Create, Automate & Scale

3 Tips to Help You Master the Art of Efficient Task Management With Michelle Hibbert

• Sophie Riley • Season 2 • Episode 3

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 🚨 Don’t miss out! 🚨

Get ready to transform your life with tactical productivity hacks and empowering personal stories in the latest episode of Create Automate and Scale! 🎙️

Join us as we dive into Michelle’s incredible journey — a former educator turned wellness coach, who went from burnout to thriving! 🌿

✨ She’s sharing her secrets to creating lasting growth both personally and professionally by mastering self-care and tapping into the power of community.

You’ll discover:
🔥 How small, purposeful changes can completely shift your life! 
🔥 Tactical strategies for optimizing your productivity with ease! 
🔥 The powerful four-quadrant system to help you crush your to-do list and prioritize like a pro! 
🔥 The Pomodoro technique — the ultimate weapon against procrastination! 
🔥 How to unlock your peak focus times and supercharge your daily schedule!

This episode is loaded with game-changing insights to help you thrive — especially if you’re navigating ADHD or simply looking to level up your productivity.

Don't wait!

🚀 This is your chance to gain the tools you need for a balanced, empowered life.

Learn more about Michelle here 

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...

Sophie Riley:

Welcome to Create Automate and Scale, where we're diving into the arts of mastering productivity. Hi, I'm your host, sophie, and today we're unpacking three game-changing techniques to supercharge your day. No more overwhelm, just confidence, success and pure accomplishments. Success and pure accomplishments. Hi and welcome to Create Automate and Scale podcast. Tune in to this inspirational, straight to the point, relatable content for entrepreneurs to help you mastermind the everyday hassle. Give you business tips, networking opportunities, shameless money talks and scaling secrets. Created to support you, to support coaches and course creators just like you, to help you take action. Stop trading dollars for hours and explode your business. It's time to hit that six figure and beyond. Let's go. It's time to hit that six figure and beyond. Let's go. Today, we're joined by an incredible guest expert, michelle, a seasoned educator turned wellness coach, specializing in transforming lives through holistic health and personal empowerment. Michelle's insights are invaluable as we explore how to conquer daily challenges with grace and achieve peak productivity. Get ready to gain confidence, balance and actionable tips to elevate your game. Let's dive in. Welcome, michelle.

Michelle Hibbert:

Hi everyone, so good to be here. Thank you so much, Sophie, for allowing me to share some knowledge with everyone. Appreciate it.

Sophie Riley:

I am so excited. I think we had that conversation before where you know I was well after, well in my 30s and well after a burnout, until I tuned in to a first event. I tuned in to a first event. It was a summit. There was about 25 experts speaking on productivity and let me tell you I learned a lot, but the shock of what I thought was right but was actually so bad for me, my productivity, my mental health it was shocking, If I could have one word to describe the experience. I was shocked, and tuning in to those productivity hacks completely has transformed my life. So I'm very, very excited. I absolutely love talking about productivity, so this is going to be a good chat for sure. Now, your journey from education to wellness coaching is really inspiring. Could you share with everyone what motivated you to make that shift before we dive into the productivity piece?

Michelle Hibbert:

Yeah. So I want to say kudos to you for discovering what works, because you know growing up it's hard, you know going through school and college and then adult life and you're just kind of like I've been doing it wrong. So kudos to you because I'm sure there are people still out there that are still struggling and still trying to find what works for them as an adult. So, again, the fact that you found it and hopefully will help some other people. So, yes, educator, been in education for 18 years as a physical health and wellness teacher and decided that the classroom wasn't fitting my style anymore and I kind of wanted to broaden my horizons and I kind of stumbled. I say stumbled because I was looking for something and I didn't know what it was going to be, didn't know what it was going to look like, and I myself, um, went through a major change of you know, I retired from, retired from teaching, I got married, I became a stepmom, I opened up a couple of businesses, not knowing how to run a business, and that whole burnout and how do I be a good wife, how do I be a good mother, how do I continue to be Michelle Hibbert was very, very overwhelming for me and I myself had to reach out and get help and get a coach. And she was a life coach, wellness coach, business coach, kind of all into one and she was able to kind of help me focus on my business, carve out the time that I needed for myself, because I wasn't carving out time for myself and then being able to be a good wife, step-mom and having that self-care and not burning out because you already mentioned it, burnout is not cool. Um, it's not, it's not. And so that kind of got me thinking, wow, you know, we connected because, again, she was a personal trainer and did boot camps, and so I was like, okay, this is great. And then I just saw the transformations that she made with me and I'm like I want to do that, I want to make these transformations with these people that I'm working with, because it was, it was like I did a 360.

Michelle Hibbert:

You know, you get into these habits and then you just kind of go down into these dark, deep holes and then you're like trying to get out, and then you like, how do I get out? And then you kind of put it off and procrastinate and it's like no, I need to get out. And then something drastic has to happen always and I kind of want to prevent that. Always has to happen before we're like, okay, that's it, I'm done.

Michelle Hibbert:

And so my job is to help people not get to that drastic stage. But if they need the help then we're here to help, and so that's kind of like my story and I love what I do. I love helping people. Just make those small and they can be small, that have to be big but those transformational changes in their life and and then you just see them kind of flourish and glow and it's just like, wow, I was able to help someone, so I'm still in the helping capacity and I think teaching and helping people is my superpower and I try to push it away and now I'm I'm bringing it back in a way that works for you.

Michelle Hibbert:

Yes, exactly right which is incredible.

Sophie Riley:

Now would you say this is my hypothetical, okay. Would you say that this is my hypothetical, okay. Would you say that one? Yes, it's important to find that community where you feel understood. I feel like, if we go on TikTok and Instagram and all of the social media platform, we have tons of contents on entrepreneurship, on mothership and ADHD, right, and we're like, oh my gosh, that's me, which is incredible. But I think something and I could be wrong. This is just my thought, okay, my thought process here.

Michelle Hibbert:

Okay.

Sophie Riley:

In order to make a transformation, you can't just be surrounded with the people that are telling you I feel like this, I feel like this, I feel like this, and you're feeling understood at that moment. But I think the transformation comes when you start tuning in, listening, hanging out with the people that were here, but they found a solution. So there's that positivity. I think I'm trying to say that the wanting to reach that stage, the wanting to find the solution, and the wanting to to be better because you kind of found that coach right, that was most likely very positive, solution oriented, if I could add that. So what are your thoughts on that? Do you feel like that would be?

Michelle Hibbert:

important I do, and I also feel that your community can't be toxic either, because and again, this is this is also part of the transformational piece.

Michelle Hibbert:

It's we have to be cognizant of the people that we are hanging out with and the words they're using and how that makes you feel, because we can take it all in and they're like, and they could say all these words but they may not be positive, and so if they're not positive, then you're still going to be stuck in that rut, whereas if you've got people saying, you know what, I've got someone who can help you, or you know, this is what I did and this worked. Maybe you try this out and see if this works, but we know that we're here to support you and not the oh, that's a silly idea. Don't go and do that. No, why would you want to go and do that? You know you, you don't know Something could that?

Michelle Hibbert:

You know you, you don't know something could happen. Something could happen, something great could happen, but if we don't go and try it, then we will never know and we're just gonna stay stuck. And yes, that's that's the piece that people have to be aware the people that they hang around with are can influence them and create those um enemies in their head.

Michelle Hibbert:

That don't sabotage is huge that they won't go any further than they believe that they can do. But they need that, those people to push them further, because we all need people to push ourselves, like absolutely, you know, I'm sure you, we both have, I'm sure we both have coaches that are pushing us, to drive us forward to where we want to be. And you look at all these famous people. They didn't get famous just by. I'm Oprah Winfrey or I'm Tony Robbins or I'm Mel Robbins or I have ADHD.

Sophie Riley:

I can't do this. And Mel Robbins is ADHD. Oh yeah, I'm sure we can find tons of very successful people with ADHD right For me. You have ADHD, let me see what you can do. Hold my beer. I do not like to be told that I can't do something.

Michelle Hibbert:

So, again, I think it's about the people that you are associated with and that are in your circle, and you have to be very cognizant of who they are and if they are draining your energy and if or are they uplifting you. You need the people that are uplifting. You don't need the people that are the naysayers, because they're scared, because they don't want you to do it, because they don't want to actually allow you to get to where you want to be. They want you in right in their circle, which is not fair.

Sophie Riley:

Exactly yeah, I agree. Now I know you have some incredible tips to actually help with our productivity for our my fellow ADHD besties, so let's dive right in.

Michelle Hibbert:

Yes, so I've got three, so we'll go one at a time. And so the first one, which I think is amazing and I kind of use it myself. I like to separate my work and I've gotten used to doing it a couple of ways, but I'm going to kind of tell you one that kind of is common that people have used who suffer from ADHD. So think of a quadrant, so four kind of sections, and each section you need to have a title and the titles are going to be, and you may want to adjust them however whatever feels necessary. So the first one is going to be urgent because that needs to be done, and that's probably the one that you're procrastinating on. I'm just going to say it, you're just procrastinating on and it needs to get done, so that needs to be put in the urgent pile.

Michelle Hibbert:

Okay, and you can use sticky notes. You can whatever you like, whether you like the visual, the pieces of paper on the wall, or using a wall sticky notes. Some people like to do it online. Whatever you know, if they have their kind of project management planning type techniques. You decide what works for you. Some people like paper, some people like online. You should have an idea of what works. So the first quadrant is going to be urgent and then the second quadrant is going to be not urgent, so that you know that it can wait. And again, if you're doing sticky notes, it can, it can be moved around so you don't have to feel that pressure of like it's going to sit there in the non-urgent but now it's going to start to get urgent. Okay, then you have the next quadrant, which can be not important. I'm not saying it's not important, so to speak, but it's not important at this moment in time or for this particular day, and then non-urgent it's. It's, it's something I need to get done, maybe like fold laundry or something along those lines. It's not, it's not urgent, urgent where it might be, depending on how many kids or people that you've got in your, you know, in your family and stuff like that. So those four quadrants.

Michelle Hibbert:

So then you need to start writing the tasks that you that you know are urgent, not urgent, not important, um, not non-urgent, not urgent and non-urgent, different, different things. You can also put in the four quadrants, do schedule, delegate and delete. Again, those are some ideas. And then again, if you're a paper person, write down all the things that you need to do and you could use different kind of sticky notes for each quadrant. So then you know, and then if you need to move from one quadrant to another quadrant, you can put it on the different sticky note. I know we're maybe wasting paper here, but again, whatever works for you and works for your brain, if it's color coded, then use the colors and then, or if you don't want to color code, you can just move the sticky notes around so you know what's what, and then you can still add. And with that, if you have your non-urgent or your urgent, let's just focus on the urgent. You need to pick one, not all of them, just one that you are going to focus on.

Michelle Hibbert:

Okay, so here's the next technique, which is the Pomodoro technique. So you're going to spend 25 minutes on that one task Again, the one that you're going to procrastinate on. That's something that you got to do, got to do it. Just 25 minutes, drill in for 25 minutes on that one task. Now, if you know that it's going to take you more than 25 minutes, it's okay, because after that 25 minutes you're going to take a 10 minute break. 25 minutes, it's okay, because after that 25 minutes you're going to take a 10 minute break and it may be the fact in that 10 minute break that you could do something that's non-urgent, that will take like a second, like doing it sending a quick email, more like email the doctor or something along those lines. That could be done in 10 minutes or call the doctor. Well, maybe it might take a little bit longer to call the doctor but adhd people do not like to call or be on the phone.

Sophie Riley:

We do not like that. So calling the doctor it is. It is what we procrastinate on right, exactly so.

Michelle Hibbert:

and then if you need to go back to that urgent task, then do another 25 minutes. So again, you could tap out the non-urgent and the urgent together, or you just take the 10 minute break. You decide, you decide.

Sophie Riley:

I love that. I love having the timer. I'm a type A personality with ADHD, so it's a competition. Listen, if I have a 10 minute timer, how much of my house can I get clean?

Sophie Riley:

Oh right, oh, yeah, yeah, otherwise I don't do it. But I absolutely hate cleaning, I hate folding laundry, I hate the dishes, I hate it all. Okay, so, so that, okay, sophie, I'm just gonna put put 10 minutes. You can, you can do 10 minutes, and then it's competition how much can I get done in 10 minutes? Um, that works really well for me.

Michelle Hibbert:

Yes, so then again, depending on how important this task is, I would spend no more than one hour with the breaks. No more than one hour because then breaks, no more than one hour, because then you're just kind of like, ok, I'm done. Then I would move on to another category, because maybe it might be not urgent and you just complete one of those things, and they should not. It should get you going to do. And so this is the other technique that I'm going to talk about is the fact that is the fact that you need to think about your schedule, so your time okay, of how long you're going to spend or how long you'll need on this actual activity, and the further down the day that you go, the less you do or the less brain time it's going to take you to do. So you're non urgent, not important. They should be taking you five minutes, two minutes, and you can get them done. And then, once you're done, you're done, done.

Michelle Hibbert:

We like to force ourselves to like, oh, you know, I just got to get this done and I'm gonna, you know know, work at eight o'clock at night and you just cannot focus. So if you're a person who gets up early, and that's your window of time because that's where you're the most focused. You need to do the urgent stuff in that time because your brain is just going to start deteriorating throughout the day. So make sure you do.

Michelle Hibbert:

Or, if you're a person depending, if you work out in the morning again, I don't know what people's schedules and routines I know for ADHD people if they work out in the mornings and their brains are just ready to go, ready to go. So, if you are that type of person, do all of your urgent things in the morning and then, as the day progresses, you're gonna do the tasks that are gonna take you one to five minutes. Hence the reason why you can pick and choose out of which quadrant and how long it's gonna take you. Otherwise, if you're a person who likes to work out in the end of the day and that's the time that you are most focused if you're a person who likes to work out in the end of the day, and that's the time that you are most focused then you're going to switch the stuff around. You're going to do your urgent stuff, maybe after you've done your workout because, again, you are focused. So you have to decide when you are the most focused in the day.

Sophie Riley:

I love that I am 100% one of those morning people. 100%, I can do more work in a productive morning in two to four hours than I could anything afternoon. I'm an empty coconut. Anything afternoon, if I didn't work out, I will not. Afternoon, I did work out, I will not. Afternoon Like it's, it's my like. Noontime, it's like okay, well, I'm just going to go clean up my Google drive and watch a show, exactly.

Michelle Hibbert:

So again, I'm done. Doing. Your brain is done, it's done, yeah. And so the less you can do, or the more, the less tasks are going to take like two minutes. Those are the things you need to do at the end of the day, because they're not going to take you that long and you don't have to focus, and they'll get done and you can move on. And then tomorrow, this is my big project, this is the urgent. I am going to do it in the morning, I'm going to spend one hour, one hour and a half, and that is it, and then I'm going to, in my breaks, do some other little tasks. So those are my two things. I feel like that's important. I feel like it's more than that is a lot, but it's okay.

Sophie Riley:

It is a lot, but it is also so great. I have seasons, which sounds maybe a little bit weird. I can work longer in the winter. Oh wow, canada, it's cold. I don't do the cold. I'm tiny. I don't have like this body that can just like regulate heat.

Sophie Riley:

I don't like it and, for whatever reason, I am more productive, like naturally more productive, but in the summer summer is my least productive season. It's like I just want to be outside, I just want to be in the sun, like it's. It's everything that I do in the summer feels forced. Between 10 and noon is pushing it, right. But if I get up at five and I put in like a little work block yesterday I created an entire website, tiny work block I can do a lot of work. But listen, if I tried to be like let me just work all day on that and I gave myself all day to work on it, I would still be working on it a week later. Right, I'm not a lie. I'm like OK, this is like five o'clock, I'm going to get up, have a quick breakfast, I'm going to shower, you know, work out and then, from like seven to ten, I'm going to get it done and I did. I got it done. So it's pretty exciting, but yeah.

Sophie Riley:

I might have to be careful with the season. If I try to push it too much in the summer, meh my work feels meh.

Michelle Hibbert:

But that's understandable. We all want to be outside the sun's shining, you know we want to go outside, we want to explore, we want to be with nature, we want to go and hang out with friends, we want to go to barbecues, we want to go to games and concerts and stuff. That's totally understandable. Winter, you just want to sit inside and hibernate and not go out in the cold. I get it. Totally get, totally get it.

Sophie Riley:

Yeah, which is interesting, right. Every time I tell that to someone, they're like you have seasons. I'm like, yes, yes, I do. But sometimes people just maybe don't notice there is season, right, sometimes we're used to something or we're told we need to do something. If you come from a corporate side of things, right, you work seven to three, you work eight to four, um, but I'd love to know how productive you are. You know between one to four.

Michelle Hibbert:

I was about to say every time, every time, I mean, I had a corporate job and I worked from home. After two o'clock I'm toast. You don't, don't ask. Don't ask me to do anything that's major. After two o'clock I'll sit in a meeting. I'm just gonna say I might not be concentrating, but you want me to be productive, you need to hit me in the in the morning. And the worst thing is, sophie, I am not a morning person, I'm a night owl. I'm a night owl, but that seems to be changing. Because I work. I get up in the morning and I work out. I never used to do that. I used to work out after work. But then I'm like no, I need to get up and it gets my brain going, but then in the afternoon I'm toast.

Sophie Riley:

I'm absolute toast it could also have to do with the amount of hours, right? I really do feel like people are just wasting money asking people to work such long hours, thinking that there's going to be more things done, so thought of the day, right.

Michelle Hibbert:

And the fact that I work from home. You know I've got my own office, but imagine working in the cubicle. That would be. That would be terrible for me, because I'm going to get up and I'm going to start annoying people in the cubicles because I want to go and talk.

Sophie Riley:

You know what that's true. Plus, if you think about it, the amount of distraction, and especially for the ADHD person, right, something that was big for me. So I'm a retired Canadian force member and I used to work in the army in admin, run an entire order room, admin office, right. I used to think that my ADHD was a superpower in the sense of that I could multitask like a mother. Ok, answer a question there, answer another question there, answer this, answer the phone, answer the email and just go, go, go, go, go go. It was probably like the number one reason I hit a burnout. Yes, but that's huge for ADHD, right, like the distraction, but we're feeling like like we're heroes because we're multitasking when it's the num, like it's one of the worst things that you can do, which I learned after my burnout. Thank you very much. And it's, multitasking shortens your long short term memory or long term memory.

Michelle Hibbert:

I will have to go and find the details and put it in the show notes when I when I find it, but regardless, how crazy is that I mean, hey, we all thought, and I think we all think as women, that we can multitask, but it is the worst thing because you are not concentrating and you're spreading yourself too thin and it's just, it's a devil it's a devil.

Sophie Riley:

Absolutely 100 now. This concludes our deep dive into mastering the productivity. Stay tuned for more actionable insights on our next adventures. A huge thank you to our guest, michelle, whose wisdom and expertise have eliminated our path to greater productivity and wellbeing. I will say that I use these methods and these sticky notes daily. For me, it is a life-changing productivity hack. Now I want you to run to the show notes and grab Michelle's workbook that she's created just for you. Until next time, keep creating, automating and scaling your way to greatness. This is Sophie Riley signing off, reminding you to stay inspired, stay innovative and always dare to dream big.

Sophie Riley:

Thanks for tuning in to the Create, automate and Scale podcast. We hope you found today's episode to be inspirational, informative and straight to the point. Our goal is to provide you with relatable content that helps you mastermind the everyday hassle, grow your business and achieve your goals. As an entrepreneur, we know how tough it is that it can be to navigate the world of business, which is why we're here to support you with valuable tips, networking opportunities, shameless money talk and scaling secrets. We're dedicated to helping coaches and course creators take action, stop trading dollars for hours and explode their business to hit that six figure and beyond. Make sure you subscribe to our podcast to stay up to date with the latest episode, and feel free to leave a review or reach out to us with any feedback or questions that you may have. Thanks for listening and we'll catch you in the next episode of Create, automate and Scale.