#83 - Jordana Jacobson on the systems you need for success and how to organize your life. — Transcript

I also listen to my gut and I'm not worried about making the wrong decision M like I really I don't care if I fail like and I don't even like fail whatever I don't care if it doesn't work because I tried and I know that I can try something different so to me that is like as long as you take the the plunge and you try something out it it doesn't matter I'm Erica and I'm CJ and you're listening to the her podcast we are excited to welcome Jordana Jacobson to today's episode Jordana is a seasoned entrepreneur with 18 years of experience in turning Visions into successful realities having sold two small businesses and mastered the art of efficiency she's on a mission to help overwhelmed small business owners reclaim their time and grow their business sustainably in this episode we chat about how you can harness the power of systems to streamline your life jordana's journey to discovering the importance of organization and efficiency practical steps to implement

organization and prioritize effectively how systems can transform your life in business leading to Greater fulfillment and reclaim time tips for organizing daily routines work calendars meals and more and conducting a Time audit to identify priorities and eliminate time- wasting habits this episode is going to get you fired up to get organized Implement systems that work for you and take control of your calendar let's dive in and welcome Jordana Jacobson to the her podcast [Music] I feel like one of the things that is sort of like um a tagline that could be like a tagline of yours and maybe you don't even know this and you're like I don't know but when I was thinking of you and going through like your notes and preparing and stuff like that I was like Jordana says that she was working

24/7 and cut herself down to a 12-hour work week and I feel like when people hear that they're like whoa that's so impressive right because I think a lot of people can identify whether it's like work or like um you know balance of like home life like they're just feeling on 24/7 right and getting to a place where you are having time management and saying that you're working 12 hours is incredible so I think today we're going to be able to like dive into all of that and explain it but I think that's a really good starting point for our listeners to really know um where we're going with you so I have so many questions for you I want to obviously go back a little bit to like know if you were always organized or um cuz that's the vibe like when we were talking about having you on I was like I mean we wanted to have you on anyways cuz we really we really love you and I feel like we connect always through social but we were talking about you and I think we both were just straight up like Jordana is like organized like I feel like when I watch her stories I'm like

inspired to be like get my routine going have my water like there it's it feels like your s your life has this system or flow to it that I think a lot of specifically women are probably looking for right and so like CJ said I think we're wondering like was that always the case you know I think that I've always been somewhat organized but not to the level that I needed to be to achieve what I wanted to achieve and life I mean changes right and so when I think back before even had kids like that organization was a whole different level that when you have kids and then you're throwing in a business and you're throwing in all these other life things um it definitely changed and but I I do feel like the basis of who I was I was always like I think if you were to ask my friends when I was younger they would definitely say that I had that element of organization I was very strict with my time and and how I spent it yeah um but the processes that

I had when I was younger didn't work for me anymore and that's like what I realized later on it's like okay this is not working I built myself a life of I call it 257 go go go and that wasn't working for me anymore because you built a business right well multiple businesses you've built but like what did it look like for you working 257 like what were you and what was your breaking point you know but like what was your day-to-day looking like was your body on Red Line you know how was your health your relationships everything everything every minute of my day was taken up by something like I literally I I make a joke but I didn't cook dinner for my family per holy for 15 years wow and that's you know and I actually enjoy cooking not that I'm a great cook but I like the act of cooking um but I didn't have time I didn't have time for that so literally um you know I was heavily into bodybuilding before so

I that was also part of the mix I would get up at 5:00 in the morning I would get up I would work out I would go to the gym before my family got up so that was like 5:30 to 7:00 I would rush home I would get ready my husband would get up like my day was pure chaos from the moment I opened my eyes until I went to bed every single night for 15 years wow so um it's impressive you did that for 15 years for like and i' like she's Ted by and I I think about that too it's like how did I do it but when you're in the middle of it you just keep going you keep going and the thing is is that I did have a lot of success in doing that too so that drove me because I was like okay I'm going to the gym 5 days a week I'm bodybuilding I'm winning competitions I built a business and I don't mean this as like a che my own horn thing your own horn that's why you're your own horn it was I was the behaviors I was doing were being reinforced yes yes you were getting the results you want I getting the results I wanted I built this business it was

successful it was like and I was like if I keep going it's just going to be more successful and more success and more success and I'm very driven and so it was like well I've got the recipe you just go go go yeah until you don't yeah and then it's like wow I remember I'm just fast forwarding now like tell go you're um but it was 2018 and I just thought about sort of where I was at in life and my business specifically because that's really what drove all these changes and I was like I built myself a job yeah not a business yeah yeah and I can't do this anymore I'm not happy it's like I don't know I don't know if there was anything specific that happened but it was just this realization that doing all of the things and not maybe as well as I should be and I wasn't happy do you

think that at any point up until 2018 you were confusing and tell me if I'm wrong but like confusing success with happiness oh 100% because as you were saying this cycle you're doing I was like oh I wonder if she you know cuz some people like we've talked before about CJ being a Workhorse and like she likes to work and I'm like some people really genuinely like to work and they like to be go go go right that's built into them and I was like oh I wonder if you loved doing that at one point and then it like yeah you you almost you lost the sense of Happiness to success and I think sometimes we can all feel like success is happiness when it's really not yeah I confuse them for sure and I I do really enjoy work too I am definitely I need lots of things on the go but not at the expense of everything else in my life Y at that's where it was like I I never sit and think about like it it was just all consuming it was

every vacation that I would take with my family I was working every everything that I was supposed to be sort of like my own time was consumed by everything else and I couldn't escape it yeah and it was like okay enough is enough so at any point did your husband or children say anything to you never never they're just like go mom go yep wow wow no one in my life ever said anything no okay that's interesting yeah which like twofold one I feel like and maybe you guys agree or disagree but like part of society for a long time has been work like work hard like if you want results work and I think only recently I've seen this like shift of like you know we're sort of going against the grain of hustle culture and being like what is actually important to you what do you value you know like hustle has um you know negative effects sometimes on your health and your relationships and so I think even if it was ingrained sort of in society like why would someone come

to you yeah Point possibly no for sure and I was huge hustle culture was like my middle name yeah it's like I can do that I got that plate you know um and so yeah that was exactly where I was at and so when you decide that it's like too much what did that look like for you the biggest part of all of this was my business honestly y um that was the biggest part that I needed I needed to take control back it it had become such a big thing and I was everything in my business and I needed to take a step back and find time yeah I needed to find time outside of who I was as a business owner so it wasn't like I needed to change a whole bunch of things um I mean with in my business I did but it wasn't like my life it just by changing things in my business it created pockets of time that I could used to enjoy other things in my life and at this time had

you already started to do the new building no because this like before Co yeah this is before Co this is 2018 so the new space you're talking about my new space um for the store was 2019 I started that like I'm curious on how you decided to move forward with a new space so what a lot of people didn't know about my business specifically is that I had thought about selling years prior so um I actually had my business assessed yep in 2017 I believe it was and because obviously those thoughts were already coming into my head like do I want this for my life moving forward is this where where I see myself you know in 5 years 10 years and so I had it assessed and um obviously it wasn't the right time because chose not to move forward with it but my broker said something to me um that was very interesting and and he's like you know you are your business so when you're selling your business you are going to

sell it to people who want to be in their business if you are not the main part of it you are opening that up to A Whole New World of people and it's people who want to buy it as an investment or people who yeah I mean basically an investment so I was like oh well yeah that makes sense right and so that was part of the drive in that too okay it's like okay I know you know maybe and I didn't know for sure it was going to be 5 years you know was exactly 5 Years From that point but I didn't know at the time and so um it was a huge driver in getting to me to where I where I needed to be when you get to a place that you're going to sell mhm what are the systems like in those 5 years did you find different ways to function better everything was different everything was different so what were you doing personally in your life to not be working at 20 what' you say 257 257 257 it didn't happen overnight it was like little bit by little bit and you

don't honestly see probably much improvement right off the Hop it takes a lot of little things so there was lots of like incremental changes that we were making and they were just small and it seemed really insignificant changes um but processes that we're putting into place just different communication channels all of these things just added up and so what that did is allowed me to take a step back and remove myself somewhat and then that just kept increasing and increasing and increasing and I could have spent more time in my business you know when I was working 12 hours a week I'm not saying that that's like the goal for everybody but I was also exiting yeah right right so in my head did you know you were exiting yeah okay okay like I had a like I had a feeling that it was coming I didn't know exactly um but I preparing I Was preparing I was it was kind of like a mental preparation maybe for myself too because it was easier to

let go in a sense because I wasn't immersed in it well that was a question I had for you cuz I imagine with like a hardworking driven person if I can speak from my own personal experience sometimes control you know is why we find ourselves or I have found myself you know in the middle of everything and so I'm curious how you worked through letting go of control you know and in yourself yeah working through it's a huge one control is a big thing and we like what we like and yeah we like things done the way we like things done um that was big for me but I also realized that there are so many people out there that are better at things than I am yeah and so when you start recognizing that it's like well hey because the return is so much greater right time and financial return When You're investing in people who are better at what that project is or than you are right so the return for me was like okay again that's being reinforced

it's like okay if I hire out to all these experts yeah I'm getting a bigger return Yes yes so then how do you get to a place and and I I know that you're saying well when you can see the return right we we understand that part but how do you actually let go of something because I think there's probably a lot of people listening whether they're in business or they're in their home and they have ways that they like to run things how did you get to the place that you could bring someone else in to do something was it like a process of reading a really good book did you have conversations you know was there inner work going on that was like okay I need to actually let go what did that look like it was all of it and it's creating the processes before and they may not be the right ones but it's like having something in place that you can tweak and it's like okay did that work no a lot of times it didn't work it didn't work and that doesn't mean necessarily like okay I'm done with that I'm done trying it's like okay how can I try that differently what can I do differently

that's going to you know make a better impact next time so yeah it's a lot of different things I'm a sponge like podcasts and audiobook and whatever I can get my hands on and just speaking to other people who have the expertise so it was all of that and it was just putting processes into place to streamline you know even like I just think about like grocery shopping like how many people end up going to the grocery store like every day because they forget something aimlessly right and so how much time is that wasting right and it's just like little things like that it's like taking the time to plan come up with a process whether so let's get into this I wanted to ask like a an example you know on how you actually do something but this is a good one because our audience in our question Bo was like meal planning you know prepping meals like BR so I'm like dive into that for us like what a system and process actually looks like from you like start for you from start to finish and like how maybe our listeners could Implement some of that too I think every

process is different so I don't think I necessarily have the same process for everything but I mean write things down like just simple things that it's like okay if I know I buy X Y and Z from Costco have a Costco list that every time I go to Costco I'm checking that list right instead of being like what do we order from Costco again or what do we grab from Costco again and it's like oh right I forgot we right how many keep a running list to be like when you go oh no we have blueberri so I don't need to get that but list like just little things right and everybody's like do you keep it in your phone or in a journal um I keep it depends on the depends on the list so I have a very yeah all of it it depends on um if it's a personal or business thing um and what it is specifically but we have an app like a grocery app that weer app I think it's called groceries I I don't know I don't it might not be but I think it's something like that groceries look it up everybody um but I also have like other like in my notes yeah right so I have

like different lists so it's just it's just um writing down things that work for you so that you remember right and you're not recreating it every single time M like food prep yeah is a huge one right so what foods do your do your family does your family enjoy right make a list write it down so it's like okay what are we making this week well let's look at our list instead it's like okay uh like what should we I don't know let's go to the grocery store every single day because we didn't pick up what we needed for the week right well and I think we probably put expend so much energy and thought process like you're saying into trying to to you know figure out what we want to do rather than having something that's already there that we can just like go to for reference and it doesn't mean you can't add to it doesn't mean you can't remove or change it like I think some people maybe think well if I write a list that's so rigid but I'm like we all know that you're stressed you know when you go to think of what to cook for supper so it's like if you had a list of like hey here's 10 things add

to it remove from it but like pulling from that list I imagine is very helpful it is and I don't know about your memory but mine's not as great as it used to be like I literally forget things in 5 seconds so if I'm not writing it down it doesn't really exist [Music] yeah if you on the market to buy or sell a home or maybe both and want to make the process as stressfree and smooth as possible then I have the realtor for you Lacy cazette is an award-winning Saskatoon realtor who prides herself in being your One-Stop shop for both buying and selling and her passion before her work just shines through when you meet her Lacy has over 12 years experience in the real estate industry a 98% list to sale ratio and she prioritizes an extensive and personalized marketing strategy for each of her clients because we all know that the best strategy is more important than ever now along with her husband and partner Kyle berneski

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[Music] yxe like I will forget even if I at the grocery store and I don't have it on the list and but I'm like oh right but I also need and it's not there nine times out of 10 I don't grab it yes like right it's like oh I just needed that one thing it's like that's why I went there yeah for that one thing and it wasn't written down and I bought everything else yeah yes absolutely so it's just like easy things like that I mean and that translates personal business right writing down the processes that work in your business so that it's there and everybody knows and it's not what do we do again so you're a big advocate for like writing things out absolutely okay would that almost be like step one for you and like you're wanting to create like a better system or process is like write down what you need to do or what you are doing yeah for sure it's like planning planning is everything right and taking the time and being intentional with your time to plan out whatever it is that you need to do and then if it works write it

down I mean write it down anyways and then you you know what what worked and what didn't you can tweak it so now that you've sold your business cuz when did that sale go through July my gosh so it's almost been a year has it yeah almost well I mean it's only March but to me I'm like yeah yeah it's already summer I'm with you to me I'm like it's spring which means tomorrow summer yeah I mean as soon as we hit this month I'm like it is now warm season now that you're not so much now I know you have another business but focusing more on your personal life are you since you've sold the business have you been like developing different systems and processes in your own home to make things run smoothly I don't feel like I have and honestly I think that is because I have more time so so now you're like I can go to the grocery store every other day if I need to I mean that still annoys me so I still have that proc process but I you don't need a process for everything if it doesn't cause issues in your life like what why do we need to complicate every single thing I like that because I think

right now there is this drive to be like super organized and on top of things and like the meal planning and you know the family calendar and to have like everything written out to a detail that some things that don't need to cause stress yeah why are causing like I don't need to put in my calendar every Tuesday that my kids are at their grand parents they're there like we just know they're there I don't probably need to be like putting in little things everywhere to remind myself right cuz that's not it's a nonissue right but we can over maybe even over stimulate ourselves by trying to like put everything in so it looks like we're super organized there's a huge problem with that I feel like a over stimulation and I feel like that's a huge problem for a lot of people business owners is they work off these three m long to-do lists can you please go off on this oh I used and this used to be me so I am like I am as guilty as anybody else but I would open my calendar and I would be like oh I have 27,000 things I need to do today great

like how does that set you up for the day it's horrible like your cortisol is like through the roof as soon as you wake up and like that's how I operated for so long and so many people like business owners that I'm working with too they have lists and sticky notes and stuff everywhere and it's just this chaos of like to-dos to-dos to-dos and so coming up with a system again a system um to manage that so that you're not looking at this three mile long to-do list every single day like are you suggesting we like have priorities like top three to five priorities for the day you know like how are we so imagine someone is listening to this and we're sitting here and we're being like yep that's me I have a to-do list that's 27,000 things long like how do we begin to change that and prioritize differently and change our mindset and like what would a process look like for me the biggest thing that changed um was using like a digital planning tool that was a game Cher for me um I use it as a mind Dumping Ground because we have so

many things in our minds and I feel like that causes a huge amount of anxiety for us it's just oh my gosh I'm going to forget oh my gosh what you know all the things that we're always trying to so if you can extract those from your head and put them into a tool where it's just sits it's like that releases some of the anxiety for me any are you talking about like Trello or something like that I love Trello okay I love Trello and like I'm not a Trello expert by any means and I have like the non-paid version of Trello so but you're brain dumping I'm brain dumping like everything like even when think of taking screen you you see something you take a screenshot and then you put it goes in your camera roll and you know a year later you're like what was this for right you forget I like take screenshots and I dump them in Trello and it's like I won't forget it's there it's like right and so I use Trello as my capture all everything to do and I organize it but that's not what I work off of okay I work off my list of two to three things that I have to get done every day okay okay so you're

prioritizing them you're brain dumping so that we're not feeling so overloaded and that all those things in your mind have a place that can be found so they're not free floating but they're not sitting there as like this is what I'm going to get done today and you're trying to prioritize let's say two to three things yeah so that'll be like in my business so working on my business it be like you know these are my top two to three things that I really need to get done today um and then I'm also including obviously you know not forgetting my kids at school and like those sorts of things well I was going to ask like when you're planning out your day let's go to like a day for Jordana and you're thinking about your top priorities are you putting in work things first or life things first life things first okay so what does that look like for you so I'm I'm putting in my personal so anything any appointments anything with a hard deadline that I can't forget those actually I use my Google Calendar for that and I set alerts so that I'm not forgetting and I check that every morning and I dump those into my planner so that's the first thing I do is like what are my hard deadlines that I can't you know negotiate on time so you said um appointments but with that also be like

picking your kids up from school yeah you can't forget them yeah okay so um anything that's personal like that um goes into my my Google Calendar and then I mean I don't I don't program that every day for picking up my daughter from school but I this is one of those things we know to do exactly it's like you don't need to over plan everything um and then I just take my parties and put them in my paper planner so I've got this one piece of paper that I can look at with two to three things as opposed to 27,000 and how does our cortisol feel and it's like check check oh I accomplished something today are you scheduling in cuz I know you're active I watch I see you on social I see FY things so I'm like are youing that in or is that now just become like one of these things that you do every day and I don't need to schedule it I schedule it okay cuz my my schedule changes every day so you know I used to work out at 5:30 I don't work out at 5:30 a.m.

anymore so I find again pockets of time in my day that allow for me to work out so I'm looking I'm taking all of that into consideration but yes I absolutely schedule it because if I don't again I don't know that it's going to happen well and I think what you just said is really great because I know I'm someone who gets really caught up in like working out at the same time every day like it like doesn't mean the same thing if one day I work out at 7:30 in the morning and then the next day work out at 8:30 at night like I have this disconnect that like oh I'm not a workout girly now because I like can't keep that thing and so I love that you're speaking to the fact that it's like you just have to find it yeah if it's if it's valuable to you it might it's not valuable to everybody but if it is a value to you you can like look at your calendar and schedule it in where it fits yeah oh I I work out at different times all the time m oh yeah it just depends on what my day looks like but I also make it a priority so it's like I'm going to find the time it's just where is that time tomorrow I don't know yes so when it comes to the other thing I wanted to ask you about was habit stacking because I know we've talked about this before but I think

we've talked about in our on our own page um habit stacking and also the relation to hustle culture and how sometimes people can like view them as one and the same and I'm wondering how you navigate habits stacking while also making sure to not get back into like hustle culture I think there's a difference between like habit stacking and multitasking right so habit stacking for me is like taking two things that um maybe are completely different and one is not going to impede on the other okay so multitasking to me in terms of hustle culture cuz that's where I used to be I was doing so many things that were so important all at the same time we trying to and obviously not doing very well at it whereas habit stacking for me is making use of time I'm on the treadmill like this is something I do I know you see um you know and I'll I'll answer my emails that'll be my time but you know I can walk without really thinking about it and then I can answer my emails and so I'm just doing two things that you know aren't canceling each other out

it's just enhancing my time and I don't always answer emails while I'm walking too you know I'll watch Netflix and whatever as well so but I think there's a difference and I think the multi tasking part is you know more connected to the hustle culture yeah that actually makes yeah that makes a lot of sense cuz we've talked about this before we're like I think some people can get really into the Habit stacking to the point that it becomes multitasking yeah and hustling and hustling it's like how much can I do in in a short amount of time and right yeah whereas this is like no I I have this time I'm just walking on the treadmill anyway I may as well get something else done well and I think something else you've said is there's a difference between being organized and being efficient can you explain to us how you see those two as different and what that means because I think a lot of people hear the word organized and they're like if I'm quote unquote organized then I'm efficient and it's not necessarily I think it's intentionality it's being intentional with your time and what really matters is like the most important thing you can

organize again a huge to-do list but are you really accomplishing anything towards what your goals are so I think that's where the efficiency comes in so I don't know I just I just see it as again going back to prioritization I'm curious what your top one or two sort of systems or like things that you do in your day um that are the most impactful for you and possibly our listeners might find impactful too like whether they're systems whether it's like you know schedule an app that you use like what are your sort of like most used systems or processes one the systems I use every night before I shut down like my work day is I go through and I look at what I need to do tomorrow so I'm not thinking about it at night so I'm freeing again freeing up my mind it's not like oh I can't remember what I have on my plate tomorrow it's already planned out for me and then I'm revisiting it in the morning yeah and it's like okay right yeah I got this it's like here are my

here are my things and it it sounds so simple but I never used to do that again I would open my phone first thing in the morning as I'm answering emails and trying to figure out my day and looking at like what am I doing on this list what are all the things that I need to get done and I'm already in this tail spin for like well it it's almost like we talk about this a lot um being in like a reactive mode compared to like a proactive mode right and checking out your list the night before means that the next morning when you open up you're actually proactive you already kind of know even if you're not really aware cuz you've just woken up or whatever there is something in your memory that's going to go yes I've seen this I know what's Happ happening probably more calmness to your morning even if it's a hectic schedule like I know for me I mean I I don't need to look at my calendar when I know we're podcasting but I still will to be like who are we talking to tomorrow and then I get to wake up and go oh yeah even though this is like kind of busy with my kids I'm trying to get them all out the door and I'm trying to get Nick out the door it's like the part of work though doesn't need to be exactly giving me stress even if my gag

of children is yeah it's doing that on a weekly basis too so every Sunday again it's just being intentional it's like I schedule in a time that I look at my schedule but I do because if I don't if I'm not intentional with it and I don't schedule it in it likely won't happen but I take and it's not long I take five minutes and I'm like what does my week look like what are all the appointments that I have to do doctor's appointment whatever it is and what are my top priorities for this week what do I know I need to get done right and so it's just setting myself up for the week and it also goes into my personal life what are we eating this week where where are my kids where are the activities who's eating at what time do I have to have anything ready like it's just knowing you know and there's always going to be things that come up too but it's knowing as best as you can how to prepare yourself for the week like how can I prep some food so that I know that we have lunches or whatever it is so it's just being intentional intentional and planning proactive right thinking forth thought yeah thinking ahead and I think

a lot of people think it's like takes a lot of time but it really doesn't like it literally is no for sure no more more than 10 minutes yeah just going through everything yeah and I think what you're probably also saying is like being intentional and proactive with the understanding that things are going to come up and no amount of planning cuz that's the other thing I think people can do what we said right is they can like plan to a tea and all of a sudden something comes up and their world explodes because they didn't anticipate it coming but it's like holding Grace and holding these two ideas in both hands which is like we can be proactive and be thought out and be cool while also understanding life happens well I think like for me the biggest thing is in um making sure I have margin in my day and my week because I think we all know that these things are going to come up unexpected right and so it's like if you're actually over scheduling your week or your day and you're so busy and it's so g-p packed and everything is back to back that's when you're going to get a backlog right that's when we're going to get a five car pile up because if one thing is off it's going to affect

the next six things right I leave a buffer on everything you just never know if you have extra time well great then you've got extra time but I always leave you know 10 15 minute buffer just to make sure the other thing that I do that um I use religiously and I don't want to say it cuz my phone might talk to me but I tell Siri all the time to time things and so I'll I time everything and I know it sounds crazy but it's all it's a habit that I've just come you know come about to use and I time yeah it just creates guidelines for me it creates um management of are you asking her to time your task or I know just to set the timer okay I was like okay I get it yeah so so it keeps me focused it keeps me on track and it's like I'm I'm never going over the time that I have allotted for one particular task it makes sure that I have time allotted for everything and when I I get really focused it's like

the timer goes off and it's like okay it's time to go pick up your child from school so you don't forget her right I I clearly did that so yeah that's the thing that we keep yeah this is the thing so but I time a lot of things like I set my timer for a lot of things wa go ahead no okay no and I was going to say even for things that you don't want to do I will set my timer for right cuz I'm procrastinating I don't want to do this task I'm I'm not looking forward to it I'm dreading it it's like I can do anything for 20 minutes set that timer and go and before you know 20 minutes is done but I do that a lot see I I would struggle with that personally only because I hate starting a task if I can't finish it so if I were to be like I'm going to set it for 20 minutes and then I wasn't done the task I'd be like what now what do you mean I have to leave this which is I'm sure a part of my ADHD which is like the time right I need either all the time or no time at all there's not really like that buffer for me but I do like that well I guess

the other part of not being rigid it's like not every time do I leave the task it's like my time's up but I'm really in it so and you going to spend more time so there's some flexibility in there too it just really it really keeps me in line basically and then I can just decide do I want to continue or not okay and you said that this was a habit you developed like over time I'm curious on what other habits you have either just naturally have or that you've like been really proactive in implementing during your day or your week so that you can be successful because you are successful and I feel like you're someone who I look at on stories and I'm like I got to be like Jordana like I got to be like yeah ino for sure and so I'm wondering like I know like you said you're working out daily right but I'm like what other habits are you working on implementing in your life that's a really good question I feel like I know one okay tell me water I feel like to say h

to be in there that's so funny cuz I don't even think about it anymore see but that's the thing cuz for me I literally have to be like like Nick will say like did you drink water today and I'll be like did now I'll like yeah yes as I'm like chugging cuz I forget right yeah interesting yeah I do have that habit I mean and that's just I when you continue doing habits over time they just become part of your life and it's no longer something you need to think of um so yeah I have a lot of those probably but I I don't know I I guess I I've just been a scheduler for a very long time that these things are just part of my life and I don't necessarily recognize them as like this is a habit that I created okay but is there a new habit that you're trying to implement lately like something that you're trying to work on I always have something yeah I always have something that I'm working on and it's just little things that I you know my latest one I know this is going to sound funny but I really want to start making my bed yeah in the morning I started doing that at the beginning of 2024 yeah like and it's

crazy it's like really how old I but I just really wanted to have y my bed made yep and so yeah and so for me how I create a habit and stick to a habit is by writing it down and so I journal every morning for you know 2 and a half minutes very very quick but it's a habit that I created that I've been doing and I include something I'm working on and so that was my latest one and so every day I would write about it and be like oh shoot I forgot to make my bed I'd literally foret yeah exactly see you are you journaling in your bed or no you're journaling in your office in my office yeah it's part of like just my morning routine how do you only journal for 2 and a half minutes um I'm quick like I just need quick things I like what are you saying what's coming up in the day like do you have any prompts yeah so I always focus on like the five things I'm grateful for so and that you know you know some days it's harder than others I guess but you know I I'm pretty good at

quick figuring out what I'm grateful for and then I always have a prompt and so I've changed the prompt every year so this year my prompt is I will so I will blah blah blah blah make my bed yeah and then well and yeah I mean that's part of it and then I always have a habit that I'm working on so I guess I need a new habit because I've been making my bed good for you yeah I've been making my bed so consistently that like the other day I didn't and it felt so weird like I went to leave my room and I was like and I like went back to do it because I was like this and I'm not saying I make it like it's not like Hotel worthy okay we're like making sure everything is like sometimes when Nick gets up after me I will literally like throw the covers over him and I'll be like just slide out of the bed when you leave cuz then it it'll be made and he'll be like what are you doing you're making me in the bed and I'm like just slide out when you're done once he gets out it's like I go back and I'm like okay now we're good just flip that corner over and we're good to go that's a great habit though and I think a lot of people don't realize like my grandmother was like

that my grandma was like make your bed every morning and I hated it and I never understood it and now I get it I actually feel like it sets your day and it sets every time you even walk into your bedroom there's like a organization yeah that's happening in there very calmly I actually just thought of another habit oh I want to hear it email yeah oh tell us the bane of my existence so I had a huge issue with email like I checked my email like 35 bazillion times a day okay like it was a habit like a really bad habit and I always checked it first thing when I woke up which was an awful awful Habit to get into but I did that throughout my entire time in my chaotic world of business y um so not checking my email and I had to write that one out because I still like not even focusing not even being aware of what I was doing I would open my phone and oh your fingers will just

do it for you go and I'm like I'm in my email what am I doing yeah so that was a really hard one which I think a lot of people can relate whether it's email it's going to be their phone or social media yeah right like I think a lot of people are struggling and we've created these habits and patterns especially first thing in the morning especially in the evening we're like rolling over and we're like oh let's wake up phone is on blaring in our eyes juster and all you're in the middle of it and you just mindlessly right mindlessly yeah because your brain has mapped patterns you're just like deep into it if that makes sense right so how are you stopping email you said you're like writing through it but like how do I think that can apply to I have stopped I will catch myself like I'm not 100% on this by any means I am so much better than I used to be but I wrote about it every day to bring it awareness it was like just awareness of what I was doing and I literally would wake up and check my email first thing and when you have a

business and you wake up to 100 emails yeah cortisol yeah insane and so and I continued on with that even when I sold my business I had way less emails but it was still the habit and it was still the pattern of checking it and I was still stressed like was like it sent me into this like very non peaceful moment mode yeah right and so that's one that I've really really really worked on but it took a lot longer than learning to make my [Music] bed hey everybody it's Erica you guys know I love a quality handbag and I recently found a luxury resale company that I have to share with you working girls Boutique offers a stunning selection of Gently Loved luxury handbags and a safe reliable and secure way to purchase your dream bag they have strong commitment to authenticity and choose carefully curated pieces in excellent condition which include Prada YSL Louis Vuitton and they have a stunning Chanel collection which is 100%

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[Music] snagged like a lot longer well and then so how are you checking your emails now like what do I now yeah now that you've like okay we're not checking them first thing in the morning yeah mhm yeah so don't check them until I sit down with my cup of coffee in the morning so I have a time where I actually it's like again intentional being proactive about it and I'm not checking them all the time I have you know times throughout the day where I will actually check them but it's not like when I'm just sitting around doing nothing oh I may as well check email because when you do that you go off and you start doing things that are directed by your email this is somebody else's agenda for your day and you are taking that and you are running with it and it's like all the things that you you had intended for your day are no longer what you're focusing on you're focusing on putting up the fire sending paper work to whoever needed like it's just it's not your agenda anymore it's somebody else's so did you at any point have to like put your phone

in a different room or like do you have your notifications off like have you done complely I know same I'm just like on do not disturb 3,000 yeah 257 257 I have to I have to have them off cuz then it's your choice and then yeah it's your choice when you do something and when you engage forget about it when it's off and it's not binging at you same like the opposite with emails and I never look at them because I'm like GH I I I'm I'm like a volunteer on a couple things now and they just like know you can't email Erica cuz she won't look you got to text her if you want to get old which I mean it's not a great habit either but I'm the opposite I like well I think some people who are not email social media right or like anything on their phone or just as bad too it's like it's not even necessarily that it was email it was just email for me but social media text it's like creating boundaries yeah so how are you creating boundaries in your life other than that you know now I mean I created during my whole

transition with my business that was a huge part of it is like creating those boundaries and not looking at it as a bad thing but a really good thing and it it took a while it took while to train myself and to train it sounds bad not train my staff but like get them you like on board with it and understand that it's not like I'm not shutting them out but I can't be there all the time to deal with all the things right and so it's just little things that that I did to create those boundaries and it it works it really does work it just takes time and consistency because it's easy to just give into that text that you get at 10:30 at night and respond to it but when people realize that you don't respond to it they're far less likely to send the text in the first place well I think people have a hard time going through a period of discomfort or disease right and it's like anytime you implement any change there's going to be some waves that come from that right because you've had a a natural way of interacting or a pattern that has been

you know going on for so long and so anytime you change that it will affect um the other person or relationship sometimes and so it can take some time to get over that hump and I think too many people get a little bit of discomfort and then they're like I'm just going to I'm going to give in right but it's like you're so important like you're worth it your time is worth it right yeah it's very uncomfortable yeah to start creating boundaries when you didn't have any it's like almost tell us about that because you'll know yeah I had zero I had zero boundaries you could call me text me do what and I'll be there and I'll do it when whatever time it was it didn't matter you know it didn't matter if I was on vacation it didn't matter if I was at my daughters volleyball game it didn't matter I would be I would jump right into it did you lose friends no or relationships when you shifted oh and I shifted I'm like oh because I was helping every um no I actually many friends no I didn't I don't think that I did it I think it was more me like I felt guilty like that was hard for me especially with my staff yeah like I

didn't want them ever to feel like it was an abandonment thing like I'm don't care or I don't want to help or I'm not available for you yeah so that shift in mindset was huge for me that it was it wasn't about that it wasn't about that it was about finding time where it was um okay to be working on my business and to be available so that was a big one but wow does it change things like that's it's massive like it just setting boundaries and even communication like communication is so important but not all the time like midn night you know yes I feel like you're good at making decisions mhm and I'm wondering if you can speak to like how you make decisions whether it's in life or your business and if you're someone who is like a researcher and looks at all the angles or are you someone who's like listening to their gut both okay I am a researcher for sure I do research things I also

listen to my gut and I'm not worried about making the wrong decision like I really I don't care if I fail like and I don't even like fail whatever I don't care if it doesn't work because I tried and I know that I can try something different so to me that is like as long as you take the the plunge and you try something out it it doesn't matter do you feel then like maybe we have so much decision fatigue because we feel like if we make the wrong choice we're going to be you know letting ourselves down or someone else down you know what I mean I heard this study oh I'm going to quote this so wrong but it was like um I think it was like Esther Perell Maybe like at Harvard had done it and it was maybe it was someone else but it was like instead of making a decision for the next week she had her students every time they needed to make a decision flip a coin oh and so you had two options of like I'm going to eat this or I'm going to eat this and they'd flip a coin and then just go forward with you know whatever the coin flip was and at the end of the week she asked like did it actually hinder your life

did you make the wrong choice and they were like no my days got so much easier and I had so much more like mental capacity and time and it was like it's actually just the weight that we place on the decision compared to like you're saying are we picking the wrong one or the right one right and so I was like oh that's an interesting concept to think about maybe sometimes it's the the pressure that we're like putting on ourselves potentially yeah I think that could be I mean I also get decision fatigue around cooking meals for my family who's like I don't know what I want you know so definitely I mean there's things that well I think there's difference between maybe like flipping a coin for like where you're going to eat compared to like am I selling my business no no no I I know you would F but I'm saying like I think that's where like some people are caught up in this like how do I make and maybe decision fatigue and listening and just making decisions are like two different things but I just think like yeah I was just interested on how you make decisions like are you making a pros and cons list are you like I'm a I'm a talk to think

kind of person right Nick is like sitting there as I go through every option possible before I get to my decision how are you making making decisions for your new business or for your life personally M I think like I had said I think I'm a little bit of all of it like I do do my due diligence and do research um but I also do trust my gut but I'm again I'm I don't know I'm just not afraid to try and I I'm excited by new challenges so that you know some people don't like that so that makes the decisions harder I mean when it comes to selling my business obviously that was a decision I had thought about for a very long time and weigh pros and cons so um I think it depends on like how big the decision is as well um but no I've been told I make decisions quickly but again I don't it's just like let's do something in action to me is so frustrating like I am not like I like to just move forward yeah are you seeking advice from others or by the time you're

telling someone else you have an idea have you like decided you're doing it I again it depends on the decision ision and I ask maybe a very select few I'm not one to be like hey everybody here's my right like I'm thinking about selling my business what do you think what do you think what do you right like there's a few Key Circle that this is what I trust but I kept you know my bigger decisions I tend to keep quite private I do trust that I'm going to make you know at least somewhat of a good decision um I mean you'll never know right until you until you try or until you do it I'm encouraged to hear that you are also someone who's like I'm not afraid to fail like we can just go for it and you're right there are a lot of people who struggle with that idea cuz a lot of people are afraid to fail and fail we're saying that Loosely like what is failure right it really just depends what you yourself view as failure um but I think that's very very cool last question for you is I'd love to talk about the time audit yeah yeah

and I think that that's something that we could encourage our listeners to even go check out but like what is a Time audit I feel like is that one of the first steps when you work with someone that you get them to do is like track what they're doing in the day so a Time audit is just basically looking at how you spend your time in your day and it's really crazy how we think we spend our time or how much time we think we're spending on something versus how much we actually are again when we're timing it right so it's just really an analysis of of how you spend your time and you can do a Time audit and just by memory you can do it Loosely and just be like well you know these are the things that I did yesterday and this is how much time I spent on it or you can really get granular and time it and look at you know how am I doing this how am I spending you know the time in my day and I usually say like a 3 to 5 day period is better than just looking at sort of one day right because you in three to five days you get a an assortment of things that you're doing in variety right so it's just writing things down

um looking at how much time you're spend spending on different Key activities are you spending your time the way you want to be are you working towards your goals whatever those are it doesn't matter right you know if your goal is to do nothing for 5 days and you're doing nothing well you achieve those goals right so it just depends on what you're working towards so it's a really huge eyeopener I think for a lot of people I just I think of it too like when I was bodybuilding and just learning the ins and outs of like calorie counting and when bodybuild like you have to be very very on right and so you have to know exactly how many grams of protein and carbs and everything that you're eating so the more specific you are the greater your results are going to be right right and it's the same with your time the more specific you are and the more you know exactly what you're doing the more beneficial it's going to be right and you can really take that and start manipulating it right and I like that because I feel like anyone who's listening could relate to whether they're like I want to be more efficient in my business so I want to get more

done you know here so that I can get more done over here or if someone's like I want to get more done here so I have time over here that I don't have to be working yeah and so when you're saying people can time their like would you suggest someone times everything like going to the bathroom well I don't know I'm just curious if it's more than maybe a couple of minutes I might like maybe you're going to the bathroom and you're on your phone for half an hour I don't know see but that's like is there because then maybe you'd be timing how much you were on your phone yeah Fair I don't know like it just depends but I think like driving in the car like for me right living out of the city it's like I spend so much time with my vehicle like I feel like I waste so much time in my vehicle waste I have to get to the place I'm going right but that's very interesting I have never done a Time audit on my life yeah you should try oh my gosh I'm scared really I feel like it's just like with anything when you can like see it in front of you then you just are like oh like I knew this or like something you get new information or you're like oh I actually you know maybe I can

do this I mean like I know you listen sometimes to podcast or like phone a family member or a friend when you're driving I'm like that's good quality time too yeah right habit stacking maybe maybe we'll have to do time a well that was funny actually The Habit stacking cuz for a while I was doing and this is where I think it's good to hear other people's perspectives because I think on one hand I'm like I love the idea and you know there was a time where SI and I would do like phone calls while we were on the treadmill and then there was times when I'd be like trying to answer emails and then I realized for me personally I need my treadmill time to be my treadmill time like it's my I mean like I said I have five children now husband Farm all this stuff going on I'm like I actually need that 30 minutes to be like this is actually just about me and this is the thing there's no right or wrong what works for me and that's why I hesitate sometime to be like this is what I do because that probably won't work for a lot of people so it doesn't matter necessarily it's like it's developing the processes and systems that are going to work for you and your life that's what matters as long as you're happy and you're accomplishing

what you want whether it's personal professional whatever it is that's all that matters right just figuring that out yeah and I think what's great is when we can hear other people's processes or systems like if we actually took the time we don't have the time today but to like go through each of our things three different people listening or someone might hear themselves in each process or system and go oh I want to try that or I'm going to implement that and you can actually mesh all these different things together to find something that works for you yeah um before we wrap up I want to ask about your morning and evening routine okay so I get up alarm yes I have to no I have to do alarm yeah I won't wake up yeah and is it is it your phone or is it like a clock no it is my phone and I do have it beside my bed I don't I've I've you know separated myself from using my phone you know in first thing in the morning but I I set my phone alarm I get up to an alarm um how how much detail all of it all of it

okay we listen to a lot of stuff on morning and evening routine so we're fascinated by it yeah so then I get up and I wash my face and then I meditate so um yeah so I have an app but I also actually prefer uh YouTube so there's a lotep and I am a five minute meditator yep love it yeah yeah so I have a lot of habits but they're not long like the journaling the med like they're very quick things so I meditate really fast question cuz I'm super curious and you're probably going to be like I have no idea it's called groceries the yeah do you have a favorite YouTube uh meditation lately you know like one that you can remember the head person okay um I tend to get the same ones in my feed and when I see five minutes I'm like play great so I I don't know the name of it though but continue um so what do I do I'm half asleep okay so I'm meditating and I go

downstairs and I this is so funny um I make tea y so I have this tea blend that I use um so I do that and I get my daughter's lunch together this is so funny that I'm regurgitating all this but oh no it's making me think about my morning routine now too so I like this that's great and so so you're not coffee first thing in the morning no I yeah this is like a whole other podcast but yeah so I have these teas that I drink so it's going to make me look younger and help me with my car menopause and all the things gosh love yeah so um and then I go and journal yeah so I go and journal and then I make my coffee I've had vitamins in there too there's just so many things that I do I don't even know if I can remember them all but then I have my coffee Y and I sit down with my coffee and that's when I first look at my phone yeah so I do that for a little while and then I take my daughter to school in the morning y so that's

pretty much like my first thing in the morning I mean it's very different now that I work from home cuz I go and I drive her to school like in my sweatpants and my hair and like the whole yeah like it's you're not getting not getting ready yet no and I sometimes don't get ready at all during the day but um yeah so that's pretty much my morning and then when I come home actually after I Journal too I do look at my day yes so I've got my my planner there and I look check in and make sure I know exactly what I'm doing when I get home um now my bedtime routine oh it seems to take forever I have a lot yeah um it's just a lot of like well I feel like you're into wellness and anti-aging you know so I'm like are you like drinking something before bed to help you sleep or taking something or are you meditating again cuz some people like to meditate at night before go to bed all I do all the things are you doing that like gouache yeah I am I do a lot

of yeah oils and like facial oils and like a lot of things I'm trying to do a lot more natural stuff too so I've been really into that um but I don't meditate before I go to sleep um I do vitamins I take um magnesium yeah before I go to sleep and um just a lot of like beautifying stuff you know yeah and yeah but it's like it takes forever I don't know why it takes forever my husband's like I'm going to sleep two minutes later he's asleep I'm like okay an hour later okay I'm still putting oil on my face are you putting your phone down a certain time before you go to bed no not really not really like will you look at your phone put it down and go to bed right away like I try to not be on my phone I do do that um but yeah I I haven't had an issue sort of with that and whatever I'm watching or doing is like I don't know it's like Leisure like it's just for like it's not like working

until I'm going to bed so but yeah I don't know and sleep is a huge thing for me to like I need a lot of sleep and so just setting myself up you know to be able to sleep the best that I can because I'm having some issues with that lately so yeah so just trying to set myself up and you know I really want to even maybe my bedtime routine a little bit early I just find it harder with my kids being older yes cuz they want to be a blate probably yeah they are very very late and you know the homework thing or whatever is happening and like my daughter doesn't get home from Cheer until almost 10:30 at night and if she has you know it's just so it's it's sometimes difficult you know and like there's that flexibility I can't be in bed by 10:30 every single night if I'm driving her right so you have to have that flexibility and you can only do so much you just you know the best that you can do so no I love that I know you feel like why would we want to know that but I always think what I was actually thinking as you were going through your morning routine is I was like I I've

always like I used to have a really great morning routine like years ago and I feel like since having all of these kids and everything has just been like really crazy but as you were going through your morning routine I was like oh I do that or or I do that right I make my lunches for my kids at almost the same time every day and I think what can be encouraging is there is this desire I think with a lot of people to have these really cool morning routines where we're like I am doing all the things or I'm going to implement these new things when really it's like you might already have a morning routine that's working for you and it doesn't have to be this big overhaul of things you could add one new thing or remove something if you want and so as I'm listening to yours I'm like oh like I do that and I do this and oh that's interesting I could Implement that so I think it's good that you shared it yeah thank you I think like what serves you right exactly like you're saying like you know for our listeners and all of us I think it's always important you know even the processes and systems we talked about today it's like what works for your life right like you can get really inspired and you know maybe there's things you can take away and be like oo I'm going to try that right but it's

like what actually works none of us are living your life no right and it's baby steps it's like you don't have to overhaul everything like come on like one thing at a time right that seems to be big for you what I'm catching on today is that you actually do little incremental things everything it's yeah seems more so than big things yeah it's more manageable it's less overwhelming yeah I feel like it's like New Year's goals when people come in with like 30 New Year's resolutions and they fail within the first three weeks but it's like if you actually just gave yourself one thing yeah you'd probably accomplish it within like two months and then you could add a new thing yeah right we get too over stimulated or whatever with all the things we're trying to change at the same time and overwhelmed that's what I was looking for we're too overwhelmed with everything so hopefully what people will take away today is like small little changes can make actually a really big lasting impact on the way you're running your life whether you're a business owner or you're managing a household or you're managing a classroom like whatever

you're doing set it you know you can do a Time audit look at what's going on and then try to implement maybe one new process yeah decide one thing one thing that maybe you're not totally happy with it's like try it try just take the step and try it yeah I like that that's such a great takeaway Jord where can everyone find and follow you get connected please tell us about some of your offerings that you have if people are interested in working with you yeah so um this is going to air after I launch my program so I am launching my program which is this week so that's exciting um and I'll probably won't launch again um until the fall because you know I'm taking a lot of the summer off which is you know a goal of mine so um but I'm on Instagram y um sometimes reluctantly at Jordana Jacobson yes you need to follow her you will be inspired yes yeah so um that's where yeah you can find me there and I have all the things if you are interested in doing a Time audit that

can be found um in my links and any information really about me is is in there so yeah and you have an email list which is really fantastic and a Blog that you've put up recently you've got some really great resources so you guys definitely need to go check out and we'll put some of those in the show notes thank you yeah thank you for coming on today thank you for having me yeah we really appreciate it thank you everyone for joining us on this episode of the her podcast if you want to follow along with us you can find us on Instagram and Tik Tok at it's. her.

podcast we can't wait to see you there