Reclaim Your Day 90 Seconds at a Time ⏳ GUEST! Rebecca Shaddix | Ep. 382

0:01Welcome to Do This Not That, the podcast for marketers. Each episode is packed with quick tips. They're super short, and at the end, we have some fun. Let's jump into it, and thanks for being here. We are back for Do This, Not That podcast, presented by Marigold. And you know what? I'm a listener today. What I mean by that is this episode, I'm more excited about this than most of the guest episodes. A lot of times you have a guest, and I don't even care who they are. But this time, I actually and genuinely want to hear this episode because we have Rebecca Shaddix. Now, if you're on LinkedIn, you see Rebecca's content all the time.

0:35She's like this product marketing guru, human being. She's a Forbes contributor. And she, I don't know if everybody knows this, but she helped to launch the digital technology initiative at UCLA's Luskin Center for Innovation, launching its women in tech research. Like she's like a really smart person. But the thing that's going on with Rebecca right now, which is why I asked her to come on the show, is that she has this new podcast she launched. It is called Time Billionaires. And basically, I struggle with time. I need to find more time to do the things I want to do. I'm losing my mind. And this is what Rebecca is all about, these micro moments of time and how we can capture them back in our lives, in our work lives.

1:18So she's going to break it all down. Rebecca, welcome to the show. Thanks, Jay. That was the nicest intro. Oh, well, you deserve a better intro because you are very awesome. But before we get into these kind of moments that we can all steal back or reimagine or whatever. How did you become Rebecca? Like, what is your deal? Yeah, I think I like anyone struggle with time and deciding how to make it feel worthwhile. But I had to get really intentional with it starting pretty young. When I was 15, my mom and I were in a car accident, had some injuries that took about seven months to heal. But I developed fibromyalgia from it.

1:55And so I went from being a really active kid who was super social, had lots of extracurriculars, loved to run cross country and track, to suddenly really struggling to just get out of bed and function. And so because I couldn't predict when I would feel well, I had to be really intentional about what I wanted to get done in a day because I knew that there was an opportunity cost to any of it. And I couldn't necessarily just put things off and expect to feel better later. So I started just being very intentional with these tiny gaps, the 90 second to five minutes between classes that I had and thinking about what I wanted to get out of them.

2:28It was often social connection because I couldn't always go to football games or hang out on weekends. And so I just really was intentional and mindful with the connection I wanted to draw, how I wanted to spend my time, which meant a lot of it was not wasted in the same way. And so I went about life, got better, figured things out, and sort of forgot about micro moments until COVID hit, when I realized that suddenly all of the blocks I used to have to go exercise, to walk, to commute and listen to a podcast, call people I cared about, suddenly I was just waking up, walking to my desk, filling the four to seven minute gaps between Zoom meetings with emails, feeling frantic and constantly behind, like I always had to be on.

3:11And then I realized it was kind of a similar feeling of not having enough agency over my time. It wasn't really about not having enough time per se. Yeah, there were new demands on it. Work was hectic, but I actually had more time because I wasn't commuting. A lot of my extracurricular and social obligations went away. But this feeling like I didn't have agency to do the things I wanted to do because I was stuck doing the things I had to do was a pretty similar feeling to being 15 and suddenly realizing I don't have control over what I want to get done. So I went back to micro moments and I just started standing up between meetings, doing 10 pushups, taking three deep breaths outside, calling a friend for seven minutes unplanned just to say hi, as opposed to just more doom scrolling or email checking.

3:55And I think that was important because it felt really productive. I felt like I was reading the news. I was staying up to date. Things were changing so fast. I was constantly responsive to other people and emails, but I really wasn't getting as much done and I was more drained. So I just came back to micro moments and very unintentionally just sort of naturally started reading a little bit more and those gaps. And that came to realizations four years later about how much of the research about what makes life meaningful really overlapped. And so unintentionally, just in these small gaps, I read a couple hundred books about time management and wellness, et cetera.

4:34And I found that a lot of them were really just missing the mark. They would recommend things like audit your time and see what drains you. But I was like, I don't have time for that. I'm constantly busy. What don't you get? I don't have time to write down going to the bathroom because it takes as long to do it as it does to write down. And so just I got really frustrated with how unrealistic things were. And I just started then capturing micro moment ideas of things that enriched me and using them intentionally. And so that ended up being 100 pushups a day on average, staying in touch with friends that I hadn't seen without any change to my schedule.

5:08And that's how the idea for micro moments and time billionaires came to be. First of all, that's amazing. I was going to say I love all that, but I don't love the fact that you went through the accident at all. but this idea of micro moments, I'm very on board with all of it, except for calling random friends because I want to block all my friends. They're very, very, very annoying people. Putting that aside, I'm curious about something because everything you said resonated with me. I'm sure a lot of the listeners are like, yes, that's me. I feel seen. And that's all great to feel seen. But now I'm going to go back to my inbox.

5:39I'm going to doom scroll. I'm going to have back-to-back meetings. I'm going to continue to lose my mind. So when you come across somebody like me, okay, Jay, this is some easy ones other than doing a hundred pushups. This is some easy things, easy wins that you can do that you're not even realizing that you can do to insert, like block this out on your calendar or whatever. What are some quick wins to grab some of these micro moments? The first thing I want to say is the doom scrolling, the constant emails. There's no one not like you. We all have meetings all day. We feel like that. The intentionality of what you want to get out of it.

6:13So just blocking it. Yes, we have to answer emails, but clicking from one Zoom meeting, scanning your email, not having time to respond, making sure you marked it as unread. You basically just went seven times as many contact shifts for no productivity. All of those unread emails or unresponded to emails, you never had time to answer them to begin with. So the first thing to do is just be mindful of what's actually possible to be done and then batch those things. So yes, you have to answer your emails. You're not going to answer your emails if you're constantly feeling inundated and behind. And so that hasn't accomplished anything.

6:48There's also nothing wrong with being on social media. I love it. You love it. I think it's great. But being intentional about when you're going on and what you want to get out of it, that's the first step of, I don't have six minutes between meetings and just doom scroll because I'm not going to get anything out of it. You don't have time to engage meaningfully. You don't have time to watch your cool videos that you put on. So I don't fill those tiny moments because my goal for being on social media, my goal for email is to communicate and connect intentionally. So that means when I do see that I have two minutes, that is enough time to do a two minute plank, to do 10 pushups, to go outside, take five deep breaths, to write a post-it note to your partner, just saying, hi, I love you and sticking it on their door.

7:33That's plenty of time for that. And that actually feels really good to your body. And so you actually have drained less of your cognitive function without all this cognitive overload. So now you will be as engaged and as connected on social, more effective with your email responses because you've had the energy to do that. So none of this goes away. It doesn't require a schedule overhaul. It doesn't require a massive system change. It doesn't require hustling harder or waking up earlier. It just requires being intentional about how you're spending the blocks that you have because 90 seconds is enough to drain yourself with a Reddit lurker scroll or actually fulfill yourself by just doing something that feels aligned with how you want to spend the time.

8:15So it's not about cutting anything out. It's just about batching intentionally. So you're really talking about micro moments. You're not talking about like, do this for 30 minutes. You're talking about, okay, you have two minutes, breathe and take a break or whatever. When you talk about micro, you're talking about actually micro. Yep. There's a post-it on my desk that just says stand up because I know the second I do, I'm interrupting the pattern of just being plugged in, trying to, the email is for me. I feel like I'm being responsive. Like, oh, I have to know if in the last 30 minutes, anyone emailed me because I don't want to look like I'm not responsive.

8:53Who am I helping? I'm not responding to them thoughtfully. If anything, I'd send off a shoddy email that's confusing. They send one back, it's more confusing. We have this weird six message limbo of no one getting it when it could have just been take four minutes later when you know you're not rushed to read it, digest and respond thoughtfully. That's just what I'm saying is be intentional about what the time is. So I stand up. If I had just two minutes, I'll just hold a power pose, do a plank, literally anything micro, micro, micro, simply the act of standing up is better than just sitting there all day.

9:27okay so i get it so now when i have a minute break i'm gonna go and and do some breathing i'm gonna do a post-it note i'm still not gonna call my friend i get that what about a voice note still now i'm not into it so uh it's only because of my friends you have better friends it's fine so but what about what about a little bit of the bigger moment like i am for example I am now on this journey of only checking my email three times a day. I'm also on a journey of trying to put 15-minute buffers in between meetings. None of this is really working particularly well, but I'm trying. How do you hack your own life to give yourself the time to steal these moments?

10:14When we don't feel so inundated and constantly scrolling, they come naturally. We actually have more leisure time than any other time in history. People 40 years ago, 20 years ago, 200 years ago had much less leisure time. The problem is ours is all broken up by bombarded distractions that compete for our attention. And so it's just basically taking it back. You already have this time. And I think there's some anxiety in this feeling of obligation because we can be constantly connected. There's some of this stress that we should be. Back in my day, my parents left the house for a date night and we couldn't contact them for four hours and everybody was just fine.

10:57But this, oh no, I have to check because what if, it's just the system broke, right? If you have alerts on your phone that you know your kids can get through to call you, you don't need to check if they did because you would have heard it. And so it's just really the reclaiming the mindset, I think, of your calendar is not yours by default if you don't claim it. And so if it's just everybody's that you haven't learned to say no to, then there's no boundaries. And people actually respect boundaries a lot more than the availability. So I find that the more I just take two minutes at a time, the easier it is to have those systems.

11:32So if I do have 15 minutes, for example, three very specific wins from that day, three things that I did, I control that I'm proud of. And they can be little. It can be kept my cool and intense conversation that it doesn't have to have some big external win to point to. And I find that it makes me feel more capable and more competent. So I'm more confident to then say this is the right use of my time and I don't feel obligated to people please the same way. Did that actually answer your question? Are you talking about if you have bigger gaps? No, no, no, no, no. That was super useful and helpful.

12:08And I'm just curious though, I wanna know if you're willing to share, like how do you structure your day? Because obviously time for you is top of mind, right? You are, you know, you think about it, you consider it, you're aware of it. I'm trying to be more aware of it, but are you extremely intentional about how you add things to your calendar? Do you not allow things to, you have all your notifications turned off? I wanna know what you do. Great question. Yes, I have all my notifications turned off except for my Google Calendar notifications on my desktop because I wanna be pulled out if there's something going on.

12:49And more importantly, I want to know that I don't need to pull myself out of Flow because I didn't get a notification. I think when I had those turned off, I worried, is there a meeting happening right now? But when I know my alarm will go off, I can just go flow and deep work. But very tactically, I'll walk you through, wake up. First thing, phone is in my office. I don't touch it until I've written out three handwritten pages of reflections of things I want for the day. I'll go outside, take three deep breaths, coffee or tea, full breakfast, 10 minutes with my husband, go into my office. Then I'll, every week, every Friday at three o 'clock, I ask three questions.

13:31What went well this week? What didn't? What do I want more of? So it takes 10 minutes. That makes it really clear which categories in my life feel like they're lacking from that week. Maybe I felt a lack of connection or exercise or movement. So that means in my mind, I know this week I want to prioritize these three categories of micro moments probably. And I realized I didn't explain the category. So when I was doing that unintentional research quest over a few years, I found that there were categories that all of the research overlapped with that led to a meaningful life. And those were reflection and mindset, connection, so meaningful personal connections, play and creativity, physical movement, thinking and learning.

14:16And I'm forgetting the sixth one. It wasn't meaningful, the last one. So it doesn't matter. It apparently wasn't. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. So basically when I can look at those, it's pretty clear if I didn't feel connected, moved enough, didn't think or learn enough that week, then I can just put that down. And I have a running list that I'm happy to share of exercises that just work in those categories. And so if I feel like, oh, nature and sensory awareness is the last one. So the idea for the micro moments came from a moment of nature and sensory awareness when And I was just outside touching a fern, like a total hippie, thinking how different the leaves looked than the day before.

14:53And it just let me be so present. And so that means that when I have then four minutes between gaps in my day, I already have this list written down here of what I want more of, which now is connection. So there's a stack of stationery on my desk. So I'm just going to write a note to a friend whose birthday is coming up. I know I want more time outside. So I'm going to go take five deep breaths outside. And that's it. And I know I want more thinking and learning. And so I'm going to listen to two minutes of an audio book because it's better than nothing. And that just means that these gaps then of I have my day and my schedule and my plan.

15:26Yes, there's structured writing and recording blocks on there. Those are non-negotiable and those don't get taken up with email. But when I do have back-to-back meetings, which I try to block, I try to block like tasks. So meetings will be largely in the afternoon when there is seven minutes between them. I know exactly what I'm doing because I've already identified what I need. But I think you can do that in 30 seconds. Just what do I need more of right now? Just listen to that. And there's a way to fill it faster than you think. I mean, I think that is so helpful. And I know I like the nature thing.

16:00My daughter and my son always tell me to go touch grass. I don't think they mean it in the nicest way. They don't, but it's okay. It's the same idea, though. It's getting involved with nature in a small way. um but i i love all of that and uh i'm usually i i need to really do that thing where you say okay the three things at the end of the week like on friday like what happened this week what was good because basically my vibe is what's for dinner that's what's in my mind pretty much exclusively so i'm going to work on that but what you're working on which i want to talk about for a minute here is your podcast which is newly launched it's called time billionaires productivity's hidden currency, right?

16:41What is it all about? What can people expect to listen to time billionaires? We're going to put it all in the show notes. Yeah. The idea is that the average lifespan is two to 3 billion seconds long, but most of us waste time in ways we would never waste money, right? If you knew you didn't like something, it didn't make you happy, you wouldn't spend money on it. But we don't know how much time we have left. So it's like not knowing how much money is in your bank account, but then going and buying food that makes you sick, unflattering pants that you don't like, a vacation somewhere you don't want to go.

17:11We're basically doing that. We're taking the currency of our whole life, what actually matters our time, and spending it on things we know don't make us happy, like scrolling social media without the intention to actually connect. And so it's really just the hidden currency is not wasting those seconds. And I do think that the shift comes in as little as 90 seconds at a time, because the agency over how we spend our time is just a fundamental human need. And the podcast is just like that. Short episodes like yours, a concept from the research, and then some exercise ideas of things you can do right now.

17:46Every single one will be, hey, if you have 90 seconds right now, here's one thing you can do that you may not have thought of. Oh my God. I'm all in on this podcast. I'm very excited. It reminds me of this movie that you probably haven't seen, but now you have to watch it called End Time with Justin Timberlake? I haven't. I will. Okay. It's the best because basically it's a futuristic thing where they have the amount of time left in their life, countdown clock embedded into their skin, and they don't want to waste a second. Yeah. And it's amazing, except it's horribly acted and Justin Timberlake should go sing.

18:17Anyway, this has been amazing. You're amazing. Amazing. So we're going to put this all in the show notes. Is your platform of choice LinkedIn? Should that be where people find you? Yep. That'd be great. All right. It's Rebecca. You want to spell your last name so everyone's like, oh, because I'm going to butcher it. I know there's an X involved. I'm horrible at it. You pronounced it perfectly, which not everybody does. Rebecca Shaddix, S-H-A-D-D-I-X. The podcast is Time Billionaires. You could check out timebillionaires.org too. Excellent. Awesome. All right, everybody. Check it all out. Rebecca, thanks for being here.

18:45You are fantastic. You're fantastic. Thanks for having me. You did it. You made it to the end. Nice. But the party's not over. Subscribe to make sure you get the latest episode each week. for more actionable tips and a little chaos from today's top marketers. And hook us up with a five-star review if this wasn't the worst podcast of all time. Lastly, if you want access to the best virtual marketing events that are also 100 % free, visit guruevents.com so you can hear from the world's top marketers like Damon John, Martha Stewart, and me. Guruevents.com. Check it out.