4 Mindsets to heal for a more supportive digital calendar experience
You’re done feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and unmotivated. You want to feel organized, clear, and like the badass that you are. Yep, I’ve said it… you’re a bad ass.
If you’ve been following along with the digital calendar for humans series, you know by now your digital calendar can be a magical tool to support you in creating the life you want.
The problem? Everything we’ve been taught about how to use our digital calendars. We’ve been told that we have to consistently follow it perfectly 100% of the time.
In this blog post, I’ll be sharing why your mindset impacts your digital calendar and the four most common mindsets that need to be healed if you want to have a more supportive experience with it.
By healing these four harmful mindsets, you can use your digital calendar to work, and stress, less and live more.
So, take a deep breath and keep reading.
Why your digital calendar mindset matters, a lot
A mindset is a mental attitude or set of beliefs that impact how you think, feel, and behave. An individual’s mindset is formed by a variety of factors, such as personal experiences, cultural and social influences, and education.
How does your mindset impact your digital calendar? It can be the thing that makes or break it.
For example, if you believe your digital calendar is an amazing, magical tool that can change your life, you’re most likely going to use it. The opposite is also true. If you don’t think it’ll work for you or how important it is, you’re not going to use it nor will you get the benefits.
If you’re committed to using your digital calendar in a flexible, open, and experimental way, it’s going to help you achieve the level of freedom you want. Yep, the opposite is true here too. If you’re committed to using it the same way you’ve been taught (aka rigidity and perfectionism), you’re likely to say it feels like a prison and you won’t use it.
The good news is, mindsets are not fixed and can be changed or developed over time through intentional effort and practice. By cultivating a supportive mindset you can improve how you spend your time, your well-being, your relationships, and your success.
Four digital calendar mindsets to consider healing
“It didn’t work for me in the past”
If you’ve been saying this, it’s most likely because you’ve tried to use your digital calendar before and it didn’t help you in the way you wanted it to. You still felt overwhelmed or scattered. It felt rigid and controlling. You have a completely valid point, it didn’t work for you with the skills and tools you knew at the time.
However, there are many, many different ways to use your digital calendar and settings to help customize it for your brain, life, and priorities. Maybe you didn’t know how to best use it for you at the time, but I know there is a way to make your digital calendar work and feel good to you.
An alternative mindset to integrate moving forward: “I can find a way to make my digital calendar work for me. Healing overwhelm, overworking, and exhaustion (for real) is worth it.”
“I suck at it*”
*Your digital calendar, time management, and/or organization.
My friend, no you don’t. This belief commonly stems from how we’re taught to use our digital calendar in a certain way. One that is all about hyper-optimization efficiency and is rigid and inflexible. But if you’re here at The Holistic Time Coach, it’s because traditional time management has burned you in some way in the past.
So, I want to validate you. Yes, the way you’ve been taught to use your digital calendar sucks. Not you. Time management and organization are challenging.
I wanted a slow, intentional, spontaneous, flexible, and freedom-focused life. And I’ve found a way to use my digital calendar to create that kind of life for myself. This goes for you if you’re neurodivergent, rebellious, creative, or an overwhelmed entrepreneur and/or parent too. You can find a way to make your digital calendar NOT suck.
An alternative mindset to integrate moving forward: “I have beautiful skills and talents, and can integrate them into my digital calendar.”
“I have to follow it perfectly”
Ok, this is the most common misunderstanding when it comes to digital calendars. Many people come in with huge expectations for themselves and spend hours planning their entire day, or week, in their digital calendars with said expectations as the foundation. Then, when life inevitably comes up and derails their plan, they throw the entire thing out the window.
The point of your digital calendar isn’t to follow it perfectly. To me, the point is being proactive and intentional with my time and my digital calendar helps me stay focused and flexible as I work towards my goals.
Striving to create a plan that doesn’t move or change, or not creating one at all, is what sets us up for failure. When you’re committed to using your digital calendar in an intuitive way, it’s going to help you plan more realistically and execute your plans with much more ease and peace.
An alternative mindset to integrate moving forward: “I am committed to my fluidity, imperfect humanity, and what’s most important to me.”
“It’s just a digital calendar”
Nope, it’s not just a digital calendar! Well, I guess it is but it’s so much more than what we think it is. You can do anything you want to do by being intentional with and protecting your time, energy, and focus using your digital calendar.
You can heal “never enough time" with your calendar. You can start celebrating yourself. You can make more time for yourself and your dreams. You can work less and have more time for the things you love. It can help you be more mentally and physically well. You can make more money. You can divest from hustle culture. You can rest more. For a lack of a better phrase, your digital calendar can literally change your life.
When you believe your digital calendar is a magical tool, you’re most likely going to use it which is when you’ll get all of the amazing benefits.
An alternative mindset to integrate moving forward: “My digital calendar is a supportive, loving tool to help me do the things I want to do and be the person I want to be.”
Your digital calendar CAN work for you.
I’ll prove it to you in the Digital Calendars For Humans Course.
7 Magical Google Calendar Settings For Intentional Planning
Planning and living intentionally is about understanding what is most important to you and living it out. It's about making conscious, deliberate choices and taking purposeful action to create the life you want.
As a tool designed to support your daily life and help you stay organized, Google Calendar can play a significant role in helping you plan and live more intentionally.
With its advanced settings and features, you can easily create a flexible schedule, set reminders and appointments, and stay on top of your daily tasks.
By leaning into Google Calendar's many settings, you can help make this process a bit easier, giving yourself the support and structure you need to stay focused on what matters most.
If you're hoping to get things done with less stress, simplify your life, or simply live a more fulfilling existence, consider taking some time to learn the many settings that Google Calendar can offer you.
With a thoughtful and intentional approach, you can use this FREE tool to help you plan and realize the beautiful life you want.
7 magical Google Calendar settings & features
There are so many things you can do with a digital calendar. However, if not all, of my clients (yes, even my fellow Type-A organizers!!) don’t realize just how many settings and features Google Calendar has to offer.
After identifying and customizing the settings and features that would help them manage their time, they were able to dramatically simplify their planning process and witness focus-motivation-clarity-and-energy magic unfold before their eyes.
The same is available to you if you put in the upfront resources to set it up properly!
1. Time Zones
As a digital nomad, managing time zones is key. I have clients from California all the way to Singapore, and I host and attend workshops across the globe.
But you don’t have to be traveling around the world to need to manage time zones. With remote work, online classes, and more, time zones are non-negotiable to manage.
Using the time zone settings in your calendar will help you more easily manage and guarantee that your plans are accurate and consistent across different locations.
Say goodbye to confusion, missed appointments, and other scheduling errors, Google Calendar is here to help!
Note: Google Calendar has three different places to customize time zone settings, so you’ll want to make sure to enable the right ones for you, your event, and your business or workplace.
These are all my subcalendars, that change as my goals change!
2. Sub-calendars
Sub-calendars are individual calendars within your main Google Calendar account. They’re beneficial for intentional planning because they help you keep different aspects of your life organized and separate from each other.
Separate calendars for each of the hats you wear will allow you to more easily color-code events with the option to toggle them on and off, helping you get a clearer view of each area of your life and prioritize your tasks, time, and attention accordingly.
Also, sub-calendars can be shared with others, which can be particularly useful for intentional planning in a collaborative setting.
Your goals, responsibilities, and lifestyle determine how many sub-calendars are best for you. As a time coach, I help you figure out if you want to use sub-calendars and if so, how many are right for you.
3. Integrating with other tools
Google Calendar can be integrated with many apps, including Google Tasks, Google Keep, and Gmail helping you to keep track of your appointments, deadlines, and to-do lists, all in one place. If you’re tech-savvy, you can even automate certain tasks and streamline your workflow.
Don’t forget you can also sync and access your digital calendar with your phone, tablet, and computer so you can use it on the go! Personally, I have my calendar synced between my computer and phone and integrated with my Notion (where I manage my projects and tasks) and Gmail.
Reading about settings is one thing.
In Digital Calendars For Humans I show you all of these settings… and more!
Calendar-wide notifications
4. Custom notifications
Google Calendar notifications are important for intentional planning because they help keep you on track and focused.
You can use reminders lovingly remind you about upcoming important events or appointments, helping you prepare and show up ready and present.
You can also avoid getting sidetracked by less important tasks and focus your attention on what's most important to you using notification settings.
If you struggle with procrastinating or being on time, calendar-wide or event-specific notifications are here to support you. If you already know you’ll need help implementing the right calendar settings to streamline your schedule, book a free, no-commitment exploration call with me today!
5. Shared Calendars
As a business owner and coach, I’m constantly on Zoom calls with clients and collaborators. Something that always frustrated my husband was I forget to tell him I had to be on a call (aka when he needed to go away and be quiet), so I shared a digital calendar with him so he’d know when I was taking a call.
Also, I’m a digital nomad so I constantly move countries and have to manage travel. My husband and I have a collaborative travel calendar that helps you keep track of our planes, trains, BnB’s, and reservations.
Shared calendars have been an amazing tool for intentional planning and living and for better communication and connection with my husband.
6. Description boxes
The description box in Google Calendar is a feature I see being under-utilized all the time. If you love to plan but love flexibility and freedom, the description box is an amazing feature.
The description box is here to help you keep track of any important notes that go with an event or task.
On top of the description box being a feature that helps you to stay organized, you can add here reminders, affirmations, sub-tasks, or any other important notes to stay intentional and give yourself more freedom and choices.
A Google Calendar is one of the best planning tools I’ve found to help my creative and rebellious peeps be flexible and organized!
Check out Dr. Caroline Addigton’s story of how our work together helped her realize time management doesn’t have to be rigid.
7. Customizing your visual settings
I’m a big visual learner, my brain doesn’t process something well unless I can see it, read it, or touch it. That goes for time too, hence why my google calendar is key to living intentionally.
Personalizing the way your calendar looks makes it easier to use, more effective as a time management tool, and more motivating to stay on track with your goals
Lucky for you there are a lot of settings to help you make your calendar more visually appealing. Some favorites are:
You can choose custom colors for the events and background, making it easier to quickly identify and distinguish different types of events.
You can also choose the display options that work best for you, such as the type of view (day, week, month, or agenda) and the start time of your day.
You can tell it to start your week on a Saturday, Sunday, or Monday (my weeks start on a Monday!) If you love that feeling of checking a to-do off their list, Google Calendar has a “reduce the brightness of past events” setting for you.
Determining which settings are helpful for your brain is what I help my clients do!
Don’t let tech hold you back
from making the most of your time.
Buy Digital Calendars For Human now.
A timeline of my life: Why I became a holistic time management coach
My ancestry and how I grew up deeply impacted me & my time.
The legacy my immigrant entrepreneur family left me wasn’t just a strong work ethic. In my family, there was also workaholism, alcoholism, and perfectionism.
My worth was so tied up in my achievements, in 2013, I finished a college term paper from my hospital bed, sick with a deadly intestinal infection (the same one that kills 30,000 Americans every year and would kill my Holocaust-surviving grandfather two years later) because under no condition could I settle for anything less than an A.
My illness and four miserable months of recovery didn’t cure me of my addiction to hustle and achievement.
After college, in 2017, I got a prestigious engineering job working for the US government, just like my grandparents.
But that time did open a crack in the matrix where a tiny, unexpected seed of another way could silently germinate beneath the ongoing chaos.
First I got into yoga, meditation, reiki, and other healing modalities, and then I started my own business teaching yoga.
I continued to go above and beyond for my work and my beloved to-do list and I said yes to everything that promised to maximize my efficiency.
I passed on hanging out with my friends.
I got annoyed with my husband when he tried to hug me because I needed to get shit done.
I injured myself doing yoga trying to relax.
If only I could be more efficient, I thought, I could catch up with everything I had to do, and THEN I could breathe and enjoy some time off. Right…?
Except I was unhealthy and unhappy and I knew what I was doing wasn’t working.
That seed of awareness had germinated, taken root, and was beginning to sprout.
Me hustling for time off was like that bombing for peace saying. It just wasn’t possible.
There was never going to be space for that new life, for the how of making real, lasting change until I let go of what was draining the life out of me.
One day at a time, over the course of years, I healed what fed the hustle and feelings of unworthiness.
I simplified my life and business and gave that sprout what it needed to grow. And grow. And grow…
It took time but my priorities slowly shifted away from proving my worth by some toxic, external definition of success to an internal one of a simple, authentic human experience.
From a tiny seed in a tiny crack, real change began and ultimately led to my work as a Holistic Time Coach and Educator in 2020.
Time is the most precious resource we have. Capitalism and other oppressive systems exploit all of our time and lives in unequal ways.
Traditional time hacks and management systems are built to work with these systems. They are not the cure for our real time-related problems because they’re not designed to help us lead a more fulfilling, more human life.
They’re designed to make us a more productive commodity in the labor force.
Healing individual and collective time wounds is cultural and intergenerational healing.
I'm still on my journey, peeling back the layers of overdoing in order to reclaim the agency I do have over my time and life within the systems we live in.
My thoughts to those of you who’ve cracked open the matrix but don’t yet know the how?
Breathe.
Continue to breathe space into that crack, even when you feel like you should be doing something “more.”
Know that you are worthy not only of your goals, but also of your dreams and the boundaries, priorities, and self-care that will help you realize them.
Then exhale.
Release the hustle, chaos, and control.
Let go of toxic productivity and achievement-based worth that’s been force-fed to us our entire lives.
Working with me is not just about managing time better (though we definitely declutter your calendar and get realistic about your capacity).
It’s about real change.
And real change requires more than a crack in the matrix, more than quick-fix hacks and bandaid tools on deeper wounds.
This is about believing you, just as you are, are worthy of a life well lived, whatever that looks like to you.
All of the clarity, skills, and steps required to create the fulfilling life you desire emerge from here.
If you’re ready to get real about your calendar and your healing, let’s revolutionize your relationship with time and yourself so the life you want–and deserve!–can flourish.
Learn more about working with me.
10 Powerful mindset shifts to revolutionize how you spend your time and money
“How do I take more time off without impacting my revenue and income?“
If you’ve ever asked yourself that question, you’re in the right place.
Dave, from Turning Point Financial Life Planning, joins me for an in-depth interview about the real and deep connection between time and money.
You will walk away with:
Tangible language around the relationship between the two and why our resources always seem to be in opposition.
Clarity on what you can and can’t control when it comes to your time and money.
How holistic financial planning and time management is the key to finding your unique balance.
Tools we use to create time and money abundance in our lives and businesses.
How do you see the connection between time and money?
Dave
There is of course a relationship between time and money. We use time to earn money. We use money to buy ourselves time.
But what’s most striking to me about both time and money - is how many of us have a relationship with both time and money which is defined by scarcity.
There’s never enough time. There’s never enough money.
But what’s interesting is that while our immediate time and money resources often feel exceptionally constrained, we often assume that time and money resources will be more abundant in the future.
These beliefs might sound something like: I can’t save for retirement right now, but I’m sure it’ll all work out. I don’t have time to rest and recuperate right now, but as soon as I [insert goal here] I’ll be able to.
The trick is, of course, that all we ever have is the present moment.
How you are — and how you think — in the present moment is quite likely how you will be and how you’ll think in future present moments.
So what to do? We train ourselves to think, and relate, differently to money and time.
I believe this retraining begins with a deep reflection on who you are and what you want. What is important to you? How do you want to be leading your life?
Answering these questions is hard work. And it isn’t easy.
Aligning your use of time and money with a deeply meaningful and fulfilling experience of living is not a quick fix. It is a life-long practice.
But it’s incredibly rewarding and worthwhile.
Becca
Time and money are tools that societies have developed with the intention to help us live more collaboratively. The main difference between them though is money is completely invented by humans, while time is inherently natural–the sun rising and setting every day, standardized and commoditized.
Just like any other tool, both time and money can be used in a healthy and beneficial way on a collective and individual level, or in a corrupt and scarce way.
When an individual has enough time and money, most people would say they have a good quality of life. Almost everyone I work with as a time coach, as well as myself personally, is aiming for this sweet spot. Also, when an organization uses its time and money in a healthy way, they are able to make a positive difference in the lives they impact and one would most likely say that is the definition of success.
How often is this sufficient sweet spot achieved (or even noticed), individually or collectively? Rarely, unfortunately.
Why? I believe this for two main reasons.
The complex relationship that exists between us and the two.
Time and money are deeply intertwined: How we spend our time, impacts the amount of money we have. Likewise, how we spend our money, impacts the amount of time we have. Often the more we have, the more we’re able to create.
How each of us experience, use, and feel about both time and money are impacted by who we are as humans, our experiences, and our outlook on the world.Corruption and scarcity.
There’s a lot that can be said about why, how, and where. But if I had to summarize it: Our economic system, as we know it, is completely dependent on how much of our time (human life) can be bought as cheaply as possible to turn into a profit. This has created a society that is individualistic, and competitive and highlights a scarce relationship when it comes to our time and money.
Over the years, we’ve been taught to equate our influence and worth as humans with how much money or time we have. When one doesn’t have or doesn’t feel like they have, enough money, time, or both, there is often a felt sense of failure.
What can I control when it comes to time/money?
Dave
I have good news and bad news.
The BAD news is that you can control virtually nothing when it comes to time, money (or anything else in life).
The GOOD news is that you can control virtually nothing when it comes to time, money (or anything else in life).
Much as we might try and resist this inconvenient fact, we have the ability to control only two things: our attention and our actions.
That’s it. Your attention and your actions. That’s all you’ve got. What are you paying attention to right now? You can control where you direct that attention. What action are you taking right now? You can control that action.
But there’s a catch! (Isn’t there always a catch?) You can only control your attention and actions IN THE PRESENT MOMENT.
Literally, everything other than your current-moment actions and attention is outside of your control.
But this is actually good news - it can be a relief to recognize we can only do what we can do - and we can let go of trying to control the rest.
There is SO MUCH in your financial life that’s out of your control. Pretty much everything! That’s ok. You can let that go.
And then… let’s focus on where you can direct your attention… and what intentional actions you can perform to begin your journey to financial health and wholeness.
Becca
There’s a lot out there we don’t have control over in our world. However, because money and time are human constructs, I believe we have control of quite a bit.
We have control over:
What we do with the time and money we have. We get to vote with our minutes and dollars for the kind of world we want to see.
How we think and feel about time and money.
How much is enough in our lives.
I also know the overwhelm or apathy that can set in when thinking about how big and messy the world is can melt away when we focus on what we do have control over. How might you focus on what you have control over?
What is holistic financial planning?
Holistic financial planning takes care of you as a whole human being. It doesn’t impose unrealistic budgets (or any other unrealistic constraints) upon you, because it incorporates your humanity.
The whole point of financial planning is to build a better life for you as you actually are - not as you (or anyone else) thinks you should be.
Holistic financial planning begins with you and your life. What do you want your experience of living to be like? What do you want to spend your time doing? How much do you want to work? Beyond work, what else do you need time, money and energy for?
Holistic financial planning includes working to let go of productivity as self-worth (thank you, Brené Brown). We then intentionally structure meaningful and financially rewarding work as one part of your overall life plan.
Once we’ve thoughtfully defined the life you want, we get about the work of structuring your financial resources to support that great life. That is actually the easy part!
Sure, there are things to learn and work to do, but the hardest work is getting clear about your vision for your life. Don’t worry - I’ve got some tools to help you bring some clarity and definition to your great life. If you’d like, you can get a sneak preview here.
What is holistic time management?
There are millions of blog posts, articles, podcast episodes, and books out there giving advice on time management and productivity. However, even with all the advice out there, how many people truly feel like they have enough time and are able to spend their time how they want to?
Millions of people. Why?
Regular ol’ time management has one main goal: Be more productive and efficient at work. With the general undertone or implication to make more money, oftentimes for your company or boss. Traditional time management and productivity gurus say to be more productive at work and get everything done first to earn, self-care, rest, or time-off.
But we know that to-do lists never end and believing we can work really hard to get ahead only leads to stress, overwhelm, burnout, and often less money or success. That’s where holistic time management comes in.
Holistic time management’s one main goal is: Spend your time in a way that makes you healthy and fulfilled today.
The assumption in traditional time management is flipped on its head and says you can get everything done easier and achieve everything you want when you prioritize your well-being first. Because when you’re well-rested, healthy, happy, energized, and taken care of…time becomes abundant.
If you had to pick one tool to share, which do you think is most impactful?
Dave
Engaging with your money stuff and structuring your financial life - whether you hire someone like me to help you build a holistic financial plan - is NOT a one-and-done project. Rather, navigating our money is an ongoing practice.
For that reason, I believe that cultivating a consistent practice of engaging with your money and your finances is the single most powerful tool out there. Especially as a small business owner, you have myriad financial tasks to execute and money matters to contemplate.
For (almost) everyone I suggest the practice of a weekly “money date.” The money date isn’t an original idea, but I sorta have my own take on it. You can hear me speak in greater detail about the money date here.
The core of a money date is a weekly, scheduled time for you to sit with your money stuff — and see what comes up.
This isn’t a time to actually accomplish anything. Rather, it’s a time to simply be present, to bring your awareness to some financial matter. And be curious about what you discover. Curious about the external details. And curious about what internal, emotional responses and bodily sensations arise within you.
We engage to make better friends with our emotional responses, especially those which are a bit more challenging to hold (like fear, anxiety, or worry). By holding this space for exploration, your next, empowering money steps will begin to reveal themselves.
Becca
You!
There is so much pressure, information, and noise out there telling us how to best organize and spend our time. There are a ton of tools… and I believe they all can work.
The real tool is who you are, your core values, and what makes you tick. You don’t have to go searching outside of yourself. Pause, tune out the noise, ask yourself how you want to spend your time… and then do that.
Sounds simple, but oftentimes the most simple thing is the most powerful.
As a holistic time coach I get to help people leverage who they are in order to live more consciously, fully, and joyfully in their relationship with time. The work I do with my clients is profound because it all starts with getting to know who they are in relation to their time. It’s a time management tool, skill, and hack all wrapped up into one.
What’s a time and money quote you live by?
Dave
This quote has nothing to do with time or money. And it has everything to do with time and money.
When we’re thinking that we’re competent or that we’re hopeless—what are we basing it on? On this fleeting moment? On yesterday’s success or failure? We cling to a fixed idea of who we are and it cripples us. Nothing and no one is fixed.
That’s from Pema Chödrön’s book The Places That Scare You. And I’ve found money is often a place that scares us!
Becca
I have two I have to share here:
Scarcity is a lie. Independent of any actual amount of resources, it is an unexamined and false system of assumptions, opinions, and beliefs from which we view the world as a place where we are in constant danger of having our needs unmet.” - Lynne Twist from The Soul of Money.
I grew up in a false scarcity of time and money, but it felt just as real. I’m continuously working on healing my scarcity relationship and this quote helps me do that. It’s firm, convincing, and direct… all of which I need to make my overthinking mind take a pause and say “oh, yeah… that’s true.”
As long as you’re oriented toward the future, you can never just relax into what you already have or already are.” -Pema Chodron
Apparently, Pema Chodron has deeply impacted our relationship with time and money, Dave! Love it. As a buddhist, Pema reminds me that life is short, uncertain, and scary as hell. That’s why I live by this quote. It’s the solution required to heal scarcity and fear.
What mindset shifts will you integrate in your life and business from this interview? Comment below.
Want to feel confident, in control, and at peace with your time? Click here to get free + supportive resources!
Think good time management in entrepreneurship needs to be rigid? It doesn't.
Feel like your brain and time management seem to go together like oil and water?
Small tasks keep slipping by keeping you from sharing your wisdom and expertise with the world?
You’re not alone.
Traditional time management strategies feel rigid, constricting, and unhelpful to so many.
Want to know the secret sauce? Changing how you feel about and experience time.
Once you re-think and repair your relationship with time and time management, a system made for your brain and values will organically reveal itself to you.
Without doing that, time management will continue to hold you back.
Things CAN and WILL change.
Freedom, flexibility, and ease IS possible for you.
Hear from Dr. Caroline Addington below to learn more about how working with me impacted her, her business, and her life.