Sabrina Chevannes: Hi everyone and welcome to this week’s episode of No Bullshit Talks.

Sabrina Chevannes: I am super pleased to be joined here today by Brittany Dixon. Brittany, you are a business systems strategist, your productivity guru, and you basically seem like the most organized person in the world. Right?

Brittany Dixon: I mean, in most ways, yes. It is a pretty good intro of who you are. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me today.

Sabrina Chevannes: Hey, I’m super excited to hear more about these productivity hacks. I feel like this is something that everyone needs more time in their lives. I mean, do you just deal with really super stressed people all the time? I feel like that’s what you must get basically.

Brittany Dixon: Yeah, most of my people, they’re like, “Oh my gosh, I’m going to share my screen, but don’t look at the 77 tabs I have open.” And the documents are everywhere. The people that are just like, “I have stuff in like seven places and I can never find anything and I work 17 hours a day.” So yes, basically.

Sabrina Chevannes: Does that stress not rub off on you? I feel like everyone around you being like, “Oh my God, I’m so stressed. I’ve got this much to do.” It must be like, “Stress, stay away from me. I don’t need the stress.”

Brittany Dixon: Yeah, so it’s funny. I can actually process other people’s stress when it comes to this stuff and I normally do really well with mine unless there’s external circumstances that burst the bubble. So like, you know, current world affairs piling up on top of said busy schedule. But yeah, normally I can handle it pretty well. I just put my stuff on the back burner and I’m like, “All right, let’s fix it. Let’s do it.”

Sabrina Chevannes: So tell me exactly what you do on a day-to-day basis. I feel like business systems strategist is quite an obscure funky title. You could be like making buildings or whatever. But obviously I know you don’t. But for the people listening to this, they’re probably like, “What the hell?”

Sabrina Chevannes: Is that like… yeah, run me through exactly.

Brittany Dixon: Totally. Okay, so you didn’t start a business to run a business, but you have to deal with all that back-end stuff to make that happen, right? So you started your business because you were good at something and someone is going to pay you for that. But you have to do all of the task management, project management, time management, sending invoices, sending proposals, onboarding clients, managing client projects, like all of those back-end moving pieces.

Brittany Dixon: I help you come in and set up systems to make that so much more in line and make it faster for you to get all of that stuff done so that you can actually focus on your clients and who you’re serving.

Brittany Dixon: So I deal a lot with setting up CRM systems, so customer relationship management systems, to keep track of your clients and your leads. I do a lot with Asana and setting up project and task management hubs. I also do a lot with just the general client onboarding and offboarding experience.

Brittany Dixon: So it’s really from the time they become a lead until you’re done with our project. But even just the back-end productivity of digital clutter and keeping up with email and having a system to manage that, it’s all the backend moving pieces that everyone hates dealing with, but they have to have to run a business.

Sabrina Chevannes: You just named some of the most crucial things in my business.

Honestly, you just made that the CRM, and we’ll go down to whichever is your favorite and why, I guess. Like, a CRM is like, I feel like it was kind of crazy, the fact that a few years ago I wasn’t using a CRM.

I don’t even know how that’s possible.

To not use one, I guess. Like, for people listening who don’t know what a CRM is and you’re running a business, go Google it right there and understand what it is like because it will change your life.

Thank you.

Brittany Dixon: Kathleen, that is honestly, I think, one of the biggest things people are missing as business owners because they’re like, “Oh, it’s just me. I don’t need that.”

But how many people do we interact with on a daily basis? Like in the DMs and on Facebook and Instagram and commenting and emails?

Like, there’s no freaking way you keep up with that in your head.

So when I put a CRM in place, I literally, listen, you can tell you leave money on the table without one.

So, oh goodness, CRM, right?

Sabrina Chevannes: Now, how many times has any business owner forgotten to reply to someone? Like, “Oh my God, I forgot,” even if it’s super important. You’re just dealing with so many things that you just listed, like about ten people’s jobs, for example, and you’re just touching the surface. It seems like you’re dealing with so much stuff every day.

You forget, “Oh my God, I forgot to reply to that person,” and then by the time you reply to them, “Oh sorry, I went with someone else because they responded quicker,” and you’re like, “Ah.” That happens so much.

And, you know, having a CRM changes that. I think that is, and he said, Asana. We are so pro-Asana. Like, without Asana.

Sabrina Chevannes: Without Asana, the business would not exist. Like, everything is in there for years and years and years.

Every file that our team has ever sent to each other, we can just type it in and we could find it from years ago.

It’s amazing. Like, integration is endless.

So, we have it integrating with Zendesk. We have it integrating with all other things.

And so, like, we could have support tickets go straight into the project management software. It’s amazing.

So, I think exactly what you just said is, like, and it’s taken me years to get there.

But if I had someone like you setting that up from the get-go, oh my God, my life would have been so much better.

I think so much better.

Brittany Dixon: Yeah, so yeah.

And that’s what I want to do.

I actually have a group coaching mastermind program called Hustle to Flow that really is for that newer entrepreneur that doesn’t know all of this stuff.

And they need to learn these things.

And I put that in place because I saw so many business owners not doing these things, and then they get two to three years in and they get burned out because it’s so much stuff. Like, you wear so many hats in a business.

And then you go from doing marketing and social media and creating content, and you’re like, “Wait, let me go do some invoicing. Forgot to do that to get paid. Oh, now I have to onboard a new client.”

Like, we have to make it so much more streamlined and make it work smarter, not harder, because there’s so many business owners that fail and quit because they don’t have this stuff in place.

And if they just take a little bit of time to put some systems in place, they could scale their business really fast.

Sabrina Chevannes: I think that’s it. Like, it does take time, and that’s the problem every business owner faces in the things of, “I have no time,” because they don’t have any time.

But, like, you know, they don’t realize that investing that bit of time, this initial stuff, will save you endless hours of time later to actually make money.

And I think that’s what people don’t get. You need to invest the time to make them.

Brittany Dixon: Absolutely.

And there’s a graphic out there. It’s like a bicycle that has square tires, and then there’s like, “I’m too busy. I don’t have time.”

And then you have the bicycle with the circle tires, and they’re like, “I made some time and now I can work smarter, not harder.”

Like, that’s exactly how business owners operate.

And what I try to get them to see is if we can create Asana and, like, a central hub for everything you have to do, I can save you at least five hours a week by getting that organized and getting it into one spot.

And then not to mention the fact that you’re going to hit your goals faster because you’re actually working on tasks instead of like, “Oh wait, where did I put that? I can’t find that. What am I supposed to be working on today?”

No, it is. It’s an investment of time up front, but it’s like a rinse-and-repeat thing.

Once you put one system in place and you start thinking in systems, then it’s just rinse and repeat next time, and rinse and repeat, and then make it better.

So it’s like that catch-22, right? Like, “I don’t have time,” but I need to see if you invest that time, it will pay off a hundred percent.

Sabrina Chevannes: Percent. So for, you know, like, you know, you’re dealing with a whole range of different entrepreneurs. What would you say are the most common mistakes that they do when they try to start a business?

Brittany Dixon: Yeah, for sure.

So I think the biggest one is having that really clear big-picture plan.

I see too many business owners that I kind of equate to going on a road trip, right? Like, if you don’t have an end destination in mind, you’re just kind of going all over the place. You’re turning sightseeing, which sounds great for a road trip, not the most sustainable way to build a business.

We’re going to take twists and turns and pivots when we’re in business and we have a plan, but I think having that big vision and why you’re doing it, you’re going to need that because it’s going to get really freaking hard.

And if you can’t go back to that and that “why” is not strong enough, you will quit. I’m speaking from experience.

I almost quit numerous times because I’m like, “This shit is hard.” Like, nobody tells you how hard this is.

And if you don’t have that vision, it’s almost a game-over kind of situation.

The other thing I will say is I see people investing in all the software because their friends told them to download the thing.

Somebody’s like, “Oh yeah, I signed up for Trello, and then I also signed up for Asana, and I’ve got a ClickUp account. You also told me to try Notion.”

Shit, I have stuff in 15 different places, paying for all of them because I forgot to shut off the recurring fee on my credit card.

So that’s another thing that I see, and I do a systems audit with almost every one of my clients.

I’m like, “What can we get rid of? What are you paying for that you don’t need? What can we combine?”

That’s a huge, huge problem I see, especially in the online space, for sure.

And then I think just not managing time, which sounds super basic, but we all need to manage our time better and fit the things in that we want to do versus trying to do a thousand things in this tiny little block of time that aren’t actually moving things forward.

Brittany Dixon: And then I think just not managing time, which sounds super basic, but we all need to manage our time better and fit the things in that we want to do versus trying to do a thousand things in this tiny little block of time that aren’t actually moving things forward.

So again, doing a time audit. Where are you spending your time? Are you actually blocking out time for what’s important? Are you building a lifestyle that your business fits in or a business that you then have to cram your lifestyle into?

So really just doing that time audit and making sure you have time for the stuff that’s most important to you.

So I would say those are probably the top three that I run into, which sounds super basic, right? Like, have a plan. Don’t invest in all the software upfront and make sure that you’re managing your time.

Sabrina Chevannes: That’s really it. I mean, it does sound basic, but it’s still not that easy.

So we do, you know, like we use time tracking software as well, and I have to go through the timesheets all the time just to make sure that we are being efficient because it’s so easy to kind of get suckered into different things. Then I suddenly look back at my own timesheet time like, I spent that much time doing that? That is crazy.

And the same with the software. I’ve totally fallen down the hole and got trapped. Absolutely. The Black Friday deals, yeah. They totally work your legs.

Brittany Dixon: It’s on sale for life. I have to buy it. I know, I get ya.

Sabrina Chevannes: I find I sign up to those yearly ones and then October comes back around, and I still haven’t used it. I’m just like, this is so bad.

But I do a yearly audit of my software now because of that reason, and I think it’s so important just to keep on top of things.

But you’ve got so many things to think about that it’s the last thing you do. But like I said, all those little things, again, it took me years to kind of work that out and realize I need to do that.

I was spending so much money on domains here and there and little things like that. They’re only like 10 to 20 pounds or dollars, right? And you just think, oh, that’s nothing. But then you buy like 70 of them, and it becomes a bit of a problem.

Brittany Dixon: It adds up quickly. Yeah, for sure.

And I’ve created this new workshop that I did. It’s called Days by Design. And I’m just seeing so many people cram lifestyle into their schedule and not like they’re basically putting their business first, right?

Which is important because it’s making you money, it’s serving your clients, but you can’t run yourself into the ground. I tell people that systems are self-care for your business because if you don’t have those in place, you are going to burn out at some point, right?

Maybe you can make it two and a half, three years. That’s typically the point that people are like, they’re on or off right there. Like, okay, now I can’t do this anymore.

You have to step back and look at your business from that 30,000-foot view and not be in the weeds to make better decisions. And I just think so many people get so caught up in it. They’re like, I don’t have time to step back and look at the big picture. But it’s almost like when you slow down, you can speed up so much faster.

So I highly encourage just taking a day, taking a CEO day, and really diving into the problems and seeing how we can fix them.

Sabrina Chevannes: Oh, I like the CEO day. I need to make those. That sounds great.

I should look at, like, every week CEO day.

Brittany Dixon: Every single month. I’m trying to get them weekly still. There’s still too much on my calendar right now to do that.

But yeah, I try and do a monthly where I’m working on the business and, like, growing and figuring out problems and things like that versus client work, client work, client work constantly.

And it’s been a game changer, so I highly suggest it.

And put it on your calendar because if it’s not on our calendar, it doesn’t happen.

It goes to the bottom of the list, and put it on repeat so that it comes to you every single month.

Sabrina Chevannes: I love it. I’m gonna try. Ding. Nice.

Like, it’s so true. You sound like you’re saying working on the business and not in the business.

All the clichés, like “smarter not harder,” it is all the cliché, but it’s totally true. And we need to do that.

I think I need to really do something like 100% me to do, but I’m big on, like, I’ve got client stuff.

Clients come first. I always prioritize them.

But then if you don’t work on the stuff that your business is failing at or your process is, then you’re never going to do as good a job for your clients.

And I think that’s what people have got to realize. You need to take time out to work on your business, improve that, and then everything else would just fit better in.

But it’s so difficult when everyone’s like, “We have no time.”

So that, I guess, leads me onto what you do. You help people with their productivity, and, you know, what exactly do you do to help people become more productive?

Brittany Dixon: Yeah. So like I said, it really is that systems audit, that time audit.

Like, really figuring out what’s working, what’s not working, ways that we can figure out how to filter stuff out that they shouldn’t even be working on if it doesn’t fit into their plan.

So I really do kind of help them recenter and be like, “Okay, why did you start this business, and what are your goals?” Because that’s where we’ve got to start.

People are like, “No one has time for that. Just make me more productive.”

Yeah. But I can put systems in for you, and they’re not going to help you long term if I don’t do that first.

So we kind of start there, recalibrate, and then we’re like, “Okay, how can we optimize this? How can we get rid of software? How can we condense things into one place? How can we manage our time better and time-block better?”

So we’re really optimizing and seeing where we can make improvements.

And then the next step is the automation. So it’s like, “Okay, we’ve got things optimized. How can we then go in and see what we can automate?”

Like, what can we take off your plate with tools like Zapier or any kind of email automations or things like that?

And then the last step in my process is really to document the processes so that we can delegate the processes because we don’t need to be the ones doing everything once we’ve optimized it and automated it.

Brittany Dixon: Really to document the processes so that we can delegate the processes because we don’t need to be the ones that are doing everything once we’ve optimized it and automated it.

Now I can say, okay, instead of me onboarding a client, my assistant can onboard them, and then I’m just ready to do the work, right? But if you don’t have that documented and you don’t have a process for them to follow, you can’t give them work to do, which means you’re continually going to be busy and you’re never going to stop, right?

So really walking them through that process and obviously implementing and setting up systems for them. So setting up Asana, setting up a CRM, setting up client onboarding types of things. But it really starts with that big picture and that holistic view because I don’t just want to give them a Band-Aid solution. It’s got to be ready to be growth-oriented.

Sabrina Chevannes: So I think one of the most amazing things you just said there was the delegate part. And I think that’s it, like creating models that are sustainable no matter who is there.

I think the biggest problem I find with small businesses, and mine included, is that the business owner is the most important person in the business, and it’s basically them. Without them, the business doesn’t exist and doesn’t work, and that is not a sustainable business.

So I feel like everything that you do to try and create a business that is going to last is exactly that, like creating systems, creating processes you can pass on to someone else to just take over your role and do it, and it still works when you’re not there.

So you can take that well-deserved holiday and lie on a beach and know that your business is going. That’s the dream. I mean, that just doesn’t happen yet with me. Every holiday I take, I’m doing work, but it’s the dream.

Sabrina Chevannes: It will happen one day, and maybe I need to have a conversation with you first.

But I love the automation thing as well because let’s talk specifics because now I want to go into the actual specifics of the automation.

So, for those who don’t really care, switch off now, but I am very keen.

I want to hear the actual names of everything we do because automation is so powerful if it can be done properly.

What I hate is the depersonalization of things. Like, I hate that. We are such a personal agency. We don’t want to come across like it is a bot, you know, responding to you.

But automation isn’t that, especially these days when there is AI and everything out there. But it’s not even that it’s automation in terms of bots doing it. It’s just you pre-doing it and saving time, but it’s doing it automatically.

So run me through, I guess, some of the most important or time-saving automations that you do and what do you use because I’m curious.

Brittany Dixon: Yeah, for sure.

So, the first thing I will say is do not try to automate a broken process. It will end in disaster.

So that’s why I always have people optimize their processes and make sure it works well before we try to automate.

Most people are like, “Oh, just tell me what to automate. I’ll just automate. It’s fine.”

I’m like, if you automate a broken process, it’s going to create more work than if you were to just do it manually.

So first off, we’re going to throw that out there.

So really the first step to it is mapping out the process and optimizing it.

The second step really would then be to basically figure out where, right? So where can we automate things?

So, one thing for me is I actually have a little software that as soon as somebody signs off on that, it will create a Google Drive folder for me with all the subfolders within it.

So, it doesn’t have to be big tasks that you’re automating, but that is a time suck, right? I have to go create the folder and create subfolders, so I have that automation.

Automations can also be templates that you can just copy and paste with a click versus reinventing the wheel.

So, we have an entire client onboarding template inside of Asana that every time we get a new client, we just duplicate it.

I like to tell people with templates, you want to make them as robust as possible with every single-case scenario that you would do with a client and then delete pieces that you’re not going to use specific to that client because then you’re not having to constantly add things to it.

So that’s one of my favorite automations. As soon as somebody signs and pays, it’ll automatically create their folder, automatically create their template.

We actually don’t have automated emails go out because I do like to do that onboarding process with them, the kind of initial welcome, but we could set that up.

So, I would say as many client-facing things that you can make automated that’s easy for them, it’s going to be huge.

So really that lead-to-proposal process. There’s so many tools out there, right? So many.

I use Zapier for those connections. I have FG Funnels. That does some of my automation stuff.

I’m trying to think what some of them are in the bracket.

And the thing is too, sometimes you don’t need automation once you’ve streamlined the process because a lot of times you streamline it and you’re like, “Oh cool, this is done. Everything’s flowing.”

But yeah, I have a lot of things zapped into different software if there’s no automatic connection point. It really just depends.

There’s so many different, I could go in like a thousand directions with that.

Sabrina Chevannes: I feel like Zapier is like the king of all. You should know that. It’s like you just picked someone that is like at the top.

And I feel like a lot of people would be really intimidated by it because there’s so many possibilities. It’s like you can just do everything.

But the templates in Asana are cool. I think there’s actually something called Templana, I think, just based on templates for Asana. I’ve definitely got a few of that, which is really cool.

We do, I guess, email automation for clients via Mailchimp.

So, you say that would let you know.

Brittany Dixon: Oh, so Mailchimp is great as a CRM, as an email marketing software.

Sabrina Chevannes: I guess email automation for clients via MailChimp. So you say that would let you know. Oh, so MailChimp is great as a CRM, as an email marketing software.

It’s fantastic. People create landing pages. It can do a ton of stuff, and MailChimp is fantastic because it has a drag-and-drop function. So if you don’t have a designer or an HTML coder to do the newsletters, you can do that.

You can manage your CRM, see when people opened it, all that kind of stuff. So I think that’s great, especially for early years.

Brittany Dixon: Yeah, actually our Hustle and Flow group coaching mastermind has all of that in place. So somebody can purchase from the sales page. It’s in Kartra right now, in the process of moving it over to FG Funnels.

So they can essentially purchase from the sales page, they get a thank you page that tells them the next steps, they get that welcome email, they get dropped into a year-long email sequence, they get added to the membership to get the portal.

But again, setting up the actual tech is not the hard part. Everyone thinks the tech is the hard part. It is figuring out the optimized process to apply the tech to that is actually the hard part.

So don’t let it scare you. Once you have that process nailed down, it is very user-friendly. Like, which software is that coming from? What are you doing? Which software is it going to? It’s pretty simple as far as setting things up. It’s figuring out the process that’s the hard part.

Sabrina Chevannes: I totally agree. I spent ages in our boardroom with big pens and—

Brittany Dixon: All over your business. And you can scatter them all over the ground and put them all into place and make it this beautiful picture. Yeah, I live for that.

Sabrina Chevannes: Besides all the workflow stuff, that sounds amazing.

I mean, you are definitely so needed for small businesses, but I don’t think they get how much that is important. I think that’s the thing. You’re so distracted by everything at the beginning when you’re doing your business. You’re trying to do finances, legal, HR, all these things.

I think that processes are probably one of the most important things because without that, everything else falls apart, which is crazy.

But I always love to ask because everyone talks about productivity and everyone bangs on about productivity. It is such a buzz thing, and everyone’s got their own productivity hacks.

So what makes yours stand out? What makes yours better than all the other millions of people claiming they’re the best productivity hacks? What makes you better?

Brittany Dixon: For sure. So I kind of touched on these things, but—

Brittany Dixon: For sure. So I’ve kind of touched on these things, but I really do have a holistic approach to productivity.

I think that really the end goal of productivity is to live a meaningful, impactful life and not work yourself to death, right?

That is the end goal, is to have this life you’ve created and have work-life balance.

So I really do have this holistic approach where I see a lot of people in the productivity space giving people more apps and more systems and more different things to download.

And my approach is more like I am almost like a productivity minimalist.

I’m like, “I want you to delete as many apps as possible.”

Delete all the bookmarks.

I want you to combine your systems into one because that is really where the power is, in the simplicity, honestly.

So I have this whole Days by Design method where we dive into the lifestyle by design first, and we map that out on the calendar, and then we fit business into your lifestyle.

And I think a lot of productivity people, it’s business first.

And that, especially as a mom, I’m a mom of twins, like the lifestyle stuff comes first, and that’s why I’m doing it.

So I’ve got to make sure I’m making time for that.

So I really think it’s just the minimalistic, holistic approach to business and productivity that makes me different than a lot of productivity gurus.

And a lot of them are men. So I’m like freaking breaking into the women’s space.

Yeah, absolutely.

Sabrina Chevannes: And as you said, less is more, unless it’s toasty more most of the time, I think I know that.

So if you had to just pick, let’s say five top productivity tips for entrepreneurs.

Sabrina Chevannes: Making you only pick five? I know that you love this. You could talk about it all day.

But if you had to pick five based on, like, you know, you’ve seen so many small business owners screw up their businesses and be all panicky, in order to have the best work-life balance and be the least stressed and the most productive, what would be the top five? You had to narrow down.

Brittany Dixon: Okay, so the first one, you have to have an organized digital workspace.

So this is your Google Chrome, Safari, whatever you’re using.

I’m a Chrome fan because it gives you the most flexibility.

But your bookmarks need to be organized.

Your extensions need to be organized, and it needs to be synced on all of your devices.

Brittany Dixon: Okay, so the first one, you have to have an organized digital workspace.

So this is your Google Chrome, Safari, whatever you’re using.

I’m a Chrome fan because it gives you the most flexibility.

But your bookmarks need to be organized. So you have access to everything everywhere.

I see a lot of people, they’re like, “Oh yeah, I work on my laptop and my desktop and my phone,” and I say that there.

And now I don’t have access here. Like, you need to have access to everything you need any time you log into your computer.

And I like to tell people, if every one of my devices died right now, I could go log onto Google Chrome on someone else’s computer and have access to every one of my bookmarks, all of my files, all of my emails, all of my passwords. Like, literally I could run my business on someone else’s device, right?

So having that organized digital workspace. Install LastPass for everything. Install LastPass. Like, I don’t know how people survive without LastPass.

Brittany Dixon: It’s a game changer. It saves all your passwords under a super secure vault, and it saves you from going down that reset password rabbit hole where you’re like reset password, you go to your email, you get distracted, you don’t reset it, and then you do it again.

Sabrina Chevannes: And how much time does that actually soak up each time? Oh my God. If you have two minutes and you’re not distracted, you’re in and out.

Brittany Dixon: And most people have at least 15 software tools to run their business. So that’s like a 30-minute thing if you don’t have that.

So go install LastPass. That’s the only thing you do after today, I will be fine with that.

Brittany Dixon: The third thing, and we’ve kind of touched on this, but you have to have it all in one hub, a centralized location for all of your tasks. And this is business and personal. I literally run my entire business and life out of Asana and Google Calendar. If it’s not in there, it ain’t happening.

If it’s in too many places, it’s not gonna happen. So really simplifying all of your tasks and client work and projects and business stuff into one hub.

Setting yourself a recurring task to do a time audit every single quarter, at least every single quarter, honestly probably every month, and audit your time for just a couple days and you can see where you’ve got holes in your productivity every time.

And then the biggest thing, I think, is just building a filter and saying no to the things that do not fit into your plan, things that are not needle movers. We all say yes to way too much stuff and we overcommit.

And then we look at our calendar and we get stressed out. And it’s just this constant cycle, and then we have information overload.

Like you basically need to live in your own little bubble and bounce stuff off like, “Nope, can’t do that. Deleting that. Unsubscribing from this.” Like we’ve got to have a better filter to manage our time better.

So yeah, those would be my top five. But go install LastPass, like legit.

Sabrina Chevannes: I got lost one day. It’s so funny. I don’t know if you’ve ever read any of Tim Ferriss’s books, but you know…

Brittany Dixon: Yeah, I read *The 4-Hour Workweek* a long time ago. I should probably revisit it.

Sabrina Chevannes: It’s funny because that’s what I’m loosely based on. I’m very cynical about it, but I’m going to read it again with an open mind because I’ve read some of his other stuff now.

So *Tools of Titans* and *Tribe of Mentors*, they’re bulky books but great value. If you get them as audiobooks, it’s like 18 hours of listening. It’s really inspiring.

I listened on walks and it’s basically interviews with really successful people and what they actually used to become successful.

And from those books, the most common things I got were: first, get more sleep and better quality sleep. Everyone says it.

But the second thing, which I didn’t hear before, was say no more. Every single person said that. That was one of the biggest revolutions.

And I feel like as entrepreneurs, especially with personal branding, you feel like you need to say yes to everything. You want to grow your brand, help communities, do things, and you feel obliged.

And as British people, we feel it’s rude to say no.

Brittany Dixon: I feel like it’s the same here. It’s like, “Oh, I can’t say no, I should show up.” But honestly, saying no is what allowed me to scale.

But it goes back to that big picture plan, right? If you don’t know your plan, you don’t know what to say no to. I revisit my plan constantly.

And honestly, everything you put on your calendar has three pieces: preparation, the actual thing, and the debrief. So you have to think about how much time it actually takes and what it takes away from other things.

It’s a muscle. You have to keep working on it. But when you start saying no to the wrong things, the right things start coming in.

So I need to get better at it too. I’m really bad at saying no.

Sabrina Chevannes: There’s a book called *The One Thing*. It’s about what one thing you should do each day to move closer to your goal.

Brittany Dixon: I think I’d love that because I’m a minimalist entrepreneur.

Sabrina Chevannes: It’s Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. The idea is, what is the one thing you should do today that moves you closer to your goal?

And if you could only do one thing a day, what would it be? People overcomplicate it with huge to-do lists, but it comes back to focus.

Brittany Dixon: I think we absorb so much information now and it’s all conflicting. I’ve even told students to stop listening to podcasts for a month because they need to implement, not just consume.

Sabrina Chevannes: That’s actually true. Entrepreneurs get overwhelmed by too much information and conflicting advice.

Brittany Dixon: Exactly. I tell people: stop consuming and start implementing. Otherwise you end up with information overload and no action.

Sabrina Chevannes: So what do you do with entrepreneurs who know what to do but still don’t do it?

Brittany Dixon: I bring them back to their “Days by Design” method and lifestyle planning. We look at business, lifestyle, and priorities, and cut what doesn’t fit.

Productivity is personal. You can give someone a system, but if it doesn’t match how they work, they won’t use it.

Sabrina Chevannes: People always say you need routine. I left a normal job because I didn’t want routine. I like variety.

Brittany Dixon: The key is understanding the outcome you want from a routine. I don’t do 5am mornings either. I have kids.

So I use an end-of-day routine instead. My “three Ps of productivity” reset me for the next day.

Routines need to fit the person. And I time block differently too. I block half-days for categories instead of micro-scheduling everything.

If you try to mix bookkeeping, HR, marketing, and client work all in one block, productivity drops fast.

It has to be personal. And you need to know the outcome you want, otherwise you’re just following rules for no reason.

Sabrina Chevannes: Yeah, but those blocks of time.

Do you like, let me know, notifications? Like what else do you do? Because I feel like, again, as an entrepreneur, like you said, there are hundreds of emails coming in while you’re trying to get those things done.

There are staff members who need your help.

There are clients who are calling you.

There are other distractions that are going on.

How do you stay focused and actually get what needs to be done during the actual time block?

Brittany Dixon: Absolutely.

So I turn off my email, shut that down because it is one of the biggest distractors.

I’ve done so many experiments where we shut it down for six hours and I come back and like nothing was crucial. Like nothing was crucial, right?

And if this comes to you, you have to set boundaries with your clients and your team too. Like, you’ve got to have those boundaries, those communication tools in place.

But definitely shutting off email. I don’t have notifications on basically anything except for like texts and phone calls because, again, on your phone, right, that little red dot, you’re like, “Oh, I’ve got to check it. I’ve got to look at it.”

Never important. Never ever. And it’s still there when you click it even if the red dot’s not there.

So notifications, no email. Definitely.

It is hard. It’s not an easy thing to do because there’s a lot of like when you’re working on client work, you’re like, “Oh, I have this idea to do this again.”

But again, you’ve got to find a way to put it on the back burner or put it in your hub as an idea to come back to later instead of like, “Let me go fix that or do that thing right now.”

So I actually have an issues list in Asana where it’s like I come across something that’s broken or that I need to do or whatever. I drop a task in really fast and then go back to what I was doing instead of like, “Oh, that link’s broken. Let me go fix that.”

And then you go down the rabbit hole.

So it is setting boundaries. Notifications are huge and really just like sitting down to focus and not having as many apps open.

Those are the only tips I can give that are tangible. The rest of it is kind of like habit and just really having that filter and that bubble around you.

Sabrina Chevannes: So once you’ve been like that then, because you said you have an evening routine, I want to hear what that is.

Yeah.

Okay, so my.

Brittany Dixon: Famous three Ps of productivity.

So it’s process, plan, and prepare.

So basically, I take all of my notes on GoodNotes on my iPad, and the processing piece of this for me is I basically scroll back through all the notes I’ve taken from clients and meetings and calls and anything.

I put a star next to action items, and I make sure those go into Asana. If it’s a calendar item, I make sure it goes into the calendar.

If there’s something that I need to do for follow-up, basically I take anything that has action to it and put it in Asana or where it needs to go.

So I’m processing the day. That really helps me shut my brain off and make sure I’m not forgetting things.

So then the next piece is planning.

So I plan for my week on Fridays, but we all know Monday comes and that goes to shit.

Yeah, I plan for the week, but then on Monday at the end of the day, I will basically recalibrate that plan and make sure I look at the calendar.

I’m like, “Okay, cool. Here’s the meetings I have.”

I make sure there’s buffer time, and then I look at my tasks and basically say, “Where are those tasks going to fit in between those meetings, and if they don’t fit, how can I shift them?”

So I’m essentially laying out the roadmap for the next day.

And then prepare sounds a lot like plan, but it’s honestly me getting any materials ready that I need to execute the plan.

So if I’m recording a podcast, I make sure I have the outline.

If I have a client call, I make sure I have their notes up and I have bullet points of what we’re talking about.

I’m basically preparing all the stuff I need so that when I hit the ground running the next day, if the kids are late or we have a delay for school or whatever happens, I can still sit down at my computer and I have a plan.

Because I saw so many entrepreneurs, myself included, would sit down at 9 a.m. and they’re like, “What do I do? What am I working on?”

And then it’s like information overload.

Your team needs you.

Here’s emails.

Here’s texts.

And then it’s 2:00 and you’re like, “I literally got nothing done.”

Brittany Dixon: Yeah, but that happened.

What exactly did I do?

I feel like I’m doing so much but yet getting nothing done.

Brittany Dixon: The process of the three Ps, I’m telling you, was a freaking game changer in my business because I was processing what happened.

I was able to shut it off, and I had a plan before I even went into the next day.

So I could literally sit down and hit the ground running.

Now, does that still go awry sometimes? Abso-freaking-lutely. Stuff pops up, whatever.

That’s where boundaries and filters and notifications and so many things come into play.

But that alone made stuff stop slipping through the cracks because I kept forgetting about stuff that I wrote down and then did nothing with, right?

Yeah, I was able to actually sit down and know what I was working on versus going into it completely blind.

So I honestly think that was probably what got me to scale so quickly.

Sabrina Chevannes: That’s amazing.

I feel like it’s funny because I use Asana and I love it too, but I still have a Productivity Planner notebook. Like, I love it.

So I have the Intelligent Change Productivity Planner.

I don’t know if you guys have that over there, but I love it.

Any listeners who want a discount code? Yeah, I can see that.

But I actually just love them because even though we’re a digital agency and this is what we do, we utilize everything. We use Asana 100%.

But the reason why I love this particular planner is not only does it have an inspirational quote every day, so it kind of lets you soak that in, which I love, but it does that “one thing” thing.

So it gives you, for example, your week goals and makes you think ahead about your weekly goals.

And then it asks you, “What is your one thing for today? If you are happy that you got done, what is it?”

So every day you feel better.

And then it does the next tasks and asks, “What are the next tasks?”

And then it has the Pomodoro Technique where you do 25 minutes at a time and it makes you circle them.

You predict how long you think it’s going to take, and then you actually write how long it took.

It’s like a planner and self-reflection guide in one.

So I’m like, “Okay, so I thought it was gonna take three times 25 minutes, but it took eight. What?”

Brittany Dixon: Everything takes much longer than you think it will.

If you think it’s going to take five minutes, it’s going to take an hour.

And if you’re unorganized and have no systems, it’s going to take longer than that because you’re not able to find things.

So literally everything that you do, just plan on at least double.

Sabrina Chevannes: Yeah.

And so I think it’s great because it makes you reflect. You think, “Why did that take so much longer?”

At the end of the day, it asks you to rate your own productivity out of 10, which I loved.

And then sometimes I forget to use them.

I wasn’t productive again. Well, that’s probably why.

So actually I still need it. I still love the old-school writing.

Brittany Dixon: Yeah, and actually I use my iPad, and this is actually just like a notepad with check marks beside it.

And when I plan out, I actually map out my appointments.

So I’m like, “07 a.m., this is what I have.”

And then I go in and fill in the tasks between because then I can kind of see the full picture.

But I love the quote piece though.

What I found with most planners is I like so many pieces of them that I just need to create my own basically.

Sabrina Chevannes: You should. That is exactly what you should be doing because I have a friend as well who has one that is amazing, but it’s way bulkier because it’s got so much value in it.

So she’s got everything to do with your whole life.

She’s got finances, your personal life, wellness, and everything.

And she created that because that’s what her jam was, and she found that she couldn’t work with other planners, so she did that.

So again, shout out to her. She’s amazing. She was actually on a podcast episode.

She does mind maps, and I love it because I mind map.

So it’s just an amazing journal as well.

So I leave that one here because it’s quite bulky, but it’s got coloring, it’s therapeutic, and I just love it.

So journals are great. I think they are so much fun, and they’ve definitely helped my productivity.

But I feel like this last 45 minutes has been some of the most productive time because I feel like the knowledge I’ve got from you has maybe gained hours of my life, which is amazing.

So I really like, you know, to all the listeners who are thinking, “Right, how the hell do I get in touch with her because I need her in my life?”

How do listeners get in touch with you?

Brittany Dixon: Yeah, for sure.

So I hang out on Instagram and then in my community the most.

So Instagram is Brittany Dixon Consulting for my handle, and then the community is the Productivity Pod Community Co.

We actually host it on Mighty Networks. It’s similar to a Facebook group, but Facebook’s really distracting, so I wanted a different platform.

And we do so much fun stuff.

We have a happy hour every month.

We do office hours where you can pick my brain completely free.

We also have coffee chats so members can connect, and there’s a messaging function in there.

So we really are just on a mission to help people reach that true end goal of productivity, which is having a meaningful, impactful life and business but not working 27 hours a day, right?

So those are probably the two best places, and then our website’s just BeCoHQ.com.

Sabrina Chevannes: Perfect.

So I’m going to put all those links in the show notes so that everyone can hit you up.

But thank you so much for being on the show today. It has been amazing.

Brittany Dixon: Thank you so much for having me. This has been great.

Sabrinna Chevannes: And thanks to everyone who’s been listening.

And if you love the show, please do support us by leaving a review and just telling us what you think, and we’ll be back next week for another episode of No Bullshit Talks.