260 The Radical Impact of The TOP Framework on Systems Engineer Lara Shisler
Today’s episode is a special one because I get to introduce you to one of my favorite people in the world: my oldest sister, Lara. As the youngest of three, I’ve always looked up to her, so imagine my nerves when I took her on as a client in my business! Lara is an incredibly organized, high-powered Systems Engineer with over 35 years of experience in the aviation industry, but she found herself overwhelmed and burned out despite her impressive productivity. In this episode, we dive into our VIP day together, where I helped Lara shift from just being productive to reclaiming control over her time and, ultimately, her life. If you’ve ever felt like you’re on the corporate treadmill, grinding through tasks without a sense of balance, this episode is for you. Join us as we talk about Lara’s journey, the power of intentional planning, and how embracing new systems can open the door to more freedom and fulfillment, both at work and at home.
In this episode, we cover:
- Insights gained from using the TOP Framework
- The value of prioritizing personal interests and hobbies alongside work commitments
- The positive changes in both professional and personal life as a result of improved time management
Mentioned in the episode:
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www.megansumrell.com/vip
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FULL TRANSCRIPT:
[00:00:00] Hey there. Today, I want to introduce you to a private client of mine that recently booked a full VIP day with me to really get into my proprietary time management system. And I'm going to be honest with you. It was the most nervous I have ever been stepping into a private session working with someone before.
[00:00:21] Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Work Life Harmony. Today is going to be a super cool day. I get to introduce you guys to one of my favorite people in the world, which is my oldest sister. I am the youngest of three, and today I have my oldest sister, Lara, on the podcast. Laura, how are you feeling about being here?
[00:00:49] Were you super pumped or not so much? Yeah, I had to maybe get convinced to do this. This is my first time being on a podcast. I'm not in my comfort zone as a analytical engineer over here, but but here I am. Thank you. This, this is such a cool journey for me. The reason why I have my sister, I'm very open and honest about this.
[00:01:12] This is my sister. And the reason I wanted to bring her on the podcast is I did something a couple months ago that absolutely blew terrified me, which is I took my sister on as a client and anyone that, you know, runs their own business family, it says mixing business family. All of that is always something that is it's very vulnerable.
[00:01:36] It's a lot of things. And I, I asked if Laura would come on the show to kind of talk through her journey with that and the time that we spent together. Because I'll tell you why I was so nervous to actually sit down and do a VIP day with you, Laura, is my sister is hands down, from where I always sat, the most organized person in the history of the universe of the world.
[00:02:04] And so I'm curious, do you consider yourself an organized person? Yes. I would say that I considered myself was a highly productive person. Like I know that when, when I sit down to do something in focus, I can produce. I've always known that about myself. I have also thought I was organized. I have been I had a planner system that is, you know, one that's been out in the market for decades that I subscribed to and use since my early twenties.
[00:02:43] And, and I thought that whole combination was being very organized, but there was a part of me that knew Things could be better just because of the state of mind that I was in quite a bit in feeling out of control with with my life and my obligations. Interesting. I, I feel like there's this misconception that being organized and then knowing how to plan and control our time are the same thing.
[00:03:16] And I am a firm believer that they are not, not at all the same. And I think you are An awesome example of someone that is incredibly organized, highly productive. Things don't, things don't fall through the cracks when you are in charge or running them. But as someone who loves you as much as I do watching you literally go at a hundred miles an hour, seven days a week for years, it was, it was hard, hard to watch.
[00:03:45] Cause it just seemed. Seemed like a lot. Yeah. And in retrospect, it's hard for me to understand. I guess when you're in the middle of something, you don't realize what you're doing to yourself and you don't realize that there are options and that you don't have to be operating at that higher pace or that, that much of a stress load.
[00:04:07] I'm very. Grateful to have people in my life like you, that when you were given the opportunity in a moment where I was really struggling with with, with a, just a lack of motivation, a lack of desire to keep going any longer. To step in and say, you know, kind of shine a light on what was happening in my life and, and offer up some, some solutions to that.
[00:04:32] So I'm, I'm very, very grateful for that. Why don't you tell everyone a little bit about what you do, what your life looks like, all that you have on your plate, those kinds of things. Yeah, sure. So I've been working gosh, I think roughly 35 years or so. My background has been very technical. I was a math major and then went on to graduate school and operations research, which is a systems engineering degree.
[00:04:58] And I have been spending my career in the aviation industry. As a systems engineer, which means designing computer systems for use by air traffic controllers. I worked for two companies over the years after leaving the airlines that are government contractors for the FAA, for NASA.
[00:05:19] And throughout that time was, was climbing, climbing that corporate ladder in addition to the support for, for my customer base. So hitting all of the usual challenges as women have in high tech fields in trying to prove myself and climb that ladder. And you know, most recently at the end of, of my career working for this last company was was the senior vice president of corporate development for the company.
[00:05:47] But, you know, in addition was running major programs for FAA customers. So it was certainly a lot on my plate. And I. I was I don't know. I think because I am highly productive in the way that I've worked I could balance all of the different demands, the demands coming from customers, the demands from, you know, helping run a company you know, all of that.
[00:06:14] Was able to keep the ball rolling, but was not realizing the expense it, at which it was coming at my own, you know, personal health and sanity and my personal life. And it, it, it, you know, I finally kind of, I kind of say I kind of had a breakdown. And and I guess I was lucky to do it in a place where, where I was with my sister.
[00:06:36] And, and Megan could, could see what was happening and and, and shine a light for me on some, some possible changes. So a lot's happened since that conversation we had last April, Megan. It has, and I, I still remember that. And, you know, for those of you been listening to the show for a while, you may have heard me talk about my previous corporate life.
[00:06:55] I would bring up that I spent some time in the aviation world. Well, I actually had the pleasure of working, With my sister, so I got to work with Laura for several years before I left corporate and being on some projects with you again, just shed the light on I, I, you know, I'm your sister. So, of course, I'm biased, but I've also worked with a lot of people running projects the way in which you plan and manage and coordinate projects.
[00:07:17] I don't think I've ever seen it ever. Done as well as organized as meticulous as as the work that you do. So that's why for me, I was always thinking, gosh, you know, she's doesn't get any more organized from a project management execution. Nothing would fall through the cracks. And I remember when you were here visiting when you had your what you are calling a breakdown.
[00:07:44] I remember you and I chatting about this. The world's concept and views on productivity, that it's kind of this for women in particular, that we, we often attach our self worth. to what, what other people conceive as being productive. And then when we're being productive, especially in a work environment, we're not inconveniencing anyone, right?
[00:08:13] If you are continually being taking more on and going, yeah, I can do it. Yeah, I can do it. And you continue to do it. Well then what happens? Everyone tells you how amazing you are. So it's like this vicious Fueling this fire of basically trying to keep people in that state of constantly being stressed out, exhausted, and producing without any thought to mental health, mental wellness, physical wellness, and what, what's being caused there.
[00:08:44] I just remember saying to you, I was like, the more people tell you how productive you are, the more you feel like you need to produce. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it is a bit of a vicious cycle when you when you shine the light on it that way. And I think we as women as well, you know, especially in male dominated fields don't feel like we can say no you know, I, I absolutely never wanted to ever have to say no, because I wanted to prove that, hey, I can hang, I can do this, you know, Yeah.
[00:09:16] Well, I can remember us sitting there chatting and I just very quietly said, I can help, which was very scary for me. And I was like, all right, what's my big sister going to say? And thankfully you were at a place where you said, okay, let's do it. So a couple months ago, Laura and I spent an entire day together.
[00:09:41] And I taught the. Most of the top framework. We couldn't get through the last two levels of planning because it just takes too much time. But really introduced you to a different way of planning and controlling your calendar using your tool set. So you are currently a pretty much a full Microsoft house user.
[00:10:03] You're fully digital Google calendar one note, right? Outlook. Outlook. That's right. Okay. Outlook. One note. And it was a really cool day for me and I knew we'd be able to move quick because I know you well enough to know kind of how things were operating already in the planning system that you had been using.
[00:10:24] So during our work together for that day, and I know it's hard to go back in the moment, What were some of the big kind of light bulb moments you had? Yeah, and you know, I'll, I'll preface this first by saying you know, I was obviously well aware of, of your, your top system and everything that you were doing as an entrepreneur, and we're so impressed and so proud of you.
[00:10:49] And it never dawned on me. Over the years that, that I should become a customer. Like I should check in to what, you know, what it is you're doing because of exactly the things you described. Mm-Hmm. of like hearing, okay, yeah, I'm productive, I'm organized. Like, and so it wasn't that I didn't think, it wasn't great, it just never dawned on me that this was, that there was something for me to learn in, in what you had to offer.
[00:11:18] So having that experience of actually sitting down with you and having you lay out the program was absolutely life altering for me. I don't know how, I don't know how else to put it, you know. I, I, to, to come in as someone who thinks they have their You know, whatever together and knows how to manage their time and then realize that it's a completely different mindset in, in what you have to offer.
[00:11:49] Really thinking off the top of my head, some of the biggest takeaways I think number one is the protecting of your time. I have never ever done that. My corporate mindset was. My company owns me from eight to five. I can say no outside of that, but they own me from eight to five and they own my calendar that went with it.
[00:12:15] So, as meetings would pop up, either that I was scheduling or others were scheduling for me, right? Because you're in the corporate world or your calendar shared. Everybody can see it. They can see when they're openings. They can schedule meetings. You know, I felt that I had to roll with that. And so, I was really had had zero control over my calendar.
[00:12:37] And as I remember, one of the first things we did, Megan, we sat down was I opened up outlook. And I had a calendar, I had a mild heart attack when I saw, I don't think I've ever seen a calendar like that ever. I mean, quadruple booked was common practice across. Yeah, I just took one look at that and I'm like, meeting to meeting or doing what I needed to do.
[00:13:02] And, and typical day could be maybe a 30 minute session. I could run downstairs and grab something to eat and and be right back at it. So zero control over my calendar. And what I really loved about using the, the learning, the top planning system was this idea about. planning in advance for what you have on your plate and appropriately blocking the time on your calendar to get it done.
[00:13:32] And it sounds so simple, right? But for me, it was like, because the way I'd been operating was, okay, I let the calendar fall how it falls. And then all of the things that I actually have to have focused time to produce. Well, I guess that's happening at 6 a. m. or at 6 p. m. And so I get myself into this pattern of grinding through the meetings from 9 to 5 every day.
[00:14:01] And then to get my work done I had gotten to where I was skipping my morning workouts because I would be at my desk at 6 a. m. to get caught up on all the stuff that didn't happen the day before. You know, or missing time with my husband in the evenings because I was running back upstairs to finish what needed to get done.
[00:14:21] So this mindset of now blocking out my calendar for focus time for, Hey, I've got this report that needs to get done. I know it's going to take two hours. Blocking that time and making it unavailable for anyone else to schedule a meeting on top of life changing. Well, I can remember when we, we were going through creating what I teach people their, their recurring weekly checklists and kind of talking through, okay, what are the things rinse and repeat that you are always doing for work that take time?
[00:14:52] Like you were sharing some of the meetings that you run, you need 45 minutes to prepare the agenda for it. And we were kind of collecting all of those. And I was like, all right, now let's look at your calendar and let's go through the weekly planning process of actually getting that in there. And I remember when you went.
[00:15:07] I get it. And I said, get what you shared. You're like, and you know, my sister, Laura is not a huge social media person, but you do keep up with some of my stuff. I always appreciate that. And you said, you're like, I see you do all these things where you're like, a task lists is not a plan. And you even openly were like, I kind of thought you were a little crazy, Megan.
[00:15:26] Cause I was like, well, do I have to have the task list or how else is it going to get done? But you had that moment of. I see the disconnect. Now I have an actual plan of when all those things, because you were showing me the list that you literally copy and pasted at the end of every week of, well, that didn't get done.
[00:15:44] So it's going to roll into next week of just that vicious growing cycled task list from hell. That's right. And it just, You're right. I would roll it over week to week. At the beginning of each week, my planning consisted of on Monday morning, pulling up my calendar and looking at what I had for the week and going, you know, oh, crap.
[00:16:08] And then looking at this task list and seeing. What are the things that absolutely have to get done by Friday and I put like a little star by it or asterisk by it and and then I just try and squeeze that stuff in and the rest would roll over. So this idea now, since we've met. I don't have a task list at all.
[00:16:31] This concept of backlog, I love it. I've got, I've got this backlog list and instead I'm utilizing the task feature in Outlook and I am pulling things in either as blocking time on my calendar or if they're quick hits, they're going in the task list for that day. On the particular day it's going to get done and this monster task list that I used to carry.
[00:17:01] I'm looking at mine right now and my backlog has two items on it. Now that's just a work backlog, right? That, that is just the work backlog has two items on it because everything else right now is incorporated into my calendar in some way is either a task Or an appointment somewhere within outlook. Cause you know, we're early in the month.
[00:17:25] So I went through the process of my backlog and my monthly planning and I pulled it all in. This is all stuff that needs to get done in August. So it is on my calendar. It is worked in. I've got a plan of getting it done. As opposed to this lingering task that's it's causing me stress because it's not getting done.
[00:17:43] Well, some of the things that I want to highlight that we put on your calendar that aren't work related, but matter because it's, you know, part of the process we went through is, you know, where, what do you want your life to be like, you know, not. Always being owned by work, but even the smallest things of you're an avid golfer and it can get to the point where the things we love start to feel like work when it's the one more thing and you adding in your recurring appointment of scheduling your tee times and a golf lesson.
[00:18:14] Yeah, like it isn't just about the work. It's about the prioritization of the time for the things that we love so that when we're doing them, we actually enjoy them again. And it's a hobby is not becoming a have to. Yeah. And I think the other trap that we can get into when you have you know, a demanding career is that that takes priority.
[00:18:36] over the other stuff and especially us Gen Xers. I think there's a little bit of being wired that way. And so what was happening to me with my task list, I had the work task list and I had the personal task list. The personal task list, I was terrible about. It never was given priority over the work task list.
[00:18:57] And things would happen that I would feel horrible about. Like missing family birthdays is a really good example. I just wasn't on top of my personal life. It was, it was coming at a cost to what I was producing in my work life. And I didn't like that about myself. It didn't feel great, you know? And so now part of this.
[00:19:20] weekly planning that I'm doing the monthly planning I'm doing. You know, it's looking at those important items that you have in your life and making sure that you're making time for them around the work or in the middle of the workday. If that's when it needs to happen, like, you know, Going to see a kid's recital or what sports event or whatever it may be.
[00:19:42] You know, I'm taking that more proactive approach to making sure things are happening in my personal life. I, as a result, I have never felt. More on top of things ever in both aspects, both, both professionally and personally. And the other thing that I'll say that that has really changed for me through this process that, that, that Megan, you haven't mentioned is I actually chose to make a very significant career change that, that, that Megan has a huge part in, and I'm going to get emotional, but I just, I'm so grateful for this.
[00:20:24] I made the decision that I didn't want to be on this corporate treadmill anymore. I have a 35 year behind me career. I thought that There were things that I had to stick around for golden handcuffs, you know, being at the age of taking out 401k, all that, all this stuff, all these rules, right? But I made the huge step in June to to leave the company and go into business for myself as an independent consultant.
[00:20:51] And it's, that also has just been life changing. And again, I give. Such gratitude to to Megan to this this this planning product that you have perfected over years. I know this has been out of experience. It's constantly evolving. It's constantly getting better. I am somebody that likes a formula, being the mathematician I am.
[00:21:16] And so this resonated. This is a, a, it's a set of steps. You just follow the steps and it, and it all makes sense and you'll be on top of your life. And then I think it gives you the space to open your thought to what isn't working for you. What maybe do you want to change in your life? And because of this, here I am making a career change.
[00:21:39] I'm now on a 34 hour a week work instead of 50. Right. My husband and I are talking about moving and making some changes. And I, you know, all of this, I feel is wrapped up into taking control back of my life and, and using the system to help me achieve that. Okay. Well, first, I think you're giving me a little bit too much credit for all of that.
[00:22:03] You were, you were on a lot of this path, especially going out on your own, but as someone who knows you as, you know, I don't always know my podcast guests as well as I know you with the exception of when I had our mom on but watching your. Your journey over the last, probably, I'd say 20 years when things really started amping up was probably 20 years ago, work wise, it's crazy to think it's been that long, and to see you now, as opposed to six months ago, it's, for me, I'm like, there she is, there's my sister, you know, just to see your freedom of time, your Ability to say yes to things to not be feeling so rushed going from one place to another, yet still thriving professionally.
[00:22:56] At the same time. Yeah, it's like, probably my, my biggest love of anything I've ever done has been that opportunity to spend that day and to get your system set up on, on your computer with your information with, with your lists, all of it. So I do want to thank you for. Trusting me and giving me that opportunity to do it because it changed my life as well.
[00:23:21] I'm so glad to hear that. And, and for me to sit back and, and get to watch you shine and share what you've built and what, what you have to share with the world was, was a really special experience for me as well. You know, I, like I said, I've been, you know, So proud of this business that you've built and the product that you're providing to women all over the world.
[00:23:44] But now to personally experience that and understand what you've built. It truly is remarkable. And I know there must be so many other. women out there that feel as I do. And, and I, and I'll just say anybody out there, if Megan ever offers you the experience, the opportunity of a one on one jump on it.
[00:24:08] Thank you for saying that. If you are interested in how those work, you can always email in to team at megansermrl. com. We'll, we'll fill you in on that. Oh, I mean, it was, it came with I mean, we did a fun happy hour time and it was, it was super fun. And we stayed in a hotel that's decorated in all pink.
[00:24:26] So even better, even better. Well, thank you, Laura. I appreciate you going out of your comfort zone and coming on here and sharing that experience today. I just think it's important for people to hear, you know, you can be incredibly productive, incredibly organized. And if things are feeling off or hard or exhausting, it's probably because of that planning part, right?
[00:24:53] And the importance of getting control of your time back. It's yeah. And no matter what, what stage you are in life and what you have going on, understanding that ultimately you're, you're the deciding factor on, on what's happening in your life. You know, it's ultimately up to you, you know, as opposed to feeling like other people control that or manage that, you know, there is a way to take control back and do it in a way that you're still present and available and producing for, for everybody that you should be in your life.
[00:25:28] It's so important. It's one of the lines in the manifesto I have is time management. I understand that time management is self management, you know, it's both good and bad, right? The good news is you can control it. The bad news is you got to do something about getting it right. That's right. That's right.
[00:25:43] Oh, thank you again, Laura. I love you. It was my pleasure. You're just, I know she's the best everyone. Thanks so much, Megs. Thanks. Bye.
