Reclaim Your Day 90 Seconds at a Time ⏳ GUEST! Rebecca Shaddix | Ep. 382

Jay Schwedelson: We are back for do this, not that podcast presented by Marigold. And you know what I, I'm a listener today. What I mean by that is this episode, I'm more excited about this than most of the guest episodes because a lot of times you have a guest. I don't if even care who they are, but this time I actually and genuinely wanna hear this episode because we have Rebecca Shaddock.

Jay Schwedelson: Now, if you're on LinkedIn, you see Rebecca's content all the time. She's like this product marketing. Guru human being. She's a Forbes contributor. Um, and she, I don't know if everybody knows this, but she helped to launch like the digital technology initiative at UCLA's, Luskin Center for Innovation, launching its women in tech research.

Jay Schwedelson: Like, she's like a really smart. Person. But the thing that's going on Rebecca right now, which is why I asked her to come on the show, is that she has this new podcast she launched. It is called Time Billionaires. And basically, I struggle with time. I need to find more time to do the things I wanna do. I, I'm losing my mind.

Jay Schwedelson: And this is what Rebecca's all about, these micro moments of time and how we can capture them back in our lives and our work lives. So she's gonna break it all down. Rebecca, welcome to the show.

Rebecca Shaddix: Thanks, Jay. That was the nicest intro.

Jay Schwedelson: Oh, well you deserve a better intro 'cause you are very awesome. But before we get into these kind of moments that we can all steal back or reimagine or whatever, how did you become Rebecca? Like, what is your deal?

Rebecca Shaddix: Yeah, I think I, like anyone, struggle with time and deciding how to make it feel worthwhile, but I had to get really intentional with it, starting pretty young. When I was 15, my mom and I were in a car accident, had some injuries that took about seven months to heal. But I developed fibromyalgia from it.

Rebecca Shaddix: And so I went from being a really active kid who was super social, had lots of extracurriculars, loved to run cross country and track to suddenly really struggling to just get outta bed and function. And so, because I couldn't predict when I would feel well, I had to be really intentional about. What I wanted to get done in a day, because I knew that there was an opportunity cost to any of it, and I couldn't necessarily just put things off and expect to feel better later.

Rebecca Shaddix: So I started just being very intentional with these tiny gaps, that 92nd to five minutes between classes that I had and thinking about what I wanted to get out of 'em. It was often social connection because I couldn't always. Go to football games or hang out on weekends. And so I just really was intentional and mindful with the connection.

Rebecca Shaddix: I wanted to draw how I wanted to spend my time, which meant a lot of it was not wasted in the same way. And so I went about life, got better, figure things out, and sort of forgot about micro moments until COVID hit. When I realized that suddenly all of the blocks I used to have to go exercise, to walk to commute, and listen to a podcast call people I cared about, suddenly I was just waking up, walking to my desk, filling the four to seven minute gaps between Zoom meetings with emails, feeling frantic and constantly behind like I always had to be on.

Rebecca Shaddix: And then I realized it was kind of a similar feeling of not having enough agency over my time. It wasn't really about not having enough. Time per se. Yeah, there were new demands on it. Work was hectic, but I actually had more time because I wasn't commuting. A lot of my extracurricular and social obligations went away, but this feeling like I didn't have agency to do the things I wanted to do because I was stuck doing the things I had to do, was a pretty similar feeling to being 15 and suddenly realizing I don't have control over what I wanna get done.

Rebecca Shaddix: So I went back to micro moments and I just started standing up between meetings. Doing 10 pushups, taking three deep breaths outside, calling a friend for seven minutes, unplanned just to say hi, as opposed to just more doom scrolling or email checking. And I think that was important because it felt really productive.

Rebecca Shaddix: I felt like I was reading the news, I was staying up to date. Things were changing so fast. I was constantly responsive to other people and emails, but I really wasn't getting as much done and I was more drained. So I just came back to micro moments and very unintentionally just sort of naturally started reading a little bit more.

Rebecca Shaddix: Those gaps, and that came to realizations four years later about how much of the research about what makes life meaningful really overlapped and so unintentionally just in these small gaps. I read a couple hundred books about. Time management and wellness, et cetera. And I found that a lot of them were really just missing the mark.

Rebecca Shaddix: They would recommend things like, audit your time and see what drains you, but I was like, I don't have time for that. I'm constantly busy. What don't you get? I don't have time to write down going to the bathroom. 'cause it takes as long to do it as it does to write down. So just, I got really frustrated with how unrealistic things were and I just started then capturing micro moment ideas of things that.

Rebecca Shaddix: Enriched me and using them intentionally. And so that ended up being a hundred pushups a day on average, staying in touch with friends that I hadn't seen without any change to my schedule. And that's how the idea for micro moments and time billionaires came to be.

Jay Schwedelson: First of all, it's amazing. I, I was gonna say I love all that, but I don't love the fact that you, you know, went through the accident all but this idea of micro moments, I'm, I'm very on board with all of it except for calling random friends. 'cause I want to, uh, block all my friends. They're very, very, very annoying people.

Jay Schwedelson: But putting that aside, um. I'm curious about something, 'cause everything you said resonated with me. I'm sure a lot of the listeners are like, yes, that's me. I feel seen. Uh, but, and that's all great to feel seen. But now, um, I'm gonna go back to my inbox. I'm gonna doom scroll. I'm gonna have back to back meetings.

Jay Schwedelson: I'm gonna continue to lose my mind. So when you come across somebody like me, okay, Jay. This is some easy ones. Other than doing a hundred pushups, this is some easy things, easy wins that you can do that you're not even realizing that you can do to insert, like, block this out on your calendar, whatever.

Jay Schwedelson: What are some quick wins to grab some of these micro moments?

Rebecca Shaddix: The first thing I wanna say is the doom. Scrolling the constant emails. There's no one not like you. We all have meetings all day. We feel like that the intentionality of what you wanna get out of it, so just blocking it. Yes, we have to answer emails, but clicking from one Zoom meeting. Scanning your email, not having time to respond, making sure you marked it as unread.

Rebecca Shaddix: You basically just went seven times as many contact shifts in with for no productivity. All of those unread emails are unresponded to emails. You never had time to answer them to begin with. So the first thing to do is just be mindful of what's actually possible to be done, and then batch those things.

Rebecca Shaddix: So yes, you have to answer your emails. You're not going to answer your emails. If you're constantly feeling inundated and behind, and so that hasn't accomplished anything. There's also nothing wrong with being on social media. I love it. You love it. I think it's great, but being intentional about when you're going on and what you wanna get out of it, that's the first step of, I don't have six minutes between meetings and just doom scroll because.

Rebecca Shaddix: I'm not gonna get anything out of it. You don't have time to engage meaningfully. You don't have time to watch your cool videos that you put on. So I don't fill those tiny moments because my goal for being on social media, my goal for email is to communicate and connect intentionally. So that means when I do see that I have two minutes, that is enough time to do a two minute plank.

Rebecca Shaddix: To do 10 pushups to go outside, take five deep breaths, to write a post-it note to your partner just saying, hi, I love you, and sticking it on their door. That's plenty of time for that, and that actually feels really good to your body. And so you actually have drained less of your cognitive function without all this cognitive overload.

Rebecca Shaddix: So now you will be. As engaged and as connected on social, more effective with your email responses because you've had the energy to do that. So none of this goes away. It doesn't require a schedule overhaul. It doesn't require a massive system change. It doesn't require hustling harder or waking up earlier.

Rebecca Shaddix: It just requires being intentional about how you're spending the blocks that you have, because 90 seconds is enough to drain yourself with. A Reddit ker scroll or actually fulfill yourself by just doing something that feels aligned with how you wanna spend the time. So it's not about cutting anything out, it's just about batching intentionally.

Jay Schwedelson: So you are really talking about micro moments. You're not talking about like, do this for 30 minutes. You're talking about okay, you have two minutes. Breathe and, and take a break or, or whatever. When you talk about micro, you're talking about actually micro.

Rebecca Shaddix: Yep. There's a post-it on my desk that just says, stand up, because I know the second I do, I'm interrupting the pattern of just being plugged in. Trying to, the email is for me, I feel like I'm being responsive. Like, oh, I have to know if in the last 30 minutes anyone emailed me because I don't wanna look like I'm not responsive.

Rebecca Shaddix: Who, who am I helping? I'm not responding to them thoughtfully. If anything, I'd send off a shoddy email. That's confusing. They send one back. It's more confusing. We have this weird six message limbo of no one getting it when it could have just been Take four minutes later when you know you're not rushed to read it, digest and respond thoughtfully.

Rebecca Shaddix: That's just what I'm saying is be intentional, what the time is. So I stand up. If I had just two minutes, I'll just hold a power pose. Do a plank, literally anything. Micro, micro, micro, simply the act of standing up is better than just sitting there all day.

Jay Schwedelson: Okay, so I get it. So now when I have a minute break, I'm gonna go and, and, and do some breathing. I'm gonna do a post-it note. I'm still not gonna call my friend. Uh, I get that,

Rebecca Shaddix: What about a voice note still? No.

Jay Schwedelson: I'm not into it. So, uh, I only because of my friends, you have better

Rebecca Shaddix: for you. It's fine.

Jay Schwedelson: So, but what about, what about a little bit of the bigger moment, like I am, for example, I am now on this journey of only checking my email three times a day.

Jay Schwedelson: I'm also on a journey of trying to put 15 minute buffers in between meetings. I, none of this is really working particularly well, but I'm trying, is there, like, how do you hack your own life to give yourself the, the time to steal these moments?

Rebecca Shaddix: When we don't feel so inundated and constantly scrolling, they come naturally. We actually have more leisure time than any other time in history. People 40 years ago, 20 years ago, 200 years ago, had much less leisure time. The. Problem is ours is all broken up by bombarded distractions that compete for our attention.

Rebecca Shaddix: And so it's just basically taking it back. You already have this time, and I think there's some anxiety and this feeling of obligation because we can be constantly connected. There's some of this stress that we should be. Back in my day, my parents left the house for a date night and we couldn't contact them for four hours and everybody was just fine.

Rebecca Shaddix: But this, oh no, I have to check because what if. It's just the system broke, right? If you have alerts on your phone that you know your kids can get through to call you, you don't need to check if they did because you would've heard it. And so it's just really the reclaiming the mindset I think of your, your calendar is not yours by default if you don't claim it.

Rebecca Shaddix: And so if it's just everybody's that you haven't learned to say no to, and there's no boundaries, and people actually respect boundaries a lot more than the availability. So I find that the more I just take two minutes at a time. The easier it is to have those systems. So if I do have 15 minutes, for example, three very specific wins from that day, three things that I did, I control that I'm proud of, and they can be little, it can be kept my cool and it tense conversation that it doesn't have to have some big external wind to point to.

Rebecca Shaddix: And I find that it makes me feel more capable and more competent. So I'm more confident to then say this is the right use of my time and I don't feel obligated to people please, the same way. Did that actually answer your question? Are you talking about if you have bigger gaps

Jay Schwedelson: No, no, no, no. That, that was super useful and, and helpful. And I'm just curious though, like, I wanna know if you're willing to share, like, like how do you structure your day? Because obviously time for you is top of mind, right? You are, you know, you think about it, you consider it, you're aware of it. I, I'm trying to be more aware of it, but are you extremely intentional about how you.

Jay Schwedelson: Add things to your calendar. Do you not allow things to, you have all your notifications turned off. I wanna know what you do.

Rebecca Shaddix: Great question. Yes, I have all my notifications turned off except for my Google Calendar notifications on my desktop. 'cause I wanna be pulled out if, uh, there's something going on. And more importantly, I want to know that I don't need to pull myself out of flow because I didn't get a notification. I think when I had those turned off, I worried.

Rebecca Shaddix: Is there a meeting happening right now? But when I know my alarm will go off, I can just go. Flow and deep work, but very tactically, I'll walk you through. Wake up. First thing, phone is in my office. I don't touch it until I've written out three handwritten pages of reflections of things I want for the day.

Rebecca Shaddix: I'll go outside, take three deep breaths, coffee or tea, full breakfast, 10 minutes with my husband, go into my office. Then I'll. Every week I, every Friday at three o'clock, I ask three questions. What went well this week? What didn't, what do I want more of? So it takes 10 minutes. That makes it really clear which categories in my life feel like they're lacking.

Rebecca Shaddix: From that week, maybe I felt a lack of connection or exercise or movement. So that means in my mind, I know this week I wanna prioritize these three categories of micro moments probably, and I, I realize I didn't explain the category. So when I was doing that. Unintentional research quest over a few years, I found that there were categories that all of the research overlapped with that led to a meaningful life.

Rebecca Shaddix: Um, and those were reflection and mindset, connection, so meaningful personal connections, play and creativity, physical movement, thinking and learning. And I'm forgetting the sixth one.

Jay Schwedelson: It wasn't meaningful, the last one, so it

Rebecca Shaddix: It apparently wasn't. Yeah. Um, so yeah, so basically when I can look at those, it's pretty clear. If I didn't feel connected, moved enough, didn't think or learn enough that week, then I can just put that down.

Rebecca Shaddix: And I have a, a running list that I'm happy to share of exercises that just work in those categories. And so if I feel like I, oh, nature and sensory awareness is the last one. So. The idea for the micro moments came from a moment of nature and sensory awareness when I was just outside touching a fern, like a total hippie, thinking how different the leaves looked than the day before.

Rebecca Shaddix: And it just let me be so present. And so that means that when I have then four minutes between gaps in my day, I already have this list written down here of what I want more of, which now is connection. So there's a stack of stationary on my desk, so I'm just gonna write. A note to a friend whose birthday is coming up.

Rebecca Shaddix: I know I want more time outside, so I'm gonna go take five deep breaths outside and. That's it. And I know I want more thinking and learning, and so I'm gonna listen to two minutes of an audiobook because it's better than nothing. And that just means that these gaps then of I have my day and my schedule and my plan.

Rebecca Shaddix: Yes, there's structured writing and recording blocks on there. Those are non-negotiable, and those don't get. Taken up with email. But when I do have back-to-back meetings, which I try to block, I try to block like tasks. So meetings will be largely in the afternoon when there is seven minutes between them.

Rebecca Shaddix: I know exactly what I'm doing because I've already identified what I need, but I think you can do that in 30 seconds. Just what do I need more of right now? Just listen to that and there's a way to fill it faster than you think. I.

Jay Schwedelson: I, I mean, I think that is so helpful and I know I like the nature thing. My, my daughter and my son always tell me to go touch grass. I don't think they mean it in the nicest

Rebecca Shaddix: don't, but it's okay.

Jay Schwedelson: it's the same idea though. It's getting involved with nature in a small way. Um, but I, I love all of that and, uh, I'm usually, I, I need to really do that thing where you say, okay, the three things at the end of the week, like on Friday, and be like, what happened this week?

Jay Schwedelson: What was go, because basically my vibe is what's for dinner. That's what's in my mind. Pretty much exclusively. So I'm gonna work on that. But what you are working on, which I wanna talk about for a minute here, is your podcast, which is newly launched. It's called Time Billionaires, productivity's Hidden Currency, right?

Jay Schwedelson: Uh uh, what is it all about? What can people expect to listen to, uh uh, time Billionaires? We're gonna put it all in the show notes.

Rebecca Shaddix: Yeah, the idea is that the average lifespan is two to 3 billion seconds long, but most of us waste time in ways we would never waste money, right? If you knew you didn't like something, it didn't make you happy, you wouldn't spend money on it. But we don't know how much time we have left. So it's like not knowing how much money is in your bank account, but then going and buying thing like food that makes you sick.

Rebecca Shaddix: Unflattering pants that you don't like a vacation somewhere, you don't wanna go. We're basically doing that. We're taking the currency of our whole life, what actually matters, our time and spending it on things we know don't make us happy, like scrolling social media without the intention to actually connect.

Rebecca Shaddix: And so it's really just the hidden currencies, not wasting. Seconds. And I, I do think that the shift comes in as little as 90 seconds at a time because the agency over how we spend our time is just a fundamental human need. And the podcast is just like that. Short episodes like yours, a concept from the research, and then some exercise ideas of things you can do right now.

Rebecca Shaddix: Every single one will be, Hey, if you have 90 seconds right now, here's one thing you can do that you may not have thought of.

Jay Schwedelson: Oh my God, I'm all in on this podcast. I'm very excited. It reminds me of this movie that you probably haven't seen, but now you have to watch it Called In Time with Justin Timberlake.

Rebecca Shaddix: I haven't. I will.

Jay Schwedelson: Okay. It's the best 'cause It basically, it's, it's this futuristic thing where they have the amount of time left in their life, countdown clock embedded into their skin, and they don't wanna waste a second.

Jay Schwedelson: It's amazing, except it's horribly acted and Justin Timberlake should go sing. Anyway, this has been amazing. You're amazing. Um, so we're gonna put this all in the show notes. Is your platform of choice LinkedIn? Should that be where people find you?

Rebecca Shaddix: Yep, that'd be great.

Jay Schwedelson: Alright, it's Rebecca. You wanna spell your last name so everyone's like, oh, 'cause I'm gonna butcher it.

Jay Schwedelson: I know there's an X involved. I'm

Rebecca Shaddix: You pronounced it perfectly, which not everybody does. Rebecca Shatick, S-H-A-D-D-I-X. And the podcast is Time Billionaires. You could check out time billionaires.org too.

Jay Schwedelson: Excellent. Awesome. Alright, everybody check it all out. Rebecca, thanks for being here. You are fantastic.

Rebecca Shaddix: You're fantastic. Thanks for having me.