially hired a gal that
(06:37):
worked on like I would buy abundle of hours from her and
then she would work throughthose hours.
And it was like I was figuringout what I could delegate
because some of you are like, Iknow I need to delegate, but I
don't even I don't even knowwhere to start.
So if you can find someone thatI I I would pay her like, I
don't know, a few hundred bucksand she would work through that
(06:57):
money because I knew I didn'tneed someone yet.
My business was pretty small,was baby, was new.
Um, but I needed somebody to dosome of the things.
Like, can you get in my CRM?
Can you make this thing onCanva that I'm gonna take four
hours to do that you'll probablytake 15 minutes to do?
So that's one thing.
Like, is someone gonna dosomething faster than you can
(07:20):
because it's in their area ofexpertise or skills that's not
in yours?
Like you do websites and stuff.
I I have no business being inmy like my website.
I have never been in the backend.
I have no desire to go there.
My web people would probablyfreak out if I ever went in
there because goodness knowswhat's gonna happen, right?
(07:41):
I don't, I don't know that.
That's not my area.
I I always say that's not mydepartment.
So um the other piece is askingyourself, is this something
that only I can do?
Am I the only one that can dolike I'm the only one that can
do the podcast interview, but Iwasn't the only one.
My assistant filled out a lotof the assets that you needed
(08:03):
from us.
She did that, not me.
Um, she asked me what I wantedto do, what what gift I wanted
to give today.
And, you know, we went back andforth, but I didn't have to, I
didn't fill out all the forms.
Um, because I'm I again, I'mspending time doing the things
that are gonna, you know,meeting people and networking
(08:23):
and teaching my courses and allof that.
So that's one thing that'sreally important is figuring out
what are the things that onlyyou can do and what could
someone else do.
And also that you don't have tolike delegate it all at first.
And then my rules of 80 are ifsomeone can do it 80% as well as
(08:44):
you can, it's delegable.
It is because 80% as well asyou, in many cases, most cases,
is good enough.
And the other piece is that wealso don't have to hand off the
whole of something.
If someone could do 80% of itand we do 20, it's delicate.
(09:07):
Like, what if you that's 80%time and now you're doing 20%?
So you either do the front orthe back 20, and they do the
rest, the 80.
How much time does that saveyou?
It's getting it out of yourhead or hands and into someone
else's, which is so freeing.
Carrie Saunders (09:27):
I I like those strategies of of the 80-20, and
this kind of not ever beensomething I've heard anybody
say.
Like it is something I do insome of my areas of our business
is, you know, I will I willhave the ideas and then I will,
you know, so I'll do like the20% of the ideation, and then
I'll give it to one of our staffmembers for the implementation.
(09:49):
But I don't think I've everheard anybody articulate that.
And I think that is a greatdifferent way to look at it that
some people might not bethinking about, like myself.
You know, I I kind of naturallydo that sometimes, but to have
that put into words and have itpermission to, you know, you
don't have to step all the wayout of it.
You could do the 80, the 20%that you need to do, or that
(10:12):
you're coming, you know, thatwould make you more comfortable
and have somebody else do theother implementation.
So I think that's a reallygreat key for our listeners here
to give them that permission todo it that way.
Julie (10:24):
Julie Miller Davis
And and it gives you it, itstill keeps your your fingers on
the pulse of whatever you'redelegating.
I had a um, I had a client whoum I still have her, but she
when she first we first startedtalking about delegation,
because I a lot of my clients,we that's what we do.
We get them to the point oflike now it's time to it's time
(10:44):
to offload some stuff.
Um, and she she takes so muchof what I teach so much of what
I teach is applicable, you know,everywhere.
So she um was having companyfor like a big holiday dinner
with family and everything.
And her husband was like, I'lluh, or she said, can you clean
(11:04):
up the house and I'll I gotta goshopping or whatever.
And she came home and like thedishes were done, but they
weren't put away.
The vacuuming and stuff wasdone, but the vacuum was sitting
there.
And she started getting likemad, right?
Because it wasn't done.
And she was like, wait, wait,wait, wait.
What did you what did Julie say?
He just did 80%.
All I have to do is put awaythe dishes, and all I have to do
(11:26):
is put away the vacuum.
It totally changed herperspective on what happened,
right?
So um, just a little, you know,a little way for you guys to
think about it in outside ofyour business, but it might also
help you think about it insideof your business that way.
C (11:45):
Carrie Saunders
And I I could just totallypicture myself in that same
situation coming home and askingmy husband to clean things up,
and it's about 80% done.
But you know, he did do hiseffort and you know, his best
effort towards it, and you know,just didn't think about the
other 20%, but that's okay.
He did the 80% that wasprobably the percent that you
(12:05):
didn't really want to do anyway.
So I love that that story andperspective.
So then let's talk about bigideas.
So I have had lots of big ideasthe past few years.
We've been revamping ourbusiness and stuff like that.
So when someone has a big ideaor a big project, but they don't
have the time to do it, kind ofplays into this delegation part
(12:26):
too, possibly.
How do you help them get itdone quickly?
And with low stress, like Ifeel like sometimes I get so
stressed when I have this greatidea, but it's kind of a big
idea.
There's so many moving parts.
How do we help help people getit done quickly?
Julie Miller Davis (12:43):
That's such a great question.
Um, I want, I would love forthe listeners to think about
something that you have beenwanting to do or thinking about
um for a while.
Like I had a client who hadbeen, she was, she's a writing
coach, and she had been wantingto implement a um a writer's
(13:06):
workshop class where people likewrote their book um in like a
five-month period.
And she sat on that class forthree years.
Three years.
And when she started workingwith me and using, I'm gonna,
I'm gonna talk about it in justa second.
We launched that course.
She started working with me inMarch.
We launched that course in June.
(13:27):
Like so it took her three yearsand three months, right?
But with with what what I dowith people, it took three
months, right?
Um so here's the mistake thatpeople make, Carrie is they
think if they start, they haveto finish.
Like it's like, I gotta spend aweek making this thing so that
(13:49):
it'll it'll be ready to launch,or it'll be ready to go, or
it'll be ready, you know,whatever, whatever your word is.
Um and here's the truth of thematter.
Our businesses, as Carrie, asyou said, have many moving
parts.
And if we decide to createsomething new or launch a big
(14:10):
project or create, you know,whatever it is, get it done, the
rest of the business doesn'tstop moving.
So we have to figure out a wayto integrate.
And that comes from, I call itreverse chunking, and it's
taking reverse engineering astep further.
So a lot of you know reverseengineering.
(14:32):
Like you're gonna, what's thelast step?
What's the step before the laststep, the step before that, the
step before that, step beforethat?
You're gonna back it out sothat you can think about all the
steps.
My reverse chunking method thatwe go through is you assign it,
assign yourself a deadline.
(14:52):
When do you want to have thatdone by?
It doesn't matter if it's 30days, 90 days, like it doesn't
matter how long you giveyourself, but you're going to
set a deadline.
And then each of those stepsthat you just reverse
engineered, you're going to giveeach of those steps a deadline.
And then you're going to createum time in your calendar to
(15:14):
work on each of the steps.
So each of the deadlines goesin the calendar, and then each
of the time to work on each stepgoes in the calendar.
And then carry, like, you know,time is fluid.
So um things take longer orshorter than we thought they
would.
So it's all adjustable.
It doesn't have to bepressurized, it doesn't have to
(15:35):
be a pressure cooker, but you'remaking progress that you
weren't making before.
And you have you, you guys,there's enough time.
There's enough time.
You have a two to three hours aweek or whatever it's going to
take to work on the thing.
And it doesn't have to be donetomorrow.
That's the permission that Iwant to give you all.
(15:57):
Let's get started, get adeadline in there, and let's
make it happen sooner ratherthan later.
Ca (16:05):
Carrie Saunders
deadlines of each of thedifferent, you know, chunks and
steps, it helps you prioritizemaking that time in your week to
get that thing done.
And you feel less overwhelmedbecause you have a smaller
project to get done in that timeframe.
So I love how you kind ofreverse chunk that and help us
(16:29):
look at each of the each of thesmaller deadlines to get us
towards that big goal and thatbig deadline because it can be
overwhelming.
And as you said, our businessdoesn't stop when we're building
something new, especially whenwe already have an established
business.
Or even if we don't have anestablished business and we're
new to business, our lives andwhatever we've been doing
doesn't really stop when we'retrying to build out this new
(16:52):
thing.
So I love how you broke thatdown, yeah, into chunks for us
with deadlines.
Ju (16:58):
Julie Miller Davis
them mini deadlines to get youtowards the big deadline.
And those mini deadlines arelike your um your signposts,
your checkpoints, like you canactually see your progress.
And so it's so much easier forus to wrap our head around the
(17:18):
small pieces rather than thegiant end product.
Because our brains, um ourbrains always want to take the
easy way.
Always.
Even if we don't mind doinghard things in our lives, our
brains want to take they want totake the path of least
(17:39):
resistance.
So we're sitting down and gonnalike hammer this thing out.
Our brains like, yeah, thatseems really hard.
So um, we're gonna find about75 other things that we could do
today and not that.
C (17:58):
Carrie Saunders
sometimes.
And it's as somebody who is onethat loves to get stuff done
and be very productive, it canbe very frustrating and very um
hard to receive within yourself.
And when you're talking, itreminded me of something my
youngest said.
Um, he's a bit wiser for hisage.
(18:19):
I feel like he was, I think, 16or 17 when he said this.
And he was like, Mom, I findthat when I'm working on a large
project, if I stop wherestarting it back up is easy, I'm
more likely to pick thatproject back up and keep going
with it.
So doing your little blocks, Ifeel like helps you start it at
(18:39):
the next time you're working onit at an easier point because
you're not looking at the bigpicture.
Yes.
Julie (18:46):
Julie Miller Davis
Smart, smart, smart kiddo.
Carrie Saunders (18:53):
Zmeit doesn't always apply his own advice, but
he's definitely working on it.
So as a perfectionist and arecovering perfectionist, I know
that procrastination issomething that come can come out
of being a perfectionist aswell.
And I know that a lot of peoplewill procrastinate these bigger
tasks and the things that willreally move the needle forward
(19:16):
in their business.
And it's something a lot of usstruggle with.
So, what is something that youcan do to combat it and to get
these important things done?
Even sometimes when we chunkthose tiny blocks, sometimes we
still get stuck and kind ofprocrastinate.
So, how do we how do we getbeyond any procrastination
hurdles we run into?
Julie (19:33):
Julie Miller Davis
sticky situation.
Um and we're all we all do it.
Everyone, everyone does it.
Even, you know, I'm a I'm ago-getter, I teach about all of
this stuff, and I'm still Istill procrastinate the things
that I I don't want to do or Idon't feel like doing or
(19:56):
whatever the the reason is.
And I have a whole um I have awhole course that I teach on
procrastination.
But um James Clear wrote a bookcalled Atomic Habits.
Um, most most people have readit by the at this point, but if
you haven't, pick it up.
Um and he talks about uhgetting started, or or yeah, and
(20:25):
he and he also talks about tinywins.
So the getting started piece ishuge.
And so when you're in thatspace of being really stuck
around around doing doing thething, um ask yourself if I
could do one thing today onthis, one thing, what would I
(20:47):
do?
And answer that question andthen do one thing.
And what happens is you gainmomentum.
So that leads you to the nextthing, the next thing.
Like, and he uses the um heuses the example of um I'm I'm
(21:09):
gonna I'm gonna train for a 5k.
So um if I could do one thingtoday to do that, what would it
be?
Well, I would need to put on myrunning shoes.
So I'm gonna put on my runningshoes.
Okay, well, I have my shoes on,I may as well walk out the
door, right?
So it's like it's there's somuch power in one thing, one
(21:33):
thing, one thing leading to thenext.
So much power in in the gettingstarted.
And the other piece is the tinywins, which is like, what is
some little um celebration youcould do when you engage in that
task that day?
And it needs to be somethingthat you wouldn't normally do
(21:56):
for yourself, and it doesn'thave to be huge, it doesn't have
to be a huge thing at all.
Um, and there's all there's allkinds of things that people
that people do.
It's like, oh, when I get thatdone, I get to do this other
thing.
I get, I have one one um, she'sa graphic designer and we've
(22:17):
been working on this bigproject.
And when she works on the bigproject, which doesn't have a
lot of creativity, thecreativity piece that she likes,
then she gets to work on one ofher graphic designs.
Like it's another work thing,but that's her favorite part of
work.
So when she does this thingfirst thing in the morning, then
she gets to jump into hergraphic designs.
(22:38):
So we create, you know, youkind of have to, you have to
kind of um dig into your ownjoys and what are your favorite
things, and that's what you getto do, the tiny win, right?
Car (22:51):
Carrie Saunders
doing many times is like in themorning, I'll put the things
that I need to do, only I can dothem, but don't really like
doing them that much.
And that way I can get to doingthe other parts of the business
that I like later on, which isnetworking or helping a client
(23:12):
or something like that.
So I try to do like the quotesin like the harder project
management type of things in themorning, and then that lets me
get to the creative work,creating podcast episodes, you
know, right helping write a blogpost with one of my staff
members or you know, having anetworking or podcast interview
like this.
So I can see that that thatreally does work.
(23:35):
It is definitely something thatI need to maybe be even a
little more intentional about tohelp me do the things that need
to be done by me.
But I, you know, been doingthem for 27 years.
Sometimes that's just notjoyful anymore to do the things,
you know.
But it's still somethingnecessary.
Julie Miller Davis (23:54):
You bring up a super important point,
Carrie, that I didn't say is wegotta do the hard things first.
We gotta do the hard thingsfirst.
I used to be uh I I taught highschool English um for 17 years.
And it's it's like when I wouldtalk to my students about doing
(24:14):
homework, you know, they'd theywould not be getting whatever
done.
And and I think about myself inhigh school, um, I loved
English.
I hated science.
So, you know, you do yourEnglish homework and everything
first, and then it's late andyou're tired, and now you got
chemistry left.
(24:34):
So you guys, how much smarterwould it have been to do the
chemistry first and the Englishlast?
Because the English didn't takea lot of effort.
I loved it, all of that.
So we've got to rip thatband-aid off first.
So do the hardest, biggestthings in the day first when you
have what um uh Gary Keller inthe one thing.
(24:57):
He calls it your willpower.
We have a finite amount ofwillpower.
I will do it every day.
And two o'clock in theafternoon is not when we have
the most willpower.
We have we have the mostwillpower at eight or nine in
the morning, 10 in the morning,not at two or three in the
afternoon.
Ca (25:15):
Carrie Saunders
self-assess.
Like, we need to figure outwhen is our willpower the
strongest.
Most people, it's definitely inthe morning.
I also have a second, secondwind or willpower win in the
afternoon because I'm a nightowl.
So, like you've got to listento your body, I feel like, in
your brain.
You know, for me, doing a fewmundane tasks that first hour
(25:36):
gets my brain warmed up to dothe things that I need to do
hard first.
And then I get to do some funstuff, but then I gotta layer in
some more hard things and morefun stuff.
That's kind of how my brainworks.
So I feel like we gotta listento how does our brain work?
And I don't know if you ever dothis with one of your with your
clients, but one thing I'll dosometimes is I will take a whole
(25:57):
week and I'll literally writedown what I do minute by minute.
Julie (26:01):
Julie Miller Davis
Carrie Saunders (26:02):
Every all day, like, and it's like it's not
really grueling, but it's a lot,it's a long list, right?
It's a very, very long list.
And every time I task switchand every time I do something
new.
And I don't know if you do thatwith your clients too, but it
helps you be self-aware.
What am I spending my time on?
Where where am I wasting mytime?
Where am I spinning my wheels?
Where am I task switching toomuch?
(26:23):
Do you think do you things likethat with your clients?
Julie (26:25):
Julie Miller Davis
I do.
One of the um one of thecourses I teach is called
Prioritize with Power.
And the first thing I have themdo is for five days, they have
to write down, they don't haveto write down minute by minute,
but every hour they have to stopand write down what they just
did that last hour, and theyhave to be super honest.
I checked, um, I checked fivetext messages while I was trying
(26:46):
to do this other thing.
Oh, and I jumped over to myemail two times.
Oh, and I jumped up and I wentand did the laundry.
And I, you know, like theystart to realize how much
they're interrupting themselvesand task switching and how they
said they were working for anhour.
But generally, um we're workingmaybe two-thirds of an hour.
(27:10):
Maybe we're actually workingtwo-thirds of an hour.
Um, the stat is that we arewasting at least 20 minutes of
every hour on non on notfocusing, like on being on
distractions.
And so um, we don't know wherewe left off.
We never come back to the thingthat we were working on in the
(27:32):
first place.
You know, all kinds of thingstake us away.
And then, and if you thinkabout that, that's if you're
working a traditional 40-hourwork week, that's two hours a
day.
That's 10 hours.
So that's like over an entireworkday that you're missing out.
So, what would you do with awhole extra day in the week?
Carrie Saunders (27:56):
Yes, it's a bit mind-blowing when you really
think about it.
And I've seen statistics likethat, and it's just like, wow.
And then, you know, I haveemployees too, and I'm thinking,
wow, what if we all could be,you know, more efficient?
And you know, how how muchfurther could we, you know, help
customers and move the businessforward?
Um, and even myself, you know,it's it's so easy to get pulled
(28:17):
off onto something else.
It could seem important too, orbut it could you're still
getting pulled off, you know, asyou're still getting in that
task switch.
So I tend to try to batch umsimilar tasks together um to try
to avoid that.
Awesome.
But it's hard to do sometimes,you know, it's it's it's life,
it's hard to do sometimes.
Julie (28:38):
Julie Miller Davis
Everything feels urgent, butit's it's not all things are not
equal.
Um, and we are so getting soentrained with technology, um,
to we're like Pavlov's dog.
We're so we're so entrained tolike if the phone buzzes or
dings or you know, whateverhappens, like we're entrained to
(29:02):
jump and respond.
It's we're so um instantgratification, right?
Instant response.
And it's like, you know, I usedto only be able to answer the
phone when I was near a phonethat was um, and people
survived, it people were fine,so it's those boundaries that
(29:27):
have gotten more and moreinfringed upon, and the
boundaries are are less and lessclear, and um, everything feels
urgent.
Car (29:38):
Carrie Saunders
our systems and hard on ourstress systems, yeah.
And and so you have let me knowthat you have a daily
productivity planner.
We feel like this is a greatway to lead into this freebie
that you have because we want tohave our days effective.
I mean, we don't want to beworking ourselves to the bone.
Obviously, we want to take thebreaks when it makes sense.
(29:59):
But we also want to make surewe're being very effective with
our businesses.
And you have a dailyproductivity planner.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about that?
Julie (30:07):
Julie Miller Davis
So we all have a calendar thathas appointments on it.
And most of you, I would say90-some odd percent of you have
task lists as well that are likeamendments and addendums to the
calendar.
And so my daily productivityplanner is an is the amendment
to your calendar.
(30:28):
So it's what is my brain dumpfor the day?
What are the, I call them thebig three, my things that are
the things that only I can dothat are not events in the
calendar that I need to getdone.
Um and then there's some otherthings on there that help with
like what are thenon-negotiables and what is I
call I have a box calledawesome.
(30:49):
I'm looking at it right now.
It happened called awesomestuff.
I love the word awesome.
And I just think that we haveto live, we have to notice the
small things that are cool thathappen to us throughout a day.
Um they don't have to be giant,but sometimes we take for
granted some cool stuff thathappens during the day.
And some people love this thing.
Um, because then you take yourbig three and you you look at
(31:12):
your calendar and you're like,what time am I doing this?
And you actually put them intothe calendar.
Like number one might be doneat 10:30, and number two might
be done at one, and number threemight be done at 3:30.
Like they don't have to be donein the same block, but it
really helps you get your day inorder and your mind like dumped
out so that you can takeadvantage of your and and make
(31:36):
the most out of your day.
Ca (31:38):
Carrie Saunders
really focus on those needlemoving activities.
Um we will be sure to have thatlinked in the show notes.
So make sure you visit our shownotes at
smarteronlinebusiness.com sothat you can get that from her.
So to wrap up, is there anyother advice, Julie, that you
would like to give us to um justhelp us be more productive or
(32:01):
move our business forward orjust any takeaway that you think
that we should wrap up with?
Julie Miller Davis (32:06):
Yeah, I I um I actually think that the best
thing that you can do is not hitthe ground running any given
day.
Take five to ten minutes, maybewith your cup of coffee, maybe
while your coffee is brewing orwhatever.
Five to ten minutes and justlook at your day so that you
(32:31):
aren't so scattered and you'renot doing anything with any
intention.
I think that the worst thingthat we do is go through a day
with intentions.
I said it earlier, withoutgetting intentional.
And that five to ten minuteshelps you just like focus in,
get intentional.
(32:52):
You know what you're gonna getdone, you know how you're gonna
get it done.
And now you have a betterability to hold boundaries and
to get those things done, andnot at the end of the day, say,
I was so busy and I have no ideawhat I did.
So take those five to tenminutes and just hone your day.
C (33:12):
Carrie Saunders
There's nothing worse, I feellike, than ending your day and
wondering where it all went andnot being able to really point
to those neat moving activitiesbecause you were just too
reactive and you didn't takethat five or ten minutes to plan
out the rest of your day.
Thank you so much for being onour show, Julie.
I so enjoyed this conversation.
(33:34):
I know that it's going todefinitely help me, and I'm sure
our listeners will enjoy it too.
So thank you so much for beinghere.
Thanks for having me, Carrie.
Ju (33:42):
Julie Miller Davis
Carrie Saunders (33:45):
I so love this conversation with Julie, and I
hope it gave you the clarity orkickstart you need to move
forward on your next level ideaor project.
If you're ready to stopspinning your wheels and start
making intentional progress,Julie's free daily productivity
planner is a must-have.
It just takes five minutes aday.
It's designed to help youprioritize the right things so
(34:07):
you can grow your businesswithout burnout.
You can grab it at our shownotes or at
smarteronlinebusiness.com.
Just search for Julie MillerDavis there.
Thanks for listening to ourpodcast, and we will see you
next time.
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