Managing Squirrel Brain – Productivity Hacks for ADHD Entrepreneurs with Megan Gillikin
Ever feel overwhelmed by endless to-do lists and stressful deadlines? In today’s episode, we dive into how to manage “squirrel brain,” stay focused, and set up your schedule for success—even if you’re constantly juggling multiple tasks.
Entrepreneurs and creatives often struggle with ADHD or the dreaded “squirrel brain.” Megan Gillikin shares practical strategies for overcoming common challenges like procrastination, arbitrary deadlines, and burnout. From calendar management tips to productivity hacks, Megan explains how to implement structure into your day so you can thrive in business and personal life.
Episode:
- Megan’s journey with ADHD and how it’s shaped her business approach.
- Identifying and eliminating arbitrary deadlines that create unnecessary stress.
- Using digital calendars and scheduling tools to streamline your day.
- The power of quarterly goals to combat “shiny object syndrome.”
- How to incorporate focus breaks and productivity apps like Forest to maximize efficiency.
If this episode resonated, please share it with someone who could benefit and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Follow us for more tips and insights!
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Transcript
Alright folks, we're really excited to have Megan Gilligan here with us. She's going to be talking about managing squirrel brain, which I think all of us can, you know, at one point or another realize that we all have squirrel brain. But for us that have ADD, which I'm old, so but now it's all ADHD, you know, all of us entrepreneurs so you're going to be talking to us about hacks for us to help us get through our life. Because I do. I'm going to say something that's kind of.
crazy is I do find that a lot of us in the industry, a lot of creatives do have ADHD. So I think it's exciting. But this is also gonna be good for those that don't, because we're gonna, you know, because we get stressful and get overwhelmed and this is gonna be a lot of good hacks for all that. So welcome, Megan.
Megan Gillikin (:Yes. Oh, Kevin, thanks for having me on the show. I am really pumped for this topic. This is something that I'm finding myself talking about more as I've sort of walked the journey with my own diagnosis with ADHD. And I'm so glad that you mentioned that kind of opener that in our industry, I think our creative visionary brains lend themselves to that.
all of the ideas, all of the things, the never ending to-do list, and trying to figure out how to manage it all while staying sane. So whether you have an official diagnosis or you just have a really strong case of squirrel brain, this episode is gonna be full of tips and hacks for you. Yes, all right, let's do it. Well, you know.
Kevin Dennis (:excited. Alright, so let's go!
Megan Gillikin (:First off, I think it's important to note I was recently officially diagnosed with ADHD. Kevin, you said ADD, now they're the same thing, so you can call them either one. I think we're trending more towards ADHD. I was diagnosed at 39, but before that, I spent about.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
Megan Gillikin (:20 years knowing that my brain was not functioning in a way that made my life simple but pushing really hard to maintain a baseline of performance and achievement and it led to exhaustion and overwhelm and burnout and uh
a really strong inner critic as to why I couldn't maintain certain things in my life. I did try to seek a diagnosis for my primary care, you know, 10, 15 years ago, and I got told what I hear a lot of women here in pursuing your ADHD diagnosis, which is like, oh, well, that's just the life of being a mom and having a business or, well, you know, you're an entrepreneur and that's going to mean that like you have a lot of things going on.
Kevin Dennis (:Oh.
Megan Gillikin (:in your brain at once. So there was a lot of dismissal for me that led me to question. Yeah, and apparently that's a common thing as I've had conversations. And it's interesting to note because with girls versus boys with this diagnosis, just a little bit of fact that will help provide clarity here is a lot of boys, it was primarily boys growing up that were diagnosed with this. And it was because of the hyperactivity, the not being able to sit still in a chair and the like
Kevin Dennis (:That's horrible.
Kevin Dennis (:Okay.
Megan Gillikin (:and doing all the things. Girls, it's more the inattentive and the internal hyperactivity. So there's still all of the things going on in the brain, but it's not necessarily as much the outward hyperactivity. Yeah. When were you diagnosed, Kevin?
Kevin Dennis (:The physical.
Kevin Dennis (:I'll be honest with you, it wasn't until I was about 31 years old, right around there. And I knew I was struggling with it. Like I was not a good student in school. I was a big procrastinator. It's just something that was always, you know, and when I had to get it done, I could focus on it. But I knew there was something wrong. And I was struggling where I felt like I'll be honest with you, like I was missing business opportunities.
Megan Gillikin (:Yeah.
Kevin Dennis (:And for me, and then that's when I finally, I was like, I did a little bit of research and then went and talked to a doctor and spent a lot of time and got diagnosed, so.
Megan Gillikin (:Yeah, I think, you know, some of the high level symptoms that you'll see a lot with ADHD will be the avoidance I've learned the procrastination. Yes. The, uh, like forgetfulness, the symptoms of just
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm. 100%?
Megan Gillikin (:Kind of shutting down because you're like, it's just too many things. And it's like, there's too many balls and there's not enough hands to be able to catch them. Um, so for me, yes, that was my experience as well. And it was like the hustle, then led to burnout within my planning business. And then a reorganization of how I show up as a business owner. And I think that that's why I think this conversation is so important. And my goal would be that your listeners, whether it is one tip or
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
Megan Gillikin (:10, they hear something today that one gives them maybe a sense of like, Oh my gosh, it's not just me. And then two is something that they can actionably take from this episode and implement into their daily lives. Yeah. All right. So the way I'd love to tackle this would be breaking it down. Cause again, my ADHD brain loves, loves to create external structure. Um, because really another thing that I've learned about our
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah. Good. All right.
Kevin Dennis (:Hahaha!
Megan Gillikin (:I think they call it like neurodivergent brains is that we don't have the internal structure. So when we find ourselves in environments without external structure, that's where it really like flares up. And we, we noticed like we're starting to go off the rails. So some of these things that I will talk about our external structure points that you can use to bring, uh, focus balance and, uh,
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-mm.
Megan Gillikin (:really a sense of like direction in your day and in your life, whether you're managing ADHD or just have all the things going on. And I hear from so many in our industry right now that the never ending to-do list, the just general overwhelm is at a really high level. Are you, are you hearing the same thing?
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah, yeah, and I think some of it's COVID stuff, you know, I think some of it is related to that we are all trying to do more than we've ever done because we don't have the staff to do what we used to do. You know, like even like last night I was out until, you know, I got it, what did I get home? 1230, you know, one o'clock because I had to strike a couple of events because we don't have enough staff to do what we need to do right now. So I think it's all the above.
Megan Gillikin (:Mm-hmm.
Megan Gillikin (:Yes.
Megan Gillikin (:Mm-hmm.
Megan Gillikin (:Yeah, yep, it is, it is 100%.
Now, before we dive into tips, I want to lay the groundwork so that if someone is listening to this, they may be at the end of this episode are considering what their next steps look like, whether this is a diagnosis or just better understanding how they show up in the world. But for those of you that are listening, some of the things that tend to go hand in hand with ADHD would be struggle with organization, struggle with time management, struggle with attention span.
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Megan Gillikin (:memory, task completion, and some of these like struggles will show up where you have trouble leaning into focusing when it comes to projects that you're working on with client like follow-up and delivery and then in meetings being able to stay like in the zone and focused for long periods of time. I used to joke that I had an hour and a half max and then my face, my facial expression
Kevin Dennis (:Wow!
Megan Gillikin (:would start to melt and you could tell that I was done. Absolutely done.
Kevin Dennis (:Well, and I think that's a long time. I mean, that's pretty good accomplishment because I feel like I'm about an hour. And then I'm like, I'm done, next. Okay.
Megan Gillikin (:Yeah. Yes, yes, yes.
Okay. Well, then let's, let's go with that. And I've broken these tips or hacks. Well, I'll use them interchangeably into different buckets. And we're going to look at this from one is going to be calendar management. So how your day-to-day schedule flows and what your work versus your life schedule outside of that looks like. Then we're going to talk about productivity and some tips or hacks for
Kevin Dennis (:Okay.
Kevin Dennis (:Eugh.
Megan Gillikin (:extraction potholes that you'll come into as an entrepreneur. And then finally, I'd love to dive into some life hacks and tech for, uh, ADHD and busy entrepreneurs.
Kevin Dennis (:And you're speaking my love language because I love apps and text. I know. Well, and it's funny because I was like, and maybe that's, and now when you're saying it out loud, I'm like, maybe it's because of my ADHD. I guess I should call myself ADHD now. So I was never hyper. I was, I guess I'm more of a female. So everyone always has identified me more as a female anyway. But anyway, it's, you know, it's because I'm like, I mean, I was never the hyper kid in class.
Megan Gillikin (:Yes, I know you love some apps, yes.
Megan Gillikin (:Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.
Megan Gillikin (:Yeah.
Kevin Dennis (:Couldn't focus, period.
Megan Gillikin (:Yeah, you know what I've described my brain as? It's the best analogy that I can find. I don't know if this will relate to you or someone listening to this. It's like those old school pinball machines that have the lights flashing and the sounds and the music and there's a lot to look at. And then there's the balls that you hit up there and you're trying to keep them all going. That is the inside of my brain. And that is, that's...
Kevin Dennis (:All going.
Yeah, that's probably a good, and then it all goes away, and then it's like, oh, shuts off, yeah. Because then you get all freaked out, you know, and you shut down, boom. Yep.
Megan Gillikin (:Mm-hmm. Yep.
Megan Gillikin (:Yeah, then you just pull the plug out and you're like, no more games today. No more games today. All right. Well, let's jump into calendar management. So I want to talk about, um, managing a really busy schedule and some tips that I have found that I live and cannot live without honestly, at this point, um, starting with literally everything on my calendar lives digitally within my phone. So everything from.
my team meetings, my internal recurring team meetings, my personal doctor's appointments, my kids camp schedule, days that they're off of school, date nights with my husband. If I book a babysitter and we have a date night, I'm going to put that in the calendar. I'm going to send him an invite for it. All of my client. It's the truth. Like if he that way, I know, I know where, you know, we got to get strategic. We're 13 years into being married at this point Kevin. Um,
Kevin Dennis (:It's a very, very romantic.
Kevin Dennis (:There you go.
Megan Gillikin (:So all of these things, vacations, flights, everything lives within my calendar and the people that are in my inner circle on my team or in my family life know that if they haven't sent me a calendar invite or it's not on my schedule, then I probably will not show up and this helps reduce some of that overwhelm of everything that I'm carrying as an entrepreneur, as a mom, as a wife, as a friend, all the things. Now, with that said.
I would encourage every single person on the planet to consider using a calendar scheduling app. And I know Kevin, like you're maybe looking at this like, of course, like this is common sense. But to this day, still, I'm hearing a lot of wedding industry professionals that have not automated this in their lives because it is a control thing. Like they're scared of letting go of their calendar. Have you heard this too?
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah, and I think it's a stupid response. I'm sorry. I'm being a little bold there because it's just Time you get so much time back think about like are you available on Tuesday at 1 o'clock? No, I already have an appointment and then you know and then you come back at alright. Well, what about Tuesday at? 330 no and it's just like someone can look at a link that wants to talk to me and boom and this is when
Megan Gillikin (:It's okay.
Megan Gillikin (:Mmm, it's annoying. It's annoying.
Megan Gillikin (:Yes.
Kevin Dennis (:They're available and they know I'm available and then there's no back and forth and you know, and it's just I don't know why I've been using it all a very long time You know my older sister Megan Ely she I got her hooked on it as well So Megan, you know and she Megan uses Calendly. I use acuity those, you know Yeah, and I it's just what I like acuity, you know, and that's you know, these things are personal but it just it
Megan Gillikin (:Yes.
Megan Gillikin (:Mm-hmm.
Megan Gillikin (:I use a QED, yep.
Kevin Dennis (:Could not function and my even my staff you can't function without I mean it just you send a link and you and you can Set up parameters in there That's the other thing that I don't think people realize is like they can't cancel an appointment within 48 hours So they have to contact you know, there's all kinds of stuff that you can do Mm-hmm Correct. Yeah. Yeah, you have all and so you still have the control, you know, and that's the thing I think people forget so
Megan Gillikin (:Mm-hmm. Or you can't book anything, like, within 36 hours. And yeah.
Megan Gillikin (:Yeah. It's time. And I think I would say this, like as a business owner, if you were in a place where you are working with clients and you're not using a calendar app, one, you're making it harder for them to connect with you, especially from a lead and discovery standpoint. If...
Kevin Dennis (:Oh yeah.
Megan Gillikin (:If you're making them do that back and forth and they're having to go to their fiance or their boss or whoever, like your event contact is to figure out a time that works, then they're probably not doing that instead they're moving on to someone else that is making their life easier through, uh, an easy to schedule link. So this is our plea, I guess, to those of you that maybe have not made that move. I've been using one since 2017 and I think it's time like as business owners that we all get on board with.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
Megan Gillikin (:the value of that calendar link. And with that note, I would say my most used link, the one that I use more than any coaching call podcast is a 20 minute virtual coffee chat link. So.
Kevin Dennis (:Oh.
Megan Gillikin (:This is what I use when someone reaches out and is like, Hey, I'd love to connect with you and, you know, meet up for coffee or I'd love to pick your brain or I'm interested in your program. Yeah. I don't want to do lunch to be honest. Like there's very few people that I want to do lunch with at this point in my busy life. So my 20 minute virtual coffee chat link, I send this out so many times because I can give 20 minutes. Like I can give 20 minutes for a get
Kevin Dennis (:Take you to lunch. Yeah. No, no.
Megan Gillikin (:30 minutes to drive to a coffee shop, an hour to sit in a coffee shop, and 30 minutes to drive back home. So this is a huge time saver for those of you that can take a moment to create that virtual coffee chat link. You will be surprised how much you use it. Go for it. Just credit me. Just credit me.
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Kevin Dennis (:I'm still in your idea. I love it. Yep, of course.
Megan Gillikin (:Um, so this is my favorite link, a couple more things as it relates to calendars and scheduling. The way I work my schedule is my calendar link only allows people to book time on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. I protect my Mondays and Fridays. My Mondays are for internal admin things and podcast recordings. So today we're recording this on a Monday. It's also my recurring team meeting. And it's also where I go through and identify, you know, what's happening for the week.
What are the fires that I need to put out that came in from the weekend on Fridays? I block off my calendar and that is my CEO like think time. So I check in with my goals I'm building the forward momentum in my business on my Fridays and then during the summer because I have three small children I like to block off The later part of my Friday afternoons for just time with my girls. Yeah time with my girls
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Kevin Dennis (:Kid time. Yep, and I think that's great. And I think that's where a lot of people go wrong because they don't, they haven't set up the boundaries. And I think that's really important because I do something very simple, similar. I do different days than you for different reasons, but yeah, you know, yeah, yep.
Megan Gillikin (:Mm-hmm. So.
Megan Gillikin (:Mm-hmm.
Megan Gillikin (:Yeah.
Sure. You have events like Fridays for event pros. You're most likely not going to be able. I mean, honestly, when I was all in wedding planning, I sold my wedding planning business last year. So now I just do coaching and consulting full time. But when I was a wedding planner, I still blocked my Fridays off one for event prep for the weddings that I had happening. And two, if I didn't have a wedding, I either wanted that time for personal time or I used it for any of my out of town couples that were coming in. And I wanted to have meetings with them and protect my weekends.
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Kevin Dennis (:Yep.
Megan Gillikin (:Okay, we talked about that. I also, as it relates to calendar apps and scheduling things, I block time out for my big projects. So just this afternoon, I was going through, I was looking at projects that I need to create, and I am looking at open times on my calendar, and I'm blocking two hours here, three hours here, to get some of these tasks done as I need to. I also, from a boundary standpoint, I'm really intentional about
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Megan Gillikin (:blocking off three weeks during the month of December. So as I mentioned, I have three small kids. This is a time I also, my husband's birthday is in December. One of my daughter's birthdays is in December. We just know that the holidays are a crazy time. So I use December as a rest and refuel period in my business. It's also how I have the time and capacity to reflect on
Kevin Dennis (:Hmm.
Megan Gillikin (:what just happened over the last 11 months and make a plan for what my goals and my strategy is going to be heading into the next year. So December three weeks blocked off. I take the first week where I do work and I have appointments, but then I take the remaining three weeks as time off to reset and refuel. Okay, next up is, oh, do you have a question? Thought?
Kevin Dennis (:Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe
Kevin Dennis (:Huh.
Kevin Dennis (:Mm.
Kevin Dennis (:No, I love it. I was like, that's a great idea. So anyway, I'm just I'm loving all your days
Megan Gillikin (:Yeah. All of these, like, thank you. Thank you. And I'm hoping, you know, that your listeners, I hope that they hear one nugget here, one nugget there that they're jotting down and they're saying like, Ooh, I'm going to do that. I'm going to try blocking out the days. And as. Hmm. That could be a good podcast name. Actually. I like that one nugget. Yeah. Um, okay. Next up on calendar management. And this one's important to note is that, um,
Kevin Dennis (:Yep.
Kevin Dennis (:I always say it's that one nugget. You just need one nugget. Yep, yep. Uh-huh, yep.
Megan Gillikin (:I am a big fan of something called workations and what these are for me, you may call them something different, but these are time out from the day to day hustle of being in my business and it is big picture planning and thinking time for my business. And this started for me back in 2018. My husband and I, um, my girls went to stay with my mom. We booked an Airbnb in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Kevin Dennis (:Hmm.
Megan Gillikin (:go hold baby goats, but then you also had like space to stay and visit. And that was one of the first times that I got away from the day-to-day of my business. I was off the clock, but I was still thinking big picture. And now this is something that I do at least twice a year, like for myself, but
Kevin Dennis (:Oh, cool.
Kevin Dennis (:Hmm.
Megan Gillikin (:I plan them for my members inside my membership as well. So we do two workations a year. I find a property somewhere in the United States. I figure out what it looks like to create a space for.
my members to really like be intentional and think big picture and reflect on what's working, what's not working, maybe reset or recalibrate some of those goals. And I have to be like, this is so cool to say, but every big idea that I have brought to life or big move or scary leap that I have made in business was born on a workation that I took myself. So I preach about them, I play on them. And I would suggest that if you're listening to this, that
Kevin Dennis (:Hehehehehehe
Megan Gillikin (:you think about what that could look like for you. They can be very simple. It can be as simple as one night in a hotel in your own hometown, where you get out of your normal environment and you go in with a plan of what you want to get accomplished and where you want to leave with your vacation, how you want to leave feeling. It can be more...
not complicated, complex than that, where maybe you go for a couple nights and you are farther away from home. You can do this by yourself. You can do this with your significant other. You can do this with your team. That actually is a huge momentum builder for me is I did one with my team where I flew in two of the ladies on my team, two of us drove.
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Megan Gillikin (:We had a house together and we planned out the whole year. Like we looked ahead and said, this is what's happening in this quarter, this is what's happening here, this is what success looks like, these are some of the bigger projects. But a workation is something that I would love for y'all to think about and figure out, what could this look like for me and what would I want the space to be able to bring to life during that time.
Kevin Dennis (:Well...
Kevin Dennis (:I'm starting to hear this more and more, you know, as I talk to people and it just is someone that's living the day to day of a business. You don't have the time to really think big picture and plan all that stuff because you're in the thick of it. And if you plan, you know, like I just got back from a very long vacation and my business is still here and everything's still attached and you know, nothing major went wrong while I was gone. So I mean, taking
Megan Gillikin (:Mm-hmm.
Megan Gillikin (:Mm-hmm.
Megan Gillikin (:Hmm.
Kevin Dennis (:A day or two or even three, you know, you're going to be your business still going to be there when you get back.
Megan Gillikin (:Yeah, and I would say for those of you that have teams too, there is power in bringing your team all together removed from their day-to-day lives and having more than that hour weekly team meeting where you're just like putting out fires and looking at the week to two weeks ahead. There is power in being together and strategizing in a bigger picture format. So
Kevin Dennis (:Well, and I would say your probably next big idea is gonna, like you said, is gonna come from there. Yeah.
Megan Gillikin (:Mm-hmm. Yeah. My last team retreat that was in May, a team workation that was in May of this year, led to a $30,000 business idea that we thought up there that was brought to life. So it's no joke. Like a big, big fan. Yeah. Okay. Last, um,
Kevin Dennis (:Oh wow. Holy cow.
Kevin Dennis (:$30,000 is a lot of money. So.
Megan Gillikin (:Thing I wanna touch on as it relates to your calendar and your schedule before we move into general productivity is I touched on quarterly goals. And I am all in on.
setting quarterly goals that keep our squirrel brains from bringing new ideas to life that one, we don't really have the capacity for and our team also does not have the capacity for. So I am classically known by my team to before going down this really commitment to quarterly goals of being like, Hey, shiny object, like we could do this, we could bring this to life. What about this? Is that you? Okay.
Kevin Dennis (:I know. Oh yeah, big time.
Megan Gillikin (:And that brings fatigue and stress and overwhelm to the people that support you in your business.
Kevin Dennis (:I would 100% agree because I would, like you said, squirrel. I would see something on social media over the weekend, or I would see something at an event and I'm like, we could do that and we can do that so much better. And I'm like, we're all in and we're going to do this now. And they're like, what the? You know, anyway, so yeah, no, I agree. Goal.
Megan Gillikin (:Mm-hmm.
Megan Gillikin (:Yes.
Yeah, so the power in this is that and we're just, you know, I break this down quarterly at the beginning of a new year. I do look ahead and I say, what are some of the like, I get to the end of this year and I am thrilled that I am able to meet this financial goal or I have, you know, achieved this thing that has been on my mind for quite some time. But instead of stopping there and saying, like, here's my goals for the year. I look at it and I break it down quarter by quarter.
Kevin Dennis (:Really, of course.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
Megan Gillikin (:I don't know my Q4 goals at the beginning of Q1. I know Q1 and then a general like bucket of other things that will come. But when I...
Kevin Dennis (:Which is very smart because you're, you know, like you said, things are gonna evolve and change and yeah, so much.
Megan Gillikin (:Oh, change, different ideas are going to come up. Like I'm going to hear something at a conference. I'm going to have a conversation with someone, and I'm going to be like, yes, that is something that is important. And I want to bring it to life. So as it relates to goals, the way I would advise someone listening to this is break your goals down into quarters. These are 90 days. And I typically will try to outline from there like.
you know, okay, in July, I want this to be what I'm working on. In August, it's this. In September, this. And then who on my team is going to be the person that is going to help me bring this to life? If you're a solopreneur, then it's all you. But if you do have a virtual assistant or you have support staff on your team, you can look at those quarterly goals and say, okay, this one, I'm really going to need Michelle all in on. On this one, I'm really going to need Sarah. And I am looking at it right now
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Megan Gillikin (:we're recording this video, I buy those big post-it sticky notes that, um, and I write out each quarter, my goals literally right by the doorway that I walk out of from my office. It says big, you know, cue whatever goals and I write them out and every single day I walk by those goals. It's gotta be 10 times a day that I am walking in and out of my office. Yes. These are your nuggets.
Kevin Dennis (:Hehehehe
Kevin Dennis (:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Kevin Dennis (:I love stealing that idea.
Megan Gillikin (:Yes, yes. This transformed my business in a way like I have never seen because I am dialed into those goals so much so I don't write them on a piece of paper and forget about them. They are right there. I see them multiple times a day. I commit to them. My team commits to them. I get their buy-in. They know that they can, you know.
Kevin Dennis (:Yep.
Megan Gillikin (:sleep well at night knowing that I'm not going to bring another goal to the table that I saw over the weekend just because I had shiny object syndrome. It's almost like a contract, right? Like, okay, this is what we're working on for the next 90 days. If I do get a shiny object idea, I hold it for the next quarter. Doesn't mean we can't bring it to life, but I just have to be realistic about the bandwidth of myself and my team.
Kevin Dennis (:Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Kevin Dennis (:Now, what if you, just as someone with ADHD and, you know, squirrel, what happens when you get that moment? Do you jot it down? Do you have a list going? Okay. No, no, that's what I'm saying. Okay, alright, perfect. I figured, but...
Megan Gillikin (:Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Megan Gillikin (:Oh yeah. 100%. Yeah. I can't expect to hold onto that idea if I don't write that down. Yes. I will talk about that as far as like apps and where I keep all my ideas. But yes, if I don't write it down, I think it's a combination of 40 plus entrepreneur plus three kids that I can't, nothing sticks if it doesn't get written down right now. Okay. Now let's move on to, um, productivity.
Kevin Dennis (:Okay, perfect.
Kevin Dennis (:Alright, perfect.
Megan Gillikin (:And this, these are some things that help me stay focused and avoid some distractions. So I already told you that my brain feels like the inside of a pinball machine and the way, probably the number one tip that I would want your listeners to hear is to get some sense of daily brain dump and plan of action that works for you.
Kevin Dennis (:Mmm.
Megan Gillikin (:And Kevin, do you remember those books, the, as a kid, the choose your own adventure books where it's like, yes. Okay. So I like to relate many things in business to choose your own adventure. And what I would say here is I am not going to tell you that there's only one way to, you know, have a to-do list or tackle your day. It is a choose your own adventure of what works for you. There are thousands of apps. There are.
Kevin Dennis (:Yes, yes, yeah.
Kevin Dennis (:Hehehehe
Megan Gillikin (:hundreds of planners, there are many ways to do this. I'm gonna tell you what works for me, and then again, pull the nuggets that work for you as well. I have found with multiple different tries and attempts at different methods that what works for me is all my appointments and commitments are in a digital calendar, my Gmail calendar on my phone that I can access from anywhere. My to-do list.
lives on a written piece of paper. And I'll tell you, you know, a little bit about the why behind that in a minute. But the way that I structure my to-do list is like this. I will do a brain dump that is Megan business. So there I'm writing out all of the business things that I need to get done. I have a separate list on the same page that says Megan personal. So these are things in my personal life with three children that I need to tackle. Then I have a delegate.
list. So I will write the things that I need to ask for help from someone on my team and who that is going to, who I'm going to need to ask for. Finally, I have, and this one is the only one that sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. The first three, every single day, every, like every list I write has those three categories. The one that floats in and out is an explore list.
And the explore list is as I'm doing coaching calls or I'm recording podcasts or I'm in different meetings. Someone will say something to me and Kevin, I know you'll do this at some point during this conversation where you might be like, well, I love this app or I read this book or I, you know, I couldn't live without this particular purchase that I have in my house, I will write that down because I want to explore it. I want to look into it. Maybe I want to add that book to my audible. Like.
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Megan Gillikin (:reading list, but it doesn't live on my must do personal or professional list. And the reason why I separate my business and my personal list is I don't like the two mixed together. I like to create space for checking things off personally. I call this my adulting hour. So this would be, that doesn't sound that great. That could be taken the wrong way, but, um, yes, moving on. Um, this is where I might.
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-mm.
Kevin Dennis (:Hehehehe Moving on! Hehehehe
Megan Gillikin (:Uh, reschedule my dentist appointment or make that call to insurance or order that gift for someone for a baby shower that I'm going to. And I like to carve that time out. So my brain knows now we're going into personal mode. This is how I organize my, um, like daily brain dump. I write it every single day. Once I have my professional, my personal, my delegate list, I go through and I put a star and I could show you, um, Kevin, and you'll see this video wise, but I go through.
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
Kevin Dennis (:Oh yeah.
Megan Gillikin (:And I put a star next to the things that I'm planning to tackle that particular day, and then I time block it out. So this is where I will go through and say, these are the appointments that I already have on my schedule. I have a 30 minute block here and I know I can check this one star tasked off or, um, then I have a podcast recording with Kevin, and then I have an hour block. So during that time, I'll be doing these three things in short little bursts of time.
Kevin Dennis (:Amazing. Yep.
Kevin Dennis (:And I think the time blocking is a really essential key for all of us with ADHD, because I think that's what keeps us on track. And I think the other thing too, when you're time block is if you don't finish the task, it's okay to let it be, and then you reschedule it into your schedule the next day or when it fits.
Megan Gillikin (:Mm-hmm. Yes.
Megan Gillikin (:Mm-hmm.
Megan Gillikin (:Yes, and I think, you know, for those of us with ADHD, sometimes it is just that it feels big and overwhelming. So if we can give ourselves 15 or 20 minutes towards a task just to start it, we're surprised that the task is actually not as big and scary as we thought it was. Yes.
Kevin Dennis (:Oh, 100%. I can't tell you how many times I'm like, oh, that's gonna take me forever. Sit down and do it in 30 minutes I've knocked it. You know what I'm saying? We build walls in front of us all the time, so.
Megan Gillikin (:Ugh.
Megan Gillikin (:Yes, yes. And many people talk about the Pomodoro method as it relates to time blocking. I do a loose Pomodoro that works for me. So I, I don't have long attention spans to sit down for many, many hours to do something, but I can do 30 minutes here or 45 minutes here and I write, I will time block in my breaks, so I will time block in 15 minutes to get up and walk around or go grab a snack or go. You know, talk to my husband in the middle of the day.
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Megan Gillikin (:because he works from home as well. So that's how I tackle my schedule is short bursts of work and then some... Yeah.
Kevin Dennis (:And I think that's the only way to do it. I have a really good friend of mine, Britt Bertino, I don't know if she's a planner that was from Vegas and now moved on to be a mom, but she used to have 30 minute music lists she would create for herself playlists and 45 in an hour. And she'd have different ones and she'd put on a 30 minute playlist and when the music ended, it was time to move on. You know, and it was just, and you would then, whatever you finish, it's okay to walk away from.
Megan Gillikin (:Mm-hmm.
Megan Gillikin (:Yes.
Megan Gillikin (:Mm-hmm.
Kevin Dennis (:and move forward. And I think that's where a lot of people, and then Allen Berg always talks about paint, if you need to paint your house, you're not gonna do it all at once. You paint the wall, and then you go here, and then over time, you can get it all done. So I think it's important when people with our brains think that way. Because I think, yep, anyway.
Megan Gillikin (:Yes.
Megan Gillikin (:Right. It's like that eat the frog or eat the elephant. Like you take small bites at a time and get the hard things out of the way first. Okay, one more, actually I guess two more quick notes on productivity and then we'll move to our final talk of.
Kevin Dennis (:Yep.
Kevin Dennis (:Okay.
Megan Gillikin (:life hacks. So I use an app called Forest. It was $4. And what I love about it is you grow a tree. So you pick how long you want your focus time to be. And it grows like a little garden or a little tree. And if you exit out of the app before your time, you kill the tree and nobody wants to do that. So it's, it's like a gamified way to stay off of your phone and avoid some of those distractions. It's forest and I love it. I use it pretty much every single day.
Kevin Dennis (:Oh.
Kevin Dennis (:I think that's a good one because I'm the first to Instagram and the game I love to play right now and yeah
Megan Gillikin (:Mm-hmm. Oh, the number of times we look, because we get bored or our brain is seeking something different, so we just go to our phone. Final productivity hack here is, I'm a big fan of co-working, so what I do here is, this is something I do in my community every single month where I block out a two-hour period of time for my community. I have them come in, declare what they're working on, we all go on mute, we keep our cameras on, and we get the work.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
Kevin Dennis (:Oh!
Megan Gillikin (:And then at the end of the time, you get to share what you were able to complete during that co-working session. So I do this for my community, but I also do it with my team. Sometimes if we're working on a big project together, I'll say, hey, I'm going to be working on this, you know, tomorrow between 10 and 1130. If you want to come and work with me as well, we can. And it's just that accountability and focus time there.
Kevin Dennis (:Mm.
Megan Gillikin (:Okay. That's it for productivity. Now we're going to have to rapid fire some life hacks and, uh, apps for. Okay. I'm like talking in two speed. So we're, we're doing this. Uh, number one thing I do a weekly huddle with my husband on Sunday nights. We go through, we look at the week. We look at drop off pickup for kids dinners. Um,
Kevin Dennis (:Let's do, I'm excited.
Hehehe
Megan Gillikin (:his meetings, my meetings. This reduces resentment in my marriage and it keeps me knowing what is happening so it doesn't lead to that anxiety and overwhelm during the week. On that Sunday after we do our weekly huddle is when I do my online grocery order. I do this because one, I spend less money by doing an online grocery order. I save myself time. It shows me the things that I ordered last week so I can regularly just order the same things and it helps my squirrel brain from not buying things that I don't really need by going into the store.
Kevin Dennis (:Especially when you go hungry.
Megan Gillikin (:On my grocery order, yes. Oh my gosh, I know, I know. I do have help in my house. I know that this is like a privileged luxury thing, but for me, it has been a game changer of knowing that like laundry, dishes, like some of the things that pile up and make me inner critic and shame spiral because I can't handle all the things. This is someone that comes to my house twice a week for a couple hours. They help with three kids, laundry, and just like keeping a sense of order.
And it is money well spent. It allows me to make more money in my business and it allows me to be a better mom and wife in, uh, when I'm not thinking all things business. So that's a life hack as well.
Kevin Dennis (:Good for you, I think there's nothing wrong with that.
Megan Gillikin (:Yeah. Uh, you mentioned one of my life hacks, which is music. So I go to Spotify and I look up foes focus, uh, playlist and I put those on music really helps me. So there's so many playlists out there. There's actually ADHD specific playlists that you can listen to that are supposed to like help your brain want to focus and do the work. Um, yeah, check that out. And then my last, uh, round up here would be some apps that, um,
Kevin Dennis (:Oh!
Kevin Dennis (:Oh.
Kevin Dennis (:I'm going to check that out.
Megan Gillikin (:I use and then I've heard about that may be helpful to your listeners. Number one is Todoist. Now I have a weird relationship with Todoist because I have a to-
Kevin Dennis (:I do too! Okay, let's go.
Megan Gillikin (:Yes. Okay. Here's why I write it out here is because I'm not sure that I should be in my phone for everything urgent on my list. Cause then I just get distracted and I'm like in Todoist and then I head to Instagram or I'm in Todoist and then I find myself like randomly checking my email. So Todoist is great, but I have a like weird complicated relationship with it where I'm not quite sure how it's going to be in my life. Like what's your relationship with it?
Kevin Dennis (:It's simpler. I'll get in there and I'm like and my problem is I probably need to turn off my notifications on my phone Because then you know this I'm a big sports person So this pops up for that sports team I like or that pops up for this and I'm like, oh you got it You know, I got us here. I got to see what's going, you know And so that's probably would help me with that But I do find when I do use it if I just take time to just do the brain dump get it all in there Or and you know and write it down
Megan Gillikin (:Mmm. Yeah. Yes.
Megan Gillikin (:Yes.
Megan Gillikin (:Mm-hmm.
Megan Gillikin (:Yeah, that's where I feel that way too. And that is where I like to keep my future ideas. So that's where I will keep my future business ideas. That's where I move any of my explore things that I wrote on the notebook. I move into my explore todoist project. So it's there and if I have time, I can go back. But.
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Megan Gillikin (:That is why I write out my to-do list on a piece of paper because it's not me in my phone distracted, which I just get very easily. That's where my squirrel brain really goes to next level. I talked about Forest, which is an app that I love for staying productive. Forest, yeah, like the tree. Yeah, Forest, mm-hmm, yep. And then, nope, nope. And then another one similar to that I just started using is called Tide.
Kevin Dennis (:Spell it to make sure is it just spelled like four? Okay. All right. Perfect. I didn't know if it had a funky spelling Yep
Megan Gillikin (:T-I-D-E, and it is a timer for that pomodoro method style. So if you wanted to test out like setting a 25 minute timer and doing the work and tracking like what you're able to get done, Tide is a really good one for that. And those are my tips. I tried to leave a few minutes of like anything we wanna wrap up there, but I feel like that was a whole bunch of information in a short period of time.
Kevin Dennis (:That was more, well, and I'm sure with squirrel brains, we're gonna get off of here and go, oh, we should've talked about that, or we should've done this. So, oh my God, this was absolutely amazing. I've never written down, sorry, I do know how to speak English. I've never written down so much information from a podcast guest ever, so I appreciate it. Thank you so much. I mean, it just, you're speaking my language. It's a struggle that I deal with.
Megan Gillikin (:Yes, yes, yes.
Megan Gillikin (:Hehehe
Megan Gillikin (:Thank you. Yeah, these are...
Kevin Dennis (:You know, and I've tried many, many methods. The one thing I think I'm gonna take away from this, I'll be honest with you, is I've gone, we tried to go digital here at our, we don't have filing and cabinets anymore here at work. Everything is digital, digital. We did that about four years ago, maybe. And like literally one of the things I did during COVID was get rid of the file. I was like, file cabinets, who needs these? You know, cause they're taking up space and I replaced them with video games, which is probably not appropriate.
Megan Gillikin (:Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Kevin Dennis (:in my office. So anyway, but is writing things down. I used to long time ago is I would print out my calendar, so it was all blocked out and then I would write things on the day itself. And that, I might have to re look into doing something similar like that, so.
Megan Gillikin (:Hahaha!
Megan Gillikin (:Mm-hmm.
Megan Gillikin (:Yeah.
Megan Gillikin (:This is, I love this. It's one thing I have to keep up with and I enjoy, I mean, there's definitely the dopamine hit of being able to check things off both on the list itself. And then as I go through the time block too, and you'll see like, Kevin, you can see my video. I mean, this is the classic squirrel brain Megan of like, I start adding things here at the bottom. There's arrows. What does this even mean? I don't know, but it works for me. Yes, yes.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
Yeah.
Yep.
Oh yeah.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah, it was important at the time. That's all that matters. So anyway, all right. Well, one thing I do like to ask, what's your favorite part? You know, we are a wedding podcast, but we totally were not a wedding person. We were very much anybody business at this one today, but what is your favorite, favorite part of a wedding?
Megan Gillikin (:Mmm, yeah. Ha ha ha. That's right.
Megan Gillikin (:My favorite part of a wedding is the hug from the couple at the end of the night, right before I typically send them out for that, you know, special exit. It is, that is why I have had a love affair with the relationship with couples. It is the trust and it is the, we've gotten to this point and the hug that tells me like, this is why we do what we do.
Kevin Dennis (:Ooh, that's a good one.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
Yeah, that's a good one. And that's a really, really good moment. I don't blame you. It's always when people look at you and they're like, we couldn't have done this without you. It's like, yeah, you could have, but yeah. Thank you so much, because you're reaffirming what I did. Anyway, Megan, I can't thank you enough. I would love to have you back, because you were an amazing podcast guest. Thank you. Yep. All right. Thank you so much.
Megan Gillikin (:Yeah. Mm, so good.
Megan Gillikin (:Thanks. That's right.
Megan Gillikin (:Ugh, let's do it, I'm always impatient.
