Let’s make your life less stressful through the nerdy power of time management

A lot of time management strategists out there are big fans of time auditing – i.e., tracking your time for a day, week, or month so you get clear on where your time is going.  I’m… not one of those people.  Don’t get me wrong – I see the value in a time audit.  I […]

It’s Friday – which means, it’s Planning Day!

I’m a huge fan of planning on Friday afternoons for two main reasons.

Do you have to deal with CLEs, CMEs, or other continuing education requirements?

As I listened to one last night and logged it into my little CLE tracker spreadsheet, I realized I’m just two credits shy of meeting my requirements for this CLE period – and they aren’t due until January. This was one of those moments where I felt super grateful to Past Me for setting up Future Me to get something done without the last-minute scramble.

I just created a game plan to get it done over time – and voila! You can, too.

Here’re my tips for making CLE/CME/CE-compliance as painless as possible.

Ever heard of that time management advice to list out your “one thing” or “top three things” you have to do today – and then focus on those things until they’re done?

I’m not a fan. Here’re are a couple of reasons why and what we should focus on instead.

Two weeks ago, a prospective client said, “I’ve tried time-blocking before, and it didn’t work. How is your method different?”

Man oh man, do I get it. It took me a LONG time to figure out how to make time-blocking work for me and now my clients. I almost gave up, too.

Time-blocking, in short, is putting an entry in your calendar for when you’ll do an activity or task. Basically, you don’t just use your calendar for events with other people – you use it to figure out when you’ll do EVERYTHING on your plate.

Sounds simple, but, yikes, can it get unwieldy fast.

I eventually figured out a way that time-blocking, within the right system and with the right approach, DELIVERS. It provides incredible clarity and freedom and helps you go to bed feeling proud of today and calm about tomorrow (which feels pretty different from the days when I relied on to-do lists to get things done).

So, let’s dig into the common hangups that derail time-blocking efforts and explain why you should give it another chance – this time within the right system.

How do we manage our energy to show up in the way that we want to in our homes, at work, to better our country, and for ourselves – when the work and the context in which we’re doing it (hey, COVID) are so heavy?

There are no right or wrong strategies here, but here are some of mine.

Your to-do list will never be done. Before you think, “Kelly, that’s depressing – not freeing,” let me offer a different perspective:

It’s an incredibly powerful thing to realize and truly absorb.

Since you literally cannot finish your to-do list, let go of the pressure to get it all done RIGHT NOW.

Okay…but it’s easier said than done, right?

It’s hard to NOT see those 49 things on the list when you’re trying to relax.

Well, what if you could figure out when you’ll do those things – and then hide them until you were going to do them?

You’d get to avoid that “looming to-do’s” feeling.

You’d get to feel accomplished at the end of the day, not defeated by your never-ending to-do list.

And you’d still know they’d get done because they’d circle back around when it was time to do them.

And THAT’s why I’m such a big advocate for putting all of it in your calendar – because that’s exactly what happens.

I have reminders to call friends in my calendar ⠀
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Before you mentally lay into me thinking that’s too weird, give me a chance to explain.⠀

Good news, team! To-do lists CAUSE a lot of your overwhelm. ⠀⠀
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Let me back up – Most of you know I’m not a big fan of to-do lists or keeping track of your to-dos in list-type apps, post-it notes, etc. ⠀⠀
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I’ve always thought they don’t really help you get stuff done. ⠀⠀
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They don’t tell you whether a task will take 2 minutes or 5 hours. They don’t tell you if you need to do them during business hours when offices are open. They don’t tell you if you should do something when your energy is good or can be done when you’re tired. ⠀⠀
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I just thought they weren’t all that helpful. ⠀⠀
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But after doing this now for 2+ years, here’s what I’ve discovered: ⠀⠀
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Not only do to-do lists not help you, they actually CAUSE a lot of your overwhelm. ⠀⠀