Dr. Whitney talks with productivity expert, Brianna McKenizie, on how you can make yourself the most efficient possible (in very practical ways!) in order to get more accomplished in your day.
EPISODE Highlights:
Dr. Whitney: Tell us what you’re doing in your business and how you got started.
Brianna: I’m a mom of 4, my husband and I are both teachers, and I was constantly feeling like I wasn’t doing enough. I was exhausted and overwhelmed and realized that every day my to-do list started over with the same things from the day before, plus everything I didn’t get done. I got to a point where I said “enough” because I knew it couldn’t keep going like that.
So I had to make sure my expectations I was putting on myself as a parent matched up with the season that I was in as a parent. I started jotting down the ebbs and flows of that and that’s what the framework for what I’m doing came out of.
Dr. Whitney: You really pair the practical strategies with the mindset pieces. Moms have to understand the season they’re in before they can implement the strategies, otherwise they’ll just be more upset that they can’t do it all. What are some of the practical things you teach?
Brianna: First thing, Prioritize: What are the top 3 things that you need to do today in order to feel like you’re really accomplished for the day? 5 minutes in the morning to get your day structured so that those three things can be accomplished. Put them in blocks of time through the day and figure out how long each of those should take. This intentionality lets you have the flexibility to take care of things that come up throughout the day but the structure to make sure they get things done.
Dr. Whitney: How can people know in their day when it’s time to switch priorities?
Brianna: It’s so much about checking in with yourself. When you feel that bodily reaction and anxiety hit, you need to ask, “What REALLY needs to get done in this moment?” so that you can make the decision based on what matters to you, not just putting out fires.
Dr. Whitney: What’s the second strategy?
Brianna: Recognizing your peak energy times. You can pair this with your priorities throughout the day. If we pay attention, we are going to notice a few different times in the day when we’re going to be more efficient and productive. We will be able to pair this with the things we want to get done so that something that should take 15 minutes doesn’t take 2 hours.
Dr. Whitney: What about all the things that we want to procrastinate on? How do we get things done that we really don’t care about or want to avoid?
Brianna: We all have things like that and often it’s things that we have to do all the time. We have to find a way to make them more enjoyable. So find something that you like and pair it with the chore: music, podcast, TV, audio books. Whatever will distract you. And add a timer to go along with it so you know you’ve got an out once that timer goes off.
Dr. Whitney: Talk to us about multitasking. I know our brains are actually terrible at multitasking. As moms, we think we’re so good at it. But we’re actually just switching between tasks, not doing them simultaneously. And research shows you’re way less efficient when you are trying to do more than one thing at a time.
Brianna: There’s actually a lot going on there. There’s decision fatigue, where every time you’re asking your brain to think about something different, you’re just depleting your energy even quicker. And you’re making yourself go slower because you’re not able to give yourself completely to one task. Plus, you’re also way more apt to be triggered by something small if you’re already trying to spilt all your energy between multiple things.
Dr. Whitney: Where can people find you if they want to learn more?
Brianna: You can find me at
@thegetshitdonemom on instagram and I have lots of resources available in the links in my bio. I have a free challenge starting soon and you can find all the info there. The Get Shit Done Podcast can be found everywhere you listen to podcasts and I give lots of tangible productivity tips for moms that they can take and implement really quickly.
