May 23, 2024 • 32 mins
Hey everyone, Ever feel like your day is a whirlwind and you wonder where all your time went by bedtime? In this episode, we're diving into the secrets of mastering your time with a holistic approach. Reflecting on my journey running an indie yarn shop, I realized the chaos of constant busy work and the importance of focused, mindful time management.
I'll walk you through five steps to gain insight into your current time usage and practical exercises to improve it. We'll cover everything from tracking your time with a bullet journal to setting clear intentions. Plus, I'll share wisdom from Oliver Berkman's book "4,000 Weeks," which reshapes how we view productivity. By the end, you'll have tools to balance your work and personal life better. Don't forget to share your insights with me—I love hearing from you all. Let's create a pattern shift in your life and business!
FULL SHOW-NOTES WITH TAKEAWAYS
GET MAILS HERE!
QUOTE FROM THE EPISODE
"Understanding how you use your current time is the first step to making meaningful changes."
LINKS
- Pattern Shift Website
- Sign Up for Pattern Shift Mails
- Leave a Voice Message
- Oliver Berkman's "4,000 Weeks" on Amazon
- Bullet Journal Method
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do you ever feel like your days are a whirlwind of
tasks?
Yet by the time you hit thepillow, you wonder where all
your time went.
What if you could have a clear,balanced schedule that not only
boosts your productivity butalso leaves room for the things
you love?
In today's episode, we'lluncover the secrets to mastering
(00:23):
your time with a holisticapproach, so get ready to
transform your daily chaos intoa well-oiled machine with lots
of time for fun left.
So when I think of the days whenI used to run an indie yarn
(00:43):
shop and needlecraft school, Imainly think about the headless
chicken that I was constantlydoing things but never really
truly focused.
I knew what I was doing and Iknew why I was doing it.
I just had a really hard timemanaging my time in such a way
(01:06):
that it left time for me tofocus on those things that
actually grow a business.
I was constantly putting outfires and working on big things
with small effects and smallthings that I could have just
skipped.
I came into the door everymorning and started working on
(01:26):
whatever was in front of me, andthen the customers would come
in and I would fill the time inbetween with busy work.
I didn't take the time tofigure out how to actually use
it in the best way.
Now, time is worth its value ingold, but I will warn you to
(01:48):
fall into the trap of timemanagement as we usually talk
about it.
To a certain extent, we need toorganize our time, but in our
effort to find more time to domore things, we want to become
more and more efficient and fillthat time with more and more
things to do, and that's notwhere we want to end up.
(02:10):
My work is to share with youtools and ideas that will help
you to get focused.
Focus will make a bigdifference in getting your work
done in less time and have sometime left to do other important
things in your life.
When we talk about timemanagement, we look at it from a
(02:32):
holistic point of view andbalance it out with reflection
and mindfulness, much like inthe bullet journal method.
It is very important to have ahealthy relationship with time
so that you can stay away fromoverwhelm and burnout.
Hello, my name is Saskia.
(02:52):
Welcome to Pattern Shift.
Are you running a textile craftbusiness or dreaming of
starting one, whether you aretrying to make a living or
something extra on the side,turning from crafter to business
owner can be a steep learningcurve.
It doesn't have to be With 16years of experience in running
small businesses in textilecrafts and a drive to build a
(03:16):
solid alternative to fastfashion.
My mission is to provide youwith no BS, actionable exercises
and strategies in a languagethat makes sense to you, that
you can implement right away soyou can organize, build and grow
your business.
So don't burn out before youget started.
Build a solid base with thehelp of Pattern Shift Podcast
(03:40):
and the Yavol community and itsprograms.
So in today's episode I'll walkyou through five steps and give
you a few exercises to do soyou can get some insight in what
your time management looks likenow and how you can change it
for the better.
By the end of the show you'llunderstand, hopefully, why time
(04:01):
management is a key skill inrunning a small business and
staying happy and healthy whiledoing so.
Ps, I would love to know whereyou are in the world.
Why don't you sign up for thePatentShift mails and just reply
to an email to start aconversation with me?
(04:21):
I'd love to hear from you, findthe link in the show notes and
on patternshiftfm.
Now let's get into today'sepisode.
First, we have to understandour current time usage.
First, you have to understandhow you are currently using your
(04:45):
time.
It is really important to havea beginning point, so the best
way to do that is to startkeeping track of how you spend
your time.
Before you can even start tochange things and make things
better, you really have to knowhow you are living your life
(05:06):
right now.
You think you know and then youwrite it down and you're
shocked.
I remember basically actuallyall of this, all of my kind of
new direction in my work,direction in my work.
(05:31):
I had a key, pivotal momentwhen I did this exercise.
I got my bullet journal and Istarted to keep track of how I
spent my time.
I had two small kids in schoolstill in school, but they're not
that small anymore.
I lived outside of the city.
The school was in the city.
More, I lived outside of thecity.
The school was in the city.
My business was in the city.
I taught at night, I was in theshop.
(05:55):
During the day, I spent a lotof time at home with the kids as
well.
I was doing all the things andby actually taking note of this,
of all of my um, all the thingsthat I was doing.
I found out that the only timeI had truly to myself was the
time driving back from school tomy shop.
(06:20):
And, um, wait, wait, wait,which one was it?
And at night, back from theshop to my house.
When I taught at night becauseI was going back and forth, so
from my house to the shop atnight and back was my only me
time that was so shocking.
(06:42):
Um, I didn't know it was thatbad and it was.
So I decided to dive deeperinto bullet journaling and be
more connected to what I wasactually doing in the moment,
(07:07):
have never looked back.
That was really powerful, and Ihope this exercise has the same
effect on you.
So every day, for at least aweek, you have to write down
what you're doing.
It is for personal insight, itis for preparation.
Of course, you may share yourresults wherever you are, with
whomever, but this is for you tojust see what's happening.
(07:30):
So I would say, group yourtrack time into categories
Family time, work time, me time,house cleaning, dog walking,
sports, social time Kind of makethese categories and then,
(07:52):
first of all, journal aroundthese questions that I'm going
to share with you now.
Just take your journal, take apen and start writing.
Don't be like, be kind toyourself, it can be ugly, it
doesn't have to be correctlanguage, it's all fine, it's
all for you.
(08:13):
So think about these questions.
Where do I spend most of mytime?
Does this feel good for me?
How much time do I actuallyhave to work?
Is my time organized or do Ijust let things happen?
(08:35):
And what do I feel needs tochange and what can stay the
same?
So these are importantquestions.
You can ask this question andjournal about it before you
start tracking, and you can alsodo it after or during.
What you also want to do is tograb your journal or a piece of
(08:58):
paper if you don't have ajournal and write the days of
the week horizontally on top ofthe page, then vertically on the
left-hand side, divide inincrements of 30 minutes or an
hour from the moment that youwake up, usually to the moment
that you go to bed, and thiswill give you vertical spaces
(09:25):
that you can divide intodifferent sections.
Now you can make it fun.
Take colored pencils or makelittle dots for one thing,
stripes for another, but takethis vertical not a line, but a
vertical space and fill it outwith the different categories
(09:48):
that we were talking aboutbefore.
So that would look like, forinstance, from 8 to 8.30, meal
time, and meal time could beorange, I'm just saying
something.
And then it goes from 8.30until 9, take the kids to school
, so that practical family timeor family time and so on and so
(10:11):
forth.
And what will happen by the endof the week?
You'll get a color blocksituation.
So you're color blocking yourtime, and not with the future in
mind.
You are doing, you're making amap of how you are currently
spending your time.
So we're not thinking about theideal situation, we're just
(10:36):
noting what's happening.
If you don't bring your journalwith you everywhere, then make
sure that you have a small pieceof paper or your phone to take
notes so you can do it at theend of the day.
But make sure that you do thisfor at least a week so that you
can have a clear idea of whatyour week looks like.
(11:01):
And then, after that, the secondstep is to analyze this and
reflect on it, and I was talkingabout these questions just
before.
Where do I spend most of mytime?
Does this schedule feel good tome?
How much time.
Do I have to work?
Is my time organized or do Ijust let things happen?
(11:24):
Is my time organized or do Ijust let things happen?
What do I feel needs to changeand what can stay the same?
Again, look at it and writedown what you're feeling, what
you're thinking and how you wantto move forward with this.
It's very valuable to knowwhat's going on and see this in
(11:45):
front of you, to know what'sgoing on and see this in front
of you.
So I just want to mention thatit could be dangerous to overly
plan your time and make it arigid situation.
As you can probably tell fromyour color blocking schedule is
(12:10):
that things are different indifferent days and things do not
always look the same, and youwant to, in the end, get to a
situation where there is time tobreathe, time to move time to
be flexible, and it is all aboutbecoming realistic.
(12:32):
How much time do you actuallyneed to do things and have
enough time to go from A to B?
Don't forget about that as well, and it can be quite shocking
to figure out that you don'thave actually have the time that
you want to have or the timethat you think you need.
(12:52):
Um, but it can also be veryfreeing and liberating.
So, um, um, one of the mostimportant things, that is, um.
The core of this work is tobuild on a healthy relationship
with time and let it breathe alittle bit more.
(13:16):
Then you're much more capableto take care of yourself and
your family and your businessand your dog Monkey, I don't
know, don't have a monkey.
That's not good.
(13:36):
So I always feel like, whateveryou do, if you implement time
to reflect, you areautomatically taking more time
to do things.
You're automatically slowingthings down because reflecting
(14:00):
on what you've done will kind ofstretch your time and it will
offer you so much as well.
Being mindful in the momentwill actually kind of give you
some time back because you arefocusing on what's happening.
You probably know that when youeat, you're not supposed to be
(14:21):
reading something or looking atyour phone and I know we all do
it but when you focus on yourmeal, you process the fact that
you're eating with all yoursenses, and so you'll have the
sense of being full at a morenatural moment.
So it's the same with thegeneral time.
(14:43):
Being mindful in the moment isgifting you back a lot as well.
So, on one hand, we're slowingdown and it feels like we will
get less done, perhaps, and onthe other hand, we'll get time
back by being more mindful andreflecting on our time and how
(15:05):
we use it, so that we can makebetter decisions.
This is actually already.
I'm already going into the nextstep, about setting intentions
and building that framework.
It is just so important to knowwhat your intentions are
Intentions, goals intentions isa better word for it.
(15:28):
Do you want to be more presentas a partner, as a mom?
Did you just get a dog, but youdon't really feel like you're
spending enough time with thedog outside.
All of that is important toknow what your intentions are.
(15:49):
Do you want to grow yourbusiness and have more focus?
While you're at your studio orwherever you are working, write
down what is it that youactually want from the time that
you have available.
So with this, you're buildingon a solid foundation for more
(16:13):
effective work, planning andalso more focus in the end.
Another journaling prompt is howmuch time and I mentioned it
before, but I want to focus onit again how much time do you
(16:34):
actually have to spend on work,ensuring that your personal life
, your family if you have afamily gets enough space and
attention.
So flip the things around whatis the amount of time that you
need so that your personal lifegets enough space and attention
(16:56):
and you can stay happy andhealthy?
And then look at your work howmuch time is left?
Look at your work how much timeis left?
And only after that you canhave a look at how you want to
spend that time.
How can you be more present,effective, efficient, like I
feel?
Efficient in this topic feelslike a little bit of a curse
(17:20):
word, but I just love efficiency.
I mean, if you get away fromthe busy work, if you find ways
to kind of move away from allthe chatter and focus on what
needs to get done.
I mean, these are 700 otherepisodes, but that is, I think
(17:44):
that's gold.
But first things first, right,so first of all we'll start with
journaling and thinking abouthow we use our time.
Then we're going to actuallymap our time, color blocking our
time, and after that we reflecton what we actually see, taking
(18:11):
some of those journalingquestions again and looking at
it again and see if thingschange, and then we will also
look at how much time do weactually have available to do
our job and from that we canmove on into building the ideal
(18:33):
quote unquote ideal week.
But that's something foranother time.
Now, as I said before,reflection and mindfulness is a
very important part inmaintaining a balanced schedule.
Oliver Berkman he wrote his book4,000 Weeks and it made such an
(18:54):
impact on me.
If you have the possibility,please do read it.
Slow down, read that book andyou'll gain more time after.
It is actually so true thatsometimes you have to stop, take
some time to do a thing so thatyou'll have more time after,
(19:17):
and usually those things feel socounterintuitive, but that's
just doesn't sound like a lot,does it?
I mean, it's finite, that's it.
(19:57):
I just wanted to share with yousome of the key points from this
book so that you have an ideawhat this is about and how
Oliver Bergman looks at time andhow it could be so healthy for
you, for me, for everyone, tojust have a different point of
view to this whole timemanagement point of view to this
(20:18):
whole time management,productivity, hustle, culture.
We don't want to go there.
I use the word time managementbecause we're so used to it.
But okay, let's listen to thekey points of this really great
book.
So he talks about the obsessionwith being productive and how it
has made it so difficult forpeople to appreciate family time
(20:40):
.
And the best way to make themost of our time is to actually
spend it doing the things welove.
So it's incredible that I'mtalking to you and you're either
trying to start a business,wanting to start a business in
the textile, craft or creativeindustry, and you are the kind
of person that wants to work anddo the thing you love and earn
(21:05):
a living or earn something extraon the side.
And the best way to do it, thebest way to make the most of our
time, is to do something thatwe love.
It's still going to be work,don't?
I mean we don't have to likepussyfoot around that.
It's still going to be work.
It's still going to be hard,but doing something you love
(21:27):
makes a huge difference in howyou spend your time and how you
feel about that.
This also talks to the conceptof ikigai, a Japanese idea
philosophy, where ikigai is theplace, the crossover, where you
find something that you love,doing something that you're
(21:48):
really good at, and somethingthat can earn you money, but
also something that helps others, helps the world.
So it's kind of like, when youget all of that together, that
ikigai, then you basicallyalready gained a lot of time
(22:10):
because you don't have to splitit, and it will give you,
because you don't have to splitit, and it will give you a
really centered and greatfeeling.
I mean, what's not to loveabout doing what you love and
making money and helping others?
So okay, back to the key pointsof the book.
So distraction is essential toour existence.
(22:30):
Hence, gaining perfect controlover our attention is kind of
problematic.
This is what I was talkingabout before.
We kind of have to be a littlebit flexible and don't have too
rigid ideas of how to spend ourtime.
I do have to say that I thrivewhen I have specific topics for
(22:54):
specific days, because I kind ofneed the routines to.
It's really helpful for me, butat the same time, sometimes I
just really want to mix it up orI just want to go somewhere
else and that then makes mereally happy and that brings a
lot of joy and energy, and thenthe next day that will kind of
(23:18):
give back to me.
Although we recognize that lifeis frequently beyond our control
, many people waste their timeattempting to arrange every
minute.
It's such an interesting onewhen you know that time is
beyond our control.
Arranging every minute is sucha waste of time.
(23:41):
Right?
Paying attention to how wespend our days is the most
effective method for choosingwhat to accomplish with our time
.
So what you can do as anotherlittle exercise is breaking down
all your duties into tinysections and make a list and
(24:05):
actually remember that you onlycan have one priority at a time.
That's actually what the wordis.
It's just one thing at a time.
That's actually what the wordis.
It's just one thing.
So think about it.
Make a list, what is mostimportant to you.
And then another thing you cando is there's technology that
you can use with a specificpurpose in mind, like if you use
(24:29):
an e-reader to read a bookinstead of reading it on your
iPad or on your phone.
You'll be far less likely toget distracted.
That's also more of a be in themoment.
Make use of the time you'vechosen to spend in a certain way
and I mean this is Mrs Squirrel, mrs Shark, I get distracted a
(24:55):
lot of the time, so I'm notsaying you shouldn't get
distracted, it happens.
So what we can do is we canfind ways to get less distracted
so we can actually do the thingwe want to do in less time and
use the time that we have leftto do the other things that are
(25:18):
important to us, right?
So, like everything, the ideais quite simple.
It's just not always easy to do, so that's why these exercises
can help you to get more insightand to have something to work
(25:40):
with in the future.
So I hope this gave you alittle bit of insight.
What we've been talking about isunderstanding how you use your
current time, analyzing andreflecting on that time, then
setting intentions and buildinga framework, some practical
(26:02):
exercises blocking or not reallyblocking your time, but color
blocking your time, becauseblocking your time is something
else that we might talk about inthe future Color blocking your
time and making a map of how youuse your time right now.
And then we talked a little bitabout reflection and
(26:22):
mindfulness in time managementand how to have a holistic
approach, and I talked about the4,000 Weeks book by Oliver
Berkman.
That gives us a differentviewpoint on time, which is
super interesting to me.
I would love if you completeyour exercises, if you want to
(26:44):
share what you did with me, whatyou got from it.
That would be worth more than Idon't know you becoming a
supporter of the show.
I really I'm doing this to helpyou feel better about what you
do and to grow your business sothat other people can enjoy your
(27:05):
products and so that we canmove the hell away from fast
fashion.
That's why I'm doing this, soI'd love to hear about your
exercises, your insights, thethings you got from this and, be
honest, I can take it.
I hope, okay, you can share allof this with me in a multitude
of ways.
(27:26):
The easiest thing you can do isto go into the app where you're
listening to this.
There will be a message sayingsend me a text message.
Just click it.
Send me a text message.
You'll find my website therepatternshiftfm and on the
website you can sign up fornewsletters and get notified
(27:47):
whenever we have a new episodeout.
I also send out newslettersthat focus more on business tips
and tricks, and then you canalso leave a voice message on
the show notes for this episode.
There's a little button on theside and you can just leave me a
voice message.
(28:08):
I would love to hear from you.
Thank you so much.
Until next time, and rememberthat every stitch counts as we
work together and create apattern shift for you, your
business, the crafters and thefashion industry.
Thank you, thank you.
Do you ever feel like your days are a whirlwind of
tasks?
Yet by the time you hit thepillow, you wonder where all
your time went.
What if you could have a clear,balanced schedule that not only
boosts your productivity butalso leaves room for the things
you love?
In today's episode, we'lluncover the secrets to mastering
(00:23):
your time with a holisticapproach, so get ready to
transform your daily chaos intoa well-oiled machine with lots
of time for fun left.
So when I think of the days whenI used to run an indie yarn
(00:43):
shop and needlecraft school, Imainly think about the headless
chicken that I was constantlydoing things but never really
truly focused.
I knew what I was doing and Iknew why I was doing it.
I just had a really hard timemanaging my time in such a way
(01:06):
that it left time for me tofocus on those things that
actually grow a business.
I was constantly putting outfires and working on big things
with small effects and smallthings that I could have just
skipped.
I came into the door everymorning and started working on
(01:26):
whatever was in front of me, andthen the customers would come
in and I would fill the time inbetween with busy work.
I didn't take the time tofigure out how to actually use
it in the best way.
Now, time is worth its value ingold, but I will warn you to
(01:48):
fall into the trap of timemanagement as we usually talk
about it.
To a certain extent, we need toorganize our time, but in our
effort to find more time to domore things, we want to become
more and more efficient and fillthat time with more and more
things to do, and that's notwhere we want to end up.
(02:10):
My work is to share with youtools and ideas that will help
you to get focused.
Focus will make a bigdifference in getting your work
done in less time and have sometime left to do other important
things in your life.
When we talk about timemanagement, we look at it from a
(02:32):
holistic point of view andbalance it out with reflection
and mindfulness, much like inthe bullet journal method.
It is very important to have ahealthy relationship with time
so that you can stay away fromoverwhelm and burnout.
Hello, my name is Saskia.
(02:52):
Welcome to Pattern Shift.
Are you running a textile craftbusiness or dreaming of
starting one, whether you aretrying to make a living or
something extra on the side,turning from crafter to business
owner can be a steep learningcurve.
It doesn't have to be With 16years of experience in running
small businesses in textilecrafts and a drive to build a
(03:16):
solid alternative to fastfashion.
My mission is to provide youwith no BS, actionable exercises
and strategies in a languagethat makes sense to you, that
you can implement right away soyou can organize, build and grow
your business.
So don't burn out before youget started.
Build a solid base with thehelp of Pattern Shift Podcast
(03:40):
and the Yavol community and itsprograms.
So in today's episode I'll walkyou through five steps and give
you a few exercises to do soyou can get some insight in what
your time management looks likenow and how you can change it
for the better.
By the end of the show you'llunderstand, hopefully, why time
(04:01):
management is a key skill inrunning a small business and
staying happy and healthy whiledoing so.
Ps, I would love to know whereyou are in the world.
Why don't you sign up for thePatentShift mails and just reply
to an email to start aconversation with me?
(04:21):
I'd love to hear from you, findthe link in the show notes and
on patternshiftfm.
Now let's get into today'sepisode.
First, we have to understandour current time usage.
First, you have to understandhow you are currently using your
(04:45):
time.
It is really important to havea beginning point, so the best
way to do that is to startkeeping track of how you spend
your time.
Before you can even start tochange things and make things
better, you really have to knowhow you are living your life
(05:06):
right now.
You think you know and then youwrite it down and you're
shocked.
I remember basically actuallyall of this, all of my kind of
new direction in my work,direction in my work.
(05:31):
I had a key, pivotal momentwhen I did this exercise.
I got my bullet journal and Istarted to keep track of how I
spent my time.
I had two small kids in schoolstill in school, but they're not
that small anymore.
I lived outside of the city.
The school was in the city.
More, I lived outside of thecity.
The school was in the city.
My business was in the city.
I taught at night, I was in theshop.
(05:55):
During the day, I spent a lotof time at home with the kids as
well.
I was doing all the things andby actually taking note of this,
of all of my um, all the thingsthat I was doing.
I found out that the only timeI had truly to myself was the
time driving back from school tomy shop.
(06:20):
And, um, wait, wait, wait,which one was it?
And at night, back from theshop to my house.
When I taught at night becauseI was going back and forth, so
from my house to the shop atnight and back was my only me
time that was so shocking.
(06:42):
Um, I didn't know it was thatbad and it was.
So I decided to dive deeperinto bullet journaling and be
more connected to what I wasactually doing in the moment,
(07:07):
have never looked back.
That was really powerful, and Ihope this exercise has the same
effect on you.
So every day, for at least aweek, you have to write down
what you're doing.
It is for personal insight, itis for preparation.
Of course, you may share yourresults wherever you are, with
whomever, but this is for you tojust see what's happening.
(07:30):
So I would say, group yourtrack time into categories
Family time, work time, me time,house cleaning, dog walking,
sports, social time Kind of makethese categories and then,
(07:52):
first of all, journal aroundthese questions that I'm going
to share with you now.
Just take your journal, take apen and start writing.
Don't be like, be kind toyourself, it can be ugly, it
doesn't have to be correctlanguage, it's all fine, it's
all for you.
(08:13):
So think about these questions.
Where do I spend most of mytime?
Does this feel good for me?
How much time do I actuallyhave to work?
Is my time organized or do Ijust let things happen?
(08:35):
And what do I feel needs tochange and what can stay the
same?
So these are importantquestions.
You can ask this question andjournal about it before you
start tracking, and you can alsodo it after or during.
What you also want to do is tograb your journal or a piece of
(08:58):
paper if you don't have ajournal and write the days of
the week horizontally on top ofthe page, then vertically on the
left-hand side, divide inincrements of 30 minutes or an
hour from the moment that youwake up, usually to the moment
that you go to bed, and thiswill give you vertical spaces
(09:25):
that you can divide intodifferent sections.
Now you can make it fun.
Take colored pencils or makelittle dots for one thing,
stripes for another, but takethis vertical not a line, but a
vertical space and fill it outwith the different categories
(09:48):
that we were talking aboutbefore.
So that would look like, forinstance, from 8 to 8.30, meal
time, and meal time could beorange, I'm just saying
something.
And then it goes from 8.30until 9, take the kids to school
, so that practical family timeor family time and so on and so
(10:11):
forth.
And what will happen by the endof the week?
You'll get a color blocksituation.
So you're color blocking yourtime, and not with the future in
mind.
You are doing, you're making amap of how you are currently
spending your time.
So we're not thinking about theideal situation, we're just
(10:36):
noting what's happening.
If you don't bring your journalwith you everywhere, then make
sure that you have a small pieceof paper or your phone to take
notes so you can do it at theend of the day.
But make sure that you do thisfor at least a week so that you
can have a clear idea of whatyour week looks like.
(11:01):
And then, after that, the secondstep is to analyze this and
reflect on it, and I was talkingabout these questions just
before.
Where do I spend most of mytime?
Does this schedule feel good tome?
How much time.
Do I have to work?
Is my time organized or do Ijust let things happen?
(11:24):
Is my time organized or do Ijust let things happen?
What do I feel needs to changeand what can stay the same?
Again, look at it and writedown what you're feeling, what
you're thinking and how you wantto move forward with this.
It's very valuable to knowwhat's going on and see this in
(11:45):
front of you, to know what'sgoing on and see this in front
of you.
So I just want to mention thatit could be dangerous to overly
plan your time and make it arigid situation.
As you can probably tell fromyour color blocking schedule is
(12:10):
that things are different indifferent days and things do not
always look the same, and youwant to, in the end, get to a
situation where there is time tobreathe, time to move time to
be flexible, and it is all aboutbecoming realistic.
(12:32):
How much time do you actuallyneed to do things and have
enough time to go from A to B?
Don't forget about that as well, and it can be quite shocking
to figure out that you don'thave actually have the time that
you want to have or the timethat you think you need.
(12:52):
Um, but it can also be veryfreeing and liberating.
So, um, um, one of the mostimportant things, that is, um.
The core of this work is tobuild on a healthy relationship
with time and let it breathe alittle bit more.
(13:16):
Then you're much more capableto take care of yourself and
your family and your businessand your dog Monkey, I don't
know, don't have a monkey.
That's not good.
(13:36):
So I always feel like, whateveryou do, if you implement time
to reflect, you areautomatically taking more time
to do things.
You're automatically slowingthings down because reflecting
(14:00):
on what you've done will kind ofstretch your time and it will
offer you so much as well.
Being mindful in the momentwill actually kind of give you
some time back because you arefocusing on what's happening.
You probably know that when youeat, you're not supposed to be
(14:21):
reading something or looking atyour phone and I know we all do
it but when you focus on yourmeal, you process the fact that
you're eating with all yoursenses, and so you'll have the
sense of being full at a morenatural moment.
So it's the same with thegeneral time.
(14:43):
Being mindful in the moment isgifting you back a lot as well.
So, on one hand, we're slowingdown and it feels like we will
get less done, perhaps, and onthe other hand, we'll get time
back by being more mindful andreflecting on our time and how
(15:05):
we use it, so that we can makebetter decisions.
This is actually already.
I'm already going into the nextstep, about setting intentions
and building that framework.
It is just so important to knowwhat your intentions are
Intentions, goals intentions isa better word for it.
(15:28):
Do you want to be more presentas a partner, as a mom?
Did you just get a dog, but youdon't really feel like you're
spending enough time with thedog outside.
All of that is important toknow what your intentions are.
(15:49):
Do you want to grow yourbusiness and have more focus?
While you're at your studio orwherever you are working, write
down what is it that youactually want from the time that
you have available.
So with this, you're buildingon a solid foundation for more
(16:13):
effective work, planning andalso more focus in the end.
Another journaling prompt is howmuch time and I mentioned it
before, but I want to focus onit again how much time do you
(16:34):
actually have to spend on work,ensuring that your personal life
, your family if you have afamily gets enough space and
attention.
So flip the things around whatis the amount of time that you
need so that your personal lifegets enough space and attention
(16:56):
and you can stay happy andhealthy?
And then look at your work howmuch time is left?
Look at your work how much timeis left?
And only after that you canhave a look at how you want to
spend that time.
How can you be more present,effective, efficient, like I
feel?
Efficient in this topic feelslike a little bit of a curse
(17:20):
word, but I just love efficiency.
I mean, if you get away fromthe busy work, if you find ways
to kind of move away from allthe chatter and focus on what
needs to get done.
I mean, these are 700 otherepisodes, but that is, I think
(17:44):
that's gold.
But first things first, right,so first of all we'll start with
journaling and thinking abouthow we use our time.
Then we're going to actuallymap our time, color blocking our
time, and after that we reflecton what we actually see, taking
(18:11):
some of those journalingquestions again and looking at
it again and see if thingschange, and then we will also
look at how much time do weactually have available to do
our job and from that we canmove on into building the ideal
(18:33):
quote unquote ideal week.
But that's something foranother time.
Now, as I said before,reflection and mindfulness is a
very important part inmaintaining a balanced schedule.
Oliver Berkman he wrote his book4,000 Weeks and it made such an
(18:54):
impact on me.
If you have the possibility,please do read it.
Slow down, read that book andyou'll gain more time after.
It is actually so true thatsometimes you have to stop, take
some time to do a thing so thatyou'll have more time after,
(19:17):
and usually those things feel socounterintuitive, but that's
just doesn't sound like a lot,does it?
I mean, it's finite, that's it.
(19:57):
I just wanted to share with yousome of the key points from this
book so that you have an ideawhat this is about and how
Oliver Bergman looks at time andhow it could be so healthy for
you, for me, for everyone, tojust have a different point of
view to this whole timemanagement point of view to this
(20:18):
whole time management,productivity, hustle, culture.
We don't want to go there.
I use the word time managementbecause we're so used to it.
But okay, let's listen to thekey points of this really great
book.
So he talks about the obsessionwith being productive and how it
has made it so difficult forpeople to appreciate family time
(20:40):
.
And the best way to make themost of our time is to actually
spend it doing the things welove.
So it's incredible that I'mtalking to you and you're either
trying to start a business,wanting to start a business in
the textile, craft or creativeindustry, and you are the kind
of person that wants to work anddo the thing you love and earn
(21:05):
a living or earn something extraon the side.
And the best way to do it, thebest way to make the most of our
time, is to do something thatwe love.
It's still going to be work,don't?
I mean we don't have to likepussyfoot around that.
It's still going to be work.
It's still going to be hard,but doing something you love
(21:27):
makes a huge difference in howyou spend your time and how you
feel about that.
This also talks to the conceptof ikigai, a Japanese idea
philosophy, where ikigai is theplace, the crossover, where you
find something that you love,doing something that you're
(21:48):
really good at, and somethingthat can earn you money, but
also something that helps others, helps the world.
So it's kind of like, when youget all of that together, that
ikigai, then you basicallyalready gained a lot of time
(22:10):
because you don't have to splitit, and it will give you,
because you don't have to splitit, and it will give you a
really centered and greatfeeling.
I mean, what's not to loveabout doing what you love and
making money and helping others?
So okay, back to the key pointsof the book.
So distraction is essential toour existence.
(22:30):
Hence, gaining perfect controlover our attention is kind of
problematic.
This is what I was talkingabout before.
We kind of have to be a littlebit flexible and don't have too
rigid ideas of how to spend ourtime.
I do have to say that I thrivewhen I have specific topics for
(22:54):
specific days, because I kind ofneed the routines to.
It's really helpful for me, butat the same time, sometimes I
just really want to mix it up orI just want to go somewhere
else and that then makes mereally happy and that brings a
lot of joy and energy, and thenthe next day that will kind of
(23:18):
give back to me.
Although we recognize that lifeis frequently beyond our control
, many people waste their timeattempting to arrange every
minute.
It's such an interesting onewhen you know that time is
beyond our control.
Arranging every minute is sucha waste of time.
(23:41):
Right?
Paying attention to how wespend our days is the most
effective method for choosingwhat to accomplish with our time
.
So what you can do as anotherlittle exercise is breaking down
all your duties into tinysections and make a list and
(24:05):
actually remember that you onlycan have one priority at a time.
That's actually what the wordis.
It's just one thing at a time.
That's actually what the wordis.
It's just one thing.
So think about it.
Make a list, what is mostimportant to you.
And then another thing you cando is there's technology that
you can use with a specificpurpose in mind, like if you use
(24:29):
an e-reader to read a bookinstead of reading it on your
iPad or on your phone.
You'll be far less likely toget distracted.
That's also more of a be in themoment.
Make use of the time you'vechosen to spend in a certain way
and I mean this is Mrs Squirrel, mrs Shark, I get distracted a
(24:55):
lot of the time, so I'm notsaying you shouldn't get
distracted, it happens.
So what we can do is we canfind ways to get less distracted
so we can actually do the thingwe want to do in less time and
use the time that we have leftto do the other things that are
(25:18):
important to us, right?
So, like everything, the ideais quite simple.
It's just not always easy to do, so that's why these exercises
can help you to get more insightand to have something to work
(25:40):
with in the future.
So I hope this gave you alittle bit of insight.
What we've been talking about isunderstanding how you use your
current time, analyzing andreflecting on that time, then
setting intentions and buildinga framework, some practical
(26:02):
exercises blocking or not reallyblocking your time, but color
blocking your time, becauseblocking your time is something
else that we might talk about inthe future Color blocking your
time and making a map of how youuse your time right now.
And then we talked a little bitabout reflection and
(26:22):
mindfulness in time managementand how to have a holistic
approach, and I talked about the4,000 Weeks book by Oliver
Berkman.
That gives us a differentviewpoint on time, which is
super interesting to me.
I would love if you completeyour exercises, if you want to
(26:44):
share what you did with me, whatyou got from it.
That would be worth more than Idon't know you becoming a
supporter of the show.
I really I'm doing this to helpyou feel better about what you
do and to grow your business sothat other people can enjoy your
(27:05):
products and so that we canmove the hell away from fast
fashion.
That's why I'm doing this, soI'd love to hear about your
exercises, your insights, thethings you got from this and, be
honest, I can take it.
I hope, okay, you can share allof this with me in a multitude
of ways.
(27:26):
The easiest thing you can do isto go into the app where you're
listening to this.
There will be a message sayingsend me a text message.
Just click it.
Send me a text message.
You'll find my website therepatternshiftfm and on the
website you can sign up fornewsletters and get notified
(27:47):
whenever we have a new episodeout.
I also send out newslettersthat focus more on business tips
and tricks, and then you canalso leave a voice message on
the show notes for this episode.
There's a little button on theside and you can just leave me a
voice message.
(28:08):
I would love to hear from you.
Thank you so much.
Until next time, and rememberthat every stitch counts as we
work together and create apattern shift for you, your
business, the crafters and thefashion industry.
Thank you, thank you.
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