Imperfect Marketing
Imperfect Marketing
242: Understanding Your Work Style: The Key to Overcoming Procrastination with Guest Andi Wright
Kendra talks imperfect marketing with productivity expert and coach Andi Wright. With over 20 years of experience in coaching, training, process development, strategic direction, and project management, Andi helps companies, teams, and individuals achieve more.
Topics covered in today's conversation include:
- Understanding your personal work style for better productivity
- Identifying and overcoming procrastination triggers
- Strategies for delegating tasks effectively
- The importance of experimentation in productivity
- Tools and techniques for managing tasks and time
Join Kendra every Tuesday and Thursday as she discusses how to make progress and grow through Imperfect Marketing.
Resources:
Connect with Andi Wright:
LinkedIn: Andi Wright
Website: ctpsolutionsllc.com
How to Jump Start Your Productivity Article:
https://ctpsolutionsllc.com/ctp-blog/how-to-jump-start-your-productivity
Book mentioned: "Leaders Open Doors" https://www.amazon.com/Leaders-Open-Doors-Leadership-Performance/dp/1475976380
Kolbe Assessment: https://www.kolbe.com/kolbe-a-index/
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Hello and welcome back to another episode of Imperfect Marketing. I am your host, kendra Korman, and today I'm really excited to be joined by my friend, andy Wright. Andy has over 20 years of experience in coaching, training, process development which I'm jealous of because I need more process development in my life strategic direction and project management. She got her boots dirty on many job sites but realized her true love was helping companies, teams and individuals achieve more, and that's what she's here to help us with today More contentment, more retention, more experience and more money.
Speaker 1:Educated as an architect, she understands that tight deadlines and even tighter resources go hand in hand, especially dealing with architectural and construction field, because she's done a lot over there, and she also understands that the greatest resource a company has are its people. So the reason I invited Andy to join us today was because she sent me an email a couple months ago and that was all about how to jumpstart your productivity. Well, I love productivity tips because I am like a productivity nerd, and so I jumped into her email, read her blog and said, oh my gosh, I need you on the podcast. So here she is. Thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 2:I am so happy to be here. Thanks for inviting me.
Speaker 1:So let's go ahead and jump in, because I really loved all of the tips and, as we're in the fourth quarter, right now people are busy. Right, we're trying to do more with a lot less time because, as the holidays approach, our time goes in a lot of different ways. So what are some of the things that you recommend to help people jump start their productivity?
Speaker 2:Well, of course, you know, as we are trying to be productive ourselves, the most important thing is we have to know ourselves, we have to know who we are, we have to know how we operate in order to be the most productive. So, like I said in the email, you know, we look at all these books, we read all these different blogs and it gives you five steps to being more productive. And so many people try to do those exact five steps and think, oh, my God, I'm a failure, I can't do it because that's not their way of being productive. Now there'll be people that read it and they'll be able to go yes, this is exactly what I needed, because they have the same, you know, way that they solve problems as the person who wrote the article. But you know, eight times out of 10, nine times out of 10, it's not going to be for every single person. You might get a piece or a little snippet, but if we don't know who we are, how can we be productive? That's the question. We really can't.
Speaker 1:I like that because I think understanding who you are and how you work is really important. I've been talking a lot to a lot of people. I read a book earlier this year on Buy Back your Time by Dan Martell. It's right there. It's the blue one, but anyway I read the book and I've always struggled with that Eisenhower matrix of prioritizing, you know, important and urgent on the two different axes.
Speaker 1:Everything is important and everything is urgent in my world, like that's just how it worked, but he took a different spin on it and changed the axes to what lights you up and what makes you money. Well, that allows me to take more of the emotion out of it, or leave some of the emotion in because it lights me up, whereas I wasn't able to separate that with the other way of talking about it. Right? So, yeah, I can definitely see how, yeah, I'm not as much of a failure as I thought I was that I can't figure out that Eisenhower matrix.
Speaker 2:Well, and I know the way you solve problems because we've looked at that before and you are one of those people that you're very deadline driven, you know. You often find that you're most productive at the very last minute, you know, and that doesn't work for everybody, but it works for you and it is not how schools teach you to be productive productive. So for you sometimes it's like always climbing up a hill, going I don't fit into this stuff. I don't like to do this stuff. I don't want to organize in that way. It doesn't work for me, it makes me slower and you know, embracing that and just saying this is who I am, this is what I need, I like that.
Speaker 1:And so let's just take a little brief detour and talk about the assessment that you're referring to. So that's the Colby assessment that we did together. Do you want to talk a little bit about what that is and how that helps people understand how they need to do their productivity?
Speaker 2:Yes, the Colby assessment, which is K-O-L-B-E if anybody's looking for it, is an assessment about how we solve problems, so it is a conative assessment, different from typical assessments, which are effective personality Personalities, can you know, ebb and flow over time, but this is really about how you solve problems when you are striving so, when you're working and when you're trying to get things done, and it gives us a ton of insight into ways that we can be more productive, different ways of communicating with people, ways that we need to be communicated to and can help us really dig into why we procrastinate. It's not the only reasons, but it gives us some just really easy common reasons.
Speaker 1:And I do like running up to the last second on a lot of things, so I get it All right. So the second piece that you were talking about in the email is to figure out what's causing your procrastinations. And let me tell you I've got about 10 things on my procrastination list right now. What's causing that?
Speaker 2:Well, many things can cause it. One of the big things, though, is we're often standing in our own way and, like I wrote in the article I talk about, you know we're supposed to be doing something and then, all of a sudden, you're maybe checking emails or you've moved over to something else, or you know, my thing is I'll go raid the refrigerator. I know a lot of people do that. If I'm stuck, I'm like I must be hungry. So, really understanding why we procrastinate and what is our trigger point and seated stuff really inside of us that we're trying to be perfect or we're trying to, you know, show somebody that we're smart and we're feeling you know less than so. Then we start procrastinating to cover up some of those feelings.
Speaker 1:So, we don't have to feel I like that. I mean, this show is called Imperfect Marketing because we're all about progress, not perfection, because it is never going to be perfect and once you get it to perfect, it's no longer perfect anymore. Right.
Speaker 2:Well, once you get it to perfect, then you're like what's the next perfect? Change it right.
Speaker 1:So once we figure out how everyone else says it should be done and figure out what works for us, figure out those barriers, how do you suggest people work forward to be more productive? So I know I'm putting it off just because I don't want to do it.
Speaker 2:Right. So first we're going to figure out when you're putting it off. So when does that happen and what exactly are you doing? And we're really going to dig in. And so this is where you got to be a little bit ready to dig in and, you know, lift up the hood, look under it a little bit and start to kind of pinpoint what is the trigger, you know, is it something that happened 20 years ago? Is it something that happened in a meeting 10 weeks ago? But what is creating that trigger?
Speaker 2:And then we talk about learning to let it go and it's not to say it just goes away forever, because those triggers really never go away, but when we understand them and we can point to them and we can see it happening, we can go. You know what. You're not in that situation, you're okay. Let's just try to move forward and we learn how to use these tools to move forward so that we can get more done and stop giving into some of these things that are happening to us, even when we don't know. It's like this unconscious mind that's working in different things and trying to keep us in this what I call self-preservation zone, which is a zone where we feel safe, because at some point in time this didn't feel good for us and we had to create other strategies to work around it. But we're in a different place. It's not happening anymore, and once we can see that, we can start to move forward.
Speaker 1:So one of the things that you talked about was figuring out what works for you, why you're procrastinating. But as leaders, as business owners even managing independent contractors right, even if you don't have your own employees you sort of have to understand a little bit about what they're procrastinating about at times too. I know that when I go into Asana, which is my project management tool, a lot of times I try to give my team, like I put it, like when it's really due. Well, I'm finding I have to back that up a little bit because they're not starting it any earlier. And just so you know I'm not complaining about them because I'm not starting it any earlier than it shows up in my to-do list either. So I get it. But how do you identify what your team needs Again, employees, independent contractors, spouse, significant other, whatever it happens to be, independent contractors, spouse, significant other, whatever it happens to be to help manage their procrastination, because it affects you too.
Speaker 2:Right, well, great question. So the simple answer is communicate. We have to ask them questions and so it might be as simple as I'm noticing that this is happening. When I ask for this, what could I give you? And they may not know. So then we're going to ask would it be better if I gave you a more specific due date? Would it be better if you understood how this fits in the big picture? Because sometimes just that simple task, if somebody doesn't understand where it fits in the big picture, can make them procrastinate. Big picture can make them procrastinate. Do you need more information and start to experiment to see if you get different results, and just keep the conversation path open.
Speaker 2:And it's funny that you mentioned that about the due date. I had somebody that I coached once just a funny story and he would be like you know what? I get these due dates and then they don't get it done. And then I'm super frustrated and I'm doing it myself. And when we dug in we found out that he was actually doing the work before the due date. So he would give a due date, then he would get it done. And I'm like, well, he basically taught everybody that you'll get it done. And he's like oh, so we worked on that and he, he stopped doing the work and he gave different due dates, earlier due dates, so he could get the work a little bit earlier.
Speaker 1:I must say, unless I can't do it, I have a tendency to sometimes fall into where it's like oh, I've got time, what do you mean? This isn't done yet? Oh, I didn't, it's not even due yet. Well, I got time, I'm just going to get it done, right and so, yeah, no, I, I definitely get it.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, and those can be ways that we are procrastinating ourselves, because that's something that we used to do, we're very comfortable doing it, it's fairly simple, and so we get that done instead of paying attention to something else that we need to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so one of the barriers that I had. So I've got a client, one client, that I have to follow up with and when I say follow up with, I mean stalk them daily, like a couple times a week, to get answers and approvals. And it's been very interesting. I don't know why I hate it, I just don't like doing it. I don't know why I hate it, I just don't like doing it, having to think and do it.
Speaker 1:And so I worked with my assistant and now she has a task to every Sunday or Monday, whenever she's doing her stuff, and she's got flexibility over her time. It's just due on Monday. So she goes in, finds the things I have to follow up in because they're not done, copies and pastes them into a task for me and assigns it to me. So then all I have to follow up in because they're not done copies and pastes them into a task for me and assigns it to me. So then all I have to do is copy and paste it and say, hey, just follow it up on this, like I literally don't even have to think, so it doesn't give me that time to procrastinate on the task, which is like crazy, right.
Speaker 2:No, it's not crazy at all. You actually found a great way to work through it, and that's one of the things that many people can do is, if you don't like doing something, it doesn't work for you. Stop thinking you can. You know, you've heard the definition of insanity keep doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result. So if you have somebody that you can give work to or give assignments to, or, as a solopreneur, you can have a consultant or somebody that you hire to do your marketing, emailing, anything that you need. Do that, because that's a way for you to be more efficient, more effective and to stop procrastinating. Procrastination doesn't mean that we're able to do everything that we want to do right. Some of it is that we have to realize we need a friend, we need somebody else to pass that off to, and you had a perfect way to stop yourself from procrastinating. So congrats, that's perfect, thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's hard because, like I'm paying her to copy and paste, I can easily copy and paste too, right, and so I think for some people it there's a mental block between I can and won't, um, and should Right. So I'm trying to get over that. When you're working with teams, how do you get them over the? Just because you should doesn't mean that you should do it Right. Just because you think you should, or whatever, and you can, doesn't mean you should be the one doing it. You should potentially be delegating it, offloading it, outsourcing, whatever that happens to be, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, one way that I talk to people about that have you ever read the book Leaders, open Doors Fantastic book. But that is something that delegating and elevating right If we open doors for other people, having them try different things or try new things, that's one way to look at it that while I'm giving them an opportunity to try something new, I'm giving them an opportunity to see how this works for them and I'm giving me an opportunity to get to that next level. So if we can think about it like that, sometimes it's a little bit easier to let it go. Sometimes it just takes time. It takes time of beating your head against the wall over and over and over again until you're like okay, I'm done, I have a headache, I don't need to keep doing this, I'm finally going to let it go and we're going to see what happens.
Speaker 2:And I also talk about just the simple concept of experimenting. So experimenting is a way to just say let's just see if this works. You don't have to give it to them forever, you don't have to let it go forever. But could you experiment and see what happens if you do? Let it go for a minute, or you try this different way, you know, collect some data, see what, see what happens, and then make a choice. And sometimes that is an easy way to let something go like okay, well, I can experiment, not changing anything, I'm just checking it out, and then I can decide if it's worthwhile or not.
Speaker 1:I like that, looking at it as experimentation, because experimentation is big in marketing. Um, and, yeah, another productivity tip that I have with that I've been working on with my assistant is that, um, I'm a big, I'm a big paper fan. So I've got my my full focus planner. It sits here, I like to write, I like to check things off and I have things in my online task management system. And then I've got a lot of things in my email.
Speaker 1:Well, I was talking with her and I said, okay, I want them to all be in one place, I want them to all be in Asana, which is my task management tool. I said, how do we do that? And she's like, well, where are they now? And I'm like, well, some's on paper and some's in my head and some's in my email, some's in a PowerPoint deck from one of my client status meetings. And we went through where everything is. And she's like, okay, let's start with email, let's start with the PowerPoints, and then you can text me pictures of your notes from your planner.
Speaker 1:But it's been insane, Like it's totally and completely insane how much more on top of things I am, because I'm not triaging through email every day, I'm not forgetting things and dropping the ball because they're all in one place.
Speaker 1:They're not seven pages back on my planner, from, you know, monday when it's Thursday. And that's really been a huge way of of change for me. It started as an experiment to see how it would work and it's been working unbelievably well. But it was surprising that little thing. It's such a little thing, but that little thing has just changed everything. I know what my day looks like tomorrow. I know what my day looks like today because I know what I have to get done and in there, I know what things can slide a little bit here and there and trust me, they will. But again, it's just it's really been able to for me to keep on top of everything and not fall nearly as far behind as I used to. And I'm actually getting through all my emails, I would say 90% of the month, which is a feat on its own.
Speaker 2:Well, and it's funny, the little things that we tolerate, that hold us back and they seem like, like you keep saying it's a little thing, but if you really look at it it's a big thing. It's a little change that made a big, big impact, right. So, knowing that there's these little tolerations that kind of go all over the place, right, and we don't look at them as one big thing that we can change, but we can hit those little, tiny tolerations, we can make impressive impacts in our own productivity and enjoyment of our jobs and our lives.
Speaker 1:Now, if someone doesn't feel like they have someone to delegate it to or give it to, what are ways that you suggest they work to figure out how to stop procrastinating and be more productive?
Speaker 2:I want us just to find a different way to do it or a different way to look at it. Sometimes the procrastination isn't necessarily in the task itself, but it's how we view the task, so just looking at it in a different way. And that's why sometimes it's helpful to have a coach, because they can help you kind of dig into it and figure out. Oh, you know, I was looking at it like this, but instead, when I think about it as an opportunity for me, you know, sometimes just emailing people or reaching out to people on social media or doing different things, like we look at it, as I'm terrible at this, like I'm not good at communicating, people are going to look at me and think I'm dumb. Whatever we think of, right, we've got all this head trash. That goes on. Well, what if you look at it differently, as in you have an opportunity to reach out and affect somebody's life or whatever it is that makes sense to you. That might help you to stop procrastinating, because you have a different outlook on it now and maybe it goes from something you have to do to something you want to do or you can make a game out of it.
Speaker 2:Some people just like the challenge. You know, I bet you can't get to X number of these in a week and they're like I'm on it Right. All of a sudden they're all excited about it and then they're going after it. I had a client that that was. If we made it into a challenge, she was all over it. But if it was just like a task she had to do, she absolutely hated it. Um, so we just made a bunch of challenges each week and and those awful things that she procrastinated on became productive.
Speaker 1:I'm slightly competitive so I can totally and completely relate. There's a system that I use and it's got a leaderboard in it. Leaderboard doesn't mean anything you don't win anything, You're not earning anything but it got me into the habit of using the system because I'm winning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's kind of like your people who have eye watches and you know they have the rings. Before Maybe I wasn't so worried about getting my activity in or burning the amount of calories because it didn't close a ring. But when it closes the ring, all of a sudden I'm I'm totally into closing a ring every day. I could do that, you know, and, and so I have a different outlook on it. Now it becomes more of a game, more fun, and I have that self-satisfaction of closing my rings every day.
Speaker 1:I like that. So what is the biggest thing that you do that helps you stop procrastinating and moving forward.
Speaker 2:That's a great question. There's so many different things but for me I have to start every day with a list. I love lists, I like to cross them off, but my list is on a three by five card and I write my meetings in it. So, depending, you can only get so many things done in a day and if my meetings take up 90% of my list, or, you know, three quarters of my list, I know I can't fit that many tasks onto the list. So I've, every day I start with that list and then I, you know, kind of put at the top of the things I absolutely have to get done and I know there's a couple of things at the bottom that are nice to have and I work to my list. That works for me. That doesn't work for everybody. I know some people hate lists. They hate paper. You know I've tried to do it in a computer. It doesn't work for me. I just need my three by five card.
Speaker 1:I love paper, I love crossing things off and I love the unicorn that goes across my screen when I check off a few tasks in Asana. I just I love it all, which is part of my procrastination. I'm too busy creating lists, but anyway, my, my, my assistant's helping me with that because she's making my lists for me now. Um, this is so much fun. I love tips on how to increase productivity and I like your approach to it. It's figure out what works for you. I like the competitive nature, I like the and I like your approach to it. It's figure out what works for you.
Speaker 1:I like the competitive nature. I like the lists, I like understanding that there's only so much you can get done in a day and trying to think of things a little bit differently. There's just so much there. It's all about figuring out what is going to make it work for you and, if there's things that you actually absolutely hate, figure out a way to offload them. I would say, even when I was lowest man on the totem pole, there was always a way to get around a task or ask some switch with somebody. Do you know? You may not be able to delegate, but there are things that you can do and strategies that you can take. You can hire a VA for as little as five hours a week. I mean, I know people that are not hiring people for extended periods of time. Virtual assistants come in super handy there, especially when you're trying to manage those things.
Speaker 2:So think about it differently Partner with another solopreneur. So if there's somebody that does something similar to you, partner with them and you guys can trade off on different tasks as well. It's really helpful. Or do some things together because it helps.
Speaker 1:Such a cool idea. I love that one especially. I was in a solopreneur support group and I've talked about this before on the podcast and one of my friends had mentioned that. I was like complaining about all these meetings I was in and she's like, well, just tell them that you need more time to get their work done and that you're moving them to every other week meetings, and I'm like I can do that. Like well, of course I can do that. And so I did it like literally the next day, freed up half of my month so that I actually had more time to get things done. It was unbelievable.
Speaker 1:But again, sometimes we're too close to it to really think it through. And so hiring a coach like Andy, hiring a virtual assistant that looks at your tasks differently, you know, again, bringing somebody in to help you look at that can pretty much like double your productivity in some instances, just because you stop putting things off or you look at it differently and get through your head trash. I always, sometimes I have a vision that like there's this humongous dumpster in my head. I have so much times it feels like. But because that's the only thing that was holding me backster in my head, I have so much times it feels like because that's the only thing that was holding me back from adjusting my meetings, and so it's been a huge game changer for me.
Speaker 1:There, too, this has been amazing. Again, I appreciate all of your tips and insights. I think it truly is about not considering yourself a failure because you can't fill out the Eisenhower matrix exactly, and figuring out what works for you and what works for how you work. But before I let you go and we'll have links, of course, in the show notes, like normal, for you to connect with Andy and if you want to work with her ways to do that but before I let you go, I have a question that I ask everybody, and that is this show is called Imperfect Marketing, because marketing is anything but a perfect science. What has been your biggest marketing lesson?
Speaker 2:It goes along with what I say about productivity. It's learning. It's it is learning what I like to do in marketing and doing those pieces and being okay with that and not feeling like I have to do 20 things or 50 things. And also my other thing was to hire somebody to help me with marketing because I'm not good at that and I don't like doing it.
Speaker 1:You don't like doing. That's the key, because I think that you're very good with with almost everything I've ever seen you do, so I encourage you guys all to connect with Andy. I will have also a link to her blog, which was the email that kicked all of this off, so that you can check that out, and if Andy has anything else, we'll be sure to put that in the show notes for you. Thank you all so much for tuning in to another episode of Imperfect Marketing. Until next time, have a great rest of your day.
