The Secrets to Accountability and Time Management with Tarra Stubbins
May 30, 2024Season 2Episode 9
Dr. Ryan Wakim / Tarra Stubbins
Join us for an enlightening discussion on The Secrets to Accountability and Time Management with Tarra Stubbins, founder of Take It Easy Group. In this engaging podcast episode, Tara shares invaluable insights and practical strategies for redefining success, prioritizing tasks, and achieving balance in a busy world.
Tara challenges the misconception of equating a full calendar with success, drawing from her experience supporting high-profile individuals. She advocates for prioritizing tasks aligned with long-term goals and cultivating a balanced approach to time management.
Explore the nuances of effective time blocking and the pitfalls of traditional to-do lists as Tara emphasizes integrating top priorities into the calendar. Learn the value of daily reflection to ensure alignment with personal goals and well-being.
Discover how to redefine success, integrate priorities into your calendar, and cultivate a fulfilling approach to productivity. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a creative professional, or anyone seeking to optimize your workflow, Tara's insights provide actionable tips for unlocking your full potential. Tune in to gain valuable guidance for achieving success on your terms.
Introduction (00:00) Guest Introduction (00:25) Tarra's Journey (02:27) Transition to Entrepreneurship (05:00) Time Management Insights (06:10) Tara's Tips for Effective Time Management (09:03) Delegation and Prioritization (11:10) Importance of a Balanced Calendar (15:17) Time Blocking Challenges (23:20) To-Do Lists vs. Prioritization (23:47) Mental Health and Reflection (29:21) Closing Remarks (31:34)
Tarra Stubbins Founder of Take It Easy Group of Companies
Tarra is a certified Lifestyle Manager, Accountability and Time Management Coach, Celebrity Concierge and most recently the founder of Take It Easy Group, a team of experienced executive assistants helping seed and series a startups scale for success.
Tarra's passion is helping time-strapped executives and entrepreneurs soar with their own goals, both personally and professionally. Thanks to many years managing the demanding schedules of rock star celebrities and 7-figure CEOs, Tarra brings a ton of hands-on experience and real-deal time management strategies to her clients and also filters it down to her own staff, spanning everything from calendar management and outsourcing to goal-setting and prioritization.
Ready to level up your entrepreneurial game? 🚀 Join THE END GAME CLUB on Facebook and gain EXCLUSIVE access to FREE success checklists, books, and all the resources you need to kickstart your entrepreneurial journey! 📚👉 https://www.facebook.com/groups/theendgameclub
Subscribe to my channel https://www.youtube.com/@theendgamecoach6602/
Follow me on Social Media https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100085095900141 https://www.instagram.com/endgamecoach/
Join us for an enlightening discussion on The Secrets to Accountability and Time Management with Tarra Stubbins, founder of Take It Easy Group. In this engaging podcast episode, Tara shares invaluable insights and practical strategies for redefining success, prioritizing tasks, and achieving balance in a busy world.
Tara challenges the misconception of equating a full calendar with success, drawing from her experience supporting high-profile individuals. She advocates for prioritizing tasks aligned with long-term goals and cultivating a balanced approach to time management.
Explore the nuances of effective time blocking and the pitfalls of traditional to-do lists as Tara emphasizes integrating top priorities into the calendar. Learn the value of daily reflection to ensure alignment with personal goals and well-being.
Discover how to redefine success, integrate priorities into your calendar, and cultivate a fulfilling approach to productivity. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a creative professional, or anyone seeking to optimize your workflow, Tara's insights provide actionable tips for unlocking your full potential. Tune in to gain valuable guidance for achieving success on your terms.
Introduction (00:00) Guest Introduction (00:25) Tarra's Journey (02:27) Transition to Entrepreneurship (05:00) Time Management Insights (06:10) Tara's Tips for Effective Time Management (09:03) Delegation and Prioritization (11:10) Importance of a Balanced Calendar (15:17) Time Blocking Challenges (23:20) To-Do Lists vs. Prioritization (23:47) Mental Health and Reflection (29:21) Closing Remarks (31:34)
Tarra Stubbins Founder of Take It Easy Group of Companies
Tarra is a certified Lifestyle Manager, Accountability and Time Management Coach, Celebrity Concierge and most recently the founder of Take It Easy Group, a team of experienced executive assistants helping seed and series a startups scale for success.
Tarra's passion is helping time-strapped executives and entrepreneurs soar with their own goals, both personally and professionally. Thanks to many years managing the demanding schedules of rock star celebrities and 7-figure CEOs, Tarra brings a ton of hands-on experience and real-deal time management strategies to her clients and also filters it down to her own staff, spanning everything from calendar management and outsourcing to goal-setting and prioritization.
Ready to level up your entrepreneurial game? 🚀 Join THE END GAME CLUB on Facebook and gain EXCLUSIVE access to FREE success checklists, books, and all the resources you need to kickstart your entrepreneurial journey! 📚👉 https://www.facebook.com/groups/theendgameclub
Subscribe to my channel https://www.youtube.com/@theendgamecoach6602/
Follow me on Social Media https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100085095900141 https://www.instagram.com/endgamecoach/
Welcome to the end game podcast season two, where I bet you didn't know what you didn't know. I'm Dr. Ryan Wakim, successful entrepreneur and your end game coach. I want you to sit back, relax, and tune in to today's episode. Secrets to accountability and time management with Tara Stubbins laying out the introduction here. I'm super excited to announce the guest today. Tara, our guest today has a remarkable journey that began 17 years ago in a hotel kitchen where a simple moment sparked a profound realization. Fast forward to now. She's a seasoned celebrity concierge, adept at making a list or shine while managing a thriving small business. Her mission empowerment armed with insights from the stars. She shares practical tools for success. Emphasizing that scaling your business or company doesn't mean sacrificing your life. Join us as we uncover her inspiring story and glean wisdom for living life to the fullest. Welcome to the Secrets to Accountability and Time Management with Tara Stubbins. And with that, Tara will bring you into the studio. Thank you for joining us. As I said, I'm super excited for today's conversation. You know, as we kind of talked about beforehand, my whole kind of background as a psychiatrist is really around scaling a business and growth and coaching and mentoring others. From this concept of a foundational mindset and you, there's a lot of similarities there and what I've seen and heard from you, but that's what we're going to talk about today is just how we really coach and mentor others as it relates to the mindset or, you know, for you a lot around accountability and time management and some other facets too. But anyway, welcome to the show. Super excited to have you. Is there any comments you want to make before we dive in? Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me. As I said, before we went live, I am so excited to have this conversation. A lot of times people just kind of read blanket questions and aren't really into the whole conversation. So I'm really excited to, yeah, to have this conversation with you. So thanks so much for having me. Let's dive right in. So, as I said, I approached this from the foundation of how you get your mindset, right? And then kind of scaling from there. You do a lot of work around. Uh, again, with celebrities and others managing a concierge business, you've put a lot of focus on time management and time efficiency. And that's something I've spoken about as well, uh, but just super interested in your stance on that and kind of how you discovered that, like what was your aha moment around that? And then how have you implemented that with others? So we'll start there. Yeah. Yeah, so there's a lot of things to unpack in all of those questions. So I will try to get to all of them, but first I want to start out with a story, which will kind of tie it all in together. So when I was really little, I used to have a t shirt that said, remember me, I'm going to be a star. And I wore that shirt. everywhere to the point where it disintegrated. I still really wish I had it today. I guess I could make one, but it's not the same. Um, but in my very young, undeveloped mind, I always thought that being a star was being a rock star. So singing, dancing, performing up there on the stage, like in the light, that sort of star. And the problem with me is that I have very little musical talent. Sounds like a dying animal when I try to sing or play an instrument. So I thought, you know. Well, I've tried to, you know, play the piano, play the guitar. I don't really get very far. So I guess that I'm never going to achieve my dream and you know, that's it. I'm just going to be an ordinary human being and, you know, live my life like that. And, but for some reason, even in my very like young undeveloped brain, I decided to not throw out my entire dream. I decided to keep, you know, 0. 11 percent of it and, you know, put it in my figurative back pocket and I walked around with it all the time. And there'd be days, weeks, months, years that would go by where I wouldn't even remember that I wanted to be a rock star or a star until those like pivotal moments in life came up where I had to make those decisions. And then I would always think, oh yeah, I wanted to be a rock star. That's cool. Still can't dance. Still can't sing. Um, but it would help kind of guide me into different directions or into like the direction that I guess was the best for me. And that's really how I became not necessarily a rock star up on the stage, but one that was behind the stage, uh, supporting the team. The biggest celebrities that anyone probably has ever heard of having the opportunity to support them in their lives and their careers. And because I was embedded in their lives, I was, and I always had the idea of like, why them? You know, why was it them up on the stage and not necessarily me? Why am I behind the stage? And don't get me wrong, I was never jealous of them. And the more I got into my career, I actually realized that this is where I'm meant to be. I absolutely love helping people. And I'm so fortunate to be able to do it every single day. So I would never actually want to be the one up on the stage. But I always started thinking, why that? You know, I, I worked with the Rolling Stones and Mick Jagger. And you know, why, Big Jagger up on the stage and why not this person who is busking on, you know, the street corner? Why did he get to be this way? And because of that, I was always so fascinated in exactly what they did. These big rock stars every single day to build their success and maintain their success. And it really all came down to how they manage their time. Now, I don't want people to come back and say, Well, of course they can, you know, manage their own time the way that they want to manage their time because they're billionaires and they can pay people to do everything else. I can't do that. And I completely understand. But from the early days, they didn't have anyone either. So it's all about exactly how you are spending your time kind of moving the needle towards your big end goal. And really the only thing in my opinion that separates really successful people from people who aren't necessarily successful yet or struggle to be successful is that they Um, can't figure out the right way to spend their time. That's fascinating. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? Like what, or give me an example of what the right way to spend your time might be. If you are looking, you know, again, that's all in the eye of the beholder, right? Someone might be looking to spend their time or might have a very different goal than Mick Jagger. But if you're going, you know, maybe the commonality or examples of what you've seen for these superstars. What is a way in which they've been spending their time that the rest of us don't or don't typically think about? Yeah, that's a really good question. And kind of all goes back to what is your goal? So one of my biggest pet peeves is that when people will read a book from, you know, the famous celebrity or a really important, powerful CEO, and they come back to me and they go, Hey, Tara, I'm trying to copy this person's routine. They're a success. You know, why can't I be a success? I'm getting up at four o'clock in the morning, just like they do. I'm meditating for 20 minutes a day. I'm, you know, doing all these things. And the problem is, is that you are not them. You are living your own life. You are have your own goals. As you mentioned, you have your own dreams and you are on your own path to wherever it is. And also, you know, life is also happening to you as well. So, you know, the roadblocks are coming into play and not necessarily exactly the same as this person who has written the book. This book and you know, when I was out on the road, you talked a little bit about my aha moment and when I was out on the road, I was always asked to do um, some crazy things for the celebrities that I was kind of chasing around the world. Um, some way too crazy to even mention, but I remember very vividly. There was this time where this rockstar would always, one of his crazy requests was that he always wanted his. to be every time it was taken out of the suitcase. So every time we traveled to a new hotel or a new destination, which was sometimes like every day, uh, he wanted his toothbrush to be sanitized in a hotel dishwasher. I know crazy request. I don't even don't even go there. There's so many questions. I always get asked, you know, why did he want it? The dishwasher, why didn't you just buy another one? I also get asked why I actually did it. But I guess that speaks to my integrity a little bit. So anyway, there I was in this brand new hotel in actually Shanghai. Never stayed there before. So they didn't realize that, you know, this crazy lady was coming down with this toothbrush request. And I was trying to communicate in the language. I didn't speak their language. They didn't speak English that I had to put this toothbrush in the dishwasher. And it was a long time ago. So it was before, you know, our phones could do the translating for us. And I was again, trying to communicate that this toothbrush had to go in the dishwasher and they were looking at me like I had three heads. It was probably the most awkward. moment of my life. And I was standing there with toothbrush in hand. And all I remember thinking was, there's gotta be more to life than this. And that was kind of my big aha moment where I realized that there really had to be more to life than, you know, chasing these rock stars around the world. But I really wanted to be still be able to help people and still be able to help, you know, as many people as I possibly could. kind of achieve their dreams, which I was doing out on the road. So I came off the road and I opened up my own business with zero business background at all. And I, I was a dirty roadie. I knew how to put toothbrushes in dishwashers and, you know, chase rock stars around the world. That was about it. But I had a goal and I had a passion to help as many people as I possibly could. And as I failed a million times, but continued on, I kept thinking of the rock stars and celebrities that I supported. And I always came back to the fact that they are the most focused and goal oriented individuals I have ever come across in my entire life. And going back to how I was so fascinated and how they became a success and how they maintained their success, it really was having a vision that they could held on to like a dog on a bone and they did not let it go and then focusing their time as we were talking about what is going to move the needle on that goal. And so a lot of times we can get stuck on, you know, especially as entrepreneurs who are trying to do everything ourselves on, there's just so much to do. I just don't know where to start. I'm always so busy. I get a lot of people come back to me, probably due to, you know, I just don't know what I did in the day. I'm exhausted. I worked 15 hours, but I don't know what I actually accomplished. So it's actually scaling that back and knowing exactly what you accomplished and making sure that it is at least one little thing that is moving the needle on your goal. So if your goal is to make a million dollars this year in your business, Great. What do you have to do today to move that needle? And, of course, you need to break it down and we can get into goal setting and all of that into, you know, manageable chunks. So, obviously, maybe you figured out that every day you need to send 100 cold emails. And I'm just throwing numbers out here. Please don't copy what I'm saying. But just say 100 cold emails to get to that million dollars. Great. So have you sent the a hundred cold emails today? No. Well then maybe you're not spending your time as efficiently as possible. Yeah, no, I love that. I love the story behind every successful person. There's usually a, you know, a story like that. It's incredibly interesting. I don't know where I would be trying to translate in Shanghai about putting this. Toothbrush into some random hotel dishwasher. Yeah. Um, but I love, so again, I love the kind of key takeaways from that story and the point since, and, you know, reminds me of a couple of things. So when I look at, you know, my career, when we've looked at or helped patients who may be struggling with getting out of their own way or, or, you know, With, you know, they have a vision or a goal, but they have no strategy to get there. And going back to chunking it down that idea, we, I talk a lot about journaling and, and actually, again, achieving, taking something that seems, you know, far, like really stretched really far out of the realm of possibility, you know, a million dollars this year. But when you chunk that down to hate. It's, it's just a hundred emails a day. And Oh, by the way, there's this technology to allow you to, to do that with a stroke of a, of a key of a keyboard, you know, then it starts becoming attainable. Right. And I think it was atomic habits where they talk about just 1 percent every day. Right. If you just, if you made progress, 1 percent progress every single day, the compounding interest on that is incredible. Right. And so what seems impossible as you chunk it down. Can become possible. And it is about realigning vision and making and grounding someone in that in the daily reality, not the, not the future reality. So again, I love that. Yeah, and I always think, too, people get stuck in the busy work. So they say, you know, we hear a lot about people saying, do your top 3 priority items every single day, which I love, but I think people don't classify their priority items correctly. So they'll say, you know, priority number 1 is I have to renew my passport. Priority number 2 is, you know, I have to make a dentist appointment and priority number 3 is I have to clean out my inbox or something like that. And it's like, Okay. Yes. I understand. You know, your passport is very important and maybe you have a trip coming up. So maybe that is priority or maybe that's just something that's on your mind right now and not necessarily a priority right this second to move your goal forward. So it's all about realizing exactly what is a priority for you and what is a priority for your goals and not copying everybody else's and what everybody else is doing. And I really think that helps people focus more on that end game, that end goal. That big vision. And it also, in my opinion, it helps people become less overwhelmed. Because you know, you know, kind of all this busy work, all this stuff, like life, we're adults, we have to deal with it. And I'm not saying don't do it. Just maybe not today, while you're really trying to focus on Getting those cold email templates set up so you can then send them, you know, automated and while they're being sent automated, you can renew your passport or something like that. Yeah. And again, totally agree with all of that. In fact, it reminds me of a two by two I've used in the past, which is, you know, what are the tasks that are, that are truly urgent? What are the ones that are actually not urgent? And then what are the things you need to be doing and things other people could be doing? Right. And so what I heard from one of the takeaways I heard from your story from before is, If, if, or when you can get there, delegation actually can be really helpful. What are the things that are actually maybe a priority in the grand scheme of your life? But are also not the highest and best use of your time. And that's, I'm always thinking that way as a physician and a psychiatrist. Like there are definitely things that, you know, I, if I'm seeing a patient going to prescribe Zoloft, um, that is something I need to do. That is the highest and best use of my time. Rescheduling their appointment may not be the highest and best use of my time. So using a two by two or getting better perspective to your exact point is. Again, really important for people who are trying to become either trying to become an entrepreneur, trying to scale, trying to reach an end game or a big vision or some transition point in their life where it can feel overwhelming day to day, especially when you. Are down in the weeds in the busy work. And I, and I, by the way, I love, I think it was on your website, maybe where it says, you know, get, get out of the call to busy. Right. And if you ask someone, you know, how was your day? It was busy. I'm busy. You know, it's, we use busy as if it's some sort of catch all descriptor and we use it way too much. I mean, it describes too much of our lives and I vision, or I believe that you're. Mindset around that is similar, which is, Hey, if you had a fully committed day, it was fully committed or some other way to say that. Cause as we talk about mindset's important, if it's always just busy, you know, if my wife comes home and asks me every day, how was your day? And my answer every day is busy. You know, she's a details person. She needs to know, well, busy, didn't tell me anything, right? You're always busy and we're always busy. So anyway, I love that verbiage and mindset and just that. Thought of, Hey, quit being busy, right? Start being action oriented, start being accountable, start being committed. What else would you say around that? Cause I'm, I'm very intrigued by that. That message. Yeah. I think that people put a lot importance on how full their calendar is. So, you know, I must be a success because I'm in back to back meetings from 8 AM till 7 PM. Are you a success or are you just tired? You know? So I, I actually did that. Uh, too, because one of the people that I supported, not necessarily a rock star, but he was a professional speaker that traveled around the world and did a lot of motivational speaking. And his calendar when he wasn't on stage was back to back to back meetings, meetings. He was always on the phone right before he went on this stage. And it was my first experience working with someone who wasn't like a rock star or a, an actor or a professional athlete. And so when I was starting my business, I always thought, Oh, well, I have to be like him. I have to have back to back meetings. I have to be on phone calls all the time, you know, and I remember striving for that and then getting there and being like, Oh, my goodness. I am so tired. What is happening? I can't control my day. Um, and that's kind of where the idea of quitting the cult of busy came from is that, you know, it's not important. It's not a sign of success. Um, having all of these meetings, it's really, you know, how are you spending your time? How are you? What is happening in the meetings? Of course, as your business grows, you know, I'm not naive. I know that you are going to be working very hard and there are gonna be sacrifices that have to be made with your time and your personal energy and your sleep, and sometimes family and friends to kind of get to that level. Um, but I always think that it's not necessarily something that you want to strive for. I run a coaching business, but also an executive, a fractional executive assistant business. And we always say that we're going to help people quit the cult of busy and they think, Oh, great. You know, I'm going to be sitting here with my feet up. I'm going to be relaxing, drinking a margarita. And it's like, no, you know, you're just going to be chasing and busy on the important things and not necessarily running around chasing your tail thinking, what have I done actually in the day? So when I think about quitting the cult of busy, I really think about striving for, um, like a successful day that is unique to you. And I talk about that a lot, like, what is your own dreams? What are your own goals? What's a successful day mean to you? Um, and you know, running a business, again, I'm, I'm not naive. Um, I don't want to sit here and tell people that they're going to be able to work a nine to five or a less, like a four hour work week. That's great to strive for eventually, but it's just not going to happen when you're first starting out in your business. Right. Yeah. I think it's important to align on the, on the reality. Right. Um, and again, just love the, love the whole idea. One of the things I've, so I'm a, I've even preached on this podcast around the idea of being a steward to your calendar. And to your point, that doesn't mean Literally, every single minute back to back to back from, you know, 7 to 7 is booked. It might mean, you know, what I've talked about before is your hard blocking in exercise time. You're hard blocking in a walk or you're so you're following a calendar. But, you know, you have room for kind of other and. To your point, 1 of the things you really need to do with that is make sure that you're booking the things today or for today that are aligned with what is actually important for success for today, right? You're not just throwing meetings into a slot to do it. You do it with intention. And the other thing I've actually done is a setting. I've actually set up is. Where you, you end your meeting, you know, a 30 minute meeting ends five minutes before a, an hour long meeting ends 10 minutes before. And so at the very least, it's not always back to back to back. And I forget who said it, um, or the concepts title, but there's the idea that your work will expand to contract with the time you a lot, right? So if you give a meeting an hour, you're likely going to spend an hour on it, even if it really should have been a 15 minute meeting. And so being incredibly intentional with. What's your, you know, how important your time is right. Time is not something we ever get back. It is the most valuable thing we have. And so being incredibly intentional with how you are blocking or booking or scheduling your time. And to your point, doing away with the mindset of if I book 12 hours, that means I'm successful, right? Because it could be 12 hours of. Of junk. In fact, just one more piece on that. My wife, interestingly, you mentioned a dentist. My wife's actually a dentist. And when she thinks about, you know, what's important for her day, there's, there's obviously the patient care aspect, but part of it is building a schedule that is not just building a schedule, but that actually meets a goal for the day. Financially, it meets a goal for the day with different case types. You know, again, you don't want to have all the same cases if you want, if you value variety. And so when she looks at her schedule, she's looking at it as. You know, what, what is being produced that day? If this, if the work gets done, what are the different clinical things that are happening that day? Is it because she values varieties or variety here? And so that's an example of how, how you might look at your schedule very differently as compared to it's just. This thing you block time into, and you don't value your time and you're not putting the emphasis on the things you have to do today to get to your end game down the down the road. It's true. I actually work with people who have, you know, ADHD and sometimes they find, um. That having a blocked calendar is actually more stressful than having a blank calendar. I also work with some, a lot of creative people in like the YouTube space and podcast space and the creative mindset of having a blocked calendar, even if it's like free time, nine to noon, or, um, you know, creative time eight till 1am or whatever it is. They still get very stressed out about seeing those block to block to block. So I tell people, please follow your calendar. Use it, you know, as your number one priority kind of task list. But if not ever seeing blank space, even if it is blank space, like eat lunch, work out, you know, have free time. Then make sure you adjust your calendar accordingly to what works best for you. And I think a lot of times. Time management gurus will come out and say, block every minute of every day. So you know what you're doing. And I agree with knowing what you're doing on a daily basis, but it doesn't work for everybody. So I just wanted to make sure that people, your listeners really understood that blocking the calendar, if it stresses you out, cause I understand it does stress some people out. Then maybe just put the important stuff on. So put, you know, the meetings, the appointments. Um, one or two things you don't want to forget, uh, during the day. Um, and I also get a lot of people ask me, you know, I'm a creative person. I want to write a book, but I can't force myself to be creative in this exact time block that I've set out for the day. It's hard to sit down and be like, okay, now I'm going to be creative. So what do I do with that? And I always say that the calendar is you know, it's fluid. So just because you put a 9 to 12 time block of being creative and you are just you just can't force any creativity, then move it around, move it to maybe later in the afternoon. Maybe, you know that if you work out, then you're more creative after it. So maybe move your like workout time to before, you know, kind of Be creative with your calendar. I know a lot of people will say I've tried time blocking. It doesn't work for me, but that's just because they're being so rigid with it. And I think that's something that's not really necessarily talked about a lot when you talk about time blocking for time management purposes. Yeah, no, I love, again, I love those ideas. I guess I haven't yet worked with a whole lot of really creative people because I haven't really run into many issues there, but makes. Perfect sense, right? Especially those who are artistic in nature or just their, their skill set or talent relies on creativity. So yeah, that, that makes a lot of sense. And that's a great, great tip for the, for the crowd here. Any other like unconventional things that you would point out from a time management or accountability, we kind of touch on accountability a little bit, but is there more you would, you know, give the audience here around what accountability means or what something unconventional might look like in that space? Yeah, I like to talk a lot about to do lists and kind of my hatred towards to do lists, so don't get me wrong, I love a good list, and I think lists are really great for, you know, a brain dump or a grocery list or something like that. Absolutely love it. Or, you know, sometime in the future. I want to do this list. Absolutely great. But like a day to day to do list. I personally think beats us up as human beings and it's because it's never ending and there's never actual time on the calendar to actually do those things. So again, we talked about, you know, the top three priorities of the day and making sure that they are aligned with your goals. And I love what your wife does about making sure that she's like checked off certain categories in her day, growth and finance and things like that. I absolutely love that. And it goes back to kind of what a successful day means to each person. But not having a to do list doesn't help you at all. Even if you're to your three most priority tasks that you know are going to move the needle are on a sticky note and you know, you have to get to it at some point. When are you getting to them? So making sure that you take that kind of list or your top three priorities and working it into your calendar is really great. Again, it goes back to kind of how you time block. So if you time block. You know, creative time or administration time or whatever, be specific and in that administration time, write the two emails that you really need to respond to today that are actually going to move that needle on your goal. Um, and I always put a task on my calendar at the end of the day, um, that I can check off every single day, mark is complete and it's a question to myself and it is, you know, have I, well, I actually do too. One, have I done something hard today that has helped me grow because I believe personally that, you know, we can, you know, surf through life and do all the easy things, but are regrowing and succeeding. I don't know. I've never seen it happen. It's always trying to move outside of your comfort zone where you grow and succeed. So I always ask myself, have I done. 10 minutes of something hard that I don't necessarily wanna do, and I can reflect on the day. Yes, I actually did. And yes, it actually did help me grow in this, this way. And another thing I ask myself is, um, have I completed one thing towards my goal? So then I can look back at all the things that I have done on a, on during my day and I can go, Nope. You know, I did not. I got sidetracked. I, um, you know, got off and working with celebrities, my, I always plan out my day. And then they always have another decision of how I'm going to actually spend my days, but I always like to bring it back to myself and my goals. So sure, I could be crazy busy with them, but like, what have I actually done today? And if I haven't done anything, then I make it an absolute priority the next day to start out with doing one thing that is truly moving my goal. So yeah, so I just want to say that to do list. Not necessarily great, adding them to your calendar and really thinking about those priorities are something that will really help people. And then thinking about what actually is a successful day for you. So for me, I always, again, like to kind of ask myself three questions. And it is, you know, have I been able to work as hard as I possibly can today? Like, have I given it my all? It could be an absolute horrible day. I run multiple businesses. There's lawsuits, there's, you know, people quitting, there's horrible clients. I work with celebrities who have high, high personalities, you know, high tension, so I can have bad days. But I always think, did I give it my all? Yes. Okay. I gave today my all. I gave it as much as I could give today. Great. Have I been able to spend a moment, um, for myself or doing something for myself? So did I take 10 extra seconds to just take some few deep breaths, do a little stretch? Did I eat a healthier lunch than I would want to eat normally? You know, things like that. Have I done just something for myself? And then the other thing is, is have I been able to reach out to at least one person that I love and care about? So whether it's, you know, a text message or, um, a conversation or whatever it is, and not putting too much stress on myself to reach out to a new person every single day. Just, you know, have I said hello to my mother or my husband or my cat for a little extra time. And then when I can say those three things, I know that I have had a successful day. So if you take away anything, I would love for everyone to go and kind of think about what their kind of questions of how they have had a successful day. And please don't copy mine. It can be whatever you want. And it doesn't have to be three. It can be one, two, five questions, whatever you want. But really kind of understand that Especially life as an entrepreneur. It's really hard, but and but have you had a good day because we don't know how many days we're actually going to have again. Truly. That's incredible advice. It goes as a mental health professional, right? We talk a lot about. Whether that's journaling or this idea of reflection. And what I love about what you just said is we started this podcast with this idea of you have to know where you, you know, you have to have a vision with where you want to go in order to have a strategy and do all this stuff we're talking about to get there. And, you know, which you just talked about with to do lists and these, these other aspects has everything to do with. Staying on track to get to that final endpoint or that, that end game. And in the meantime, do it in a way that's both intentional, but aligned with who you are as a person. Right. And I love the reflect back on the day. Ask yourself, you know, we know that the power of your life comes down to the power of the questions you're willing to ask. And so I agree with the listeners can take anything away from this. It is ask yourself difficult questions or ask yourself questions that help align you to where you want to be. Uh, and, and that alone. Will likely drive an incredible amount of value and hopefully success over time, but we're really love that that, um, That feedback and that tip. I also really love the idea of, um, because, you know, this idea of chunking things down and that that can look like lists, but if your list is actually built into your calendar, tying all that together is also a really cool concept that personally, I hadn't thought about, but makes an incredible amount of sense. So those are awesome tips. Uh, if someone were interested in, you know, finding you looking, you know, Coming up with some more lists or tips or tricks and kind of reading more about you. Um, we'll throw those into the show notes, obviously. But if you want to speak a little bit about your media presence or website, this would be a time to do that. Sure. So on socials, I'm Tara's time, Tara with two R's, uh, time and LinkedIn, Tara Stebbins, only one, I believe. Uh, and my business is called take it easy, take it easy group. Uh, so you can also find me there as well. And if anyone has any questions or thoughts on goal setting, time management, um, stuck working towards, um, building a business or kind of stuck in that kind of hump of not being able to get over to like the next level of success. Please reach out. I would love to have a conversation. That's awesome. Tara, it's been a real pleasure. Today's conversation was incredibly interesting and actually very valuable for all of our listeners, including myself. I'm so glad you chose to come on the Endgame podcast and really excited for what you have going on. And hopefully our paths will cross again sometime soon because I think this was incredible, incredible information for everyone. So thank you very much for joining us. I really appreciate you coming on. Anything else you want to say to the audience before we. We sign off just a huge thank you. And always remember to hold your dreams close. All right. Thank you, Tara. Awesome job. Thank you very much. All right, everyone. Well, uh, thank you for listening. Please like subscribe, share, check out the show notes or some great information there for you, a loved one, your, your business partner. Once again, I'm Dr. Ryan Wacom successful entrepreneur and your end game coach. I'm going to teach you how to exist today so you can expand tomorrow and create the ultimate end game of your wildest dreams. Talk to you soon.