Positively Living®: Shame-Free Productivity Conversations

Text your thoughts and questions! Have you ever pushed through exhaustion because stopping didn't feel like an option? Lisa wants you to know something simple yet incredibly important: there is nothing you do that matters more than your mental health. Not your projects, not your career, not your role as a parent, a business owner, a creative, a friend, or a spouse—nothing. A few years back, L...

Text your thoughts and questions! If you don't make time to take care of yourself, sooner or later your body will make the time for you—and it probably won't happen on your terms. This week, in episode 335 of the Positively Living® Podcast, we're exploring how to match your self-care to your specific type of stress with Cassandra Martin-Himmons, licensed social worker, certified str...

Text your thoughts and questions! Have you ever waited until you were completely overwhelmed before trying to figure out how to manage your stress? Lisa wants you to try something different. In this episode of the Positively Living podcast, she’s building a stress management toolkit before you desperately need it—and showing you why managing stress is about much more than simply trying to make it...

Text your thoughts and questions! Have you ever added one more thing to your calendar, telling yourself you could handle it, only to end up exhausted without feeling any more accomplished? Lisa gets it, and this week she's making the case for the opposite approach. One of her original mantras for Positively Productive has always been "Do less, live more, breathe easier"—counterintui...

Text your thoughts and questions! Have you ever taken a personality quiz just for fun, only to wonder afterward what you're actually supposed to do with the results? Lisa has taken more assessments than she can count—including on the corporate side, where discovering she's an ENFJ made total sense to her. But the real question isn't whether these quizzes are fun. It's whether t...

Text your thoughts and questions! Have you ever assumed that someone up at 5 a.m., already through their workout and answering emails, is more disciplined than you—somehow better than you? Lisa used to believe that too. She bought into the early-riser-equals-better mentality for years, tried every 5 a.m. morning routine book and habit stack she could find, and still couldn't become that perso...

Text your thoughts and questions! Have you ever downloaded a habit tracker, set an alarm for a new morning routine, or told yourself "this time it's going to stick," only to find yourself back where you started two weeks later? Lisa knows the feeling—and she knows you're not alone. Habits are one of the most talked-about topics in productivity and self-improvement, and also one...

Text your thoughts and questions! Do you ever wonder what tools are actually behind a productivity coach's own systems? Last week Lisa walked through the seven techniques she uses daily to keep her life and business running. This week, she's going deeper into the tech stack—the actual tools—behind those techniques. But this isn't a "best tools" list. It's Lisa's...

Text your thoughts and questions! Do you ever feel like you're constantly trying new productivity tools, apps, and systems, but still find yourself overwhelmed by everything you need to remember and manage? Maybe you have a calendar, a to-do list, reminders, and countless notes—but you're still spending too much mental energy figuring out what needs to happen next. The problem isn't...

Text your thoughts and questions! Do you ever feel like your days are filled with tasks, but you still struggle to decide what to work on first? Maybe every morning starts with a long to-do list, constant interruptions, and the exhausting mental effort of figuring out what deserves your attention next. The problem isn't always that you have too much to do. Often, it's that your work lack...

Text your thoughts and questions! Do you ever have a routine that looks great on paper but somehow feels disconnected, mechanical, or difficult to stick with? Maybe you have the right systems in place, but you're moving through them like a checklist instead of feeling genuinely engaged with what you're doing. The structure of your routine matters, but structure alone isn't always en...

Text your thoughts and questions! Do you ever sit down to start an important task only to realize you have to clean up yesterday's mess first? Or feel like you're already behind before you've even begun because your workspace, browser tabs, or to-do list are filled with unfinished business? The clutter around us isn't just visual—it creates mental friction that quietly drains o...

Text your thoughts and questions! Do you ever tell yourself you'll rest after you finish everything on your to-do list—only to discover the list never actually ends? Or find yourself feeling guilty the moment you slow down, convinced you haven't earned a break yet? Many of us understand that rest is important, but knowing we need it and actually making space for it are two very different...

Text your thoughts and questions! We often think rest is something we earn after we've worked hard enough. We push through exhaustion, tell ourselves we'll slow down later, and believe that getting more done is the key to feeling better. But what if we've been thinking about rest all wrong? This week, in episode 323 of the Positively LivingⓇ Podcast, we're revisiting one of our...

Text your thoughts and questions! Have you ever found yourself reaching for your phone the moment you have a few minutes of downtime? Or felt uncomfortable sitting in silence without something to watch, listen to, or do? We've come to believe that boredom is something to avoid at all costs. But what if boredom isn't a problem to solve? What if those quiet, unstructured moments are exactl...

Text your thoughts and questions! Have you ever caught yourself saying, "I'll have fun once everything is done"—only to realize that everything is never actually done? Or felt guilty for taking time to do something you enjoy because there are still tasks waiting for you? Many of us were taught that fun is something we have to earn after we've finished working. But when the to-d...

Text your thoughts and questions! Have you ever noticed that a routine that worked perfectly a few months ago suddenly stops working? Or wondered why certain times of the year feel productive and energized while others leave you struggling just to keep up? Many of us try to create one ideal schedule that will work all year long, but life doesn't operate that way. Our energy, responsibilities,...

Text your thoughts and questions! Have you ever stood in front of a closet full of clothes and felt like you had nothing to wear? Or stared at a packed calendar, a full fridge, or a long to-do list and felt overwhelmed by all the choices in front of you? We often assume that having more options gives us more freedom, but in reality, too many choices can create decision fatigue, mental clutter, and...

Text your thoughts and questions! Many women spend their lives carrying invisible responsibilities for their families without ever realizing how much energy, thought, and emotional labor those responsibilities require. Whether it's keeping the peace, anticipating needs, preserving family traditions, or caring for aging parents, daughters are often expected to do it all—and do it well. The cha...

Text your thoughts and questions! Have you ever sat down to write an email, finish a report, or tackle a simple task, only to watch it consume far more time than it should have? It can feel frustrating, especially when you thought having extra time would make things easier. But what if more time is actually part of the problem? The idea behind Parkinson's Law is surprisingly simple: work expa...

Text your thoughts and questions! The halfway point of the year brings up a mix of thoughts, from wondering where the time went to figuring out what comes next. Maybe your January intentions are thriving, or perhaps they quietly dissolved back in February, leaving you with low-grade guilt while you scrambled to stay busy. January 1st is an arbitrary date driven by culture rather than internal read...

Text your thoughts and questions! If Sundays elicit a sense of dread or a creeping feeling of anxiety that builds as the day progresses, you are experiencing a very real psychological phenomenon known as the Sunday scaries. This anticipatory anxiety occurs when your brain projects into the unknown of the week ahead and treats that uncertainty like an immediate threat. Data shows you are genuinely...

Text your thoughts and questions! You can own the best planner in the world, maintain a beautifully organized workspace, and set clear priorities, yet still feel like you drag yourself through wet sand. Systems and strategies fail to function if your body runs on high alert. Your nervous system state operates underneath your productivity tools and dictates whether your strategies can express thems...

Text your thoughts and questions! Have you ever sat down to work with everything you needed, yet still couldn't get anything done? While we often blame a lack of motivation or discipline, productivity stalls are frequently caused by hidden energy leaks rather than a lack of willpower. Energy is the true currency of productivity, and several specific factors can drain it in ways you might not...

Text your thoughts and questions! Have you ever reached the end of a day where you technically had enough time to do everything, but it still felt like you got nothing done? We talk a lot about time—how to track it, schedule it, and protect it—but time isn’t the only variable in the productivity equation. Time management has a fundamental flaw: it treats all hours as equal, but they aren't. A...