Customer Success Playbook Podcast S3 E58 - Kristen Nolan - Master Your Life with Practical Time Management Tips

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In this eye-opening episode of the Customer Success Playbook podcast, hosts Roman Trebon and Kevin Metzger welcome Kristen Nolan, Senior Client Account Manager at Interview Valet. As a military spouse, mother of three, and active community volunteer, Kristen shares her battle-tested strategies for managing a packed schedule. Her number one tip? Taking control of your calendar through intentional time blocking. Discover how this simple yet powerful technique helps Kristen juggle professional responsibilities while maintaining flexibility for life's unexpected moments and personal priorities.

Detailed Analysis

Effective calendar management might be the most underrated skill in today's busy professional landscape. Kristen Nolan, who juggles multiple roles with impressive grace, offers a masterclass in time management that any customer success professional can immediately implement.

Kristen's approach centers on what she calls "Z to A thinking" - a methodology where she identifies all weekly tasks first, then strategically schedules them on her calendar. This proactive stance ensures nothing falls through the cracks while maintaining flexibility to adapt when needed. As Kristen points out during the conversation, this intentionality creates space for both productivity and spontaneity - a balance many professionals struggle to achieve.

For customer success professionals, Kristen's advice is particularly valuable. The demanding nature of client-facing roles often leads to reactive scheduling practices, where calendars become overrun with meetings, leaving little time for focused work. By implementing Kristen's time blocking technique, CS teams can carve out dedicated space for deep work while still maintaining client availability.

What makes Kristen's approach stand out is her holistic perspective - combining personal and professional commitments in a single calendar system. This integrated view prevents the common pitfall of overbooking and creates realistic expectations for what can be accomplished each day. For customer success teams looking to improve efficiency without sacrificing client relationships, this balanced methodology offers a practical framework that can transform productivity.

The customer success playbook continues to evolve, but fundamental skills like time management remain essential building blocks for professional excellence. Kristen's insights remind us that sometimes the simplest strategies yield the most powerful results.

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Episode Transcript

Kevin Metzger (00:05):
Customer success.

Roman Trebon (00:10):
Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Customer
Success Playbook podcast, yourgo-to source for actionable
insights and real worldinspiration.
I'm your host, Roman Reon,joined by my co-host Kevin
Metzker.
Today we're talking with someonewho lives the balancing act,
daily career, family, andpurpose.
All with an intention andimpact.

(00:32):
Kevin, I'm excited about theguest we have lined up today.
I, I know you are as well,

Kevin Metzger (00:36):
Roman.
Our guest today is ChristieNolan, a senior client account
manager at Interview Valet.
Christie's background spins I.
Tech and retail sales.
She's known for building strongrelationships that drive
results.
She's also a military spouse, amama three, and an active
community volunteer.
So if anyone has earned theright to speak on time

(00:58):
management, it's Kristi.
Kristi, welcome to the show.
Do you wanna share a little moreabout yourself?

Kristen Nolan (01:03):
Yeah.
Thank you so much.
I'm really excited to be here totalk with you guys today.
As you mentioned, you know, Ihave a, a background, I'm in
tech and and sales, but today mycurrent role is at Interview
Valet, where I look at myself asa matchmaker for podcast guests.
I'm excited to dive in and talkabout time management.

Roman Trebon (01:22):
And I'm sure you need it.
I just heard as Kevin was doingthe intro, Kristen, I was like,
oh my goodness.
Like your weekends must beinsane with all you have going
on with the kids and everything.
So let's, let's jump right intoit.
Monday's our number one tipshow.
So since you're wearing so manyhats, Kristen, what is your
number one tip for our audiencefor mastering time management as
a busy professional?

Kristen Nolan (01:43):
Yeah, so I'd say that it's really about taking
control of your calendar.
I'm sure we've always been therewhere we'll go to someone's
calendarly to make anappointment and we see that they
have like open availabilityevery single day, seven days a
week, and you click one andyou're like, holy cow, they're
not meeting with anyone.
They have nothing going on.
So my biggest tip is really totake control of your calendar,

(02:03):
right?
Don't give access to everyone.
To have every minute of your daytaken.
So one thing that I do is I'mvery intentional with my time.
So I do something called timeblocking, where I will put in
focus time, I will plan specificprojects that I need to get
done.
I use my calendar, I put mykids, um, activities on it.
I put.
Personal and professional thingsso I can keep everything in

(02:25):
alignment and ensure that I keepthe wheels moving with
everything.
Just as a background, youmentioned I'm a military spouse.
I'm currently in week six of 10of my husband being gone, so I'm
at home doing everything.
We're at week six, so we're inlike that, you know, downhill
slope, but it, it can getchallenging and I think if
you're planning ahead andknowing that not everything is

(02:46):
gonna go very smooth in yourday, whether you're personally
or professionally, and.
Having control of your calendarwill really help for those
things that pop up that areunexpected,

Kevin Metzger (02:55):
really something else.
I know my wife, we have theonline calendar, a wall calendar
for the whole month, and thenshe's got a weekly calendar that
she also posts to therefrigerator, which with all of
our schedules, she's really goodat it.
Like she'll sit down everySunday morning and do updates.
And do you have like a timeperiod, do you set down a time
period for planning regularly ona regular basis?

Kristen Nolan (03:20):
Yeah, so my primary thing on Sundays, I'll,
we'll kind of have family timeand Sunday nights I'll, I'll use
it to kind of prep for the week,right?
What does my week look like?
And then I sort of work, I callit like Z to a thinking, I
think.
I'm not sure where that camefrom.
I didn't make it up, but that'smy philosophy where I'll, I'll
write down all of my tasks or todos for the week, and then I'll
plan it on my calendar.

(03:41):
So if I have specific projectsor due dates.
I'll schedule the time toaccomplish those.
I found that when I'm able to dothat versus just shooting from
the hip, I'm able to be moreintentional with what I'm doing.
Right?
If I have a friend and they'relike, Hey, or my husband, when
he's home, if he says, Hey,let's go meet for lunch.
Well, then I can go, okay, wellI have this block of time here.
Where can I shift that?

(04:02):
To make my schedule work andalso find time to do things that
I wanna do.
So then I'll say, okay, I'm, I'mable to, to take this hour or
two that I had here.
Let me shift it to, maybe I stayup an hour later and I work on
it in the evening.
So I'm just more intentional soI can accomplish all my tasks.
While still having room andability to have those things

(04:22):
come up that I wanna do, maybefor myself,

Roman Trebon (04:24):
I, you know, calendar management should be
like a course in college.
Like I, I, I feel like so manypeople and so like email, email
inbox is another one.
We can get to that like a dualcourse.
Right?
Like, you know my, but it'samazing how many times and I'm
so glad to hear Kristen, yourapproach.
'cause it's very, it took meyears to get here.
But it's very similar, right?
Plan Sunday night, I plan outthe week I put everything in one
calendar.

(04:44):
Personal business, I'm even acolor code, or I'm big on the
color code.
Mm-hmm.
So maybe I take it to like a,another level that's probably my
OCD tendencies, but I put it allin there.
Uh, but it's amazing.
I, I talk to folks and they'relike, I, I can't get anything
done.
And I say, why?
And they say, well, becauseeveryone keeps scheduling
meetings with me.
And I say, well, do you havetime block to get work done?

(05:04):
And the answer always is like,no.
And I'm like, well, maybe weshould start with the time
blocking.
Right.
Which I know you mentioned isone of your, your tips, you
gotta have focused time in thatcalendar to get stuff done.
Right?

Kristen Nolan (05:15):
Yeah.
And I, I work remotely, but Ithink people that work in an
office setting, right, youconsistently have people kind of
coming in and knocking on yourdoor.
It's really difficult to focuson a task.
I almost think that.
Another benefit to having afocus time is like you put a
note on your door and say, Hey,this one hour of the day, don't
bother me.
Like, come any other time duringthe day, but this is when I'm

(05:37):
gonna focus.
And that way you're able toreally sit down and give a
hundred percent of yourattention versus stopping and
starting, especially for thoseprojects that really require you
to have in depth thought, reallyhyper focus so that you're able
to accomplish them more quicklyand more efficiently.
Versus just kind of diving inand kind of doing version of

(05:59):
what you could be doing so thatyou're able to accomplish the
task more quickly.

Roman Trebon (06:03):
Shut down the email, shut down the team's
messaging, the Google chats,and, and, and actually you put
it to work, right?
So, Kristen, this is greatstuff.
You've given us more than onetip, which is typically what
happens on this, uh, one tipMonday, right?
But, but, uh, thanks for thispractical and powerful advice.
I hope our audience, if you'renot doing what Kristen's saying
with your calendar.
Get to it.
Sit down Sunday night, get tothis, you're gonna find it's

(06:25):
gonna be, uh, at leastpersonally speaking, it's a,
it's a real game changer.
So, Christian, you're gonna comeback and join us on Wednesday, I
hope, right?
We haven't scared you away yet.

Kristen Nolan (06:33):
Nope.
That's good.
I'll

Roman Trebon (06:34):
be here.
So we're gonna be back Wednesdayfor our one Big Question
episode.
We're gonna talk about how yousilence your in inner critic and
build confidence that lasts.
So I'm really excited for thistopic, Kevin.
Until next time.