[00:00:00] Leah: There is a way to ensure that your work time does not spill into your family time. There is a way to make sure that you have time for that workout and a date night. There’s even a way to stop forgetting to get that thing done, whatever that thing is for you, . You schedule it. I have a reoccurring appointment on my calendar for date night. I’ve got a time block for workouts, and there’s a 15 minute appointment next week to remind me to call and schedule the HVAC guy to check out our AC unit. Stephen Covey famously said, time management is really a misnomer.

[00:01:07] The challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves. So before anything else, we have to talk about our willingness to change up our routines, to stop doing what’s not serving us, and start doing something different so that we can get different results. If you love it, keep it, but if you don’t, it only gets better if we’re willing to make a change.

[00:01:36] Maybe that means subtracting something from your life right now. It doesn’t have to mean forever, but maybe all those activities, they’re just too much in this season. Or maybe it means going through the grueling process of turning yourself into a morning person so you can get your workouts in and get dressed before the kids wake up.

[00:01:57] When I was first trying to adjust myself after really bad habits of staying up way, way too late and really messing up my time clock. To get myself into a morning person. I worked in increments of 10 or 15 minutes, so I wanted to get to a point where I woke up, let’s say at 6:00 AM but I was getting up at more like 8:00 AM Okay.

[00:02:17] So I started by setting an alarm for 7 45, then seven 30. Then seven 15, then seven. And each time I would ask myself, okay, with this extra 10 or 15 minutes, what do I wanna add? What would be the most powerful for me? What I knew was that eventually I wanted to have time to work out, shower, get dressed, pray, listen to some personal development, read my scriptures.

[00:02:39] There was a lot of things I wanted to have in my personal quiet time, but I couldn’t start with all of it. In fact, part of that was starting with like a 10 minute workout, because I mean, I wasn’t giving myself much time and then building it up to a 15 minute, a 20 minute, a 30 minute, all the way up to an hour or more.

[00:02:57] But it didn’t start that way because I had to work my way into the person I wanted to be. All or nothing rarely works. We end up choosing nothing because the all is just too hard. So incremental progress is so much better than no progress at all. The goal is to feel good about how we spend our time.

[00:03:17] When we lay down at night, think about it. That is really the goal. It’s to lay down at the end of the day and feel like that was a good day, I felt. Good. I felt productive. I felt like I was doing the right things at the right time, in the right places, that I was present, that I was powerful, that I was passionate, that I was productive.

[00:03:39] All of these incredible things happen because we set our intentions, because we make incremental changes that bring us closer to that best version of ourselves.

[00:03:49] The worst feeling is when we collapse into bed at the end of the day, and we know we never stopped moving, but we’re not even sure what we did. So many nights, I used to feel that way. I never stopped. I never took a break. I don’t even know if I remembered to eat lunch or had time. I was eating the leftover goldfish or whatever.

[00:04:09] And yet when I laid my head down, I wasn’t even really sure what I accomplished. If I accomplished anything that was really, really hard and I wanted to change that. And if you wanna change that, you can. It is absolutely possible. I. First off, you have to schedule systems that work for you. Systems should be simple.

[00:04:31] I cannot stress that enough. Your systems should be simple, and if a system isn’t working, then that’s okay. It’s just not the right system for you. You’re not broken. Nothing’s wrong with you. We just need to adjust. The system. Systems are anything that allow you to get the results you want easier. So I have systems for dinner.

[00:04:54] You see all these different things about meal planning and grocery shopping. I have whole episodes about this. But all of those things, they’re helping to build a system that makes it so it’s easier for you to accomplish the goal that you want. So look at all the areas of your life. Look at what’s important to you, and then ask yourself, what’s the simplest way to achieve the results I want?

[00:05:16] And set up a little system for yourself that makes that easier. Another thing that I think is really important is to create white space. Create some pause time, create time where you can just think about and look at and factor in everything that you have going on, and make sure that you’re on track or being able to have enough pause in between different tasks so that you can reset, get your bearings, and go forward.

[00:05:44] Another thing I’ve gotta suggest is embracing routines. Routines are not stifling. They are freeing. The more routines I have, the more results I get, and those results create that better life that I want. Embrace your routines. Find a way to enjoy the routine, to love the routine. Talk good about the routines.

[00:06:10] Don’t say things like I have to say things like I get to, but embrace your routines and then make sure that you are prioritizing first things first. So, One of the best ways we can ensure that when we hit the pillow at night, we feel good about our day, is that whatever was the most important thing that we believed.

[00:06:29] This is the thing that I really need to prioritize for this day, that we do it first, that we just get it done. That way if anything goes wrong, if things show up in our day that we weren’t expecting, it’s okay because we did that most important thing first. Another thing that I think is so, so critical for making time for the things you actually want in your life is to schedule them first.

[00:06:52] Oh my goodness, this is so obvious. And yet, why do we not think of this? I cannot tell you in my early, early years as a business owner, how often I let all of the obligatory things get scheduled in, and then I would see the school calendar and be like, oh my gosh, I scheduled something on top of the Christmas performance or, Their day off from school or whatever it might be.

[00:07:13] Schedule in your priorities that are around the life you want. Schedule those first. So that means date nights, that means your kids’ activities that you’re like, I want to be there. This is important. That means vacations, that means time with friends, schedule in those things. I’ve shared this with you guys before, but one of the things I wanted for my best life was to get massages regularly.

[00:07:38] And so when my kids were in elementary school, it was scheduled in meeting with Sage. Sage stood for massage. Okay. And it was a massage every Wednesday afternoon that was scheduled in. So it happened. And then of course, we have to actually remember to check our calendars. I don’t know if I’m the only one who struggles with this, but I will schedule it all in and then, Forget to actually look at the schedule, which is completely unhelpful and useful.

[00:08:07] So make sure that you check in with your calendar regularly. If you use a digital calendar, that’s easy because we can have alarms. That’s why I love them. If you have paper, well then you actually are gonna have to remember to check, but you could even set a little silent alarm on your phone to check the paper calendar.

[00:08:22] There’s always a system available to save us, so that is the simplest system. That makes it possible to make sure that you check your calendar, and that’s what we look for, all these different areas in our life. What is the system that can make me more powerful, more productive, more present, more of what I want to be?

[00:08:43] And so I shared this, but in case it’s not super clear, using reminders and alerts is very, very powerful. Use those alarms for more than just waking up. I have dozens of alarms in my phone that I set as custom reminders for things that I want to do that I want to be all those good things, .

[00:09:03] And don’t be afraid to subtract. Removing things from our life is one of the best ways to make room for more of what we want. I have an incredible episode with Lighty Klaus where we talk all about how to simplify your life using subtraction. He has an incredible book, subtract The Untapped Science of Less, and after I read it, I was like, I have to talk to him.

[00:09:28] I love this. So he’s on the podcast, I believe it’s episode 17. We’ll make sure it’s linked in the show notes, of course for you as well.

[00:09:35] But ultimately, if you want to experience more joy in your life, Just schedule it in, schedule in the family time, schedule in fun, schedule in friends, schedule in your fitness schedule in good food. That’s a lot of F’s. Family, fun, friends, fitness, food, but schedule in what’s important to you. Schedule in date, night schedule in the massage schedule in.

[00:10:02] The lunch with your girlfriend, schedule in the activities with your kids. Sometimes I am scheduling in things that I just want to do that games this evening with the family schedule in how you wanna experience your life and then honor and follow your schedule. This will never work if we just ignore what we put in there.

[00:10:27] We have to show up. For the life that we want. So there you go. That is how we get to schedule, get to experience, get to have our best life. We make it happen, and you are worth living your best life. You’re worth experiencing it. If you need to start small, just start with a few things and then work your way up.

[00:10:51] But schedule the life you want, put it in the calendar, and then honor that schedule. All right. That’s it for this episode of The Balancing Busy Podcast. I am Leah Reley here to help you do less but better so that you can live a life that lights you up. Thank you so much for being part of the Balancing Busy podcast.

[00:11:15] I’m so grateful for you’re here and who’s someone that you wanna schedule in a little more fun with, who’s someone where you’re like, I want you on my schedule because you are part of my best life. Share this episode with them and let them know.