How to Increase Productivity and Overcome the Culture of “Busy”
I want to put some context in place to help you understand why The TOP Program is the number one time management system for women.
What the TOP Program IS NOT
And first, I want to do that by telling you what it isn't. When you join The TOP Program, here is what you are never, ever, ever going to hear from me. You will never hear me tell you that you need to go to bed later, or you need to wake up earlier. You're never going to hear me use the word hustle or kind of create this sense of urgency that the busier you are, the more productive you are. I promise you, none of those techniques are sustainable, and none of them work.
It is time for us to rally together as women and understand that being busy is not the same as being productive. I have a bookmark in my planner that says busy is not productive.
You can one hundred percent fill up every minute of your day running around from one task to another. And weeks could go by, and you could not at all be productive because being productive means that you're doing the right tasks, the most critical tasks, and you're getting them done in the most efficient way possible.
That is what The TOP Program is all about.
What Makes the TOP Program Different from Others
I have attended pretty much every productivity and time management training out there. I started on this journey over 20 years ago when I learned better systems and processes. And here's what I find interesting about what the bulk of those courses teach versus what you're going to find inside The TOP Program.
Most of those courses assume that you have a life in very separate silos. What do I mean by that? They think that you can go put on your, let's say, work hat for eight hours and just manage your work zone. Then you can step away from that and then very quickly be one hundred percent present as the mom figure, perhaps for the next three hours without any interruptions, so on and so forth.
To be perfectly blunt, the reason you see this is that a lot of the thought leaders in this space are men. And so, they're bringing their real-world realities into how they approach and coach time management.
Well, as women, we all know it's just not that simple.
My life is not siloed at all.
The only time I can get a chunk of uninterrupted time is if I carefully plan it out. I make sure the husband knows, the kid is away or entertained, and the dog is put up so it won't bark. Then MAYBE I'll get 30 minutes to work uninterrupted.
So inside The TOP Program, it teaches you how to integrate. We acknowledge that you wear a lot of hats, you've got a lot of roles that you play, and chances are you are in the middle of one task while you're thinking about another. You may be working on something for work while you're thinking about a family member.
Finding the Right System for You
The more technology has grown and the more mobile we have become, the more things are coming at us at all times. And so this idea of this very siloed life just isn't realistic. You have to use a planning system that acknowledges you're wearing a lot of hats and they are likely very tightly integrated every single day.
One of the key differentiators inside The TOP Program is that you're going to learn the systems and processes that look at your life comprehensively, all of the things you do, and then show you how to create those weekly and monthly plans that integrate all of them. This will ensure that you're getting those key things done in the most efficient way possible.
Here's something I want you to consider if you've got that planner graveyard on a shelf with all the planners you've bought with the best of intentions and you just didn't use. It either didn't work for you, or weren't sure how to use it.
Chances are, it's because the planner itself is only as good as the systems and processes you put into it. Now I'm going to say that again, the planner or the app is only as good as the systems and processes you put into it, which is the secret sauce to The TOP Program. Yes, it has an accompanying planner, which you may choose to use or not, but it will give you the systems and processes to put into it, making the whole planning process work.
Same with an app. When was the last time you downloaded an app to help you with to-do lists maybe or help you with productivity? And then you end up worse off than before because now you're spending so much time trying to figure out an app, and you're copying information from one place to another.
Why Daily Planning Doesn’t Work
But what you're missing is the key fundamental systems and processes so that you know how to integrate or even should you integrate that app into your overall planning and prioritization process.
I will throw this out there, and I want you to hear me out. Daily planning does not work. I repeat daily planning does not work, which means if you're using a daily planner, it is not helping you. It is hurting you.
Whether you realize it or not, there's a ton of really cool brain science behind this. If you start every day sitting down and asking yourself or even asking your calendar, What do I need to do today? What am I doing today? You are instantly in a place of what's called reactivity.
You are reacting to the most urgent thing that is looking at you every single day, which means you're going to kind of be in that firefighting mode all the time. What has to happen today? And then you're just focusing on that, and then it's rinse and repeat.
When you get out of this daily planning reactive lifestyle and you transition into a systematic weekly and monthly planning process, guess what? You now wake up telling your day how it's going to go. You go to bed at night with a plan. For tomorrow, the next day, and the entire week.
Weekly Planning Will Be Your Best Friend
The weekly plan has built-in flexibility because let's be honest. When was the last time everything went exactly how you thought it would for any given week? I can't remember the last time. When you learn to make this transition out of this very reactive style of planning into an empowered, proactive planning method through the weekly planning processes inside The TOP Program, you will feel a weight lifted off your shoulders. And it's that first step into saying, You know what?
I now control my calendar instead of my calendar controlling me.
