July 21, 2025 • 33 mins
Kendall Berg reveals the 5 planning habits that keep her from losing it—while balancing a corporate tech role, coaching business, content creation, pageant prep, and parenting two kids.
If your to-do list never ends but your energy does, these five systems will shift how you manage your time, reduce mental load, and finally build a week that works. Kendall breaks down how to simplify your goals, design a weekly routine that honors your brain, and make space for what actually matters—without burning out or dropping the ball.
In this episode, we discuss:
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What are the 5 planning habits every working professional needs?
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How do you build a weekly system that saves you time and stress?
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What’s the best way to reduce mental load without dropping priorities?
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How can I balance work, family, and personal growth goals?
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What’s the difference between time blocking and day blocking?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kendall Berg (00:00):
This is not a New Year's resolution where you're going to walk away with 87 things to be the new me in 2025.
Okay?
That's not my goal for you.
My goal for you is to figure out what's actually really, really important to you.
Articulate a goal and a KPI and a measure and a deadline for it, and then we can make a plan on how to achieve it.
This sounds like it's increasing your mental load, but it will actually help.
(00:21):
Okay?
Now, if you look at your list and you have more than five goals, I need you to cut some.
There's no more than five things that are super important in your life.
I promise there's not.
There's lots of things we'd like to do, right?
I'd like to learn to cook the perfect steak.
I'd like to learn to paint hydrangeas, because I'm, like, obsessed with them right now.
I don't have time.
Okay?
(00:42):
It's not a high enough priority.
Figure out what your five goals are or less.
It's cool if you come out of this and you're like, I have two goals.
Great.
Love that for you.
Figure out your goals, how you're going to measure them, give them a deadline, and then make a plan.
All right?
If you cannot prioritize your time for what is most important, you will not prioritize anything or you will prioritize everything.
(01:03):
And then the mental load that you carry is going to be really high.
The amount of things you're trying to balance is going to be really high.
And your success at doing any of it is going to be really.
Welcome back to this episode of Secrets of the Career Game.
So many people are trying to navigate a corporate world that is laden with secrets, cleverly hidden and unspoken rules to a game that even know that they're playing.
(01:25):
On this podcast, we try to give you a peek behind the curtains and some tips and tricks to ultimately make you successful in your career and help you progress a little bit faster.
Hello.
Hello, and welcome back to another fabulous episode.
Today we are talking about one of my most requested topics, which is time management.
So I do think that this issue gets fairly complex because I do think that the demands on our time, while they may not be higher than they ever were, I think the mental load that we carry as a result of being able to do things more efficiently is a lot heavier than it used to be.
(02:02):
And so we're going to talk a little bit about why there's complexity in life, how do you manage your mental load?
And then what are some tactical tips and tricks that you can use in order to actually effectively manage your time?
Now, this is coming from somebody who manages a lot of things at the same time.
If you're new to my pod, welcome.
But I work a corporate job, a 9 to 5 where I lead a technology strategy and business group for the CTO of my firm.
(02:30):
I also run that career coach, which includes content creation, the podcast, books, speaking engagements, coaching of clients.
I'm also currently Mrs. Colorado American.
And so I am a reigning pageant queen, which means I'm volunteering in the community most weekends.
I have events two to three times a week.
And I'm prepping for the nationals competition, which is upcoming next month.
(02:51):
So.
So I have a lot.
Not to mention I have two children under 10 and I'm married and would like to stay that way.
So there's a lot going on.
And if you're listening to this and you're thinking, like, man, I could really use some help with time management, you are carrying a heavier mental load than you think.
(03:12):
All right, if we flashback, I see all these memes now that talk about, like, in the peasant days, they got 200 and they only worked 250 days.
They had more vacation time than, like, the average American does.
True, statistically.
But it's not just the work, right?
Work is getting heavier as a result of efficiency and technology gains, right?
(03:33):
The faster we can do our jobs, the more expectation there is for us to do our jobs.
Right?
But also a lot of the time, even 50 years ago, one household member stayed home.
And so they were doing cooking, cleaning, laundry, dishes, all the household chores kids were going to school, but also being reared by that same individual.
(03:56):
Now you have a lot of working moms, working dads, who are expected to do all of the household activities and work and be successful and make money and be present for their kids and go to play dates and have their kids in extracurriculars and have their own extracurriculars.
Like, it's a lot of.
And I'm starting the episode this way because I think it's really important for all of us to give ourselves a little bit of grace that we are all trying to do a lot of stuff.
(04:21):
And I know that slow living has become more popular as a trend lately.
Like, I just want to quit my job and pick daisies in a field and go to Pilates and like, yeah, what a vibe.
But you kind of need money to do that.
And if you're listening to my podcast.
It's probably because you're thinking, I need money, I need time management.
But I also would like to have some semblance of a life and an identity outside of my job.
(04:44):
And that's where I think this gets really challenging and really heavy, is it can be hard.
And I've talked about on other episodes how thankful I am that I have a spouse who is very supportive, very helpful, does household chores, takes my kids to school, picks them up, helps me and works a full time job, right?
Like, I'm very blessed that I do have that good support in my household.
(05:06):
But that doesn't negate the fact that we're all carrying a bunch of stuff and it's heavy and it's hard and it can be frustrating and it can make you feel like you're never going to do enough.
And that's not what I want for you.
That's not what I want for this community.
That's not what I want for myself.
It's not what I want for my kids as they grow up.
I want them to have balance, I want them to have peace.
(05:27):
And that comes down a lot to priority and time management.
So when it comes to carrying mental load, we'll get into some tips and tricks of how to do it effectively as we go through the episode.
But it's all the things in your brain, they all sit in your brain.
And even if you're not the person doing that task, you're thinking about it because you have to make sure that task gets done right.
(05:48):
This is why team management is a full time job.
Because you may not have a ton of tasks that you do solo, maybe you do depends on the company.
But even if you're managing a team that's running very autonomously, that's doing most of the work, you still have to check, you still have to make sure it gets done, you still have to polish presentations, you still have to make sure it gets in front of the right people.
You still have to clear roadblocks.
Team management is a full time job because you're carrying the mental load of every single person in your team, right?
(06:14):
In a marriage, you're carrying the mental load of all the household stuff that needs to get done.
And this is quick aside, I am not a therapist, okay?
Caveat.
A lot of the time when people get divorced, it comes down to something that sounds trivial to the outside world.
I'm not talking about extreme cases.
The average person is like, but they just never did the dishes, they never cooked, they never helped me with laundry and sometimes we think of that and we're like, what a petty reason to get divorced.
(06:43):
But if not doing the dishes is the 1000th thing on that person's mental load list, it is a super valid reason that's what ends it, and this is why it's so hard, is because we're carrying all these tasks, we expect all these people around us to do all of these things, but we can't let go of the mental load that we're carry to make sure those things get done.
I recently introduced chores to my children.
(07:05):
So my kids are 7 and 8 and none of their friends have chores.
Okay, so if you're in my age group and you have young kids, I think that's weird.
I had chores, so my kids don't have a lot of chores.
They don't have a list of 50 things they have to do every week.
But they have to keep their rooms tidy, they have to make their bed, they have to do their baths, and they have to do their laundry.
(07:27):
Now, I do think laundry is a bit of a stretch at their age level, but they kill it.
They can load the washing machine, put it in the dryer, hang up all their clothes, put them in the drawers.
Do they do it like mom would do it?
Is it color coded by length of sleeve and organized and easy to get to?
No, it is chaos incarnate.
But is it done?
And it's one less thing that I have to stress about also.
Yes.
Okay.
(07:49):
But introducing the chore chart meant I'm now checking the chore chart to make sure all these things are getting done.
Because if they don't do them, yeah, they don't get allowance.
But also they still have to get done.
And that's going to be mama, right, or dad helping out.
So we carry a heavy mental load.
Right.
I'm setting all of this foundation because I don't want you to feel like you are alone.
(08:10):
All right.
It is helpful to hear that even people you see on social media, even the influencer in the wild, even the 20something who doesn't have kids yet, the mental load is high.
And I've been seeing a trend shift lately, specifically in the fitness influencer world, where we used to say all the time, like, we've all got the same 24 hours in a day, like, you can work out if you want to.
(08:33):
And to an extent, I believe that, like, if you value your health and your fitness, you'll find a time to fit it in.
But the single mom of three is 24 hours feels a Heck of a lot shorter than the 20 year old who doesn't have a job yet, who just goes to classes four hours a week.
Less, I'll be honest, okay?
There's a different mental load being carried.
(08:54):
And so if you work and you have kids and you have a spouse or you have a hobby, or you're just trying to save up to buy a house, or you have a dog.
Dog, mom, okay?
You're carrying a heavy mental load and you're trying to do all the things, and that can be really stressful, all right?
And I do understand that.
Now, one of the things that I find most helpful for managing mental load, you all think I'm going to say delegation.
(09:19):
I see you on the edge of your seat listening to this episode, thinking delegation is key.
It's not key, okay?
Delegation is helpful when you have good people at work that you can delegate to, when you have good people in your household that you can delegate to, when you have resources that are going to help you do things.
Take your kids to school, drop them off, pick them up, things like that.
Delegation can be incredibly helpful.
But studies have shown that doesn't actually decrease your mental load.
(09:44):
It decreases the amount of stuff you have to do, but it doesn't decrease the thought process of making sure these things get done.
So when it comes to mental load, there are a few things that work for me.
One is writing it down.
I find that my brain frees up a lot of if I know what I need to do on paper so it's written down, I'm not going to forget it.
I don't have to carry that constant thought in my brain.
(10:06):
I even keep a notebook on my bedside table at night.
So if I think of something at 2 in the morning that I'm like, oh, shoot, I need to remember to do that.
Jot it down, go back to bed.
I cannot carry that weight in my head.
I must write it down.
All right, write it down.
Now.
I know some people get overwhelmed because the write it down becomes 100 things and they're like, oh my God, how am I going to do all this?
(10:26):
We'll talk about that in a minute.
But.
But having it out of your brain and on paper or in an Excel sheet or in a Word document or somewhere can be incredibly helpful because we are lessening that mental burden to remember things.
Right?
This is why habit creation is really important as well.
When we create a habit.
(10:46):
The reason habits are important is because they don't sit in your mental load space.
Okay?
When you walk, you don't have to think, right foot, left foot, right foot.
Your body just does it because it's a habit.
It's ingrained in you.
You know what to do.
So when we create true habits, healthy habits, active habits, we stop carrying the mental load for those things and we just start to do them.
(11:10):
So if one of your habits is sitting on the porch in the morning, enjoying your cup of coffee in a nice peaceful space, it stops becoming a mental load of like, oh, I need to take this time to recharge, and it becomes a habit.
So creating habits so that we don't have to think about them, they just become something that we do.
And writing it down, getting it out of your brain, putting it in a list somewhere, something so that we don't have to carry that mental load again, part of the reason for the chore chart is I can't carry all of those chores in my head, but I can look and see who hasn't checked stuff off on a chart.
(11:39):
Use what's available to you.
Okay?
We want to lessen that mental load.
Now.
You also need to have good support.
This is Noel, by the way.
I don't know that I've introduced her on my podcast before.
Noel was a gift from Santa.
Popped out of a box Christmas morning.
She also thinks she is a podcast host.
So, Noelia, okay.
(12:02):
There is also an aspect of reducing your mental load that is getting less things on your plate, which is where we're going with this prioritization.
You do not have to prioritize everything.
In fact, you should not prioritize everything.
You should know what your goals are, what are the most important things to you and the tasks that you do.
The mental load that you carry should be aligned with those goals and those goals only.
(12:26):
Now people are going to be in the comments like, but I have kids and they have their own goals and I have to support them.
I have to do all this stuff, and then my spouse isn't helpful and I have to do all this stuff for them.
I get it.
All right?
I'm not negating the issue.
I'm not trying to oversimplify the problem.
But what I am going to tell you is that if you don't know what is most important to you, if you don't know where you want to go in three years, five years, if you don't know what your vision for your life is, you will carry a very heavy mental load and not see a result.
(12:57):
And that's the worst.
To feel busy in the rat race, killing yourself, doing all the things, and then you turn around five years later and you're not any closer to the person that you want to be.
It's a bummer.
I get it.
So I need you to take time.
If you do nothing else after this episode, I need you to take time to understand what are your goals, what are your objectives, and where are you going?
(13:19):
Yes.
In terms of your career, in terms of your aspirations to make more money, have a heavier title, do a industry change, work in a certain part of the business, but also in your personal life.
Do you want to buy a house?
I don't know what's happening behind me, you guys.
So if you're not watching and you're just listening to this podcast episode, you do not have the joy of watching my dog.
(13:42):
Try to figure out how to be part of the show.
She's, like, really determined, and she's, like, messing up my couch behind me.
And if you're watching this, you're welcome.
She's really cute, but she's chaotic.
Okay to load.
So you need to figure out what your goals are.
If you are truly focused on your health and you want to hit a certain healthy weight or hit a certain body fat percentage or change your diet so that you can improve your gut strength or decrease an immune system issue.
(14:15):
If you are serious about your health, make a goal for it.
Don't make a weight loss goal.
I really hate those.
I'm just gonna be totally honest with you.
I hate it.
Like, I want to lose five pounds.
I'm the queen of it.
Okay, so no shade.
But a goal like, I want to lose weight is very temporary.
We can get into that.
(14:35):
Like, but I'd rather have cake mode.
Like, if you have a true health goal, then make a health goal.
Give yourself a deadline.
Give yourself an objective.
One of the reasons that I got involved in pageantry was exactly that.
I needed to move my body more and I needed to make healthier eating choices.
And to me, losing five pounds is not enough of a motivation.
But getting on stage in a swimsuit in six weeks, that'll do it.
(14:57):
So make a goal.
Maybe it's to do something like Hyrox.
Maybe it's to be able to do a hike.
Maybe it's to be able to run a half marathon.
Maybe it's to be able to walk five miles.
Pick something and give it a date.
Don't just make it an arbitrary goal.
Don't just make it in 2025.
Give yourself a date.
Tie that date to something important.
Noelia Child, I am recording a podcast Episode I need you to go away.
(15:23):
Thank you.
So you need to make your goals.
So there's health and fitness.
We've talked about work.
Maybe one of your goals is you want to spend more quality time with your kids.
Great.
How are you going to measure it?
What's your due date?
What does that look like?
For me, last summer, one of my quality times with my kids is I wanted my kids to be able to swim.
And so for me, that meant I had to take them to the pool three times a week and spend that quality time with them and be involved with them so that by the end of the summer, they could swim.
(15:51):
This summer, it's riding a bike.
I want my kids to be able to ride a bike.
That means going outside with them, practicing on the bikes, getting them going, keeping them from crying because they're scared.
Okay?
Figure out what your goals are.
Figure out how you're going to measure it.
Give yourself a deadline and actually track these things.
It is the same as at work.
I find at work, people have a much easier time saying, oh, my goal for this year is to do this, and I want to get promoted, and it's going to look like this.
(16:14):
My KPIs are this.
And then we get to our personal life, we're like, yeah, I'd like to do all kinds of stuff.
Cool.
Make goals.
And then when you write those out, check how many goals are actually high priority.
This is not a New Year's resolution where you're going to walk away with 87 things to be the new me in 2025.
Okay?
That's not my goal for you.
(16:34):
My goal for you is to figure out what's actually really, really important to you.
Articulate a goal and a KPI and a measure and a deadline for it, and then we can make a plan on how to achieve it.
This sounds like it's increasing your mental load, but it will actually help.
Okay?
Now, if you look at your list and you have more than five goals, I need you to cut some.
There's no more than five things that are super important in your life.
(16:55):
I promise there's not.
There's lots of things we'd like to do, right?
I'd like to learn to cook the perfect steak.
I'd like to learn to paint hydrangeas.
Because I'm, like, obsessed with them right now.
I don't have time.
Okay?
It's not a high enough priority.
Figure out what your five goals are or less.
It's cool.
If you come out of this and you're Like, I have two goals.
(17:15):
Great.
Love that for you.
Figure out your goals, how you're going to measure them, give them a deadline, and then make a plan.
All right?
If you cannot prioritize your time for what is most important, you will not prioritize anything or you will prioritize everything.
And then the mental load that you carry is going to be really high.
The amount of things you're trying to balance is going to be really high.
And your success at doing any of it is going to be really low.
(17:38):
So take the time, think about it.
What are your goals?
Where are you going?
What does that mean for you?
Then I want you to take those big goals, and I want you to chop them into three mini goals per month leading to all these deadlines.
I'll give you an example.
Last year, one of my goals was, I'm going to get my book published.
All right?
I already had a publishing contract.
The book needed to be written, it needed to be edited.
(18:00):
It needed to have pr.
We needed to be taking it out to the masses.
We needed to be getting people interested in it.
So for me, I had a goal every month.
And every month, one of those goals was, you know, write chapters one through three through six, whatever they were, whatever I needed to write.
My book was done in May.
Then I had editing.
June, I'm going to edit these chapters.
July, I'm going to edit these chapters, and then August was okay.
(18:23):
I'm going to create stills that I can post.
I'm going to create videos.
I'm going to create a campaign around this.
I'm going to work with my social media manager to get it scheduled.
I'm going to work with my PR team to get on lists for a bunch of podcasts, Right?
You have a mini goal for every month leading up to your big goal.
Now you are only going to have three goals a month, which means if you have five goals in your sheet, something is not getting worked on every month.
(18:49):
It's not possible.
You don't have enough time.
Let's be real.
So figure out your five, and then figure out what the cadence is to work on certain things and make three mini goals every month that get you closer to that goal.
For me, teaching my kids to ride their bike is only a summer activity because I live in Colorado, and the rest of the year, it's dangerous, and I'm not about to do that to my children.
Okay?
So it is like a June, July, August school.
(19:12):
June was make sure that they have shoulder pads Knee pads, helmets.
My children are very like, not my son jump off a cliff.
My daughter, like marshmallow soft.
Okay.
She needs a lot of protection here.
So making sure they were ready to go.
They knew what was going on and they had been on a bike.
July, make sure that we're practicing twice a week.
Okay.
August, give them the opportunity to ride the bike by themselves and let them fall.
(19:36):
For me, this is a goal because I don't want them to fall.
huh.
All right, so those are three months where that is a goal I'm working on now, the rest of the year.
That is one of my five goals.
But it's not active.
Okay.
Figure out your schedule, figure out your timing, and then as you go into every week.
And it's interesting.
I just talked about this on the Productivity Gladiator podcast.
So if you're interested, go check out that episode.
(19:56):
We'll link it in the bio as well.
But when you are working on a goal, you need to be planning your weeks.
All right?
Do not wait until Monday at noon and be like, oh, what do I need to do this week?
What's my plan?
I don't know.
I've got a lot of meetings.
Like, don't be reactive, be proactive.
(20:17):
For me, it's Sunday nights.
Brian, over at Productivity Gladiator, we're saying his is Thursdays.
Pick a night of the week where you go in and you plan your next at least week, 10 days, two weeks.
I tend to do two weeks out.
I don't know why, but I find like a 14 day rolling cadence is really helpful for me.
And in that you're going to plan what you're going to do every day.
(20:38):
You're going to plan.
What are your to do lists.
You're going to plan your three goals and how you're working on them.
You're going to plan your meetings, you're going to plan your work, you're going to plan your hobbies.
Plan it.
All right?
If you do not have a plan, you will be reactive and you will not be productive.
The other benefit of having a plan is that you can spread out the things you need to do.
(20:58):
I am the queen of being more optimistic about time than I actually have.
And I'm like, I could do all of that on Monday.
And then Monday comes, I'm like, oh, no, I cannot do all of that.
I can do two of these.
All right?
So planning out your tasks I also find is really helpful because you can spread them out and keep more of a balance.
So this Comes to my second really big tactical tip, which is day blocking.
(21:19):
So everybody has heard of time blocking.
Cal Newport got really famous for deep work and how that ties into it.
I don't find that time blocking works for me personally.
I think the corporate world is not built for time blocking.
People will schedule over my meetings, people will send me teams, messages that throw me off of my deep work.
Like, it just doesn't work for me.
But what has been really productive for me is blocking my days for certain types of tasks.
(21:40):
So Sunday for me is chore day.
This is when I go to the grocery.
This is when I meal prep.
This is when I do all the dishes, is when I water the plants.
This is when I clean a kitty litter.
This is when I do yard work.
This like Sunday is chore day.
I don't make plans on Sundays.
I got too much to do on Sundays.
All right?
Monday for me is content creation days.
That's when I record my podcast episodes, my reels.
This is when I work on my LinkedIn post.
(22:01):
This is when I work on my newsletter.
Mondays are for content.
Tuesdays is when I do a lot of my corporate job, right?
This is when I have a lot of meetings.
Tuesdays and Thursdays tend to be really heavy meeting days for me.
So what am I working on in my corporate job?
What needs to get done?
Where am I making slides?
Who needs what?
Wednesdays, I have a lot of client calls.
(22:21):
So Wednesdays is a heavy client call day.
And that's where I'm clearing out my slack inbox.
I'm making sure I'm responding to emails, I'm working on my speaking engagement materials, things like that.
So what I have found is if I pick a day of the week for certain types of tasks, and that day I do as much of that certain type of task as I possibly can, I am much better set up for success the week because one, I don't have to carry the mental load all week of my Wednesday tasks.
(22:45):
I only think about them on Wednesdays.
I don't have to carry the chores all week.
I only think about them on Sundays.
Right?
Now, there are some things you do every day.
You check your emails every day.
I load the dishwasher every day, right?
There are some things that you're going to do every day, but for the most part those are going to become habits and your main bulk of tasks are going to become blocked by day.
(23:06):
I find that this combination really helps decrease mental load.
And if you work a corporate job that's very fire drill Oriented, right?
Lots of reactivity, things happening really fast.
If you start today, block and say, okay, on Mondays, I'm gonna work on these types of tasks.
Tuesdays presentations, Wednesdays, analytics.
There will always be exceptions that we have to make of, like, something came through and it just needs to get done on the wrong day.
(23:28):
Okay.
But for the most part, if you say, hey, I totally get this request.
I have time.
Set aside Wednesday to work on this.
Does that work for you?
90% of the time, people are gonna be like, oh, that sounds great.
Wednesday's perfect.
It's going to help you organize yourself so much better, I promise you.
Day blocking has literally saved my life.
And it was funny as a quick aside.
(23:48):
So my husband has learned, do not do laundry on any day of the week except Sunday, because Kendall will have aneurysm because I'm not thinking about laundry except on Sundays because that's chore day.
I can't think about laundry on Wednesday because I don't have time for that on Wednesday.
Wednesday's client day, so don't do laundry except on Sunday.
So last night, my sweet daughter comes to me and she's like, mommy, I started the laundry machine.
And I'm like, what?
(24:10):
Why?
And she's like, well, I wanted to wear this dress again this week.
And I'm like, you can't.
Can't do laundry except on Sundays.
And she was like, I thought you'd be happy.
And I was like, yeah, okay.
In hindsight, that seems like a bit of an overreaction.
Okay, thank you so much for doing your laundry, sweetie.
Also, please just do laundry on Sundays, okay?
Because Mommy can't think about laundry on other days of the week.
(24:31):
Mommy can only think about laundry on Sundays.
All right?
Now she's super sweet.
She washed it, she dried it, she put it away.
It was non issue.
But in my brain, Sundays are for laundry, okay?
It will help you stay on top of things and it will help you feel like you get some of your time back.
Because on Wednesday when laundry is piling up, you're not stressing about the laundry.
You're like, listen, I'm going to do it on Sunday.
Kids have plenty of clothes, plenty of underwear.
(24:52):
We can get through the rest of the week, and Sunday, everything will go back to normal.
And I have found that brings me a lot of peace throughout my week.
So I'm not stressing about it.
The other thing that comes with time management that I find is really helpful, and I've talked about this on other podcast episodes, is what Tech you are using to support you.
Now, I am a handwritten girly.
(25:14):
I do not like tech.
I don't want to type it into an app.
I don't want to like make sure that I have like.
I can't do that.
I am a like, it needs to be written down.
So I think it's been three years ago now, my first year in business, I bought a remarkable tablet.
I love it.
I have recommended it to everybody.
I will recommend it to you.
I will put a code in the show notes if you want to buy one.
(25:36):
They are the best thing ever.
Okay?
Now if you like an iPad or a Samsung tablet or you like physical notebooks, fabulous.
Figure out a medium that works for you.
But there's a couple things that I do in here that I find help me with my mental load, with my stress level, and manage my time more wisely.
So I'm going to show you.
(25:57):
So first, I have my monthly view of a calendar that shows everything I have going on in a month.
Right?
You don't need to see the specifics because I have stuff about my kids on there.
Okay.
But this has every day of the week.
My husband's in Boston.
Here's what I'm going to be doing those days.
It has my like full month view.
Then if I click into a week, here is a week view for me.
Now in this week view, I have every meeting on my calendar, client, corporate, job, pageant, related, fitting, anything.
(26:25):
And I also have hobbies.
So if I'm going to take a Pilates class, it goes in here.
If I'm going to go to the gym, it goes in here.
If I'm going to the gym at noon on my lunch break, it is in this planner.
Okay?
Don't say, oh, I'll make time for it.
You won't make time for it.
Put it in the planner.
Okay?
Every hobby, everything that I'm gonna do, it gets here.
Now I do some time blocking of like, I take clients during certain windows, I don't take them during other windows.
(26:48):
I have corporate meetings during some windows and I have deep work and others.
So if you have windows, put those in here, right?
My windows go in here.
My meetings go in here.
My hobbies go in here.
My kids, extracurricular activities, brain dump.
And every Sunday I make sure that this is ready for the week coming up and I send a copy to my husband and I'm like, husband.
(27:09):
So you know, here's our plan for the week, all right?
And then I know when I need to be places I know Where I need to go, I can see.
Where I have conflicts, I can resolve them quickly.
Like this is by Sunday night activity right now.
More importantly, even than this is, within each of these, I have a daily to do list.
Okay, this was long.
This was Monday.
Monday always tends to be long for me.
(27:29):
Okay, Because I have to make a lot of.
I make a to do list for every day of the week.
If you go through here, my whole week is already in here.
Even the days that haven't happened yet, except for Thursday, apparently I didn't make one for that day.
Okay.
But I put my to do list in here.
These are all the things I have to do every day.
And then when I have above and beyond tasks, I have a special project due at work.
(27:52):
I have something that I need to get done for a speaking engagement.
I'm working on something for YouTube.
It gets added to the list on the day that I intend to do it.
And again, I spread those tasks out over the course of the week.
What I don't do is make a list on Monday of everything I want to do this week and slowly take it down all week.
That drives me nuts.
Instead, I say, on Monday, I'm going to do these three things in addition to my normal list.
(28:13):
My normal list is my habits.
These are the things I'm going to do in addition to that list on this day.
And I make sure I get those checked off.
If I don't get them checked off, they move to the next day.
And then I accommodate throughout the week.
And by the end of that week, I'm usually pretty good at completing all of my tasks.
Now, those tasks that I'm adding need to be aligned to your five goals we talked about at the beginning.
(28:34):
They just do.
Now, every once in a while, there's an exception, like, oh, I have to plan this trip for this thing that I'm doing.
And like, yeah, great, maybe that's not lying to a goal and it needs to get done and it goes on a certain day.
But for me, clear that mental load, put it on the day of the week.
That makes sense based on the type of task that it is.
Hold myself to completing those types of tasks, put it in the calendar, get it done right.
This is going to help you manage your time.
(28:55):
So whether you are a digital person and you want something like a remarkable tablet or an iPad, great.
Whether you just want to buy a planner off Amazon, great.
I really like the Daily Planners by Day Designer.
And I also used to use.
Oh, what's the other one called?
I'LL find it and I'll put it in the show notes but another one off Amazon.
(29:18):
So I like having a daily to do list.
I find that really helps me clear my brain.
Like I said, Sundays I go in, I write everything I'm going to do that week.
I make my to do list for every single day of the week.
Everything is organized and good to go and then I can start my week fresh.
Figure out a cadence that works for you that's similar, but write it down, get it out of your brain, get it scheduled.
Know what are your highest priorities because if something's got to give on any certain day, it needs to be something that's not your top priority.
(29:46):
So that also is going to help you evaluate how best to spend your time.
If you find I've over committed myself on a certain day or there's too many things on my to do list, we're going to prioritize the things that are going to get us closest to our goals.
All right, so that's a little bit about the time management.
It's a little bit about the mental load.
Again, going back to where we started this episode.
There is no perfect recipe.
And if you're feeling stressed and you're overwhelmed and you feel like you should be doing all the things, welcome to the club.
(30:11):
All right.
There is no good answer.
I'm going to rephrase that.
The best answer of how to use your time is in the ways that get you closest to what you want to become.
There is no good answer in what somebody else is doing for you.
Right.
I think social media adds a lot of pressure here and we say, well, Susie is 45, three kids, zero percent body fat, goes to the gym every day, also makes content, works a full time job and was picking daisies in the field on Saturday.
(30:43):
Like it's so easy to get caught in this web of comparison of like this person is doing all of these things and I should be able to do all of those things as well.
No.
Some of us have a really high stress threshold, some of us don't.
I do think that's one of my superpowers.
I can be really, really stressed for a really extended period of time and not really notice.
So at some point that's going to affect my cortisol levels and I will crash out.
(31:04):
But until then we're operating pretty smoothly.
But don't compare yourself to somebody else and say, hey, I need to be able to do what they're doing.
No you don't.
You need to be Able to assess what's most important to you.
And you need to spend time doing those things.
Don't focus on what everybody else is doing.
It's one thing to learn from somebody else on, like, oh, these are tools they use, or this is ways that they help manage it, or they read a book that they thought was really helpful.
Like, those are all great things to take from other people.
(31:26):
But don't obsess with a comparison of, like, can I do what so and so is doing?
Doesn't matter.
You're not so and so.
You're you.
Be you do the most important things.
And don't get sucked into this game of comparison of what's most important to other people because it's not the same.
Ray.
You don't know.
You could look at this mom on Instagram and think, oh, she's such an amazing parent and her kids hate her or their dogs.
(31:48):
Want to start a podcast?
You don't know what they're dealing with in their home life.
That's you.
You want to start a podcast.
That's why you keep sitting up here with me.
No.
So think about what's most important to you.
Figure out the time management that's going to go with that's going to support it.
Prioritize the most important things, deprioritize everything else.
And my last note here, and this is for everybody listening, especially the parents, moms, dads, grandparents, aunts, uncles.
(32:13):
But, like, it is okay to be a little bit selfish with your time and do things that fulfill you, because if you are not doing things that are going to fulfill you, that are going to help you get closer to your goals, they're going to help you feel value, they're going to help you feel special.
You will never be able to pour into other people the way that you need to.
(32:35):
I am my worst self.
When I don't have time to go to the gym or read a book or do something that decompresses me before my kids get home, I'm the worst version of myself because I'm stressed, I'm anxious, and I've worked really hard all day and I'm tired and I don't want to talk.
It is okay to be a little bit selfish so that you can give back to the people in your life that you love.
(32:56):
And on that note, thank you guys so much for tuning in today's episode.
If you liked it, give me five stars.
If you want ask any questions, please put them in the comments below.
We will get back to you.
Otherwise, I will put all the links we discussed in the show notes so that you can take a look.
And then we will be back next week with another fabulous episode.
This is not a New Year's resolution where you're going to walk away with 87 things to be the new me in 2025.
Okay?
That's not my goal for you.
My goal for you is to figure out what's actually really, really important to you.
Articulate a goal and a KPI and a measure and a deadline for it, and then we can make a plan on how to achieve it.
This sounds like it's increasing your mental load, but it will actually help.
(00:21):
Okay?
Now, if you look at your list and you have more than five goals, I need you to cut some.
There's no more than five things that are super important in your life.
I promise there's not.
There's lots of things we'd like to do, right?
I'd like to learn to cook the perfect steak.
I'd like to learn to paint hydrangeas, because I'm, like, obsessed with them right now.
I don't have time.
Okay?
(00:42):
It's not a high enough priority.
Figure out what your five goals are or less.
It's cool if you come out of this and you're like, I have two goals.
Great.
Love that for you.
Figure out your goals, how you're going to measure them, give them a deadline, and then make a plan.
All right?
If you cannot prioritize your time for what is most important, you will not prioritize anything or you will prioritize everything.
(01:03):
And then the mental load that you carry is going to be really high.
The amount of things you're trying to balance is going to be really high.
And your success at doing any of it is going to be really.
Welcome back to this episode of Secrets of the Career Game.
So many people are trying to navigate a corporate world that is laden with secrets, cleverly hidden and unspoken rules to a game that even know that they're playing.
(01:25):
On this podcast, we try to give you a peek behind the curtains and some tips and tricks to ultimately make you successful in your career and help you progress a little bit faster.
Hello.
Hello, and welcome back to another fabulous episode.
Today we are talking about one of my most requested topics, which is time management.
So I do think that this issue gets fairly complex because I do think that the demands on our time, while they may not be higher than they ever were, I think the mental load that we carry as a result of being able to do things more efficiently is a lot heavier than it used to be.
(02:02):
And so we're going to talk a little bit about why there's complexity in life, how do you manage your mental load?
And then what are some tactical tips and tricks that you can use in order to actually effectively manage your time?
Now, this is coming from somebody who manages a lot of things at the same time.
If you're new to my pod, welcome.
But I work a corporate job, a 9 to 5 where I lead a technology strategy and business group for the CTO of my firm.
(02:30):
I also run that career coach, which includes content creation, the podcast, books, speaking engagements, coaching of clients.
I'm also currently Mrs. Colorado American.
And so I am a reigning pageant queen, which means I'm volunteering in the community most weekends.
I have events two to three times a week.
And I'm prepping for the nationals competition, which is upcoming next month.
(02:51):
So.
So I have a lot.
Not to mention I have two children under 10 and I'm married and would like to stay that way.
So there's a lot going on.
And if you're listening to this and you're thinking, like, man, I could really use some help with time management, you are carrying a heavier mental load than you think.
(03:12):
All right, if we flashback, I see all these memes now that talk about, like, in the peasant days, they got 200 and they only worked 250 days.
They had more vacation time than, like, the average American does.
True, statistically.
But it's not just the work, right?
Work is getting heavier as a result of efficiency and technology gains, right?
(03:33):
The faster we can do our jobs, the more expectation there is for us to do our jobs.
Right?
But also a lot of the time, even 50 years ago, one household member stayed home.
And so they were doing cooking, cleaning, laundry, dishes, all the household chores kids were going to school, but also being reared by that same individual.
(03:56):
Now you have a lot of working moms, working dads, who are expected to do all of the household activities and work and be successful and make money and be present for their kids and go to play dates and have their kids in extracurriculars and have their own extracurriculars.
Like, it's a lot of.
And I'm starting the episode this way because I think it's really important for all of us to give ourselves a little bit of grace that we are all trying to do a lot of stuff.
(04:21):
And I know that slow living has become more popular as a trend lately.
Like, I just want to quit my job and pick daisies in a field and go to Pilates and like, yeah, what a vibe.
But you kind of need money to do that.
And if you're listening to my podcast.
It's probably because you're thinking, I need money, I need time management.
But I also would like to have some semblance of a life and an identity outside of my job.
(04:44):
And that's where I think this gets really challenging and really heavy, is it can be hard.
And I've talked about on other episodes how thankful I am that I have a spouse who is very supportive, very helpful, does household chores, takes my kids to school, picks them up, helps me and works a full time job, right?
Like, I'm very blessed that I do have that good support in my household.
(05:06):
But that doesn't negate the fact that we're all carrying a bunch of stuff and it's heavy and it's hard and it can be frustrating and it can make you feel like you're never going to do enough.
And that's not what I want for you.
That's not what I want for this community.
That's not what I want for myself.
It's not what I want for my kids as they grow up.
I want them to have balance, I want them to have peace.
(05:27):
And that comes down a lot to priority and time management.
So when it comes to carrying mental load, we'll get into some tips and tricks of how to do it effectively as we go through the episode.
But it's all the things in your brain, they all sit in your brain.
And even if you're not the person doing that task, you're thinking about it because you have to make sure that task gets done right.
(05:48):
This is why team management is a full time job.
Because you may not have a ton of tasks that you do solo, maybe you do depends on the company.
But even if you're managing a team that's running very autonomously, that's doing most of the work, you still have to check, you still have to make sure it gets done, you still have to polish presentations, you still have to make sure it gets in front of the right people.
You still have to clear roadblocks.
Team management is a full time job because you're carrying the mental load of every single person in your team, right?
(06:14):
In a marriage, you're carrying the mental load of all the household stuff that needs to get done.
And this is quick aside, I am not a therapist, okay?
Caveat.
A lot of the time when people get divorced, it comes down to something that sounds trivial to the outside world.
I'm not talking about extreme cases.
The average person is like, but they just never did the dishes, they never cooked, they never helped me with laundry and sometimes we think of that and we're like, what a petty reason to get divorced.
(06:43):
But if not doing the dishes is the 1000th thing on that person's mental load list, it is a super valid reason that's what ends it, and this is why it's so hard, is because we're carrying all these tasks, we expect all these people around us to do all of these things, but we can't let go of the mental load that we're carry to make sure those things get done.
I recently introduced chores to my children.
(07:05):
So my kids are 7 and 8 and none of their friends have chores.
Okay, so if you're in my age group and you have young kids, I think that's weird.
I had chores, so my kids don't have a lot of chores.
They don't have a list of 50 things they have to do every week.
But they have to keep their rooms tidy, they have to make their bed, they have to do their baths, and they have to do their laundry.
(07:27):
Now, I do think laundry is a bit of a stretch at their age level, but they kill it.
They can load the washing machine, put it in the dryer, hang up all their clothes, put them in the drawers.
Do they do it like mom would do it?
Is it color coded by length of sleeve and organized and easy to get to?
No, it is chaos incarnate.
But is it done?
And it's one less thing that I have to stress about also.
Yes.
Okay.
(07:49):
But introducing the chore chart meant I'm now checking the chore chart to make sure all these things are getting done.
Because if they don't do them, yeah, they don't get allowance.
But also they still have to get done.
And that's going to be mama, right, or dad helping out.
So we carry a heavy mental load.
Right.
I'm setting all of this foundation because I don't want you to feel like you are alone.
(08:10):
All right.
It is helpful to hear that even people you see on social media, even the influencer in the wild, even the 20something who doesn't have kids yet, the mental load is high.
And I've been seeing a trend shift lately, specifically in the fitness influencer world, where we used to say all the time, like, we've all got the same 24 hours in a day, like, you can work out if you want to.
(08:33):
And to an extent, I believe that, like, if you value your health and your fitness, you'll find a time to fit it in.
But the single mom of three is 24 hours feels a Heck of a lot shorter than the 20 year old who doesn't have a job yet, who just goes to classes four hours a week.
Less, I'll be honest, okay?
There's a different mental load being carried.
(08:54):
And so if you work and you have kids and you have a spouse or you have a hobby, or you're just trying to save up to buy a house, or you have a dog.
Dog, mom, okay?
You're carrying a heavy mental load and you're trying to do all the things, and that can be really stressful, all right?
And I do understand that.
Now, one of the things that I find most helpful for managing mental load, you all think I'm going to say delegation.
(09:19):
I see you on the edge of your seat listening to this episode, thinking delegation is key.
It's not key, okay?
Delegation is helpful when you have good people at work that you can delegate to, when you have good people in your household that you can delegate to, when you have resources that are going to help you do things.
Take your kids to school, drop them off, pick them up, things like that.
Delegation can be incredibly helpful.
But studies have shown that doesn't actually decrease your mental load.
(09:44):
It decreases the amount of stuff you have to do, but it doesn't decrease the thought process of making sure these things get done.
So when it comes to mental load, there are a few things that work for me.
One is writing it down.
I find that my brain frees up a lot of if I know what I need to do on paper so it's written down, I'm not going to forget it.
I don't have to carry that constant thought in my brain.
(10:06):
I even keep a notebook on my bedside table at night.
So if I think of something at 2 in the morning that I'm like, oh, shoot, I need to remember to do that.
Jot it down, go back to bed.
I cannot carry that weight in my head.
I must write it down.
All right, write it down.
Now.
I know some people get overwhelmed because the write it down becomes 100 things and they're like, oh my God, how am I going to do all this?
(10:26):
We'll talk about that in a minute.
But.
But having it out of your brain and on paper or in an Excel sheet or in a Word document or somewhere can be incredibly helpful because we are lessening that mental burden to remember things.
Right?
This is why habit creation is really important as well.
When we create a habit.
(10:46):
The reason habits are important is because they don't sit in your mental load space.
Okay?
When you walk, you don't have to think, right foot, left foot, right foot.
Your body just does it because it's a habit.
It's ingrained in you.
You know what to do.
So when we create true habits, healthy habits, active habits, we stop carrying the mental load for those things and we just start to do them.
(11:10):
So if one of your habits is sitting on the porch in the morning, enjoying your cup of coffee in a nice peaceful space, it stops becoming a mental load of like, oh, I need to take this time to recharge, and it becomes a habit.
So creating habits so that we don't have to think about them, they just become something that we do.
And writing it down, getting it out of your brain, putting it in a list somewhere, something so that we don't have to carry that mental load again, part of the reason for the chore chart is I can't carry all of those chores in my head, but I can look and see who hasn't checked stuff off on a chart.
(11:39):
Use what's available to you.
Okay?
We want to lessen that mental load.
Now.
You also need to have good support.
This is Noel, by the way.
I don't know that I've introduced her on my podcast before.
Noel was a gift from Santa.
Popped out of a box Christmas morning.
She also thinks she is a podcast host.
So, Noelia, okay.
(12:02):
There is also an aspect of reducing your mental load that is getting less things on your plate, which is where we're going with this prioritization.
You do not have to prioritize everything.
In fact, you should not prioritize everything.
You should know what your goals are, what are the most important things to you and the tasks that you do.
The mental load that you carry should be aligned with those goals and those goals only.
(12:26):
Now people are going to be in the comments like, but I have kids and they have their own goals and I have to support them.
I have to do all this stuff, and then my spouse isn't helpful and I have to do all this stuff for them.
I get it.
All right?
I'm not negating the issue.
I'm not trying to oversimplify the problem.
But what I am going to tell you is that if you don't know what is most important to you, if you don't know where you want to go in three years, five years, if you don't know what your vision for your life is, you will carry a very heavy mental load and not see a result.
(12:57):
And that's the worst.
To feel busy in the rat race, killing yourself, doing all the things, and then you turn around five years later and you're not any closer to the person that you want to be.
It's a bummer.
I get it.
So I need you to take time.
If you do nothing else after this episode, I need you to take time to understand what are your goals, what are your objectives, and where are you going?
(13:19):
Yes.
In terms of your career, in terms of your aspirations to make more money, have a heavier title, do a industry change, work in a certain part of the business, but also in your personal life.
Do you want to buy a house?
I don't know what's happening behind me, you guys.
So if you're not watching and you're just listening to this podcast episode, you do not have the joy of watching my dog.
(13:42):
Try to figure out how to be part of the show.
She's, like, really determined, and she's, like, messing up my couch behind me.
And if you're watching this, you're welcome.
She's really cute, but she's chaotic.
Okay to load.
So you need to figure out what your goals are.
If you are truly focused on your health and you want to hit a certain healthy weight or hit a certain body fat percentage or change your diet so that you can improve your gut strength or decrease an immune system issue.
(14:15):
If you are serious about your health, make a goal for it.
Don't make a weight loss goal.
I really hate those.
I'm just gonna be totally honest with you.
I hate it.
Like, I want to lose five pounds.
I'm the queen of it.
Okay, so no shade.
But a goal like, I want to lose weight is very temporary.
We can get into that.
(14:35):
Like, but I'd rather have cake mode.
Like, if you have a true health goal, then make a health goal.
Give yourself a deadline.
Give yourself an objective.
One of the reasons that I got involved in pageantry was exactly that.
I needed to move my body more and I needed to make healthier eating choices.
And to me, losing five pounds is not enough of a motivation.
But getting on stage in a swimsuit in six weeks, that'll do it.
(14:57):
So make a goal.
Maybe it's to do something like Hyrox.
Maybe it's to be able to do a hike.
Maybe it's to be able to run a half marathon.
Maybe it's to be able to walk five miles.
Pick something and give it a date.
Don't just make it an arbitrary goal.
Don't just make it in 2025.
Give yourself a date.
Tie that date to something important.
Noelia Child, I am recording a podcast Episode I need you to go away.
(15:23):
Thank you.
So you need to make your goals.
So there's health and fitness.
We've talked about work.
Maybe one of your goals is you want to spend more quality time with your kids.
Great.
How are you going to measure it?
What's your due date?
What does that look like?
For me, last summer, one of my quality times with my kids is I wanted my kids to be able to swim.
And so for me, that meant I had to take them to the pool three times a week and spend that quality time with them and be involved with them so that by the end of the summer, they could swim.
(15:51):
This summer, it's riding a bike.
I want my kids to be able to ride a bike.
That means going outside with them, practicing on the bikes, getting them going, keeping them from crying because they're scared.
Okay?
Figure out what your goals are.
Figure out how you're going to measure it.
Give yourself a deadline and actually track these things.
It is the same as at work.
I find at work, people have a much easier time saying, oh, my goal for this year is to do this, and I want to get promoted, and it's going to look like this.
(16:14):
My KPIs are this.
And then we get to our personal life, we're like, yeah, I'd like to do all kinds of stuff.
Cool.
Make goals.
And then when you write those out, check how many goals are actually high priority.
This is not a New Year's resolution where you're going to walk away with 87 things to be the new me in 2025.
Okay?
That's not my goal for you.
(16:34):
My goal for you is to figure out what's actually really, really important to you.
Articulate a goal and a KPI and a measure and a deadline for it, and then we can make a plan on how to achieve it.
This sounds like it's increasing your mental load, but it will actually help.
Okay?
Now, if you look at your list and you have more than five goals, I need you to cut some.
There's no more than five things that are super important in your life.
(16:55):
I promise there's not.
There's lots of things we'd like to do, right?
I'd like to learn to cook the perfect steak.
I'd like to learn to paint hydrangeas.
Because I'm, like, obsessed with them right now.
I don't have time.
Okay?
It's not a high enough priority.
Figure out what your five goals are or less.
It's cool.
If you come out of this and you're Like, I have two goals.
(17:15):
Great.
Love that for you.
Figure out your goals, how you're going to measure them, give them a deadline, and then make a plan.
All right?
If you cannot prioritize your time for what is most important, you will not prioritize anything or you will prioritize everything.
And then the mental load that you carry is going to be really high.
The amount of things you're trying to balance is going to be really high.
And your success at doing any of it is going to be really low.
(17:38):
So take the time, think about it.
What are your goals?
Where are you going?
What does that mean for you?
Then I want you to take those big goals, and I want you to chop them into three mini goals per month leading to all these deadlines.
I'll give you an example.
Last year, one of my goals was, I'm going to get my book published.
All right?
I already had a publishing contract.
The book needed to be written, it needed to be edited.
(18:00):
It needed to have pr.
We needed to be taking it out to the masses.
We needed to be getting people interested in it.
So for me, I had a goal every month.
And every month, one of those goals was, you know, write chapters one through three through six, whatever they were, whatever I needed to write.
My book was done in May.
Then I had editing.
June, I'm going to edit these chapters.
July, I'm going to edit these chapters, and then August was okay.
(18:23):
I'm going to create stills that I can post.
I'm going to create videos.
I'm going to create a campaign around this.
I'm going to work with my social media manager to get it scheduled.
I'm going to work with my PR team to get on lists for a bunch of podcasts, Right?
You have a mini goal for every month leading up to your big goal.
Now you are only going to have three goals a month, which means if you have five goals in your sheet, something is not getting worked on every month.
(18:49):
It's not possible.
You don't have enough time.
Let's be real.
So figure out your five, and then figure out what the cadence is to work on certain things and make three mini goals every month that get you closer to that goal.
For me, teaching my kids to ride their bike is only a summer activity because I live in Colorado, and the rest of the year, it's dangerous, and I'm not about to do that to my children.
Okay?
So it is like a June, July, August school.
(19:12):
June was make sure that they have shoulder pads Knee pads, helmets.
My children are very like, not my son jump off a cliff.
My daughter, like marshmallow soft.
Okay.
She needs a lot of protection here.
So making sure they were ready to go.
They knew what was going on and they had been on a bike.
July, make sure that we're practicing twice a week.
Okay.
August, give them the opportunity to ride the bike by themselves and let them fall.
(19:36):
For me, this is a goal because I don't want them to fall.
huh.
All right, so those are three months where that is a goal I'm working on now, the rest of the year.
That is one of my five goals.
But it's not active.
Okay.
Figure out your schedule, figure out your timing, and then as you go into every week.
And it's interesting.
I just talked about this on the Productivity Gladiator podcast.
So if you're interested, go check out that episode.
(19:56):
We'll link it in the bio as well.
But when you are working on a goal, you need to be planning your weeks.
All right?
Do not wait until Monday at noon and be like, oh, what do I need to do this week?
What's my plan?
I don't know.
I've got a lot of meetings.
Like, don't be reactive, be proactive.
(20:17):
For me, it's Sunday nights.
Brian, over at Productivity Gladiator, we're saying his is Thursdays.
Pick a night of the week where you go in and you plan your next at least week, 10 days, two weeks.
I tend to do two weeks out.
I don't know why, but I find like a 14 day rolling cadence is really helpful for me.
And in that you're going to plan what you're going to do every day.
(20:38):
You're going to plan.
What are your to do lists.
You're going to plan your three goals and how you're working on them.
You're going to plan your meetings, you're going to plan your work, you're going to plan your hobbies.
Plan it.
All right?
If you do not have a plan, you will be reactive and you will not be productive.
The other benefit of having a plan is that you can spread out the things you need to do.
(20:58):
I am the queen of being more optimistic about time than I actually have.
And I'm like, I could do all of that on Monday.
And then Monday comes, I'm like, oh, no, I cannot do all of that.
I can do two of these.
All right?
So planning out your tasks I also find is really helpful because you can spread them out and keep more of a balance.
So this Comes to my second really big tactical tip, which is day blocking.
(21:19):
So everybody has heard of time blocking.
Cal Newport got really famous for deep work and how that ties into it.
I don't find that time blocking works for me personally.
I think the corporate world is not built for time blocking.
People will schedule over my meetings, people will send me teams, messages that throw me off of my deep work.
Like, it just doesn't work for me.
But what has been really productive for me is blocking my days for certain types of tasks.
(21:40):
So Sunday for me is chore day.
This is when I go to the grocery.
This is when I meal prep.
This is when I do all the dishes, is when I water the plants.
This is when I clean a kitty litter.
This is when I do yard work.
This like Sunday is chore day.
I don't make plans on Sundays.
I got too much to do on Sundays.
All right?
Monday for me is content creation days.
That's when I record my podcast episodes, my reels.
This is when I work on my LinkedIn post.
(22:01):
This is when I work on my newsletter.
Mondays are for content.
Tuesdays is when I do a lot of my corporate job, right?
This is when I have a lot of meetings.
Tuesdays and Thursdays tend to be really heavy meeting days for me.
So what am I working on in my corporate job?
What needs to get done?
Where am I making slides?
Who needs what?
Wednesdays, I have a lot of client calls.
(22:21):
So Wednesdays is a heavy client call day.
And that's where I'm clearing out my slack inbox.
I'm making sure I'm responding to emails, I'm working on my speaking engagement materials, things like that.
So what I have found is if I pick a day of the week for certain types of tasks, and that day I do as much of that certain type of task as I possibly can, I am much better set up for success the week because one, I don't have to carry the mental load all week of my Wednesday tasks.
(22:45):
I only think about them on Wednesdays.
I don't have to carry the chores all week.
I only think about them on Sundays.
Right?
Now, there are some things you do every day.
You check your emails every day.
I load the dishwasher every day, right?
There are some things that you're going to do every day, but for the most part those are going to become habits and your main bulk of tasks are going to become blocked by day.
(23:06):
I find that this combination really helps decrease mental load.
And if you work a corporate job that's very fire drill Oriented, right?
Lots of reactivity, things happening really fast.
If you start today, block and say, okay, on Mondays, I'm gonna work on these types of tasks.
Tuesdays presentations, Wednesdays, analytics.
There will always be exceptions that we have to make of, like, something came through and it just needs to get done on the wrong day.
(23:28):
Okay.
But for the most part, if you say, hey, I totally get this request.
I have time.
Set aside Wednesday to work on this.
Does that work for you?
90% of the time, people are gonna be like, oh, that sounds great.
Wednesday's perfect.
It's going to help you organize yourself so much better, I promise you.
Day blocking has literally saved my life.
And it was funny as a quick aside.
(23:48):
So my husband has learned, do not do laundry on any day of the week except Sunday, because Kendall will have aneurysm because I'm not thinking about laundry except on Sundays because that's chore day.
I can't think about laundry on Wednesday because I don't have time for that on Wednesday.
Wednesday's client day, so don't do laundry except on Sunday.
So last night, my sweet daughter comes to me and she's like, mommy, I started the laundry machine.
And I'm like, what?
(24:10):
Why?
And she's like, well, I wanted to wear this dress again this week.
And I'm like, you can't.
Can't do laundry except on Sundays.
And she was like, I thought you'd be happy.
And I was like, yeah, okay.
In hindsight, that seems like a bit of an overreaction.
Okay, thank you so much for doing your laundry, sweetie.
Also, please just do laundry on Sundays, okay?
Because Mommy can't think about laundry on other days of the week.
(24:31):
Mommy can only think about laundry on Sundays.
All right?
Now she's super sweet.
She washed it, she dried it, she put it away.
It was non issue.
But in my brain, Sundays are for laundry, okay?
It will help you stay on top of things and it will help you feel like you get some of your time back.
Because on Wednesday when laundry is piling up, you're not stressing about the laundry.
You're like, listen, I'm going to do it on Sunday.
Kids have plenty of clothes, plenty of underwear.
(24:52):
We can get through the rest of the week, and Sunday, everything will go back to normal.
And I have found that brings me a lot of peace throughout my week.
So I'm not stressing about it.
The other thing that comes with time management that I find is really helpful, and I've talked about this on other podcast episodes, is what Tech you are using to support you.
Now, I am a handwritten girly.
(25:14):
I do not like tech.
I don't want to type it into an app.
I don't want to like make sure that I have like.
I can't do that.
I am a like, it needs to be written down.
So I think it's been three years ago now, my first year in business, I bought a remarkable tablet.
I love it.
I have recommended it to everybody.
I will recommend it to you.
I will put a code in the show notes if you want to buy one.
(25:36):
They are the best thing ever.
Okay?
Now if you like an iPad or a Samsung tablet or you like physical notebooks, fabulous.
Figure out a medium that works for you.
But there's a couple things that I do in here that I find help me with my mental load, with my stress level, and manage my time more wisely.
So I'm going to show you.
(25:57):
So first, I have my monthly view of a calendar that shows everything I have going on in a month.
Right?
You don't need to see the specifics because I have stuff about my kids on there.
Okay.
But this has every day of the week.
My husband's in Boston.
Here's what I'm going to be doing those days.
It has my like full month view.
Then if I click into a week, here is a week view for me.
Now in this week view, I have every meeting on my calendar, client, corporate, job, pageant, related, fitting, anything.
(26:25):
And I also have hobbies.
So if I'm going to take a Pilates class, it goes in here.
If I'm going to go to the gym, it goes in here.
If I'm going to the gym at noon on my lunch break, it is in this planner.
Okay?
Don't say, oh, I'll make time for it.
You won't make time for it.
Put it in the planner.
Okay?
Every hobby, everything that I'm gonna do, it gets here.
Now I do some time blocking of like, I take clients during certain windows, I don't take them during other windows.
(26:48):
I have corporate meetings during some windows and I have deep work and others.
So if you have windows, put those in here, right?
My windows go in here.
My meetings go in here.
My hobbies go in here.
My kids, extracurricular activities, brain dump.
And every Sunday I make sure that this is ready for the week coming up and I send a copy to my husband and I'm like, husband.
(27:09):
So you know, here's our plan for the week, all right?
And then I know when I need to be places I know Where I need to go, I can see.
Where I have conflicts, I can resolve them quickly.
Like this is by Sunday night activity right now.
More importantly, even than this is, within each of these, I have a daily to do list.
Okay, this was long.
This was Monday.
Monday always tends to be long for me.
(27:29):
Okay, Because I have to make a lot of.
I make a to do list for every day of the week.
If you go through here, my whole week is already in here.
Even the days that haven't happened yet, except for Thursday, apparently I didn't make one for that day.
Okay.
But I put my to do list in here.
These are all the things I have to do every day.
And then when I have above and beyond tasks, I have a special project due at work.
(27:52):
I have something that I need to get done for a speaking engagement.
I'm working on something for YouTube.
It gets added to the list on the day that I intend to do it.
And again, I spread those tasks out over the course of the week.
What I don't do is make a list on Monday of everything I want to do this week and slowly take it down all week.
That drives me nuts.
Instead, I say, on Monday, I'm going to do these three things in addition to my normal list.
(28:13):
My normal list is my habits.
These are the things I'm going to do in addition to that list on this day.
And I make sure I get those checked off.
If I don't get them checked off, they move to the next day.
And then I accommodate throughout the week.
And by the end of that week, I'm usually pretty good at completing all of my tasks.
Now, those tasks that I'm adding need to be aligned to your five goals we talked about at the beginning.
(28:34):
They just do.
Now, every once in a while, there's an exception, like, oh, I have to plan this trip for this thing that I'm doing.
And like, yeah, great, maybe that's not lying to a goal and it needs to get done and it goes on a certain day.
But for me, clear that mental load, put it on the day of the week.
That makes sense based on the type of task that it is.
Hold myself to completing those types of tasks, put it in the calendar, get it done right.
This is going to help you manage your time.
(28:55):
So whether you are a digital person and you want something like a remarkable tablet or an iPad, great.
Whether you just want to buy a planner off Amazon, great.
I really like the Daily Planners by Day Designer.
And I also used to use.
Oh, what's the other one called?
I'LL find it and I'll put it in the show notes but another one off Amazon.
(29:18):
So I like having a daily to do list.
I find that really helps me clear my brain.
Like I said, Sundays I go in, I write everything I'm going to do that week.
I make my to do list for every single day of the week.
Everything is organized and good to go and then I can start my week fresh.
Figure out a cadence that works for you that's similar, but write it down, get it out of your brain, get it scheduled.
Know what are your highest priorities because if something's got to give on any certain day, it needs to be something that's not your top priority.
(29:46):
So that also is going to help you evaluate how best to spend your time.
If you find I've over committed myself on a certain day or there's too many things on my to do list, we're going to prioritize the things that are going to get us closest to our goals.
All right, so that's a little bit about the time management.
It's a little bit about the mental load.
Again, going back to where we started this episode.
There is no perfect recipe.
And if you're feeling stressed and you're overwhelmed and you feel like you should be doing all the things, welcome to the club.
(30:11):
All right.
There is no good answer.
I'm going to rephrase that.
The best answer of how to use your time is in the ways that get you closest to what you want to become.
There is no good answer in what somebody else is doing for you.
Right.
I think social media adds a lot of pressure here and we say, well, Susie is 45, three kids, zero percent body fat, goes to the gym every day, also makes content, works a full time job and was picking daisies in the field on Saturday.
(30:43):
Like it's so easy to get caught in this web of comparison of like this person is doing all of these things and I should be able to do all of those things as well.
No.
Some of us have a really high stress threshold, some of us don't.
I do think that's one of my superpowers.
I can be really, really stressed for a really extended period of time and not really notice.
So at some point that's going to affect my cortisol levels and I will crash out.
(31:04):
But until then we're operating pretty smoothly.
But don't compare yourself to somebody else and say, hey, I need to be able to do what they're doing.
No you don't.
You need to be Able to assess what's most important to you.
And you need to spend time doing those things.
Don't focus on what everybody else is doing.
It's one thing to learn from somebody else on, like, oh, these are tools they use, or this is ways that they help manage it, or they read a book that they thought was really helpful.
Like, those are all great things to take from other people.
(31:26):
But don't obsess with a comparison of, like, can I do what so and so is doing?
Doesn't matter.
You're not so and so.
You're you.
Be you do the most important things.
And don't get sucked into this game of comparison of what's most important to other people because it's not the same.
Ray.
You don't know.
You could look at this mom on Instagram and think, oh, she's such an amazing parent and her kids hate her or their dogs.
(31:48):
Want to start a podcast?
You don't know what they're dealing with in their home life.
That's you.
You want to start a podcast.
That's why you keep sitting up here with me.
No.
So think about what's most important to you.
Figure out the time management that's going to go with that's going to support it.
Prioritize the most important things, deprioritize everything else.
And my last note here, and this is for everybody listening, especially the parents, moms, dads, grandparents, aunts, uncles.
(32:13):
But, like, it is okay to be a little bit selfish with your time and do things that fulfill you, because if you are not doing things that are going to fulfill you, that are going to help you get closer to your goals, they're going to help you feel value, they're going to help you feel special.
You will never be able to pour into other people the way that you need to.
(32:35):
I am my worst self.
When I don't have time to go to the gym or read a book or do something that decompresses me before my kids get home, I'm the worst version of myself because I'm stressed, I'm anxious, and I've worked really hard all day and I'm tired and I don't want to talk.
It is okay to be a little bit selfish so that you can give back to the people in your life that you love.
(32:56):
And on that note, thank you guys so much for tuning in today's episode.
If you liked it, give me five stars.
If you want ask any questions, please put them in the comments below.
We will get back to you.
Otherwise, I will put all the links we discussed in the show notes so that you can take a look.
And then we will be back next week with another fabulous episode.
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