Episode 63: How to Master Time Management with Sade Jones

Acquania Escarne 0:03

You are listening to the Purpose of Money podcast, a podcast where we talk about ways to build wealth and create more freedom in your life today. I am your host Acquania Escarne.

Hey guys welcome back to the Purpose of Money podcast today. I'm super excited. We have Sade on the podcast. She is our Time Management Coach. She was named after the famous singer Sade born and raised in Queens, New York, and now resides in ATL, where I'm from. She is the CEO and founder of The Fire Inside where she provides time management coaching and content creation services. As a Time Management Coach, she helps ambitious professionals who want to spend more time developing their side businesses and small business owners who feel overwhelmed and all over the place. When it comes to being organized, getting profitable and achieving your goals. She didn't always have a business in fact she actually spent many years side hustling while she grew in her corporate career in the advertising industry.

Then she landed her dream career after college, but long to have her own outlet to share her personal development journey. That's what inspired Sade to start The Fire Inside blog in 2017. This is a blog where she shares personal growth, lifestyle and wellness content, to inspire others to ignite the fire inside of themselves. After years of figuring out how to juggle her full time advertising career, maintain her blog and brand collaborations, host networking events, run an e commerce Store and stay on top of regular life activities. She cracked the code, and today we're going to talk about some of the things she learned along the way, especially when it comes to time management and productivity. Hey Sade, welcome to the show. How you doing today?

Sade Jones 1:59

Hi, I'm excited to be here. I love hearing the bio, because it just sounds so inspiring. Sometimes you forget all the things you've accomplished. I was like, oh, go me.

Acquania Escarne 2:07

Yes, you need to read the bio to yourself when you want to be inspired. So I know I talked a little bit about all the things you used to juggle. But tell me a little bit more about you and what personally inspired you to create The Fire Inside.

Sade Jones 2:26

Got it. So my mission really is to empower people to make the time to pursue what sets their soul on fire. The Fire Inside came about, like you mentioned while I was in my corporate career, so I had started working in advertising. Obviously, I'm a creative, I love doing creative things. But there was a sense of siphon is in the corporate setting. You can be creative, but only so much in before someone else swooped in with their opinions, which I really understood that the culture, but for me, I wanted an outlet where I could just be myself share what I was learning as an adult and just provide knowledge for other people. Because I when I started my personal development journey is funny. I can remember the exact day when it started. Because I was in Barnes and Noble. I had went through a really bad breakup. And I had a lot of drama going on in my own life. And I just graduated college. And I just knew I needed to change something in my life. So I went to Barnes and Noble, I picked up this book called You're a Badass. And I was like, you know what that's the type of book that if I was going to be personal development, it will be something like that.

So I picked it up and I didn't even read it. Usually I'm like the person would work towards reading it to make sure it's good. I just picked it up off. And I need to just I need to reset my mindset, pick that book up, started reading it. And it just changed the game for me. And I felt like what I was learning needed to be shared. So I got online, I forgot how to make a blog was 2017. A lot of people were coming out with blogs, I bought I think like some little course on a blog or something. And I just opened up the blog, and it got a lot of traction. And that's that was my really my first business. From there. I went on to actually sell an E commerce online. So I sold fitness products, I got really into fitness as well. So I started selling that on Amazon taught myself how to do that, just through YouTube. YouTube University taught me that one. While I was doing that, I also started getting brand partnerships, which I never knew you'd get paid to like sponsor things and talk about things that you probably would normally talk about on social media. So that was really cool. I got introduced to influencing started doing that as well all while juggling, like my corporate career and trying to get promoted and like going through that whole grind and then coming home and doing more grind for my business. I just was stuck in this place where I didn't know which one I wanted to do more. So I was trying to get 50 50 to both and I realized I couldn't do that and one had to give more of me than the other that's just how life works.

So I started giving more to entrepreneurship journey and ended up net started hosting networking events all over the city. And that's when I realized okay, I love to work with people one on one and help them change their lives. And I started to notice in my corporate life, even at work with my co workers I was the one people went to for advice or to organize something, or to come up with a project idea, and I was like, okay, if I'm really good at this time, kind of management, lifestyle management, I may be able to do something with this. So I ended up hiring a business coach, I had met at one of my events where I had met her online, but she had spoke at one of my networking events. And she coached me and I think it was about three months later, I got my first two clients. And then from there, I got another two clients. So I proved to myself that I could get clients and get paid to do this. And I quit my job in like the middle of pandemic, which some people would say, What the heck, people who didn't have jobs, why would you do that, but it felt aligned for me. And I'm glad I did it. Because now I'm a year in and I love what I do.

Acquania Escarne 5:39

Thats so inspiring, you're like, it doesn't matter if it's a pandemic, this is the right time for me. And I think people need to listen to that voice, especially when they have already proven as you said, you already had a proven proved that your concept works, your business works, and people are willing to pay you to do it. So what you did then needed to do was level up your clients to make the income that you wanted to make for yourself. But you had the freedom to make a very tough decision in a time where like you said, a lot of people were losing jobs, but you created one for yourself, you created your business as the next opportunity. So I want to talk about your leap into full time entrepreneurship. Was there anything in particular that you did to really prepare yourself besides proving the concept of your business?

Sade Jones 6:28

So I, I think your audience will resonate with this, I had to get comfortable spending large amounts of money that I had never really spent right. I had invested in courses here and there a couple 100 and lower 1000s. But when I was hiring coaches, it was a amount I never paid for someone's help before besides college. And I had to shift my mindset around k, if you want to make or be a millionaire, right, you need to learn from people who hit six figures, seven figures, eight figures, you want to get to those places, you have to learn people done those things. So I had to do a bit of a shift to even see myself in that light. Also, I started to think about what were all the skills I gained in my corporate experience that can come over into my entrepreneurship experience. So I worked in advertising right. So I learned a lot about marketing, I learned a lot about project management, people management, managing accounts, like I learned a lot of things, I had to figure out how I could take package them up and transfer them and use them on a person. Because I was so used to working for these huge companies with these huge budgets to figure out what skills can I transfer over? I had to also figure out what skills am I not so great at because that's going to affect who I should be hiring for certain positions when I do get to that point as well, which I finally did. So that been exciting. Um, so yeah, I wouldn't say those things I'm thinking about what skills I can use to transfer over was a big thing, getting ready to invest money and knowing that it costs money to run a business, not just you not only going to just make money, it costs money to make money. And then the last thing was just making sure I had a good amount of savings.

I knew you know, that was a pandemic, in the back of my mind. I was like, maybe it was a fluke, I got these couple of clients, but I don't know what's gonna happen like a couple months in because entrepreneurship you have to get comfortable with, you're not going to have a check every two weeks, right? Like, you might get paid a lump sum right here and then have a little bit of a down month and then come up here and you just dont, know, it'll fluctuate especially like the first year. So I had to make sure that okay, I can handle myself for three to six months, if anything goes array just to get myself back up. Or if I needed God forbid, to get a job again, I have the time and I would have the money saved up. So that I would say was the safety net that I created for myself. And then I decided that I had to just take the risk I was I I procrastinated on telling my boss for so long, because I was so scared. And we had such a great relationship. I was like near tears when I told him he was too because we were that close. So just but I knew that it was the better thing for me. And in the end that everyone understood why I was leaving. And they knew I was always been an entrepreneurial spirit, even within the company. So they kind of saw that I would probably leave eventually. So yeah, I would say that's the things that got me to take the leap, you just have to leave because you can't, if you waited for yourself to be ready, you'll never be ready, you just have to go for it and then figure it out on along the way, but have a somewhat of a safety net.

Acquania Escarne 9:17

Love that. Thank you for that honesty and that raw story because you're right, a lot of my listeners will resonate with that. Most of them are working nine to five and having side hustles on the side that they will hope to bring into a space where they can make that their full time gig. And so it is hard sometimes to figure out the steps and how do I know when I'm ready and what that looks like. But I do value the fact that you know, you made the largest investments in your business and yourself while you were still working, which is really important. And then you utilize that knowledge to leverage your Leap. So that's good too. So as a management coach, do you really think people should multitask? You know, what are your top three tips for anyone struggling with time management.

Sade Jones 10:04

So multitasking is a myth. Oh, I will say that right now, none of us can multitask. Now, when I say that I'm I want to get specific. So I like to bring a little bit of science into it. So pretty much when I say multitasking, I mean, you can do two cognitive activities at the same time. So let's say if it takes your mind and your brain to actually do it, you can't do multiple things like that, at one time. Let's say for instance, you're cooking and you have music playing in the background. Now, that's not going to distract you. Because you don't need to cognitivly be aware, listen to the music. But if you're trying to do a project, and the answer an email, but be on a call, is too much. And then scrolling Instagram, like sometimes people are doing way too many things. And we're in this culture now where we're training ourselves to get used to multitasking. And I catch myself, I'll even admit, like, sometimes I'll be watching Netflix, and then I'll get something comes up in my head. And I'm like, Oh, let me go text that person. That's a form of multitasking. I'm now I cannot listen to the show, text somebody and then end up on Instagram somehow, because we all do when our fingers in our phone, and you can't do all of those things at the same time.

So you want to start training yourself to multitask in the first place. Because it's really, when you multitask, I always say this, if you multitask, you're doing multiple things poorly, instead of one thing greatly. So you're going to give that 20% to everything you're doing, it's going to take you way longer, or you can give 100% Get it done in about half the time and be better off. And I will share real life examples. So one of my clients is a YouTuber, and she, she has this fear of like being alone in her office, and she will always have something playing in the background, like a movie or something. And what she realized was, every time she had a movie or something in the background, and she was trying to edit a video, it would take her maybe like, three, four hours, half a day, pretty much she'd be editing these videos. So I told her, you know, let's just do an experiment. And I was up to approach it that way with clients, because if you do, they're not so scared. So we did an experiment and she turned the TV off while she was editing, she could have it on for her break when she would take a break because I always recommend taking a break every two hours or so. But while she was actually editing the video, it wasn't on, she cut that time in more than half, I think she got down to an hour and a half at editing the video because she worked on it 100% was just doing that only took breaks when she needed quick like need 10 breaks machine 10 minute break. So she needed, but was really getting it all done, instead of trying to like watch a little bit of this, do that do the video the same time, like a lot of us tend to do because we you know, we feel like we can get distracted and be okay. So that if that doesn't convince you, I don't know what will.

But like I said, multitasking is just you just don't want to do it. It really causes you to create more mistakes, it decreases your concentration, it prevents you from really getting into the flow that you need to just so much science behind not doing it. So if you're listening to this, the first thing I want you to do, and my first tip, then is to absolutely stop multitasking. My second one would be to make sure you're planning your schedule out on a weekly basis. So planning is what you're gonna do, right? But scheduling is when so it's great to have a plan, here's a task I want to accomplish this week, or, you know, have an idea of what you want. But until you schedule it like things that are not in your schedule, don't get done. That's how I like to think about it with my clients. If it's not on your schedule, there's no time attached to it. It's a nice little What if task, like I might get to laundry, or I might finish their project, I probably will post on Instagram. But if it's not a time in a place when you know you're going to actually get these things accomplished, it's not actually going to happen. And that's the truth for a lot of us will have these long to do lists. I've seen it time and time again. But nothing's in our schedule. So what happens is, we feel like a failure at the end of the day, because you only got two things done. Meanwhile, those two things took us four hours each. And that's an eight hour workday. And we're not going to be going over that. So that's just an example of I really, really recommend planning your schedule out on a weekly basis, taking the time to write all the things out that you need categorize them and get them on to a digital calendar or planner.

Acquania Escarne 14:03

I love these tips. I'm like, Oh, yes, she just spoke to me. I live and die by my calendar. Like seriously, when it's not on my calendar, it doesn't happen. And I forget stuff. So I always feel bad. And I apologize when I do stuff like that. But that's how I operate my life. So these are really good tips.

Sade Jones 14:20

Thank you. Yeah, so my next one was going to be to make sure that you limit your distractions. I think this one kind of goes you know, without saying if we're distracted, we're spending more time doing things. Now, this may sound a little different, but I always tell people to schedule in your distractions. So when people think about scheduling, you think about just scheduling in you know, work tasks are things that have to get done. But I think it's really important to schedule and the things that are lifestyle based too. So scheduling your workouts and scheduling break time for meals, scheduling in time with your family, your friends, those things won't happen unless your schedule and taking really serious scheduling the times when you're going to scroll Instagram we all want to so just get actually schedule it in, I'm gonna I have app limits on my phones. And I always recommend clients having to schedule in, don't go past your limits, when you see that you're coming to your limit, that's when you decided I'm going to chill, stop scrolling. But really make sure to limit your distractions turn your phone on silent when you need to turn your phone off when you need to, don't be afraid to not be available, that's a boundary that needs to be set up. Because if we're always available for everyone, we're not going to be fully present for ourselves and getting things done that we need to sometimes you just need that time away, whether it's an hour or three hours.

And then my last tip was just going to be to utilize the Pomodoro method. If you haven't heard of this method, it works for absolutely everyone is millions of people rave about this one so much science behind it as well. The Pomodoro method essentially is when you work for a certain amount of time and then take a break. So there's plenty of apps you can use to do this. But essentially, you would set a timer for about 25 minutes, you would work on one task one task only you wouldn't get distracted, then you would take a five minute break, I recommend the break be something non digital. So like walking around grabbing water, doing something, you know, looking out the window, whatever floats your boat, then after the break, you will go and do the pickup the task you were working on or pick up a new task and you work on it for another 25 minutes. And then you take another five minute break. And you do that four times. So end up being close to two hours. And you essentially it will skyrocket your productivity. And I've seen it for many people. What happens when you have a timer with it is it gamifies it. And next thing you know, you want to beat the clock and you're like, Okay, I gotta finish this, because the clock is ticking. And you don't you don't want anything to interrupt you until you finish and it works for everyone, especially if you're a procrastinator, I resonate with you because I always am a recovering procrastinator. And so I resonate with you guys so much because I didn't just become a Time Management Coach, because I'm so amazing at times because I struggled with certain aspects of it. And I taught myself I did not struggle, and I want to help others because I know it's possible. So if you're a procrastinator, doing the Pomodoro method can work wonders for you. I do it on a daily basis.

Acquania Escarne 17:07

Absolutely love that. I have never heard of it. So listeners, I hope you guys are taking notes because I'm learning too. And I'm gonna make sure to include some tips to help you remember these things in the show notes. But I think that's a great idea because I could totally see myself getting excited about beating the clock and getting as much done as I can in the 25 minutes. So I would probably be that person. I am a recovering procrastinator slash always procrastinate. There's, it's weird, there's some things that I like to do in advance and take my time doing them. But I feel like they the product comes out better sometimes when I procrastinate. But even when I'm procrastinate it's not the night of or the next day. It's still like within three or four days of it being due, and then a finishing touches at the end. But I have done all nighters before. That's why I'm recovering and that I'm getting better about it because I used to do all nighters. Now I'm a couple of days before the deadline really outlining what it is that I want to accomplish and and why um so I find that all to be very interesting. Super helpful. Thank you for those tips.

You mentioned using apps or you know, reminders or alarms. Are there any specific apps that you like that help with time management?

Sade Jones 18:33

Yes, so many, but I'm gonna share a couple. So the for the Pomodoro method, there's plenty of apps, I would recommend Focus Keeper, Focus To Do, Forest and or Flora. Those are the top four I've seen all of my clients rave about and I personally use all four of them from time to time. They're all great. For anyone who has a chronic snoozer, I have so many clients who are chronic snoozers, they just do this is this snooze, I would recommend using the app Alarm Me. And what that app does is it allows you to have you have to basically solve a problem like a math problem or a puzzle you have to make do some type of action before the alarm will go off. Otherwise, it'll just keep going off and off and on and off until you get up. So if you really are chronic Snoozer, you needed like some accountability, that app can be really helpful for you. Another app for digital distractions is Freedom or Stay Focused. Both of those allow you to like completely block out websites if you want to. I'm pretty sure you have to pay for Freedom, but it's like a really low fee. And it's worth it. I have some clients who are like chronically on YouTube or Instagram and they just shut on freedom and it blocks them from using the app.

That's a pretty extreme one. If you don't want to go that extreme. You could go into your apps on your phone and set up some limits for each one in your settings. Or you can set up downtime Um, hours, I do that personally, because if I don't do downtime hours, I will end up on email at all times the night. So it helps me to just shut it down not having a lot like not allow myself to even open those certain apps on certain days at certain times. Um, another good app for time tracking would be Toggl t o g g l. That app is really good. If you want to track how long you're spending on doing certain tasks. I highly recommend that for side hustlers, or on any type of entrepreneur, because sometimes we'll think we're spending a certain amount of hours like I used to think when I would when I first started blogging that it took me like, an hour to do a blog, oh, I think an idea, I write it up, then I just edited, it was taking me like closest six, seven hours. And I just didn't realize it because it felt like fun, it didn't feel like work. And even though it feels like fun, it's still really important for you to understand how many hours and you're putting in and how much effort it actually takes. Because when you want to, let's say you hire someone to do it, you have to figure out what the process is and how long it actually takes. So on a regular basis, I'll use toggl to kind of figure out how long I'm spending on certain tests. Let's see, I think that's a good amount of apps

Acquania Escarne 21:08

Do you have a book about this? Because you literally need like 10 apps, and I feel like they need to be paying you. Maybe they are but

Sade Jones 21:16

I need to, your like the third person to tell me that I'm like, I need to start reaching out to people.

Acquania Escarne 21:22

Yes. So I want to talk more about within your business, you offer something called Reclaim Your Time, right? So let's talk about who is the ideal person to participate in reclaim your time and what do they get when they work with you do this program,

Sade Jones 21:38

So reclaim your time in my 12 week one on one coaching program. It's specifically made for side hustlers, or aspiring side hustlers. So that's someone working a nine to five aspire to doing something on the side already is doing something on the side, they want to make you more profitable, or someone who's a small business owner. And what I've noticed with a lot of small business owners, they don't they have that idea and the concept and they're making money, but they don't have the structure. And I can help them create more of that structure to create more income in their life. So I essentially teach you how to set your day up like a truly effective person, and we tailor it to your lifestyle.

So when people approached me, they usually really stressed or overwhelmed, they have all the it's always super ambitious people with all these dreams, and they just need help with the details. And I love the details. So we're like the perfect match, you come with a vision, I come with the details. And I help you map up how to get to your goals. For some clients, they're just amazed at the first couple of weeks where we literally just take their huge goals and break them down. And they just could never see how to actually achieve the goal, but they knew they wanted it. So that's one of the biggest transformations. But by the end, most people will start to become really amazing at scheduling, they see profit in their business, they see how to actually achieve their goals on their own. Some of them end up working with me afterwards. Some of them don't, it's totally up to the person. But essentially, the program is a one on one coaching with me. And we will walking you through the whole process of setting boundaries, getting disciplined, learning about yourself getting clear on what you want to achieve, what you what business goals you have, or personal goals you have. It's really for lifestyle management.

Acquania Escarne 23:15

I really like that. And I think that could be helpful for a lot of people. Because I think even as an entrepreneur, you really have to be good about time management, especially if you're still trying to respect the hours of your nine to five job while you're also trying to grow a business. That's really important. So the name of my podcast is called the Purpose of Money podcast. So I asked all my guests this question, what is your Purpose for Money?

Sade Jones 23:42

Oh, I like that. So my Purpose of Money is to use it as a tool. I think sometimes people forget that money is a tool. It's supposed to be used, not just saved. And I would use it as a tool to achieve time freedom. That's one of my personal goals, time freedom. But I also want to help people reclaim their time and enhance their life management skills. So that was that's my purpose for money.

Acquania Escarne 24:06

I love it, great answer. And I'm sure a lot of people can resonate with that, because that's why I work so hard is really to take more vacations and have more freedom. And I also want to make more money so I can help more people. A part of my mission is giving hiring women, especially women of color to help grow my business and then to help grow their businesses if they are entrepreneurs. So I want my listeners to be able to connect with you because between Reclaim Your Time, the apps you provided I think you would be an awesome coach for a lot of them. So please tell my guests How can we find you on all things social? Drop your handles and your website now?

Sade Jones 24:48

All right, cool. So you can find me on Instagram. That's where I post the most my Instagram is Sade S a d e Jones underscore and you can also find me at TheFireInside Sade.com You can find out all about my programs my blog content is there so many resources are there as well as client results, testimonials and I, I always like to say I answer DMS. So if you send me a DM and you have any questions about anything I mentioned on this podcast or just in general about productivity, please feel free shoot me a DM I'd love to chat and maybe point in the direction in some resources that could help you enhance your time management.

Acquania Escarne 25:26

I love it. Love it. Thank you, Sade for being on the podcast I look forward to everyone benefiting from this episode dropping a review to tell us so and don't forget to share it with anyone that can use this information to help them in their time management as well. Until next time, guys keep building generational wealth.

Thank you for listening to the Purpose of Money podcast. For more resources and information, check out my website the PurposeofMoney.com. And while you're there. Please sign up for our newsletter so you have the latest information on new episodes and blog posts. Until next time, keep creating freedom in your life today.

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