Shelley Hitz (podcast host) answers a question from a Christian Book Academy member about her typical weekly schedule and productivity habits. She outlines a block-scheduling approach: Mondays for admin tasks with checklists, Tuesdays and Wednesdays reserved for deep work (multi-hour focused blocks, referencing Cal Newport's Deep Work and Pomodoro-style sessions), Thursdays for live videos/podcasts/interviews, Fridays for appointments and lighter tasks (church on Friday nights), and Saturdays as occasional carryover days. She emphasizes staying in long focused blocks, using checklists and a team to increase output, and adjusting the pattern when needed.
Chapters
Hey, Hit Splits. Family, this is Shelly Hits. And I wanted to share in this episode the answer to a question that one of our Christian Book Academy members asked me in a recent Next Steps coaching call. So we have this coaching call each month, and our members come and can ask anything, whether it's big or little, to get unstuck and move forward in their call to write. And she asked me what my typical schedule looks like, because I tend to do block scheduling where I have different things that I do on different days. And so I thought I would share this here as well because it may help you so enjoy this little peek into my schedule. Currently, Mondays are my admin days, so I find coming off the weekend, you know, it's not. I'm not, like, wanting to do hardcore, like, really deep work, you know, So I find that to be a good day to do all those little admin tasks that. That pile up, you know, and I keep a checklist. So I actually, in my project management system, I have, like, a different checklist for each day. So then I know, and then I can close it down. I just look at one day at a time, but you can do it however you want. But then I have a little checklist of those tasks that I. I need to get done. And so Mondays are admin days. Tuesdays and Wednesdays tend to be my deep work days. So when I talk about deep work, there's a. There's a book by Cal Newport called Deep Work, and he talks about turning off all the distractions, you know, turning, you know, really focusing on one task. And so today that was my Living Colors project. And, you know, it's like I usually try to get at least two hours of deep work where I'm just really focused and getting some things done and not getting distracted by all, you know, all the other things. It's kind of like the Pomodoro method, right, Or Pomodoro strategy that we use on the virtual writing retreats. But so Tuesday and Wednesdays tend to be my deep work days. Thursdays tend to be my live video days like this or when I'm recording videos, I'm recording podcasts, or if I'm being interviewed for a podcast. And for me, I am probably more in the middle of introvert, extrovert, but a little bit more on the extrovert side at this point in my life. And so it just drains me if I have live videos and interviews every day of the week. So I try to keep those on Thursdays. And that really helps to compartmentalize Those things. And then Fridays are like, I have my different, you know, appointments. Like I go to the dentist or the chiropractor or, you know, just if I'm meeting with a friend or you know, if I have, have errands to run, I try to do all those things on Fridays. We go to church on Friday nights. And so I don't like to do a ton, a ton of heavy, deep work because when I do, then I'm just like, I'm just gone and I don't have a lot of energy to give. And we are, you know, we're on the prayer team and we, we, we try to, you know, minister and give. So I try to keep Fridays a little bit lighter and if I need to, Saturdays can be a carryover day. But I typically don't do a ton of work on Saturdays. But I like doing it this way just because once you get in the flow of something, then it's like, it's easier to stay in the flow. Whereas if I did a little bit of admin work, I did a little bit of videos, I did a little bit of, you know, this, a little bit of that, and then I'm going, I have to go to the dentist. Oh wait, I, I got to stop everything because I got to go over and go to the dentist and then I got to come back and then what, what was I doing where? And then if I just stay in the flow for like that, like a four hour block, I can get a lot done in a four hour block. People are like amazed sometimes that the things that I can get done. Well, I have a team, so I have people working for me. But then I also, like, I will just stay focused and not be running off here and doing this and answering my phone and do, you know, I'm staying focused and then I just am able to stay in the flow and really make a lot of progress that way. But, but yeah, it changes from time to time for me and you know, I think you just have to define what works best for you. I.