084: How I standardized my weekly schedule

Let's talk about time management, productivity, and weekly planning! I'm a mom of two, pregnant with baby 3, and on a good week have ~12 hours to work each week. 

While I've always been a fan of creating a weekly block schedule, my old way of doing things wasn't working for me in this season of life. 

So I decided to standardize my schedule so I never had to plan my week from scratch again. Instead of complicated project lists and plans, I now have a standardized schedule where I know exactly what to do and when to do it. 

In this episode I share my schedule with you and share how this has helped me be more productive.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Let's talk about time management because this is
arguably such a hot topic andsuch a controversial topic.
There's so many people outthere, me included, who have
produced productivity and timemanagement content over the
years.
Sometimes there can almost bethis like unintentional negative

(00:20):
side effect of that where weassume productivity and time
management is always about doingmore.
But that's not what we'retalking about here because I'm a
mom of two kids.
I'm pregnant.
I have very limited work hoursavailable to me during the day.
And I have childcare.
So just even with the childcare,there's just limited hours.

(00:41):
We're talking like maybe 12hours on a good week.
And so I have had to adjust howI manage my time.
In the past, even when I was amom, but just had a little bit
more childcare, I have alwaysbeen a big fan of weekly block
schedules.
I think I've made severalYouTube videos about it.
I've talked about it on oldpodcast episodes.

(01:02):
I help my clients with it.
I feel like it's a prettyessential step.
But the way I've done it in thepast was not working for me in
this season of life.
I felt like I was still kind ofplanning from scratch each week,
even if I had blocks on thecalendar for like content or
like focus work or calls.
That was helpful.

(01:24):
But it was really hard to sitdown and plan every week and
feel like I was starting fromscratch in so many ways.
Even if I had a to-do list andprojects mapped out, it still
mentally felt like starting fromscratch.
And so I've been really wantingto do what I'm calling a
standardized schedule.

(01:45):
And I finally did it.
And I kind of just want to sharea little bit about my experience
with having a standardizedschedule so far and how
life-changing it's been.
Because instead of just having ablock on my calendar, what I
have done is identified a focusand a theme for each of the days
I am working.
And not only a theme, butbasically recurring tasks that

(02:10):
need to happen on each of thesedays.
And the cool thing about this iswhile it may not sound that
substantially different fromwhat maybe you're already doing
or what I was previously doingmyself, mentally, it's radically
different because I couldessentially spend zero time
planning my week each week andknow exactly what my priority

(02:32):
tasks are and what to do becauseI've distilled my business
strategy into something that isso simple that it is essentially
recurring actions.
And I felt, I used to feel likethis wouldn't work for me when I
was trying to batch content, butthe reality is that this still
works when you're trying to getahead on content.

(02:53):
I've just, in this season oflife, stepped away from the idea
of batching, meaning one day Irecord six episodes of a podcast
and instead to mean every week,I'm gonna chip away at creating
a couple of episodes and likeeventually that'll get me ahead
and I could take a break, right?
If every Tuesday I record twopodcast episodes, which isn't a

(03:15):
ton, I will very quickly like beahead.
and have a batch and always havethe flexibility to skip a week
without suddenly then being inlike a week to week mode, right?
So that's exactly what I'vedone.
I have been living with this newschedule for not very long yet
to be totally transparent, but Ican't even express to you just

(03:40):
how powerful this shift hasbeen.
I'm so excited I did this andthat's why I wanted to share it
with you so that you couldpotentially experience tweak how
you're planning your week.
And instead of it being thisthing you'd kind of do from
scratch each week, potentiallystandardizing how you do things
too.
So like I was saying, every daythat I am working has an overall

(04:00):
focus.
So for me, Monday is what I'mcalling scripting day.
Tuesday is recording day.
Wednesday is call day.
And Thursday is writing day.
And those are really the days Iplan on working.
Of course, if I need to work aFriday or something, I could.
But my standardized schedule isthe four days I want to be
working.
The cool thing about this isthat on Monday, scripting day,

(04:20):
it's not just like I sit downand I'm like, what am I
scripting?
I literally have two tasks forMonday.
Outline two podcast episodes andthen outline any curriculum or
trainings.
And that's it.
I know exactly what I need to doevery Monday, even if I put zero
minutes into planning.
Same thing on Tuesday.
It's recording day.
That's today.

(04:41):
It's Tuesday.
Hi.
I have to record curriculum andthen record podcast episodes.
That's it.
Nothing else.
Wednesday's call day.
I have two to three call slotson Wednesdays.
Thursday's writing day.
So that's where I'm like turningthings into blog posts or, you
know, creating kind of thoseancillary pieces of content,

(05:03):
like getting ahead on anythreads I want to pre-write, if
I want to create any Pinterestpins or anything to kind of like
syndicate my content.
And then also drafting andscheduling any upcoming emails.
And the nice thing about thistoo is that let's say something
is going to shift in the week.
For example, Thursday, we wantto take our kids to the rodeo.

(05:25):
It's rodeo season here inHouston.
We love to dress up in ourcowboy hats and our cowboy boots
and take the kids to the rodeo.
So I know that Thursday, mywriting day won't be happening
on Thursday.
But that's not a stressful thingbecause I know it.
And so either I'm ahead enough aschedule where I can skip a
writing day or I can just knowthat I'm going to do my writing

(05:46):
day on Friday.
because I've kind of got thisbuilt-in buffer, I can do that.
And as I get ahead of schedule,I can skip Thursday writing day
more easily.
But it relieves this pressure ofneeding to have like a week
where I batch 12 episodes and Iget like super ahead and I do
all this stuff.
That hasn't been working for mein the season of life.

(06:08):
I like want to change what I'mgoing to talk about or I want to
talk about something more in themoment, or I just like fail to
do that and then like get stuckin that week to week.
cycle, which is always reallydifficult to get out of.
And so this has been such a bigshift for me.
Part of this, I also just likereally quickly or not quickly,
but I really clearly identifiedmy work blocks and simplified it

(06:32):
because I have these majoroutcomes.
And so instead of thinking like,you know, on my Google calendar,
like this hour, I'm doing thisspecific task in this hour, I'm
doing this specific task.
Instead, it's just I have a oneand a half hour block in the
morning and And then like a oneand a half or two hour block in
the afternoon, Monday throughThursday.
There's like a little lunchbreak in there where I do

(06:52):
personal stuff, what I call likequick tasks, you know, call,
make a doctor's appointment,something like that.
But I have like a morning blockand an afternoon block.
And so that's it.
And so basically each day kindof has like two tasks.
And so I can just reallyintuitively split that up.
And of course, it doesn't reallymatter.
Like if I finish one thingearly, I can get started on the
next thing because it's just soclear what I need to do.

(07:15):
And All of this has just beengame changing.
So if you're sitting there andyou're like, I don't even know
how to manage my time, or youfeel similar to how I was
feeling, like you're just kindof planning from scratch over
and over and over again, I wouldencourage you to try a
standardized schedule.
This has been life changing.
I think every standardizedschedule is going to be

(07:36):
completely custom to you.
What type of content you'redoing, what type of business you
have, your publishing cadence.
But I really think this themedframework is a game changer.
And also I have ADHD.
Sometimes it's really hard forme to initiate things or I
really want to procrastinate onthings.
But the idea that like today'smy only day to record is so

(07:59):
motivating.
It's like Tuesday's my recordingday.
And so if I want to get ahead onpodcast episodes, I'm gonna
record as many as I can, whichthen motivates me on Monday to
outline as many as I can so thatI can record as many as I can.
And same thing with evencurriculum and trainings for
programs I'm teaching.
I know I wanna drop a couple ofthese trainings, so I'm gonna

(08:20):
make sure I'm ready to do that.
It's an incredibly motivating,really works with my brain so
far, and the expectations aren'toutrageous.
Two podcast episodes, that'spretty doable.
And if I only did one, we'dlive, right?
But the idea that at least doingtwo feels so sustainable and

(08:40):
gets me so far ahead of scheduleeventually, that I'm really
excited.
So I wanted to share this withyou, why I'm doing the
standardized schedule, how ithas benefited me so far, and
some tips on how you couldimplement this too.
So if you decide to implement astandardized schedule, I would
love to hear from you.
Tag me on Instagram or send me amessage on threads.

(09:02):
Send me an email, do whateveryou want on whatever platform.
But I'd love to hear from you.
I'd love to hear what yourschedule is or the benefits
you're seeing.
If you have any follow-upquestions, definitely let me
know.
And I just hope that this simpleapproach to time management can
help you as much as it hashelped me.
If you liked this episode, don'tforget to leave a rating and a
review.
Share it with someone else youthink would really enjoy it.

(09:24):
And if you're not already,subscribe to the podcast.
Do that too.
I will see you in the nextepisode.
Bye.