Using Your Project Management System Consistently

Listen and subscribe on your favorite podcast app:

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Podcasts | Pod.link / Pick Another App

Disclaimer: Please note this post may contain affiliate links. This means I may receive a commission if clicked at no extra cost to you. Though the opinions remain my own

Table of Contents

Podcast Description

Ready to transform the way you manage your online business? In this episode, Lucy Reyes and Stephanie Blake dive into the magic of project management tools and how they can revolutionize your workflow.

Whether you’re a solopreneur or have a growing team, you’ll discover how the right systems can save you time, reduce stress, and boost your business growth. If you’re ready to take your business to the next level and achieve more with less effort, this episode is a must-listen.

Links Referenced in Episode:

▶ Free Quiz: What type of planner are you?

▶ Free Private Podcast: Simple Business Show

Connect with me:

Website | Instagram

Guest Speaker Highlight

About Our Guest

Steph Blake is the founder & CEO of the Simple Business School™ membership & Simple Business Suite™, a customized all-in-one software for online business owners.

She’s a business coach & productivity expert who helps online business owners run simple, streamlined & profitable businesses in less than 20 hours/week.

She’s been in business for 8.5 years and has helped thousands of people start and scale their own businesses to reach their unique freedom goals.

She’s also a tech nerd, systems strategist, wife, mom of 2 boys under 5 and Amazon Prime addict.

Connect with Stephanie here:

Website | Follow on Instagram

Episode Transcript

(Note: This is a formatted AI-generated transcript to make it easier for you to read through, but is not an optimized blog post. Please excuse any spelling or grammar errors and filler words – it’s just how I speak LOL)

Hey, I’m Lucy Reyes, your host of the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast, where I’m on a mission to help online entrepreneurs that like you focus on all the right things and kiss overwhelmed goodbye. Here, you’re going to learn strategies that will boost your productivity so that you can scale your online biz and impact lives sooner. It’s your time to shine. So let’s get started.

Hey, welcome back to the Cheerful Productive Chats podcast. Today you’re in for a special treat. A few months ago, I was interviewed by Stephanie Blake on the Simple Business Show private podcast that helps online business owners simplify their business. In this episode, I shared my best tips for consistently using your project management system.

So you can say goodbye to those scattered, to-do list and hello to a streamlined workflow. We covered what project management is, the benefits of using a project management system. How to choose the right project management tool for your business. Tips for making the transition to a new project management system and how to use it effectively in your business.

It was such a fun conversation, and I cannot wait for you to listen to it too. So I’m going to go ahead and drop in the interview here on at the Cheerful Productive Chats podcast. Enjoy.

Stephanie Blake: Hello everybody and welcome to the Simple Business Show, which is the podcast that helps you, the online business owner, simplify and streamline your business for more impact, less stress, and more freedom. I am your host, Steph Blake, and I am so excited to have you here with me. This is going to be such an incredible conversation with my guests.

And I just, I can’t wait to dive into it. But before we get into this really great conversation that I know we’re… I’m just so excited. So excited. I want to let you know that all of these episodes are hosted live in my simple business called membership. So if you hear any background noise, or if you hear us talking to the members, like if questions come up and we’re answering them, that’s, that’s what’s going on.

So we are just keeping it very real and raw here. So if you want to learn more about the simple business school and get help with simplifying your business, we will link to that in the show notes as well. But today our guest is going to talk all about it. Using your project management system consistently.

And if you’ve been in my world for even a fraction of a second, you know, that this is something that I am so passionate about, and I love to nerd out over systems and project management and all of those things. So this is going to be, like I said, such a great conversation with our guest, Lucy Reyes, who is also a productivity strategist and host of the Cheerful Productive Chats podcast. She’s also a wife and mom of two and loves to help online business owners maximize their efficiency to increase profits without doing more. You know, that’s what I’m all about. So this is going to be such a good conversation. So welcome, Lucy. So glad you’re here.

Lucy Reyes: Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited. Just before we jumped on, we were talking about how we could geek about productivity and systems forever. So I’m so excited to get into this topic with you.

Stephanie Blake: Yeah, I know. I was like, I like to keep these like under 45 minutes if possible. Like this one’s going to be extra hard for me because I’m really going to have to reign it in because I could talk about this for like literal days, like just nonstop.

So, before we get into all of the juicy goodness about project management systems, let’s just start out with you, like who are you? What were you doing before you started in your business? Just a little background. I think it’s helpful.

Lucy Reyes: Yeah, for sure. So I have your typical entrepreneur story where I had a corporate job.

I wasn’t happy there. It was a period in time where I, so I come from a first generation background. We’re a Mexican in my family. Like, we’re all Mexican. And so, the dream is to have your kids go to college, get a 9 to 5 and that’s the dream and I did that. I worked my way up. I went to this corporate journey.

I got there and I liked it. I’m not going to say I didn’t like it, but it was so stressful. It was such a demanding. Industry and eventually it got to a point where I was working my corporate job. I had this side hustle. I started as a blogger So I have a mom blog on the side of this business. That’s like two businesses, but I started there and so I was trying to grow that. I’m trying to balance everything in my corporate job and even my husband was like you need to quit. Like this is too much.

Like I would come home stressed all the time. He could tell my mental health was taking a dip and we’re like, we’re going to figure it out. Focus on your business. Like we, like you need to stop. What I didn’t realize at the time was I was already in the middle of heading into burnout and it didn’t hit me until a couple of years later when I’m looking back and I’m like, Why did I take a break?

I ended up taking a break from my business for eight months. Like I got pregnant a few months after I left my job. I was still working on this and I couldn’t get out of bed and looking back, I’m like, I was burnt out. Like I had already gotten to this max peak moment in my life where I just couldn’t function.

And I just completely stopped doing everything. And so coming back is kind of when I transitioned out of that mom blog, I realized like what it is that my passion truly is which is productivity and just like I don’t want other people to experience this like imagine if I had kept going for those eight months. Where else my business could have been and not to say, you know, I don’t regret anything.

My journey is my journey but you don’t have to experience that to get to where you want to be and so that’s why I’m so passionate about this topic

Stephanie Blake: No, that’s amazing. Our journeys, nobody’s journey is the same. It’s going to say our stories are similar because I was in corporate too, and just kind of reached that same point where it’s like, I don’t want to do this anymore.

You know, like there’s a life beyond this and you didn’t have entrepreneurial parents or like anybody in your family. Right?

Lucy Reyes: No. So I did. So my, so I have my parent… My parents are divorced. I have my biological dad he has always had his own business and it’s in the car shop and he really wanted me to take that over and I’m like, I don’t like cars. I don’t want to do anything with cars, but I have always been a business. Like business-spirited and I so did actually I do have my degree in business.

I was a supply chain major and at the time I didn’t realize that it was entrepreneurship that I wanted but I did have this dream of like helping small businesses grow their business, but at the time it wasn’t from an online business perspective it was like I want to be a consultant I just want to go to someone’s business and like analyze what the situation is and give them strategies to you know to grow it like that was what I wanted to do and eventually I found it in this but not even realizing that that’s kind of what we’re doing, right?

We’re like consultants for these other businesses to help them with their time and their productivity.

Stephanie Blake: Yeah, no, totally. I, oh yeah. Yeah. This is so good. This is like when, I just have a question. When did you discover this magical world of the online space? Was it like when you were a blogger or did you stumble into it after that?

Lucy Reyes: No, so it was, it was… Back when me and my husband were still dating and we had just gone on a road trip and we were actually coming back and we’re talking about the future and we’re talking about side hustles. And so I went to Pinterest. I’m like, how, like what side hustles are there out there? And that’s when I stumbled across those pins that are like, Oh, make money blogging.

You can make money blogging fast. And so that’s how I got into it. And that’s kind of when I opened my eyes to like, what? Is possible in like on in the online space, and that’s when you know, the journey kind of just took off from there, but it was definitely just like. Side hustle idea to finding these pins that promise the world diving in and then realizing, Oh, there’s so much more to this than what I thought.

I thought it was just going to like write posts and people were going to find it and I’m going to make so much money, but that wasn’t, that wasn’t the case.

Stephanie Blake: Oh my gosh. Yes. Yeah. My first year in business, I was working in my job as well. I had eight different businesses because I just like stumbled into this online world.

And like you said, like the possibilities are endless. Right. You can do anything. And it’s like when you can do everything, anything that gets very overwhelming very quickly too, especially if you have undiagnosed ADHD, like me at the time. So I just think that’s so cool. Thank you for sharing a little bit more about that.

And also I didn’t know about your background in supply chain management. I’m sure that comes. And handy a ton for project management as well.

Lucy Reyes: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it’s all these things that I look back that in the moment, I didn’t understand it, but when I look back at the journey, it’s like, Oh, I’ve always liked these things.

I just never put a name to it before. I had my degree. I was actually a project manager in retail. So it was the same thing where we’re doing the Kanban style in the back space, like in the back room, we’re organizing the stuff by colors. It was like all this. Like I didn’t know what it was. And so it just makes sense.

It just makes total sense.

Stephanie Blake: Yeah. Yeah. It’s so funny. Yeah. I can look back on my story and see like all of these weird things that I would do and like, Oh, now it, now it aligns. Like even the jobs that I was in and like the interest that I had. Yeah. So true. That’s great. So, let’s talk about just for those who don’t even know.

Well, I mean, project management is a very vague term, right? And right now we’re really focusing specifically on using a project management system consistently. So I’d love to hear your perspective on like, what is project management just in general? And then what is a project management system? Like what, what are we talking about today?

Lucy Reyes: Yeah, for sure. And I know that, that those terms can be very intimidating. Like I come from a place where I was a paper planner girl all the way. Like that was what I wanted to do. But eventually you get…

Stephanie Blake: Yes, I had to interrupt you because I also went through this phase. Erin Condren, are those the planners? That Erin Condren planners?

Huh? The Erin Condren planners.

Lucy Reyes: Oh, I just, I don’t know what planners I had. I got them from Target.

Stephanie Blake: Okay. Well, yeah, I went through this phase too and I would get like the really bougie expensive planners that were like a hundred or $150 and I was in my corporate job and I had like stacks. Just stacks of planners, too.

So I know there are a lot of people who will resonate with.

Lucy Reyes: I still have mine. They’re so pretty. You can’t get rid of them.

Stephanie Blake: They are. They’re like these beautiful books almost. Sorry, go ahead.

Lucy Reyes: Yeah, I know. But so that’s where I started. And so I had heard this term of project management and I was like, Oh no, I’m like, I ain’t doing that.

But then you get to a point where you’re realizing like you have a lot to do like you are a business owner So you’re doing marketing. I always describe it as you know, you’re someone who’s wearing these multiple hats You’re your own podcast editor. You’re a marketer. You’re your social media strategist.

You’re your Pinterest manager like you’re doing all of these things. And so project management is really helping you manage all of that. All of those projects is really every single one of those projects. Blogging is like a project. But posting and marketing on Instagram is a project which is separate from posting and creating posts and content for Linkedin. Those are all individual projects and then the project management system is the tool that you’re using to kind of streamline it all and help it all work together.

So that way you are saving time. So you are saving effort and not having to do more. So there’s all these different tools that you can use. I love Trello I know you like Airtable. There’s Asana. There’s Clickup. There’s all these different tools and what matters most is finding one that works for you and for your brain, the way you like to think. But it has to help you, not hinder you, and so that is kind of the best way.

I guess I can describe what project management is and like, yeah, what the difference is between a system.

Stephanie Blake: Yeah. No, I totally agree. And I think when people hear project management, they, they get very intimidated because it’s like, they almost like think of this, how do I even describe it? Like this, um, this person who’s like, almost like an octopus, right?

They’re trying to like, manage all of these different things and they have their arms and like so many different pieces of their business. And when you think about it that way, yeah, it gets very overwhelming. Very quickly, because all of a sudden you’re like, holy crap. Like I can’t even like post on Instagram today.

You want me to do all of these other things on top of it. Right. And I will definitely say that being a project manager is a skill. And if you are not naturally inclined to manage projects and be very organized. As a solopreneur, especially it is a necessary skill to develop because like, it’s going to be very hard for you to be successful in a sustainable way.

If you don’t learn how to manage your projects.

Lucy Reyes: Yeah, I love that you said that because that’s something that I always say it to is not just like project management, but even time management is a skill. Like I always say time management is a skill. You can learn it. I hear so many entrepreneurs are like, Oh, I’m not, you know, I’m just not a planner.

I’m just naturally not a planner. I’ve never been a planner. That’s who I am. And it’s like, yes, that is true. But it’s also a skill that you can learn that you can improve on. It’s not gonna happen overnight, just like anything that you want to learn. You know, if you my son plays football, so he wants to get better at football.

He has to practice. He has to build these habits. So it’s a skill that you can learn. And so is project management. So is time management. So it’s getting more productive. It’s all a skill.

Stephanie Blake: And if you have the belief that I’m not good at planning, well, guess what? That’s what you’re going to think forever.

And then you’re not going to be good at planning. So I mean, that’s a whole other conversation to get into about the beliefs. And just, if you have not seen Inside Out, go see it because that will explain that’ll, that’ll explain everything you need to know in about an hour and a half.

Lucy Reyes: Oh my gosh, I am so excited to watch that movie.

We watched Inside Out 1 last weekend in preparation to see how my daughter, because we want to take her with us, and she’s three. So we were like, is she going to like this? Okay, she did good. I think we’re going to go probably next weekend to watch it. But we talked, like, that is literally how I picture the, my brain working.

It’s like all these emotions working in there. Like, what am I going to do today? How am I going to feel today? It’s so funny. I love that movie.

Stephanie Blake: Yeah. Inside out one plays constantly in our household. So when the second one came out, like we had to go and it was the first, um, movie that we took my five year old to like, to the movie theater.

And my husband, it was just a whole, a whole thing. I’m not even going to share anymore. Just go just, just watch it. Just watch it. But anyway, yeah, I, I’m so glad we’re having this conversation about like project management specifically, but also another thing I want to talk about briefly is that like, I love how you said anything can be a project, right?

Because I think when people think of projects, they think of launches. Typically that that’s usually the first thing that comes to mind, and I actually recorded an episode, um, a few episodes back about my project management schedule and how I do it. And when I was referring to that, I kind of broke it down to talk about, like, the different, like, ongoing projects, but then launches too, because you, you really do have to treat, you know, Everything as a project, because you can’t just view it as like a, like a one off task or like a one off thing, because you will have unlimited one off tasks or one off, um, one off tasks, I guess, for lack of a better way to say it.

And it’s just going to get very, very overwhelming very quickly, which leads us into the project management tool. Right. And the project management system. So, um, I’d like for you to talk about that a little bit. So we’ve talked about like what project management is, like why everything is a project. Right.

But I’d love to hear your perspective on what is a project management system. And how can we use that in a project management tool? Cause they’re all different.

Lucy Reyes: Yeah, I agree. I totally agree. So project management systems, and I’m actually going to take a step further and say that there’s difference between having systems and having a streamline that strategic systems, because I feel like you can have it for you.

Yes. Yeah. I was like, I’m good. I’m about to get on my soapbox. Okay. You can do it. Stand up. This, um, And, you know, your system could be like you’re downloading something from Canva and it just goes to this downloads folder and, you know, to scroll eventually until you find the file that you need. And technically, that’s a system, but it’s not sustainable.

It’s not efficient. Right. But you kind of know where it is, but it’s just wasting a lot of time that you don’t need to waste. Right. Okay, so. There is a difference between having these systems and having strategic streamlined systems. And you can use a project management tool to help make those systems more efficient, to help make them, um, in a way that saves you time.

And so the way that you would make them strategic and what I love to teach and talk about too, is you want, and just like you mentioned, you want to have different, um, Systems for the different projects that you’re working on. So I personally like to have everything separate So blogging has its own system because there’s so many tasks within it So within a system you can have you know, the all the links of Where to find anything related.

So I’m going to use blogging as an example. So anything related to blogging, like what are you using for blogging? Like have all of the links in this one system. So an Airtable, it’s a database, I believe, right? It’s got a database. Yeah, Airtable databases. And Trello would be like a Trello board. That’s my limit of knowing these.

Stephanie Blake: I’ll speak to ClickUp too, because ClickUp is my favorite. So ClickUp, you could have a space and then you could break it down into folder and lists, but I always recommend like high level overview or spaces. And then your projects, quote unquote, would be in your, or I’m sorry, your folders. So it would be high level overview in your space.

And then your projects would ideally be in folders underneath individual spaces.

Lucy Reyes: Okay, so I’m trying to visualize. I think that for Trello, it’s like workspace, then boards and then the list. So similar. Yeah, it’s similar, different terms, different tools, but it’s the same concept, right? So you’re having the system for a specific project.

And within that project, you want to make it as detailed as possible. So include everything that is going to make it easier for you to get that task done. You want to have a space for, I like to add like a space for brain dumping or for notes, Specific for that category for that project. So instead of having this one magical big board where you’re like I’m gonna drop all of my ideas on this board and it kind of ends up being this graveyard of Amazing ideas because you can no longer find them add those ideas into these specific project systems Where you know, like okay anything related to blogging I have this idea.

I know where to find it It’s on this space and this card on this board or whatever this folder You And so you also want to break down your tasks. So break down your tasks, all the tedious little tasks that you have. You want to break them down as small as possible, even if you think you’re not going to forget it.

you’re gonna forget it, especially if it’s a new thing that you’re not used to doing. You want to add that into your system. You want to create these workflows to just make it easier. You want to be able to keep track of your progress. I don’t know if maybe you’re like me where I don’t like to work on a project from start to finish in one day.

I get bored and I like to have multiple projects kind of working on at the same time. So when I know when I’m done with instagram, it’s like, well, I’m done. This is I’m calling it quits here. I’m fine. I’ll pick up on it tomorrow. I’m a kid. I’m gonna start the next project and I know where to start. And then tomorrow I know exactly where I left off on instagram and I can pick right back up.

So I think that was a really long winded answer. But those are just some things that you can implement into these systems to make it more strategic.

Stephanie Blake: Yeah, no, that’s great. And basically high level overview systems are just a step by step process, right? A step by step process of like What you’re doing for a certain task, right?

So, I mean, we can definitely get into the minutiae of what this looks like, but there’s, there’s so many different ways to, to document your systems too. I think that’s something important to talk about. So, um, for example, like I said, I use ClickUp. Use it. Love it. Love it. Talk about that for a long time, too.

But, um, inside of ClickUp, we have different types of systems or processes for different types of projects, right? So some things make more sense in an SOP, which is a standard operating procedure, right? So that’s like a document that outlines all of the different pieces. And we always do this for like bigger projects.

Bigger projects, for example, like the process that somebody goes through when they apply to be a guest on this podcast that is in an SOP, right? And then we have the individual tasks. And within those individual tasks, we have a process that we go through for that, right? So it’s like breaking down and whatever project management tool makes sense to you.

But like Lucy said, making sure that you document every part of that process in whatever way makes sense. So, um, like I love like step by step checklists, but I know everybody does like one of my team members loves video. So I always have to make sure that if I’m creating a process, I record a video because she’s a very visual person and needs to see that.

So that’s another important thing to take into account is if you have team members. And maybe you’re a solopreneur now, but you want team members in the future. We have to remember to always be thinking ahead, because even if you think, you know, what this process is like, say in two months from now, you want to hire a team member and you don’t have these processes and systems in place, good luck. I made that mistake. Most people do.

Lucy Reyes: Yep. I hired my first person. She was like, so which project management are we using? And I was like, excuse me, what is that? Um, I don’t use anything. And she was like, Oh, okay. I guess I can do it for us. And I was like, okay, great. Thanks. But that didn’t last very long because I didn’t know what she was doing.

I didn’t. I couldn’t see where she was at in the process. Like it. Yeah, definitely. If you have, if you have team members, if you plan on having team members in any type of future in the near future, late future, you’re going to need and want a project management system.

Stephanie Blake: It’s a non negotiable. Like, let’s just be real.

It’s not, you cannot run your business with post its. You cannot run your business with a paper planner and you cannot run your business with a Google doc. You can’t, you need an actual project management tool because it’s going to save you so much time, energy, like money also, right? Because I, a big thing.

And I don’t know if this was your experience too, maybe at this experience, like when I’ve hired somebody and I didn’t have the process outlined in a way that made sense for somebody else. Like, again, it made sense for me, but I wasn’t thinking about another person. Right. Like, I would get upset or frustrated.

Like, why aren’t they doing the thing that needs to be done? I was like, well, Stephanie, you didn’t relay the thing that needs to be done. You know, like, no wonder people are getting upset. So like that falls back on the person who created that process. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. It’s like there’s so many like that.

That’s why I said this conversation could last for. Such a long time because there’s so many different, um, there’s so many different elements to this. All right. So I, 1 of the things that you talked about before was the importance of choosing the project management tool that works for you, which is I could not agree more because I.

When I started like eight, almost nine years ago, I started with Trello. Actually, like that was the first one I saw. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I love it. Then I got to a point where I was like, this isn’t doing like all of the things that like my brain needs. So then I found ClickUp, you know, love affair ended at that point or love affair started at that point.

But, um, I’d love to hear your perspective on like what you should take into account. When choosing a project management tool, because it’s very easy to kind of hop around and get distracted by all of the different tools out there and claim that you’re working when actually you’re just like hiding and like, Like I said, hopping around from different to different tool.

Lucy Reyes: Yeah, absolutely. I, I definitely get a lot of hoppers around like, Oh, I’m testing today. Oh, I’m testing today. Oh, I’m going to move to this now. And that’s fine. If you feel like you get to a place where you truly have to move tools or you really want to move tools, but as long as it’s not consistent, you know, like one month you’re trying this and the next month you’re trying to move everything over.

Cause you found something new. And then the next month, a different tool. So whenever you are looking for project management tools, I would recommend that you start a free trial for all of them or the free plan for a set number of like two or three of your top choices to see how you feel with the tool.

Um, if you really don’t know, like there could be some non negotiable features for you. You might be like, well, I want this tool to do this and this and this, and there’s a tool that doesn’t do it. Like, okay, fine. And if you like, you see it visually and it’s like, Oh. I can’t wrap my head around that, then that might not be the tool for you.

Um, but if you are really stuck between like certain tools and maybe just do a test project on each one of them, give it a test run, create one project, um, one system on each one and see which one flows more naturally for you. Um, Because it is going to be different. They are all very similar. They all achieve the same outcome for you It’s the way that you use it And a lot of times it’s not the tool like the tool isn’t the problem Like I see that a lot is like oh this tool tool.

It’s, you know, like they blame the tool and it’s really not the toy. It’s the way that you’re using the tool. And so you want to get a feel for it. And for me as a hands on learner, the best way to do that is by like actually trying to use it as if this were it. Give it a week using the same project system, the same project and just kind of see which one flows better.

Stephanie Blake: Yeah, I get a lot of, um, people cause like I talk about ClickUp all of the time, obviously. So I have a lot of people who are like, Oh, I, I tried it. It was just way too overwhelming. And that’s the first thing that I tell people, yes, ClickUp is very overwhelming because it can do literally everything. So I always say like, first thing you should do is go on YouTube.

Everybody has not everybody. There’s so many tutorials out there for every single project management tool. If you just say like getting started with ClickUp, getting started with TRO, getting started with Notion, whatever, whatever it is that will basically tell you all of the most important things that you need to know.

And all of these platforms have their own knowledge bases too, that literally walk you through the steps of getting started. So, yeah, I think it’s really important to know what your goals are for your company, and again, like knowing if you’re delegating, because. Some tools are better for that than other tools.

So it’s like, it’s really knowing, um, what your goals are for, for you, like how you learn best, right? Like I personally love ClickUp because it’s all in one place. Like, I don’t like to piece things together. I just want it all all in one place. Well, again, and keep it very simple. Right. But I’ve also had people come to me who are like, I logged into ClickUp and I spent four hours trying to set up automations and now I’m overwhelmed and I want to leave like, well, okay, let’s take a step back and let’s figure out like, That’s not what you need to do first.

Right. You don’t need to start with automations. Like we just need to start with the basics.

Lucy Reyes: Yeah, right. Yeah, I hear the same thing about Trello all the time and it’s I was overwhelmed when I first started Trello like every tool has so many features and you are likely not going to use them all and you don’t need to use them all to like get the most out of the feature.

And I think that’s something that also seems to hold some people are like, well. I’m not going to use this feature. So maybe it’s not the right tool for me. It’s like, well, you don’t need to use that feature in order to make it work for you. There are so many features. So for a long time, up until recently, I never used any of the Trello power ups, which I know is one of the most overwhelming things that people say about Trello.

It’s like, Oh, there’s so many power ups. I don’t even know. And it’s like, I didn’t use it for years. Now I’m starting to be like, you know what? Let me see what else I could do because I’m in that level where I am very good with everything that I have now. And it’s like now let me enhance it. But you don’t have to use all of the features that your tool comes with.

Just start with the basics. Like you said, just start small and then little by little you can add on and build on to get even more efficient.

Stephanie Blake: Yeah. Exactly. And it’s really just keeping it as simple as possible to like, because you can make it very overwhelming very quickly. And I like how you said before, like people blame the tool.

You’re right. The tool is not the problem. You are the problem. Like truthfully, truthfully, like if you don’t know, like, and people are going to get mad at me. I don’t care. Whatever. People can get mad at me. But like truthfully, like if you don’t know how to do something, that’s okay because we all come into this not knowing how to do anything, but instead of like blaming something else, like figure it out.

You know, like there’s a million different YouTube videos talking about how to set something up in this project management tool. And this goes like for anything in business, this is where the stuff, tough love comes in that my people either love me or hate me for, right. Because I always, I always tell it like it is.

So like, you can figure it out if you want to, or you can make excuses for why something doesn’t work. But typically those excuses are based in fear and they just kind of keep you stuck where you’re at and you’re not gonna keep moving forward because you just keep making these excuses. And again, this is like, this goes beyond project management, and that’s a soapbox that I can

Lucy Reyes: Oh yeah. I was just thinking about my son. We had this conversation last night. It’s like, yeah. This is just, it’s everything is figureoutable. I heard that recently. And it’s like, it’s stuck. Everything is figureoutable.

Stephanie Blake: That’s a book by Marie Forleo. Have not read it but it is a book. I’m sure it’s great, but I don’t know.

Uh, I’ll link to that below so everybody can see that. But I mean, it’s true. It’s true. Like it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, like even entrepreneurship. Right? Like most people go on entrepreneurship, not knowing what they’re doing, but guess what? You’re going to have to figure things out if you want to be successful.

Like you just have to, that’s the nature of the beast. Even if you’re like in a nine to five job, there’s things there that you’re going to have to figure out. So, um, I think one of the important things that. We need to figure out is okay. So great. Now we have this project management system or I’m sorry, we have the tool.

We’re starting to use one tool. We’re not hopping around anymore. We’re starting to create these systems, but now one of the biggest and most important things I think is using it consistently, right? Because again, you can have a tool, but the tool is not going to solve your problems for you. Right. The tool is not going to do the work for you in some cases it will with like automations and whatnot.

But that’s, that’s another conversation. Right. But getting in the habit of using the tools and developing a consistent routine is what’s most important. Right. So let’s talk about that. I’d love to hear your perspective on that.

Lucy Reyes: Yeah, absolutely. I, it’s one of the hardest things to do. Right. Um, my husband actually told me that this is like so much, not a conversation just about project management tools and more about life.

Like all of these things. I’m like, my husband just told my son that the other day he was like, the hardest, the first hardest thing is starting. The second hardest thing is staying consistent. I was like, I like that. Like it’s true.

Stephanie Blake: And like, it’s with everything, like the biggest, like the best example I can always think is exercise.

Right. Because if you’ve gone without exercise for a while. Lord knows that I have at periods in my life, especially when I’ve been pregnant. And after that, it’s like been a very long time when I should have been exercising, wasn’t whatever that first day in the gym, you want to die. Every part of your body hurts.

Well, not maybe not that first day, but like day two or day three, like when every part of your body hurts. Yeah. Like it sucks. Right. But then you just keep going. It becomes easier. You get stronger or like all, and you can have all of these other benefits. And it’s literally the same with. everything like entrepreneurship and project management tool.

So yeah, and that’s what we’re talking about with the consistency. So go ahead.

Lucy Reyes: Yeah. And I think it does. So we said that this could be a whole nother conversation, which is true, but it still is important to have the right mindset when you start using the tool like you have to go into using this new tool, this new tool, knowing that I’m going to make this work like I have decided this is my tool.

This is a tool that I’m going to stick to. This is a tool that I’m going to learn. I’m going to use it consistently like you have to get into that right mindset of like this tool is going to work for me. This tool is going to work for me. Like this tool is going to help me get more efficient. Like give yourself some affirmations if you need to, like about the tool, about the systems, like, yes, this is going to be a challenge, but I’m up for the challenge.

Yes, it’s going to be different than what I’m used to, but it’s different in a better way. different in a way that’s going to enhance my efficiency, my productivity, and it’s going to help me grow my business like reminders of all the reasons why you’re choosing to go down this path and get yourself in the right head space.

So that’s like the first thing. And then from there, the transition from whatever it is that you’re doing, like find an easy transition or a reminder to use the tool. So if you are sticking those person put a sticky note on your laptop or your monitor is like, Use project management tool Or if you’re a paper planner one thing that I I would recommend to my students is take us like use it Okay, fine Let’s start small like do whatever you’ve been doing and then snap a picture and then load it up Onto your trello board where it goes And just start that transition little by little you’ll start to see how much easier easier it will be.

But just find ways to make the transition portion easier based on what you already are doing. But the first step is the mindset, like you have to get on the right mindset. Step two is really finding that transitional step that’s going to make it easier. And then also find like ways to remind you to use your tool.

Like, nope, like I have to create like, oh, I need a post on Instagram. Okay. Let me go to my project management tool and create my workflow real quick. And then let me use the workflow And what the more you do it the more the easier it gets and the more you’ll start to see like, oh This is actually helping me like I’m actually saving time Oh, I feel less overwhelmed and less stressed and then naturally you’re going to be like Oh, I have to do it.

Like it’s not even going to become a thing where you have to force yourself because you’re going to want to use it. Cause you’re going to already see the benefits that come out of it.

Stephanie Blake: Yeah, no, I, I totally agree. And this reminded me of an example, kind of similar where we had to, we recently switched from using like Gmail for our company support email, like the Gmail inbox, and we moved to like a more robust ticketing system.

And for the first few weeks, one of my team members was like, she’s like, it’s so hard. It’s so hard because like, we’ve been doing it one way for such a long time and making this transition to move to this completely new tool. Like it was new, things were different. We had to learn how to use the different parts.

It was like, it was a whole thing, but I like how you said, like, don’t do it all at once. Like it doesn’t have to be like this big, scary, overwhelming thing. It could just do it very, very slowly. And. That’s really, because I personally think if you rush into this and really anything, you’re just going to get overwhelmed and you’re not going to do it.

Right. It’s like, you have to move slowly and you have to create that habit. And what’s the saying? Like 20, 27 days makes 21 days makes a habit. I don’t know if that’s even true anymore. Heard that at some point, but like it’s true with this as well. So I want to talk about like the initial transition, which we’ve kind of already talked about, but then like the ongoing consistency as well, because like, say somebody has this existing.

Um, project management system where they have everything loaded up. It can be really overwhelming to think like, Oh my gosh, I had to take years worth of stuff and move it to this new system. Like that can be pretty daunting. Like what are your thoughts on that?

Lucy Reyes: I mean, it will be a little daunting, but you decided it right.

Like there’s a reason why you decided to go through that daunting task. And again, it comes back to mindset and just remembering. Why you’re wanting to transition? Like, what are the pros? Like, maybe you created your pros and cons list and what are the pros of this transition? Or what are the pros of you wanting to do this new thing?

And so I want to give a tactical answer, but I feel like It mostly comes down to mindset. Like for me, I’m shaking my desk now.

Stephanie Blake: She’s just really getting into it. She’s like going to throw her computer out the window pretty soon.

Lucy Reyes: I know. Like the monitor is like moving. No, like I really think mindset is a big part of whatever it is that you’re about to do and whatever it is that you’re trying to get consistent with.

And it’s just about almost like forcing yourself to use it because you have this bigger vision of what you’re wanting to achieve and you’ve made the decision already. And so it’s so hard for me to like put it into like a tactical thing besides like the reminders or um, you know, maybe setting a reminder on your phone that’s like, Hey, a little nudge if you want to post on Instagram or you can even set remind or affirmations on your phone to remind you like, hey, this is why we’re using the system.

Um, but it really just comes down to mindset. So I would, I would actually love to hear if you have any tactical tips for this, because for me, a lot of it does is mindset for this. Yeah,

Stephanie Blake: of course I do. I have, I have thoughts on everything. Um, so. I, yeah, I mean, mindset is definitely important. I think it’s really crucial to make sure that you go into it knowing that this is not going to be easy.

Right. Because if you go into it, knowing that I think it makes it easier to, to make, make the transition. Right. But if you go into it thinking, Oh my gosh, this is scary. This is terrifying. Like, this is going to take me forever. Again, like who wants to do something like that? Like the best analogy that I have again, is weight loss.

Like if you had to lose a hundred pounds, like. Thinking about losing a hundred pounds is terrifying, like, and hard. But if you just, again, piece it down into smaller things, that’s going to make it much easier. So in terms of like a logistical, um, a logistical way to move it first, I would see like this new system that you’re moving into, do they allow imports because a lot of them will allow you to import from an existing system that could take a lot of, um, The work away from you just by doing like a simple import another thing that I would honestly recommend doing before that is to look at what’s in your project management system and ask yourself, Do you even need this stuff?

Because a lot of it’s just like clutter and crap that you don’t need, you know, so it’s like, Good time to clean it out.

Lucy Reyes: Yeah, no, that’s actually a really good point. It’s yeah, that’s a really good point because you do want to assess where you are first before you’re moving into, into anything new. So before you do an import, you want to make sure that you’re importing only the ones that make sense and the ones that you’re happy with.

So I was recently talking to a client the other day who was in, who’s trying to decide whether they want to transition into Trello or not. And it’s, you know, well, what. How happy are you with the current system set up in the tool that you’re using? Like, do you feel like it could use work or you’re happy with the organization that it is?

And for whatever reason, you’re just wanting to switch into this new tool. So, like, if you’re good with how it is, if you’re good with the organization, And the way that it’s set up and an import would be great But if you know it needs to work Then you need to assess if you don’t know if any is worth it You need to assess right and this is where you can also pull in experts to Review and audit and help you identify where your areas are of improvement are and you really just want to see like What’s working?

What’s not? What needs to be removed? Like you said, the clutter, what needs to go away and what actually needs to be transitioned over and then start small. Start with the most important ones. If you don’t want to do a big import personally, I would be very terrified of a massive import and then see it all over really all at once.

Maybe start small, maybe start with one import, start using that, then import something else, and then like tweak it as you go. Um, because you don’t also want to go from messiness in one tool to messiness in another tool. Like that’s not going to solve the problem,

Stephanie Blake: right? Yeah, that’s like the worst thing that you can do.

So, yeah, auditing and honestly, like what I used to do. This stuff, like way back in the day when I, um, did done for you services, but a lot of people would just start fresh and they’re like, you know what? I’m just, I’m just going to start from, start from square one. Like, I don’t want to import anything.

Like let’s just give me a blank slate because anything more than that is just too much. And it also, if you decide to go that route, it gives you a chance to like reassess everything else in your business too. And you’re like, Oh shoot. Like I’m over complicating so many other parts of my business that I didn’t even realize.

You know, so, again, that comes in with like, Mindset to even think about it from that level. Cause that’s really like a higher level thinking when you’re approaching it from like a big picker, big, big picker. That’s not how you say that big picture perspective versus just like being stuck in the minutia of like.

Okay. I have to do, do, do and move all of these things over. Like, no, we actually have to take a step back and we have to reassess again. Like, what are your goals for this project management tool? What, what is this going to help you solve? What are your goals for your business as a whole? Right? Because yeah, again, that, that’s a whole other whole other conversation, um, that we can, that we can talk about.

Um, I do want to, did you have anything else? That you wanted to share about that though?

Lucy Reyes: No, no. Unless you have any other questions,

Stephanie Blake: I’m happy to keep the conversation going. Yeah, no, no, no. I do too. I was just looking at my notes cause I had a couple of other questions that I wanted to talk about. So I’d love to hear your thoughts on, um, like, well, I have two things.

So first like onboarding and training your team members. I don’t know if you have any thoughts on that, like using your project management management system, because that can be another thing that’s. Very overwhelming people, like kind of like I shared with my example, we moved to this new, um, like ticketing system for our email and then I had to create the process for my team members because they didn’t know what they were going to do.

And I didn’t want them to just be flailing, you know, like trying to figure it out on their own. So I’d love to hear your thoughts on that because we don’t want to scare people away.

Lucy Reyes: Yeah, I’m pretty sure. So I guess the first question would be, do you want someone who’s already knowledgeable in the tool?

Like how knowledgeable first? Are you with the tool that you’re about to on board your team member in? And are you willing to teach how to use the tool specifically to a new team member? Or do you want someone who at least is familiar with the tool to where they don’t have to understand the basics?

Because for me, my team members are all video people. They love it. Video my ritual assistant. That’s how she can complete the task like she likes to step by step But she also wants the video of me walking you through how to do things. So you want to understand how they learn and how what’s going to make it easier for them to complete the task for you because You do want to you know, you want to keep each other happy and so you want to know like well What is going to help you?

How can I help you help me? Right? Like that’s that’s the relationship that you’re going into. And so you do want to know one, how familiar are they with the tool? And if you’re willing to teach them the tool, or if you should find someone who is already familiar with the tool, and then what is their learning style?

How do they want you to assign things to them? Or how would they prefer you assign things to them? Because it also needs to make sense for you, right? Like you also need to be, it shouldn’t take you longer to assign the tasks and for it’s for you to complete the task. Right. And so you want to make that process streamline to where it’s like easy and takes less time than had you completed it yourself.

Um, and then figuring out like what? So we do videos. I record the videos for my team member. She gets the task. We can have a communication like somewhere where you can communicate like and set that all up in like in a place. So personally, I don’t have like this S. O. P. for on boarding. We do use trail.

Everything is in trouble for my team members. They all have their own board with their own tasks assigned, and it’s really like all done through video. It’s like, here’s a walk through of like how we’re gonna be working together. Here’s where we’re going to be communicating. Here’s where you can find any notes of the access levels that you have.

And here’s how I’m gonna sign task over to you. And then we just Kind of go from there and if anything needs to change throughout them, be open to adjusting the way that you work and communicate with your team members. Um, but I would say that’s that’s what I have for that.

Stephanie Blake: Yeah, no, I think that makes sense.

And I think the most important thing here is to really understand. What works for you and what works for them? Because again, it’s so easy to overcomplicate every part of everything, right? Not just business and our lives. Like, again, that’s another conversation. But truthfully, like people learn best in certain ways.

Like I am a checklist person. Like I, I just need a step by step list. My team member needs a video. So if I went into this thinking, Oh, I’ll just create checklists for everything. Guess what? It’s going to take her three times the amount of time to do it because that’s, or maybe not that time, but like, it’s going to be much more difficult for her to complete that task because she doesn’t know what to do.

Right? So just taking that into account with all of the different projects that you have, the individual tasks that are being completed, I think it just, again, it’s like, that’s more of like the higher level long term thinking so that you can prepare for the future as well. Because yes, project management tools are important to use for the day to day, but we also want to make sure that they are.

Allowing us to grow and scale our companies to for long term growth. So there’s just so many different things, so many different ways that we can take this. Um, one other thing I’m looking at my notes and cause I know we’re out of time. And like I said, I could talk about this for a long time, but I’m gonna, I’m gonna try to try to wrap it up.

Um, Using other tools with your project management tool. So let’s, I just really quickly want to talk about that because that’s another thing that I hear people saying is like, I want, I want a tool to work well and I don’t want to get overwhelmed with it, but I also don’t want to be like manually doing a lot of tasks.

So that’s why I’m always like, love automations, right? Automating in whatever way makes sense. So that’s why I love using ClickUp. I love using Airtable because all of the automations we use Zapier. When needed, but what are your thoughts on that? Like automations integrating with other tools?

Lucy Reyes: Yeah, again, I think it would go back to finding what works for you and keeping it simple first and then kind of working your way up into the more advanced.

Because when we’re getting into automations and integrating with other tools like that, now that’s like next level stuff. And if you’re ready for that, then great, but you can’t. So I don’t mind using several tools as long as my biggest things is I need to know where everything is. I need to be able to find it within seconds and it shouldn’t take me, long or at all to get something done.

And so I do use Zapier. I do have automation set up in Trello. I use Airtable mostly for their forms. And so I do have that information zapped into my Trello boards. And so you can set up the tools to work faster for you to do. It’s like having an assistant that Like you have these automation set up to where they just take care of all of these things for you.

And I even like automations is also another scary word that people like, Oh, no, I’m not ready for that yet. Like, I’m not there yet. But there’s simple automations that you can create that are like super easy. so simple. Like in Trello, I really like one of the automations that I use for every single Trello board is the automation of just removing status labels.

Like instead of manually having to remove the in progress label when the done or completed label is added, there’s an automation that takes care of it. I just add this label and it removes the other one. It moves the card over. It can do all these different things. And that’s just awesome. a simple tiny thing and you can start small.

You can start with that. You don’t even need Zapier for that. And then once you are ready to integrate with these other tools and have these different tools connect and talk to each other, then you can add in these other, like more advanced Zapier tools, um, to give you more information and more data. But I absolutely love automation and integrating that could go on for that forever.

That’s actually been like the topic of my podcast these recent weeks is like workflows and automation. So, oh, oh yeah.

Stephanie Blake: We’ll be here a whole ‘nother hour. Yeah. Give me, give me a couple of weeks on both of these topics. Right. Talk about this for a long time. Yeah. And I mean, I hear both perspectives from people, like some people, they’re most excited about automating.

Like, and that’s like the first thing they think about. It’s like, Oh my gosh, I just want to automate everything because I want to save time. Well, guess what? If you’re automating the wrong things, or if your automations are not set up correctly, you’re just going to spend way more time doing work to like fix the pieces that that automation is doing wrong.

Lucy Reyes: Yeah, it has happened to me too.

Stephanie Blake: Right. Exactly. It happens to everybody because we don’t know what we’re doing in the beginning. You know? So like, and when I say beginning, I mean, beginning of learning something new. Right. And this goes back to the whole, it’s figureoutable. Like I didn’t know how to create automations when I started and now my business basically runs on automations, not everything, but like a lot of things do, you know, so it’s really just about knowing what stage you’re in right now and being okay with that and not like worrying about rushing to the next stage because you’re going to get there.

You know, like if you want to use automations now, but you’re not ready for it, that that’s cool. Like just chill out. Like you’re going to be ready for it when you’re ready. You know? So I think that’s, I think that was good advice that you shared as well. And I know you have a free resource. as well, which is the what type of planner are you quiz and quizzes are always so fun.

So you want to share a little bit more about that?

Lucy Reyes: Yeah, so it’s a free quiz. I’ll ask you a couple questions just to see what your planning style is to see if you’re a little bit more on the flexible side, a little bit more spontaneous, a little bit more structured. There’s no right or wrong. There’s no right or wrong way to plan like we’ve been talking about.

It’s all about finding a way that works for you. And so you’ll take this quiz, you’ll go through a series of questions and then you’ll get a curated list of podcast episodes. If you’re listening to this, that means you probably like listening to podcast. And so it will take you to a curated list of playlist for my episodes on my polite podcast.

I have over 70. So instead of having to listen through all of them, you’ll get a list of just the most impactful ones for you. for you. That’s going to really help you figure out the best planning method for your style.

Stephanie Blake: Amazing. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. And if somebody wants to connect with you, where should they do that?

Lucy Reyes: Yeah. So I hang out mostly on instagram cheers to productivity and also on linkedin. Same cheers to productivity or lucy ray is I’ve been Kind of hopping back and forth between both. So that’s where you can find me. Send me a DM. If you listen to this, I would love to know that you found me through this.

Stephanie Blake: Awesome. Yes, definitely. Talk to Lucy. She is super smart. She is a Trello genius. So if you want to use Trello, definitely, definitely go to Lucy. So thank you again for being here with me. Thanks for everybody who showed up live here with us and everybody who’s listening to the podcast. See you soon.

Yeah, but what a great episode, if he wants to dive into more strategies on simplifying your business, be sure to check out Stephanie’s free private podcasts at cheers to productivity.com/simple-business. That show of course the link is in the show notes. Where she interviews other amazing guests about their stories and strategies as well.

And if you haven’t already taken my free quiz, what type of planner are you head to choose a productivity.com/quiz to do so? All right, Brian, I’ll talk to you in the next episode.

Thank you so much for listening to the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast with me, Lucy Reyes. To view the full transcript and all the links mentioned in today’s episode, visit cheerstoproductivity.com/podcast. And before you go up, make sure you follow or subscribe wherever you’re listening so that you know once the next productive chat is released. Talk soon and cheers to your productivity and success!