S325: How To Stop Procrastination: Time Management & Productivity Tips for Business Owners With Kristen Edwards

Struggling with procrastination or always feeling behind in your business? This episode of The Remote CEO Life Podcast is your go-to guide for productivity, time management, and organization - designed specifically for the overwhelmed business owner.

Sophie chats with productivity coach Kristen Edwards about how to stop procrastinating, get organized, and finally build a time management system that actually sticks. Whether you’re juggling work, family, or just trying to stay consistent, this episode will show you how to take back control of your time and energy.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why clarity and focus are essential for real productivity
• The 4-step framework to stop procrastination in its tracks
• Easy-to-implement time management and scheduling strategies
• How to build a system that works for you as a busy business owner
• What real-life organization looks like (hint: it’s not about being perfect)

If you're ready to stop wasting time and start creating real momentum in your business, hit play now.

Don’t forget to like and subscribe if you loved this episode!

Connect with Kristen:

• Instagram: @kris10edwards_
• Website: amplifyambition.com
• Podcast: Amplify Ambition

#productivity #timemanagement #procrastination #organization #businessowner

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Productivity Coaching
• 5:22 The Journey to Becoming a Productivity Coach
• 8:06 The Four Steps of Time Management
• 10:48 Creating an Ideal Schedule
• 13:59 Strategies for Self-Imposed Deadlines
• 16:49 Identifying Money-Making Activities
• 24:41 Maximizing Podcast Engagement
• 27:08 The Power of Focused Strategy
• 29:11 Balancing Family and Personal Time
• 33:14 Learning from Burnout
• 38:00 The Importance of Choice in Productivity
• 42:17 Defining Freedom in Business

Transcript

Sophie (00:00)
If you've ever felt like you're juggling way too much or to do this as long as you're on and you're struggling to find time to grow your business without running yourself into the ground, this episode is going to speak to you because it's all about productivity. Today I'm joined by Kristin Edwards, who is a productivity coach and talent management expert who helps women, podcasters and purpose driven entrepreneurs create structure, build sustainable systems and make time for what really matters. Kristin has got a background in psychology and organizational communication, and she's got a really grounded, thoughtful and

built for real life approach to productivity. And this has all come from her own personal love of productivity. She was talking to me a little bit about her childhood and how she bloody loved organization as a kid, particularly in her school workbooks. And she's now using all of those skills that she had back in childhood in her real life today. Kristin is also the founder of Amplify Ambition podcast, where she supports clients in building businesses that run with more ease so they can spend more time in their zone of geniuses.

and less time stuck in the weeds of the business. She's also a really busy sports mom and she has two athlete children, which is absolutely incredible. She was telling me all about it. So she is busy and she knows firsthand what it takes to manage a full life, a meaningful business without sacrosafing herself in the process. And she has got some great tips for how to make sure she maintains her life as well as her children's, as well as her business.

and also working full time. So if you want to hear about productivity and time management and some powerful tools which you can use in your business to make better use of the time that you have, this episode is going to be great for you.

Sophie Biggerstaff (01:35)
Kristin, welcome to the Remote CO Life podcast. Thanks so much for joining me. How are you?

Kristen Edwards (01:40)
Great, thank you. And thank you for having me, Sophie.

Sophie Biggerstaff (01:43)
I'm excited for this, like, because we, I recorded for your podcast a few weeks ago. So I'm super excited to get onto the other side of the conversation from your side. So do want to tell us a little bit more about yourself, your background, your career history and what's kind of led you to where you are today?

Kristen Edwards (01:58)
Yeah, so I am a productivity coach. How I got there, honestly, I was that 12 year old with a planner in school. I had highlighters and stickers and quotes all over my planner. And so I was just kind of that overly organized. You can totally judge me, it's fine. But even in middle school, just kind of knowing where I had to be, what had to get done.

And really the truth behind having a planner is because I am the world's best procrastinator. If there is no deadline for me, then I might not even start. And so being able to see like, hey, this essay is due on Friday or this math test is on Thursday was really important for me to probably open up my math book on Wednesday night and study for it. But having, you know, that deadline that kind of caused me to be really focused.

And so that kind of stayed with me through high school, through university, and even into my career of, even if my professor or my manager did not give me a deadline, I learned to kind of create self-imposed deadlines so that I would meet expectations, get things done, and achieve my goals. always kind of, I grew up with a mom who graduated college at 18 years old. And so,

Having that as your guiding light in life was a lot of pressure, both directly and indirectly, of I have to also be successful. I have to also meet things. And no, I did not graduate college at 18, but it was still very important for me to make sure I started my career, hit my goals on time. And so in achieving that career ladder and kind of climbing to the success I wanted for my life, I knew that that meant

staying organized and being a planner. And then, you know, 2017, 2018, I'm hearing everyone around me being like, well, how do you know what to do? And I'm like, write it down, like, what are you guys doing? But really thinking that everyone else lived their life in this organized manner and realizing that a lot of folks won't. And so my first business was actually in 2015 as a wedding planner. again, spent a lot of that time with my brides on the time management aspects of like,

you need to sign a contract by then, or you need to save X money so you can pay this vendor by a certain date. And that circled into eventually just helping people with their life productivity. And by the time the pandemic hit, I really started to focus on just business and leadership and helping people as they were starting their own businesses, having had my own for five years. But probably in the last three years,

eventually came back to productivity because even as a business leadership coach, that time management piece was the thing that was the recurring theme with every client. And so was like, everyone's a business coach. I don't need to be one. But this time management piece is something that is definitely my expertise. And so excited to help people with that. And on top of it, having to still manage my life. So I...

I'm still in corporate America working a full-time job. I am a single mom of two kids that are elite athletes who travel literally all over the country. And so I have to maintain my own schedule of full-time work, motherhood, having a podcast, having a business, and still having fun time for myself, which isn't a ton. My fun time is watching TV in bed and taking naps.

finding a lot of things that had to happen. so that time management piece is a part of my own day to day life, as well as what I help other people with today.

Sophie Biggerstaff (05:37)
I love that it's come from when you're like 12 years old at school. It's so good that it... And I actually say this a lot is when people are struggling to start a business, sometimes it's really good to reflect on what you enjoyed or what you're good at in your childhood because there is a quite high percentage of times where it will come back around at some point in your adult life, whether that's a hobby or a career choice that you make or just a side hustle or business that you decide to start.

there's always some kind of tie, some kind of relevance. So I love that you are able to utilize those skills that you learned so early on in life now in everything that you do in managing all of the things that you've got going on personally, but then also helping clients with that. think that that's amazing that it's kind of come full circle round. it's definitely with, with, with organization and time management, I feel like there's definitely a very clear split for how to draw in the middle of people that

are good at that and people that are bad at that. It's very obvious, usually, as soon as you meet somebody on the state of their business or the way that they show up and present themselves, like which one they probably fall under, like coming up to a meeting late or like showing up just on time, for example. And I would say I borderline on the bad side of that. Not that there's a bad side, but know, slightly more disorganized. Because I have an issue with

I've always had an issue with time. I don't know why, but I've always had an issue with like, I underestimate how long something is going to take me to do or how long it's going take me to get somewhere. And my brain just can't compute time in like, in the reality. So I've always struggled with that, but I do always pride myself on never being late, never being early, but I'm always bang on time with things. So my mum is always fascinated by that. Yeah. Yeah.

Kristen Edwards (07:14)
Yeah.

And that's something to be said. You're consistent about it, so there's something to be said about it.

Sophie Biggerstaff (07:27)
Yeah, but I would absolutely love to at some point improve my organizational skills. And I feel like the older I get, the worse it's got because actually it's same as you as a school. I was a pretty organized kid. And even in my early adult life, when I was working full time, I was pretty organized. But then as soon as I went self-employed and I had this freedom and I had all of these other things that I had to think about.

That's when I've really struggled actually with my organization and time management. So this episode is one for me to learn from as well as everybody listening. And I know that you teach time management through four steps, which is focus, stress, systemize and optimize. Could you briefly talk us through that process and each step of that and how they all connect with each other?

Kristen Edwards (08:08)
Yeah, so that first one is focus. And I think that's really the most important thing. You can be super organized, but if you don't have a goal that you're working towards, or you don't know the direction that you're heading in, and not that you always have a perfect milestone you're looking to reach, but you're like, cool, I'm going.

this way, I'm heading towards entrepreneurship, I'm heading towards a family life, like I want to go live in a big city, right? Some type of goal. And so without clear focus, all the organization skills in the world don't mean anything. And so I always start with my clients, I'm talking about like, what are your priorities? And with that, what are some of the non-negotiable things?

just as much as what are the things you're willing to let go. And so it's always a balance that we kind of have to understand, but it starts with having a clear direction, a clear goal, and knowing what's most important in your life or in your business. For most of us as entrepreneurs, that profit piece is kind of important, right? You need to pay your bills, and so you need to be making money. And so focus on what are the things that I can do to bring in new clients or...

you know, kind of grow my reach so that I can then convert people to become clients with me. And so that having that clear focus is the first and most important element of it. And then behind that is strategize and systemize and they kind of go together. So I'll merge them as I speak about them as well. I love to have people create an ideal schedule. And so the same way and going back to middle school, right? You knew you had.

math at 9 a.m., and then gym class, and then social studies. You you kind of had your course laid out for you, and even in your professional life, if you had a nine to five, you're like, cool, we have our team meeting Wednesdays at 11, and my reports are due Friday by 2 p.m. I like to create that same schedule in my business. And so there's nothing better than having a deadline of my podcast goes live.

on Tuesday and so worst case scenario, which I do not recommend, but I know I have to record by Monday if I want that to go live on Tuesday or I can say, hey, I know that this particular month is gonna be quite hectic for me. I need to batch record and have two, three weeks set up so that I can edit, produce, create the marketing materials and have that published and ready to go so that I can go.

on vacation or travel or whatever else might be happening for me. so creating that ideal schedule of how much time do I need to script my episode, record, publish, or with my clients, I need the prep work for their call, the actual client call, the follow-up notes, am I giving them homework, am I reviewing something that they gave me? And building out that schedule to say these are my working hours.

This is when I'm available and this is, know, maybe I'm catching up on something on a Tuesday because I had a doctor's appointment, but my ideal schedule looks like Monday through Friday, 10 to two, or a four day work week and I work nine to three Monday through Thursday. It can look like that. Or again, if you're maybe, you're still in a full time role and this is what you call your five to nine, you know that, you know, hey, and this is how I started, right? When my kids are at,

their sports practice, which is usually six to eight p.m. That's when I'm working on things like scripting my episode or writing the show notes. And obviously I'm recording when I'm at home and able to do that. But kind of balancing out those times and being really prepared. And then once you've built out that ideal schedule, you can now create a system around it. And so if you're looking to batching is really the time batching is kind of the thing I recommend.

for everyone to do. And it looks different for different folks based on kind of how your brain is wired. If you're more of a spontaneous person, then I'll say, sit down for three hours, knowing that I've carved out this time on a Wednesday to work for three hours on that new project. that creating or outlining for a new course? Is it all of the emails for a new launch that, a service that I'm offering?

whatever that might look like. I know that like Wednesday is my project day. And so I have three hours for whatever that project of the week might be. Or I can say, again, if you're kind of batch recording for your podcast episodes, I'm going to spend two hours scripting a month's worth of podcasts. So that's the research and the outline, whatever is needed of what I plan to talk about. And then I'm going to spend two hours the next day recording all three of those episodes.

And because I've gotten it down to a science, I will record those three episodes and then immediately go in and start editing right away because those topics of, I hated that I said this thing, are very much fresh in my mind. Or there's people who are doing one week at a time. And so you can sit down in that three hour span, you can script, record, edit, and produce all in three hours instead of kind of batching your recordings back to back.

And so that's the strategy and the systems that you kind of build for yourself. And the reason I give multiple options is because everyone's brain works differently. And so you wanna cater your time management to how your brain is wired, right? I mentioned before, I'm a really great procrastinator. I'm not gonna miss a deadline, but if I don't have a deadline, I'm gonna kind of let that thing stay until the very last minute. I have been that person to start a 10 page paper.

the day it was due. I'm like, class is at 6 p.m. I'm waking up at 8 a.m. to start this 10 page paper. And the truth is, I have been thinking about it for many times and I'm just sitting down the day of, but without that deadline of you must submit to your professor, it's easy to skip. And so with, I had to create self-imposed deadlines for myself of no one in my listening audience cares what time I release my podcast, but I need to be mindful of that.

for myself and having that consistency. I think it's really important to be loyal and reliable, and so I created that deadline to say it's going to be ready a certain amount of time in advance, and in order to balance the rest of my, you know, my nine to five, my family life, other commitments, then I have to be mindful of when I'm showing up on my podcast. If you have a client call at 10 a.m., then like, you need to be there and ready to go for that client.

And so same thing, that means that I need to prep. And even if I say I don't need to prep until 9 a.m., I kind of know myself best. Or there's people who need to prep and then kind of stew on it for a little bit, then you need to say, hey, a client call is Thursday at 10, Wednesday at 10, I'm gonna do my prep and carve that time out. And so I do think it varies the various time management techniques as well as yourself. The strategies can vary person to person, but you wanna build a system.

that you can now be consistent with the same way you knew that in your nine to five reports were due at 3 p.m. that Friday. And then the last one is optimize. Once you've built that system for yourself, you wanna get really good at, hey, when I started podcasting, it used to take me four hours to edit a 45 minute episode. But then I looked at analytics and the data and I found that people were kind of dropping off at that 20 minute mark of my podcast.

So now I make 20 minute episodes. That also means it only takes me 25 minutes. I am five years into podcasting, but it takes me the same amount of time it takes to listen to the episode. I've gotten really good at carving out. And then there's also tools of, you know, I use Riverside to record and it can take out all of your ums, likes and stutters. And I'm like, click that button, take them out, please. But I'm also able to look at that transcript and say, hey, that.

That was a clunky paragraph. Let's remove that kind of thing. so optimizing and improving your systems over time, that saying of practice makes perfect. No one is ever perfect, but you are definitely going to get a better result and turnaround time as you continue working on it. And you're also going to have a comfort with your schedule that you are really good on it. And now can I teach that system to other people and go make a dollar or two?

You know, what are those kind of shortcuts that I can share with other folks? As well or turn that around into my business to help you know Do I go from one-on-one coaching to a group program because I'm saying the same thing ten times now It's only gonna take an hour and a half of my time instead of ten hours each week and so looking at those different ways that you can kind of Streamline and optimize and also increase your profit margins over time with that literally time is money and so

As you optimize your workflow, you are bringing more money into your business. I do not always believe in hiring a bunch of people. I love having a team, but there's a lot that you can do using technology to optimize your work without always hiring another person.

Sophie Biggerstaff (17:16)
I love that. It's such a great framework that you've just shared and very, very actionable, think, as well. Super easy for anyone to adopt all of those processes you've just mentioned. I do have a question for you. How do you... So one thing that I struggle with is I'm the same as you, right? I am a procrastinator. When I used to work in corporates, I'd have a deadline, but I would do the work the day before the night before the deadline, even though I've had the task on my to-do list for two

Kristen Edwards (17:28)
Of course.

Sophie Biggerstaff (17:45)
three weeks, right? Like, but the day before it's going to be done. And I was the same at school. I didn't do revision until the morning of the exam. how, asking for a friend, me, how do you stick to your self-imposed deadlines? Because I've tried that myself and I'm constantly like, but I can move that deadline. Unless it's obviously to do with a client or something that I've like fully, fully committed to somebody else to do. When it's just a my deadline,

Kristen Edwards (17:54)
Of course.

Sophie Biggerstaff (18:11)
for example, I'm going to create content today, and no one knows whether I'm going to want to put the content out or not, I struggle to stick to that. So how are you staying motivated to stick to your self-imposed deadlines, please?

Kristen Edwards (18:21)
Yeah. What's funny is you actually kind of

just said it. You're like, no one knows about it. And so I will tell one person and sometimes that person doesn't matter, right? It'll be a conversation as I'm making dinner and the kids say something and I'm like, I'm to do X by this time. And they're like, what are you talking about? And I'm like, it doesn't matter. But I have now told another person about this deadline and I am a type, I don't want to let anyone else down. And so although my kids do not care whatsoever,

Sophie Biggerstaff (18:27)
Yeah.

I haven't even said it yet.

Yeah.

Kristen Edwards (18:50)
because I've told someone else about this deadline, it now makes it real that I actually wanna stick to it. Because if my child happens to walk by and go, mommy, did you do that random thing you just talked about? I'm like, nope. Now I'm like, cool, I didn't hold my own promise. And so I have told them to random parents at practices for my kids. I have told them to my actual children. I will say it in passing to.

Sophie Biggerstaff (19:05)
Yeah

Kristen Edwards (19:18)
family members in a conversation on the phone and they're like, what? And I'm like, gotta go do this thing, bye. those are, having that informal accountability has helped me. But it also comes back to that focus aspect of is it truly important? Is it moving the needle in my business? Because if it isn't moving the needle in my business of hey, this content is going to be, this is gonna help someone enter the top of my funnel to become a client.

then maybe it wasn't important and that's probably why you're not sticking to that deadline. And so it helps to kind of start with that focus piece because if it's not that important to you, then it's gonna be hard to also stick to it. But I like the accountability aspect of like, you can tell a cat, it doesn't matter, like cats know if you're lying. And so just kind of telling anyone or anything, you can tell your plants even if you need to, but having that external.

Thing makes it a little bit more real and so we're more likely to hold on to it But if it's not aligned to our priorities and our goals That's probably why it's not as important for you to hold to as well

Sophie Biggerstaff (20:22)
Yeah, that's great advice. I think it's definitely something to be said about having accountability from somebody else, because like you say, you don't want to let somebody down. So if you have somebody else that already knows about that thing and even doesn't matter whether they're involved or not, or even know what you're talking about, it just gives you that extra layer of like, if I don't do that and they question me, then...

I am going to be in trouble in some way. So that's really good advice. And you mentioned something there around like not doing tasks because they're not going to move the needle. They're not going to be the money making activities. And I think many entrepreneurs, myself included, are very guilty of just doing like time sucking activities for the sake of doing the activity and not actually thinking, oh, is this actually going to move the needle? And you get stuck spending so much time on all these things actually not moving you forward. So how

do you address that? Like, how do you kind of identify the things that are the money making activities versus the time sucking ones, which sometimes are equally as important, but maybe they're not going to get you the results straight away. There might be results in like a year's time, for example.

Kristen Edwards (21:28)
Yeah,

absolutely. So we always build backwards. And so I'll be like, hey, who was the last client that you booked and how did they find you? And so if that person's like, hey, they found me from my podcast. Okay, well then your podcast is working, but they didn't find you on TikTok. And so if no one has found you on TikTok in the last six months, do you really need to be out here making TikToks? Now, if someone has found you from TikTok and it's working for you and it's...

at least bringing in, even if it's things that help you kind of break even in your business and not necessarily a profit, then keep going with that. But you don't need to learn the newest dance, choreograph that entire thing, do the whole recording in the perfect lighting. Now you spent an hour learning a dance to do it for 10 seconds and no one has found you because of that. In comparison to, hey, I wrote four sentences posted on my LinkedIn.

and I had three people in my inbox or seven new followers or 17 new downloads on my podcast, like whatever those things are, that's where it starts to make a difference. I reshare my podcast, literally it copies the show notes, like it's automated, copies the show notes and posts it on LinkedIn. But the number of people that in my day job have said, I listened to your podcast and I was like.

How do you even know I have one? Almost not realizing that it's sharing on LinkedIn. But those are the things that are getting me more downloads. And the goal obviously is more one of, and it's a minor goal, but who doesn't want more numbers on their podcast downloads? And so that click automated of share my show notes and the link to my show on LinkedIn has gotten me a few more listeners. In comparison, I found that

Sophie Biggerstaff (23:03)
Yeah.

Kristen Edwards (23:13)
you know, a 10 second thing of, hey, this week's podcast is on XYZ Face2Cam Stories has done more in getting me downloads in comparison to those one minute curated, here are the four things we talked about on this week's show that like no one cares about, but that 10 seconds of this week's episode is on topic ABC does work. And so recognize what's working and what's not.

How are your clients finding you? Because again, this is thinking about the profit aspect of it. But whatever your goals might be, if that's not leading you towards more downloads of the podcast or more discovery calls, right? Not everyone has to book with you, but at least kind of moving down the funnel towards your sales, then it's okay to let that go. You don't need to be on every single platform. And so recognize what platform's working and which one's...

you probably need to let go of because even that click to repost, copy, download and repost on the next platform, that's two minutes you could have focused on something a little bit more tangible like engaging with an actual prospect versus hoping someone finds you.

Sophie Biggerstaff (24:26)
Yeah, I think that's really good advice because it is just so easy to focus on the things that we think we should be doing rather than the things that are actually moving the needle for us. we don't need to be everywhere, but there is this, I guess.

expectation, this pressure, this noise that's been created by people in almost like a hustle culture mode of like sharing that, you know, you need to be xyz places to be able to get seen. have to do Instagram, you have to put on LinkedIn. And then it's like almost, I've definitely fallen into this trap myself of like being in too many places that my attention is absolutely nowhere. So actually for the past like few months, I've really focused honing in on LinkedIn specifically.

And then now I've nailed a process for LinkedIn that is getting somewhat traction. I'm still working on refining and optimizing, like you said, optimizing that process to make sure that it actually does get me the results that I'm looking for. And then I can now move on to something else that I think that process is really good. Now I would like to focus on my Instagram strategy, for example, because that's dropped the ball whilst I've been focusing on LinkedIn, I think.

It doesn't always have to be all of the things all at once. It can actually be nail a process for one thing. And then if you want to move on to something else, you can do that when you've optimized that first one.

Kristen Edwards (25:40)
Yeah,

and when we think about those people out there that are in every single place, recognize that they have a team of 30 people. And so if you are a solopreneur, or even if you have a team of like less than five people, it's way less possible for you to be everywhere where they have a LinkedIn expert, an Instagram expert, a TikTok expert, their social media manager who oversees those four different people, as well as the head of marketing. And so they've got

Sophie Biggerstaff (25:47)
Yeah.

Kristen Edwards (26:07)
seven, eight people working on their various systems. If you're a one or two person show, then you're going to operate in a very different mindset. But also, even when they brag about a six figure week, they have to pay seven different people those salaries that go with it in comparison to what are you taking home to pay your individual bills, whatever that might look like. And so it's also very,

you know, as much as we hear people talk about, even before we hit record, you were mentioning someone that you saw that was like, hey, I had to spend $8,000 in ads for that $15,000 client. And so think about what your profit margins are, because as much as someone is talking about, I made 100K, they spent 85K, then like, was it worth that? And again, there's different reasons, and if they're feeding five people, looks differently. But what...

what does that look like for you in your business to just go make 15K versus making 100K, but 85 of it had to be paid out to other people.

Sophie Biggerstaff (27:13)
Yeah, that's a really good way to look at it. Yeah, there's so many things that you could go down that route, right, and talk about all of the different things that make us unproductive and the things that we should be focused on. But what I'm really interested to know is, obviously, you have so many things that you do focus on between your business, your job, your kids, and you were just talking even before we got on the call that you've been away for a week.

with your daughter at a dance competition, which is amazing. But how do you find juggling all of these things as well as having time for yourself?

Kristen Edwards (27:43)
Yeah, so the kind of rule in my house is that everyone has one activity at a time. So my son has broken that and he was in two sports at the same time this past season. But just as much as they get an activity, I also get something. So I sing at my church and that's something that's really important to me. One, I grew up in church, but also grew up singing. And so being able to have that kind of outlet for myself is really important. And then in the past,

year and a half also adding back in voice lessons. So I grew up with kind of formal training and then you know as you get older you're just like it is what it is but really making sure that I kind of hone my craft and so added back in some voice lessons for myself to get really particular on on certain things and pulling out notes and hitting widening my range and so finding just as much as my kids get that thing for themselves I also get to kind of spend that time.

on myself, but that schedule of as busy as I am, all of those things are happening between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. And so my self care of like, I'm done at 830 at night, the kitchen's cleaned up, the lights are off, I'm going to my room. Like everyone is kind of, and for yourself, it's bedtime. And so thinking about what that looks like, but then we also have what we call off weekends. And so if there is no competition, tournament, game, et cetera,

that's scheduled, we're not doing anything. We're not going to a birthday party. We're not even going grocery shopping. We will order and take out. I'm gonna be in my room. You do whatever you want to do, stay safe. Come get me if there's an emergency, but I am off. I am not responsible for anyone or anything, and I am literally probably watching an obscene amount of reality television in my room.

But having that time to just unplug and relax. I'm actually an introvert. And so as much as I'm doing all these things, like I also need to unplug and recharge. And so when we have off weekends, that means both Saturday and Sunday, you can find me in my bed doing absolutely nothing that particular weekend. And so kind of creating the, just as much as I block time for the various activities, I also make sure I'm blocking and protecting that time.

of this is for me. And so same thing with, you know, going to the gym and getting my nails done. Like, I put that in my schedule the same way that someone puts in, you know, getting coffee and their budget, if they're kind of building out a new budget system, I make sure that I'm kind of doing the things that help me feel like my best self. But getting that sleep every single night of like, it is quiet hours, goodbye to everyone.

is really important to me having those off weekends to really recharge and refuel, as well as making sure that just as much as I promise to get my kids to their activities, I also need to kind of promise myself that I'm showing up for myself in those ways as well. And so that means scheduling in things like the gym and getting my nails done and scheduling that I'm going to lock myself in my room and watch TV.

Sophie Biggerstaff (30:41)
Yeah, it sounds like you've got that nailed, honestly. That was such a thorough overview of exactly how the process is done. I think it is really important to schedule these things for yourself. again, being a not particularly organised person, sometimes I forget and I'll do these things last minute, but actually it is really important to remember that you need time for you as well and to actually book that into your calendar.

can make it feel way less overwhelming because you can forward plan exactly what you said at the beginning. It's like, if you know that you're not working next week because you're going to go on vacation, or if you're having that weekend off and you're not touching your laptop, then you need to batch record all your episodes before the weekend kind of thing. Like there's so much to be said for that planning part and it can really help you. If you plan your social life or you plan your private life, you can also then plan your business life in turn with that.

I think that's amazing. definitely sounds like you've got a pretty good balance going on despite all of the things that you're doing, which sounds like it's a lot, but like very, very well organized, which is incredible. And did it take you a while to get to that point or has it always been that way?

Kristen Edwards (31:46)
I, so most people hit their burnout like in their 20s and 30s. I had my burnout at 19 years old in college. I joined every single club was doing, like I was on the executive board of two different organizations doing theater, obviously going to school full time, was working a part time job. And so what most people kind of burn out around 30 years old, I did it before I even turned 20.

and literally took an intervention of school advisors calling my parents to be like, your child is not okay. And my mom's like, no, she just needs to be busy, not realizing how much I kind of signed into. But I had multiple advisors kind of have an intervention with me of like, you will not be able to sustain this, prioritize. They forced me to choose one, eliminate the rest. Obviously,

I could keep my job because you need money, but it was like you cannot be on the executive board of five different clubs. so finished out my term that second year of university, but going into my third year was like, okay, I can only, I can be a general member of this. I can be an executive board of that and then kind of let the rest go. And that was hard, but I'm also very grateful because by the time I did have true life responsibilities of a full-time job and children.

I already understood the importance of prioritizing, letting things go. I did hit that kind of physical and mental burnout, again, at a very young age, that when I started to see the pressures rise as my son started to play sports when he was five, and then having a second kid, know, recognizing, hey, I need to carve out this time for myself and my own wellbeing.

And something that my parents were like, hey, remember when you crashed and burned five years ago? Don't do it again. It was always a nice reminder as well of, you know, be very intentional about the things I say yes to and also being okay saying no. And when I do say yes, I kind of have, you know, even though there's things that you kind of say yes to and they don't really have an end date, I give myself a personal one year. And so if this is not serving me at the one year mark, I'm out.

And I do the same thing with my kids for their sports season. So it's not an automatic, my son does track, which eventually can go year round. But at the end of every season, I say, do you want to sign up for this again? Yes or no. And it's a choice that he gets to make. so kind of instilling those values into my kids also makes that a reminder for me. Like sometimes you let things go. Things are for a season. It doesn't always have to be forever. And recognizing that I can.

choose to let go of my podcast or my business or get a new nine to five position if that comes up. And I feel like there's a reason to kind of transition at some point in the future.

Sophie Biggerstaff (34:35)
Yeah, that's a really, really great way to look at it. And one thing I think we spoke about quickly before we came on the recording, but I did a meditation retreat a couple of weeks ago. And actually one of the things that came out of it for me is like, we all have so many, we have a choice, right? Like everybody has a choice and like the choices that we make define our lives. And there were nine people on this meditation retreat on the Monday. quite, it's...

It's quite challenging. You're walking four hours a day on a 15 meter square platform back and forth, literally on a concrete platform, staring at the ground for four days. And there were nine people on the Monday. By the Thursday, there was only four people. And what I just kept coming back to is that we all had a choice. We all chose to come there on the Monday. But then it was everybody's choice to show up the next day. And no judgment for the people that didn't get to the end of the session. It wasn't for them. But exactly what you just said about how you

check in with your son and see if that's something that he wants to continue or even for yourself, like the things that you want to do. We have a choice to say yes or no to these things, exactly what you say. Like everything is there for a season or a reason and we don't have to continue if it doesn't fill in alignment with us anymore, if it doesn't serve us a purpose. So I absolutely love what you've just said there around like making choices because I think we forget sometimes, we just carry on carrying on with something because we don't know any different or it's just like forgotten that we can say no to something.

Actually, it's really important to remember that we do have choices and the choices that we make define our next phase of life usually. So I think that was a really good reminder. Specifically for this subject, when it comes to all of the things that we've got on our agenda, we can choose. If we need to drop something, that's okay. It doesn't mean it can be forever. You could pick it back up at some point as well. But it's really important to remember that you do have that choice. So thank you for that little nugget of wisdom and reminder.

And in terms of anybody that is struggling with their productivity or struggling with their time management, what would be your number one bit of advice to somebody to try and turn that around for themselves right now?

Kristen Edwards (36:32)
Yeah, I think it's getting really clear on what matters most to you. And so, you know, it's easy, like, as you said, to kind of get into those shoulds because of what we see other people doing. I think sometimes unplugging from social media can help us to kind of redefine what that looks like. You mentioned going on a meditation retreat. I actually do an annual retreat for my business each year. So every October, I carve out

a long weekend. Usually it's like I take that Friday off of my day job and then like that Saturday, Sunday. And I'm just like, where are we going? What are we doing? What do I love and what do I want to let go of? And so I think getting really clear on what matters to you is going to allow you to

make the decisions that are right for you in this season of life and this season of your business. There are some parts of business like taxes. Most of us don't enjoy unless you were actually an accountant at some point. so, recognizing that it's a necessary element of having a business, whether you're a solopreneur or you run a large corporation, taxes are an element of that. And so there are some things that we might not enjoy.

But if the pros can outweigh those not so fun moments, then this is probably something you should continue doing. Also, you're not a failure if you're like, hey, I just don't like being an entrepreneur and I wanna go work for another person. You can go work for another entrepreneur. You can go choose to have a nine to five. That choice is about you creating the life that you feel best about. And so if the...

security of someone else submitting your paycheck every single two weeks is more important to you than like do what's best for you in this particular season of life. Entrepreneurship will always be there and you can always come back at another point in time. But I think being really clear on what matters for you as a person is going to always help you make the right decision. And so I actually have written down like what are my non-negotiables in life?

What are my non-negotiables in business? What are my non-negotiables in my career and in motherhood? I have multiple categories. And so as long as I'm able to kind of come back to that kind of North Star for myself, then I can make any other decision from that. And that's where the true freedom is. If you feel like you have to do anything, then you've lost that freedom in comparison to the I get to.

be an entrepreneur, I get to be a podcaster. And so as long as you can come back to that, these are my non-negotiables, but this is also what I'm willing to let go. And that's where that freedom really comes back to. And that's where you keep the joy in your business as well. So that even when you are itemizing things to submit to your accountant for tax season, you're like, here's the big picture of what my business has allowed me to do in my life that I can get through this not so fun tax moment.

Sophie Biggerstaff (39:32)
Yeah, obviously, there's always going to be things that we don't enjoy doing right. I came up off of the back of that meditation retreat, I actually came up with like a little, you know, those charts that you used to have in like a kids magazine. It's like, ask the question, yes, no answer until you get to the get to the end. I actually did one of those off the back of this meditation retreat when I was like, oh, choice, like, I wonder how I can incorporate that into my freedom model method, which is my group coaching program.

Kristen Edwards (39:45)
Yeah, absolutely.

Sophie Biggerstaff (39:55)
because I think sometimes people forget that they have the choices, one, but also two, how do they know if that's the right choice? We get so paralyzed by sometimes when we have decision fatigue and knowing which answer, which route to go down. So I came up with one of these charts to try and figure out how do you make decisions that actually feel good for you and align fully with you? Because one of my North stars, as you called it a minute ago, is to create freedom for myself. And there's various different meanings of freedom. But for me, it really does mean to be able to spend

time doing the things that I love doing every day to be location independent and basically live on my own agenda not for somebody else's and obviously make money doing so. But I always like to ask a question because I am so focused on creating that freedom for myself via online business is what does freedom mean to you? I'd love to know and you kind of mentioned it just then but what does it look like for you right now and how does that motivate you?

Kristen Edwards (40:49)
Yeah, I mean...

I agree that freedom kind of looks different in each season. I think right now that freedom to say yes to my kids is a very important factor, right? I have a 12 year old and a six year old. And so giving them that kind of same creative freedom of pick your activity and I'll support how far you wanna go. My parents did that for me with singing and with theater. And so it's really important that I kind of

give that to them and my business helps fund it because my kids pick the most extreme, expensive, travel to Florida 10 times type of sports. And so, ⁓ yeah, I was like, we didn't just do the little like town recreational league. They were like, I'm going to be an elite national junior Olympian mom. Okay, sure. So but

Sophie Biggerstaff (41:33)
You gave them too much choice.

No. I like it. I love it.

Kristen Edwards (41:47)
Thankfully, because

of my business, I have the freedom to support that dream right now. And it's a season, right? Once my son's in high school, in college, you're on your own kid, like have fun. But I love that I have that freedom to support their super expensive dreams right now. And so my business is what kind of gives me that extra to say yes to the $500 football helmet and ridiculous things that are kind of requested.

And so I'm really grateful for that season right now. I can't wait for it to be done in a few years at the same time. And I can go spend that, you know, where freedom does look like sitting on the beach for a week at a time or different things. But I truly enjoy being a sports mom to the point that I'm team mom of a football team, assistant coach of the track team and cheering until I lost my voice, as you can hear in this recording at Dance National. I do lead.

I truly love being a sports mom and supporting my kids in their goals, but that also means the freedom to put this down in five years as well.

Sophie Biggerstaff (42:53)
Yeah, as you say, it changes from season to season, but I absolutely love all the things that you said there and how much you do for your kids and the fact that your business is allowing you for that to happen. So that's the power of online business. It truly can create freedom, whatever freedom looks like for you. So I think that's amazing. And I'm excited to see where that freedom takes you in the future in five years time when you don't have those responsibilities. So thank you so much for sharing all of that. That was super, super helpful and really inspiring.

If anyone wants to connect with you, how can they get in touch?

Kristen Edwards (43:25)
Absolutely. So my favorite place to hang out is on Instagram. To help everyone spell my name. It's Chris K R I S the number 10. So you spell it right. And then my last name Edwards underscore. My website is amplify ambition. My podcast is called amplify ambition. And so really great strategies on time management you can find on all your streaming platforms by listening to the podcast.

Sophie Biggerstaff (43:51)
Amazing. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. You've given some really great advice there and I've really enjoyed listening to your stories and your inspirational organisation skills.

Kristen Edwards (44:01)
Thanks,

Sophie. Thanks for having me.