088. What I'm Learning About Time

Welcome. I am marketing expert and business coach Melissa Kellogg Lueck. And this is the Doing Business Like a Woman podcast, where we are exploring and teaching you how women are reinventing the way business is done and money is made to help you create greater impact and financial freedom. One business at a time, all right? Hello, friends. How's it going? I'm so glad you're here. I'm so glad I'm here. We made it. I'm in this big sweatshirt today because it's been a little chilly here, actually, which is kind of weird for July. I'm like, whatever month we're in, I have no idea. We had almost an inch of rain here yesterday and it was chilly. And this morning. Morning kind of started out the same way. I think it was like in the mid-50s when I went for my walk this morning and it was just humid. My hair is all, like, fluffy because of the humidity. It's kind of funny. But it's going to warm up and we'll be in the mid-80s, so it's going to warm up nice. So I'm going to probably have to change here in a little bit, but wanted to come on and say hello and talk about just kind of report back on an experiment I have been doing with myself and my business. I love experimenting and I'm always, like, doing. I think of myself as like my own guinea pig. So I'm always, like, experimenting with new ideas and new things and testing things out and then I get to share them with you and share them with my clients and create tools and things that I use to help my clients get better results in their businesses. So one of the things I've been experimenting with recently is organizing my time. I know that time and how we use our time and what we do with our time and our work time and non work time and balancing all of that is something that we, as women, I think, feeling, think about a lot. And I see this a lot with myself in my own journey as well as with my clients and thinking about how to organize it all so that we get done what we need to get done. So we're not working all the time. And so I've been experimenting recently with my calendar. I started quite a while ago, like, taking my whole, like, task list of things I have to do and putting those things in my calendar. So I knew, like, when things were actually going to get done, right? Because what was happening was I would have, like, a huge list of things I wanted to get done, a long to do list, and then I would Just basically overwhelm myself and not get much done. So then I started putting all those tasks in the calendar so I could see, like, exactly when they were going to get done. And that seemed to really work for me. So now what I've started doing what I've been experimenting with, and I got this idea from the 10x is easier than 2x book that I've been reading by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy. So I kind of got this idea. They talk about organizing your time, and I got the idea from them. But then I, you know, I get these ideas from books, and then I kind of mash it together with things that I have tried and learned and learned from other people. And then I kind of come up with my own thing to try. So what I've been experimenting with recently is wanting to create some greater focus in my calendar and do less, like, context switching. So, like, going from very public things to very thoughtful work back to public things to email, to scrolling on social, like, all of that context switching did not feel very streamlined and focused to me. So what I've been experimenting that I read in this book was creating large blocks of time for focused work. So I started putting, like, activities together in my calendar. So this is what my schedule now looks like. I coach all of my clients in three days a week. So I have all my coaching, like, stacked together. And so I can kind of get into that zone of coaching genius and have all of that together. And I feel like, you know, on the one hand, my brain was like, oh, my gosh, we don't have enough energy for that. There's no way that's going to work. And then on the other hand, it's like, all right, when I start coaching, like, I am ready and, you know, I am able to help everybody, you know, all of my clients at once. And then all of that energy kind of builds on itself. It's really. It was. It's really interesting because I was thinking I wouldn't. I would just be totally wiped out. Which mentally, obviously, I do get tired, but it's tired at the end of the day. But I like. But I'm tired at the end of the day anyway, so. But I like, like stacking it all together because I feel like my clients actually get better coaching because I'm just kind of in that zone for those three days. And then I'm also taking what I'm learning and. And create content using that. So that is very valuable content that I create in those three days. Right. I usually am creating ideas and Then I'll tell you more about how I build those out. But so I'm coaching all of my clients back to back in the first three days of the week. And I actually have coaching slots open, by the way, if you're interested, reach out to me. I would love to chat with you about coaching privately with me. So in the slots that I have open, I am marketing and selling to fill those slots. So my first three days are like my favorite days because I love coaching. And so then on Thursdays, I am hosting networking events and building my community of women entrepreneurs. I'm a managing director for our local chapter of E Women Network. And so so on Thursdays, I focus on building that part of my business. And so I love that, like I can be focused on thinking about developing that part of my business. Right. And then Fridays, like today, I spend first, the first half of the day on creative projects like talking, you know, coming on live and recording podcasts and creating content. And so I'm loving that. And then Friday afternoons are like a full block of like inside, or I call it, as Michael Hyatt would call it, backstage work. So I'm, you know, evaluating the week and looking at my numbers and paying invoices or just doing some of that back office type work and getting to focus on that. Not so much today because I have. I'm getting a facial, which I love that and doing. So I have a couple other appointments, but in general that's kind of like how I've created my air quotes. Here are my ideal week. And so that's, um. So and then I leave my office at 6pm at the latest. And then I have my evenings for family time and chores and cooking dinner and me time and recovery time, which is also very important. Right. So a typical day for me starts early, like at 5:30 or 6 in the morning, maybe 6:30 if I played hockey the night before. And most days I'll have like 90 minutes in the morning where I will journal and pray and go for a walk, exercise, do yoga, just time focused on mental and physical fitness, I guess is what you would call it. And then I'll start my work day at 9am and I always can't say always because that's not true. Most days I'll have a lunch hour scheduled for myself around midday, where I just love having that chunk of time where I can eat, which is important, and also just have a little downtime and just kind of recover from coaching and get my thoughts together and prepare for the afternoon sessions. So I love that. And so I'm really feeling like this schedule is really supportive of my energy and also my most productive time. So what my goal was in trying this out is to have the greatest amount of focus and value created during my work hours. Right? Like, yes, I could work 12, 16 hours, but really what I. I really don't want to do that. I have no desire. I mean, yes, sometimes there might be things going on and you have to work more than you planned or, you know, whatever, but I would rather have concentrated pieces of highly valuable, focused time than like long, long hours of just working on stuff. Right? So that's what I've been thinking about. And so, so this schedule that I have now, I feel like is really supporting that goal that I can feel the most focused. So I don't necessarily have to have, like, I mean, obviously I still have my asana and the tasks listed out in there that I'm doing. But now I have these huge blocks of time where I know I'm going to be focusing on those things. And then I, you know, for example, Friday afternoon is like evaluation and looking at my numbers and planning out next week and all that kind of back office type stuff. Stuff. When I get. Once I get in that zone, like, I can just plow through that stuff and be very productive in that. But if I was like, okay, I'm gonna, you know, evaluate and look at my. And then I'm gonna go live and then I'm gonna write some posts and then I'm gonna read. Like, that just seems like I'm switching around too much. So I really like this idea of like, stacking up the things that are alike. Kind of like front stage things with front stage things. That's a Michael Hyatt term. I don't know if he says on stage or front stage or something like that, but it's basically like the public things that were activities that we're doing, that we're serving our clients, that we are creating new things. And. And so all of that front stage stuff kind of stacked together, and then the backstage stuff comes stacked together and then recovery time, which is equally as important put together. So for me, my recovery starts well, I have that kind of midday little mini recovery, and then at 6 o', clock, then, I mean, that's not really recovery time because I'm like cooking and driving kids around and doing household stuff. But for me, it's like, I think about 9pm to 9am Like, I'm completely off the clock. I'm not like serving kids or serving clients. Or doing chores or anything like that. From 9pm to 9am I'm, like, taking care of myself. I'm reading, I'm sitting in the hot tub or watching TV with my husband or just having that downtime and obviously sleeping. I sleep for good eight hours. Well, I try to. I try to be in bed for eight hours at a time. And then I love reading in bed and then sleeping. And so that's kind of how my schedule is looking right now. And it's feeling really good to me. And I'm sure I'll continue to tweak it because that's what I do. And then, of course, the kids are going back to school in less than a month now. And so everything's gonna change again then. Right? So it's always a matter of experimentation. But I think what I'm learning right now is I really like these. Stacking the, like, activities together. So I wanted to share that with you because it feels to me like I'm able to get the most value for that time. Right. That I'm spending on my work time. And I'm hoping that will help me to create, you know, all the things I want to create. Because I feel like I always have like, a list a mile long of things and ideas of what I want to be creating and never seem to get to all of it. And that's completely normal. So maybe this will help me. I don't know. But I wanted to share it with you, and I hope you're having a fabulous day and I wish you a wonderful weekend. I hope you're celebrating. We love celebrating on Friday, so I'd love to hear what you're celebrating. And let's see, what am I celebrating? I have had some really great, like, mind shifts, and I think this. I think just I'm celebrating this new schedule. I really am, because it feels so amazing to me and it feels very aligned with how I work and how I like to think, how my brain works. I think that's a real win for me. So I am gonna let you go. Gotta run. But I hope you have a fabulous rest of your day. And as always, if you would like me to walk you through creating a schedule that feels amazing and authentic for you and helps you to really create greater value and more revenue in your business and in your life, feel free to reach out to me and let's set up a call. I would love to help you create something like this and even just talk you through and coach you through how to experiment with it. Reach out. Would love to you can always grab a DM me or message me on social media or visit my website@melissamkellog.com and there is a link right there on the homepage to book a call with me. And I would love to sit down with you and help you get this time thing figured out because I know I've been in business 18 years and literally have never stopped experimenting with time so if I can help you get there quicker than I have I am all in for that. So I'll talk to you all soon. Hope you have a great rest of your day. Bye. If you like this podcast then you have got to sign up for my free on demand video training Grow youw Sales Doing what yout Love Where I teach you in depth my simple process that you can implement right away to harness your mindset and your skills to grow your sales to whatever level you want. So go grab that now. The link is in the show notes and I'll see you next time.