Time Management Tips for the Woman Doing It All

Welcome to the In Between Podcast, a show for women navigating the space between where they are and where they want to be.

This is your go-to holistic business podcast where we dive into strategies, mindset, habits, and of course, making a meaningful income so you can live your dream life.

I'm Astrid, a multi-six-figure luxury wedding photographer and a former corporate marketing girly.

And I'm Alexis with 10+ years in tech as a senior brand partnerships manager and business coach. Think of us as your business besties cheering you on as you level up. Let's get into it.

Hello friends, and welcome back to another episode of The In Between Podcast. This is one of your hosts, Astrid.

And the other half, Alexis. And today on the podcast, we are talking time management and productivity. We have not talked about this yet this year, and I thought it might be a nice refresher. We thought it might be a nice refresher, especially after we talked And touched on our goals last quarter, or sorry, last episode for the quarter, for the year ahead. And a lot of times it comes down to how we're spending our time, like our ability to make progress on the things that are important to us in our life and our business are dictated by the amount of time that we actually spend on them and how we manage our time. So I'm really looking forward to Digging into this topic because I always— I love this topic. Like, anytime I see it come up on other podcast episodes, I'm like, oh, okay, great. How do they manage their time? Like, I love learning and nerding out about this. So I'm excited to chat with you about it today, and it's going to be a fun one. Also, full disclaimer, Astrid and I are a little slap-happy.

Yes.

And coming off of like a very busy work week, as I'm sure you are too, as you're listening to this. So if our energy seems low, it's, it's not you. It's me.

It's us.

It's—

we take accountability for all of it. No, I am literally so excited for this. I feel like I could talk about time management literally till the day that I die, because it's— there's so many aspects to this and being able to, um, identify what works for you, what works for you in different seasons. It's not a one-size-fits-all. And I think that's That's why there's so many different takes on this. So I am stoked for each of us to share what's worked for us, what we've learned through our time management seasons as well, and to share all the tips. But before we jump into that, let's do a little bit of life updates. What have you been up to?

Life updates. Well, Matthew and I are in a back-to-back hosting season. So we hosted my parents this past weekend. We're hosting Matthew's parents this upcoming weekend. So we are in our like, how are we going to entertain? What are we going to do? Um, which is so fun. We feel really grateful that our family wants to come see us and visit us. Um, so that's been really fun. And then I am heading to Austin to a conference called the Newsletter Marketing Summit, which is so funny because I was just talking about how I wanted to grow a newsletter and I'm actually attending there on behalf of Circle. So I'm looking forward to that, looking forward to learning, hanging out with a bunch of the speakers, a bunch of our partners and customers will be there. And then also just get to learn like, okay, what's working in the newsletter marketing space? How are people launching them? How are they monetizing them? So really looking forward to like that refresher and then heading to Spain. So we're going to be in Spain for almost 2 weeks and really looking forward to just Being back in Europe, tapas, like there's something about wearing white pants. I don't know why. Okay. But like wearing white pants in Europe is like a whole vibe. So I've got mine, I've got mine hung up and I've started to plan outfits. So that's what's going on in my world right now.

I am obsessed with you. And yes, 10 out of 10, the white pants in Europe is a whole personality. I instantly feel, feel more rich. I do wear white pants in Europe. I'm— I am rich.

And like the type of white pant too. Like, is it— oh, is it a white pant that has a like slack zipper, you know, hook and eye enclosure? Is it drawstring white pants? Like, or just come from the beach? Like, there's variations of the white pants. And anyways, I'm very excited about bringing all of my pairs of white pants to Spain.

Oh my gosh, please, please make content on the white pants scenario because the pod community will understand. That's fair.

I have my I've been thinking a lot about content ideas and like how I want to create content while I'm there and doing like a travel day. I have a 5-hour layover in the Paris airport.

Oh, how fun.

And the Paris airport is notorious for fantastic shopping. And I'm really looking forward to doing some shopping. I have a few things picked out. I have some like they're priced out and like what they would cost. If I will buy them, I don't know, but I have been thinking about it for the last like 5, 6 weeks. And that was one of the reasons I booked this flight is I could have had like a layover somewhere else. And I was like, you know what? I do want to layover with like macaroons and like Miu Miu and Hermès.

I do want that.

So yeah.

That's what I call effective time management. Why take the other flight instead of this one? And then now you shop and fly on your way to work.

Yeah.

Multitasking queen.

Living the life really, like very freaking grateful. Yeah, lots of content to come. And I'm looking forward to that. You're going to see like spend 5 hours with me in the Paris airport. You know?

I love it. I literally cannot wait. And also such a fun life hack. I would have never known that about the airport.

Well, yeah, because they have all the VAT tax and it's duty-free. So you're buying things at a discount and then you have to pay taxes on them.

I love that. I love that. Well, please FaceTime me and I will send you money. On my end, things have been a bit more calm, and it's been so good for my nervous system. I feel like this whole past— this might just roll into my in-between, honestly. But this whole past year, I've really leaned into sprint seasons and slower seasons and days of rest and days of sprinting. And it has just— I genuinely feel like I'm really stepping into my feminine power with it, and it's been so beautiful. And so Yeah, I've been loving being at home, not traveling as much, getting things cleaned up here. Just like, yeah, there's something about just being in your own space. And then I feel like once springtime comes and it's lots of travel, I won't feel in that mindset of survival of like, okay, got to pack, got to wash, got to do all these things. And so yeah, it feels really good. So I've been really focusing on my routines. I am such a walking pad girl. I already hit my 10K steps for the day and it's only 4, almost 4 o'clock.

So impressed, girl.

Yeah, it's incredible to do that with like, while I'm working.

Like, I need to check my step count for the day. Oh my God.

What is it? 300?

It's 738 steps. Criminal.

I love that.

So all that— this is why, this is why we gotta be honest, you know. I asked her to say her 10K and I have not broke 1,000, but I am going on a walk with Piper and Matthew after work, so I will get probably about 4.

You've got this. You're gonna get to 5. I love it.

You're influencing me on the walking pad though.

Girl, best $150 I spent. For sure. Or 180, whatever it was. Like, I use it every day. It not only helps me with my health, but it really helps my focus. Like, just being able to be on that walking pad while I'm working, it's, it's like sets the, the beat for the space, the pace that I'm working on.

Yeah.

And then every time I'm posting to social media or like answering emails, I can just be on my phone while I do that. And instead of being on my couch, which is what I used to do while I edited videos and did all that good stuff. So that's honestly been, been a game changer. Um, and it's one of those things where like when life gets busy with work, I can still get my steps and movement in during work time and then I can just roll into the next thing.

Yeah.

So that's been on my end, cooking lots, just being on top of my habits and stuff has— it, it's felt like a cloud lifted since I went to Miami and it's felt really, really nice to be in my body, in my brain, and like trying to sort through certain things too. So yeah, just fun. Having regular weekends as a photographer feels like a special little treat, so I'm enjoying that.

That's amazing. I love that you're in your flow right now and feeling very grounded and your habits feel consistent and you just like have that, um, natural glow about you when like Things are going well, and I love that for you. You deserve to glow every single day. So is that you're in between too?

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

If yeah.

All right. Mine is let's see. I would say I'll do a personal one this this time since we're talking through like you know time management, which is personal and business. I am I'm in between that like. Hormonal week before your period and after your period where you're like, I don't know if anybody else experiences such a big range of hormones, but last week literally just so down bad, in my feels, crying, really just having a lot of breakdowns, having a lot of big feelings and a lot of big existential crisis thoughts. And then the next week you're like, oh, I'm fine. That range in such a short period of time, it's just a lot. It's a lot to process through. And, and even though like that's something that you experience monthly, it's, it's something that like, I just, I really felt it like maybe worse last week. And I think I'm just coming out of that of like, okay, you know, my, my self-talk is better.

Mm-hmm.

My mindset is better. How I view myself is better, and like just coming from such a critical, frustrated, emotional place to then like seven days later, I'm like, okay, I'm okay. Like everything's going to be all right, and I know who I am, and I know what I'm capable of. It's like so insane that we go through this as women, and yeah, I just I don't really have any resolution to that other than this is my experience, and I am. in between coming out of like that pre-period kind of depressive period and then that post-period, like, okay, I'm coming out of that hormonal spike and whew, she was a doozy this month.

Oh my gosh. Being a girl is exhausting. And I feel that. It's running a business, doing your career, doing all the things that you want to do. And then consistently every month having a whole week Up to 10 days of like your hormones just plummeting is is tough because it's we're used to so like so much action and there's not really like not that much action you can do about it. It's just part of being a woman, and I'm sorry that that you navigated it. I'm uh I'm 10 days out, so pray for me, girl.

I will be sending you peace and blessings from Texas to Illinois. Like hang in there, hang in there, my girl.

We got this. I'm glad we're now synced. We can support each other through—

I support you through something and vice versa. I'm glad I'll be out of it when I'm in Europe, which is fantastic. Like the 2 weeks where like things are good and grass is green, I'm gonna be gone. You know?

Like a high.

That's great. The timing is perfect. Um, speaking of timing, do we want to talk about Welcome to our Slap Happiness. Oh my gosh, speaking of timing, let's talk about time management.

Incredible. Oh my gosh. Well, I am truly so excited for this topic, and even more so with a nice little twist and spice on it of our Slap Happiness. Um, but yeah, before we like dive into all the specifics of it, I was actually Sharing a story with my boyfriend this past week, because we were talking about when I used to be a server. And for those of you that don't know, whenever I was 18 all the way up to 20, I was a server. And that's also when I was in school and I started my marketing internship slash like manager role. And I started my photography or like was starting to lean into learning photography. So it was like a lot of things to manage and Yeah, my brain just could not process all the things that I had to do. And that was the inception of me really leaning into time management and learning to time block because it was more of a survival thing where I was like, if I don't plan out when I need to leave the house, I will be late. I will start things later and now I have to leave work later and I won't make it to my class. It was just a whole spiral of events if one thing was off the clock. Now, I do not recommend that kind of lifestyle or recommend like living your life to a brim, but I do think that whenever there are seasons of pressure, sometimes we tend to just like let it all just blow over and just focus on our responsibilities rather than like really looking at it like, okay, how can I still get my things done? How can I refine this? Like, where am I wasting time? So here's how crazy it got. I, whenever I was a server, I realized that every time that I went up to a table, I would say, hi, my name's Astrid. I'll be your server today. And they're like, oh, where's your name from? Or where are you from? And then they would ask about my name and then it would take like an extra 3 to 5 minutes of conversation. So on a busy night, I would say my name was Ashley. And then it cut back 5 minutes per table, which added to a lot of time with all my tables. So I could handle taking more tables on overall because of doing that. As I said it out loud, I was like, I was crazy. But that's how my mind worked and works. So wait, there's a funny story for you.

That is hilarious. First off, why could people not wrap their head around the name Astrid? I have so many questions.

Yes.

But also, look at you problem solving. You're like, listen, I don't want to talk about my name. Where I'm from, and I just want to work.

That's right. Exactly.

We're just here to get paid, baby. We're not here to give you my lineage.

Yeah, not on a busy night. On a chill night, sure, let's chat. Let's be best friends. But on a busy night, I've, I've got to pay some bills.

Oh my gosh, that is crazy. Wait, I wish I would have prepared some kind of anecdote like that, but I have nothing right now.

Wait, okay. How did you manage whenever you were working full-time at ConvertKit or full-time in Nashville and you were also blogging and also traveling? Oh my God.

That was a lot. Yeah. It's kind of similar to now in a lot of ways. But I would say then I just, I allowed myself to be really, really imperfect. And somehow it just all worked. Like, I think I care a lot more now. Also in my early 20s, I was like, I'm going to say yes to everything and I'm going to just, just rip it all the time. And now I think that there's just like, maybe in my mind there's more at stake and I need to be a lot more professional and perfect and have this like, you know, lens of excellence at all times, which can also be exhausting in its own way. But yeah, I, to give you a, to paint a picture of my lifestyle, I would be out at events because I was also like doing lifestyle blogging content as well as travel content. I would be out at events 5 out of the 7 nights, like with friends at events. Um, I just said yes to everything. I would take like maybe 4 coffee meetings a week. Um, between coffee and like lunch, like people like, oh, let's get together, which is how I built my network in Nashville. And yeah, it was actually kind of nuts. Like, I would change for different events probably 3 times a day. Like, I would like— yeah. So I miss that, like the hustle of that. But also, I really like wearing one outfit a day. No, I'm kidding. I really like the like calmness that my life has now. Versus the pure chaos. I will expose myself. I like never washed my sheets. I never vacuumed my house. I will oftentimes let a lot of groceries go bad because I would be like eating out, meeting people all the time, and like wouldn't have time to actually make food. So yeah, it was like an interesting time of life where a lot of the habits and things that I Like, I'm so pivotal on now, don't know her. Like, we're up till 1 AM, we're up rolling out of bed at like 8:30 from my bed to like meetings. Um, it's just very different than, than life now. But I do miss the zest of that. But that's your early 20s, I think.

Absolutely. Well, I can't relate, but she's like, not my life.

That was not my experience.

That's okay though. I've always been very much a time management type A girly, but I love to hear your journey too. And I feel like that is such great encouragement for everyone here that you can always change. And ironically for me, it's been the other way around. It's like I was so structured, so type A, like go and get all the things done. And then now I'm like, okay, that structure has served me well, but let's do it at 70%. And then Let's just let life be. And one of the things that—

Now you don't wash your sheets. Right, exactly.

I'm just kidding. That's why I have acne. No, I'm kidding.

I know you wash your sheets. I'm just—

Oh my gosh, that's hilarious. Okay, let's jump into our productivity tips. Yeah, I feel like a perfect segue into this was Really learning to, for you guys to figure out what is that works best for you. And one of my biggest like disclaimers of this is my job fluctuates so much throughout the year that I have learned to have peace with like the, how I can execute and plan my time the first quarter is not how I'm going to execute and plan my time in the second or third or fourth, depending on different projects. And If you're in the creative space as well, like you have to give yourself time to just be and not have everything planned out. And so some of these things I just, just, yeah, I'll share as I go along. But my first one would be, my first recommendation is having themed days. So if you own a business, whether it's a side hustle or you do it full-time, there are so many moving parts to it. You got to execute on your deliverables. You have to market, you have to do accounting, you have to meet with people. And honestly, it can feel like you're drowning a lot of days. And so one thing that has really helped me is as much as possible, try to consolidate things into one day. So having a CEO day where you're more thinking big picture, like how can I grow the business? Who can I reach out to and network to? Your marketing days, maybe every week you're scheduling out a day that you're creating your content for the week. One thing that really helped me and has helped some of the clients that I've helped coach is narrowing down the days available for meeting times. Because if you're anything like me, if you have meetings scattered throughout the entire week, it just feels like my week evaporated and I could not get any focused time on what I really need to get done. So figure out the cadence that works for you. Maybe it's 1 or 2 days, maybe it's more, maybe it's just all afternoons. Um, and so what are some patterns in your job and your role that you can batch into some theme days? So for example, during busy season, I will plan out my editing days because I'm shooting so much that if I don't block out a whole day, I will see a day open and schedule my nail appointment for that day. And then the week comes and then I'm stressed, like, all right, get the nails done and like figure out and like try to, try to rush through things. And it's, it really drives my anxiety. So, um, if time blocking is not for you, I think theme days overall can just help create more focus.

I love that. We, you know, you've mentioned like CEO days and theme days like that before. And in our mastermind as well, a couple of gals on our first call had questions around like, How do you manage your time? And really desiring structure. So I think another aspect of this topic is, is yes, like theme out your days and understand like how you want to spend your time and what is giving you energy, what is taking from your energy, and where to place those in your day. If you can focus on like, okay, I have a set amount of energy to spend today. I have a set amount of energy to gain and to give. And where can I put tasks, meetings, things I need to get done in a way and organize it in a way that gives you the energy and is maybe like honoring of your energy throughout the day? Another thing too is to look at your relationship with time. So how do you feel about time? Are you anxious? Are you always late? Do you avoid it? Do you not like looking at your calendar? Like, I think at a very high level, understanding your relationship with time can also dictate the way you manage it.

Mm-hmm.

So if you are someone that's like, has everything down to a T and you've managed it very well, like you might have a really healthy relationship with time or you might feel really anxious. Am I doing the right thing? Am I spending this time in the best way? Or like if you've planned or time blocked something and it doesn't go the way that you want, are you able to pivot? So it's like not having that hypervigilance towards your calendar. And then on the flip side, the like go with the flow, yeah, just things kind of happen when they happen. And that also doesn't really work either. So find like what your middle ground is that feels healthy to you.

Mm-hmm.

That feels sustainable to you. And obviously that will ebb and flow depending on the season that you're in. But I realized that I had kind of this like, time is abundant, I have a lot of it. And at the same time I would avoid big tasks. So those 2 things conflict. So my relationship with time was like unbalanced. And then I had to say, okay, yes, I have infinite amount of time and I have responsibilities and urgent things. Things I want to get done. And the kind of person and the character I have is someone who honors their time well. So it was also a belief I had to dig into about myself as well of like, I'm the kind of person who spends my time XYZ. I'm the kind of person who doesn't show up 20 minutes late to XYZ. And like getting into those beliefs as well would help me work back how I needed to spend my time so that I could actually live out the way that I believed myself to spend time. Does that make any sense?

Absolutely. I love that you brought this up because sometimes people's relationship with time can feel like you're putting yourself in a box and feel like you're putting yourself in a little jail of like, okay, well, if I time block or if I theme, this is too much structure. I need freedom. I need flexibility. Sure. And like you mentioned, like if you don't have some sort of game plan that works for you, you're never going to get those things done. And so what is a pattern? Like, are you actually happy with how your time management is going? If you are, then great. You found something that works for you. But if you're not and you're not trying something different, then let's figure out a different route. And to kind of expose myself here as well. And any of my friends that are listening to the podcast know that I used to run late to pretty much everything for a really long time except work. But even then I would still run late to— I would be rushing out of the door, speeding. It was terrible. And it was hard because I was trying hard to make it to places on time. It wasn't a negligence, but it just kind of happened. And I'm sure people relate to it. And then now my brain can't comprehend, how does that just happen? And so something that's worked for me is I kind of lie to myself, I guess, but I round up how much time it's going to take for anything. So say I need to be in St. Louis by 5 o'clock. And actually driving there is an hour and 35 minutes. This literally happened yesterday. I block off on my calendar 2 hours prior I need to leave. So I need to leave by 3. And so I'll start getting ready and then I'll be like, oh my God, it's almost 3. And I'm freaking out, running late, blah, blah, blah. By the time I get in the car, I put the GPS, guess what? I'm arriving 5 minutes before and it's all good. But I was freaking out and now I can calm myself, not feel— and I think what happens too is like, I used to feel so guilty when I wouldn't make it to places on time. Like, my word is really, really important to me. And if someone's counting on me, I want to be respectful of their time. And so now I'm late and I'm like having all these shameful thoughts. So notice how is your relationship, your patterns. And if any of that's popping up, let's give ourselves some grace, but then also pivot with some of that. So yeah, I, I absolutely adore that you brought that up as well. Um, going back to like some tangible, um, tips for time management as well, if you're more on like the ebb and flow side, I think this is going to be really helpful for you. And it's just notice when is the most time— like the time that you are the most energetic, the most creative, the most productive. And I don't think there's a size fits all of like, let's work 8 to 5 PM or 6 AM to 3 PM. So maybe you're a night owl. Maybe you should start your morning a little bit later, go get your workout in, take your time, read a book, and then start your workday a little bit later. And then you can flow into that. For me, I've realized that Also, my Oura Ring told me this, but it aligns with how I feel, which is I am not a super early person where I like to be up by 5:00 AM or super, super early. My body will naturally wake up between 6:00 and 7:00, and I don't set an alarm anymore. I let my body rest as much as it needs to, and then I adjust my day according to it. Obviously, as long as I don't have specific meetings, but my energy's so much better. I have less shame because I'm not snoozing and then I wake up and I'm like, oh, I missed it and I wanted to be doing this thing by this time. And overall, my main responsibility is can I get to bed the night before by a certain time? And so as long as I'm in bed by 9:30, 10, my body will naturally wake up between 6 or 7. So anyway, so I just structure my my nighttime routine, but then also my workday around when I feel I will be most creative, which for me would be starting work by 8. 8 to noon is my most creative time. So I try to not take any meetings. That's when I am thinking about content, thinking about strategy, looking at more big picture stuff and executing. And then in the afternoon, I will jump into more of the admin meetings, Um, kind of side of things.

Yeah, I love this. I think too, when you are looking at when you're going to be more focused, how can you set boundaries and parameters? Give yourself the criteria to win. Like, set your environment, your digital and physical environment, to be in a place where when you get to that, like, okay, I'm, I'm here to work, I'm here to Crank. I'm here to like get as much done as possible. You're actually giving yourself the circumstances and the tools to win. And so for me, that looks like having do not disturb on my phone. It looks like pausing notifications on Slack as well. I also have my noise turned off for all notifications on my laptop and my phone. And then for just boundaries in general, like at work, if I know that I need to be heads down, I'll change my status. To say like slow to respond in like sprint mode, or it you know I'm heads down working on XYZ just to communicate to my team. You know I do work remote, and if you do too, it's just helpful for your team to know like oh yeah I'm not gonna I'm either not going to message her right now or I'm going to message her and know that I'm not going to hear back more maybe when I normally would because she's heads down working on something. And then also, if Matthew and I have really busy work weeks, we'll sit down and say, okay, this is my main task this week. I have to get this done. This might mean I need to work X nights this week. And just communicating ahead of time versus, oh, I've noticed that now all we do is work at night in bed on our laptops. I don't like that. So we try to limit the amount of times we do that and we try to communicate ahead of time like, hey, I have a really heavy work week this week. It might mean I need to work on my laptop, blah, blah, blah, blah. So that's another way like setting a boundary where if he had the expectation of he's going to come home and we're going to hang out and watch TV, but I need to be on my laptop for 2 to 3 hours, similar to that shame, I don't want him to feel like he's not a priority. And I also don't want to feel guilty because I have to get things done and now my partner's upset. So, which is so valid. And a lot of those feelings that can pop up around time management and when we need to get things done can be solved with proper communication and proper boundaries.

I love that. The communication part is so key, especially if you're navigating multiple people's schedules and being able to like focus in on when things are happening. I love that. I think that makes things more efficient too. Where people might wonder if you're working on something and then they now know that you are focused in on that. One thing that I really wanted to share as well that has been helpful for me is I've been a big time management girly, all the workflows and all that good stuff for a long time. And I also felt like there was times where there was so many tasks that I just kept repeating every single day or every single month that I just knew I didn't really need to have my hand in it, or there, there could be a better way. So I think one of the aspects of time management is being able to take a step back every once in a while and not just have your head deep into your to-do list and just think, is there a better way that I could be doing this? Could I be using ChatGPT when I'm brainstorming on content to narrow down the amount of time that I'm having to like just think through different ideas? Could I be scheduling out batch emails that are going to go to my clients all next Friday, but I have time today to do it? Could I be creating some workflows around my client's schedule so that I don't have to keep manually— this is what happened to me. I had to keep manually adding it to my to-do list of like schedule meeting with this couple. And then schedule meeting with my second shooter and schedule meeting with team. And I had a solid to-do list and things were on track and that was so much time. So now things are, I mean, it's the same pattern every time that I book a wedding. So creating those workflows where now it automatically adds to my to-do list and it's one less thing that I have to do. And going back to the silly example that I said earlier in the podcast of like, The 3 minutes of extra time, me explaining my name, that then now translates to my real job where I look at like 5 minutes extra with each client every single week would add up to hours by the end of the month that I could have like 4 hours more for me to do whatever the heck I wanted or to focus on another client. And so I do think that's an aspect of time management that we think, oh, this is just like 10 minutes, or this is just like 30 minutes. And it's fine. I can handle it. I don't need to create this thing. But if you're overwhelmed and you are at the top of your capacity, then maybe it's time to look at a different way to execute some of those tasks so you can have the most energy for the tasks that really do require all of your attention for.

I love that. I love you're like the automation queen and love that you're finding workflows for yourself to, to save time. Something that helps me on the life side of things is on Sundays, I'll sit down and plan out my whole week. And like, some of those things are standing meetings. Like, I already know that they're there. But if I can time block, I know when I'm working out. I usually work out in the mornings. But sometimes if I can't get into like a Pilates class in the morning, I'll go to an evening class. So all that to say, like, just knowing the flow of my week, it allows me to like fight that Sunday scary anxiety and it makes me feel like I'm in control of my time versus logging in Monday morning and being like, what do I got on my plate today? But really having that visibility over the whole week and like, where are my social time? When am I spending time with friends? Where are my date nights? When am I spending time with Matthew? Like, When do I have coaching clients? How am I supporting the podcast? Looking at my whole week holistically. And that really gives me honestly just peace. Like, okay, I know when I have time to do deep work on this. I know how I need to show up with my energy for this. And that really helps me just feel more in control. So that's something that I started doing a couple of months ago. And if you're like a habit stacker, usually I'll do this on a walk. It's been too cold the last couple of months to do it, but in the fall I would go on a long walk with Piper on Sundays and I would manage the whole week ahead on my phone. And that was just like, oh, okay. I'm like on a walk, I'm getting in my steps, I'm getting in nature, being with vitamin D, and I'm planning out my week. And it was just like, I'm so excited for the weather to get warmer so I could start doing that again. Um, but that's also been really helpful.

Yeah. I love that so, so much. I do it as well. And yeah, it just gives you this certain level of you're in control of your calendar rather than like the calendar is running you. And that feels so empowering. Um, adding on to that, something that I do since my job revolves a lot around travel is I'll look at my schedule also for the month and be like, okay, I know I'm traveling this coming week. Like, how many of those days am I blocking off that I'm not going to be able to be on my laptop? Yeah. So I already know anything that I have planned for that week work-wise, I need to front-load it or push it back a week. And then also during busy seasons, I block off a lot of— this is more of a creative reset type of block where if I know I have a wedding the next day or a really important shoot, I will block off the day before to be more light. So to manage my energy so that I can like start getting in the creative flow for the next day. Because whenever I max my weeks out and then I have to show up the next day and execute, like my creativity is not peak at all. And so maybe you're looking at your schedule and maybe you can see what are some of those days that require a lot of energy from you. And if you just do this once a month, like how can you plan the day before or after to be a little bit lighter? So it doesn't feel like you're just pushing so hard against your own flow of energy. So that has felt very sustainable and very loving to myself, as well as it's helped me be more productive because it's like, realistically, I'm not going to have as much energy those days. So let's front load a lot of those tasks.

Yeah. And the energy recovery from those things as well. So it's like how you need to prep for it. And then also knowing, okay, I'm gonna be on for X amount of hours, I need to make sure I'm off so that I can like decompress and not burn out. Especially since so much of your work is like rooted in your ability to be sustainable. Um, and you as an entrepreneur, if you're listening, or even if you're a 9-to-5er with a side business, like this is really in pursuit of preventing burnout. So like how you spend your energy and your time is so that you can sustainably continue to grow and develop whatever it is that you're growing right now. So I love that. I love the prep and the post too because I know that like after weddings or after a lot of travel, you'll come home and like you'll give yourself the 24 or 48 hours you need to be off as well, which I think is really helpful. On the task management side, 2 or 3 tips here. So the first one is doing like a 2-tiered task system. So instead of sitting down at your desk and maybe you're using Asana or maybe you're using like, I have an analog planner, I actually write it out right now, I'm really enjoying that. Instead of just sitting down and brain dumping like, here's everything I need to do today, actually tiering them out and saying, okay, here are tier A tasks and tier B tasks. And everything in tier A are your urgent tasks, things that have to get done that day, and you just focus there. And sometimes when you're brain dumping and you just have this massive list and it's not prioritized in any way, then when you get free time in between meetings or, you know, you've got 30 minutes, like it's hard to pick, well, what do I focus on? Well, I'm just going to scroll on my phone instead. Because that's just easier than picking like, okay, I don't know which one of these is the best priority to focus on. So I'll just wait until all my calls are over and then I'll get all this done. So if you can batch based on priority, and then another thing is batch based on similar, like type of task or a similar amount of time that those tasks would take. So like actually next to tasks being like, this is going to take under 5 minutes, under 20 minutes, under 30 minutes.

Mm-hmm.

And then that way, if you are like me in between meetings a lot, and I only have 30 minutes and I have a couple of tasks here that are going to take me under 10, great. Let me do those instead of jumping right to something that actually should probably take me about an hour and I'm not gonna have time to finish it.

Mm-hmm.

So that's another thing that has been helping me manage my tasks better. And then, um, at Circle we use Notion to manage all of our projects and our tasks, and we have everything set up in 2-week sprints. And all of our tasks map up into those projects. And that's another thing that is helpful for visibility for my team to be like, what's Alexis working on? My managers, what's Alexis working on? And then for me, what's Alexis working on? Um, so that's really helpful, like at a high level, but in the day-to-day, that prioritization and then batching similar types and styles and time it would take for tasks has been helpful so that you can knock out more at one time.

I love that. I love learning how different people structure their day and try different stuff. And even that you've been trying more analog now. What did you used to do before?

I was just all in Notion and everything was digital. And I was just realizing, kind of feeling like a digital overwhelm. So much of my life, everything, I'm just online all the time. And there's something really satisfying about writing out my to-do list And crossing out the little box. And I just like needed that. And it's kind of similar to the bubble system. Like I look forward to sitting down and tracking my habits and journaling. And I kind of wanted to apply that same level of satisfaction to my to-do list. So I don't know if it's a forever thing, but it's something I'm enjoying right now.

I love that. I think that's like the most, uh, like the biggest tip from all of this is like, leaning into your own intuition and what's worked for you in one season might not work in the next one as well. And for me, it looks different. Like, for work, I love to use Asana. It's more color-coded, and colors have really helped me visually to get through a lot of tasks. So I started using Asana in my marketing job in 2016. And basically what I do is like say I'm editing a wedding, it's attached to a specific like edit wedding flow and then weddings are all green. So now I know anytime I look at my calendar, anything that's green is a top priority. Anything that's pink is more admin so I can like push down and I don't need to absolutely get to it. And so that's been really helpful for me as well as it's really easy to drag based off of priority. So one of my routines is At the end of my workday, I will move any tasks that didn't get done today to tomorrow, and then anything for tomorrow, I will restructure it based off of priority. And then I used to always time block based off of those. Now I do it more based off of if I have a really busy day the next day, then I'll time block. And so essentially what I'll do is once those tasks are ranked from top to bottom. Um, I'll grab the top ones and estimate how much time it's going to take. And then once I see my calendar is all the way filled up, then I realize, okay, only the 5 top tasks of this is realistic. We'll see if we get to the rest of them. And if we don't, we'll move it and it'll be okay.

Yeah.

So just making peace with like what needs to get done and what can be pushed. But then for my personal task, I actually really enjoy just the Notes app. on iPhone. But it's crazy how I need to have a mental separation. I could not use Asana for my personal life. And it's so helpful. I love my— every Friday I'll create a little bubble checkoff system of what I want to get done that weekend. It helps give me a lot of focus. And I'm also someone that struggles with remembering things. So if you're like that, Asana or a to-do list system and Dumping your ideas or like your to-do things onto something rather than it just living in your head all the time is super, super helpful. So that's what I like to use. It's worked out really well for me. And then now, as of last week, my suite manager synced my like client management software with my Asana. So it just all like automatically adds in, which is really nice. Um, but yeah, it's what I use for task management.

I do the same thing with the Notes app on the weekends. Like come Friday, sometimes even Thursday, I'm like thinking about things I need to do that weekend or what I want to get done. And I, I love that. I do the same thing. It, it's interesting that you bring up the separation. I don't think I thought of it like that, but it's like just having the personal separation from even, because even like my, um, I use the Analog Planner from The Productivity Method. I love Grace Beverly. She is my queen. And this is her company. And she has a couple different planners and a couple different journals. But this one is sometimes like podcast, coaching, and work, like all in the same one. And then I've noticed that I need that separation for personal life. So yeah, I do that too. I love it. It's my favorite. I love checking them off, putting little emojis next to them.

I love that. It's so satisfying to check something off your list and be like, okay, I got all of this done. One more thing that I wanted to mention, which we actually did with the podcast and I feel like has saved us a lot of time and made us more productive, was batch plan what we're going to do and when we're going to do it. We did that at the beginning of the year. It's been so, so helpful. We don't have to chat every week and brainstorm and like, oh, what are we going to talk about? And it takes a lot more time. And now we both know what we're doing. We both know where to look and things are flowing so much better. And so maybe look at your business or even your life. What are some things that you can do at the beginning of the month, at the beginning of the week, and just batch create those things and decide ahead of time what the topics for your content's going to look like. And then now the rest of the month, all you have to do is follow the plan. And so that helps a lot with energy exhaustion, decision fatigue. And that's something that when I was really narrowing down my productivity, I realized decision fatigue was a big one. So decide your outfits the night before, decide what you're doing the night before, decide as much as you can so the next day you can just show up and execute.

Yeah. Amen, sister. I'm just sitting in that, you know.

That was deep thoughts.

Deep, deep thoughts. Um, yeah, I think I'm gonna mark that clip. I think overall, like, the biggest thing that I would give yourself permission to do is recognize that everything will ebb and flow. Like no matter if you have the perfect system, the perfect calendar, the perfect schedule and structure, in 2 months from now it might be redundant based on what's going on in your life. And so I think a big aspect of time management and productivity is it needs to feel so current to the life that you're living right now instead of a system that worked for you 8 months ago. Might not serve where your mental health is right now, or might not serve the needs of your family right now, or your energy. And so just giving yourself permission to find what works and also work at updating that. Like, it's— you have to be mindful and really intentional of, okay, that doesn't work for me anymore. I need to find a new system. And giving yourself that, like, challenge to recognize what's working, what isn't, and how to stay on top of it based on what season that you're in.

Absolutely. And if this sounds overwhelming and you're like, I really want to work on my time management, but now this feels like a lot of things to implement, just choose one that feels good and intuitive for you. And ultimately, I think keeping your mind focused in on the fact that You're going to get more time back. And if somebody were to look at you right now and say, hey, I can give you 10 more hours a month, do you want it? You would absolutely take it. Then this is just the price that you have to pay to get there. So like, how can we increase our efficiency, increase our productivity, not to like slam the calendar even more, but to have more time to do those things that you want to do in life that is not attached to an income, not attached to your productivity, but just And that's really what I think time management does. It gives us freedom and it gives us focus and it allows us to actually get to the goals that we want while also getting more time back.

I love it. This was so fun. I love talking and nerding out with you. I also love seeing how passionate you are about this stuff too. Well, if this was helpful, let us know. Drop a comment on Sorry, drop a comment.

Drop—

as I said, we're a little slap-happy. Drop a DM to us on Instagram, um, @inbetween.pod. And also we have AMA episodes coming up, so if you ever want to leave us a written, like, question or an audiogram audio message, you can do that at the links that are actually in the show notes. And if you ever want to connect with me, you can do that @AlexisTeichmiller.

And you can connect with me @astrojohannaphoto on Instagram. We love you all so, so much, and we'll catch you next time.