CEO Declassified

EP 29. Stop Wasting Time: Coach Lee's Productivity Secrets for Busy Women

• Jelena Ostrovska • Season 1 • Episode 29

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Coach Lee is a criminal defense attorney by day, and Productivity & Accountability Coach, as she likes to say, throughout. Now, Coach Lee helps transform the lives of driven corporate women who feel trapped in the demands of their careers to thrive without compromising their lives! Her mission is to help you identify and tackle the barriers that are getting in the way of you getting done what needs to be done to live your best life! She helps you master time management, build boundaries, and develop strategies to thrive at work without compromising their personal lives. 

Coach Lee is an author. Her book, Lee’s Laws of Productivity, is the ultimate guide to getting things done, boosting efficiency, and achieving your goals without feeling overwhelmed or stressed out. Packed with practical tips, empowering strategies, and the tools you need to tackle stress, overwhelm, and burnout head-on, this book is a roadmap to living a more balanced and fulfilling life.

From brain dumps to color-coded calendars to racing yourself with a timer, Coach Lee shares the no-fluff systems that help driven women stop drowning in their to-do lists and start actually moving the needle, whether they have five hours or five minutes to spare.

🔍 IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL UNCOVER:

  • Why waking up at 2:30 AM isn't the answer, and how to find YOUR productivity pockets instead
  • The three laws of productivity from Coach Lee's book, and the one most people skip straight past
  • How to stop procrastinating on big projects using a simple timer trick
  • How to stay on top of your business when your day job throws everything off plan

🗂️ CASE EVIDENCE FROM THIS FILE:

  • "We overthink how long the big projects are gonna take, and then we underestimate how long the small projects are gonna take."
  • "Get it out of your head and onto paper - if it's in your head, it's taking up space."
  • "If it's not scheduled, it's not happening."
  • "However much time you give yourself, that's exactly how long it's gonna take."

📚 GUEST LINKS - COACH LEE:

📌 LET'S CONNECT ON SOCIALS: 

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to CEO Declassified. I have an amazing day-to-day coach, Lee, who is a criminal defense attorney by day, productivity and accountability coach throughout. She works with driven corporate women who are tired of letting their careers run their lives, helping them master time management, build real boundaries, and develop strategies to thrive at work without sacrificing everything else. She's also the author of Lee's Laws of Productivity, a practical no-fluff guide to getting things done, beating burnout, and building a life that actually feels balanced. Coach Lee, welcome to the show. Welcome, welcome. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to talk all things productivity, how to get more done in less time and without burning yourself out. So you are a criminal defense attorney and a productivity coach, not a typical combination that we expect from people. So how did those two words uh worlds collide for you?

SPEAKER_01

Well, this year will be 13 years of being an attorney. The coaching thing happened 2020, so pandemic. So honestly, about six years ago now. It was completely by accident. I love what I do as an attorney. I think I will forever love what I do as an attorney. But for years, people were like, you're so motivating, you're so encouraging, you should be a life coach. And I'm like, yeah, yeah. Full-time attorney here. Who's got time to be a life coach? Also, didn't really know what a life coach was. Fast forward to March of 2020, pandemic, world shuts down. Thankfully I don't lose my job, but we're all now working from home. And so I literally was bored the first week of the pandemic. All the thoughts started coming back to me. And I'm like, okay, let's look up what is this whole life coach thing. Looked it up, ended up going through a training program, made it halfway through the first video, which is all of three to five minutes long. And I'm like, got it understood. I see why they say that I should be doing this. But I think that the correlation that I didn't realize at the time is that in both fields, like as a criminal defense attorney, I don't choose my clients or the crimes that they allegedly committed. But I have to make lemon, well, lemonade from the lemons that I'm given. And in coaching, though we have a little bit more, I guess, role in choosing our clients, i.e., yes, I can work with you, no, I can't. I also don't get to choose their problems that they're struggling with when it comes to productivity. I too have to take what they give me and let's make lemonade. Let's make the best that we can out of them. So though they're completely different, I think that there's a big correlation between the two. And you have to take what's given to you and figure out what am I going to do with this information.

SPEAKER_00

Love that. Yeah, and I know a lot of people started a whole different business during the pandemic, and especially when we had a lot of time, and you were probably not going to, you know, the court and all these meetings and everything, and you're like, I have all this time in the world now, let's do something, right? So, how does productivity look like for you? Because when we were scheduling this interview, I know it's really early for you. It's 7.30 in the morning. For me, it's like 1.30. I personally do not take any meetings before 12 p.m. And I mean, me being in Europe, it kind of like doesn't make sense because my clients, Americans, are usually asleep anyway. So, and when you told me, you wake up at 2.30 a.m. So walk us through your day. So you wake up and how does it go like with with time timing? Because I've never met anybody in my life who wakes up this early. Because when you wake up, I'm like, oh, that's usually when I go to bed.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, okay. So let's go through morning routine. Wake up at 2.30. I go through my morning routine. So during my journaling, my devotional, reading, personal development, you know, brushing your teeth, getting yourself together. So that takes me till about 4 a.m. Um, I do a little social media scrolling as well during that time. And then from there, didn't have to do it today since I'm working from home, but typically go to kitchen, get my lunch and everything situated for work, and then I end up in my office. I'm normally in my office between 4:20 and 4:30. And by office, I mean home office. I work for an hour on my business. 5:30, I'm starting my workout. Typically 6:15, 6:30, done with that, getting in the shower, getting ready for work, out the door for work at 7. Today, since I'm working from home, I did all of that, but instead of going to shower, I went for a run. So 15 minutes before hopping on here with you, I just came in from a run. So thankfully you can't smell me. But essentially, that's my morning routine. That's how I start my morning, and that's the same Monday through Friday on the weekends. I do sleep in till between 3:30 and 4:30. It kind of depends. Um, sometimes maybe a little bit later, but typically it's about 4:30. I still get up on the weekends and I do that same morning routine, workout, start the day.

SPEAKER_00

I love when you said sleep in. I was expecting like 7 a.m. You said you're sleeping until 4:30.

SPEAKER_01

But for me, it feels like sleep again, but that's a whole extra hour to two hours in comparison to what I wake up. Like this weekend, I woke up before my alarm. Like my alarm, I think it's set to go off at 4:30. I woke up at like four and I was like, what time is it? Is it time for me to get up? Oh, okay, I'm up now. And it was like 3:30, 4 o'clock. And what time do you go to bed? I say I go to bed at 8:30, but realistically, I go to bed, let's call it nine o'clock. Like 8:30, I'm starting my wind-down routine. I record my nightly story for social media, you know, clean my face, do the nighttime routine, get into bed. And normally I'll play a game on my phone, but by 9.15, my phone needs to be in the windowsill, and I'm completely off of social media and off the phone. I'm off of social media by 8.45, and I'm off my phone completely between 9 and 9.15.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, so you get on average about five and a half hours of sleep. Do you find that's that's enough for you? Really?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Um I don't struggle with going to sleep. Um, like, phone can be in the windowsill. I'm a podcast person. So sometimes I'll put the sleep timer on like five minutes. Normally I don't make it through the sleep timer before I'm asleep. So, like, I'm a person that when it's time for bed, it's time for bed. Like, I'm going to bed. And when my alarm goes off, like I said this weekend, like I woke up before the alarm and I'm like, it's the time for me to get up. Well, might as well. So yeah, to me, it feels fine. And on those times where I'm like, okay, I'm dragging, I'm lagging, especially if it's a weekend, I will give myself that extra space and that extra rest if I need it. But generally speaking, having this routine, having this structure works for me.

SPEAKER_00

That's amazing. Um, I will never forget your routine ever again. So for anybody who's listening, so a lot of the listeners are, some are in corporate, a lot of people are business owners, they have, you know, their own like online business, they have their own like side gigs and whatnot. And a lot of them are also very busy. Some have kids, some have, you know, lots of responsibilities, husbands, wives, all that kind of stuff. So for them, um, they hear your routine right now and they're like, okay, I can't run on five hours of sleep. I have kids who, you know, wake me up and you know, they like yell around the house and run around the house and all of that. So, what would be your recommendation? How do they be more productive with maybe like less time than what you have?

SPEAKER_01

Well, I don't want to say honestly. Realistically, they might actually have more time than me, especially if they're doing their own business. I work full time and have to do this business. Um, but number one, I'm not advocating anybody else wake up at 2:30 in the morning unless that's what you want to do. I'm all about helping you to find and create systems that work for your life, no matter how busy it is, no matter how it gets, because I think that's a thing that people often struggle with when it really comes to productivity. We've been trying to do what everyone else says, like they say they do this, I'm gonna do that, but that doesn't actually work for us. And so when we live a busy life and whatever, whatever you're busy looks like, you have to find what it is that works for you. Where are the pockets of time that, okay, when the kids have sports while they're at sports, I'm gonna walk the track and get my workout in. When they do, you know, on my commute to work, I'm gonna listen to my personal development or make those phone calls that I've been meaning to make and I quote unquote never have time for, but I have this hour commute while I'm sitting in traffic instead of being frustrated yelling at the cars, let me do something productive. So it's all about like finding these pockets of time that you can work for. Like I say, I go to bed at 8:30, nine o'clock. Most people are like, I don't go to bed till 10, 11. Okay, cool. That's two, three hours that you have on the back end that I don't have. So let's just assume, and we're just working with random numbers to like, okay, you go to bed at 10, 11 o'clock at night. You have two and a half, three hours more than me. But you wake up, let's say you wake up at five. Realistically, we have the same sleep wake cycle. It's just different in the time, but the hours-wise, it's just shifted. So you still have that time. I'm not a night person. I was co-working with my friend last night, and after like 7:30, my brain started working. She was like, I think I'm gonna get up at 8:30. I was like, okay, cool, I'll stay on. And she started asking me what I was doing because she sees me scrolling on my phone. I'm like, oh, I'm checking social media, like I'm playing my Spanish game at this point. Like, I'm physically here, but mentally, like my brain starts shutting down after 7:30. So it works for me to go to bed early because if I stayed up trying to do anything, I really wouldn't get be getting anything done. So I think long and short of it, it's about finding what it is that works for you, understanding when you work best, where are the pockets that you can start plugging in things and then build from there.

SPEAKER_00

I love that. Yeah, it's like that that's what I told a couple of people the other day. I'm like, if you have, you know, extra 15 minutes before a call, like what I typically do before interviews like this, I'm like, I I don't want to just like sit here and wait for the little ping to to to pop up. I either like reply to messages or go to threads or to any social media, like do a little bit of engagement, put myself out there out there, things like that. So one of the things that I learned in the last like 10 years of being in business, because when you build it full-time, you kind of have a lot of hours at hand. So I've always been full-time. And I also found it quite challenging for the last, like especially in the very beginning. I'm like, okay, so I have all of this time. It's so easy to waste it, right? And then I used to spend, you know, hours and hours in front of my computer, like 10, 10, 12 hour workdays. And I don't think that all of the hours were productive. And I remember hearing a mentor who said, you realistically, no matter who you are, no matter what you do, you typically get about three hours of productive work done, like for your business, like aside from your job. Do you find the same kind of number for yourself?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I would say, like I said, I talk at the time. So essentially, I typically work on my business for that hour before my workout. I work on my business at lunchtime. And then typically once I come home, depending on like if it's a coaching day or if I, you know, whatever, I typically have, you know, about an hour, hour and a half. So realistically, I kind of have, like you say, three hours a day to work on my business. And so because I find for me, because it's focused time, I'm like, you only have this time. What do you need to get done? It kind of helps me to laser focus a little bit more versus if it's a weekend, I'm just like, I have the whole day, it's gonna take the whole day.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's like however much time you give yourself, that's exactly how long it's gonna take. You know, there's this time, and I know a lot of listeners are going to relate as well. When you have this big task, let's say for me right now, it's I have to work on my homepage of my website. Like it needs to be done, like the whole website is pretty much done. But the homepage, I like just keep sitting on it because I'm like, okay, so if I started, then there's gonna be another five tasks that pile up that I have to do for it. So one task immediately becomes six, and then I'm like, oh, like it's gonna take me hours. And then I sit down, and it actually takes me about an hour to do, maybe 45 minutes. So what do you have to say for people who keep procrastinating on those big projects? How do you usually tackle them?

SPEAKER_01

Number one, break that big project down. I know, like you've talked about like with the website example. Okay, you're down to the last page, the homepage. What if we break the home page into multiple pieces? Like, I don't know, you know, exactly. Everyone can design it differently. Like just say your homepage has like your about me section, your offer section, your this. I'm gonna just work on my bio, like the about me section, how I started this business. Just gonna work on that. And oftentimes you might get in the groove and you're like, oh, okay, I'll keep going on the homepage and work on this next section. So I'm a competitive person. I like to race myself. Like I played sports growing up, like I love working out, I love being competitive. But at this point, I'm competing against myself. So I'll often set a timer for myself and say, you've got 30 minutes to, let's say, work on the homepage, to work on this website. And so now I don't want the timer to go off and I have three sentences on the page. So now I'm gonna race myself to be like, you've got this amount of time to get it done. Sometimes I truly do have more time than that to work on it, but that timer gets me going and gets me moving to like, okay, you just gotta go for this amount of time. Or if it's something that you're like truly dreading, maybe you go 10, 15 minutes to get the motor going. And then after that, you can like add more time to the timer. But I agree, like oftentimes we overthink. It's funny how we do it. We overthink how long these quote unquote big projects are gonna take, and then we underestimate how long the small projects are gonna take. We're like, oh, that's gonna only take five minutes for this small little thing. And next thing you know, you're like, why has this taken me three hours? And I've actually been truly focused and working on it. So we have a bad time management gauge on how long things really take.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, that's true. Because um sometimes I look at my to-do list, like I have actually two. Like I have one on my notebook, then I have another one here, and I'm like, so all these little tasks, like I told you, like you start something little, and then you're like, oh, in order for me to accomplish this, I have to do subtask number one, subtask number two, subtask number three. So yeah, we really underestimate how much we can get done in a short amount of time, and we overestimate how much we can get done for everything else. So uh I know you've written a book and you published it on Amazon, Lee's Laws of Productivity. So if you were to pick one law that most of your clients resist, what would that be? What's that one thing that people are like, oh no, I don't want to do that, and then they do it and everything changes for them?

SPEAKER_01

It's the first law because it goes to what, well, it can be a mix of the first and the second. So the three laws are look, examine, and execute. And I say that it's the first law because kind of how you're saying we go to the end part. We're so ready to execute it that we're so ready to do that we don't really think about what does it take to do this. And so the look phase is all about essentially doing a brain dump. What are all the pieces that go into doing this thing? We get so ready to like execute and go do the thing that we just jump into doing it that we don't take that minute to pause to say, do I have the supplies? Do I have the tools? Do I have the resources? Do I have the capacity and the time to get this done? We jump straight into doing, but we need to take that step back to figure out what all do I actually need to do? Like, even writing a book, like, I want to write a book. Okay, what does that involve? Do what are you gonna write about? Like, I want to do my website. Okay, what does that involve? Like, what are these subtasks A, B, C through Z, one, two, three, and whatever, you know, A's, letters are numbers. I would say the first laws where people struggle at, or I guess I don't really struggle at, they try to skip past and they start to get straight into that doing part that's into execution.

SPEAKER_00

Got it, got it. Yeah, like you gotta know what you need in order to get it done because we have these like abstract goals and tasks sometimes, like, oh, like I wanna start a YouTube channel or I want to start a sub stack. Like I keep hearing some of my friends say, Oh, I want to start a sub stack. And I'm like, just start it. Like, you know what you need to do. Just start a damn account and start posting, right? So, and sometimes people overthink too much. Yeah, that goes with the procrastination. So, Lee, you work specifically with driven corporate women. And I know that word driven usually like resembles a woman who's like always go, go, go. But we know how that typically goes. I'm the same way. I can work like a horse for days and days, but then eventually the body's like, okay, we need to take a freaking break. So, how do you find women deal with burnout? Like when they reach out to you and like especially the clients that you work with, um, what does that look like?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that work-driven, it can, it can go both ways. When I think of it, like when I think of driven corporate women, I think more of the everyday woman in all honesty. Because generally speaking, as women, we're already doing all these different things in life. We're already the go-to person. Like, I personally don't have kids or, you know, I'm not married, but women, like you're typically play that caretaker role. But I can even think of my role like at work. Like, yes, I'm an attorney and I have this, but I'm also the go-to person for, hey, you've been here this amount of time. How do you do this? How do you do it? I got a question. If it comes to organization and they're trying to get structured, hey, I'm struggling with this. And so when I think of driven, I think of it not from the it is go, go, go, but we don't realize that we're go, go, go. We're the woman who just something needs to be done. I'm going to do it. You didn't have to ask me to do it. I saw there was a shoe on the floor. I'm not going to just walk over it. I'm going to pick it up from the little things to the big things. Like they're the person who just does it. And that as a result of just doing, because something needs to be done. Like, why am I going to ask? Why am I going to wait to be told they just do it? It does lead to the burnout because you have your role, the job description that you actually have. And this even goes to entrepreneurs as well. Like, you have the role that you truly have that is really your role, but you see all these other things that need to be done and you're going to do them as well. And so you're adding that on to the tasks you already have. Or people come to you and ask for help and you drop what you're doing that's actually your job and you go help them. And so now you've done two jobs and you're like, when am I going to get my work done? So I kind of flip, like when I think of driven, I don't think of it, I do think of it as go, go, go, but I don't think of it as the sense that they're necessarily intentionally pursuing this more. They're just the woman who sees that it needs to be done and they just do it.

SPEAKER_00

And you mentioned one thing, which is like staying organized. Because I know there's different types of personalities, right? There's some women who are like they thrive in chaos and that works for them. And then, like, what we need to talk about, that like looking at your face. Um, and then there are some women like me, if I don't have a to-do list, I don't know what's going on. Like, if I don't have if a meeting is not in the calendar, not happening, like yesterday somebody messaged me, like, oh, we need to get on a call, and it's a friend. And I'm like, honestly, here's my calendar. Book it because otherwise, like, it's been weeks we've been trying to get on a call and it just it doesn't happen. And I'm like, if you don't book it, it's like I'm not getting on a call. Like, I have calls all week, right? So what's your recommendation for somebody who comes in, they're like, I don't have systems, I don't have a calendar, I don't have anything. Like, and they're like, Oh, I'm just like a go with the flow kind of person. What's what's your first reaction?

SPEAKER_01

You're here for a reason. How has going with the flow worked for you? Now I to I too thrive on structure. But you know how you have those times that you're that organized chaos? Like sometimes like at work, I have to clean my desk every week because when I get really into work mode, I'm locked in and focused and all the things are coming out. So now my desk might look a mess, but that's because I'm actually working. But when that project is done, please clean the desk because I can't find anything. And so if you're a person who is living in chaos and you want to get out of that, good, thank god. Thank you. But where would you start? I think it starts with yes, finding a system, and sometimes that can be the biggest thing because like I'm in the process of like switching systems and platforms, and I'm just like, I don't even want to do this. But I think we have to just start with something, and it's okay if you outgrow it or it's up, it's okay if you refine it. Like I know you were saying you have a, you know, like two to-do lists essentially. I do too. I have a paper one, and then I have a digital one, and then like my calendar. So like I technically have multiple, but they kind of serve different purposes. Like, especially like my calendar on my phone. Like you said, if it's not scheduled, it's not happening. Because like my calendar on my phone, when I open it, it's color-coded because I can see my work calendar, my business calendar, and my personal calendar. So that if I'm scheduling something, I need to see all three of those calendars at the same time. If someone's asking me, can I do something? And I'm like, let me see, can I? Because I have to deal with these three different worlds and make sure that I'm not, you know, messing something up or like overlapping or whatever the case may be. So if you're ready to get out of chaos and you're ready to like start doing something, don't go overly complicated. Let's keep it simple. Pen and paper. Just start with pen and paper, and then we can work you up to what that system's gonna be because you often know what it is that works best for you. You might not have stuck with it or you might have like not figured out how the best way to implement it, but you know what works best for you. If I don't have a to-do list, it's not happening. I'm confused. Like even when I travel, I'm on the plane, like let me get my to-do list ready for the next week on this getting on on the plane. Like, I travel with my planner. So yeah, that's what I would say. It's just kind of figure out a place to start and just get started.

SPEAKER_00

And yeah, like I love organized chaos. I don't like pure chaos because then it's like, like, really nothing gets done. Like you feel like you're being productive, you're doing something, but then at the end of the day, you look at what actually got done, you're like, oh, I haven't done shit today. I need to actually get, you know, get my act together. So when you mentioned travel, so how do you organize your yourself and like all the different areas of your life when you're traveling? Because I know when some business owners travel, everything kind of like goes out the window, like all their tasks. Like, you know, for me personally, again, I look at where do I have the pockets of time to work? Where do I have the calls when I know that like I actually cannot be on the plane? So, um, how do how do you structure that? How do you organize that for yourself?

SPEAKER_01

Again, those triple calendars. So, like last month I had to travel to New York for work and then to Atlanta the next the following week for business. So I'm blocking off my calendar. Like my work calendar is blocked, don't schedule. My personal calendar is obviously blocked with the travel, and so is my business. But then I also know that, like, for example, when I went to New York, I flew up, like I left after work that night. So I was like, okay, while I'm at the airport waiting for the plane, I can like work on my work on my to-do list. And I flew back on a Saturday. And so I'm like, normally Saturday is my planning day. So I'm like, well, while I'm at the airport or on the plane, I can go ahead and start doing my brain up, making my to-do list so that once I, you know, land, get situated, wake up the next morning, it's Sunday, I can hop right back into the week, especially because I was gonna hop back into the week only to travel again three or four days later to Atlanta. But when I went to Atlanta, I went for an event that was taking place on a Sunday, but I flew up on a Friday. So I knew I was gonna have like all day Saturday, like half a day Friday. To get situated and get stuff done. So I really look at like, where am I going? What am I doing? Like, what's the scheduled event? And like, what does my free time look like on both ends of it? And where can I make sure that I'm still good? Because when I get back from traveling, I need to hop right back into life. Business, work, like all the things. And in order for me to do that, I need to have like schedules and systems that let me do that.

SPEAKER_00

And I have one question. So for everybody who's just listening to this on audio, there is a board behind Lee. So aside from all the digital calendars, is that the board that you use for also like the productivity? Like I see like all the little like boxes and like written things out.

SPEAKER_01

This is my to-do list for the week that I make visual. So it has like a couple of things on it. So like I have my goals for the month, and then this is actually my to-do list for the week. And then I write like my weekly intention. I set a word and a phrase every month. So like my quarterly word and phrase, the trainings that I'm focusing on this month, like what personal development do I want to do for myself? What books do I want to read? And then this is kind of just like my brain-dump section. Like what of this to-do list, like what is the focus for this week? And then when I have ideas of like, you need to start getting ready to work on this, it's in the other planner. So I kind of just like quadrant it off and kind of just use exception. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I love that. The organized freak in me, like, is is so excited looking at it. I keep staring and I'm like, oh, like I love the organization. Because like when you see everything at a glance, it makes such a difference. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01

And sometimes, like, yes, I get that we're gonna be on the go, which is where the paper and the digital, you know, to-do lists come in handy. So you always have it with you, which is why I do that. But when I'm here at my desk, this is like my workstation. So therefore, to be able to quickly look at a glass and say, are you doing the thing that was to focus? Are you focused on the priority? No, can't get back to it. Okay, thanks.

SPEAKER_00

Are there any tools, like digital tools that you use besides the calendar?

SPEAKER_01

So, and this is where my my switching is coming into play. I use a sauna. So I have like two hubs. I have like my business hub where I like store content calendar, notes, all the things is over there. And then I have like the personal side, like my like me side where my grocery list is in there, like my to-do list for the week, all of that is in there. But I think I'm outgrowing it, and I don't like to say that. Like I love the sauna and I've been using it for five plus years. I'm in the process of I think transitioning to Notion. I heard about Notion a few years ago. When I first downloaded it, I was like, what is this? It was a because it was a blank page and you get to build it how you want. I'm like, this is entirely too free. I need some structure, which is where sauna came in. But now as my business is growing and I'm starting to do more things, I'm like, I think I do need Notion. And so I started watching a couple more videos and like one of my friends, um, my accountability partner, my mastermind, she showed me like her notion and like how she used it and how she built it. And I'm like, okay, now this feels like it makes a little bit more sense for me. So when I first started out, I was using like a um Google Keeps as my to-do list. And then I was like, no, I need to be able to organize it more because I don't want to just focus on what I'm doing this week. I wanted to be able to have like, you know, a do-today, do this week, do this month future ideas section. So like these future ideas when they're built down, and I'm like, hey, you know, those things you need to do like every quarter, like change the air filter, you know, renew your registration for your vehicle, those things that aren't necessarily front and center, but I want to have a place to keep them, like even going to the doctor. Like I went to the doctor and they're like, hey, I want you to come back in six months, but before you come back, do blood work. Do you think I'm gonna remember six months from now to do blood work before this appointment? No. But it's in there and it has a reminder that's set up a month before the appointment to remind me. And so I transitioned from Google Keep to a sauna. And so now I'm like, what's the next iteration of this? Which is where don't be afraid to start with pen and paper to transition from just a regular scratch notebook to an actual planner, to a digital, to this, to that. So yeah, those are I still use pen and paper. I still have a planner. I still like use a lot. Um, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Love that. And yeah, you know, I could never get myself into Asana when I was in a coaching program a couple of years ago, and the coach, she was using Asana like mostly because she used to use it for work. I could not, for the life of me, get into it. But then yeah, I've used there's ClickUp, there's Trello. I used to use Trello like back in the day, like 2015, 2016. But Notion is quite good. And yeah, like there's just so many things that you can do with it. It's kind of scary looking at it at first because it's like you said, it's a blank screen. But then once you hang of it and you build out like a little dashboard for yourself, it's it's yeah, it's it's so convenient to see everything again at a glance and then just like dump all the like future projects that you have. Um, and yeah, they keep like improving the platform as well. They have the email, and now you can do things offline, which is really handy because this is one reason why I have not always liked all these online platforms because I'm like when you're on the plane, you can't really do anything, you can't look at anything. Um so this is convenient. So is that when you use Notion? Yeah, I use Notion.

SPEAKER_01

Love it. Well I'm kind of like I'm in I'm in between.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um yeah, I use Notion for like my content calendar for all of my ideas. I've used it to plan trips as well. Uh it's really good to collaborate as well. So like I'm I'm sure like if you've done any any of that kind of like playing around with it, it's it's quite good. So for me, it's kind of in between. So I use Notion for like when things are like projects, content, like my podcast planning is there, like all my episodes, because if I don't know like this episode, I know when it's launching. So like I already have the date for it. Um, otherwise, like I know some people just like record and then never publish. That's why you need to put things in place. And then I have an organized chaos in my notes app because I can access it anytime. It's like between all of my like devices, like my iPhone, my iPad, my computer. And then you know how I how I treat it? So uh like the first draft is always in notes. Like it's just there, like it's quick and easy, and then it goes into Notion, and then it goes into like podcast, YouTube, uh like into the public basically. But yeah, Notion, Notion.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's kind of how my Asana has become because like I have the app on my phone, I have it on the computer, like I open it on the computer at work. Um, it's become my ideas board, and my ideas are just idea, ideaing. I know I just made up that word. And so it's like I need to find and organize these things. It's getting out of hand. And so that's that's my current problem.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So um, you know, there's the this thing. I don't know if you've experienced this with clients. Uh, I've experienced this with myself sometimes because I love organization, I love planning, I love, you know, sitting and like putting like dates and knowing what happens when. But then I know what happens sometimes is this like over planning, and then some people end up spending more time, and by some people I mean like myself in the past as well. Um, like spending more time planning than actually doing. So, how do you support your clients with balancing it out and even for yourself as well?

SPEAKER_01

Let me talk about myself first, because I don't want y'all to think that I'm perfect because I I love to plan. And so I often get into these planning and replanning modes. Like I said, my ideas be ideing. I I have all the ideas, and so I start planning out these ideas, and I'm like, okay, I can do this then and this then and this then. And then when that time comes, I got another idea that I'm like, we're gonna do this instead. So what I've been focusing on and what I try to tell by clients is like the squirrel brain moment, like, no, we're not going over there. Shiny object, write it down, think about it for later. Or make it something in addition. Like, make the main thing the main thing. If you also want to do this project, we have to make sure that the main project is like, you know, fleshed out and you're focusing on that. And this can be, you know, a passion project or whatever the case may be. But I'm currently working on balancing the ideas and the future ideas, I guess you can say. So one thing that I'm doing for myself is making myself implement quicker. If I have an idea, you need to implement on it. Instead of fully putting it into the ideas board where it gets lost and you never actually take action on it. Or I was going through a sauna over the weekend and I was looking, I was like, this is a good idea. And I look at the date that it was created over a year ago. And I'm like, great, cool. Um, so implementing and executing quicker has been something that I have been focusing on, especially 2026. Um, this year is like when you have an idea, start implementing it. Even if you do it once and you don't do anything else with it, at least you got that idea out. So you can see if it performs, you can see if it might work. Because sometimes we sit on our ideas and once we actually do them and they take off, you're like, this was such a year-ago project. Imagine where I could have been.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah, haven't we all? It's like it's kind of like buying a domain and you get the next bill in 12 months, and you're like, oh, I should have done something with it.

SPEAKER_01

Nice to know.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, so for women specifically, you know, we are cyclical, so and not every week looks the same. So do you work with kind of like for yourself at least, like through the cycles? Do you have weeks when you're like super productive and you go, go, go, and then other weeks you like specifically schedule, let's say, especially for the business, non-draining activities?

SPEAKER_01

No, um, I don't do that. I kind of use my work calendar more so to balance it, which may or may not work with the cycle. Um, because like, for example, next week I'm set to start a trial and I'm gonna be in trial all week. So that means in business, I'm not trying to plan a whole bunch of stuff that's gonna involve my brain because sometimes when you're in trial, you stay past five. You know, I've been in court thinking all day. I don't want to think about anything else. But yes, I know I still have to move things forward. So, really for me, I use my job since I work full time to kind of balance out like what's going on at work. Is work gonna be busy this week? Oh, look, I have meetings that actually might run into lunch. I'm still gonna take a lunch break. It might just not be, you know, my normal 12:30 to 1:30. That's like when I like to take my lunch. Or I have to travel to the other office. Like tomorrow, I have to, like today, I'm working from home. So therefore I have a little bit more time in my day because I don't have to deal with the commute, i.e., how I can report a podcast before having to lock into work. But then like tomorrow, I have to go to the other office, which is like an hour away. I'm gonna take the sunrow, take the train, all the things. But that day's gonna look differently than my normal days when I'm in the office. Like last week, I didn't have court. I only had court one day last week. I literally got to lock myself in my office and get so much stuff done, both for work and because I wasn't like stressed out and overwhelmed. I got a whole bunch of stuff done in business, even rolling into the weekend coming into this week. Whereas next week I know I'm gonna be in trial. So basically, I say all that to say I use my work calendar more so than my cycle to kind of schedule myself because yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean, it's impossible to be fully on with your brain in the main work and then still show up in your business. There's no balance in that. So for any listener who's like, okay, so this is great. Like, I feel like I'm gonna be more productive after this episode. So, what would be one system or action plan, the action step that you would recommend for anybody that they can implement right away and it would move the needle with their productivity?

SPEAKER_01

Do a brain dump. Everything that is in your head, get it onto paper. Again, we rush to the execution phase, but we don't actually take a time to look at what it is that we need to do. Get it out of your head and onto paper. Set a timer for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and just write. Everything that comes to your head, I don't care if it's about work, business, life, random stuff, if it's something that applies three months from now, if it's in your head, it's taking up space and not allowing you to focus on and do what you need to do. So get it out of your head and get it onto paper. If you want to take that a second step, which you should, categorize it. Everything isn't created equal. What must you do? What do you need to do, and what do you want to do? We need to start focusing on the things that we must do and start focusing less on the things that we would like to do. We have to have a mix, we have to have a balance, but you have to get it out of your head and on the paper to even be able to figure out what truly is the priority and what's really gonna move the needle forward.

SPEAKER_00

I love that. And yeah, brain dump is for me also like the very first step that I always do, um, that I, you know, take action on and have this membership that I'm in. And we do co-working calls like twice a month. And that's literally the first step as well. So, and it works. Like once you actually know what all you have to do, then you can figure out okay, so what's a priority and what's not a priority? Okay, so Lee, before we wrap this podcast up, it's been such an incredible conversation. So, what's exciting or new that you're working on right now?

SPEAKER_01

I am working on my next masterclass. It's gonna be all about like mastering your time. Um, because again, all the things, all the shiny gifts, but where are we really focusing our time? Like helping you to understand where is your time going, but more importantly, where do you want it to go so you can learn to direct it and redirect it there. Showing up, being consistent and doing the work is what I'm doing. And as a result of showing that for me, even in the highs and the lows and the struggles of like, hey, y'all, here's how I had to pivot. I was supposed to be hosting a masterclass next week, but the trial that I'm talking about that I have next week for work, the date changed because it was originally supposed to be this week. So when I planned out Q1 and planned out this masterclass, it was based off the fact that the trial would have been this week versus next week. So I had to pivot that masterclass and I was like, okay, that doesn't sound like a good idea energetically in alignment to be able to make sure I can do all the things. So I pushed it a month on for next month to do that. So that's what we're gonna be focusing on. And because I pushed it, I had to kind of change the title and the focus.

SPEAKER_00

And I love that you shared that because I know sometimes people are like, oh, like if it's already in the calendar, it's set in stone. No, you gotta be fluid and flexible because you never know what's going to happen. Like, especially when you do balance like a corporate job and then you balance like your business and then the rest of your life as well.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, so where where are you most active? Where can people find you and get in touch with you?

SPEAKER_01

Um, I would say probably Instagram. I'm at legally.me everywhere. TikTok, Instagram, Threads, Facebook, like all the platforms. Um, but legally.me, L-E-G-A-L-L-E-E.me.

SPEAKER_00

So I'm gonna put all the links down below in the show notes and in the YouTube description. So any final words for the listeners, Lee? Start. Start.

SPEAKER_01

Whatever it is that you're thinking about, just start. Get it out of your head, get it on the paper, choose the first step that you're gonna take, commit to it within let's go, 72 hours of you listening to this, and get it done.

SPEAKER_00

Love that. Brilliant advice. Thank you so much for being on the show, Lee. Thank you so much for having me. You've been listening to CEO Declassified, where the secrets to power, presence, and profit are no longer undercover. If today's intel hit home, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, or share this with a fellow CEO. Want more behind the scenes intel? Come say hi on Instagram, Yelena Ostrowska, or check the show notes for more. Until next time, stay sharp, break the rules, and stay on the case.