129. 3 Productivity Mistakes I Didn't Know I Was Making

If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re the only one who keeps repeating the same productivity patterns (even when you know better), this episode is going to prove you are not alone. Today I’m sharing three mistakes I’ve learned the hard way, plus a bonus tip you've GOT to hear...even if it stings a little. These are real-life shifts that changed how I work, how I use my energy, and how I think about “work-life balance.” 

If this resonates, you need to be at my free virtual workshop, Work-Life Balance for SLPs With ADHD, on Tuesday, December 16th at 8pm ET. Everything in today’s episode ties directly into what I’ll be teaching there. Replay available, but only if you register.

What You’ll Learn

• Why rushing isn’t actually helping you get more done—and how slowing down might be the productivity strategy you’ve been avoiding.
• How to stop going “all-in” on systems you don’t actually need, and what to do instead before you sink hours into the setup.
• Why being “caught up” is not the emotional fix you think it is, and the surprising mindset shift that frees you from the endless chase.
• The tough truth about the “finish line” of work-life balance—and why letting go of it is liberating, not depressing.

If This Resonates…

If you felt seen (or mildly called out) at any point in this episode, I would love to support you more personally. Book a free consult and let’s talk about how to create your own version of work-life balance. 

Want ongoing support and community? Come join us in the FB Group.

Resources & Links

📌 Book a free 1:1 consult → https://cutt.ly/KtwII93a

Keywords:

ADHD productivity, overwhelmed SLP, time management for SLPs, work-life balance strategies, executive functioning support, ADHD time blindness, productivity mistakes, sustainable systems for ADHD

Progress over perfection, always.

💥 Psst!! I'm hosting a free webinar and I want you there! Join me on Tuesday 12/16/2025 at 8 PM ET for Work-Life Balance for SLPs With ADHD. Get the details here.

To find out how I can help you improve your work-life balance, click here.

Come join the SLP Support Group on Facebook for more tips and tricks!

Learn more about Theresa Harp Coaching here.

Transcript

theresa-harp_1_12-05-2025_141928: 0:27

Hey, podcast listeners. Welcome back to the show. This is episode 1 29. I'm gonna be talking about mistakes that I have made. I've got three, and I even have a bonus mistake that I'm gonna be sharing at the end that's a little bit, um, not vulnerable, but just a little bit more personal, I guess we could say. But it's definitely something you need to hear, so make sure you stick around to the end. And before we jump in, have you saved your seat yet? For my free A-D-H-D-S-L-P Time Management Work-Life Balance workshop. The details are in the show notes. If you have not registered, make sure that you do, because a lot of what I talk about during this episode. Is exactly the type of content that I'm gonna be covering in that workshop, which is taking place on Tuesday, December 16th at 8:00 PM Eastern. So the details are in the show notes. Make sure you click the link to sign up. Even if you can't be there live, you gotta sign up so that you have access to the replay. All right, so. Let's talk about these three mistakes that I, and I'm calling them mistakes in air quotes here, by the way. Okay. But three things that I believed or tried to, you know, in an effort to. Stay on top of my work and build my work life balance and feel like I was, you know, managing quote unquote, all the things. All right. I have made many mistakes. I still do, and. I wanna share these three or four with you because I really think that they are things that you have probably struggled with yourself. Okay? Now I wanna be clear that these, I consider these to be mistakes. My, for me, for my experience, these did not work for you. They might, I guess, right? It's possible. I'm not suggesting that these things that I'm going to share are things that you should never do or things that are bad or harmful or anything like that. Okay? And if you know me, if we've worked together, or if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, hopefully you know that I. Really encourage my coaching clients and my podcast listeners and members of the Facebook group to take what works for you and leave what doesn't. Okay. I truly believe that you can take a, a thought, a strategy, an idea, and you can use it for yourself and you can use it against yourself. Okay. I'm acknowledging that, but without further ado, let's dive in. Okay. So the first mistake that I have made and continue to make just now less often, I will say, is the belief that moving quickly will help me get more done. Or another way of looking at this is that slowing down will prevent me from being productive. Slowing down will hold me back or it's wasting time. Right? So for so long, and this is still my natural, sort of my natural instinct and rhythm, because this is a, a pattern that has been. Building in my life for years and years and years. So I don't wanna suggest that this is something that I never do anymore. Okay. It is definitely something that I catch myself doing still, and it is an active area that I am working on. Okay. But for so long, I really operated through the mindset, whether I realized it or not. For a while I didn't even know I was doing this, but I would hustle, hustle, hustle, like, okay, what's next? Let's go. Where are we going? What are we doing? What's on the list today? What do we need to get done? Right? And it was just so task oriented. And if there was pockets of time that weren't being utilized for something, I would see those as opportunities to get something done. And I would often use those opportunities to get something done. And then on the flip side, when I noticed that I was slowing down, I was, you know, maybe. I don't know, on my phone, reading, shooting the shit, right, like having conversations in small talk, uh, whatever, fill in the blanks, but something that wasn't particularly task oriented. I saw those as, you know, wa I don't wanna say wasted time. Sometimes I did see it that way, but maybe just not the most productive way to spend my time. And it would cause these feelings of guilt, regret, um, maybe impatience or frustration. So I ultimately realized that, and this is something that I'm continue to continuing to learn, is that that is just a thought. Moving quickly helps me get more done. That is a thought. It's not necessarily a fact, it's not written somewhere in a rule book. It's just a thought. And so how do I show up when I have that mindset? How do I show up when I think that way? If I think and believe that I need to move quickly so that I can get as much done as possible, it leads me to. Rush and hurry and it leads me to it limits, I should say. It limits the interactions and connections that I can make with the people around me. It results in me spending time on things that don't always align with my values. And it led to this pattern of judging my self-worth based on how much was accomplished. Right? And what I've learned now is that, like I said, sometimes slowing down is actually what helps me speed up. This was a, a new thought that I was trying on about a year or so ago, maybe, I don't know, maybe two years. Like it started to become apparent to me that. It was possible that slowing down might actually help me speed up, right? Because what I was learning, what I was realizing is that the faster I was going, the more mistakes I was making, the more sort of room for error, right? It's like you, it's like when you're hurrying out the door and you're rushing and you're late, that's the day that you. Spill your coffee all over and now you have to stop and ha you know, and deal with that. Or the times when I would be rushing, rushing, rushing to, you know, finish reports or session notes, I would wind up putting the wrong name in there or the wrong pronoun or sending it to the wrong person. Okay. I mean, I don't think I ever did that with evaluation reports. I really hope, I never did that with evaluation reports, but I'm talking, you know, session notes. I've, I know I've done it with grading sometimes when I've been grading things for students and I'm rushing, not necessarily through the grading part, but like, okay, I'm done. I just wanna finish this. Let me get this out, you know, upload this to wherever it needs to be. I would be more likely to. Make a mistake and mistakes are okay. I'm not suggesting that we can't ever make mistakes, but the number of mistakes would increase the faster I was going. Plus, I discovered that as I was always in a hurry and rushing and trying to move quickly to get things done. I was expending so much energy. It was just. Costing me so much, so much physical energy, mental bandwidth, all of that, that was really taxing. And so I would tank out, is that the right phrase? I, I would lose steam and it maybe I would get a lot done in those moments of sort of frenetic rushing. But then the, the aftermath would be that I. Was unable to do anything productive or anything beneficial or enjoyable afterwards because I was just so spent. So what I've really thought about now, and I talk about this concept with my coaching clients. In fact, I was talking to a coaching client. I was talking with a coaching client this morning about this concept of. Intentionally reserving and conserving energy and deciding where you want your energy to go. Because we only have, just like we know, we only have 24 hours in a day, we only have so much energy. I mean, yes, we can do things to build energy, right, to increase our energy, and there are things that we can do to sort of expand our capacity and all of that. But really there is only so much. You can do. There's only so much juice you can squeeze from the orange, right? And sometimes I would be spending it or really like wasting it on rushing around on things that really weren't all that meaningful or important. So, and the last thing I'll say about this mistake before I share number two, which I think you guys are gonna really relate to, some of you who are listening, by the way, the last thing I'll say about this mistake of moving quickly, this belief that moving quickly helps me get more done is it was this sort of perspective, I guess that rest would slow me down. I can't take a nap right now. Oh my gosh. What? I used to like roll my eyes. This is terrible. I'm sorry. This is terrible, but I'm just sharing it. I used to sort of like inwardly or outwardly, depending upon who the person was, would roll my eyes when someone would tell me, oh yeah, I took a nap today. I'm like, what? Okay. Really mostly just rolling my eyes at my husband when I'm like. Oh, it must be nice, right? Oh, it must be nice. You get to take a nap. I can't take a nap because I have to do da, da, da. Right? Sound familiar? Can you relate? I used to think, I used to believe or operate through the mindset that rest would slow me down. And now I have shifted that completely and I take two hour naps every single day. No, I'm just kidding. Just kidding. I do not do that. I mean, power to you if you do that. I'm not judging. Like that is amazing. I don't take two hour naps every day, but I have shifted my, my, um, opinions on naps and resting and my definitions of, of what? Is rest and restful. And I've recognized that rest is not something that needs to be earned. It's actually something that is a right and it's a responsibility. And I now think of it as a productivity strategy. When I started looking at rest. As a productivity strategy, it shifted so much for me. It was just one simple shift in mindset and outlook that actually opened up so much for me and took away a lot of guilt that I would feel when I would slow down, when I would rest. So I just wanna offer that in case that's helpful for any of you who are listening. All right. What if rest could actually help you get more things done? All right. Mistake number two. I'm curious who can relate to this one? I, I, I still, the, I say that these are past mistakes, but again, really all of these are things that I still struggle with to certain degrees. It's just that now it's very. On a much smaller scale and a, I recognize it much quick, much more quickly. I can work through it much quicker, much more easily and and shift it a lot better than I used to be able to. Okay. But the second mistake was going all in on a system or a strategy before testing it out. And I'm sharing this one because it is very neuros spicy. It's so typical. Of neurodivergent people. I realize how sort of oxymoronic that sounded. But it is very common for people who have a DHD or who, um, struggle with executive functioning or, um, consider themselves neurodivergent. We go all in on this idea, this strategy, this new system before we actually start implementing it. Or even just testing it out and, I mean, I can't even tell you how many times I would do this. It's, it's a lot of, um, elements of hyper focus coming into play. Right. Which is a big experience, a shared common experience for people with A DHD is the hyper focus and also the shiny object syndrome of like. Ooh, look at this. Look at this beautiful planner with these beautiful colored tabs and all of these different, you know, pens that come with it. Look at this new, um, EMR and this EMR really electronic medical records. I think most of you know what I mean by that. But this EMR right is gonna solve all my problems. This billing platform is going to fix everything for me. This, this new, um, project management system like Trello or Todoist, or, you know. You name it, right? There's a million asana. There's so many that are out there, right? They are pretty and flashy and visually appealing, and when they're being marketed and promoted, of course they're always being marketed and promoted in positive ways. I gotta take a sip of water. I've got like a tickle in my throat. Sorry if you've been around here too for a while. You know, I don't really edit these episodes, so for better or for worse anyway, um, I, and I can't tell you how many programs I've tried, things I've bought calendars, planners, notebooks, journals, you name it, right. All with the best of intentions and these big, grandiose ideas of how helpful they were gonna be. And for many of those things, many of those systems or many of those strategies, I would like commit. I would decide like, okay, we're gonna set this whole thing up. I'm going to get everything built in here. I'm gonna get, I'm gonna, you know, organize it all and lay it all out and get it all ready to go, and then I'll start using it and it's gonna fix everything. Well, I think you all know where this is going, right? And I wanna offer, like I wanna. Validate sort of the, the obvious piece here, but also offer, uh, like another, a deeper perspective on this. So the, just the validation of like, Hey, this is something that's common in A DHD. We go all in on something, we get really excited about it. Then the shininess wears off and we. Stop using it and it's just collecting dust somewhere in a pile and when we see it, we feel guilty, ashamed, regretful, you know, judgy, all that. Right? So just know that that is part of the A DHD experience. Okay. This is something that I have worked on in my own life, and this is something that I work on with coaching clients, is how to solve for this, how to approach this, um, how to shift this. But I also want to. Offer sort, like I said, like a little bit of a, a, a little bit of a, a deeper perspective on this or, or sort of like this, this, I'm struggling with words today, y'all, I'm so sorry. But thinking about how, um, setting up a system, right, setting up a system. Without looking at the, the why or the how it's going to work for you is where I would often get stuck. I would choose systems or ideas because they looked pretty, I saw people online using them, and they were of course using them really well and I would. You know, I would be sold sometimes quite literally, and I would go all in on those things. And what I didn't realize was that there are ways that I could actually. Use pieces of different systems, or I could do a like surface level system. These are some things that I'll do with coaching clients where we sort of test it out. We take it for a test drive first without investing all of that time and energy into. The creation of the system itself because the, for me, the dopamine and the reward, the reinforcement comes from the building of the system. It does not come from the execution of the system. And I didn't realize how much time I was wasting. And how much energy and effort I was wasting on things that really were not all that productive. And when I say productive, I really mean that they didn't accomplish the goal that they were designed to accomplish. So I have lots of thoughts on this one, and I'm not going to, I'm not going to, um. Expand too much more on this here in this episode, but if this is something that resonates with you, you're definitely gonna wanna be there. Either live or catch the recording of the workshop on December 16th, because I'm gonna be talking a little bit more about this in a way that I know you'll be able to apply to your own life right away. Okay? Need another sip of water? Hold please. I 100% have some sort of a tickle in my throat that's not going away. Side note, I switched to a different podcast recording platform recently and I don't know how to hit pause on this platform. I know how to hit stop, but I don't know how to keep going in the same. Sort of thread or file, so to speak. And it just creates, if I hit pause and, and it just creates more work because then I have like more clips that I have to go and find and splice them together. I don't know how to do it. It's probably super easy, but I just don't know how to do it and I don't wanna invest the energy to try to figure it out right now. So you're getting all the, the throat clearing and the coughing and the, the water sipping. That's what's happening. Alright, so before you go all in on a system, before you go all in on a strategy is the be all, end all. Let's test it out first, let's look at ways that you know it might work for you. Look at ways that it might not work for you. Uh, decide ahead of time how much time and energy you are willing and able to invest in it upfront. Testing it out before you actually use it. Recognize that you might be productively procrastinating by setting up all these systems and plans, but really what you're doing is just burning energy and then you have no energy and time left to complete the tasks that the systems are designed to help you. So if you're feeling called out, know that it is coming from a place of love and support and growth, not from a place of judgment.'cause I, I have been there. I am often there. I still am there sometimes. And if you want help with this, let me know. Alright. Third mistake. And this is the one that, well, these, I've got this and then I've got a bonus. And I think both of these are really important for you to hear. Okay. The third mistake is the belief that being air quotes here caught up on my work. Being caught up on my to-do list will make me feel a certain way that getting all these things done will help me feel better once I've got this project done. I'm gonna feel so much better once I'm caught up on all these tasks on my list. I am finally gonna feel productive and successful. I will, I will feel so accomplished right now. This is a tricky one. Sometimes that is true. Sometimes you can finish a project and feel very proud, accomplished, successful, you know. Peaceful, fill in the blank. Okay, so I'm not suggesting that this, that this is never true. However, when that belief is the driving force behind all of your actions and productivity, you are forever going to be chasing something that you cannot. Achieve something that you cannot reach because there will always be more things on your to-do list. We know this, the to-do list is never done. That is a painful truth, but it is true because there's always things that could be added. There's always things that. Could have gone on the to-do list to begin with, but they just weren't on there. There's always new things that get added. A lot of the tasks on to-do lists. Once you do them, they create more tasks. They result in new additional tasks that you have to do. That's a concept that I talk about with coaching clients a lot. We were talking about that recently, so looking at why are you. Wanting to get these things done on your to-do list. What are you making these things mean? How and where might you be delegating your self-worth, your self value, your self-concept to external circumstances? Like for me, that is not how I, that's not what I want to define my, my self-worth. I don't want. Pro, you know, product productivity and, and getting things done to be the deciding factor or the defining factor in how, you know, happy I am. Like that's just something to really look at. Okay. Because how many times have you experienced too, those of you who are listening. You might then, oh, there's two things I wanna say about this. You might have discovered that you get to, you know, the end of that list for the day, or you get that project done and you don't feel any different. How often does that happen? Um, and there are cer, like I said, there's certainly times where you'll get those things done and you're like, yes, I did that. That's awesome. Done right. And you feel good. But there's a lot of other times where it doesn't feel the way you think it's gonna feel once you've done it. And. That is something to look at. Like if that is happening, that's information, that's something to notice and that's something to explore. And the other piece that I'll say about this before I share the bonus mistake, the other piece I'll say about this is the longer that you, uh, you know, the longer that you operate from this belief that being caught up on things. Will make me feel happy, will make me feel better. We'll, we'll, you know, solve this problem for me. The longer you operate from that belief, the longer you feel shitty just saying, right? It's like deciding that you're not gonna feel better. Until everything is done well, how about we figure out ways to feel better now? How about we create the ability and the skillset for you to be in charge of how you feel right now? Why wait? Why would we do that? Let's work on this now. Let's feel better along the way. I mean, that's, to me, that's really the goal is the, is the feeling happy, the feeling peaceful. It's a certain way that we wanna feel. How can we feel that way? Even when. The to-do list is incredibly long, even when we have a million reports that we have to write because if you keep waiting until you're all caught up to feel better, you will not feel better. It's wasting time. And I don't mean in the sense of accomplishing things, I mean in the sense of wasting time in life where you could feel better, you're wasting time feeling crappy. So. I'm gonna get off my soapbox now, but that is the third mistake that I wanted to offer. If it works for you, if it helps you, fantastic. And like I said, if not, that's fine too. Okay, the last piece, the last bonus mistake that I'm sharing, guys, this could have been like 20 mistakes, by the way, this podcast episode. But here's, here's one that might irk you a little bit, and I don't know, maybe some, maybe some of these other ones have irked you. I don't know. But this bonus one. This is something that was a little disappointing, I'll be honest. A little disappointing when I realized, but I have come to peace with this belief or this awareness, and I have actually come to really, I have found this to be really helpful for me. The mistake that I was making was believing that there was a finish line. That there was a place where I would arrive to like this destination of work life balance, or this destination of being in charge of my time or this destination of loving my career and my home and personal life at the same time. Like I used to think that I could figure these things out and then I would be there. Then I would get there. Then I would feel better. And it was great. And, and that was it. Right? But what I have learned is it is that is a false belief. There is no destination. There isn't. And I'm sorry if that's, I mean, you might disagree and that's fine too. Like I said, you could use these things for yourself or against yourself. Um, but. I could argue my, I could argue all sides of this, but I am choosing to believe that there is no destination. There is no point where you get that result and then that's it. It is a continuous journey. It is an ongoing. Cycle. It is a process that just continues and doesn't end, and it ebbs and flows. And there will be times when I do quote unquote good with my time. I do, I do, you know, better things with my time and, and I feel more in control of my time. And then there are gonna be times, you know, scenario seasons where that is the, the opposite is true and I feel like I'm squandering time. There are gonna be moments of every day that are wins and moments of every day that are, you know, setbacks or obstacles. So it's not like you get there and then hooray. We're at the top of the mountain. Fantastic. I'm done. Now. I don't have to, I don't have to use these strategies anymore'cause I figured it out. That's. False. If you stop using the strategies, you will fall back down the mountain. Okay? Now the good news is it doesn't always take the same amount of time, effort, and energy to get up that mountain.'cause once you get up there, you'll. Throughout the climb, you will have learned so much. You'll have strengthened your skillset, your knowledge, your experience, so that it's a lot easier to stay at the top of the mountain than it is to climb the mountain. Right? It's sort of like weight loss where you'll hear. You know, people will say, well, if you go on a diet, you go on this fad diet, or you do this like, you know, specific program, this specific eating plan, whatever, and then you stop. Like once you get there, you lose. You hit your goal weight and then you stop following that plan, the weight's gonna come back on, right? There's a whole. Whole market for the maintenance piece out in the weight loss world, right? How to maintain that weight, that lifestyle. So when you start thinking of this work-life balance as a lifestyle rather than a finish line, there's so much that can change for you truly, so much that can change. It is a much. I think a much easier, more empowered place to be.'cause otherwise you are just white knuckling it, gripping the wheel, like struggling to maintain control and praying that this like house of cards doesn't collapse. Right. Well we don't have to, we don't have to do that.'cause we're building this skills so that we can dial, dial it up, dial it down, do what we need to do in order to, you know, feel like. Overall net positive. Overall, I'm making progress. Overall I am living in alignment in, you know, the way that I envisioned. So I don't know if that's helpful for you. If it is, I, I mean, I hope that it is. Um, but again, don't use that against yourself. If, and if you disagree, that's fine too. But, alright, so those were my three. Four bonus if we're including the bonus mistakes that I have made that I continue to make. Number one, just to recap, moving quickly helps me get more done. False. Number two, going all in on a system or strategy will help me solve a problem. False mistake. Number three, being caught up on my work will make me feel better. False. And then number four, the bonus mistake. Thinking that there is a finish line, a place will where I arrive at work life balance, also false. There is no finish line. So I hope that these were helpful if. Any of these spoke to you, resonated with you, or maybe hit a nerve. Right? Make sure you join me for the workshop. The workshop again, December 16th. It's a Tuesday night, 8:00 PM Eastern Live. I would love for you to be there live. It is going to, I'm going to talk about some of the biggest myths and mistakes that I see people making, that I see the productivity world. Teaching and selling to SLPs like us, especially people with A DHD, why it doesn't work for us and most importantly, what can work for us? What does work for us? So make sure you are there. Click the link in the show notes to sign up. It is free, it is gonna be low key, casual, fun, engaging. I hope to see you there. Alright, that's it. I'll talk to y'all next week. Bye.