Meet Ronna Belinky

We were lucky to catch up with Ronna Belinky recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ronna, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

Having started my professional career in television production, I knew what it was like to have projects with a million moving pieces. I learned so much during that time regarding repeatable projects and how to keep myself motivated and productive. I created processes and tools, which are the foundation of my business today.

Decades after that television production work – and having transitioned to nonprofit work – I realized my professional purpose when I launched Workflows by Ronna and the accompanying Notebooks with Ronna workshops.

My purpose is to help people be productive, proactive and happier in work and life by providing tools, tips and processes that make accomplishing tasks simpler and less stressful. I’m particularly passionate about helping women prevent burnout, as I’ve been on the verge of that at times. Leaning on my own processes and tools, I’ve prevented burnout and always work toward that goal for myself, my clients and my entire community.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I’m Ronna Belinky, born and raised in the Midwest. After a fortunate stint in Los Angeles right after college where I not only learned some of my most valuable professional lessons but also met my husband, I returned to my roots in the Midwest where I could enjoy the seasonal changes and my family.

When my career evolved from television production to the nonprofit sector, I brought with me the incredible lessons I learned helping to manage sitcom production. I loved working on Will & Grace and Good Morning, Miami, where all of the people became my extended and chosen family. And, yes, they’re just as funny in real life, and I still talk to many of them.

At the start of my career, I quickly realized I was told what to do, but not how to do it. I had to come up with my own system, which evolved quite a bit season after season. Ultimately, I had created a smart digital tool called a Workflow to help me and the entire team do their jobs more efficiently episode after episode. Why should we have to rethink each episode or pilot when the process was nearly the same and the deadlines just changed? Repeatable processes meant I could think less and be even more attentive to detail when the details were already in a smart spreadsheet – Workflows paced the work and made sure nothing was forgotten.

This efficiency was even more important as I moved into nonprofit environments. As nonprofit staff know, we must be focused on efficiency to maximize often-limited resources. Throughout my career, custom Workflows have helped me and my co-workers to work smarter, not harder; to break down overwhelming projects into digestible pieces; to be as efficient as possible.

As I made another transition into parenthood, I realized quickly that in my personal and work life, my systems have made often-overwhelming experiences very manageable and have left me time and energy for things that make me happy. Planning systems and productivity strategies are a key part to positive mental health.

Using productivity tools in my personal life and my nonprofit job, it seemed just natural to share it more broadly, and so my business Workflows by Ronna was born.

I help people get their personal or work life flowing more smoothly with me supporting them throughout the process. I provide one-on-one customized support with tools, including digital tools and paper-based methods, plus many processes, such as the Notebooks with Ronna planning method. Workflows by Ronna offers productivity and time-management tools to simplify life and help people be more proactive – less reactive – with life’s to-dos.

How I got to Notebooks with Ronna is a great sub-story, a very relatable one.

In 2015 I turned 40. And although I was happy, I was overwhelmed and stressed out as a mom of an 8 year-old and a 4 year-old. I had lots to juggle, and it felt very chaotic. And for a type-A, extremely organized person like me, that was very uncomfortable. Like so many people, I had many responsibilities, and I couldn’t keep track of all of them in my mind. Some days I could barely take a shower!

I needed to create a system of organization that I had complete control over, one that would minimize stress and help me anticipate my many to-dos. Being a parent felt out-of-control enough, so I decided to simplify what I could.

As I started to write down everything I needed to do for me and my family, it became clear that my tasks were repeatable. The same things that required the same to-dos happened every month of every year.

So in 2015, I created a documented system that organized my tasks by month and by week for one full year. The Notebooks with Ronna system was born, and it changed my life. I still get stressed out. I’m human! But I have a reliable system to help reduce stress, and I’ve been using it for almost 10 years.

Now, I teach Notebooks with Ronna workshops in-person and virtually. The Notebook system helps people walk through the process of collecting all of their personal to-dos, putting them in one place and pacing them.

Although it sometimes feels like everything needs to get done today, that’s not the case! Trust me because I’m recovering from years of thinking everything had to happen today. I have to work really hard every day to not feel like I need to get everything done now.

I can offer support to nonprofits, small businesses, individuals or any combination as a consultant, but I would add that I’ve got a special place and lots of empathy for women entrepreneurs. I know exactly what they’re feeling most of the time because I’ve been there. I’m here now – always juggling family, work and social responsibilities. I work hard to focus on good mental health, and my productivity expertise has a foundation in minimizing stress, freeing up time and mental bandwidth, preventing burnout and helping women find balance so they can spend time with the people they love and doing the things that make them happy.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

In each chapter of my career, I’ve placed a lot of value on learning from colleagues and experts. In my first production job where I was tasked with some management responsibilities, a colleague walked by my desk one day and saw me drowning in sticky notes. She showed me her spiral notebook and how she used it for all the notes and reminders, and it was pretty simple. It got me thinking and, ultimately, after some brainstorming at my desk, every single one of my sticky notes became an organized, systematic list, which eventually became digital – the very foundation to what’s now a Workflow with Ronna. Now, I’m always reading a productivity or business-focused book. And, I’m always listening to a podcast to spur ideas, gut-check my principles and practices, and continue to grow so I can help myself and my clients.

One key piece of advice is to figure out what works for you. As I mentioned, I think it’s really important to be open to learning from others. And, yes, I also think it’s really important to not just take someone’s process or system blindly – not even mine! – without thinking about how you work best and what you need. When I work with clients, my tools and processes are the foundation, but we’ll always work together to figure out how they think, how they will succeed, and what they need to be productive and successful.

Finally, I’d love to share my Core Principles of Workflows by Ronna. These are the foundation to how I manage my own life and business, and the guiding principles to my consulting of others and the Notebooks with Ronna process.
1. Get to-dos out of your mind and write them in a centralized location: Clear your brain bandwidth.
2. Create documents for repeatable processes: Save time by not reinventing the wheel.
3. Be proactive, not reactive, and pace your tasks: Minimize stress and chaos.
Improving how you manage your to-dos gives you more time to excel at work, enjoy your hobbies, and spend time doing what makes you happy.

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?

My dad has always said that the most important things in life are love, health, happiness and being a good person. For as long as I can remember, he and my mom have lived these principles, encouraging me to seek these things and take actions to support them.

So… When I graduated from the University of Wisconsin – go, Badgers! – and said I wanted to spend the summer in Madison and then move to Los Angeles, my parents supported those choices knowing my aspirations in television writing would help foster those important life goals.

However, having a background in educational films, commercials, and documentaries, my dad encouraged me to head to the coast right away in order to be there in time for sitcom-staffing season. But Madison in the summer makes me very happy, it’s very healthy for my physical and mental health, and it fills my heart with goodness and love. Again, those principles he taught me made him understand my timeline.

As luck would have it, when we finished our cross-country roadtrip, there was an under-staffed sitcom and thus a role for me! I got a job with both my parents cheering me on and giving me the independence to move across the country. To this day I’m certain that I learned so much of what makes me successful during my time in Los Angeles, and I met my husband there!

Back to the question of my parents’ most impactful thing they did for me. They let me go for it. They let me go after a dream. I knew they had faith and belief in me. That confidence drove my experiences in TV, where I relatively quickly realized my love for logistics and production.

I’m sure they were sad that I went, but I didn’t know that. I went without guilt and with confidence – that support is what drives me still today.

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Image Credits

Nicola Levine Photography

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