Today on Episode #37 How to Budget 3 Key Resources for Ultimate Wellbeing w. Reneé Clair , I talk with productivity coach Reneé Clair about practical ways we can maximize our time and productivity while supporting our wellbeing.

In this episode we discuss:

-why expanding time blocking allows us to better navigate life

-masculine vs. feminine energy when it comes to our resources

-the 3 resources everyone should budget for their wellbeing

-benefits of giving yourself permission to gracefully pivot if something's not working

Guest info:

The Productive WellnessPreneur aka Reneé Clair is a productivity expert for entrepreneurs and small business owners in the service industry. She geeks out ​on​ showing ​​​each client how they can break limiting beliefs, set confident boundaries and put their self-care first through productivity techniques like reorganizing their schedule and priorities as well as hiring help. Reneé specializes in process, project, and change management as well as sales and marketing strategy and she teaches her clients recruiting, training, automation, and time management skills. Reneé holds a MA in Industrial and Organizational Psychology as well as a 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Certification.

@theproductivewp on Instagram

Reneé's Website

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From a Full Cup is a mental wellness education podcast that teaches women to prioritize their wellness and put themselves first, because you can’t pour from an empty cup. 

I'm your host Natalie Mullin , Certified Wellness Educator, Speaker, Facilitator and Teacher. Every Thursday I release a new episode, teaching women how to dream big, take action and move the needle forward in life.

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Copyright 2024 Natalie Mullin

[00:00:08] Renee: Thank you, Natalie. I'm so excited to be here with you. It's a, it's a great day.

[00:00:19] Renee: please.

[00:00:43] Renee: And so I'm so excited to help women with productivity hacks, but more than that. I, I love helping women to break their own limiting beliefs, like those things that are holding them back, as well as, um, just remembering to put self-care first. I feel like that's quintessential to productivity, right, Natalie?

[00:01:22] Natalie: But the idea is to serve from overflow, not to be always empty or just giving our bare minimum, but if we pour into ourselves, then we can really pour into others. And it's just a cycle that keeps going and going. And I think that's what we want is an ongoing cycle, not just, you know, full to empty and then stop and full to empty and then stop.

[00:01:48] Renee: I am getting used to answering this question. I tend to be a very reserved Capricorn by every sense of the meme, but I've learned that when I share this, it, it really like helps me to heal, it helps, helps other women to heal.

[00:02:25] Renee: I was just in complete burnout overwhelm mode, and I was sharing everything that I was doing to my therapist and she said, Renee, me just listening to you, I feel like so drained. I feel so exhausted. And she was like, do you write. What you're doing down? I said no, and I, I told her that I was letting people down because I was double, triple booking myself, like for social events.

[00:03:16] Renee: And then she really challenged me gently, super gently to do three things that I now coach, uh, women on, which is to eat, sleep, and move. And once I started really, really like seeing what was on my plate, I just, I realized that I wasn't living for myself. There was no room for Renee to show up in the world.

[00:04:00] Renee: Um, and then from there it was an interesting journey to become a productivity coach, and I hope this is a really cool example. Nothing is linear at all. I have done everything from help people who dealt with schizophrenia and did home visits for them to, I, I was recruiter for hardware and software engineers, and a, I was a partner in a firm.

[00:04:37] Renee: And then my productivity business was born from there, and that was back in 2020.

[00:04:58] Natalie: Thankfully, uh, my marriage was restored, but for the time that it wasn't, you know, when you're in this kind of, Place of depression and you really, you lose track of yourself. You, you don't even know who you are anymore, and you're like, how did I get here? Like, how did I get here? And because you were just busy, you were going through the motions, you were running on that hamster wheel of life, and then you really just get to a, it's a, it's like a low low and you're just like, what has this all been for?

[00:05:45] Natalie: Processing where you're at right now, can you then figure out, okay, I wanna make the next step, I wanna get out of this and I wanna move forward. And something else that you talked about that I really enjoyed is that life is not linear. And I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves. And, and I'm also a teacher, so you know, we, we teach kids from kindergarten.

[00:06:33] Natalie: Life really does a lot of circles. It does a lot of spirals, and sometimes you go just completely different path you might not have expected. And I think sometimes we can put pressure on ourselves and be like, oh my gosh, I'm not where I'm supposed to be, but who, who's determining that? Right? Like who's determining what your Everything.

[00:07:10] Natalie: So I think it's open, like, you know, like even if being a pizza delivery person, like that's a part of your story and I'm sure there's, there's some point of it, like I'm sure you have some interesting stories about some people that you had to deliver pizza. Us for, right? Like, it's all a part of our story though, and I think that there's, there's no shame in any part of it.

[00:07:47] Natalie: When we think about time, um, you know, time is finite. It's not for every, like, it doesn't go on and on. We only have 24 hours in the day no matter how, how much we want more time. We all want more time, but we can't get more time. And so on this show, we're really talking a lot about mental wellness and mindset.

[00:08:18] Renee: Yeah. Um, first of all, to me, time is this like, person made construct, like we're, we're the only ones who have like placed this construct together.

[00:08:49] Renee: You know? And, you know, was I brought up. This place of like, lack, you know, um, I know I personally experienced that from a lot of people in my life. There's not enough time. There's not of this, there's not enough that, which we'll talk about some of those things later on. So I, I just realized just, just like you, Natalie, and I love that we share this in common, that the number one big game changer and shifting our perception with time is just putting our self-care first.

[00:09:46] Natalie: Yeah. No, I love that. I love that you identified that people are operating from a space of lack, like there's not enough time and it's so true. You know, I was thinking about that even this morning, actually, this, how do I want to feel and thinking about, I was actually a bit frustrated to be honest, because I'm like, you know, a lot of people are talking about they don't have time for themselves.

[00:10:23] Natalie: We just all do. And that's what I love about time. It's just, it's an equalizer. It doesn't matter if you're rich, you're poor, you're this, um, religion, you're this faith, you're this background. It's the time is the same for all of us. And so it's what are you gonna choose to do with your time? And I think we really have to operate from a place of empowerment and understanding like, No, like time belongs to us.

[00:11:03] Natalie: We are not just, you know, time is not the creator. Um, so I think we just have to feel more empowered, um, and, and really come from a place of abundance and realizing there is enough time to take care of ourselves because we are important and we val. And if you value yourself and you recognize yourself worth, then it's easier to make the time to honor yourself, to care for yourself, to manage your own wellness and wellbeing.

[00:11:28] Renee: And you hit the nail on the head. It's, we're so, this is so serendipitous. Um, I have a quote that I say to everybody in every one of my masterclasses workshops in my workbooks, and it's, don't make time. Choose time, choose you. Just simple as that. Just choosing you. I love it every day.

[00:12:00] Renee: Um, so my favorite time management technique is called time blocking. It is one way to budget time and. Time blocking means just, just kind of that, it's just like you're chunking your time together. Elon Musk does it in 15 minute increments and you know, he is brilliant and he's also.

[00:12:38] Renee: You know, our spiritual life is not separate from our money and so on and so forth, right? Mm-hmm. I. Come up with time blocking that works so, so well for my clients is instead of these 15 minute like super tight, rigid, like, you know, time blocks that people come to me and they're like, Renee, it just doesn't work.

[00:13:21] Renee: So it's so important to like, embrace life rather than to pretend that these things in our lives don't exist. And I've found that having that. More time in that capacity, we're able to get more things done in this like kinder, gentler way. Um, and then the other tip that I have is to gently work towards your ideal schedule.

[00:13:56] Renee: But there are little things that we can do to work into our lives, and I've, I've made moves to do that in my own life to like test out the theory. And it's so cool. Like, I work remotely. I walk in the morning, I walk at night. I, I make sure that I'm eating during the day, like really nice wholesome meals.

[00:14:36] Renee: How do you wanna design your life and how do you wanna run your life like a business, right? It's kind of like cool to like switch that thinking, but it brings it back to that, uh, empowerment. Natalie, like you were speaking of, like, if you think of like your life, like your children are like a business or you know, just showing up in your life as a business, what like choices would you make to run your company, like as joyously and as efficiently as you want to, to make your life happy and successful?

[00:15:04] Natalie: Yeah. So, uh, I'm just, I'm just, I just wanna sit and listen to you all day because I agree with so much of what you're saying. And at the same time, you're making me think of new things too, because time blocking is something that I learned, uh, last year and it has changed my life. It actually, was it last year?

[00:15:40] Natalie: How are you starting to, um, manage your life in a way that's more enjoyable for you? And, um, I know for myself those two hours, that's, that's how I, time block is in two hour increments and I find that that is way more productive. 15 minutes is not even enough for me to like, remember what it is I'm supposed to be doing at that moment.

[00:16:17] Natalie: It makes more sense now, now that I have my son, because, you know, he's, he's almost two and my life has changed so much since having him. And I'm, I'm, I'm like doing something and then I somehow, somehow I'm either thinking about him or have to do something for him. And so I keep getting pulled away. So I like what you're talking about, about if we have longer time blocks, then it allows for these disruptions and uh, interruptions that are just gonna happen.

[00:17:04] Natalie: So like I think that that is such a great tip and you know, a lot of people. I have done multitasking and I used to be queen of multitasking like the queen and um, Until, I wasn't, until I was doing multitasking, but the efficiency was dropping. Right? So sometimes, sometimes we're proud of ourselves for multitasking, and then it's like, wait a second.

[00:17:46] Renee: Yeah, I have, I have a funny story for you, Natalie. Um, I loved this question because I, I had forgotten about this, but a long time ago, I had an ex-boyfriend who was upset with me and he said that I'm a tasker. He's like, you're not a multitasker, you're a tasker, Renee. And I thought about it because he was like, upset with me.

[00:18:33] Renee: Oh my gosh. That is like recipe for burnout, like immediately. Um, and actually like, they're so. So much, um, you know, research that supports that focus like is means like on one thing and also it, it ties into batching, which, you know, I know that we all hear about that. Um, not the kind with the cookies, which I love chocolate chip cookies, everybody.

[00:19:16] Renee: Cycle happens. So, um, some things that have helped me to be a better tasker is to, I I, y'all, this is so, um, I'm from Texas, so I say y'all sometimes. Um, I don't have any notifications on my phone. I turn them all off. I, I cannot deal. And I have my own time box where I'll check my emails, you know, and I'll, I'll see, you know, like, I'm like, oh, I should check my text messages.

[00:20:01] Renee: That way you can turn your attention and focus on that one thing. And my, my number one suggestion for learning how to be the ultimate tasker is to really hone your skills and, or try, because I know this can be uncomfortable, but to, to meditate or, or, uh, Sit in prayer, right. Um, just something where you can calm yourself down, calm your nervous system down, and focus on, on one thing, whether that's your communication with God, goddess, universe, or you know, on your breath.

[00:20:39] Natalie: Yeah. And you know, that's a really good suggestion. And you know, it's funny 'cause for me, at first I wasn't. I felt meditation was like very hippie-ish, and I was like, oh, I'm not that person.

[00:21:08] Natalie: That's not for me. However, I started listening to guided meditations at first. Yeah. And that was helpful for me because I, it was like, it's just someone talking to me and I, I, I talk that's, I, I'm a professional talker, so, you know, I was like listening and I was like, okay. And I'm, sometimes I was like even having a conversation with, you know, this voice, but then over time I was like, okay, now I can just listen now.

[00:21:51] Natalie: And so that for me is, is growth. And so, you know, I, again, you have to measure yourself against your own self. I'm not trying to be anybody else. I'm not trying to be Renee. I am not trying to be Sally. I can only be Natalie, but I can still make an improvement, right? Like Natalie can still be better, Natalie can still learn, and Natalie can still grow.

[00:22:31] Natalie: And we're like, oh no, I don't wanna do that. Mm-hmm. But you're just finding a way to still your mind and to focus and to allow for space because our minds are crowded and we just need to empty and be still, and then we can receive. So I think that that's a, a really powerful tip.

[00:22:59] Natalie: But I'm curious to know, are there any other lesser known or maybe innovative techniques that you find particularly effective for certain types of individuals or Tufts? Yes.

[00:23:19] Renee: But then I was thinking about, okay, what, what do I personally love? That really helps me to think about. Showing up and, and managing myself, managing my life in the way that's most helpful. And so I've, I've realized that there are three areas to budget. And so of course we've talked about time that one's like interesting.

[00:23:57] Renee: So, um, you know, we're on that journey to like heal, like our relationship with money. The other one that's, I think so, so impactful is learning how to budget your energy and I think that one. Is the big thing that's getting missed. And, and what I mean by energy is in all facets of your life. Like, how does your body feel today?

[00:24:37] Renee: Like, okay, how's my money? How's my time? How's my energy and what do I need to do to refill those buckets today so that I can be the most successful? You know, that, that I wanna be. And it's, and it's a daily activity to like really get to know all of these three areas, but for me, just channeling the energy has been the huge, the biggest game changer as a woman.

[00:25:20] Natalie: So women have both masculine and feminine. Um, Traits or characteristics within them, and then have both masculine and feminine traits or characteristics within them. And ideally you're looking to pull from both, but just at different times of life. Exactly. Yep. And, um, you know, the feminine might be maybe more nurturing and, um, maybe more intentional in terms of the actions and the masculine is a little bit more aggressive and assertive and just kind of, Pursuing things at a certain level, but again, don't, it's not about, uh, a gender.

[00:26:16] Natalie: Because I think sometimes we have limited ways of thinking about what does it look like to engage in self-care. If I didn't get to a massage this week, does that mean I didn't get to engage in self-care? No. Because your self-care might've just been lying down for five minutes and just taking time for yourself or turning off your phone.

[00:26:48] Natalie: But I was a person who felt very happy to not be, I don't wanna be attached to my phone and attached to other people's timelines and expectations of me. Mm-hmm. For when I should respond to things. Like if you look at my WhatsApp, you'll see messages that have been unread for a long time because, I'm gonna choose to engage when I am ready.

[00:27:26] Natalie: You know, you've gotta do what works for you and that, and that's not my job. It's not your job to tell anybody how to live their life. They've got, they've gotta figure it out for themselves, because at the end of the day, like my f one of my most favorite quotes is to thine own self be true. And so you've gotta know who you are and just, and just live from a place of authenticity for your own self.

[00:28:04] Renee: Not only honor other people's boundaries, but to create our own and to feel like super confident, you know, in saying, yes, I have time for that. No, I don't. Yes, I have energy for that. No, I don't. Yes, I have money for that. No, I don't. You know? Yes. But, but that boundary, like around like ourselves, you know, what, what will we do and what will we not do and what do we feel comfortable with?

[00:28:30] Natalie: Definitely, I just did an episode on boundaries the other day, and actually I think it was last week, but, and that's what it's about though, is leading from a place of empowerment to know and, and confidence, right?

[00:29:02] Natalie: So folks, write that one down. And, uh, Renee. So people, um, in this, in this world and we're, you know, and it's a perfect segue because we're talking about social media, we're talking about distractions. Mm-hmm. How can, you know, social media is a part of most people's lives these days, and so is digital devices and, and whatever.

[00:29:28] Renee: , thank you Natalie. That is a, a really great question and it's so interesting, like, uh, how we have this relationship with technology now. It's just infused in our lives and, you know, we're getting to know AI so much more. It's been around for so long, but now it's like kind of this. Big push and we're figuring out, okay, what does that mean?

[00:30:04] Renee: Like, how is this helpful? How does this, how is this conducive to your life? Is this providing you with more energy or is it draining it? You know? 'cause there might be some moments where you're like, oh, look at this. Like funny, like cute, like dog reel. You know, I love dogs. Um, but at other moments you might find a reel that like creates.

[00:30:38] Renee: So it's like, okay, like I know that I'm showing up on Instagram and LinkedIn and TikTok and whatever because I want to x. Right. And then that way it becomes like part of your journey instead of something that you like end up presenting, right? And then you can like really re uh, you know, frame your time around all of your, your goals and that sense of why that deeper sense of why is what I call it.

[00:31:24] Natalie: But then this starts to. To drain you, and then you start to be like, I don't even want to do this anymore. And then your energy around the content changes anyways, right? Yeah. So if you come from a place of, I choose to do this just as you said, I choose to do this because I'm growing my reach, or because I wanna find new clients, or because I wanna get this message out there, then you're leading from a place of power and purpose.

[00:32:08] Natalie: My

[00:32:33] Renee: Figure out like your goals and, and what you're working towards. So for me, like productivity ties so deeply into goals and, and how you really wanna live your life. Um, this one is kind of interesting. Like as you go through every moment in your day and figuring out how to spend your time, like really listen to your intuition or, or god goddess universe like, Listen to yourself, and if something doesn't feel right, give yourself permission to what I call gracefully pivot.

[00:33:23] Renee: But I think our, our purpose, especially when it comes to productivity, is embracing change. Um, not only because that's kind of the nature of. Of our lives, but more so that that's where we can celebrate our internal growth. We can grow as a human being, grow as a mom, grow as a a partner, grow as a a, a child of a, an older parent, you know, and grow in all these ways if we release this attachment to like, everything has to say the same.

[00:34:14] Natalie: Because at the end of the day, like we're not machines that we don't have to force ourselves to stay in these specific boxes or these specific lines on the calendar that we've arranged for ourselves. Again, that empowerment to say, well, we are the, we are the ones in control of our time. If we have to arrange something, if something just doesn't get done today, it's okay.

[00:34:51] Natalie: Right? So there's no point in saying like, oh, I'm really craving connection and just spending time with loved ones, and then you don't honor it. A point of self-care. You have to, it's the awareness, but then it's action that comes with it. And if you feel like, okay, maybe I can't do a three hour block, but I can give a good 10 minutes to myself right now.

[00:35:29] Natalie: No job takes over for 24 hours of the day. There's no one solo responsibility that is in full operation all 24 hours of the day. So at some point there can be a little bit of wiggle room, even if it's. In the car, right? Like you're go, like I have those days. I have those days where you're just going from one to two, to three, to four to five.

[00:36:09] Natalie: Right? So what, what can you do for yourself in the, those gaps that you can still be meeting and honoring your needs, um, is, is really powerful. And Renee, this has been just such an amazing conversation. Um, I just want you to tell the people how can they find you and learn more about what you offer.

[00:36:30] Renee: I am on Instagram and my handle is the productive wp, so the productive wellness printer. And I just made a. Um, a LinkedIn page. So I would love for you to come hang out on there. It's, uh, gonna get up and running in a couple of weeks and I should have some good, uh, fun goodies to share with you on there.

[00:37:19] Renee: And then, then you'll like be part of my Clarity Club newsletter, and I share tips on productivity in a heartfelt way every week.