90. Why Productivity Strategies Fail (and How Mindset Changes Everything)

💭 Ever catch yourself thinking “I’ll never get all this done” or “I’m just terrible at time management?" If so, you’re not alone—and that little voice in your head might be holding you back more than you realize.

In today's episode, I'm diving into self-talk and how it impacts your productivity as an SLP (or PT, OT—anyone juggling client care, documentation, and life!). I’m breaking down why the way you talk to yourself directly affects your time management, stress levels, and overall success. Plus, I’ll share practical strategies to shift negative self-talk so you can actually follow through on the productivity hacks you’ve been trying.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ The surprising connection between self-talk and productivity (yes, your thoughts really do matter!)
 ✔️ Why time management strategies fail when mindset is ignored
 ✔️ Three main types of self-talk and how they shape your work habits
 ✔️ A simple 3-step process to shift negative self-talk so you can get more done—without burnout

Resources & Links:

📌 Join the SLP Support Group on Facebook for live coaching & productivity tips
📌 Want to work on time management with me? Learn more about coaching for SLPs here.
📌 If you loved this episode, please subscribe & leave a review—it helps other SLPs find the show!

To find out how I can help you improve your work-life balance, click here.

Come join the SLP Support Group on Facebook for more tips and tricks!

Follow me on Instagram! @theresamharp

Learn more about Theresa Harp Coaching here.

Transcript

Welcome to Work-Life Balance for Speech Pathologists. I'm Theresa Harp, an SLP and productivity coach, and this podcast is all about how to build a successful career as an SLP and still have time for yourself and the people and things you love. So if you're ready to ditch stress and burnout for a more balanced and fulfilling life, then you are in the right place. Let's dive in. 

Hello SLPs. I am doing a video slash audio podcast today. I am recording this for those of you who are visual, more visual learners and like to see and hear at the same time. And I will be sharing this in the SLP support group on Facebook. So if you are listening to the podcast and you would like to follow along with the video, pop into the Facebook group.

The link is in the show notes and check it out. [00:01:00] But today I'm going to be talking about the concept of self talk and how self talk shapes your productivity, how it relates to the way that we spend our time. And this is something that is a huge component of coaching. I talk about this, coach on this with clients all the time.

All the time. And it's funny because someone had asked me what, something like, what are some of the things that you wish your clients knew or you wish potential clients knew? Or what are some of the things that you wish everybody knew about? time management and productivity, something like that. And as I was reflecting on that question, this topic, self talk was, [00:02:00] I think, the first piece that came up for me was, I wish that people, more people understood that the way you talk to yourself internally shapes.

So much of your lived experience, and I've come a long way in this journey. I didn't always think about this. I didn't always really pay attention to the thoughts that were running through my head. I didn't really give it a whole lot of, I don't know, credibility or I just didn't, it just wasn't where I was focused.

I was sort of like, okay, what are the actions? Tell me what I can do. Give me the strategies. Give me the tactics. And this is something I've said before lots of times on the podcast. So you may have heard this, but I, there was a definite shift for me in the beginning when I was first starting out. As a coach [00:03:00] and coaching clients on time management, as I was giving strategy, strategy strategies, what I realized was many clients were not, they were struggling with maintaining these strategies.

They were struggling with also with feeling better. So they might be using the strategies and having more time. available to spend as they please, but it didn't feel the way that they thought it would feel. They weren't feeling successful. They weren't feeling calm or relaxed or whatever. And it wasn't until I really looked at this self talk piece that I started to figure out how we could change that.

Another thing was they would, I would often give strategies that might, that some clients, coaching clients might say they would try and then [00:04:00] when we would, when we would come back to our next session and I would ask how it went, they would say, well, you know, I, I'll be honest, Teresa, when it came time to use the strategy, like we talked about, I just really couldn't bring myself to do it because I was thinking this is never going to work or, um, I just, I tried to use that strategy and it didn't go very well and we have to really dig below the surface because it's not about the strategy.

It's about the mindset. And unless you're doing both, unless you're working on both, you are not going to get the results that you want. Okay. I'm getting off my soapbox. So. We're going to talk about self talk. Let's talk about self talk. Alright, so I was doing a little bit of research on this topic. I'm not going to make this too boring, I hope.

I'm not going to, I'm going to try not to bore you. But I was looking, poking around online and [00:05:00] looking to see if there was any data about how many thoughts we have on any given day. And there are some statistics that are out there that are reported that are all over the map. I I legit saw something that said 6, 000 and then I saw other places were quoted as 60, 000 and I was like, is that a, is that a typo?

But no, it's not. So there is There is information out there, data, if you will, I use that term very, very loosely, that's all over the map. Now, when I sort of started to look at sources and where they were, how they were coming up with these numbers, where I landed in terms of feeling like, okay, I feel comfortable with this number, I feel comfortable with how they got there.

That number was about 6, 000. Okay, so that, that 60, 000 number, I went down a whole big rabbit [00:06:00] hole and, uh, got stuck a little bit and was able to feel pretty confident that that number was Wildly inaccurate, uh, really was not based on anything credible, but 6,000 was feeling pretty good about now, 6,000 thoughts per day.

Okay. And I also wanna offer that, quite frankly, it doesn't. It doesn't really matter how many thoughts per day we have, because I think we can all agree that those thoughts are in there. So whether they're 000, they're still important, they're still incredibly important, and we need to be talking about them.

But if you really sort of conceptualize, okay, 6, 000 thoughts per day, that has to have a significant impact on Our well being on our self concept on our decision making on our actions or inactions right [00:07:00] so today what I want to show and sort of present if you will is how those thoughts how your inner dialogue or inner monologue might be getting in the way of your productivity okay and then we'll talk a bit about that What you can do.

What can you do about it? Okay. Now, those of you who are my SLP friends, also PTs, OTs, as you know, we come from a very evidence based field. We base our practice, our decisions on evidence research, strong, reliable research. Okay. And when I started discovering coaching, I'll be honest, it was a little uncomfortable for me because I was sort of like, Oh, this feels a little bit fluffy.

This feels a little bit woo woo. Like where's, give me the numbers. Give me the data. [00:08:00] Show me, show me that this is science and I'm not. That's not the purpose of this episode, but I share that with you so that, you know, that really, as I research, as I view information, learn information, as I share information and strategies with my coaching clients, with you on the podcast, with the SLP support group, I do that through.

the lens of critical analysis, looking at research, all of that, skeptical lens. Okay. So keep that in mind as we are talking. And for those of you who might be like me, where you were starting out. Sort of like self talk. I mean, that sounds pretty fluff. That sounds pretty not really so sure. How what does that have to do with productivity?

Stay with me because I hope I think I believe that you may have a shift in [00:09:00] perspective after you're listening to this. Okay, I did do some research on some studies that really did examine the role that self talk plays on um, Outcomes on success on achievement and there's lots of research that's out there.

I'm not going to get into all of that, but I feel confident that the research is there and supports the content that we're going to be talking about today. Okay, so if you've got 6000 thoughts, just rolling around in there bouncing around like ping pong. Have you ever stopped and thought about thought about your thinking right?

Metacognition have you ever stopped to listen to what those thoughts are? Have you ever? noticed any frequent flyers. Maybe there are specific thoughts that rear their ugly heads. Cause a lot of times it's negative. They rear their ugly heads. Often, [00:10:00] often, right? These might be things like, I don't have enough time for this.

I have no time for this. Or, this, I'm thinking of of, uh, examples that will hopefully, um, relate to you. Uh, other ones are, this report's going to take forever, I have no idea what I even need to say, there's no way I'm going to get through all these session notes. Um, I'm so behind. Uh, just, I just need to get through today, right?

These are some of those thoughts that go through our mind that we might not even be aware of until we pause, check in, reflect, notice, reflect, and If you are not aware of these thoughts, what they are, and how often they, they come up, what I want you to do is to start with this, the awareness. Start by noticing.

Listen to those thoughts. I've [00:11:00] had clients before say things like, well, you know, when, when I get that voice in my head that tells me that I can't do it, you know, I just, okay, I just have to like, Tell it like stop I've got this right like or I just have to like ignore and like shove it down and just sort of like focus and take action and my response to that might actually surprise some of you I would offer that Instead of trying to push it down tell it to be quiet like tell it to stop respond From a place of curiosity and neutrality, respond from a place of like, Oh, that's interesting.

That's interesting that I just thought that that's interesting that my brain offered me that thought. Okay, and that's another thing that I have made some shifts in personally, and I've worked on with coaching clients is [00:12:00] separating you from your thoughts. You are not what you think you are you do every thought that you have is not true You don't have to believe everything you think just because you think it doesn't mean it's true And yet sometimes we have these thoughts and we believe them like they are fact Like, there's not enough time to get this done.

We think it, and then it automatically is true to us. We don't even stop and consider the possibility that it might not be true. We don't even stop to consider the possibility that it might be inaccurate, or that it, even if it is true, what's the impact that that thought has on our productivity? Well, I can tell you that if you are thinking there's not enough time in the day, And you believe that that's true, you are probably either rushing around from thing to thing to thing, you might be not even trying to get started, you might be [00:13:00] burning out because you're trying to get through as much as you can, but it is more than you can physically take on.

You might be spending more time on things than you need to. You might not even be starting tasks that you could probably do. Go Because you're like, there's just not enough time. So, I might as well just start tomorrow. I might as well just go do this instead. Okay? So, really, as we are talking about this today, I want you to, first of all, like I said, start by noticing.

Notice what thoughts your brain offers to you. And again, it is separate from you, your brain gives you these thoughts, if that helps you if that gives you sort of that degree of separation that you need in order to be a little bit more objective, and I'm using quotes here because we're really, we really can't be all that objective here.

But if you can try to sort [00:14:00] of put on your like critical thinking hat and like, Oh, okay, I'm noticing this. That's interesting. What is that? I wonder why that thought came up instead of letting those thoughts dictate and determine your value as a person. Okay. Another thing that you may notice as you start to pay attention to these thoughts, or if you are already well aware of the thoughts that come through your mind, start to categorize them.

into different groups. So there's lots of ways that you can look at this. There are a few categories though that I want to offer that Might be relevant for you. One of which is self criticism, and I'm starting there because it's probably the one that you all hear most often and are most aware of. [00:15:00] It's that self criticism, negative self talk that is like, I don't know how to do this.

I'm not good enough for this. There's no I am going to get this done. I don't have enough time. And when we have those types of thoughts, like I said, it can lead to avoidance. It can lead to procrastination. It can lead to poor quality of work. It can lead to burnout. So that's one group of thoughts that are often in.

That are often floating around inside our minds. Okay, there are other thoughts, though, that might not be as critical. For example, you might have thoughts that I would categorize as self encouragement or self reinforcement. Like, all right, I've got this. Like, yeah, all right. This is. This is going to be hard, but I know that I can do this, or this might not feel, this might be pretty miserable, but I'll get it done.

Um, you know, one way or [00:16:00] another, I'm going to have to get it done, and I will. Um, other examples might be, ooh, this is a really tough session that I'm going into, but you know what? I can do this. Um, we've, we've had you know, we've had some good sessions before. So it's, you start to open up to the possibility of things maybe going a little bit more positively than you think.

It starts speaking to your belief in your ability and then hopefully that belief is like a little flame that then grows. Into a fire because you are fueling it with thoughts that are going to help build that fire. Help that grow. Okay, so self criticism, self encouragement. And then there's also thoughts that you might consider, um, through the lens of self management.

So it is sort of guiding your actions. Like, okay, I've got to go do this. All right. I see it's one o'clock. It's time for me to get ready for this session. [00:17:00] Um, when I finish this task, then I will do this. So it's sort of these decision making type of thoughts that are a little bit more logistical, a little bit more, maybe linear, they're not as emotional.

Those type of thoughts might come in. Now there's lots of other categories of thoughts. that we could talk about. But I wanted to kind of pull out those three because I think they are three that can really impact your productivity. They can really play a role in what you do or don't get done. Okay. So if we agree that thoughts matter in terms of productivity, if we agree that there are lots of thoughts in our mind, that that pop up throughout the day and that they are not necessarily fact.

They are just thoughts, right? We agree with that. [00:18:00] Then I want to talk about how a little bit further talk about how this self talk can impact your performance. And there, this piece certainly is a research based component of our discussion today. So there's been lots of studies that have been done on this, but Really what the research is showing is that any form of negative self talk will reduce your efficiency, your ability to complete a task efficiently, and it will increase the feelings of stress and or anxiety that you experience while you're doing.

that task. So notice how it might feel different when you are writing a report and thinking or telling yourself, this is never going to get done, or telling [00:19:00] yourself, I don't even know how to write what I need to document here. Like there's just no way to really clearly Express what I saw in this evaluation, and I don't even know how to I don't even know where to begin.

I don't even know what to comment on versus writing a report where you are thinking, All right, I know that during the evaluation, I remember noticing these things, and they're definitely things that I'm going to pinpoint in my report or All right, I've written hard reports before, and I've done those. I can do this.

I just have to You know, really lean on my ability and get it done. And so the experience can be completely different, even if it's the same report for the same evaluation, for the same client, [00:20:00] depending upon what you're thinking, when you have those negative thoughts, it's going to feel one way. When you have those more neutral, or even dare I say, positive thoughts can be a completely different experience.

Okay, we can even take this a little bit more like Um, uh, broad scale, right? Broad strokes, kind of zoom out a little bit and think about those of you who might be telling yourself that you're horrible with time management or telling yourself that you're always late. Oh, God, I'm just, I just can't keep up or there's no way I can do this.

I'm terrible with time management or I'm terrible with executive functioning tasks. I'm terrible with, you know, staying on time in my schedule. Okay, when you tell yourself this. When you think this in your mind, it then leads to the, it leads to that confirmation bias where your [00:21:00] brain is just noticing things that confirm that belief.

So when something happens, like you are late for a session, see, I knew it. I mean, I told you I'm never on time or I told you I suck at time management. See. Right? And so it essentially stunts your ability, it blocks you from exploring the possibility that it could be any different. And if you continue to believe that you're bad at something, you're going to continue to notice the ways that you are bad at it.

And you're also less likely to try strategies and try work and implementing things that will help you get better at it. Because the belief is, I'm bad at it, so why bother? This is just the way that it is, you know? We've all got different [00:22:00] strengths and weaknesses and so, but you know, this is just mine.

This is my Achilles heel, whatever, whatever it sounds like for you, right? And so instead of looking at how we might get better, how we might improve, what we might be able to do to support ourselves, we just sort of chalk it up as a loss, but If you start noticing times when you go against the grain, where you aren't, where you aren't bad at time management, where you aren't always late for sessions, if you start looking for those times, noticing those times, you can shift your thoughts, you can shift your self concept, you can shift your identity, It changes how you show up.

It changes how you feel internally and then how you show up externally. So one of the things that I talk a lot about with coaching clients is when we have a goal, when there [00:23:00] is a goal that you're working on, for example, creating a system that will make report writing easier, quicker, and get you to submit your reports on time, right?

I'll help clients with this often. And. One of the things they want the system, right? Give me the system. Teresa, tell me what I need to do. And I'm like, wait a second. We skipped a step. We skipped a number of steps, but if you don't believe that you can submit these on time, if you, if you're still telling yourself internally, I give you this system, but you're still thinking and saying to yourself, these are never going to get done.

There's no way I'm going to get these 50 reports, progress reports done by next month's deadline. There's just no way this is going to take forever. Well. That system is most likely going to fail you because you're going to miss opportunities for when you could be working the system and using some [00:24:00] strategies.

You're going to be trying to use the system, but as you're using it, you're quite frankly half assing it. Because you feel like it's not going to work because this is just who I am. So what I do with clients is shifting your identity, shift the way that you see yourself, your self concept to match the end result that you want.

So if you want to be. Completing reports on time, if that is your goal, if you want to complete reports on time, you have to start thinking like somebody who completes their reports on time. What would that person do? What would that person be thinking? In their mind, what would that person be doing with their time?

How would they be spending their time? Well, how would they approach this? Would they be spending three hours on each progress report? Probably not, right? So you have to step into that identity before [00:25:00] you have become it. That's what helps you get there faster. And that's where that where self talk really shows up, where it really plays a role in your outcomes.

All right, I feel like I've sort of got, I sort of went off on a tangent, but I hope that that was helpful for you if you were listening, because it's something that I wish clients understood. It's something I wish SLPs, PTs, and OTs really understood and believed, um, because if you don't, it is holding you back.

All right, so to recap and wrap this up, self talk matters. It impacts your productivity. Okay, we are just scratching the surface today. By the way, there's lots more that I want to say on this topic and I've got some podcast episodes outlined for you. I've got some Facebook lives outlined that I'm going to be, um, doing in the SLP support group as well.

So we're just getting started, but to sort of wrap [00:26:00] this up for you in something that you can take with you. Number one, start with awareness. Pay attention to the thoughts that pop in your mind and start looking for patterns. So as you're building your awareness, what are the patterns of thoughts that you notice?

Are there any frequent flyers? Are there any ones that show up more than others? They might be wrapped in different packaging, so they might be different words. They might be, you know, they might show up at different in different places in different times, but they're kind of saying the same thing. Okay.

So awareness, step two, if you're ready for it, step two is to respond to that thought, challenge it, not just respond in agreement. No, not at all. Challenge it. Respond from a place of curiosity, right? Curiosity and neutrality. You are neutral. This thought [00:27:00] does not mean anything about you. It's a thought that popped in your mind.

But ask yourself, Is it actually true? Is this fact? Can I prove this? Is this actually fact? Or is this something that I believe? Okay? Another way to think about this, and I'm sure you've heard this before, is would I say this to a friend? So that thought that I just had, would I say that to somebody else?

If I wouldn't say it to a friend, if I wouldn't say it to a client, would you say it to one of your clients in intervention, to one of your patients, to one of your students? If you wouldn't say it to them, Why wouldn't you say it to them? That's, I mean, that's something really big to explore. But if you wouldn't say it to them, then chances are it's not serving you and we need to look at how we can shift it.

Okay? Awareness. Respond and challenge the thought. And then, this might feel like a big leap. And this is kind of where I'm [00:28:00] going in future episodes. But if you can Attempt to replace it with a new thought after you've responded and challenged that thought, if you can reframe it, replace it with something different, that is, that is one of the biggest next steps that you can take to help shift and shape and mold the original thoughts that are coming in.

Like the more that you can start doing this, the sooner you will see shifts in the thoughts that your brain, that the thoughts that show up, the thoughts that your brain offer you to begin with. So if you can replace it with something that's going to help you, something that's going to help you, particularly in this case, in terms of productivity and work life balance, go for it.

Now, I'm not saying to replace it with a thought that is a huge leap from where you're thinking right now and a thought that you don't even believe, right? So [00:29:00] let's say going back to that example about having to write 50 progress reports in the next, by next month's deadline. There's no, let's say your original thought is there's no way I can get these reports done before the deadline.

Okay, number one, you're aware of that thought. Then you're going to challenge that. Wait a second. Is that actually true? I mean, if I look at the amount of time on paper from now until next month, and I think about how long it takes me to write each report, is there a way that I could get all of those reports done?

Yes, there is. So that is not a fact. That thought that I had that there's no way I can get these done by next month is not true. What do I need to think instead? That is going to help me get started. The thought that you might try and replace it with is I can absolutely do these. I can get all of these done in a month.

But you might not actually believe that and so if [00:30:00] that feels like a really big leap, what's like a little ladder thought like the next level thought that you can offer from there's no way I have enough time to do these to something like, for example, well, it might mean I have to cut out some things. It might mean I need to do less of other things for the time being.

But there is a way that I can do these. It might mean that I have to shift how much time I spend on my reports. It might mean I have to shift when I'm writing my reports. But yeah, there's a way to do this. Okay, so you're sort of just taking the next micro thought that could be closer to where you want to go if it feels like a massive leap to replace your negative thought with the opposite.

Okay, alright. There you have it. Our intro level [00:31:00] 101. Self talk 101 and how it shapes your productivity. So, that is your task for this week. Awareness, challenge, replace. Awareness, challenge, replace. And if you like this topic and you want to learn more about it, pop into the SLP support group because I will be going live.

Uh, I go live on Wednesdays at noon Eastern. And This episode is gonna air, oh gosh, I don't know when this episode is gonna air, um, the week of the 10th maybe, the week of March 10th, and so that week, whatever week you're listening to this, That Wednesday is when I'll be covering self talk on a deeper, deeper dive on self talk in the SLP support group.

So make sure you pop in there. Again, Wednesdays at noon Eastern. And I would love to hear what you thought about this episode. If this was helpful and you want to share it with [00:32:00] someone, please do that. And as always, I always appreciate reviews. So if you are able to click the subscribe or follow button so that you get these episodes and leave me a review, that would help other people find these episodes as well.

All right. Thank you guys so much. I will talk with you all soon. Bye.