Don’t want to read the blog and get ALL the flavor with these lovely ladies there? Listen to it here: Mindfully Productive Podcast: The Place Where You Get Your Life Back.
Overview
We discuss their experiences with the Mindfully Productive Planner, a tool designed to manage stress, overwhelm, and time. Ja’Nina shared her insights on the importance of self-care for chronically ill women, while she emphasized the unique combination of journal prompts and scheduling in the planner. Shawn discussed the benefits of essential oils and aromatherapy education for fibromyalgia management, and Shawn highlighted the value of investing in personalized time management and productivity coaching. The group also discussed the importance of scheduling brain breaks and taking breaks to avoid burnout.
Who are they?
Shawn Every is the owner of Whispering Wellness and is affectionately known as the oil whisperer. She is a lover of essential oils and uses her aromatherapy education to help women who deal with fibromyalgia, and all the symptoms that come with them, to empower them, and help take charge of their health. Her expertise is to come in and help these women who are fed up with trying everything and it’s not working.
Ja’Nina Hamilton is the owner of Ja’Nina Hamilton Coaching and host of The Calming Confectionery Podcast. She has certifications in emotional intelligence and self-care. I am a certification in emotional intelligence and self-care. Her specialty is being a Self Care Coach for chronically ill women. She helps them to stop feeling guilty for taking care of themselves. Ja’Nina gets down to the root of why they’re not taking care of themselves, and then empower them to take that at least five minutes a day to take care of them, do what lights them up. And in turn that helps them to better take care of their other responsibilities.
I know Ja’Nina because she is my sister. I was connected to Shawn because of her love of oils. Ja’Nina knew Shawn first and then we became friends. It’s been great for all of us to be together and in the same space. And me, I am Keosha Jones, the owner of Pink Productivity Coaching and yours truly of the Mindfully Productive Era Blog as well as the Mindfully Productive Podcast: The Place Where You Get Your Life Back. I help female entrepreneurs or not who have or identify with ADHD to get organized with their time, habits, and goals to get their life on track. I use a holistic approach.
What was it that made you decide that this was the right planner for you?
Shawn:
I’m a notebook girl. And I I love planners, like because who doesn’t like to get their life organized? Right. But, um, and I have several planners that I’ve tried through the years. And even with this year, I had tried a couple of planners. But there was something about your planner, the way you were, you know, describing the, the fact that it combines journal prompts, along with scheduling really motivated me to take a look at and say, “Hey, this is something that I don’t see in, you know, anywhere else is unique. And it’s something that I think that I can use, because I was really trying to focus more on journaling.” Because that helps me with the overwhelming thoughts, the cluttered brain, you know, so it, it really, you know, was the deciding factor for me to go up here and produce, especially when you made the paper journal available.
Ja’Nina:
Yeah. So we have played with planners our entire life, right? So, I don’t know, we grew up being like planners, but I, I wanted to get into journaling, I like to write, but the blank page thing is, like, huge for me, I don’t I don’t even know how to say it. But anyway, I didn’t like the blank page. And so when I can’t, we talked a little bit about what you were doing before you started selling them. And I was like, Ooh, sounds pretty good. And then I kept seeing, keep seeing you talking to him about it. And I think the biggest thing for me was, I didn’t have to think about what I was going to write, I could just write. And I really needed that in order to get what I wanted to do out and review my day, because I wanted to review my day, I just had a hard time doing it. And I’m like, Ah, so it really helped to do that. And so, when I saw that, that was one of the things that you were offering was okay, it’s not just a planner, here’s every day, it’s let’s plan your day, emotionally, productivity wise, and then review it. I was like, well, let’s do this. Let’s try it out.
What was your productivity like before using the planner?
Ja’Nina:
I feel like I was pretty productive. Because I am a planner. And I do like to bullet journal and, and all of that. But before I was finding that I was having a lot of downtime that I didn’t know what to do with that time. And this helped me to reevaluate what I was doing with the time that I had set aside. So there is no productive rest. And I wasn’t doing productive rest in the way that I could have or had a big picture view of what I wasn’t doing until I got the planner.
Shawn:
There was no balance. It was like, one extreme or the other. So, either I would work, work, work, do the things and overwhelm myself. Not taking breaks, you know, are just not doing anything being kind of, like a paralyzing feeling that overwhelm produced in me, so I’m just like I say it was unbalanced.
So, what have the shifts in productivity been like for the two of you?
Shawn:
Well, for me, it’s made a huge difference in the way I use my time now. It’s like one of the key things is the portion where I’m scheduling what I’ll do for my brain breaks each day. So, I’m not really overwhelming myself with working, working, working, and then, you know, dealing with a chronic illness, when you feel good, then you feel like you can do all the things, and then pay for it the next day, right. So having that balance by taking those brain breaks, and also, it’s helped with my motivation to like, is because I am looking forward to doing the things in my plan of insurance, or you know, answering the prompts for the date, you know, are planning it out what my next day will be, like, even just being something as simple as the way you have the schedule setup. And I do the time block. Like that. That was it’s, it’s sounds simple, but that’s sort of new to me. And it’s something that my brain really can relate to, you know, something that I really enjoyed. So, it’s balanced now.
Ja’Nina:
The active rest, the productive rest has increased, because, like Sean said that having that time piece to look and see because I always thought, okay, if I just top load my week, and do everything that I need to do, and I still do this, I mean, because it’s just kind of how things work out. But top load my week, and then the last couple of days, I can have to just do whatever I want, I’m going to feel amazing, and it doesn’t really work out. That way, you still need to have some type of plan. And seeing where the gaps are, where there’s nothing on there, and then putting productive rest in their activities to do that has helped me the most. So, I’m able to pour into myself more rather than walking around the house going, okay, well, I don’t have anything to do right now. So, what I’m going to do now, and then that, that stress is like you can be stressed from having too much to do and also stress from not having not enough to do and so I was on that not enough to do side. So that’s kind of that’s allowed me to balance that because I was able to see it.
Have you noticed like with the daily prompts, have you noticed any patterns especially with what didn’t go well? And why are certain things that did go well for you and why?
Ja’Nina:
I think I realized that I’m doing okay because the most days, the what didn’t go well prompt, I can say, I don’t think there was anything. But being able to sit to be able to put on paper, okay, this is what I’m going to do for myself today. And knowing that even if I don’t do one or two of those things, but it’s okay, then, okay, well, most of the day went well. And if it didn’t, if there was something that was a little upsetting, it wasn’t me. It was just part of life.
Shawn:
Yeah, it’s, it’s similar to what Ja’Nina said, because how do I put it? Now, I am not as hard on myself, because it’s like, you’re not doing so bad after all, you know, when you can look at these, you know, like, what went well today. And, like she mentioned about what didn’t go well, sometimes it is a struggle to come up with, you know, there’s not much that didn’t go well. And so it’s like, so, your, your, I don’t want to use the word force, but like, you have to think about the positive aspect of life, you know, which is a good thing, which, which helps you has helped me emotionally, you know, just to be able to give myself grace, to be kinder to myself, you know, by realizing that it’s not that.
How are things going regarding an all or nothing approach to the use of the Planner & Journal?
Shawn:
Like, I have missed days, from using my planner. And normally the old showing all or nothing, Shawn would be beating myself up because I didn’t perfectly do each day as I was supposed to in the planner. But it’s like, it’s okay. You know, it’s for my benefit, is my planner, for my productivity, I can do it, in a way that benefits me. And if I miss some days in doing it, it’s okay, like, the world is not going to come to an end,
Ja’Nina:
Yeah, I didn’t use it at all last week. Um, well, I did. I did the brain dump. And, and I did do the time block, but I didn’t do the journal prompts. Like, I like I needed to. I needed to, I needed to space. And I mean, I even did that with I did that with my entire life. Really. Last week. I just, I didn’t draw a bullet journal, weekly page. I didn’t do anything. I just needed life to come to me. And like, well, I did it yesterday, so I’m back. Like yeah, when like, it’s crazy. Sometimes you just have to let go. And it’s hard, but, man, I had to just be Like, No, I’m done. I’m done for right now. Here’s my short list. And I’ll see y’all later.
Can go a little bit into more detail about your mental and emotional wellbeing when it comes down to the feelings of stress and overwhelm?
Shawn:
I was so overwhelmed too, like I mentioned that it becomes paralyzed. So, I have been able to get so much done. Like, physically and mentally. My space was cluttered, mentally cluttered, physically cluttered. And have having dealt with depression for all these number of years. Depression thrives in clutter. So now that I’ve been being more productive, it shines. Like, I wish, I wish I would have done a before picture and an after picture. Because my space is now where I can breathe. It’s like a home, you know, it was stifling before. And now I am at peace to be able to move about and do and think and just feel that I didn’t have prior to starting this journey with my planner and journal. And there’s some other elements in there, that I use the planner, for Ja’Nina’s self-care activities. And that has helped to, to it’s like a refreshing feeling that I have right now. So don’t underestimate the value of what you have here with this mindfully productive planner in general, because it’s, it’s been a game changer for me.
Ja’Nina:
I was talking about with the stress of not having enough to do. It’s, it’s not completely eliminated yet, but it’s getting there. But just being able to see that there are holes and having the choice to decide what it is I’m going to fill it with, you know, whether that’s, I need to leave the house now instead of being at home, or I can do a little bit more and get ahead for the next week or I need to sit down and crochet while I listen to a stupid TV show, you know, or whatever it is, but having a plan has really helped to reduce that, that stress of not having enough to do because I’m good when I like, have a bunch of stuff going on. Like I can just, I’m like okay, well there’s a five-minute hole I can fill that but when there’s too much time there’s hours it’s just it makes me crazy.
What would you tell someone who is contemplating buying the journal but they’re kind of on the fence?
Ja’Nina:
This is not just a journal. It’s not just a planner. It’s both and it goes much deeper than what is your schedule it’s it’s much deeper than okay I need to be here at this place and do this at this time. It’s about how you feel while you’re being productive and how you felt about your day. And then you also can take a zoom out and see where you need to move things around if necessary. It’s different from what you’re going to get in a store isn’t it is you won’t find anything like this.
Shawn:
It’s time to get off the fence. This is something that one of those things where you need it, but you may not know that you need it. Take it from me, you will be delighted that you made the investment and even more so with the with what’s coming now with the VIP experience. I thought that when I first purchased it and I got the master class on the time management course we did as well like that that was like having my coach in my pocket with me. But even more so now with the Voxer that you’ll be able to experience where you know you’ll get that one-on-one time. And something another dog came up. Oh, and I thought that the real VIP experience was So we’re trying out the Get Stuff Done session as well. If you’re going to do it, go all in. Take advantage of the entire experience, and you won’t be disappointed.
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