Declutter Your Life While Living with IBD Featuring Lisa Zawrotny – About IBD Podcast Episode 170

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Do you find it difficult to find the time and energy to deal with mental or physical clutter? Lisa Zawrotny, a productivity coach and founder of Positively Productive Systems, helps us learn how to manage clutter, even when flaring. We discuss practical strategies for decluttering both your physical space and mental load, and how to celebrate even the smallest victories in your day-to-day life. Plus, Lisa reveals her insights on creating systems that work for you, no matter your circumstances. If you’ve ever felt weighed down by expectations or struggled to find balance, this episode is packed with valuable takeaways that can help you reclaim your time and energy.

  • Intersection of productivity and chronic illness
  • Challenges faced by caregivers and individuals with chronic conditions
  • Personal journey of caregiving and its impact on productivity coaching
  • Importance of compassion and realistic approaches to productivity
  • Strategies for managing stress and clutter
  • Prioritization of tasks and setting boundaries
  • Techniques for decluttering and energy management
  • Celebrating small wins and acknowledging achievements
  • The role of journaling in emotional healing and reflection
  • Building community and support for individuals with chronic illnesses

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Find Lisa Zawrotny of Positively Productive Systems at:

Find Amber J Tresca at:

Find Mac Cooney (mix, sound design, and theme music) at:

Find Mac Cooney (mix, sound design, and theme music) at:

Transcript

Amber Tresca
I’m Amber Tresca and this is About IBD. I’m a medical writer and patient educator who lives with a j-pouch due to ulcerative colitis. It’s my mission to educate people living with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis about their disease and to bring awareness to the patient journey.

Welcome to Episode 170!

This is the first of a series of episodes on Living Better With IBD. I’m bringing you experts across several disciplines who are going to teach you how to manage the business of life in the setting of managing a chronic illness.

My guest is Lisa Zawrotny. Lisa is a productivity coach, the founder of Positively Productive Systems, and the creator and host of the Positively Living podcast. Lisa lives with chronic pain and she was a caregiver for her mother, which is why I think she’s the perfect person to teach us how to think about better organizing our lives.

We explore the challenges faced by people living with a chronic illness like IBD and their caregivers, and how to navigate the overwhelming demands of daily life. Lisa teaches us some practical strategies for decluttering both your physical and your mental space. And this is not just about how to organize a closet. It’s about your mindset, setting intentions, and creating systems that work for you, no matter the circumstances.

Amber Tresca 00:01:25 Lisa, thank you so much for coming on about IBD.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:01:28 Oh, Amber, I am so delighted to be here to talk to you about. Oh my God, all the stuff we’re going to dig into today. And I’m just a fan of what you do. So thank you so much for inviting me.

Amber Tresca 00:01:40 Oh my gosh, I’m so excited to speak to you after listening to so many episodes of your show. I will admit to you that I am not really like a self help type of listener podcast listener. but but your show I find so impactful and really helpful, especially the guests that you have, the the nuggets that you come up with and the realism of how you are framing productivity in the overall concept of actually having a real life and joy and all of this. so I’m so excited for my listeners to get a little bit of that in their ears from you today, and then hopefully they will pop over to your show. So I’d love to first get a level set from you and have you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your role as a productivity coach.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:02:31 Well thank you. So hi I’m Lisa, I’m a productivity coach. I’m the founder of Positively Productive Systems, host of the Positively Living podcast, which Amber just mentioned. And I am here to help you reduce your overwhelm, manage your stress, and design personalized systems. That’s where the realism comes in. And I do it with compassion and humor, which is something you and I bond over extensively Yes, and I’m advocating for those who think and feel differently. Right. And who struggle with the standard productivity approach that’s out there. Those are people who are neurodiverse and who have chronic illnesses and who are looking at the world. Maybe having had trauma and grief impact them so deeply that they’re like, how do you expect me to do this in the standard way? So my goal is shame free productivity, and for you to leave every conversation with me feeling hopeful and encouraged. And on a personal note, I live in the Finger Lakes area of New York State with my husband and my two teens and my two cats.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:03:36 And when I’m not doing this podcasting and coaching and encouraging people, I’m walking my own talk and I’m hanging out with them. We do road trips and watch Marvel movies and play in a family band. Yes, we’re like one van shy of The Partridge Family And, And then when I need to have everyone leave me alone and hide out from the world, then what I want is a super cozy spot with a book and an iced coffee and probably a cat on my lap, because that’s inevitable.

Amber Tresca 00:04:12 I love that you just told me so many things that I have follow up questions, but I want to get to the meat.

Amber Tresca 00:04:17 Of this first, and then we’ll circle back around to some of the things that you just told us about yourself, some of which I.

Amber Tresca 00:04:23 Did not know even after listening to so many episodes of your own show. One of the things that drew me to you, Lisa, was your backstory. I know it from listening to your show, and it is one of the reasons that I think that you are going to be so helpful for the audience that we’re speaking to today of people who live with chronic illness, or people who are caregivers for people who live with chronic illness.

Amber Tresca 00:04:44 So I wonder if you would share about your personal journey and what what inspired you and what brought you to this work as a productivity coach?

Lisa Zawrotny 00:04:52 I would love to do that because it is such an important driver, not only of the choices that I make now as a coach and as someone who tries to walk my own talk. But it’s also, you know, the foundational point of why I am not like the other productivity coaches, right? But seriously, beyond the pick me side of things, it’s really more of that. Can we get real? You mentioned it, and I love that. So that realness came from personal experience. And although I’ve had many traumatic and grief laden experiences over the course of time, having helped my own mother be a caregiver for my father and things like that. The real turning point was being a caregiver for my mother, and she had Alzheimer’s and I cared for her through. It was about five years through the life cycle of this disease while pregnant twice and raising my children.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:05:57 So at one point I was caring for her. I had an infant and a toddler, and one of the things I don’t even mention in this story, because I had been thinking about how you and I are going to be chatting today and about the idea of chronic illness. And although chronic illness is not something that I’ve experienced, you know, to, I would say an extreme point, I’ve had a lot of chronic pain, a lot of issues herniations in my neck and back. And, you know, it stayed with me for a very long time. I’ve been dealing with this for decades. And during that time when I was caring for her and caring for my kiddos, I’m trying to hold my child and I. I can’t because I have like, so much numbness and tingling in my arms. And it was survival mode. It was complete and utter overwhelm. It was the beginning of experiencing migraines. It was no sleep and constant stress. Now there were beautiful moments. There are moments that I’m thankful for.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:07:00 I’m thankful for the life lesson. It was a constant pressure every single day and it was sheer exhaustion. And like, not not just even being tired, but soul weary. And I think caregivers and people who are dealing with any kind of chronic issue know that feeling that I’m talking about. And when I was able to step out of it when she passed and I wasn’t caring for her, and then at that point, you know, caring for two small children almost felt, I’m not going to say light and breezy, but it it felt significantly easier.

Amber Tresca 00:07:36 Yeah.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:07:38 I took stock of what was going on. Well, part of it was, oh my gosh, what do I do now? And in that question, I realized that I had to clear a path to kind of get back to wherever I wanted to go. Right. The whole thing. Oh, let’s get back to normal or whatever that you have in your mind. And so I started to clear out, and this was what I now see as like whole life decluttering, like just taking stock of what I have, removing things that I hadn’t dealt with.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:08:05 Because when you’re in survival mode, you have to put a lot aside. And I know that if you’re listening to this and you’re listening to this podcast in particular, you get that, because sometimes you just have to put life aside. You have to put the things that you’re tending to aside. And I had so much that piled up on me that I, I started to process that little by little while still trying to heal. Right. I was still in a lot of pain emotionally. There was grief. I realized, like six months after she passed, I was like, oh, I haven’t really properly grieved. I’ve just been in like this go mode. And I learned that I had to limit things. I was forced to limit things. And I thought, you know, there’s something to that. What if we looked at our lives in general in this way of simplifying and limiting and clearing out and dealing with fewer things and dealing with less? What if we did that? Regardless of what’s happening, what kind of space could we create for ourselves? And that has been so helpful when life is good, when you’re feeling well.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:09:15 But it’s exceptionally important to keep you from feeling so far behind when life is rough, when you are dealing with pain and you are dealing with, you know, extreme medical issues. So it was it was a discovery and an awareness of, you know, so many of us are dealing with some kind of survival mode. Why aren’t we talking about being productive and living well within that context? And yeah, and the rest, as they say, is history. I helped people as a professional organizer, decluttering, getting that physical space involved. And I realized I have to dig deeper because it’s the heart and the mind that that connect to all this. And if we can get there first, we’ll get there even faster. And that is the best nutshell I can offer in terms of what happened and why I’m here, doing what I’m doing right.

Amber Tresca 00:10:06 That’s absolutely perfect. And that is exactly what chronic illness brings to your life, is a sudden stoppage of everything except what absolutely needs to be done next. And hopefully you get to the point where you can come back and focus on the things that you’ve had to leave behind and with the with the condition, like inflammatory bowel disease, which is relapsing and remitting you, may you go, you cycle between periods of feeling well and not feeling well.

Amber Tresca 00:10:41 And I think what I want to encourage people to do is be mindful of that that time when you need to focus, you need to have like laser focus can come on you again and to be prepared for it so that it doesn’t catch it, catch you so off guard. Because at the At diagnosis, it’s just I mean, I’m sure it was that way when your mother was diagnosed. It’s just like all of a sudden everything stops and you just focused on the very next medical appointment, the very next treatment option, the very next, you know, and then at a certain point, especially with little kids, it becomes, you know, the the very next, like when my kids were little, I said, whoever’s crying gets the attention. Like, you know, like that’s whoever’s crying gets the attention. And then whoever else is not crying right now, you’re going to have to wait. And that included me, too, like I was in the midst of that, too, you know?

Lisa Zawrotny 00:11:32 So true.

Amber Tresca 00:11:33 Yeah, yeah. So that’s where, I think you end up living with chronic illness. And so dealing with the stress and the clutter in the beginning of the year especially, it’s a great time. A lot of people use that to that to set an intention for the year to maybe deal with some of these things. So I want to hear from you. What is it that your clients are bringing to you? What is it? What is getting in their way of helping them manage stress and clutter, and preventing them from being the productive person that they want to be?

Lisa Zawrotny 00:12:06 All right, so two big things off the top of my head. And the first one is probably not one you’re going to want to hear. So it’s all the more important that I say it. So lean on in. Here we go with a takeaway. Here’s your first big takeaway if you don’t already have one for today, which is that one of the biggest issues I see is how much they bring. They put upon themselves the perceived obligations and demands.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:12:30 Right. We let so much of the world in, and especially now with the devices we have. And do not get me wrong, I love that I have Google in my pocket and sorry if I set up anybody’s device, but you know, I love that I can research anything at a moment’s notice. And. But also it’s too much. And then with that comes the perceptions that we have. And, you know, we talk about this with social media and how we see highlight reels of everyone’s life and, and so many times, so many like probably 100% of my clients, when we sit down and we talk about the expectations and we dig in and I say, but why does it have to be that way? Is we learn to let go of the how we learn to let go of what the picture is, because it came from a source that isn’t you, isn’t your values, isn’t what you’re able to do, isn’t what your family cares about. And getting to the bottom of that, that that’s like that’s a big block right there.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:13:37 And so think about it. Today there must be something. And holiday season is a great example of that. I’ve seen that so much where it’s like, oh, well, it has to look a certain way. It has to be this we need to do that. This is a tradition. But do we? So that’s that’s the first one and the second right on the tail of that, the thing that I probably do the most. And even though there’s definitely decluttering, there’s definitely mindset work. But really it’s prioritizing because we we get to this point where we feel like everything is urgent and important and it’s really not. So it’s about getting real and, and and letting go of expectations and understanding that there really is an order to what’s important. You gave a great example like who’s crying?

Amber Tresca 00:14:28 Who’s crying.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:14:29 Yeah. Because you you have to you have to put in order. You have to prioritize. And I do know that from my clients specifically, I see a struggle to prioritize because you’re not seeing those distinctions and that’s that’s what we talk about.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:14:44 But yeah, those are the two big things. There’s probably plenty more we could talk about. But I feel like those hit home for what we’re talking about today.

Amber Tresca 00:14:54 Yeah, definitely for me too, because I tend to be very literal and tend to be also a little black and white. There’s all, you know, in the middle, there’s all that gray area. I don’t have to do things one way or another. I can do them differently on different days. And so I need to be reminded of that.

Amber Tresca 00:15:36 – Up next: How to set yourself up for success even when you’re fatigued

Amber Tresca So it’s it’s helpful and it’s helpful to, for me to have somebody tell me that, you know, which is, at the basis of what you do and why it works. I think living with chronic illness and, you know, you’ve experienced chronic pain. There’s this level of struggle because of limited energy. So what would you say? How can people focus when their energy is limited and they can only along so much time or energy every day to focus on decluttering.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:15:41 So this is a great example here where we’re we’re thinking about energy okay.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:15:48 As more important than time management. You have so much time in the day but you only have so much energy. So I think you’re ahead of the game because you have a situation that has forced you to realize that. Yeah. Now, if you take that understanding that, there going to be these days where you, you are struggling. So there’s a distinction between how do we declutter, how do we simplify to set ourselves up for success? And then also how do we intentionally choose what we’re doing depending upon the day? Okay. And so one of the things that I work with my clients a lot on is the idea that you may have multiple types of schedules or ways in which you’ll tackle the day based on how you’re feeling and you need to have that flexibility. But if you haven’t intentionally laid out and I just I’ve made this up because coaches tend to do that. I call it the generator principle. Okay. So this is what I’m calling it. Maybe it’ll become a thing. But this idea that when you have a power outage and you use a generator, you don’t power the entire house.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:17:00 You don’t, you know, like random room that nobody’s in. Have the lights on and what? No. You power the fridge and the heat and, you know, lights in the room that you’re going to be in. You know, you limit and you have that set. And sometimes there’s even like, you know, the electrical panels that are set up specifically to plug the generator in and then have this reduced area that’s going to be powered, that keeps you going. And it’s that essential, right, that the essential elements that, that you talked about. So think about what those are. Think about what the essential things are that you need to do or if you are working on decluttering because you’re overwhelmed. Think about the the simplest way to do that. But let’s finish the generator part and then I’ll get into the decluttering. So the generator principle. You’re proactively considering what’s essential so that you can say oh I’m flaring today. This is what I’m doing. So it’s almost like you have that maybe as a you have a baseline that’s much less than you maybe think you’re supposed to do or intend to do or would like to do, but that’s what you can handle.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:18:11 That’s your baseline. And then you can have add ons for the days that you’re feeling good. That’s something I work on with my clients all the time. And it it’s hard at first only because you have, again, these expectations of what you’re supposed to be doing. If I say to you have three tasks that you want to do in addition to the the basic things that you to keep the day running, to keep your life and your you’re people running, it’d be like three. What? Well, it’s a magic number, according to schoolhouse Rock. So I do abide by by that rule alone. But, you know, you keep a lower amount. So that’s one thing. Then when it comes to decluttering, if you are, you’re trying to get by, you’re trying to sort of catch up, remove the excess. Then the first thing we need to do, we need to define what clutter really is. Again, that goes back to expectations and obligations. And does it mean you have to have a completely clear counter? You know what? What’s clutter to you? Peter Walsh has a great quote about, clutter not just being the stuff on the floor, but anything that gets in between you and the life you want to live.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:19:25 So if you have that in mind, it’s like, oh, it’s a block. Well, then there are some things that other people might view as clutter. Doesn’t matter. Another big takeaway for you there. It doesn’t matter what they think. It matters what you and your family thinks. How are you living? How does it feel? So that’s really important in gauging what you really need to tend to. Then you can start applying techniques in the professional organizer world. not everybody’s a fan of this phrase, but it’s low hanging fruit. I’m sure it’s used in other industries as well, right? But the idea of that is, what are some of the simplest things that you can do that will get you the furthest? And, you know, because you listen to my podcast that I love to talk about the 8020 principle, the Pareto principle. Yeah. You can get 80% of the way wherever you’re trying to go, right? With just 20% of input or effort, this is where you really, actually I recommend every day you look for 80 over 20.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:20:25 I am going to find shortcuts wherever I can, no matter how good I’m feeling. But this is especially important when you are feeling low energy. What’s the 80 over 20? Here we use it as a verb in my family. My kids all the time. I need you to. 80, 20. Your room. Can you do that for me? What’s in write? Okay, we’re we’re verb it. Moms can verb anything. I’ll cook, you know. Yeah, right. So what is it? Well, in the kitchen, it’s closed. The cabinets and drawers. Put away the dishes or get the dishes into the sink or whatever. clear the table or clear a horizontal surface. I know in our living room, it’s, you know, fold up the blankets and, you know, just double check some of the tables for dishes or whatever. when you have teens, dishes are everywhere. It’s amazing. It’s looking for the garbage or a way to tidy up or or just simply when you look at spaces in your life, figure out what belongs and what doesn’t.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:21:21 That’s a very simple way to get organized and to declutter is to say this space is reserved for fill in the blank. you know, our dining room is reserved for Tours, eating special meals and also doing puzzles, you know? So it’s like. But what is the space being used for and what belongs in there? And when you do that and you walk through and you’re like, what’s garbage? What doesn’t belong? And straighten up a bit. When you do that, it’s a huge difference. And then it’d be a huge difference to your psyche too, because you feel so much better walking through that space. But what I just described can potentially be very few steps, right? And then the other possible option, and I talk about decluttering quite a bit on the podcast and even have a playlist about it. But one of them that I wanted to bring up today, especially for when you have the lowest energy possible and there’s a longer term project, you have to look at it like, okay, I want to tackle this, but it’s going to take me longer than most because I only have so many good days.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:22:26 You may want to consider something I call reverse decluttering, and what that means is actually you box up and remove as much as you can from a space, a room. It could be a cabinet, an entire room, a corner of a room, whatever you’re dealing with that you know you have a certain purpose for. You’re not removing everything like you’re getting rid of it or even going through it. You’re actually boxing it up to go through as you’re able and only placing in that space or, or returning even what belongs. So that those are my, my I would say biggest tips for when you’re like are I’m in survival mode. I can barely function just to be aware of the energy and that generators only do portion know what is actual clutter versus you think you’re supposed to. And then do really simple steps like low hanging fruit and or maybe reverse decluttering.

Amber Tresca 00:23:30 It’s so the reverse decluttering. It’s so funny because there is someone in my life that I think wants to approached the situation using reverse decluttering. And, as you’re laying it out for me and and we didn’t I didn’t have that vocabulary to, to put it in that way with them.

Amber Tresca 00:23:49 I was kind of against it. I was kind of against it because I was a little bit like, if you are picking up things in order to, like, put them somewhere aside, can we not just make the decision right then? But that wasn’t aligning with that person. And so we were kind of having we’re kind of having a little issue, a little issue there. So I think you just talked me into the benefits of that when I wasn’t really seeing them before.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:24:14 So and that’s a fair point. I absolutely agree, when you’re touching something, when you’re making the decision. But in fairness to when we’re talking about really limited energy, one of the biggest issues with decluttering is the fact that clutter is deferred decisions. Yes. And so that means you are making these decisions. And if you didn’t make them before, if they were that easy to make, you would have made them. So sometimes sometimes you have to give yourself that breather. Pack it up. And that’s also why sometimes with with decluttering, you’ve got oh, I definitely know we’re selling that.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:24:51 We’re we’re donating that. That’s garbage. And then you have the set of stuff that, that like trips you up. And that’s actually what I work with clients when we do like virtual organizing and decluttering is I’m like the stuff, you know, you know, the stuff you’re stuck on. That’s what we’re going to discuss and we’re going to make those decisions. But sometimes what you have to do, there’s a term called maybe box, right? I maybe I’m not really sure. You box it up, you put a date on it, you set a date on your calendar and you’re like, come on. And that’s the whole like this happens when you move, right? Yeah. Look at a box. Ask me how I know.

Amber Tresca 00:25:28 Like.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:25:28 And open that in you. Let me see. It was oh five, you know, like. How old is this thing, you know. Yeah. Yeah. And then you’re like, okay, I gotta be real about this. Either bring it back out and, you know, I’m, you know, playing cello again.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:25:44 I’m kidding. I’ve never touched a cello. But, you know, it’s like either, you know, like who bowls in the family? There’s a bowling ball here. What is this? You know, either you decide, you make that your your passion project and you dedicate yourself to it again or let it go. Like Elsa said.

Amber Tresca 00:26:00 I love that thing. Oh, gosh. This is this is so great. I’m just turning this into a coaching session for me. So anyway, that works. But well, there’s another thing that people deal with though a lot. I deal with it as well. especially getting older. 51 and I always say I used to be smart, but that’s the brain fog. and that comes a lot of people with chronic illness deal with the brain fog. Org. I think that’s a very it’s a very overarching term, and there’s a lot of different things underneath that that could be causing it. But I think functionally it sometimes ends up where we it is that deferred decision.

Amber Tresca 00:26:43 You’re unable to make a decision. Sometimes I find myself unable to decide what project to start next. You know, things like that. Just because you’re just finding it difficult to focus on one thing at a time, which can happen for so many reasons. Yeah. So one of the things that you talk about is breaking bigger tasks into smaller steps. I think that’s something that can help with brain fog. So I wonder if you would talk a little bit about that.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:27:05 Absolutely. And prior to that, I want to make sure that we’ve set the foundation for this. As you said, so many different reasons why we can have brain fog and what’s going on and the overwhelm that we feel can happen from having too much to do and or not knowing what to do next. And I just want to address One thing that I see that’s a big trip up, even before we worry about how we’re breaking stuff down, how we’re project planning, we need to be sure again, like with the clutter, what really is meant to be done and meant to be done now, and how much we’re holding in our brains.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:27:43 And so I’m a fan of David Allen’s Getting Things Done, and I’m a fan of something called The Mind Sweep. You might have heard Brain Dump, but I want to encourage you, especially if you’re prone to brain fog. And I mean, I’m at a I’m at a certain age where we tend to be prone to that as well. And I again, do this regularly to you want to take what has your attention, what is distracting you, the mental clutter. And you want to put it in a safe space, like when you go to clear out and declutter a closet, you don’t just pull out one thing at a well. I don’t recommend you pull out one thing at a time and look at it and decide you bring everything out right. You sort it like with like, and you figure out what’s going on. And how did that get in there? And. Oh, that’s where that was. And you know, all the other wonderful things that happen in decluttering. The same thing goes for your mind, especially if it’s foggy, if it’s it’s the idea, like it’s an engine not running as well.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:28:44 You want to make sure that you have it set for success and set for focus. And one of the best ways to do that is to clear it out of all the, oh, I’ll remember that and I don’t need to write it down.

Amber Tresca 00:28:59 Famous last words of mine.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:29:01 Famously, how did that work out for you? And I mean that with all the love. This is the face that doesn’t judge. But also I’m judging a little because how did how did that work out for you? Ask me how I know it doesn’t, or even if you do remember it, how much energy did you use? We forget how much energy is drained from mental capacity. Our prefrontal cortex, I think it is. That’s making all those decisions metabolically that uses more energy than any other part of our brain. Okay, so let’s put it in a safe place in a trusted system. You start with a mine sweep. I’ve got free resources on that. Easy, easy to do. In five minutes you can declutter your brain.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:29:42 That’s going to be step number one. Before we even talk about the nature of the tasks, then it’s what tasks really need to be done. And then breaking it down into smaller steps. And the way that you do that is by saying it’s almost like a personal negotiation. Stop me if you’ve if you’ve heard this before, but, where you’re on the couch, let’s say you’re like, oh, I can’t, I can’t even, I literally cannot with, with the laundry right now. Yeah. And then you’re like, Lisa, all you have to do is get up and put it into the washer. That’s it. That’s all you have to do right now. Okay. You know, it’s like that’s self negotiation. If you think about how you would negotiate with yourself, all I have to do is, you know. And that’s how you start practicing habits. Like for me, before I started walking regularly doing walking workouts, my negotiation was ten minutes. That’s it. And at ten, even if you’re watching a video and walking and it’s a 25 minute video and you’re planning to do it, you can stop at ten minutes.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:30:50 That’s all you need to do. That same technique that you use to start a habit and to to keep going, is the same thing you want to use for breaking down any kind of task or project. And it’s thinking about those steps and allowing yourself. And I think the most important overarching concept here with anything we’ve talked about is do what you can and be okay with it. Right. We get so caught up in this idea that yes, I admit when I’m talking about a full task loop, so to speak, that means you’re closing the loop. And the more that we can close, the better off we are, the fewer issues we’re going to have. So a task loop for laundry, let’s say, is wash the laundry dry, fold, put away or hang up. But sometimes, just like with the decluttering, yes, may may not be the ideal thing to do it in parts, but sometimes you need to. One thing that I will say is if you are going to do things in parts in those smaller steps, have the steps listed, have a checklist.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:32:01 That’s my recommendation. So there’s a lot of different ways you can break down what steps are. I hesitate to say a specific way to do it, because it has to be based on what you have, the time and the energy for. But if you have a checklist like you are sitting there negotiating with yourself and then you say, okay, I’m going to do this. And then here, here are all the parts to do to doing this. And I only need to do the first two right now. And that’s all I really have energy for. At least you’ll have the list there. Again, writing it down. And then you can you can go back so you kind of know where you paused. Just like when you pause a podcast episode and you’re able to go right back to the spot, right? Netflix does this for us as well. This is where you were in the movie. Yay! Thank you. Because I couldn’t remember.

Amber Tresca 00:32:48 Yeah, the mental load is overwhelming and you do need to have a system.

Amber Tresca 00:32:56 And even if you’ve been able to get through your life without one because you were operating on such a level that you could, if a chronic illness comes along and it could be you, it could be a family member or whatever. Yeah, you have to put these things into place because and then you have to understand that you’re going to have to be okay with doing things in a different way. That’s huge. I think that’s kind of almost the heart of of really this conversation here is, is being okay with things being different or not looking maybe like you have always envisioned them and then maybe you can get there. But maybe there’s times when you just have to decide, okay, the laundry is washed and it’s dried and it’s in a basket, and that’s what’s going to happen. And if I go to change my sheets and I have to go and get them out of the basket because they’re not folded up and put away in the linen closet, that’s okay. And that’s that’s how it’s going to be for now.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:33:51 Yeah. And sometimes celebrating that oh well they’re in the basket. And you know there’s clean underwear for everyone you know. Like I mean yeah, sometimes you just got to be okay with that. And I think there’s an important piece within that. What you’re saying of being okay with it being different is not only different from others, different from expectations, but sometimes different than it was for you last week. And that can be really hard because there’s so much. There’s grief and shame and there’s. It’s complicated. Right? Complicated emotions that come up with that and saying, you know, being open to this idea of what can I do today? And why should we celebrate this? Because I did something because I was able because I showed up. Because look at what you’re dealing with day in and day out and you’re still getting ish done.

Amber Tresca 00:34:51 Lisa, I am very big on prevention and a lot of things. I think a little bit of planning ahead of time can bring you to a place where things are not going down a path that you don’t want to go down.

Amber Tresca 00:35:00 – Coming up: Lisa gives her advice on organizing your medical records

Amber Tresca 00:35:04 So I’m wondering what you tell people about how they can prevent from these things becoming overwhelming and cluttered in too many tasks on your plate in the first place?

Lisa Zawrotny 00:35:16 I love that question so much and I have multiple answers. I think we’ll go with three. We’ll keep it very straightforward, and one of them is a reminder of what we’ve already talked about, which is this idea of the generator principle. Right. And kind of having that baseline, knowing what you can perhaps manage at your worst and understanding that and then having other things be sort of add ons or ad hoc as opposed to a given. The more that we create a baseline that’s a little too high or a little too much of a stretch, the more likely we’re going to end up having a day that’s like at least how I used to play Tetris, where we keep getting faster and faster. And it was like this just weird conglomeration of of shapes, just like stacking on top of each other. And it’s like, yeah, and you just want to hit reset.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:36:08 So yeah, understanding that there’s a lower baseline that you might not feel comfortable with again from expectations and and feelings of of self-worth. But trust that if you think about it, the lowest amount that you can do per day. If you did that consistently five out of seven days each week and you kept doing it just like habits, just like anything else that has compound effect. It’s a remarkable amount. Rather than burning yourself out and then being shut down for a week. Right. And it actually is even better than even if you averaged out the same amount of time. It’s even better than because of the compound effect. So that’s number one. Then it’s being mindful of what you’re saying yes to and giving yourself some space. If you have a chronic illness, if you are, if you are dealing with anything that drains your energy just sometimes equals motherhood, right? be mindful of that. Every yes is a no to multiple no’s, most likely. Sometimes a no to yourself, a no to what you’re actually capable of.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:37:18 In terms of the energy that you have. And then every know is also a yes. You know, it’s hard to say no to someone and no in a situation where you really want to help, but you don’t have the capacity for it. And that, again, psychologically it can be difficult. But think about how you want to show up for other people if you are a giver and that fewer but better. It’s an essentialism concept. Greg McEwan I love that book. and it’s less but better that concept. And if you you take that mantra with you, that’s going to help. Because when we talk about decluttering, when we talk about doing fewer things, simplifying, we not only have to say, what do we have, like right in front of us? What are we, removing, you know, adjusting, but also what’s coming in at us constantly. Every day we have information, we have requests, we have demands. We have people who feel overwhelmed and they’re just looking for help.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:38:15 And we have to have those boundaries to say, okay, here’s what I’m going to allow in and here’s what I can say yes to. And sometimes it’s I would love to volunteer. I don’t have the capacity right now. Please check with me again in the future. Say the words. Let me get back to you. That’s six words, right? Give yourself some space to pause, to consider what it really means to consider, if you can, to cautiously say the slowest. Yes, possible. Say your nose. Quickly say your yeses very slowly so you know what you’re saying yes to. And then, the third thing that’s on my mind for this is, when you’re setting up systems. Right? prevention also means keeping in the habit of something. So let’s say you have fewer things. You’re working with a lower baseline. And, And then you’re careful what you say yes to. The third thing is making sure to kind of reset yourself. And what I mean by that is I see a lot of trip up, especially with physical clutter, of not having the habit of setting your space back to neutral.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:39:26 And by that I mean, as it sounds, kind of tidying up, resetting things, putting things away. Now again, if you’re in a flare up, you may not be able to. Hopefully if you have help, you have a family. If you can do things together, you can do that. But again, it kind of goes back to what we talked about, where there could be small little things. The 80 over 20 of it, the 80 over 20 of your desk is to put away some papers and close out your, your apps and, you know, write a few notes for what you need to do in the morning. Boom. Done that. That doesn’t need to take that long, but it can have long lasting effects. As one client that I worked with where we did like a 10 or 15 minute close down for her business for the day and the impact it had on her and her productivity. Because when you come in the next day, when you go into a kitchen to cook again and it’s messy, right? How does that feel? That and that drains you even more.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:40:25 Like as if, like I always tell my kids, I’m like, my level of difficulty is high enough. You don’t need to add to it. So don’t do that to yourself. So wherever you can have the practices in place and they can be as little as five minutes and make a huge difference.

Amber Tresca 00:40:43 Yeah, I agree 100%. When I was a teenager, I remember somebody, somebody’s dad, some friends. Dad said to us one time, make sure you’re cleaning up this room. You know, the playroom we were using or whatever at their house. Clean this up when you’re finished. Don’t just, you know, be in here doing whatever and then leaving it. He’s like, you clean it this up. Now, the next time you guys come in here to play a game or do whatever you’re going to do. It’s going to be amazing because you’re going to have this nice space and you can come in and and do and do what you like, you know. And that had such a I never thought about it that way before.

Amber Tresca 00:41:19 And it had such a profound impact upon me. especially with the kitchen. Oh my gosh. You know, the kitchen has like you prepare a meal. Part of it is cleaning up. You got to clean up afterwards. I don’t want to come in there and have to clean and then cook a meal. so I think, though maybe you also have to be a little bit okay with not everything gets done perfectly when you’re flaring, but for sure. Trying to add that little five ten minutes. Close out your day. Close out your task. Do that 8020 on that task. I think that makes so much sense. Yeah. Now people who live with IBD, people who live with chronic illness. Lisa, you are going to be, you know, aware of this on a whole other level after your journey as a caregiver for your mother. There’s a ton of administrative of tasks, appointments, paperwork, billing, keeping on top of prior authorizations like all of these different things. Do you have any broad advice for people who are dealing with this and trying to stay on top of all of that, while they’re trying to do all these other things in their life?

Lisa Zawrotny 00:42:25 So there’s a lot to it.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:42:27 And, you know, I’ve definitely worked with clients and dealt with it myself, as you know. But it sounds so simple. But I will I will say it nonetheless, because I think it’s so important is having a dedicated notebook. And it could be per person. It could be per like medical issue, whatever makes sense depending upon what you’re dealing with. But one of the things that I love to explore as a productivity coach, you know, different methods and things like that, and the bullet journal was a big thing. But you talk about like, ain’t nobody got time for that. Like, you don’t have the energy for it. Like, I didn’t want to do it in the traditional way. but the concept of a journal to be able to write down things per day. One of the simplest ways I ever did a bullet journal. And I continue this practice now, except that I do it in a rocket book, so I’m not using as much paper. I will still use journals for actual journaling, a whole different thing, but what I’m talking about is dedicated medical notebooks where you have in chronological order because you’re noting per day what’s going on.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:43:35 This is great for. And you could also wrap this into a planner. If you have enough space per day on a planner, you could you could do that. I’ve practiced gratitude in my planners. I’ve written down details about like calls that I’ve made so you could wrap that up. So either that or dedicated notebook where you are noting symptoms per day and how you’re feeling. This was especially important as a caregiver, because I would note what was going on with my mom, how she was acting, how she was reacting to medication, etc. and I could go right to the day. Of when that was happening and basically having a way to write everything down, because you’re also making a call to a provider and you are getting a confirmation number or a referral number, and you can write that in that space. And so then it’s just a matter of flipping back to be like I called on December 3rd, and here’s the referral number. And I have it right there. And you know, you can also keep it in a file.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:44:35 But it’s a simple concept. Again, it’s the write it down kind of advice. But but it’s writing it down in a dedicated space because one of the worst things is when you’re like, oh, I think I wrote it on that invoice. I think I wrote it down on a post-it note. I think it might be on the whiteboard on the fridge. I’m not sure. Maybe the advice is technically one space, one space. Write one space. Then the other thing that you want to do is you want to capture as much as possible when things are happening. And that’s a general productivity approach that I recommend. And it’s the first step in David Allen’s Getting Things Done system. And that’s the mind sweep idea. So you’re thinking about all the things you have to do. It is the you get it, you’re you’re driving and you stop at the store and you get a call from the doctor’s office and you’re like, so having I have a notes on my phone. And I have one dedicated general note that I keep, you know, that’s labeled each month where I will write down the date and time of something that happened while I was out and about, and it’s a capture in one spot.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:45:41 Now, what you need to do with that is at least once a week you need to be like, what the heck did I write down here? And did I do what I needed to do with it? It’s either, oh, that just needs to go in my files, or I need to make a phone call, or that has to go on the calendar or whatever. But again, I guess it’s a similar idea. One spot right where you can capture from everything that happens. And then the third thing I would say is to automate and set notifications wherever you can. So when it comes to billing, I mean, again, this is of course with consideration of budget and accuracy, but there are some regular billing, regular, prescription renewals and things like that that you can probably comfortably put in an automated sequence so that it’s being taken care of for you and that if not, you set reminders. So I, you know, I’m still dealing with medications. I’m technically in a, a milder secondary caregiver situation with my with one of my in-laws now.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:46:45 And so I also take care of medications for my kids and things like that. And so the ones that we can automate and have on automatic renewal done and the ones that I can’t, I have set reminders in a system so that it pops up and it’s like it is time to call the doctor, to have them call it into the pharmacy. Those would be my my three things that, it’s not going to take the work away from you, but it will take the worry away that you are forgetting something or can’t find what you need.

Amber Tresca 00:47:21 Yeah. That’s perfect. That makes so much sense. I think I gave up on planners when it’s just none of those planners worked for me.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:47:28 Oh that’s another story for another day.

Amber Tresca 00:47:30 Yeah it is, it is. But what I found was I found an undated planner and that actually works for me. So when there’s something that needs to be recorded on that day, I use it for that day. And then if I don’t have anything the next day, it’s. I don’t need to worry about.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:47:46 I use so much digitally now that I was like, I need to keep that, but then I need a place that I can capture the the in-between stuff, the processing stuff. So that’s where the notebook comes in. And for me personally. Like I said, I moved to a rocketbook so that I can write it down and then, you know, save the PDF and then erase it and move on. But but the bullet journal did work. I did that for quite some time. And again, you know, don’t be afraid to try something and then say if it’s not working, it’s okay. Let it go and move on. That’s that’s a big thing I do with clients is really helping them. It’s like a matchmaker kind of thing. It’s like, I know everybody else says, use a planner, but this is why you’re the following reasons it will not work for you. Let’s not waste precious time.

Amber Tresca 00:48:34 Right? Trying to make you use a system that just doesn’t align with your needs and your goals. Like that’s not…

Lisa Zawrotny 00:48:40 Helpful at all.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:48:40 Biggest pet peeve of mine. That’s a soapbox I will stand on till the end of time if you like me.

Amber Tresca 00:48:47 And to your point, that’s a great segue into thinking about the idea of not being able to do it all. We are constantly bombarded with people that look like they are doing it all? They have it all their their social media influencers that look like they live in big empty houses with nothing in them, and it just doesn’t look real. how do we bring that back to ourselves and say, that’s not reality, and we need to be okay with what we can do in that particular day and letting go of the rest of it and stop comparing.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:49:25 It is a challenge, I know, and especially because we’re like, listen, I’ve had a rough day and I want to scroll cat videos. Yeah, that might be me. But you know, like and then you’re like in and in between the cat videos I’m seeing, you know, the influencers with the supposedly perfect lives and the things like that.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:49:44 And then even just honestly and I say this with all the love as a productivity coach, literally, this is my expertise and I love it. And I watch Type-A people like, just go to town like the Energizer rabbit. That isn’t very old reference. Thank you very much. What do you mean? I just mean like a word like. No, I can’t say that either. I don’t even know what a current example of this would be. it’s like how Tyler the creator does songs. It’s like every, like, five seconds. They’re doing something. I am fascinated by this, and all I can say is kudos to them. To each his own. But here’s the big thing. Finding peace may be easier when we realize that by looking at what someone else is doing and saying, am I supposed to be doing that? I wish I could do that. Why am I not doing that? All of those questions that we naturally ask are actually energy drains and we can’t afford that. There’s a phrase really old school, but I still love it and it still works.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:50:49 And, it was something said to me in school ages ago. You’re you’re doing a test EIS on your own paper. Right? And the grass that’s greener is the one that’s watered, right? You know, you pick a mantra, but but the biggest thing is it’s taking a lot of your energy and it’s draining even more that you can ill afford. By comparing. And then I would say take a cue from a questioner which I am and maybe ask the question. They’re doing these things and it looks impressive as anything. Right. But what if the perception of doing it all is mistaken. What if they’re wrong about that. What if they are missing something key. Like even if you have the energy to do it. What are you missing? The space within our lives that we don’t fill with stuff, with things, with tasks, with, you know, objects isn’t empty. It’s opportunity. It’s not just that oh we’re comparing and we’re not able to do what they do, but maybe we’re not meant to.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:51:57 What if what’s expected is actually wasteful? I will give you those questions to ponder the next time you see someone doing something where you think, I wish I could be doing that too. I will tell you that some of the the most difficult things we’ve gone through, the hardships in our lives that I didn’t want to have for the sake of my children, have actually helped shape them into really wonderful, empathetic, compassionate, creative individuals. Don’t be afraid of that.

Amber Tresca 00:52:29 Oh that’s amazing. I love that so much. And living a life within your own capacity, which is something that we talk about a lot on this show. And it has been a hard thing to come for me personally to come around to is to make peace with what my actual capacity is.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:52:46 I work on it every day myself.

Amber Tresca 00:52:49 That’s good to hear.

Amber Tresca Stay tuned to hear why Lisa says we should celebrate every success

Amber Tresca So all right, so we’re we’re We’re also wanting to celebrate successes. That is a big foundation of your of your work and what you talk about on your show. You have suggestions.

Amber Tresca 00:53:03 How do you recommend people celebrate their their wins?

Lisa Zawrotny 00:53:07 So the recommendation about celebrating your wins is actually also advice that that threads through our entire conversation here. And I would say do what energizes you. So if you’re an extrovert, find people to share it with. If you love words of affirmation, find a buddy or you know your spouse if they’re willing, who will go ahead and tell you how amazing you are? Yeah. Yeah. listen. Message me. I’ll help. You know, like you say, be like, I totally did the laundry today, you know? But in all seriousness, people send me their decluttering projects all the time. Yeah, all the time. And I love it. I love it, so, yeah. Message me. a message. Someone that, you know, I have a bestie and we’re constantly messaging and I’m like, I totally showered today. Like, I.

Amber Tresca 00:54:01 Mean, yes.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:54:02 Right. So whether it’s it’s personal and intimate or if it’s like a group of people, you know, get on Facebook and a group of other other moms.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:54:10 I’m sure that you’re probably in a group, you know, with other people who experience the same chronic illness and they’re dealing with it and just totally put it out there. Keep it real. If you find inspiration in, like, encouraging them when I just told you that I work on that mindset every day and being okay with what I’m limited by and you’re like, oh, that. Thank you. You know, like that feels good. Maybe you feel inspired by inspiring others. Whatever energizes you, do that thing. But most importantly, there is nothing too small to celebrate.

Amber Tresca 00:54:45 I love that back to the laundry again. I do have an accountability partner that we will every so often text one another. Do you have laundry in the machine right now?

Lisa Zawrotny 00:54:55 I think that is why. Because also. And my mind is immediately like, do I do I do like.

Amber Tresca 00:55:05 I don’t even know how it started. But every so often we will text one another. That and sometimes the answer is yeah, yeah, I do have laundry in the washing machine right now.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:55:15 I will add one thing. If for any reason, like chatting with someone else, messaging someone or whatever for any reason, that’s not an option for you right now. You don’t feel like you have someone that you can, or you’re just feeling extremely private. Because sometimes, like, I know I go inside myself when I’m really hurting. Yeah, I would encourage you to journal in any way, even if it’s like three sentences a day or something like really small amounts. One of the reasons that I mentioned that specifically, especially when it comes to celebrating. Like and sometimes celebrating is. I survived. I got through the day. I managed with a lot of pain and discomfort and awkwardness, and I helped someone else because they’re going through the same thing or I, I just, I got through whatever it is that you’re celebrating. Write that down. Because when you go to review journal entries, when you go to review something like gratitude and a gratitude practice, you can actually experience those things. Again, like your your mind doesn’t distinguish the timeline of it.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:56:25 It you feel it again and you can be reminded of how strong you were in this moment. It’s so easy for us to forget what we went through. Thank you for giving me a place to share my story in the hardships I went through, because sometimes it’s easy for me to be like, yeah, whatever. And then I stopped for a moment. I’m like, Holy bleep! Like I. Wow. I went through a lot. And look at me. I survived, and I’m trying to do something good with it. So I would encourage you, even if you’re sharing it with yourself, celebrate it.

Amber Tresca 00:57:01 I love that, I love it. Well, Lisa, I can’t let you go. You opened up the door to a couple of things, so I can’t let you go. All right, so you and the you and the fam are into the, the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Do you have a favorite?

Lisa Zawrotny 00:57:19 Oh, you cannot ask a multi passionate favorite. It really hurts my heart.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:57:26 Oh my gosh I just I adore the Avengers. So much favorite. Maybe Captain Marvel but I don’t know I don’t know. That’s a that’s a lot of pressure because we enjoy all of them. Anything with Iron Man makes me very happy.

Amber Tresca 00:57:45 Same. Yeah.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:57:47 Yeah okay. That’s I, that’s I’m, I’m limiting.

Amber Tresca 00:57:50 With Iron Man.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:57:51 Yes I am. Anything with Iron Man. Thank you.

Amber Tresca 00:57:54 So totally on board with that and. Yeah. Captain Marvel. Yeah. Which was not was not a comic book reader. So watching the movies and being exposed to all of that and just and just learning that there was a character, Captain Marvel, that was so amazing and so powerful, I just I just loved it. And then. Yeah, Iron Man. I mean, come on, what’s not to love.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:58:18 Right?

Amber Tresca 00:58:19 Oh, he’s kind of a jerk, but we love that, too. We can maybe overlook it.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:58:26 He had his moments. I know, spoiler alert.

Amber Tresca 00:58:28 Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Amber Tresca 00:58:29 Definitely had his moments. and then I also wanted to ask you about. You have a family band. Like. Like what? Explain.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:58:36 Okay. Yeah. So that that’s the oversimplified version. Okay. I, so we have, So my husband is very musical. He used to be in a band, And my eldest son is incredibly musical. I’m also very musical instruments. Singing, you name it. Music is a huge part of my life. Always has been. And my husband and my eldest had wanted to put a band together to give my son more opportunities to play. But we started this band together and I wasn’t even supposed to be part of it. But apparently they liked a lot of 80s tunes, and my husband was like, yeah, I can’t reach those notes. And so the drummer was like, well, could Lisa do it? So I ended up. you know, I was one of the singers, but, yeah, we, it’s been a really great experience on so many levels.

Lisa Zawrotny 00:59:30 It’s fun to to play and perform music. It’s amazing to be able to have that kind of bond and activity with my son, especially because he’s at the age right now. He’s almost 17, Where I’m supposed to be an idiot and I know nothing, right? But instead, you know, there’s still some some respect, but he’s exceptional and it’s super fun. And it is definitely a stress reliever for me. I’m I’m a big, big proponent of music. I think it’s incredible for our mental health. And, Thanks for asking about it, because I love it.

Amber Tresca 01:00:09 Oh, it’s it’s fabulous. anyway, so Lisa, we’ve talked so much about many things that are really important to my community, and I think people are going to want to talk to you and they’re going to want to listen to you. So where can people find you? Where can they find your show and where can they find you on the interwebs?

Lisa Zawrotny 01:00:29 Right. So that main hub for all the things would be positively productive.

Lisa Zawrotny 01:00:34 If you are listening to an amazing podcast so you could hop right on over to the Positively Living podcast, I would love to see you there. If you just want to hang out and watch ridiculous reels that I do because they’re fun and because laughter is stress management and we need that. Please find me on Instagram. Positively underscore Lisa. And anywhere you find me, please do message me. Let me know that you heard me here and you wanted to connect. I would love to hear from you.

Amber Tresca 01:01:04 Thank you. And I also want to plug. You have an amazing amount of resources on your website that are available to people that they can dig into right now.

Lisa Zawrotny 01:01:13 Like the minesweeper that we talked about. Yeah, absolutely. Lots of.

Amber Tresca 01:01:16 Stuff. Lots of great stuff there. And I just love it. Lisa. It has been such a joy. I have enjoyed your show so very much. Thank you so much for everything that you’re doing for helping people with these really difficult tasks. And then thank you so much for actually speaking with me and saying yes to me, because I know that means that you’ve probably had to say no to something else.

Lisa Zawrotny 01:01:41 Oh. I am already so delighted. I love talking with you. So happy to say yes. So honored to be here and loving what you are doing. And I see what you did there. I see that. I appreciate that. I appreciate it. Yes, it was yes to some things, no to others. But I’m so glad that I said yes to this. Thank you. Amber.

Amber Tresca 01:02:22 Lisa, do you have an intention for 2025 that you’re setting?

Lisa Zawrotny 01:02:29 So I think there’s a distinction between general intention that I have based on my own mission and values. And then also I do a word of the year as an intention, which is something that’s a bit more focused, that allows me to stay in alignment. So me being me. I’m not going to have one answer for you, but I’ll keep it to two. So for the word of the year, which I’ve been doing for well over a decade now, for 2025, I have chosen prosper. And I love that because it has a sort of a thriving kind of vibe.

Lisa Zawrotny 01:03:02 I mean, it does involve financially prospering, but it also involves just living our best lives. And the idea that I want to do that not only for myself, but by doing what I do, helping others do the same. And my overarching intention always, always as a, as a coach and as a person, is to leave people and conversations and situations just a little bit better than when I showed up. To encourage and to inspire hope.

Amber Tresca 01:03:37 I live by that as well, and it’s something that I try to teach my children. Leave people better than you found them.

Lisa Zawrotny Love that.

Amber Tresca Oh, thank you so much.

Amber Tresca
Hey super listener!

Thanks to Lisa Zawrotny for sharing her journey from caregiver to productivity coach. I wholeheartedly recommend her podcast, which is called Positively Living. She has 250 episodes for you to browse through, and I know you will find episodes that are helpful. You won’t find a more sincere cheerleader for you as you navigate all the ups and downs of chronic illness. You can also visit PositivelyProductive.com for tools, resources, and information on how you can work with Lisa one on one.

Also thanks to Connecting to Cure for sponsoring this episode. Connecting to Cure is a nonprofit whose mission is to accelerate research, amplify awareness of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, and connect and support the inflammatory bowel disease community. You can find them at Connecting to Cure.org, and I am so grateful for their support.

As always, links to a written transcript, everyone’s social media handles, and more information on the topics we discussed is in the show notes and on my Episode 170 page on AboutIBD.com.

Thanks for listening, and remember, until next time, I want you to know more about IBD.

About IBD is a production of Mal and Tal Enterprises.

It is written, produced, and directed by me, Amber Tresca.

Mix and sound design is by Mac Cooney.

Theme music is from Cooney Studio. 

Amber Tresca 01:09:15 But all right, so I did turn the recording on. and I have my local recording on. Yep. Perfect. Okay.

Lisa Zawrotny 01:09:21 Yeah. So tell me again how much you love my show.

Amber Tresca 01:09:25 I love your show. you ever want me to do an ad? Like a you want like a mid-roll ad? Add. Like a testimonial? Who will 100% do that?

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