March 28, 2025 • 25 mins
When I thought of time management, I used to feel and think… ’Blahhh.’
‘That is NOT sexy.’
‘I am not wasting my time on that. I want to be here in the present.’
‘It’s so boring. It’ll melt my face off. I just won’t do it.’
Ironically, all of those things proved to be the opposite of what’s true.
As I became a time whisperer…I had time to do sexy stuff, like take care of myself and literally actually have time for a sex life. I had WAY more time to do the things that brought me joy. I became WAY more present for my life, and now?
I actually love planning out my week. I legit look forward to it now because I love all the stuff I’m putting in my calendar.
Just right now, the people I’m working with who are focused on time whispering range from a Family Medicine Doctor to the Director of a school. They are stay-at-home parents and C-level executive teams. They are musicians and sales managers. ALL of them have found freedom, joy and success from the skills they’re building in time management, and that’s just the handful that I’m currently supporting with this. I’ve literally helped hundreds of others make friends with their calendars, their lists, and start falling in love with the time they have and how they spend it.
But let’s get real. Being an excellent time manager does not sound sexy.
So, let’s be time whisperers. Let’s you and I develop the grace and decisiveness, the follow-through and the systems to make time our bestie.
In today’s episode, you’ll learn:
- How being a time whisperer gives you a mind like water
- Three productivity theorists whose books you can order right now to do a deep dive
- How using your calendar can be like appreciating really great art
- How to know what to do no matter where you are but still feel totally free
- The one hour a week that is more important to your life than any other period of time
- The three levels of time whispering skill you can build and how to learn them
Mentioned in this episode:
- David Allen and Getting Things Done
- Essentialism by Greg McKeown
- Deep Work by Cal Newport
- EP 118: Three Priority Tricks
How to connect with Marie:
- On the Web | The Local Bloom
- Instagram: @the.bloom.coach
- All Things Marie on LinkTree
JOIN THE BLOOM ROOM!
We'll take all these ideas and apply them to our lives. Follow me on Instagram at @the.bloom.coach to learn more and snag a spot in my group coaching program!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to the Bloom your Mind Podcast, where we take
all of your ideas for what youwant and we turn them into real
things.
I'm your host, certified CoachMarie McDonald.
Let's get into it.
Hello everybody, and welcome toepisode 120 of the Bloom your
(00:33):
Mind podcast.
It's exciting, right?
I know I love all the numbers,but I feel like a special topic
is in order for episode 120, andI have the best topic for you
today.
Now, this is funny because someof you are going to get really
excited about this topic andothers will turn off the episode
(00:55):
when you hear it.
But before I tell you what itis, you probably already know
because of the title.
But just listen.
I used to feel like this topicwas blah.
No, not for me.
I used to feel like this topicwas not sexy, that it was
(01:17):
wasting my time because I wantto be here in the present.
This topic of time management,I used to just think, was the
pits.
What's really ironic, y'all, isthat the experience that I had
is mirrored over and over andover again, and all these people
that I coach when folks needtime management, help folks that
(01:38):
I'm coaching on making theiridea into a real thing, whether
they're in an organization orthey're out on their own, and
I'm going to tell you examplesof this.
The irony is that I used tothink this is not sexy and
literally it gave me time for asex life, but also like, gave me
time to move, gracefully takecare of my body, spend time with
(02:00):
my partner all the sexy stuff.
I used to think I'm not wastingmy time on that, I'm going to
be here in the present moment.
It actually developing skilland time management, stopped me
from wasting time and allowed meto be present in the present
moment.
I also used to think it wassuch a drag that I could not
(02:23):
like force myself to sit downand manage my calendar and my
schedule and all my to-do lists.
And now I love it because ofwhat it has given me People that
I'm working with even justright now right, not all of the
people that I've worked withover time, but just even right
now these are the people who aregetting a ton out of the work
(02:44):
that I've worked with over time,but just even right now these
are the people who are getting aton out of the work that we've
done on time management lately.
Some of these folks are in thebloom room and some are
one-on-one clients ororganizational clients.
But I serve, I coach thedirector of a school and she
sews in her off time.
She has a child, she has a veryfull life and once she started
(03:06):
using these time managementtools, she just was so effusive
about what it gave her in herlife, the amount of time it gave
her back.
When she sat down and usedthese tools, she said I'm doing
sewing projects again and Ihaven't done that in years and
it felt so good to her.
So this is the director of aschool.
(03:28):
Now there's a musician that I'mworking with.
He's an artist who likes to befree and flowy, right.
He's, you know, designing amusic theory course,
collaborating with a bunch ofamazing artists to write an
album, also teaching guitarlessons, and he loves the time
management stuff because itgives him so much time to be
(03:48):
creative and it gives him likehe doesn't worry about whether
or not it's going to happen.
He can relax at the end of theday because he knows he's got
time planned to do what he wants.
I work with a family medicinedoctor who is loving the color
coding that I taught him to dowith his calendar.
I work with a stay-at-homeparent who teaches her three
(04:10):
kids homeschool while travelingthe world.
These time management toolsaround prioritization are
everything to her.
We keep reworking them andapplying them in different ways
and she gets more and more andmore out of them.
I work with a functionalmushroom industry sales manager
and he uses these timemanagement tools all the time.
So I'm just saying, no matterwho you are, these are
(04:33):
applicable to everybody.
Okay, to organize the thingsyou've got in front of you, no
matter how complex they are orif they're very simple and you
don't have a lot of complexityin your life right now, and
literally I've coached hundredsof others.
So today I'm going to give youthe broad strokes of the time
management tools that I teachand I'm working on a course
(04:53):
right now that's going to beavailable for you to take if you
want more on time management,so you can get my coaching and
you can get support and you cando a deep dive on time project
management, getting making youridea into a real thing by
actually planning the steps thatit takes.
It'll be free to everybody.
That's already in the BloomRoom, but it's also going to be
(05:14):
available to you, just if youlike.
Start hearing this and you saythis is a good intro, but I need
more.
It is coming.
So my time management processthat I teach is based on
multiple things.
It's based on lots of booksthat I've read over time on
productivity theory, but also onthe concepts that I've
developed, because they work forme and they work for my clients
(05:35):
.
So I'm not going to do a superdeep dive, but if you want a
couple of book recommendationshere, I'd recommend Getting
Things Done by David Allen,number one and Essentialism by
Greg McCown, and then, if youwant to read ahead of me, the
next book that I'm going to readis Deep Work by Cal Newport, so
(05:55):
you can read ahead and thentell me how it is.
So those I know some of mylisteners love book recs, so
those are book recs.
But you know this timemanagement, these tools just
create freedom, ease, flow.
And let me tell you my favoritemetaphor for this.
This comes from David Allen inthe book Getting Things Done,
and you know I love a goodmetaphor.
(06:15):
So here's this.
He says that we can have a mindlike water.
So let's all visualize thislike the still water on the top
of a pond, and when we throw apebble into the pond, we want to
have a mind that's so stillthat it doesn't overreact or
(06:39):
underreact to the size of thething that's asking for its
attention.
So if it's a small pebble andwe throw it in, the ripples that
get created are kind of small.
If it's a large rock that'sthrown into the pond, the
surface of the water respondsmore actively with bigger
ripples.
What David Allen says and Ilove this is that when we don't
(07:03):
have a system that we trust tomanage our time, we overreact or
underreact, or both orsomewhere in the middle, to the
things that are asking for ourattention.
So maybe a small rock getsthrown into the pond and we
overreact, we make big ripples.
Is that you so like somethingpops up, the yard needs to get
(07:25):
raked, or someone asks you tohelp them fix their printer, or
you get an email asking forsomething and you handle it
right away.
You drop what you're doing andyou forget the plan you had and
you drop the important thing youwere focused on in favor of the
urgent thing in front of you,overreacting to something that's
not actually that important.
Or maybe you underreact.
(07:48):
Is that you?
That might be you if you've gota bill that needs to be paid, a
water leak or a tooth pain thatreally needs to get looked at
and dealt with, but it'soverwhelming to even think about
, with all of the other thingsyou've got going on, so you just
defer it until it becomes a bigproblem.
So remember that our time andour attention these are our most
(08:11):
precious resources.
We have a finite number ofmoments that we are living in
our life and the way that wespend them is ultimately the
most important thing.
So when we manage our time welland we develop skill in this
area, we know that we'rededicating these precious
moments of our life to thethings that are most important
to us and that we havesovereignty.
(08:33):
We're in the driver's seat.
We're always making thedecisions that are in line with
how we want to spend thesemoments of our life.
But in order to do that, we'vegot to have a system that we
trust to hold all of the detailsof our life, so that we can
have a mind, like water, thatreacts in proportion to the
stimulus asking for ourattention.
So I teach this kind of skillon different levels for
(08:56):
different folks.
I teach basic skills and toolsas an intro and then I teach a
level deeper, like a mid-range,for folks that want a little
more robust set of tools Maybethey're tracking more details.
And then a third deep, deeplevel for folks that have more
complicated projects orbusinesses they're running that
have multiple steps and maybemultiple collaborators and maybe
(09:19):
even budgets or P&Ls.
So we've got lots of steps andtoday I'm going to share the
broad strokes with you, thesimple steps you can always
reach out to find out and learnmore.
There are three tools that Irecommend for time management.
There are your calendar, yourweekly review and your lists.
(09:39):
So let's talk about what theseare.
The first and most importanttool I would say is your
calendar.
I put everything in my calendar, and the reason this is so
important as a system that youtrust is because when something
is in your calendar and yourweek is already planned, you've
(10:00):
prioritized it.
One time You've spent the timelooking at everything that's
important to you, you've plannedyour week ahead of time, and
what that means is that youdon't have to waste time
reprioritizing over and over andover and over again.
You look one time, youprioritize everything and then
(10:21):
all you have to do is the thingin front of you my calendar and
the way that I teach to use acalendar has a few different
important components.
The first one is to color codeit.
My calendar has like eightdifferent colors.
There's exercise, which is likea bright green.
There's love, which is liketime with my husband and my
close friends that fill my heart.
(10:42):
That's red.
I have time with my kids, whichis like an indigo.
I have time with my clients,which is like a rose colored.
I have thought work time likedeep focus time, which is a
yellow.
I have time when I'm out andabout, which is like a light
blue.
I have time when I meet with myother side of my business, my
(11:04):
business partner, and that'spurple.
I have volunteer time, which islike a gray color for all my
volunteer work.
I'm probably forgetting somethings, but I have all of these
different colors and whathappens is when I look at my
calendar.
I am a visual person, but thisworks for all different people.
When you look at it, you cantell if you're in balance in two
(11:27):
ways.
First of all, I know I need toexercise every day.
If I don't see green that darkgreen on a day, then I know that
I need to get some on there.
If I don't see that red colorof love on my week a few
different times, I know that I'mnot going to refill my cup
right.
My week is not regenerativeenough, it's not gonna give me
(11:51):
enough back because I give a lotof energy and love out.
So I need to make sure thatthere's some red on my calendar,
like multiple reds on mycalendar, so that I know I'm
getting that love back somehow.
I know I want tons of time withmy kids on there and it shows
me when there's too much.
If I've got like half my weekis indigo, I know I'm a little
out of balance and maybe I needto ask for some support.
(12:13):
It also shows me at a glance ifI need to like be glamming on a
day.
If I have like a publicspeaking event or all clients
all day and I'm leading groupsand workshops, I need to like
glam it up a little bit.
I need to look my best.
I like to look my best everyday, but some days my best is,
like you know, different.
(12:34):
It's not my maxed out, glammedup self, right, it's my best for
that day, which might be alittle more casual.
So that color coding helps meunderstand what type of day it
is.
It helps me understand mybalance and it just shows me the
flow of the week.
Now the second element of thisis that it matches my priority
(12:56):
list.
You can listen to threepriority tricks.
I think it's called a fewepisodes ago that shares a few
different ways to use prioritylists.
These are all things that I'vejust created, where you come up
with your top five prioritiesfor your week.
My number one is always mentaland physical wellbeing.
So I look at my week and Ibetter have enough red for love,
(13:19):
green for exercise, light greenfor other self-care actions,
which might be like a sauna or afacial or something like that.
Some weeks there is none.
Hopefully, every week I can getsomething in that is a long
walk or something that justfeels like self-care above
exercise, and orange, which forme is support for me.
(13:40):
So that would be me seeinghaving a coach or a financial
planner or a therapist orsomebody that's supporting me,
because I support a lot ofpeople all the time.
So I like to have some orangesomewhere that might be a group
coaching program that issupporting me that I'm not
running.
So my priority list is thatfirst.
(14:01):
So I better see all of that.
And then second is my family.
So then I check for Max and thekids.
And then third is mycontribution.
So I look at my calendar andthe third most important thing
is all my clients that I coach,the bloom room, the moxie
mastermind and my volunteerism.
And then I have my otherpriorities and they kind of
switch around.
Sometimes friends and family,adventure, nature, creativity my
(14:25):
last two switch out, but bylooking at my calendar I can see
if I'm in line with mypriorities.
The other most important thingsabout your calendar because I
said I would not do a deep diveso I'm going to move right on is
to plan enough time foreverything more than you think
you need, with buffers and withtravel time.
(14:45):
The most successful people plantheir travel time and
anticipate that there's gonna betraffic, there's gonna be a
road closed, so plan your timeaccordingly and plan blocks of
time in your calendar by result.
So I don't just plan blocks inmy calendar to work on email or
work on marketing.
(15:06):
I plan a chunk in my calendarto write three emails or to work
on website copy for my about mepage.
By the end of that hour I willhave a draft of my copy for the
about me page done or I willhave three emails written.
By the end of that hour I willhave groceries bought and put
(15:30):
away, or whatever it is.
I plan my calendar by theresults first and just make sure
that you plan self-care firstExercise, friend time, non-work
hours, sleep, doctorappointments, that sauna I might
get in, or time to completeyour stress cycles.
You can learn about that on thestress cycles episode, where
(15:52):
you get to walk around, take abreak, take a little dance party
, take a bath and after that youplan your recurring events,
like your work hours.
You're picking up your kids, ifyou have them, meetings, family
meetings, recording a podcast,writing a weekly email, prepping
for the bloom room those arethings for me Doing the weekly
(16:13):
maker's market at the school.
So first we do our self-care,then we do our recurring events
and then we go to our secondtool to complete the rest of our
week.
Our second tool is our weeklyreview, the rest of our week.
Our second tool is our weeklyreview.
So we just covered our firsttool, which is our calendar,
(16:34):
color-coded, tricked outself-love first.
Our second tool is the weeklyreview, and this is two tools
out of three.
The weekly review is based onthe thought leader, david Allen,
who wrote the book that Imentioned, getting Things Done.
This is one hour every weekwhere you plan the work instead
of do the work.
That is so important.
(16:55):
If there's one thing that I seepeople fail at when they're
iterating on getting better atmanaging their time, it's they
start doing the work during theweekly review.
Most important rule is youcan't do the work.
You got to plan the work.
The weekly review is a list ofall of the areas of your
responsibility for work and life.
(17:16):
Every week, you have one hourat the beginning of your week
where you're planning the workinstead of doing it, or planning
your week instead of actuallygetting things done.
You go down that checklistevery week and make sure you've
thought of everything you needto do and scheduled time to do
it.
That's what your weekly reviewis.
(17:38):
That's it.
You don't do anything.
You just go down your list ofall the things that you know
need to happen in the week andyou plan them out.
My weekly review is a Googlespreadsheet and every row is a
different thing that I'mresponsible for and every column
is a date of a Monday.
So every Monday, I do my weeklyreview for one hour and I just
(18:01):
go down and check off all thethings I'm responsible for.
So, on those rows, all thethings I'm responsible for are
exercise, kid time, self-caretime, max time, friend time,
holidays coming up, birthdayscoming up all those life things.
Next are all the things thatare recurring that I have to do.
(18:23):
I need to get time scheduledwith my coach doctor's
appointments, hair appointments,scheduling time with anybody
that's treating the kids,anything for the house all of
those recurring things, and theneverything else that I'm
responsible for.
I'm on a board of trustees.
What do I need to do for that?
Anything this week.
(18:44):
My financial review I need toplan time to do my finances each
week.
My plants in my garden, in myhouse.
What needs to happen there thisweek?
When am I going to plan mymeals and shop for groceries?
Then all my business stuff formy huge passion, which is the
bloom room and my coaching.
When am I going to go into theFacebook group and respond to
(19:06):
all my bloom room people?
When am I going to prepare forall my clients that I see?
Are they all scheduled?
Do any of them need anything?
Do I have a podcast planned forthis week?
When am I going to record it?
When am I going to edit it?
Do I have a podcast planned forthis week?
When am I going to record it?
When am I going to edit it?
Do I have a strategic planningtime set aside for my business?
Is there any traveling I'mdoing this week that I need to
plan for?
Every single thing that I'mresponsible for is a row on this
(19:30):
spreadsheet, and by goingthrough it every single week, I
have a mind like water, becauseI know that I've got everything
that I need to account for thisweek planned for.
If I'm on snacks for thebaseball league, I have planned
to go pick up the snacks andI've planned to bring the snacks
and then I bring them, and Inever have to worry or stress
(19:52):
about forgetting things.
That's our second tool.
There's our calendar is ourfirst tool.
The weekly review is our secondtool, which you can read more
about if you search David Allenor you get his book Getting
Things Done.
The last of the tools is yourlists.
These are things that I like touse for holding reminders when
(20:15):
we need them.
These are the buckets that youcan use to capture things
anytime anywhere out in theworld.
I use a Google Tasks list, butpeople use all different kinds
of things.
You can use a written list, youcan use anything that works for
you.
You can write them down anytime, anywhere, or input them and
then they're ready for you topull up when you need them,
(20:36):
either because you're lookingfor the list, you're in a place
and you have some time and needideas for what to do at that
place.
Or, number three, you'veactually scheduled time on the
calendar to do something and nowyou need your list.
So let's look at all three ofthose options real quickly.
First, let's say you're lookingfor the list.
This might be a list of giftideas.
(20:58):
I have a list for gift ideas.
I have a list for gift ideas.
I have a list for vacations Iwant to take or places I want to
travel.
List for books I want to read.
List for recipes I want to try.
These are the types of liststhat I have Podcasts, books like
movies, shows, all these thingsthat I want to remember and I
want a place to hold them whenI'm out and about.
(21:21):
Or maybe it's option two whenyou're out and about and you're
actually somewhere and you needyour list to remember what was I
going to do when I was in thisplace.
Maybe you're out and about andyou're looking at your errands
list.
Maybe it's a list for homeimprovement projects, because
you've got a weekend, half day,and you're like I know there's
stuff I need to do around thehouse.
What was it?
Again?
You look at your homeimprovement project list.
(21:44):
Maybe things that you thoughtof to do while you're at your
kid's soccer game or at ameeting or waiting for something
at the doctor's office.
Or maybe things I want to helpmy parents with at their house.
Maybe clothes I want when I'mout shopping for clothes.
These are lists you can pull upwhen you're actually in the
place and need to remember allthose things you thought of
(22:04):
randomly in the middle of thenight in the shower or in the
middle of a meeting.
And option three you havescheduled time already in your
calendar and now you need yourlist to remember what to do.
So let's say I have scheduledtime to work on the garden and I
need to know what was I goingto do.
I was going to work on my houseand my garden and I have a list
(22:28):
of the plants that needrepotting.
Or I have scheduled time tohave a meeting with my husband
about the week.
What are all the things Iwanted to talk to him about?
I'll pull up that list.
What are all the things Iwanted to talk to him about?
I'll pull up that list.
So these are the lists and thedifferent ways that they come in
handy.
(22:52):
And lastly, I have a list that Ihighly recommend, called the
waiting for list.
This is a list that capturesanything that you have put out
into the world that you'rewaiting to come back to you.
So if you send an email, yousend a text that is important
and you want to remember tofollow back up on it.
You send a piece of mail, youorder something, you're waiting
(23:15):
for some response, but you don'twant to have to hold that in
your head, because then youwon't have a mind like water.
You put those things on yourwaiting for list and then you
can review it whenever you wantand just think oh yeah, I can
follow back up on that and thatand that it hasn't boomeranged
back to me.
I'm waiting for that thing andI can check back up on it.
(23:40):
So I told you I wasn't going todo a deep dive, so I'm going to
stop there with these three waysto keep your mind like water
and your calendar flowing andyou as present in these
beautiful moments of your lifethat you have to spend in the
ways that you most want to spendthem.
(24:01):
You've got your calendar, yourweekly review and your lists,
and I'm going to stop rightthere.
That's what I've got for youthis week and I will see you
next week.
If you like what you're hearingon the podcast, you've got to
(24:26):
come and join us in the BloomRoom.
This is a year-round membershipwhere we take all of these
concepts and we apply them toreal life in a community where
we have each other's backs andwe bring out the best in each
other.
We're all there to make ourideas real, one idea at a time.
I'll see you in the bloom room,thank you.
Welcome to the Bloom your Mind Podcast, where we take
all of your ideas for what youwant and we turn them into real
things.
I'm your host, certified CoachMarie McDonald.
Let's get into it.
Hello everybody, and welcome toepisode 120 of the Bloom your
(00:33):
Mind podcast.
It's exciting, right?
I know I love all the numbers,but I feel like a special topic
is in order for episode 120, andI have the best topic for you
today.
Now, this is funny because someof you are going to get really
excited about this topic andothers will turn off the episode
(00:55):
when you hear it.
But before I tell you what itis, you probably already know
because of the title.
But just listen.
I used to feel like this topicwas blah.
No, not for me.
I used to feel like this topicwas not sexy, that it was
(01:17):
wasting my time because I wantto be here in the present.
This topic of time management,I used to just think, was the
pits.
What's really ironic, y'all, isthat the experience that I had
is mirrored over and over andover again, and all these people
that I coach when folks needtime management, help folks that
(01:38):
I'm coaching on making theiridea into a real thing, whether
they're in an organization orthey're out on their own, and
I'm going to tell you examplesof this.
The irony is that I used tothink this is not sexy and
literally it gave me time for asex life, but also like, gave me
time to move, gracefully takecare of my body, spend time with
(02:00):
my partner all the sexy stuff.
I used to think I'm not wastingmy time on that, I'm going to
be here in the present moment.
It actually developing skilland time management, stopped me
from wasting time and allowed meto be present in the present
moment.
I also used to think it wassuch a drag that I could not
(02:23):
like force myself to sit downand manage my calendar and my
schedule and all my to-do lists.
And now I love it because ofwhat it has given me People that
I'm working with even justright now right, not all of the
people that I've worked withover time, but just even right
now these are the people who aregetting a ton out of the work
(02:44):
that I've worked with over time,but just even right now these
are the people who are getting aton out of the work that we've
done on time management lately.
Some of these folks are in thebloom room and some are
one-on-one clients ororganizational clients.
But I serve, I coach thedirector of a school and she
sews in her off time.
She has a child, she has a veryfull life and once she started
(03:06):
using these time managementtools, she just was so effusive
about what it gave her in herlife, the amount of time it gave
her back.
When she sat down and usedthese tools, she said I'm doing
sewing projects again and Ihaven't done that in years and
it felt so good to her.
So this is the director of aschool.
(03:28):
Now there's a musician that I'mworking with.
He's an artist who likes to befree and flowy, right.
He's, you know, designing amusic theory course,
collaborating with a bunch ofamazing artists to write an
album, also teaching guitarlessons, and he loves the time
management stuff because itgives him so much time to be
(03:48):
creative and it gives him likehe doesn't worry about whether
or not it's going to happen.
He can relax at the end of theday because he knows he's got
time planned to do what he wants.
I work with a family medicinedoctor who is loving the color
coding that I taught him to dowith his calendar.
I work with a stay-at-homeparent who teaches her three
(04:10):
kids homeschool while travelingthe world.
These time management toolsaround prioritization are
everything to her.
We keep reworking them andapplying them in different ways
and she gets more and more andmore out of them.
I work with a functionalmushroom industry sales manager
and he uses these timemanagement tools all the time.
So I'm just saying, no matterwho you are, these are
(04:33):
applicable to everybody.
Okay, to organize the thingsyou've got in front of you, no
matter how complex they are orif they're very simple and you
don't have a lot of complexityin your life right now, and
literally I've coached hundredsof others.
So today I'm going to give youthe broad strokes of the time
management tools that I teachand I'm working on a course
(04:53):
right now that's going to beavailable for you to take if you
want more on time management,so you can get my coaching and
you can get support and you cando a deep dive on time project
management, getting making youridea into a real thing by
actually planning the steps thatit takes.
It'll be free to everybody.
That's already in the BloomRoom, but it's also going to be
(05:14):
available to you, just if youlike.
Start hearing this and you saythis is a good intro, but I need
more.
It is coming.
So my time management processthat I teach is based on
multiple things.
It's based on lots of booksthat I've read over time on
productivity theory, but also onthe concepts that I've
developed, because they work forme and they work for my clients
(05:35):
.
So I'm not going to do a superdeep dive, but if you want a
couple of book recommendationshere, I'd recommend Getting
Things Done by David Allen,number one and Essentialism by
Greg McCown, and then, if youwant to read ahead of me, the
next book that I'm going to readis Deep Work by Cal Newport, so
(05:55):
you can read ahead and thentell me how it is.
So those I know some of mylisteners love book recs, so
those are book recs.
But you know this timemanagement, these tools just
create freedom, ease, flow.
And let me tell you my favoritemetaphor for this.
This comes from David Allen inthe book Getting Things Done,
and you know I love a goodmetaphor.
(06:15):
So here's this.
He says that we can have a mindlike water.
So let's all visualize thislike the still water on the top
of a pond, and when we throw apebble into the pond, we want to
have a mind that's so stillthat it doesn't overreact or
(06:39):
underreact to the size of thething that's asking for its
attention.
So if it's a small pebble andwe throw it in, the ripples that
get created are kind of small.
If it's a large rock that'sthrown into the pond, the
surface of the water respondsmore actively with bigger
ripples.
What David Allen says and Ilove this is that when we don't
(07:03):
have a system that we trust tomanage our time, we overreact or
underreact, or both orsomewhere in the middle, to the
things that are asking for ourattention.
So maybe a small rock getsthrown into the pond and we
overreact, we make big ripples.
Is that you so like somethingpops up, the yard needs to get
(07:25):
raked, or someone asks you tohelp them fix their printer, or
you get an email asking forsomething and you handle it
right away.
You drop what you're doing andyou forget the plan you had and
you drop the important thing youwere focused on in favor of the
urgent thing in front of you,overreacting to something that's
not actually that important.
Or maybe you underreact.
(07:48):
Is that you?
That might be you if you've gota bill that needs to be paid, a
water leak or a tooth pain thatreally needs to get looked at
and dealt with, but it'soverwhelming to even think about
, with all of the other thingsyou've got going on, so you just
defer it until it becomes a bigproblem.
So remember that our time andour attention these are our most
(08:11):
precious resources.
We have a finite number ofmoments that we are living in
our life and the way that wespend them is ultimately the
most important thing.
So when we manage our time welland we develop skill in this
area, we know that we'rededicating these precious
moments of our life to thethings that are most important
to us and that we havesovereignty.
(08:33):
We're in the driver's seat.
We're always making thedecisions that are in line with
how we want to spend thesemoments of our life.
But in order to do that, we'vegot to have a system that we
trust to hold all of the detailsof our life, so that we can
have a mind, like water, thatreacts in proportion to the
stimulus asking for ourattention.
So I teach this kind of skillon different levels for
(08:56):
different folks.
I teach basic skills and toolsas an intro and then I teach a
level deeper, like a mid-range,for folks that want a little
more robust set of tools Maybethey're tracking more details.
And then a third deep, deeplevel for folks that have more
complicated projects orbusinesses they're running that
have multiple steps and maybemultiple collaborators and maybe
(09:19):
even budgets or P&Ls.
So we've got lots of steps andtoday I'm going to share the
broad strokes with you, thesimple steps you can always
reach out to find out and learnmore.
There are three tools that Irecommend for time management.
There are your calendar, yourweekly review and your lists.
(09:39):
So let's talk about what theseare.
The first and most importanttool I would say is your
calendar.
I put everything in my calendar, and the reason this is so
important as a system that youtrust is because when something
is in your calendar and yourweek is already planned, you've
(10:00):
prioritized it.
One time You've spent the timelooking at everything that's
important to you, you've plannedyour week ahead of time, and
what that means is that youdon't have to waste time
reprioritizing over and over andover and over again.
You look one time, youprioritize everything and then
(10:21):
all you have to do is the thingin front of you my calendar and
the way that I teach to use acalendar has a few different
important components.
The first one is to color codeit.
My calendar has like eightdifferent colors.
There's exercise, which is likea bright green.
There's love, which is liketime with my husband and my
close friends that fill my heart.
(10:42):
That's red.
I have time with my kids, whichis like an indigo.
I have time with my clients,which is like a rose colored.
I have thought work time likedeep focus time, which is a
yellow.
I have time when I'm out andabout, which is like a light
blue.
I have time when I meet with myother side of my business, my
(11:04):
business partner, and that'spurple.
I have volunteer time, which islike a gray color for all my
volunteer work.
I'm probably forgetting somethings, but I have all of these
different colors and whathappens is when I look at my
calendar.
I am a visual person, but thisworks for all different people.
When you look at it, you cantell if you're in balance in two
(11:27):
ways.
First of all, I know I need toexercise every day.
If I don't see green that darkgreen on a day, then I know that
I need to get some on there.
If I don't see that red colorof love on my week a few
different times, I know that I'mnot going to refill my cup
right.
My week is not regenerativeenough, it's not gonna give me
(11:51):
enough back because I give a lotof energy and love out.
So I need to make sure thatthere's some red on my calendar,
like multiple reds on mycalendar, so that I know I'm
getting that love back somehow.
I know I want tons of time withmy kids on there and it shows
me when there's too much.
If I've got like half my weekis indigo, I know I'm a little
out of balance and maybe I needto ask for some support.
(12:13):
It also shows me at a glance ifI need to like be glamming on a
day.
If I have like a publicspeaking event or all clients
all day and I'm leading groupsand workshops, I need to like
glam it up a little bit.
I need to look my best.
I like to look my best everyday, but some days my best is,
like you know, different.
(12:34):
It's not my maxed out, glammedup self, right, it's my best for
that day, which might be alittle more casual.
So that color coding helps meunderstand what type of day it
is.
It helps me understand mybalance and it just shows me the
flow of the week.
Now the second element of thisis that it matches my priority
(12:56):
list.
You can listen to threepriority tricks.
I think it's called a fewepisodes ago that shares a few
different ways to use prioritylists.
These are all things that I'vejust created, where you come up
with your top five prioritiesfor your week.
My number one is always mentaland physical wellbeing.
So I look at my week and Ibetter have enough red for love,
(13:19):
green for exercise, light greenfor other self-care actions,
which might be like a sauna or afacial or something like that.
Some weeks there is none.
Hopefully, every week I can getsomething in that is a long
walk or something that justfeels like self-care above
exercise, and orange, which forme is support for me.
(13:40):
So that would be me seeinghaving a coach or a financial
planner or a therapist orsomebody that's supporting me,
because I support a lot ofpeople all the time.
So I like to have some orangesomewhere that might be a group
coaching program that issupporting me that I'm not
running.
So my priority list is thatfirst.
(14:01):
So I better see all of that.
And then second is my family.
So then I check for Max and thekids.
And then third is mycontribution.
So I look at my calendar andthe third most important thing
is all my clients that I coach,the bloom room, the moxie
mastermind and my volunteerism.
And then I have my otherpriorities and they kind of
switch around.
Sometimes friends and family,adventure, nature, creativity my
(14:25):
last two switch out, but bylooking at my calendar I can see
if I'm in line with mypriorities.
The other most important thingsabout your calendar because I
said I would not do a deep diveso I'm going to move right on is
to plan enough time foreverything more than you think
you need, with buffers and withtravel time.
(14:45):
The most successful people plantheir travel time and
anticipate that there's gonna betraffic, there's gonna be a
road closed, so plan your timeaccordingly and plan blocks of
time in your calendar by result.
So I don't just plan blocks inmy calendar to work on email or
work on marketing.
(15:06):
I plan a chunk in my calendarto write three emails or to work
on website copy for my about mepage.
By the end of that hour I willhave a draft of my copy for the
about me page done or I willhave three emails written.
By the end of that hour I willhave groceries bought and put
(15:30):
away, or whatever it is.
I plan my calendar by theresults first and just make sure
that you plan self-care firstExercise, friend time, non-work
hours, sleep, doctorappointments, that sauna I might
get in, or time to completeyour stress cycles.
You can learn about that on thestress cycles episode, where
(15:52):
you get to walk around, take abreak, take a little dance party
, take a bath and after that youplan your recurring events,
like your work hours.
You're picking up your kids, ifyou have them, meetings, family
meetings, recording a podcast,writing a weekly email, prepping
for the bloom room those arethings for me Doing the weekly
(16:13):
maker's market at the school.
So first we do our self-care,then we do our recurring events
and then we go to our secondtool to complete the rest of our
week.
Our second tool is our weeklyreview, the rest of our week.
Our second tool is our weeklyreview.
So we just covered our firsttool, which is our calendar,
(16:34):
color-coded, tricked outself-love first.
Our second tool is the weeklyreview, and this is two tools
out of three.
The weekly review is based onthe thought leader, david Allen,
who wrote the book that Imentioned, getting Things Done.
This is one hour every weekwhere you plan the work instead
of do the work.
That is so important.
(16:55):
If there's one thing that I seepeople fail at when they're
iterating on getting better atmanaging their time, it's they
start doing the work during theweekly review.
Most important rule is youcan't do the work.
You got to plan the work.
The weekly review is a list ofall of the areas of your
responsibility for work and life.
(17:16):
Every week, you have one hourat the beginning of your week
where you're planning the workinstead of doing it, or planning
your week instead of actuallygetting things done.
You go down that checklistevery week and make sure you've
thought of everything you needto do and scheduled time to do
it.
That's what your weekly reviewis.
(17:38):
That's it.
You don't do anything.
You just go down your list ofall the things that you know
need to happen in the week andyou plan them out.
My weekly review is a Googlespreadsheet and every row is a
different thing that I'mresponsible for and every column
is a date of a Monday.
So every Monday, I do my weeklyreview for one hour and I just
(18:01):
go down and check off all thethings I'm responsible for.
So, on those rows, all thethings I'm responsible for are
exercise, kid time, self-caretime, max time, friend time,
holidays coming up, birthdayscoming up all those life things.
Next are all the things thatare recurring that I have to do.
(18:23):
I need to get time scheduledwith my coach doctor's
appointments, hair appointments,scheduling time with anybody
that's treating the kids,anything for the house all of
those recurring things, and theneverything else that I'm
responsible for.
I'm on a board of trustees.
What do I need to do for that?
Anything this week.
(18:44):
My financial review I need toplan time to do my finances each
week.
My plants in my garden, in myhouse.
What needs to happen there thisweek?
When am I going to plan mymeals and shop for groceries?
Then all my business stuff formy huge passion, which is the
bloom room and my coaching.
When am I going to go into theFacebook group and respond to
(19:06):
all my bloom room people?
When am I going to prepare forall my clients that I see?
Are they all scheduled?
Do any of them need anything?
Do I have a podcast planned forthis week?
When am I going to record it?
When am I going to edit it?
Do I have a podcast planned forthis week?
When am I going to record it?
When am I going to edit it?
Do I have a strategic planningtime set aside for my business?
Is there any traveling I'mdoing this week that I need to
plan for?
Every single thing that I'mresponsible for is a row on this
(19:30):
spreadsheet, and by goingthrough it every single week, I
have a mind like water, becauseI know that I've got everything
that I need to account for thisweek planned for.
If I'm on snacks for thebaseball league, I have planned
to go pick up the snacks andI've planned to bring the snacks
and then I bring them, and Inever have to worry or stress
(19:52):
about forgetting things.
That's our second tool.
There's our calendar is ourfirst tool.
The weekly review is our secondtool, which you can read more
about if you search David Allenor you get his book Getting
Things Done.
The last of the tools is yourlists.
These are things that I like touse for holding reminders when
(20:15):
we need them.
These are the buckets that youcan use to capture things
anytime anywhere out in theworld.
I use a Google Tasks list, butpeople use all different kinds
of things.
You can use a written list, youcan use anything that works for
you.
You can write them down anytime, anywhere, or input them and
then they're ready for you topull up when you need them,
(20:36):
either because you're lookingfor the list, you're in a place
and you have some time and needideas for what to do at that
place.
Or, number three, you'veactually scheduled time on the
calendar to do something and nowyou need your list.
So let's look at all three ofthose options real quickly.
First, let's say you're lookingfor the list.
This might be a list of giftideas.
(20:58):
I have a list for gift ideas.
I have a list for gift ideas.
I have a list for vacations Iwant to take or places I want to
travel.
List for books I want to read.
List for recipes I want to try.
These are the types of liststhat I have Podcasts, books like
movies, shows, all these thingsthat I want to remember and I
want a place to hold them whenI'm out and about.
(21:21):
Or maybe it's option two whenyou're out and about and you're
actually somewhere and you needyour list to remember what was I
going to do when I was in thisplace.
Maybe you're out and about andyou're looking at your errands
list.
Maybe it's a list for homeimprovement projects, because
you've got a weekend, half day,and you're like I know there's
stuff I need to do around thehouse.
What was it?
Again?
You look at your homeimprovement project list.
(21:44):
Maybe things that you thoughtof to do while you're at your
kid's soccer game or at ameeting or waiting for something
at the doctor's office.
Or maybe things I want to helpmy parents with at their house.
Maybe clothes I want when I'mout shopping for clothes.
These are lists you can pull upwhen you're actually in the
place and need to remember allthose things you thought of
(22:04):
randomly in the middle of thenight in the shower or in the
middle of a meeting.
And option three you havescheduled time already in your
calendar and now you need yourlist to remember what to do.
So let's say I have scheduledtime to work on the garden and I
need to know what was I goingto do.
I was going to work on my houseand my garden and I have a list
(22:28):
of the plants that needrepotting.
Or I have scheduled time tohave a meeting with my husband
about the week.
What are all the things Iwanted to talk to him about?
I'll pull up that list.
What are all the things Iwanted to talk to him about?
I'll pull up that list.
So these are the lists and thedifferent ways that they come in
handy.
(22:52):
And lastly, I have a list that Ihighly recommend, called the
waiting for list.
This is a list that capturesanything that you have put out
into the world that you'rewaiting to come back to you.
So if you send an email, yousend a text that is important
and you want to remember tofollow back up on it.
You send a piece of mail, youorder something, you're waiting
(23:15):
for some response, but you don'twant to have to hold that in
your head, because then youwon't have a mind like water.
You put those things on yourwaiting for list and then you
can review it whenever you wantand just think oh yeah, I can
follow back up on that and thatand that it hasn't boomeranged
back to me.
I'm waiting for that thing andI can check back up on it.
(23:40):
So I told you I wasn't going todo a deep dive, so I'm going to
stop there with these three waysto keep your mind like water
and your calendar flowing andyou as present in these
beautiful moments of your lifethat you have to spend in the
ways that you most want to spendthem.
(24:01):
You've got your calendar, yourweekly review and your lists,
and I'm going to stop rightthere.
That's what I've got for youthis week and I will see you
next week.
If you like what you're hearingon the podcast, you've got to
(24:26):
come and join us in the BloomRoom.
This is a year-round membershipwhere we take all of these
concepts and we apply them toreal life in a community where
we have each other's backs andwe bring out the best in each
other.
We're all there to make ourideas real, one idea at a time.
I'll see you in the bloom room,thank you.
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