Monday Musings Episode 3 - My Mom's Impact on my Productivity

 Well, hello Fam and welcome to Monday Musings with Kissa, where I share what the heck happened last week, what I have planned for this week, and a story time, not in that particular order. This is an audio companion to my Substack that I send out every Thursday. So if you're not already subscribed, there's a button somewhere here where you can do so. And content as of this recording is currently free. So definitely take advantage of that. So let's go over what the heck happened last week. Well, last week, I gotta say, to summarize it, the TLDR of it is. It was full of meetings and hangouts. Every day had an in-person meeting of some kind and I've got to tell you, I surprisingly was not exhausted from it.I think that comes from just my love of community. I think being together with people that I really align with and can talk real life or real business with, just gives me so much energy and so much life that it actually energized me instead of sucking the energy out of me. I'm so grateful that I had a week where it was just nonstop when it came to the community aspect of life.On top of that, I had a trademark meeting. Our trademark application was officially submitted, which is great and then we had more business forward projects that we're slowly working on, and they're slowly moving and making more progress. More on that probably next week. Uh, but in the meantime, just know that there's a lot of, background projects that are being worked on. Charlie and I are working on those things so that we can make some nice, fun, exciting announcements in the near future. Now, this week, I think one of my goals for this particular week is to focus on working with the natural flow. Of what my week looks like. And that is AKA, setting the parameters around natural rhythms. And here's a good example.Working between the hours of 8:30 and 3:30 is a natural flow of mine because I drop my kids off at eight o'clock, I get back at 8:30 and then I leave at 3:30 to pick them up from school. And so that is an easy boundary of saying, these are my work hours, and ideally I would want to have everything done by 3:30 PM when I go and pick them up.So how do I maximize my time to move projects forward, to take care of fires that have happened in the interim so that I can make space? For the things that are really important to me, like being more present with my kids and my family, and also take care of household things, right? Because taking care of your household is also a responsibility in itself on top of whatever work or business responsibilities that we have.And then not to mention, my kids are at the age where extracurricular activities are becoming more and more important in their weekly routine. And so this summer was our time to start testing the waters out of what do the kids enjoy, what do they want to be part of? And that's going to carry into the fall when the official school year starts and when that happens, when we go back to school, we're going to need to adjust once again to a new routine, a new flow when the school year starts. This is the part of productivity that I think tends to be unspoken and is almost taboo about adjusting and pivoting your system or your flow or your daily routine, weekly routine instead of being stubborn and rigid. I think it's just so important to be open-minded and a little bit flexible and not be afraid to pivot so that you can adjust when a new routine or a new aspect of life gets inserted or introduced into your regular daily life.I always used to say, “I just got used to my schedule and now it has to change. Now I have to come up with a whole new schedule!” And yeah, I mean, that's just reality because if we were going to stay stagnant and not change, and not grow or not enter new seasons of life, are we really living at all?So that's my goal for this particular week is just to remember that I wanna maximize my time when it comes to business while the kids are at school. I want to be more present when they're at home. When the four of us are together, I know that this time is sacred. My oldest is five and a half, and my youngest is about to turn three years old in four months, and so I just want to really embrace and be present in this time because I know sooner or later, before I even know it, they're going to grow up.Now for the story time. So if you read last week's post on Thursday, I briefly talked about my mom at the very beginning, and I'm sure you're going to hear more about her because she was such an important person in my life, not just in my personal life, but in my journey of entrepreneurship and business as well. This was the first time I actually introduced her on Substack, and it was because I was sharing how she impacted my process of productivity because she used to carry this thing around. It was an organizer, a date book, a leather bound one. By Franklin Covey, and if you are familiar with paper planners or paper notebooks or you know, tangible physical notebooks, you will know the name Franklin Covey. This planner that she used to carry around was leather bound. It was really big and hefty. It was a black leather planner, and I can't tell you what a love/hate relationship I had with this planner. She used to take it with her everywhere. Go to dinner. She has the planner. Go to work. She has the planner. We go on vacation. She still has the damn planner. Oh, these memories, I swear there were moments where I was like, oh man, this is so cool. I wanna have a planner. And then on the flip side, I wanted to throw that damn planner out the window. I wanted to burn that thing down sometimes because as a kid, I knew my mom's work lived in that planner, and if she pulled out that planner that meant no time for me and it was time for work. I remember taking a trip to Hawaii and before we left, I made her promise to not pack that planner in her luggage. She looked at me and she laughed, and I'm pretty sure she laughed from just feeling uncomfortable about me setting an ultimatum. And she just said, “Okay, I won't bring it.” When we get to Hawaii, I'm pretty sure she was kind of calculating when she would be able to bust it out but a few days after settling in, on our family vacation in Hawaii, she finally in front of me, pulled out that Black Franklin Covey and I was so upset and I was like, “I thought you said you weren't gonna bring this with you!” But she couldn't.She needed to because she was just the type of person that worked all the time. It was her way of showing love. Being a provider and contributing financially to our family was her love language. And so, yeah, when I was a kid, I was so upset. In that moment I didn't understand. But I do now, as a mom, as a homeowner, as an entrepreneur, I completely understand because now I have my own form of this Franklin Covey. My phone, my iPad - I cannot leave the house without my phone but this Franklin Covey that she carried around everywhere definitely made an impact on my productivity. I was copying what I saw. I knew I wanted the same thing. I wanted to be able to have some kind of organizer where I can put all my important events and everyone's phone numbers and all the things inside my own version of this planner. While I was in middle school, I thought I had the busiest schedule with all my dance classes and all my music and piano classes and all the dates that I had with my friends as early as I can remember. I just remember thinking, I need to have a planner too. It sparked my interest in productivity and then as I got older, I realized I can create my own system. I don't have to follow what is being printed in these organizers. I can study my own natural rhythms and figure out how to create my own. Now I still have my mom's planner. She's been gone. She passed away in January of 2016, and one of the most prized possessions I have of hers is her Franklin Covey Planner. It's on a shelf up with some business books and out for display just so that I can think of her every time I walk by it in my office. It's just a reminder that my mom had such a big impact on me, not just as a mom, but also an entrepreneur. She has been such a cornerstone for me of how to be so gracious as an entrepreneur, as a woman, as a friend, as a mother, and this book definitely is a reflection and a reminder of who she was.Okay that's it for today. I wanna thank you so much for listening in. If you enjoyed this audio edition, please feel free to share it with a friend. For the full Monday Musings experience, I definitely suggest subscribing to my Substack at https://thenotionmama.substack.com.This week's topic for Thursday is going to be about preparing for travel as an entrepreneur since we are going on a family vacation in about two weeks. So stay tuned for that. Until then, stay curious, my friends, and I will see you in the next post. 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