Who Is JJ And How Does She Support Her Clients?
As a productivity consultant, I work with business owners so they can get $hit done by working smarter.
But what does that MEAN?
I’m talking sustainable productivity.
Getting the right $hit done, not the busywork.
Developing the ability to accomplish crucial tasks fast without sacrificing, which cuts down on the hours a business owner needs to work.
Harmonizing work with life.
Working in a way that allows you to live the fulfilling life that you want to live.
What is the right $hit that business owners need to do?
What prevents business owners from leaving the office at a reasonable time?There’s always more to be done, at least in theory – you could create another LinkedIn post or send another email or change a small detail on your website.
But these tasks aren’t critical to the success of your business. Most likely you need to build relationships with the right people and make good strategic decisions. The right $hit is anything that you can’t really outsource, because it requires you, the business owner, to do it. These are the priorities that move your business forward.
In my observation, the biggest obstacle to getting $hit done is that entrepreneurs allow distractions to get in the way. They don’t have the boundaries necessary to channel or remove the distractions, and more importantly, they’ve subscribed to an out-dated business culture that simply does. not. work. in the 21st century.
So, depending on how you’re working with me, we’ll highlight priorities and create boundaries that work for you and your business.
How do you accomplish crucial tasks fast?
Find the right productivity software? Maybe use the Pomodoro technique? AI?
Absolutely f*king not.
While certain uses of AI and productivity software can help around the margins, if you don’t have the basic of productivity nailed down, you won’t save much time.
Yes, I said basic, not basics.
Because there’s this one weird trick that will immensely speed up your work and help you get $hit done fast!
Here it is: to get the right $hit done fast, you block out time regularly to focus on one right-$hit-task at a time.
That’s it.
Multitasking is BS and when you try to do it you’re splitting your attention, which slows you down. If you are constantly attending to your phone, you lose focus on what you were doing. If you allow people to walk in and out of your office, whether it’s a separate space or a home office, you lose focus on what you were doing.
I guide all my clients on finding the right time for focus work and what systems and processes need to be built in your business for this to support you. As well as the policies you need so that your boundaries are solid.
Why harmonizing work with life is important for sustainable productivity
As a business owner, your most important asset is not the money you’ve acquired or your computer or anything else other than your brain.
Human brains did not develop in the kind of work culture that we have here in the US. So while we can accommodate these demands, due to the power of the human brain, it’s bad for the brain.
Everyone wants to work at peak performance, and you won’t if you’re not taking care of your brain. Working for too many hours, not taking breaks/weekends/vacations, and pushing the joys of life aside for more minutes of work is taxing not just emotionally but physically and mentally too.
If you’re not sure what brings you joy other than your business, we can work on that as well.
How did I, JJ, start this business?
Most of my life, I worked in finance. Wealth management, mutual fund consulting, fixed income software, management consulting, and financial planning. I always got my work product (financial plans, spreadsheets, whatever) done very quickly, and I hated, haaaaaaaaaaaaated managers who tried to manage me by measuring my butt-in-seat time.
At my last job-job, I started learning about behavioral finance. That’s what got me started on neuroscience. But that last job didn’t go well (ha! understatement of the year) and I decided I was done with financial planning. I had obtained my CFP (Certified Financial Planner) about a decade earlier, and I had also achieved the Certified Divorce Financial Analysis (CDFA) designation.
I thought I would launch a divorce financial analysis business, since it was stuff I was pretty competent at and I’d be able to help people. At the time I lived in the Coachella Valley, and once I attended a dinner with the local bar’s family law section, I had clients.
But then it turned out that I didn’t actually like doing the work. Most people who are CDFAs either went through a tough divorce themselves or their parents did, and I didn’t have any divorces in my immediate family.
When you own your own business, you also have to run the business. This often entails taking care of details you’re not really interested in but have to be done. If you don’t even like what you do, it gets pretty miserable.
I’ve always been a writer, one way or another, so I started ghostwriting nonfiction books. I wrote about dark triad personality traits, leadership, project management, crypto, and NFTs (remember those? Ha ha ha ha ha.)
Through the research on those books, I found out why I always got my stuff done faster than anyone else. I have always been one to focus intensely on one thing, and one thing at a time. In Autism World we call this hyperfixation, and by the way, ADHDers have this gift too.
I have had email notifications turned off for about twenty years, so that I can focus on my work and not get distracted. I joke that I had instant messaging for about 20 seconds in the early 2000s. After the first two messages which had me almost falling out of my chair, I removed the IM and have never installed it again.
Interruptions when I’m doing focus work are extremely jarring and dysregulating for me. I’ve always had to create boundaries to minimize those interruptions, and now I work with clients to help them develop their own. Others might not have the same dysregulation around interruptions that I do, but they still need to carve out time for focus and protect it.
Plus, no matter how enjoyable and/or interesting the work is, I have other activities and interests outside of work. I’m not willing to give them up. When I was in finance that was often writing classes or writing groups, but also things like learning ballet as an adult or playing cello.
Working with me
So if you’re a business owner and you want to be more effective at work so you can enjoy life outside of work (which I remind you, you WILL need later in life when you are not able to carry a full workload), I am here for you.
Half-Day Workshop
Here’s the introduction to sustainable productivity. It’s interactive and four hours long, and can be divided into four brown-bag lunches. This is for solo business owners as well as small teams. You’ll discover sleep chronotypes, why they’re important, how to prioritize, and what boundaries support work getting done.
Productivity Process Engagement
If you’ve got the basics of productivity down (or you took the workshop!), you’re ready for the Productivity Process Engagement. With this offering, we use the tools of business process reengineering to make sure that your processes and procedures are in place to support productivity. This is not about AI or delegation, but finding out where in your business the productivity bottlenecks lurk so we can build a process that supports your work-life harmony.
VIP Day
For business owners only – figure out what’s holding you back from working effectively and create a schedule with priorities and boundaries to get you there.
NEW! Sustainable Productivity Connection
This is a twelve-week group program designed for female business owners to detoxify from regular business practices to create a fulfilling life that includes a thriving business — without overwork, overwhelm, or burnout.
The first cohort is launching in February, where you’ll connect with other business owners as well as co-create sustainable productivity practices in your own business. I have discounts for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC entrepreneurs.
Recap (tl;dr):
I love working with business owners to help them build a fulfilling life including a thriving business without burnout.
I’m launching a new program just for women business owners – you can check out the details here.