Time Poverty Is Real: Stop Hiding in Busy

Busy doesn’t mean productive. And exhausted doesn’t mean successful.

In this episode, Peggy Sullivan — former corporate executive turned researcher and speaker — shares what 12 years of data revealed about time poverty, burnout, and the hidden damage of hustle culture.

If you’ve ever felt like there’s never enough time, like your calendar is packed but your goals aren’t moving, this conversation will feel both validating and empowering.

Peggy breaks down:

• What “time poverty” really is
 • How chronic busyness damages health and relationships
 • The productivity myth that keeps high-achieving women stuck
 • Why multitasking actually lowers performance
 • How to subtract low-value commitments
 • Small micro-steps that rebuild clarity and confidence

We also explore how busyness can become a habit — even an addiction — and how to retrain your brain to choose meaning over mayhem.

This episode is for female entrepreneurs, leaders, and women in midlife reinvention who are ready to stop hiding in busy and start leading with intention.

Because you don’t need a crisis to change. You need clarity.

To learn more about Peggy and her work, visit her website: https://peggysullivanspeaker.com/   
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peggyasullivan/ 

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Transcript

Time Poverty Is Real: Stop Hiding in Busy

This episode explores time poverty, burnout recovery, and productivity myths for female entrepreneurs navigating hustle culture and leadership.

​[00:00:00] 

Can we talk about busy for a second? Because somewhere along the way we decided that being exhausted meant we were worthy. That overbooked meant successful, that overwhelmed meant ambitious, that exhausted was just part of being female, of being human even. And I'm just gonna say it, that's a lie. Busy is often the safest way to avoid the scary stuff.

The [00:01:00] visibility, the leadership, the growth, the impact you wanna have. I see it all the time inside serving superstars, brilliant women, big hearts, big ideas. Calendars packed with things that technically matter, but don't actually move the needle. In today's episode, I'm talking with Peggy Sullivan, former VP of Marketing Communications at Blue Cross Blue Shield, who had some serious wake up calls around stress burnout and what she calls time poverty.

And what I loved about this conversation is that she brought the data, not just feelings, not just mindset, actual evidence that chronic busyness damages relationships. Hurts performance and literally impacts your health. Here's what really resonated with me. You don't need a crisis to change. You don't need to eat cat food by accident.

Yes, that really happened to her. You don't need a stress-induced heart attack. You don't need your life to fall [00:02:00] apart. You just need self-awareness and the courage to subtract. You don't need more time. You need fewer low value yeses. If you've been telling yourself you're too busy to build the thing, too busy to show up consistently, too busy, to step into your next level, I want you to listen closely and I want you to book a free connection call with me.

The link is in my show notes and on my Penny for your Shots website. You know how to find me. For now, grab your favorite beverage and settle in. This one might feel like a loving nudge. Here is Peggy Sullivan.

Peggy Sullivan: Hi, Penny. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Hi, how are you? 

Peggy Sullivan: I'm good. How are you? 

Penny Fitzgerald: I'm good. I'm good. It's great to meet you. 

Peggy Sullivan: Yeah, back at ya. Back at ya. I, um, am appreciating some of the old school photos you have behind you. I just recovered a photo [00:03:00] album that used to belong to my dad that has a bunch of black and white and old photos and it's just so much fun.

Penny Fitzgerald: Very fun. Yeah. The um, my dad at 16 and.

Really, really old pictures. Yeah. I love seeing them close by too. 

Peggy Sullivan: Yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Very cool. Well, Peggy, tell us a little bit about yourself. 

Peggy Sullivan: Sure. I have been working in corporate America for a great period of time, and then I took a pause and wanted to see if there was more of a legacy for me and if I could do some more purpose-driven work.

And so I started a nonprofit and I did a lot of research to understand what was going on with people and what their challenges were. And for 12 years I did market research that told me the same challenge kept on [00:04:00] rearing its ugly head, and it was that, um, 95% of the population is over the top busy, wants to be less busy.

But doesn't know how. So I have dedicated my last 10 years to perfecting a process that helps people turn what I call time poverty into time wealth. So they have time for what's important. 

Penny Fitzgerald: That's so great. I agree so much too with that. I, I feel like, well, I work with a lot of female entrepreneurs and what I hear over and over again is how busy they are.

Like you've found the research to prove it. We all, we all know how busy we are, but I feel like it's a, a tool for entrepreneurs especially. To keep ourselves small. You know, if we're always busy in the day-to-day minutiae, we can't make the big impact. We can't grow, we can't be seen, we aren't out there.[00:05:00] 

So, you know, by default we stay small. Do you find that in corporate too? Yeah. 

Peggy Sullivan: I mean, yeah, there, you know, there, for me it was this self-awareness. I did a lot of research and I really wanted to look at the data, and the data told me a lot of things. One of the things that Data told me that for most entrepreneurs, that our schedule is so overstuffed, we don't have time to do the important things.

So I think that we need to be more self aware of the choices we're making and align. Our choices with what's important, and we live in a world where there are so many distractions and so many people pulling us at, and we need to take a moment and, and really start to make more intelligent decisions on how we spend our time and when we start to change [00:06:00] those basic habits.

We find that we can make time for what's important. It's just a matter of being really self-aware. You know, do, do I wanna spend my day multitasking? No, because when I multitask, it takes me twice as long and I make 50% more Ms. Stakes. You know, do I wanna put my self care on the back burner? No, because then you're in brain fog and then you're not doing your best work and you don't have your best energy.

And it really gets back to the data. And looking at the data and understanding busy is not better. Busy doesn't bring us stronger relationships. As a matter of fact, people that are busy end up damaging their relationships. They choose tasks over people, human connection, and it doesn't mean we're more productive and we're getting more done at work.

That old fallacy is that [00:07:00] busyness equals success. The data just doesn't align with that. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Peggy, what did you do in your corporate career? What? What was your background? 

Peggy Sullivan: Yeah, I worked in healthcare and I was vice president of marketing communications for Blue Cross Blue Shield, and I did that for, for quite some time.

And I, as a young girl, really did believe busy was better. And then I had a couple of wake up calls where it just became crystal clear to me this thing that I call living, I, I wasn't doing. It so that I could enjoy and optimize my life. I wasn't doing the things that would help me achieve the things I wanted.

I was actually just running on a treadmill and going through the motions. You know, I was kind of burnt out in a haze. You know, I, I actually had a. [00:08:00] Number of serious things that happened. I, uh, the first was kind of funny. I ate cat food for dinner, thinking it was pistachio nuts one night when I came home exhausted.

And within six months of that, my husband of 18 years asked for a divorce. He said that our relationship had been deteriorating, we weren't spending enough time together. And about four months after that, stressing over everything, I had a stress related heart attack and.

So there I was. Everything that I worked so hard for had become out of reach and for me, you know, I am hoping that most people don't need to get into crisis situation to realize that busy isn't better. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. So I hear that so often too, that. Out of your own self, [00:09:00] um, like an issue that comes up for you or a problem that you fix for yourself, it drives you to help other people to feel better, you know, to do, to, to do better, to ask a better question and to make their lives better.

Peggy Sullivan: Yeah, I mean, I have no doubt in my mind time poverty is real. We all get to the end of our day wondering where'd the day go and why didn't I get done? What was really important? And so I think people have just been searching for a way off the hamster wheel, and that's what I've been working on and the process that I have that I call performance by design.

It eliminates low value activities. I call it subtraction. That's step one. And so you have more time for what's important. And then step two is igniting the superpowers of happiness. We tend to think that happiness is a destination, a place, but it's not. It's [00:10:00] actually micro moments that we can create for ourselves because when they're macro moments, it's outta reach.

And so I wrote my first book about the neuroscience of happiness, and what I learned is that when we are happy, we have more focus, more energy. We're in a much better mood, we're more charismatic. We fight off chronic diseases. Like a superpower. So I encourage people to do tiny little happiness rituals throughout the day.

They don't need to be long. I. Myself, do things like have little dance parties, get my blood going. I eat dark chocolate. I smell it, I taste it. I take a pause and it's like pushing the reset button and getting those endorphins going. And it's, it's biological and that's why I step two in my performance by design is, is what I call mojo making, creating.[00:11:00] 

Intentional acts of joy, happiness, rituals. And then the third step in the process is, is really having a filter for your yes and your no decisions. You know, we live in a world right now where people are in what is called a purpose crisis. Confusion over our why, and it's really affecting our younger generation.

And consequently, you know, people aren't feeling satisfied, they're not feeling fulfilled. And my perspective is. You know, we all know our whys. Um, they're simple. They change throughout life, but we know what our why is. I think the challenge that we all face is the how to, and, and that to me gets back to time management.

Maybe in $18.5 billion industry. But we're in a purpose crisis, so time management is failing us, [00:12:00] and I believe we need to get back to our values and make our decisions based on our values. And when we do, we don't end up robbing ourself of what's important. We align our decisions and our time with what matters.

Penny Fitzgerald: Interesting. Yeah, it feels very much like, um. You know, I was in corporate for a number of years as well, and the whole, the rat race, the hustle culture, the bro mentality, the competitiveness of, it's a pie and we have to get, you know, we have to prove ourselves, we have to get our piece of pie. But as women, I have been saying this for a minute, but.

We'll just make more pie. You know, we, we don't lead like that. We don't lead from that scarcity mindset. We we're better with abundance. We, you know, create experiences, but we're also quick to say yes to everything. When people need us, we're quick to say, [00:13:00] sure, I'll do that thing for you. If it's for someone else, especially for our family, our kids, our husbands, our our family.

We do it. Without thinking often, but you're advocating for really taking a step back and understanding what's important and, and making decisions based on that, right? Yeah. I make 

Peggy Sullivan: a decision by, you know, am I going to give value? Am I going to get value? Is it going to be something that I feel good about?

Or just something I get by and get through. And if I'm doing it because I believe I need to be doing it and I'm, my motivation, it doesn't align with my belief system or my values, then, and today's a perfect example. I took an appointment with somebody. That, uh, I probably shouldn't have. And I was looking at my schedule and realizing that it was a hectic schedule, and I just texted this person, said, look, today's not the day for [00:14:00] us to get together.

I will not be able to be present. I have, you know, other things and we'll have to reschedule. And I didn't hear back, but that was the decision I made. For myself to make sure that I had what I needed to do, what I needed to do Today, 

Penny Fitzgerald: you have to protect yourself. You have to protect your energy. Right. Can, can you tell us a little bit about the data?

I mean, give us some of those statistics you were mentioning about how important it is to, to protect yourself from that way. 

Peggy Sullivan: Yeah, I am. 75% of people put self-care on the back burner because they believe they don't have time for it. And self-care. I'm not talking about taking a four week vacation or going to the gym for two hours.

I'm talking about like keeping that dental appointment 'cause you've canceled it three times and taking 15 minutes. To get nourishment, you know, [00:15:00] during your day. And, and we already talked about the multitasking, um, deal and even just interruptions. We go through our day and, and something pulls away our focus and we forget the fact that.

You give in to that little phone call, that little beep, that little something bugging at you, and you move away from what you're working on and your mind needs to refocus and it takes. Time to refocus. And so when we're constantly letting all these interruptions in, it actually takes us 25 minutes to get back to the primary tasks we wanna focus on.

So, you know, all of the data shows that the way we're living right now is. Conducive towards healthy, happy, productive, and that we need to simplify in terms of, yeah, it's as simple [00:16:00] as doing one thing at a time and doing it well and feeling good about it and being self-aware of the things that you let in.

I worked with a, um, a CEO of a bank and he was telling me how. Email was his busy trap and that the company got so big and they all got so used to writing emails. And so I asked him, I said, are all of the emails, do they add value? Are they telling you something you really need to know? And he said, no. He says, you know, I actually, the more I think about it, there's only a small percentage that fit into that.

Category. So I'm like, so you're the CEO. Change the email protocol. Ask your team to just take a moment before they send it, because it's not just about you and your time. I mean, think about how you can relieve your staff of all these extraneous emails. Change the rules. [00:17:00] You can change the rules. And so we did.

And you know what happened? 45% of his email disappeared within six weeks. You know what happened after that? Corporate performance improved dramatically. Bottom line metrics, and so, you know, it's just not as complicated as we think everything is. Life is a a lot. Simple or focus on what matters. Eliminate what doesn't.

Eliminate these low value transactions, you know, step into your happiness. You can, you can have those wonderful, uh, hits of endorphin that really improve your focus, your brain power, your energy just through fall, you know, small little things that you do for yourself, you know, go take. Three minutes and go pet your cat, if that gives you joy.

I know for me, when my cat starts purring, it makes me feel really good. [00:18:00] It is an energy boost. You know, I just, yeah, it's, it's getting back to the basics. We need to get back to the basics, 

Penny Fitzgerald: you know? That's, it sounds like that. You know, the culture, it trickles down and it sounds like that really made a big difference for that, that company.

But what do you do if you're in the middle somewhere and you can't make a big decision like that for the company? How do you navigate when your company culture doesn't fit what you, what you know to be true? I, 

Peggy Sullivan: I think that's a great question, and I think we're all in situations where. You know, we, we can't maybe change the situation, but there's always something you can do.

And look at yourself and be self-aware. What low value activities am I doing? Do I get up in the morning and I first go to. Email, do I end my day spending an hour doom scrolling? Like, what are the things you can control? And it does get down to the [00:19:00] things that you can and can't control. I, uh, had a, a friend who.

I was coaching and she said to me, I spent all my days in meetings all my days. I have never time to do my work. And I'm like, well, what if you went to your manager and said, look, you know, I'm sure that these meetings, um, have, are intentional, but you know, they're not really giving me value. I'm not learning anything new.

You know, maybe we should meet less often or maybe we shouldn't meet at all. There isn't a, a purpose or an outcome or a delivery, a next step. And so what ended up happening in her department was they cut back on meetings and, you know, we think that we don't have a choice, but sometimes it's just as simple as saying, you know, I, I.

I wanna see this company succeed. I'm spending all my time in [00:20:00] meetings, which means I can't be doing X, Y, Z. You know, can you, can you help me figure out, you know, how I should rectify this? And a lot of times. Good managers will step up and say, well, you really don't need to be in that meeting. Or, you know, maybe we're meeting too often, or maybe that meeting should have an agenda and if it doesn't have an agenda, it's not important enough, then you know, we shouldn't be meeting.

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. I work with, um, a lot of founders who, women particularly, who have come out of a corporate setting specifically because of some of these things. Mm-hmm. You know, they wanna make an impact in the world. They wanna do something that, you know, they wanna follow their passion, but then they get stuck in this busyness and doing all the things and.

Yes, it's a choice, but I feel like some of, some of my people that I work with get, um, [00:21:00] not really addicted, but it's this, you're used to, it's a habit. It's a habit of saying yes to all the things. It's a habit of doing all of these tasks that take us away from that purpose. How do you suggest that someone break out of that busyness habit?

Peggy Sullivan: Well, busyness is more than a habit. It's also an addiction, you know? Mm-hmm. We tend to think that addictions are things like drugs and alcohol. And my second husband, um. Has is a recovering alcoholic, so I know how serious, I don't use that word lightly, but the American Psychiatric Association says an addiction is anything that distracts you, keeps you from normal behavior.

And because we get an adrenaline hit when we get something done, even if it's something as small as. I'm gonna do something really low value just to cross it off my list because I'll feel good I got something done. It feels good to cross it off. [00:22:00] Yeah, it does feel good. But if it's. Not important or meaningless or doesn't really contribute to the bottom line.

You're better off spending a chunk of time and, you know, taking a micro step on a macro project that is bottom line oriented and, and does. So for me. That's why, um, I recommend this performance by design framework because step two, the mojo making actually helps you with that addiction. We get a dopamine high.

So do happiness rituals, you know, give yourself a moment or two. It only takes 90 seconds to ignite your, um, your, your endorphins and your brain to. Stimulate your mood, your energy, your ability to focus. And if we spent a bunch of 90 seconds throughout our day kind of refocusing and pushing the reset [00:23:00] button, you know, we'd be able to do that.

And, and that's why for me, you know, pushing the reset button scheduled happiness rituals are so crucial towards getting past this busyness as a habit. 

Penny Fitzgerald: It's really a retraining of your brain that you're safe in, in taking that new step in, stepping outta that busyness and towards your higher purpose, towards a greater impact for people 

Peggy Sullivan: just kind of, right.

I mean, it's, it's truly about self-awareness and you know, just, I produce a report. That's called the, the workplace, um, busy report. And it's got all sorts of statistics in it that really show how. We fail at our relationships when we're over the top busy. Our bottom line metrics fall apart. Our health, our happiness, our [00:24:00] mental health, I mean, all of it deteriorates when we've got too much going on.

And if you just look at the data on the analytics, you know, approach it intelligently, the data says. Busy isn't better. Okay. We're smart. Busy isn't better. So I've gotta, you know, start to remove some low value activities. And I think that's why I ended up with subtraction as step one in the, in the performance by design.

Because it, it, you need to feel some relief. We're all just feeling like, oh my God, I, I just, I wanna take the top off the lid. And when you eliminate one or two low value transactions, you start to feel more in control. And then you feel better, and then you eliminate one or two more, and, and then you can.

Start, you know, figuring out, you know, what are my values and I'm gonna make yes or no decisions that [00:25:00] align with my values. And if. A prosperous career and, and making a difference is, is one of your core values. Then it's a priority. Make it a priority, you know? Then maybe cooking dinner every night and cleaning the house and doing laundry.

Maybe that's less of a priority, you know, maybe you get somebody to help with that. There are always trade-offs that we can make, but. We aren't superwomen, we, we can't do it all. Nobody can do it all. You could do it all for a short period of time, but maintaining that juggling act, it, it just never is sustainable.

Penny Fitzgerald: That's so true. That's true. Um, that's stress, what it does to our bodies too. I just talked to a another brilliant woman this morning about how it affects your body and how you can al your body always knows you, you can always feel something [00:26:00] shift, uh, in your body or if you know, you know, you can tell when something's not right the way that your body reacts.

Have you encountered anything like that? 

Peggy Sullivan: Oh yeah. All the time. And I think that's when I get down to the basics and I ask myself, why am I feeling this way? Why am I feeling stress? And if it's something I can control, I work to control. If it's something totally out of my control, my job is just. To deal with it.

And so I'm a big fan of is this in your control or out of your realm of control? You know, right now I've got a, a sister who's very sick and terminal and that is out of my control. Her health is out of my control. What's in my control is that I can be the best sister ever and help her navigate to this really.

Difficult situation, but I can stress out that I'm losing my sister and that, you know, I, [00:27:00] I'm, you know, my parents are gone now, my sister's gonna be gone. I can, you know, kind of lean into that. Or I can basically say, look, this is happening. So I'm gonna feel really good about the time I spend with my sister and how I support her, and letting her know that I'm there for her whenever she.

She des me. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. It's so important to be present for the people in our lives, and you can't do that if you're too busy. 

Peggy Sullivan: Exactly. I mean, there'll be so many times where, um, my husband is into sports and he loves his hockey and he loves his football and you know, he's watching all these things and I wanna talk and he will be like.

You know, not now. And I'll be like, really? Like a game is more important than what I have to say. I don't think so. And I'll turn the TV off, you know, and I'll stand in front of it. I'm like, [00:28:00] no. And you know, human connection is really important. I loved when the Surgeon General, a couple of years ago came out with the stat that, um.

We are going through a loneliness crisis, and it came out with that stat right during COVID, but the numbers didn't change. People kept their isolation. Um mm-hmm. Patterns. And, and really what he said was that it deteriorates your health. It's almost like smoking 13 cigarettes a day. That's what it does to your heart, your lungs, your brain, your skin, your energy level.

Um, and that's, that's, you know, medical science telling us that. So, you know, we just need to be smarter. We have all the data around us. And we know how it feels to be over the top busy too. So it's really about taking control of your [00:29:00] life back. And I always, um, tell people it's about choosing meaning. Over mayhem and if you let me indulge, I'll tell you a little story.

Yes, please. I, um, when I was a little girl, I used to love riding my bike over to my grandparents' house. They lived about seven miles away. And I would, during the summer, ride my bike over there and. And then my grandfather would tell me all these stories of his life when he didn't live in America and all this stuff.

And you know, I grew up with a man who was very value driven and he told me why values became so important to him. And he, he always told me the story about. When he was in Germany and he was, and he was in his forties and my dad was eight years old and my grandmother, Lena, they were all sitting down to dinner and favorite meal, brockworth and [00:30:00] sauerkraut.

But anyways, it was their favorite meal and my grandma baked bread and they were having a lovely time and, and then the room filled with black uniforms and it was the SS and they took my. Grandfathered to a concentration camp. Uh, and so, you know, when he arrived, his priority was no more, you know, protecting his family, making money, providing, you know, his, his.

His sole, uh, purpose was to survive. That's, and so he kept on saying, what values do I need to survive? What, what, what is my how, how am I gonna survive? And he decided human connection was a really important value of his. And when he looked around, he knew that there were hundreds of people who were fathers.

Who were sons, who were business people who were in the [00:31:00] same position as him. So he decided that he would kind of form a bond and, and really start connecting with these people 'cause it would be helpful. And, and before he knew it, he had the support system that. You know, when his mind was wandering and he was feeling horrible, he, uh, he was able to connect with people and, and kind of get through it.

And he also told me about up until that period of time, how. You know, self-care was always something he put on the back burner, but, you know, in this particular situation, you know, it was cold, it was damp. He, he didn't have a warm coat to keep him warm. He didn't have boot. To keep his feet dry. And, you know, he did the unthinkable.

He, he took a coat and boots off of a dead person for his own survival. And he, he told me how he wrestled with that, and that was just morally not right. And [00:32:00] how we would wrestle with, you know, they bring the food in a trough and he would be the first to run because rations were, were skimpy. And yet, if he didn't eat.

He, he couldn't keep his energy up and you know, at the end of the day he did end up escaping and he led a beautiful life and he leaned into his values as how I'm gonna get, get to this, how my life is gonna have meaning and purpose. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. Yeah. How old were you when he told you those stories? 

Peggy Sullivan: I was eight years old too.

So they were, they were pretty impactful. Um, I 

Penny Fitzgerald: bet. 

Peggy Sullivan: Yeah, they were pretty impactful. And, and my, um, my dad always used to tell me stories too when I grew up a little, a little bit more. he came to the states when he was eight and a half years old, couldn't speak English, had no clothes, had no place to stay.

Everybody [00:33:00] had to get jobs, you know, and he, he, he talked about how. He learned that he could do hard things and that he was resilient and that once he said to himself, I got this. I can do hard things. I've done them before. Look at what my family just survived. You know? He had this, this resiliency and the sense of confidence that helped him get through anything life had to throw him.

Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. When you've been through something that big. What else can come to you? You know? I mean, what else are you going to do? But 

Peggy Sullivan: do that. Right? But here's the thing. We need to come come to this self-awareness without a tragic wake up call. Mm-hmm. We need to say. I can take a micro step, one micro step, nothing really big.

I'm just gonna eliminate doom scrolling, or I'm [00:34:00] gonna tell, um, people that I'm only checking my email twice a day. And please know that it's 11 and five and. If you have something urgent, pick up the phone. I mean, there are so many things that we can do to be resourceful, to turn this tides of too much to do and too little time.

We just, we just need to make a small step, one micro step. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. One of the things that I do to keep present, to stay present is meditate, like on a regular basis, just 10 minutes a day, just in the morning, just to really refocus and to make sure that you're, you know, listening. Because I feel like, well, I know that there are no questions that we have without a solution.

There are no, no questions without the answer, but you just have to sit still long enough for them to come to you, for them to be verbalized or to come. To understand what you can do to make a difference or to, [00:35:00] to answer that question. 

Peggy Sullivan: Yeah. I, um, I'm a, a picture person and I'm visually driven, so for me, I don't meditate.

I draw or I think, or I put words down nice. And I'll ask myself questions, and then I'll look at the words and then all of a sudden it'll come to me like. Okay, well why are you worried about that? That's kind of stupid. You know, why are you wasting your precious time and energy about that? That's outta your control?

And, and for me, just visualizing the things and writing them down, you know, really helps. And even my to-do list, you know, I do a to-do list every single day. And I look at it the following day and I say, well, is there anything on there that just really doesn't matter? And it, it would be a nice to do, but not a have to do.

And if it's not a have to and it's not important, take it off your list. Hmm, [00:36:00] 

Penny Fitzgerald: interesting. 

Peggy Sullivan: It doesn't matter if it's a five, 10 minute activity, it'll probably take you longer. 

Penny Fitzgerald: I use my to-do list. I have an app that I use to do it, and I put, um, everything on there. I kind of use it like a brain dump so I don't forget things so they don't fall through the crack.

But that seems like it could lead to this gamification of, oh, I can check this thing off. Oh, I can check that thing off. Where's the balance or how do you find that, you know, for not letting things fall through the cracks, but then also, you know, keeping your to-do list clean and being really those impactful, uh, tasks that we have to 

Peggy Sullivan: do.

Yeah. You know, it's just all of this gets back to self-awareness and really. You know, saying to yourself, you know, I get back to that appointment that I took this afternoon with somebody I hardly knew that had little value to me, and I just took it because I thought it was the right thing to do, and he asked, and then [00:37:00] I'm like, no, you know, I, I don't need to be spending an hour of my time on this.

This is not critical. This is not urgent. This is not important to me. And just saying no and being okay with, with saying no. I, uh, I gave one of my best friends a call yesterday because I was really sad about my sister and she's very sick, and I just had a moment and I need to speak. To her. And I texted her and she basically said, I'll try to call you tonight.

And she didn't. And I woke up this morning saying, okay, well I wasn't that important to her. I reached out to her. I needed her support. And you know, I think it's. Important that we're constantly evaluating the people and the things in our lives. And if they're not adding value and giving value, you know, we need to speak up.

So I'm gonna [00:38:00] call this friend and say, look, I really needed your support. I've been there for you. You kinda, you know, I reached out to you, I told you I was in a really dark place, and yet. You couldn't find five minutes to call me. That really was heartbreaking, and I need you to know how, how I'm feeling, and if it happens again, we're gonna have to talk about our friendship because it just may not.

Mean to you what it does to me, and I'm not into a one-sided relationship and I, you know, that's part of doing the hard things and eliminating the low value people, the low value tasks constantly, you know, we're like. Books and chapters, and we go through different cycles, and just because something was working for you in chapter one, it made a whole bunch of sense.

Doesn't mean you need to be doing it in chapter three. Maybe circumstances have changed. So always having the courage. To say, [00:39:00] okay, I, I kind of need to pivot. And by the way, pivoting is probably the greatest skill any of us can have in today's world where everything is moving so fast is being able to pivot on a dime.

And that's why I get back to the self-awareness. You know, you just need to be really self-aware in what you're focusing your energy on and, and not spending time. Um, things that, you know, don't give you value. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Learning and honing that resilience skill is very important and it's so difficult, the situation you were discussing it.

'cause I feel like some of us. It's not that we're pussyfooting around or anything, but we may not clearly state what we need in the moment. So like I can see reaching out to a girlfriend and saying, Hey, I'd like to talk to you. I really need to. [00:40:00] Talk and get something. We don't know what she was going through or I wouldn't necessarily know what she would, maybe she had a really bad day too, and needed us, you know?

Or maybe, maybe she didn't understand how badly I needed to talk. Mm-hmm. I mean, those are some of the things that Grace, there's, there's kind of that line between, well, I've gotta reevaluate and also. Maybe she had something going on too. I mean, how do you, how do you balance that? Yeah. Well I 

Peggy Sullivan: think that's, that's why human connection is so important.

And not just letting it go, but talking about it and saying, this is what I was feeling, what was going on with you, and, and when you wonders. Stand, maybe their why will help you empathize and, and maybe you'll end up in a different place. And I'm certainly open-minded to that, you know? Mm-hmm. But it, it hurt me, you know, that I specifically reached out to her and said, I really need you.

I needed her and, and she failed me. And, [00:41:00] and there may be a great reason and I may be like, okay, well I understand that. I get that. Let's put this in the past. But you need to communicate. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, to be clear and, and not, um, it, some of that's difficult. It's difficult to say some things, especially to friends, but you have to be clear.

You have to be open and honest and just put your heart out there. 

Peggy Sullivan: Yeah, I agree. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Hmm. 

Peggy Sullivan: Self-awareness. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. I mean, it's, it gets easier I think as we, as we get older and wiser. But yeah, it's um, it's very difficult to navigate some of that.

So Peggy, you have been, um. Speaking on stages and helping people understand how busyness can be a trap but how do you work with, um, companies and individuals [00:42:00] to break out of it?

Peggy Sullivan: Yeah, I mean I, I think it's all about, um, them understanding the facts and the data and that's why I am so data driven. So I usually start with research about their industry within their company. I've bunch of data tools that are very easy to implement. They don't take a lot of time and I can come in and say, Hey.

This is what's going on in your company. These are the low value activities that your employees are experiencing. Why don't we take a stab of eliminating some and, you know, you're not getting the productivity or you're not getting the performance. You know, let's, let's eliminate what is not important and make room for what is important.

And, you know, it's, it's usually when you start to figure out what's getting in the way and you eliminate it. And then how do you make sure that a [00:43:00] corporate environment, you know, has connection and that people are really, um, supporting each other and hearing each other and helping each other towards the shared common goal?

And. When we're busy, we don't have time to connect, we don't have time to help our employees. And you know, I always think about that poor employee, you know, the ripple effect busyness has where you've got an employee, they've got a question, they can't figure something out, they wanna ask the question, and the boss is too busy, right?

They can't. They don't have the time and they don't understand the importance of it. And so they just keep on doing, or they, they make a second for it, you know, five days from now. But this employee's feeling this, this bottleneck right now and, and you know, that's why they raise their hand. And so I think we all need to make room in our lives for the [00:44:00] unexpected.

And you know, just life in general, I block out. An hour to two hours every single day for the unexpected. It always happens. Always, always, always happens, and I'm glad I block out that time for that because then I'm not sitting there thinking at six, seven o'clock when I'm exhausted, okay, now I have time to go back to what I truly sought to do today.

We just need to be better, better planners and, and I think that's where, you know, while time poverty is in huge industry and it's big business, you know, there are parts of it that are working, but there are parts of it that aren't working. And that's where self-awareness comes in, where, you know, you've gotta look at your schedule and say, a human being isn't meant to have 40 hours of.

Meetings a week. Like how do you set [00:45:00] yourself up for that and to get done what you need to get done? It just is not a situation that will turn out well. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. How do you make, um, well, how do you foster those connections if the boss doesn't necessarily see that, how do you get someone in charge to kind of notice or just to say.

This is happening for your people and it's causing a ripple effect in your company. 

Peggy Sullivan: Yeah, usually that, that. What is happening is also affecting bottom line metrics. Mm-hmm. Um, and so, you know, many, you know, right now the economy's tough and business is tough and people are hurting. And it's time where we rethink our status quo and what we're doing and behave differently because the alternative is to stay in this.

[00:46:00] Place that we're at, where business is not growing, business is static and, and we're all struggling. So, you know, there is no harm in to try something a little bit different once in a while and see how it works. If it doesn't work, then go back to what you were doing. But the reality is what we're doing.

Isn't really working because we're kind of in the world at a little bit of a standstill in terms of, um, you know, all this ca chaos and having the chaos turn into, you know, beautiful, meaningful things. You know, right now it's just all, a lot of chaos and we're dealing with so many challenges, 

that you need to take a second and say, whoa, what can I control and what can I do, you know, to protect me and my time. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. And out of those, like you were talking about earlier, that pivot. Like, we may need to [00:47:00] pivot completely, you know, if we're leading a, leading a team or if we're in charge of a business that we, or we're starting a business, what other things?

How can I pivot? What, what resilience can I show? And what opportunities lie in this chaos? Is there something that I can create? 

Peggy Sullivan: Yeah, I, I mean, some people are capable of radical change. I think most people. Enjoy small changes at a time to kind of test their feet and see how it feels and see how it's working for them.

And so I really am a big, um, proponent that micro steps. You know, climb a mountain and one foot in front of the other and and do something. Don't do nothing. And you do that tiny little something and then you start to see results, and then you're like, okay, well I'll make more change. I'll try something different.

And it begins to be this flywheel effect where [00:48:00] you're getting momentum, things are going well. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yes. That's what we all hope for. Right? That momentum to shift. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Speaking of shift, can I change gears on you? Sure. So at the end of every episode, I love to ask my guests, what's your favorite cocktail or glass of wine?

Do you have a favorite? 

Peggy Sullivan: Right now I'm into Josh Merlot. Um, oh, nice. I, I had been, um. Purposefully not drinking for a long time. And I went back to an occasional glass of wine, um, because I don't like black and white or yes or no, and I'm enjoying it. And Josh is the perfect merlott. So 

Penny Fitzgerald: nice. It goes with so many foods.

Peggy Sullivan: Yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Very nice. Um, what's a favorite memory with girlfriends? 

Peggy Sullivan: I think the last birthday that I had, [00:49:00] um, I live in Palm Beach and I traveled back to New York to do a couple of speeches and I was able to get together with some long time girlfriends. We just went out to dinner and we drank and we ate and we left and we joked and it was a amazing memory.

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Getting back to when girlfriends gather, magic happens. 

Peggy Sullivan: Agreed. It's 

Penny Fitzgerald: great. Great to be live. Yes. Great to live. Agreed. 

Peggy Sullivan: And, and, and those are the also the first things to go, you know, we were too busy. Yeah. So we cut them out, but really, they're exactly what we need together, our energy and get a different perspective.

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Getting back to that stress level and how it affects our bodies. I heard recently too that when, you know, getting together with your girlfriends is the equivalent of quitting smoking for your health. 

Peggy Sullivan: I believe that I belong to a lot of, uh, girl [00:50:00] groups. Um, and I used to run a nonprofit and women in power, other women, we, we help each other.

We show each other the way, and we give each other strength. It's, it's important. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah. The way we speak to ourselves is so, can be so harsh and we would never speak to a girlfriend in that way. We, we see the best in our girlfriends and it's important to see that in ourselves as well. 

Peggy Sullivan: Absolutely.

Penny Fitzgerald: Peggy, is there anything that I haven't asked you that you would love to share? 

Peggy Sullivan: No, I just, if people want to learn, um, more about me, um, my website is pretty vibrant. I probably got a couple hundred blogs that are there for the taking. I also have a tool that I call The Busy Barometer, which helps you identify your low value activities and gives you suggestions on how to eliminate them.

So [00:51:00] there's a lot of stuff on my website. Site that could potentially really help people move away from time, poverty and into time, wealth and time. Wealth is the place to be. It's where life is humming and life feels good. So I encourage anybody who's not sure what their next step is, go take a peek at my website.

And read a blog or take the busy barometer, you know, all of it is just there to support people just like you. Um, it doesn't cost anything. And so, yeah, so my website is peggy sullivan speaker.com. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Wonderful. Wonderful. I'll include, include that link in my show notes too, so people can find you easily. And yeah, I'm grateful for this visit.

This has been wonderful, Peggy. You're welcome. Thank you so much. You have a wonderful rest of your day. 

Peggy Sullivan: Okay, you too. Bye-bye. Thanks. 

​[00:52:00]