July 16, 2025 • 25 mins
Time management expert Anna Dearmon Kornick shares how personality affects our schedules
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's episode is going to be a longer one part
of the series where I interview fascinating people about how
they take their days from great to awesome and any
advice they have for the rest of us. So today
I'm delighted to welcome Anna Dearman Cornick to the show.
(00:29):
Anna is the host of the It's About Time podcast
and author of the book Time Management Essential. So Anna,
thanks for being here.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Hi, Laura, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, well, I'm excited to talk all things time management
with you, a topic we both enjoy. Why don't you
tell us a little bit about yourself, your life, and
your career.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Sure. So, I'm a time management coach, host of It's
About Time, as you mentioned, author of Time Management Essentials,
but in addition to really diving into all things time management,
also a mom of two little girls, six and four,
and we live with my husband, Scott in South Louisiana.
And so when I'm not serving clients who are based
(01:12):
all over the world or leading coaching sessions in the
It's About Time academy, you can find me chasing them around,
taking them to the pool, and balancing my version of
mom life and work life.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Excellent.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
And so how did you wind up in this area?
Like what drew you to the topic of time management?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
So what's so interesting is my very first job right
out of college was as a scheduler to a United
States congressman, and so very early on I was thrust
into trying to figure out time management for myself while
also managing one of the most hectic schedules in the
entire country. And so I learned so much in that role,
(01:55):
not only about surviving as a young professional, but also
about how to make the most of your time, how
to navigate curveballs that happened during your day, how to prioritize,
and that translated really well into a what then became
a ten year career in crisis communications and government affairs.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah, well, let's talk.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
About being a congressional scheduler, because I think that you know,
many of us don't necessarily think of time as a
resource that has to be managed. But when you have
one person whose time is you know, needs to be
allocated to different things, to keeping constituents happy, to doing
their various you know, law making responsibilities and whatever public
(02:41):
facing life they want to do as well as you know,
hopefully they also get to sleep on occasion, and they
have to travel back and forth. So I wonder how
you think about that, Like what are the rules for
a congress person's schedule, and like how you started thinking
about that and managing that.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Right so it you know, one thing that you have
to keep in mind is that, of course it's going
to be different based on the individual, their preferences, and
understanding what energizes them and what drains them to make
sure that we're creating a flow for not just their day,
but their entire week that enables them to hit all
of those obligations. And there are so many competing obligations,
(03:20):
like you said, from running the office to meeting with
other policymakers and lobbyists to meeting with constituents, not to
mention things like fundraising calls and receptions and dinner invitations
and travel, and it's all over the place. And so
the way that we tended to think about it was
(03:40):
to prioritize those meetings where his impact would go the
furthest because there's only one of him Unfortunately, there was
a number of people on our staff who were incredibly
qualified and intelligent and able to take meetings on his behalf,
and so you really had to know.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Where where do we really.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Have to have the congressman and where can someone stand
in and represent him on his behalf?
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, I wonder, did you have to figure out sort
of like buffers between things, or I mean space for
the curve, but like what sort of a space would
you leave available for the curve balls that came.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Oh my gosh, Laura, I learned the biggest lesson my
very first week on the job. I put together what
I thought was the most amazing, meticulous, perfect schedule for
his week. And I remember that first Monday morning, our
chief of staff, this big guy named Clayton, walked over
to my desk and he said, Anna, we have a problem,
and my heart sank, and he pointed out that despite
(04:40):
the fact that we fit every constituent request into the week,
there were exactly zero spaces available for the boss to
take a bathroom break.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
That wasn't gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
No, And so I learned the difference between creating a
schedule that's a perfect on paper and creating a schedule
that actually reflects our humanity. And I'm so glad I
learned that lesson early on, because then it did become Okay,
let's make sure that we have buffer time for him,
that we're not only creating space for him to be human,
(05:15):
but also to make sure that he has connection moments
with his family. He had two young girls at the
time who lived back home in New Orleans, and it's
really important to have that time when when you're away.
And so I really learned the importance of allocating even
more transition time from point A to point B than
necessary in order to make sure that we had a
(05:36):
realistic amount of space to accomplish what we needed to.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yeah, and what were your sort of thoughts on new
things coming up and upsetting the.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Schedule that exists? Like would was the goal not to.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Move stuff or is like stuff have to rise over
a certain bar to move what is already there. I'm
curious about the cancellation policy for a congressman as well.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
That's great.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
It was very much an depends. So on one hand,
we aimed to lock the calendar about two weeks in advance,
where no new meetings were added unless it was absolutely necessary,
but we could lock the calendar and the day would
be flowing smoothly, and then the vote bells would go off.
So Laura on Capitol Hill, any time that the members
(06:22):
are being called to the floor to vote, there are
these bells that ring, and it sounds kind of like
a school bell. And whenever I hear this bell, now
just out and about, I get a little bit of
PTSD because I remember that anytime those vote bells would
go off unexpectedly, because we had noticed most of the time,
but when they went off unexpectedly, I knew that I
(06:43):
was going to have to rearrange, drop everything, and rearrange
the entire calendar, because that's what they're there for.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Absolutely, all right, We're going to take one quick ad
break and then we'll be back with more from Anna
Dearman Cornick. Well, I am back talking with Anna Dearman Kornick,
who is a time management expert host of the It's
About Time podcast. We've been chatting about her first job
as a congressional scheduler and what it's like to schedule
(07:14):
somebody who's every minute needs to be spelled out. But
let's talk a little bit about your own approach to
time management. Now, I know you've said you're very personality
driven when you think about time management.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
What does that mean to you?
Speaker 3 (07:26):
So? I have always been, Laura a huge fan of
personality quizzes. I mean you take me back to the
high school, middle school teen beat magazine where you figure
out your lit gloss flavor based on your favorite pasta shape,
any of those silly quizzes like that. I love, And
as I got older, I really became interested in personality
(07:50):
theory assessments like the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. Eventually, I,
on a whim, decided to become a certified Myers Brinks practitioner.
Remember in that training weekend, someone asking me, how do
you plan to use the Myers Briggs Everyone else there
was either a school counselor, or they were a seasoned coach,
(08:12):
or they worked in human resources, and I remember saying,
I want to use personality to help women manage their
time without the overwhelm. And at the time this was
years ago, I didn't know what that would look like,
but gradually it came into view. You know, we all
have very unique ways of thinking of making decisions. Our
(08:35):
approach to closure versus open endedness, and all of those
little pieces of who we are have to be considered
when we create our approach to time management. You know,
one of the biggest mistakes that we make is when
we decide that I'm ready to get my time management
in order, is that we look at what other people
(08:57):
are doing. And inspiration is great. You can take so
much from what other people are doing, right, That's the
entire reason why I started my podcast. But when we
try and copy and paste what's working well for someone
else and then it doesn't work for us, we can
feel like a failure when in reality that method that
we were copying and pasting just might not have been
(09:18):
a fit for who we are at our core.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
And I think I read somewhere, maybe on your website,
you are an E NTJ. I am, so I'm curious
how that affects you personally as you manage your time, Like,
what does that mean for you that would be different
from somebody else?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Absolutely? Oh that's so fun. So yes, I in Myers Briggs,
I am an E N TJ. And you may be thinking, Okay,
what do those letters mean? And without going too too
far into it, the Myers Briggs is basically based on
two on four pairs of personality preferences, and so that
(09:55):
E is either E for extroverted or I for introverted,
that INN is either in for intuition, So really more
an abstract thinker versus sensing, more of a concrete, black
and white thinker. And then that T is for thinking,
So that's the type that's what drives our decision making,
really more logic based versus an F which is more
(10:17):
feeling and harmony based. And then JAY which stands for judging,
which is more about closure and P perceiving, which is
more about being open ended. And so as an E INTJ,
I am someone who needs social interaction scheduled into my
week or else I start to get a little crazy.
(10:38):
So that means I need to be intentional about creating
social opportunities for recharge, that I may prefer to mind
map my week out rather than have a set checklist,
That my decisions about how I make my time might
tend to be a little bit more on the logical side,
So I need to pay special attention to be sure
(10:59):
that I'm incorporating harmony within my family. How do we
keep everyone you know happy and moving forward together? And
then with that JAY. It means I really like to
finish projects. I really like to finish things and hit
that point of completion, and so making sure that my
week is structured so that I am hitting those endpoints
(11:20):
and that all of those things are based on me
and the way that I think, and so just pulling
a time management method off of the shelf, it's not
going to work for me perfectly. And so that's where
so much trial and error comes into play to figure out, Okay,
based on who I am and how I think, what
(11:41):
methods are going to work best for me.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yeah, I think I'm supposed to be an I INTJ.
So I guess we have some similar overlaps.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Okay, So Laura, the E NTJ is the evil dictator
and the I n TJ is the mad scientist. So
we could take over the world together.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Probably, although I have to say, you know, I think
being a time management person having the JAY is pretty critical.
And you know, I try out to be judging if
you were of people who are different, but you know,
like it's always thinking that something else will be a possibility.
(12:22):
It's not work when it comes to managing your time.
So you know, but that's a whole whole separate topic.
So I'm curious about your daily life. Are there any
routines that make you more productive?
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Oh? My goodness, of course, I you know, it's funny.
I love routine. But I also cannot be too bound
by a routine, or else I'll start to rebel. So
that's something that I know about myself. I cannot be
too rigid. I'd say that having two young children four
and six year old, routines in the morning are absolutely
critical for us, because not only do those routines keep
(13:00):
me in line, but they keep my kids in a
space where it's predictable for them in a healthy way.
And so rather than having set routines where it's step one,
we do this step two.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
We do this.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
We think of the morning in milestones, where we want
to be in certain parts of our home, doing certain
activities at certain times, and what happens in between can
can flex, it can go crazy. We can have a
dance party, we can color whatever. But as long as
we are sitting down at the kitchen table at seven
thirty having breakfast, we know that we'll be on track.
(13:34):
And I tend to approach my evening in the same
way again with milestones. Anything can happen in between, but
as long as we are turning the bathwater knob on
at six thirty, then we know that the rest of
the evening is going to go smoothly.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Do you have any morning routines that are for you
that are separate from caregiving for the rest of your family?
Speaker 3 (13:56):
I do, you know, and it's evolved over the years,
but right now out my most important morning routine involves
waking up early and getting out the door to work out.
I have to based on just the day, the only
time to really get in a good workout is going
to be early in the morning, and so that looks
(14:17):
like an evening routine to set me up for success.
Setting out the workout clothes in the evenings, setting out
the bcaa's and the creatine powder on the kitchen counter
so that I can scoop, scoop and go. Having all
of that makes the morning run so much easier, because
the morning routine looks like getting out of bed, talking
(14:39):
myself into putting in the workout clothes, putting on the
workout clothes before I can convince myself to go back
to bed, meeting a good friend at the gym, We've
become accountability partners because we knew that without that accountability,
we would struggle. Meeting each other at the gym, high fiving,
going our separate ways, and then heading home, and on
(15:00):
that ride home, that's typically when I listen to podcasts.
That's when I really start to get my mind right
for the day. But the success of our mornings are
really determined by the consistency of my weekly planning sessions. Well,
we're going to talk about that, your weekly planning sessions
in just a minute.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Well, I'm back talking with Anna Darman Cornick about her life,
her routines, and her time management advice for everyone else.
So let's talk about weekly planning. And then I also
want to I don't know if this happens on Sunday
or not, but I saw you had a big thing
about what you do on Sunday to prepare for the
upcoming weeks. So maybe you can talk about both of
(15:44):
those as we think of life in terms of weeks,
which is a big theme for those of us here
before breakfast.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Definitely, So I absolutely believe that the success of your
week is based on the quality and the consistency of
your weekly planning. You know, a coach is not going
to head into an important game without some type of
a game plan, a playbook, and getting a bird's eye
view of what's ahead. And so my weekly planning sessions,
(16:10):
i'd say typically they do happen on Sundays, but also
part of the weekly planning session is identifying, Hey, what's
happening next weekend? When am I going to do my
next one? Oh, makes sense to do it on Saturday
morning because we're going to be out of the house
all day on Sunday, and really kind of giving myself
that flexibility in when it happens. Another thing is that
(16:32):
a lot of times when we picture weekly planning sessions,
we kind of say, okay, so you're probably sitting down
and you're drinking coffee for thirty minutes, and you have
this set agenda. And sure sometimes it looks like that,
but most of the time it doesn't. Most of the
time it's fragmented over the course of a Sunday. But
as long as I get a look at my week
(16:54):
ahead and understand what's this week going to feel like?
Is this week going to feel is it going to
feel a little bit more relaxed and based on how
the week's going to feel, how do I want to
structure my time in order to stay on track with
my goals. One of the most important things incorporated into
my weekly planning session is adding in drive time. Now,
(17:17):
we don't necessarily spend a ton of time in the car.
We live in a relatively small town type of area,
but it's very clear which parent, my husband, Scott or
I is picking up the girls from camp on which day,
and so we have all of that drive time in
the calendar. Our calendar is a huge communication tool for us.
(17:38):
And then creating drive time slots for even just home
to Jim Jim to home, because I know that if
I don't have drive time in my calendar, I will
push all the way up until the last minute, and
then of course get there late because I haven't accounted
for parking and then walking in the door and then
(17:58):
finding the room where I'm going, And so transition time
is huge. Once we know what the week's going to
feel like, we shift into meal planning mode. Now, my
husband Scott, he actually handles meal planning and grocery shopping
at our home. It's this awesome partnership that we have,
and so based on what the week looks like, will
decide what the menu looks like. He'll take the girls
(18:20):
with a grocery list to the grocery store, and then
I check the weather. I check the weather, and I
actually pull clothes for the entire week for both of
my girls. Now, when I tell you, Laura, I am
not a morning person. The fact that I wake up
and go to the gym at five fifteen still shocks
me sometimes. And so having a check on the weather
(18:42):
and their clothes for the week pulled out on Sundays
and hanging on little hooks on their back on their
closet door, it makes a huge difference in how smooth
our mornings go.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
What do you do if the kid doesn't want to
wear what you chose.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
So here's the funny thing is that my oldest wears
school uniforms. Oh okay, well that makes the whole thing right,
So she wears school uniforms, and then my youngest I
don't think she's really caught onto.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
The because I caught on to the idea that there
are options.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
So, you know what, whenever, whenever she does figure that out,
it'll probably be about time for her to start uniforms. Anyway,
So I'm feeling good about it, but I know that
I'm going to have to pivot like that's that's a
part of the way that we manage our time too.
It's not set it and forget it. We have to
adjust as our kids get older, as life evolves.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Absolutely, Well, when you're doing this weekly planning session, are
you planning with your husband? Then you mentioned that you know,
you guys move into meal planning, but it sounded like
there was a we involved there, So I'm curious logistically
what that looks like.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Doesn't that sound lovely imagining sitting with him at the
table and planning our week.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
So no that, and no one's throwing anything at you
or asking for anything, because I know that the six
year old and three year old will obviously give you
guys completelyway to do this right exactly.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
No, it's really it's.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Just me and and part of the weekly planning session
might happen with me standing up with my computer at
the kitchen island. Part of it might happen at the
kitchen table. And this when I say we move into
meal planning, it goes like this, Hey, Scott, I have
a meeting late on Tuesday, so factor that into meal
planning for the week.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Boom, that's it. Yeah, boom, that's it. Okay, got it.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Are there any other sort of time management strategies that
you find yourself using frequently in your daily life?
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Oh? I mean, I of course can't live without time blocking,
time blocking, task patching in them days. For me, the
I call those the OG time management strategies, part of
my time management Swiss army knife. I'm actually Laura in
the middle of a theme week.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Where what is that?
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Oh, it's where you assign essentially a theme to your
entire week in order to cut down on that context switching.
So this is a podcast theme week for me. I
will I will end this week with twelve new podcast
interviews for my podcast that I'll then be able to
(21:07):
run over the next few months. And the next podcast
theme week is in October. And so this makes life
so easy because I'm not trying to plug interviews into
my schedule because I find that I'm someone that gets whiplash,
and I don't think that this is uncommon, going from
a coaching session with a client to an interview for
(21:29):
someone else's podcast, to an interview for my podcast to
a conversation with a teacher at my daughter's school. It
feels like a game of ping pong, back and forth,
back and forth. And so by having a podcast theme week,
I'm able to be in this podcast mindset, this host
mindset all week long, and it's really exciting, it's really fun,
(21:50):
and it's really energizing. And so looking for opportunities to
create theme weeks, I also do a coaching theme week
and a content theme week where I try to be
as all in as possible in those different areas and
it just helps the week and my mindset flow.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Yeah, it's like day camps in summer because of music
camp this week and like soccer camp the next week.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Exactly. Yes, that so life should be more like summer camp. Definitely,
I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
So I always ask my guest this question, what's something
you've done recently to take a day from great to awesome?
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Ooh, something that I have done recently to take a
day from great to awesome? Oh? You know, I would
say that something that I've done recently to take a
day from great to awesome is building in an opportunity
(22:46):
to get out of the house intentionally and work in
another environment. So I have a home office. I love
my home office. I think it's really important to have,
you know, a consistent environment that's yours to have this mindset.
But as that extroverts, sometimes I just need to get
(23:07):
out of the house and be out in the world.
And one thing that I actually do on a quarterly
basis is I host a quarterly and a day and
so I have a quarterly and a day coming up
on Friday where I will get out of the house
and I'll go work from one of my favorite restaurants
and just enjoy a change of scenery. It's energizing. I mean,
(23:29):
you're still doing the work, but it's energizing.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
It's different.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
It changes things.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Well, I was about to ask you what's something you're
looking forward to, but it sounds like that's probably it.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
I am.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
I am.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
I'm looking forward to quarterly and a Day. I even
have a massage scheduled that afternoon because I try to
also do something that's really for me on that day.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Yeah, oh, that sounds delightful.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
I think I need a Laura day very sand get Wie,
so Anna, where can people find you? Sure?
Speaker 3 (23:55):
So the best way for us to continue staying in
touch and to to into more time management goodness would
be checking out my podcast, It's About Time. I have
new episodes that go live every Monday that either deep
dive into a time management topic or it's an interview
with a go getter to understand how they are getting
things done. And in terms of social media, I like
(24:17):
to hang out on Instagram, So come find me on Instagram,
send me a DM let me know what you thought
about this conversation. If you might try theme weeks and let's.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Chat sounds awesome. Well, Anna, thank you so much for
joining us. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you
have feedback about this or any other episode, you can
always reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
here's to making the most of our time.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura Vandercamp.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(25:15):
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's episode is going to be a longer one part
of the series where I interview fascinating people about how
they take their days from great to awesome and any
advice they have for the rest of us. So today
I'm delighted to welcome Anna Dearman Cornick to the show.
(00:29):
Anna is the host of the It's About Time podcast
and author of the book Time Management Essential. So Anna,
thanks for being here.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Hi, Laura, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, well, I'm excited to talk all things time management
with you, a topic we both enjoy. Why don't you
tell us a little bit about yourself, your life, and
your career.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Sure. So, I'm a time management coach, host of It's
About Time, as you mentioned, author of Time Management Essentials,
but in addition to really diving into all things time management,
also a mom of two little girls, six and four,
and we live with my husband, Scott in South Louisiana.
And so when I'm not serving clients who are based
(01:12):
all over the world or leading coaching sessions in the
It's About Time academy, you can find me chasing them around,
taking them to the pool, and balancing my version of
mom life and work life.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Excellent.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
And so how did you wind up in this area?
Like what drew you to the topic of time management?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
So what's so interesting is my very first job right
out of college was as a scheduler to a United
States congressman, and so very early on I was thrust
into trying to figure out time management for myself while
also managing one of the most hectic schedules in the
entire country. And so I learned so much in that role,
(01:55):
not only about surviving as a young professional, but also
about how to make the most of your time, how
to navigate curveballs that happened during your day, how to prioritize,
and that translated really well into a what then became
a ten year career in crisis communications and government affairs.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah, well, let's talk.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
About being a congressional scheduler, because I think that you know,
many of us don't necessarily think of time as a
resource that has to be managed. But when you have
one person whose time is you know, needs to be
allocated to different things, to keeping constituents happy, to doing
their various you know, law making responsibilities and whatever public
(02:41):
facing life they want to do as well as you know,
hopefully they also get to sleep on occasion, and they
have to travel back and forth. So I wonder how
you think about that, Like what are the rules for
a congress person's schedule, and like how you started thinking
about that and managing that.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Right so it you know, one thing that you have
to keep in mind is that, of course it's going
to be different based on the individual, their preferences, and
understanding what energizes them and what drains them to make
sure that we're creating a flow for not just their day,
but their entire week that enables them to hit all
of those obligations. And there are so many competing obligations,
(03:20):
like you said, from running the office to meeting with
other policymakers and lobbyists to meeting with constituents, not to
mention things like fundraising calls and receptions and dinner invitations
and travel, and it's all over the place. And so
the way that we tended to think about it was
(03:40):
to prioritize those meetings where his impact would go the
furthest because there's only one of him Unfortunately, there was
a number of people on our staff who were incredibly
qualified and intelligent and able to take meetings on his behalf,
and so you really had to know.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Where where do we really.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Have to have the congressman and where can someone stand
in and represent him on his behalf?
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, I wonder, did you have to figure out sort
of like buffers between things, or I mean space for
the curve, but like what sort of a space would
you leave available for the curve balls that came.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Oh my gosh, Laura, I learned the biggest lesson my
very first week on the job. I put together what
I thought was the most amazing, meticulous, perfect schedule for
his week. And I remember that first Monday morning, our
chief of staff, this big guy named Clayton, walked over
to my desk and he said, Anna, we have a problem,
and my heart sank, and he pointed out that despite
(04:40):
the fact that we fit every constituent request into the week,
there were exactly zero spaces available for the boss to
take a bathroom break.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
That wasn't gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
No, And so I learned the difference between creating a
schedule that's a perfect on paper and creating a schedule
that actually reflects our humanity. And I'm so glad I
learned that lesson early on, because then it did become Okay,
let's make sure that we have buffer time for him,
that we're not only creating space for him to be human,
(05:15):
but also to make sure that he has connection moments
with his family. He had two young girls at the
time who lived back home in New Orleans, and it's
really important to have that time when when you're away.
And so I really learned the importance of allocating even
more transition time from point A to point B than
necessary in order to make sure that we had a
(05:36):
realistic amount of space to accomplish what we needed to.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yeah, and what were your sort of thoughts on new
things coming up and upsetting the.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Schedule that exists? Like would was the goal not to.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Move stuff or is like stuff have to rise over
a certain bar to move what is already there. I'm
curious about the cancellation policy for a congressman as well.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
That's great.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
It was very much an depends. So on one hand,
we aimed to lock the calendar about two weeks in advance,
where no new meetings were added unless it was absolutely necessary,
but we could lock the calendar and the day would
be flowing smoothly, and then the vote bells would go off.
So Laura on Capitol Hill, any time that the members
(06:22):
are being called to the floor to vote, there are
these bells that ring, and it sounds kind of like
a school bell. And whenever I hear this bell, now
just out and about, I get a little bit of
PTSD because I remember that anytime those vote bells would
go off unexpectedly, because we had noticed most of the time,
but when they went off unexpectedly, I knew that I
(06:43):
was going to have to rearrange, drop everything, and rearrange
the entire calendar, because that's what they're there for.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Absolutely, all right, We're going to take one quick ad
break and then we'll be back with more from Anna
Dearman Cornick. Well, I am back talking with Anna Dearman Kornick,
who is a time management expert host of the It's
About Time podcast. We've been chatting about her first job
as a congressional scheduler and what it's like to schedule
(07:14):
somebody who's every minute needs to be spelled out. But
let's talk a little bit about your own approach to
time management. Now, I know you've said you're very personality
driven when you think about time management.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
What does that mean to you?
Speaker 3 (07:26):
So? I have always been, Laura a huge fan of
personality quizzes. I mean you take me back to the
high school, middle school teen beat magazine where you figure
out your lit gloss flavor based on your favorite pasta shape,
any of those silly quizzes like that. I love, And
as I got older, I really became interested in personality
(07:50):
theory assessments like the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. Eventually, I,
on a whim, decided to become a certified Myers Brinks practitioner.
Remember in that training weekend, someone asking me, how do
you plan to use the Myers Briggs Everyone else there
was either a school counselor, or they were a seasoned coach,
(08:12):
or they worked in human resources, and I remember saying,
I want to use personality to help women manage their
time without the overwhelm. And at the time this was
years ago, I didn't know what that would look like,
but gradually it came into view. You know, we all
have very unique ways of thinking of making decisions. Our
(08:35):
approach to closure versus open endedness, and all of those
little pieces of who we are have to be considered
when we create our approach to time management. You know,
one of the biggest mistakes that we make is when
we decide that I'm ready to get my time management
in order, is that we look at what other people
(08:57):
are doing. And inspiration is great. You can take so
much from what other people are doing, right, That's the
entire reason why I started my podcast. But when we
try and copy and paste what's working well for someone
else and then it doesn't work for us, we can
feel like a failure when in reality that method that
we were copying and pasting just might not have been
(09:18):
a fit for who we are at our core.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
And I think I read somewhere, maybe on your website,
you are an E NTJ. I am, so I'm curious
how that affects you personally as you manage your time, Like,
what does that mean for you that would be different
from somebody else?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Absolutely? Oh that's so fun. So yes, I in Myers Briggs,
I am an E N TJ. And you may be thinking, Okay,
what do those letters mean? And without going too too
far into it, the Myers Briggs is basically based on
two on four pairs of personality preferences, and so that
(09:55):
E is either E for extroverted or I for introverted,
that INN is either in for intuition, So really more
an abstract thinker versus sensing, more of a concrete, black
and white thinker. And then that T is for thinking,
So that's the type that's what drives our decision making,
really more logic based versus an F which is more
(10:17):
feeling and harmony based. And then JAY which stands for judging,
which is more about closure and P perceiving, which is
more about being open ended. And so as an E INTJ,
I am someone who needs social interaction scheduled into my
week or else I start to get a little crazy.
(10:38):
So that means I need to be intentional about creating
social opportunities for recharge, that I may prefer to mind
map my week out rather than have a set checklist,
That my decisions about how I make my time might
tend to be a little bit more on the logical side,
So I need to pay special attention to be sure
(10:59):
that I'm incorporating harmony within my family. How do we
keep everyone you know happy and moving forward together? And
then with that JAY. It means I really like to
finish projects. I really like to finish things and hit
that point of completion, and so making sure that my
week is structured so that I am hitting those endpoints
(11:20):
and that all of those things are based on me
and the way that I think, and so just pulling
a time management method off of the shelf, it's not
going to work for me perfectly. And so that's where
so much trial and error comes into play to figure out, Okay,
based on who I am and how I think, what
(11:41):
methods are going to work best for me.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yeah, I think I'm supposed to be an I INTJ.
So I guess we have some similar overlaps.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Okay, So Laura, the E NTJ is the evil dictator
and the I n TJ is the mad scientist. So
we could take over the world together.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Probably, although I have to say, you know, I think
being a time management person having the JAY is pretty critical.
And you know, I try out to be judging if
you were of people who are different, but you know,
like it's always thinking that something else will be a possibility.
(12:22):
It's not work when it comes to managing your time.
So you know, but that's a whole whole separate topic.
So I'm curious about your daily life. Are there any
routines that make you more productive?
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Oh? My goodness, of course, I you know, it's funny.
I love routine. But I also cannot be too bound
by a routine, or else I'll start to rebel. So
that's something that I know about myself. I cannot be
too rigid. I'd say that having two young children four
and six year old, routines in the morning are absolutely
critical for us, because not only do those routines keep
(13:00):
me in line, but they keep my kids in a
space where it's predictable for them in a healthy way.
And so rather than having set routines where it's step one,
we do this step two.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
We do this.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
We think of the morning in milestones, where we want
to be in certain parts of our home, doing certain
activities at certain times, and what happens in between can
can flex, it can go crazy. We can have a
dance party, we can color whatever. But as long as
we are sitting down at the kitchen table at seven
thirty having breakfast, we know that we'll be on track.
(13:34):
And I tend to approach my evening in the same
way again with milestones. Anything can happen in between, but
as long as we are turning the bathwater knob on
at six thirty, then we know that the rest of
the evening is going to go smoothly.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Do you have any morning routines that are for you
that are separate from caregiving for the rest of your family?
Speaker 3 (13:56):
I do, you know, and it's evolved over the years,
but right now out my most important morning routine involves
waking up early and getting out the door to work out.
I have to based on just the day, the only
time to really get in a good workout is going
to be early in the morning, and so that looks
(14:17):
like an evening routine to set me up for success.
Setting out the workout clothes in the evenings, setting out
the bcaa's and the creatine powder on the kitchen counter
so that I can scoop, scoop and go. Having all
of that makes the morning run so much easier, because
the morning routine looks like getting out of bed, talking
(14:39):
myself into putting in the workout clothes, putting on the
workout clothes before I can convince myself to go back
to bed, meeting a good friend at the gym, We've
become accountability partners because we knew that without that accountability,
we would struggle. Meeting each other at the gym, high fiving,
going our separate ways, and then heading home, and on
(15:00):
that ride home, that's typically when I listen to podcasts.
That's when I really start to get my mind right
for the day. But the success of our mornings are
really determined by the consistency of my weekly planning sessions. Well,
we're going to talk about that, your weekly planning sessions
in just a minute.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Well, I'm back talking with Anna Darman Cornick about her life,
her routines, and her time management advice for everyone else.
So let's talk about weekly planning. And then I also
want to I don't know if this happens on Sunday
or not, but I saw you had a big thing
about what you do on Sunday to prepare for the
upcoming weeks. So maybe you can talk about both of
(15:44):
those as we think of life in terms of weeks,
which is a big theme for those of us here
before breakfast.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Definitely, So I absolutely believe that the success of your
week is based on the quality and the consistency of
your weekly planning. You know, a coach is not going
to head into an important game without some type of
a game plan, a playbook, and getting a bird's eye
view of what's ahead. And so my weekly planning sessions,
(16:10):
i'd say typically they do happen on Sundays, but also
part of the weekly planning session is identifying, Hey, what's
happening next weekend? When am I going to do my
next one? Oh, makes sense to do it on Saturday
morning because we're going to be out of the house
all day on Sunday, and really kind of giving myself
that flexibility in when it happens. Another thing is that
(16:32):
a lot of times when we picture weekly planning sessions,
we kind of say, okay, so you're probably sitting down
and you're drinking coffee for thirty minutes, and you have
this set agenda. And sure sometimes it looks like that,
but most of the time it doesn't. Most of the
time it's fragmented over the course of a Sunday. But
as long as I get a look at my week
(16:54):
ahead and understand what's this week going to feel like?
Is this week going to feel is it going to
feel a little bit more relaxed and based on how
the week's going to feel, how do I want to
structure my time in order to stay on track with
my goals. One of the most important things incorporated into
my weekly planning session is adding in drive time. Now,
(17:17):
we don't necessarily spend a ton of time in the car.
We live in a relatively small town type of area,
but it's very clear which parent, my husband, Scott or
I is picking up the girls from camp on which day,
and so we have all of that drive time in
the calendar. Our calendar is a huge communication tool for us.
(17:38):
And then creating drive time slots for even just home
to Jim Jim to home, because I know that if
I don't have drive time in my calendar, I will
push all the way up until the last minute, and
then of course get there late because I haven't accounted
for parking and then walking in the door and then
(17:58):
finding the room where I'm going, And so transition time
is huge. Once we know what the week's going to
feel like, we shift into meal planning mode. Now, my
husband Scott, he actually handles meal planning and grocery shopping
at our home. It's this awesome partnership that we have,
and so based on what the week looks like, will
decide what the menu looks like. He'll take the girls
(18:20):
with a grocery list to the grocery store, and then
I check the weather. I check the weather, and I
actually pull clothes for the entire week for both of
my girls. Now, when I tell you, Laura, I am
not a morning person. The fact that I wake up
and go to the gym at five fifteen still shocks
me sometimes. And so having a check on the weather
(18:42):
and their clothes for the week pulled out on Sundays
and hanging on little hooks on their back on their
closet door, it makes a huge difference in how smooth
our mornings go.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
What do you do if the kid doesn't want to
wear what you chose.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
So here's the funny thing is that my oldest wears
school uniforms. Oh okay, well that makes the whole thing right,
So she wears school uniforms, and then my youngest I
don't think she's really caught onto.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
The because I caught on to the idea that there
are options.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
So, you know what, whenever, whenever she does figure that out,
it'll probably be about time for her to start uniforms. Anyway,
So I'm feeling good about it, but I know that
I'm going to have to pivot like that's that's a
part of the way that we manage our time too.
It's not set it and forget it. We have to
adjust as our kids get older, as life evolves.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Absolutely, Well, when you're doing this weekly planning session, are
you planning with your husband? Then you mentioned that you know,
you guys move into meal planning, but it sounded like
there was a we involved there, So I'm curious logistically
what that looks like.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Doesn't that sound lovely imagining sitting with him at the
table and planning our week.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
So no that, and no one's throwing anything at you
or asking for anything, because I know that the six
year old and three year old will obviously give you
guys completelyway to do this right exactly.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
No, it's really it's.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Just me and and part of the weekly planning session
might happen with me standing up with my computer at
the kitchen island. Part of it might happen at the
kitchen table. And this when I say we move into
meal planning, it goes like this, Hey, Scott, I have
a meeting late on Tuesday, so factor that into meal
planning for the week.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Boom, that's it. Yeah, boom, that's it. Okay, got it.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Are there any other sort of time management strategies that
you find yourself using frequently in your daily life?
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Oh? I mean, I of course can't live without time blocking,
time blocking, task patching in them days. For me, the
I call those the OG time management strategies, part of
my time management Swiss army knife. I'm actually Laura in
the middle of a theme week.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Where what is that?
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Oh, it's where you assign essentially a theme to your
entire week in order to cut down on that context switching.
So this is a podcast theme week for me. I
will I will end this week with twelve new podcast
interviews for my podcast that I'll then be able to
(21:07):
run over the next few months. And the next podcast
theme week is in October. And so this makes life
so easy because I'm not trying to plug interviews into
my schedule because I find that I'm someone that gets whiplash,
and I don't think that this is uncommon, going from
a coaching session with a client to an interview for
(21:29):
someone else's podcast, to an interview for my podcast to
a conversation with a teacher at my daughter's school. It
feels like a game of ping pong, back and forth,
back and forth. And so by having a podcast theme week,
I'm able to be in this podcast mindset, this host
mindset all week long, and it's really exciting, it's really fun,
(21:50):
and it's really energizing. And so looking for opportunities to
create theme weeks, I also do a coaching theme week
and a content theme week where I try to be
as all in as possible in those different areas and
it just helps the week and my mindset flow.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Yeah, it's like day camps in summer because of music
camp this week and like soccer camp the next week.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Exactly. Yes, that so life should be more like summer camp. Definitely,
I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
So I always ask my guest this question, what's something
you've done recently to take a day from great to awesome?
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Ooh, something that I have done recently to take a
day from great to awesome? Oh? You know, I would
say that something that I've done recently to take a
day from great to awesome is building in an opportunity
(22:46):
to get out of the house intentionally and work in
another environment. So I have a home office. I love
my home office. I think it's really important to have,
you know, a consistent environment that's yours to have this mindset.
But as that extroverts, sometimes I just need to get
(23:07):
out of the house and be out in the world.
And one thing that I actually do on a quarterly
basis is I host a quarterly and a day and
so I have a quarterly and a day coming up
on Friday where I will get out of the house
and I'll go work from one of my favorite restaurants
and just enjoy a change of scenery. It's energizing. I mean,
(23:29):
you're still doing the work, but it's energizing.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
It's different.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
It changes things.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Well, I was about to ask you what's something you're
looking forward to, but it sounds like that's probably it.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
I am.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
I am.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
I'm looking forward to quarterly and a Day. I even
have a massage scheduled that afternoon because I try to
also do something that's really for me on that day.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Yeah, oh, that sounds delightful.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
I think I need a Laura day very sand get Wie,
so Anna, where can people find you? Sure?
Speaker 3 (23:55):
So the best way for us to continue staying in
touch and to to into more time management goodness would
be checking out my podcast, It's About Time. I have
new episodes that go live every Monday that either deep
dive into a time management topic or it's an interview
with a go getter to understand how they are getting
things done. And in terms of social media, I like
(24:17):
to hang out on Instagram, So come find me on Instagram,
send me a DM let me know what you thought
about this conversation. If you might try theme weeks and let's.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Chat sounds awesome. Well, Anna, thank you so much for
joining us. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you
have feedback about this or any other episode, you can
always reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
here's to making the most of our time.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura Vandercamp.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(25:15):
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Before Breakfast News
Host
Laura Vanderkam
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