Case Study: How to achieve work-life balance that is real & sustainable
I hear time and time again that work-life balance isn’t real or possible to achieve.
And I totally get that. As a multi-passionate/dimensional human…having time for everything that’s important to us isn’t easy in the society we live in.
While I won’t get into society’s failings here, I will say that there are many things we can do as individuals to make the juggling act easier for ourselves.
In this blog post, one of my clients Talon will delve into what helped them achieve work-life balance. Hint: It’s not another hack.
Rather than temporary solutions, we explored the ratio of work, rest and play that makes them the happiest, what types of play and rest are the best, the type of work and social environments that enable them to thrive and give more, and so much more.
Together, we uncovered how to best spend their time to be well and accomplish everything they need and want as a full-time and part-time jobber, creative, partner, and cat parent.
We made work-life balance real, and sustainable.
Tell us who you are and what you do.
Talon Tuong. Property manager & accountant, fantasy writer, mixed media artist, tarot reader, and cat parent
What was your life like before time coaching with me?
I reached out to Becca at the end of October. I had hit another burnout moment because I had overfilled my calendar yet again, and one more stressor was the hay that broke this camel's back.
I was overwhelmed with too many great opportunities and friends, and feeling guilty about declining any of them. Because I should be grateful for all I have, right?
I wanted to maintain good friendships. I wanted time to grow as an artist, take care of my house and cats, go on dates, and rejuvenate in solitude.
I work full-time plus part-time. I had no idea how to do it all or how to say No. I was starting to resent friends and invitations especially living in Los Angeles where things are happening all the time.
I felt like I was reacting to everything, and things stopped feeling fun. I started trying to say No, and I felt grief over being too tired to pursue certain opportunities, and while some friends were supportive, others felt threatened that I would spend less time with them.
I knew I couldn't handle it alone, so I started looking for time management coaches because I was feeling mad and conflicted about my calendar. I felt stuffy and agitated all the time.
What did you love about working together?
I discovered my guiding values, and I was surprised to find that they applied to literally everything in my life.
I opened up to Becca about every new challenge that came up in my life, I'd do the prompts she gave me, and as she'd listen to me process my experiences, she mirrored how all my hopes and fears led back to the same core values. Even when I thought it was a new situation, new problem, new people, new area of life. It all came back to Authenticity, Ease and Sharing My Joy.
I want to stay true to my values, always. And I want things to stay easeful. I want to rest. I want to work from a place of excitement and strength. I don't want to struggle and strain. I want to share what's true to me and find those who resonate with it, and nothing less.
Becca's ability to synthesize and cut to the heart of all my rambling thoughts is her superpower! When I would get into overthinking, she helped me come home to things I already said! And through experiencing the powerful way she listened to me and mirrored me, I learned to enjoy listening to myself and others more deeply than ever.
What has happened in your life or business since we worked together?
The stars aligned because I went through it all with Becca! I had holidays, got sick, needed to help my parents, fought with friends, job creep happened. Everything that could uproot all my perfect calendar plans happened. I was especially fixated on my relationships, whether to be on social media, and my creative calling.
By the time we were done, I had strengthened my boundaries and emotional regulation toolkit for when stress hit any random day or week. I no longer feel derailed when chaos happens. I just deepen into self-care first.
I was able to shift my intention for creativity so that I express myself as an extension of whatever self-care I need that week, instead of trying to push myself to come up with things to create on top of what I'm already doing.
I improved my relationships by creating more time for myself to rest and center so that I could fully show up as my best self for people.
At first, I feared that in order to make more time for creativity, I needed more solitary time than people time and that it would be a huge shift for the people in my life. I'm a people pleaser! Horrifying! But it turns out I needed more rest. I didn't have to choose between social and solo opportunities. By choosing rest, I was able to show up more fully for both.
I finished more paintings, wrote more, joined a book club, and I did all of it from a place of easygoing joy instead of panicked juggling.
Artist block and social resentment went away because I made more space to do nothing and feel zero pressure.
By giving myself more time to do nothing, to not have any obligations, it gave me the room to approach my active moments more gratefully and energetically. I did have to do a lot less than I was doing before. I do have to see people less often. I absolutely had to find a metric of success beyond an online presence. Now, I get more things done that matter to me with greater joy because I feel rested enough to gravitate towards what gives me meaning.
I'm spending time with people who are uplifting and uplifted when we're together, instead of seeing people because they "need" me to show up x number of times to be considered a true friend.
Right now, I'm experiencing job creep, and I still feel centered because I prioritize sustainable balanced work, rest and play. I am not about nonstop productivity or nonstop emotional labor. If it's not sustainable, it's not for me, and I will forge a new path creatively like I always do.
What do you think made those things (listed above) possible?
What helped me shift most was seeing myself as a whole person. I'm not just my passion or my role at work or to my loved ones. I'm also my health, my basic needs, my home, my sense of safety, my need to experiment and make mistakes and explore, my work ethic, a cat person. All of me needs care.
If I need to cut back on one area of my life, it's not because I'm failing. It's because I'm taking care of multiple parts of me.
I figured out the ratio of work, rest and play that make me happiest.
I figured out what types of play and rest do the most for me.
I figured out the type of work and social environments that enable me to thrive and give more.
I learned to trust the practice that when I'm relaxed and rested, I have so much more effortless energy than when I'm trying too hard. It felt really counterintuitive, as I'm so used to anxiously doing the most.
To know that I can be loved and enough by doing less is my healing journey.
The people who believe in overworking and overgiving are not going to come with me into my easefully abundant future.
What would you say to someone thinking about working with Becca?
Becca completely raised the bar for me of what to expect from a coach.
There are many life coaches out there who aren't going to fit you because they are selling you their results and their methods. If you want their life, then it's perfect. But what if you don't know what you want or if your desires keep changing from where you started? What if you don't know what methods will work for your unique brain and lifestyle? What if you want to do many things, in a world that keeps telling you to pick one habit and do it for 2 minutes daily? How does that add up to being a sustainably multipassionate person!
I love that Becca isn't trying to help me manage my time to be a creative spiritual entrepreneur. She helped me take care of my whole self so I can handle my many passions and stressors in a way that's more realistic to my life and personality.
And her approach isn't some mysteriously paywalled method. She takes the time to deeply hear your heart's aim and your rhythms, and to make your calendar match your truth and your everchanging reality. I think in this hectic world, it is a radical act to take the time to truly know ourselves. She'll give you that time.
Experience and enjoy balance in your own life.
Book a complimentary 30-min exploration call here.
Why a holistic approach to time management is so powerful
Feel like you're constantly running on a hamster wheel, with time slipping away faster than you can catch up?
Are you struggling to juggle all of your responsibilities, while also trying to make time for the things that matter most to you?
If so, I hear you. And you’re not alone.
In our world which is full of distractions and pressures, being intentional with your time is more important than ever.
But traditional approaches to time management fall short.
A holistic approach to time management offers a powerful solution.
Rather than focusing solely on productivity and efficiency, a holistic approach considers all aspects of your life and creates a more sustainable and balanced approach to managing your time.
In this post, we'll explore what a holistic approach to time management is and why it actually works.
If you're ready to feel like yourself and live your life the way you want to, keep reading!
What is a holistic approach to time management?
A holistic approach to time management goes beyond simply organizing tasks and schedules.
This radical way of managing time explores the interconnectedness of all the areas of life such as work, relationships, environment, finances, and your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
It recognizes that time is a precious and limited resource. It aims to help you make conscious, intentional decisions about how you spend your time to experience a greater sense of purpose, satisfaction, and overall well-being.
At the core of holistic time management is you. Your values, your priorities, and long-term vision.
It believes that when you are well, everything else is easier. Much easier.
Because of this, a holistic approach to time management is inherently anti-capitalist.
When you spend your time in a way that prioritizes enoughness, fulfillment, and wellness, you are challenging the dominant, capitalist narratives around time and productivity.
Holistic time management helps you resist the societal pressure to work longer hours and prioritize work/doing/productivity above all else. It helps you reclaim your life and live the way you want to.
My application of holistic time management also acknowledges that time is not only an individual problem or solution, it’s a collective one. How we’re able to spend our time is directly connected to the systems we live in and the privileges and support we have.
What happens when you don’t use a holistic approach to time management
Time management was founded by a fellow engineer, Frederick Winslow Taylor (the author of The Principles of Scientific Management published in 1911).
The goal of traditional time management? Optimizing productivity and efficiency to complete as many tasks as possible in the shortest amount of time, with the hope that if you get everything done, you can rest and relax.
The problem with this thinking? Work and to-dos never end.
Traditional time management does not take into account individual rhythms and needs and ignores the beautiful, magical, intuitive, and unpredictable-ness of life.
Trying to manage our time in a capitalist and extractive way leaves us feeling shame, failure, isolation, guilt, unrealistic expectations, falling behind, stress, exhaustion, overwhelm, and burnout.
It’s no wonder we’re exhausted, we’re still using many of his (and other neurotypical, middle-class, white male) principles.
Time management with a holistic approach actually works
A holistic approach to time management actually works because it recognizes and honors the fact that you are a unique and whole, human being.
And it emphasizes self-knowledge, mindfulness, compassion, trust, and intuition.
If you have trauma, a chronic illness, are neurodivergent, or are simply a human who doesn’t want to live exhausted on autopilot, holistic time management is here for you.
It’s about more than just checking off tasks on a to-do list.
It's about identifying and crafting an easeful life around your values and priorities. It also acknowledges and addresses the societal factors and deeper beliefs that cause you to feel overwhelmed, stressed out, or short on time.
Holistic time management will give you the skills, mindsets, and tools you need to finally have time for everything that’s important to you, including space to rest, have fun, and enjoy your days.
A holistic approach to time management allows you to engage with a life beyond being a cog in the machine.
You get to accomplish your goals while experiencing a life full of peace and freedom.
You get to be the person you want to be.
To create the art and beauty you want to see in the world.
And to experience more ease and joy than you’ve ever felt.
What’s more important than that?
Hire me as your time coach to create time for everything that’s important to you, including space to rest, have fun, and enjoy your life!
Calendar Management: Why your intuition is more important than you think
What happens when we spend hours creating a plan and schedule that would work in an ideal world but doesn’t hold up with life’s unexpected twists and turns?
Many of my clients end up getting overwhelmed, sitting in indecision, and sometimes even giving up on planning altogether. This leads to lots of frustration, disappointment, and time wasted.
If this is you, I see you.
Many factors can throw off our carefully planned schedules, and it’s difficult to navigate these obstacles with confidence.
When it comes to creating adaptable and flexible plans (that don’t feel like a prison), your intuition is so important.
Your digital calendar is one of the best places to plan with and practice trusting your intuition.
In this post, I’ll guide you through how to identify your intuition, why it’s so hard to listen to, the benefits of using your intuition in your calendar management, and give you helpful tangible examples.
What is your intuition?
To me, my experience of intuition is simply a gut response to a decision, big or small, without necessarily having logical reasoning for it. Intuition can show up as a physical sensation, imagery, synchronicities, patterns, and more.
Curious about all the ways your intuition might be showing up? Check out Bustle’s 14 signs your intuition is speaking to you.
Also, personally, human design has also really helped me tap into my intuition. As a manifesting generator, I have a sacral (or gut) yes or no response to external stimuli and decisions.
However, at the end of the day, your experience of your intuition is what matters most.
What is YOUR experience of your intuition? How does it show up for you? Comment below and let me know!
Why is it so difficult to listen to your intuition?
For many reasons. The 3 biggest that I see are:
It’s almost impossible to tap into your intuition when you’re tired, overwhelmed, anxious, stressed out, in your head, or busy. If you’re often in these states… that’s your answer.
We confuse fear, critical, or “should” voice as intuition. (My intuition shows up as neutral, calm, and clear.)
Intuition isn’t often honored as an important business or time management skill/strategy in our culture. Even though 85% of CEOs in this one study confirmed that intuition was central to their decision-making process
We all have intuition, whether we realize it or not.
The more we understand it, the more we can apply it to better our lives.
The massive benefits of listening to your intuition
Honestly, the benefits of listening to yourself reach far and wide. But when it comes down to it, you get days that add up to a life more beautiful than you could ever imagine.
Listening to your intuition allows you to live a life true to you.
What’s better than that?
My clients, and I, often feel like we need proof to trust more. If you’re like us… I can confidently say you already have proof!
Ask yourself, “What’s happened in the past when I’ve listened to my gut?”
Ease, flow, peace, accomplishment, success, abundance. For me?
Changing my offerings in my business, then selling them out.
Choosing to become a digital nomad and experiencing more peace and freedom than ever before.
Being super tired, putting my work down, opening Netflix for a brain break, and watching an episode that gave me tons of ideas allowing me to return and accomplish what I was doing way faster and easier.
What’s happened in the past when you HAVEN’T?
Frustration, guilt, resentment, suffering, pain, delays, and spending loads of time and energy overthinking and NOT making a decision.
Some more personal examples:
Forcing myself to do a workshop with someone, spending a month marketing, and having to cancel it because of the low attention and excitement it received.
Attempting to be a morning person and work out first thing, always being miserable when I do it and when I don’t guilt-trip myself.
Not deciding what to do with my day so just go along with whatever comes up in my inbox, and ending the day feeling like I did nothing.
How do I use my intuition in my digital calendar?
Now you know what intuition is, how it shows up for you, and how important it is to listen to it.
Unfortunately, time management or calendar management advice rarely recommends you listen to your intuition.
The typical advice is to time block your whole day or week to the minute and perfectly stick to it. Then, if you can’t then something is wrong with you.
Good thing I’m not your average time management coach!
I know it’s nearly impossible to perfectly stick to your schedule every day, all day, AND be happy. I wouldn’t even want to anymore.
So, let’s start with what calendar management even is.
What even is calendar management?
Calendar management is the process of prioritizing your time and managing your life through the use of a calendar(1).
I use my digital calendar to organize and manage everything in my business and life. It’s basically my personal assistant, and it’s free!
Linking calendar management and your intuition
You can use your intuition when you’re creating a daily or weekly to-do list and/or schedule.
You can also flex your intuition throughout the day and week by moving time blocks around when you feel like doing the thing.
Tangible examples of intuitive calendar management
Asking yourself how your schedule feels to you.
Leaving gaps to move around tasks when you feel like doing them.
Dragging and moving time blocks/containers around without guilt.
Using language that feels good to you when naming events.
Putting tasks when you’re most energized, creative, and excited.
Scheduling time to work on goals and dreams that are deeply important to you in your calendar so they finally happen!
Ask yourself, “What it would look like to use my intuition more in my calendar?”
When you use your intuition in your calendar, you can…
Trust and listen to yourself more, leading to more peace and fulfillment.
Make decisions that will give you the freedom you want.
Have more energy, be more productive (in the good way), and be happy with yourself and how you spent your time.
Your intuition is the most important, yet underrated, time and life management skill out there.
Now you know how crucial it is…
Intuitive scheduling and time blocking? Yes, please!
Enroll in Digital Calendars For Humans now.
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.
5 Life lessons learned as a full-time traveling entrepreneur in 2022
This year was an adventure.
I started 2022 dancing in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. We spent the winter venturing through Italy–Trieste, Venice, Florence, and Rome. We went on to meet great friends in Porto, Portugal in February.
Took a trip to the US to visit family (and a short detour in Mexico) over the spring. Hopped back across the pond to spend the summer in Madeira, Portugal with said friends from Porto.
For the fall season, we checked out of the Schengen Zone and to Croatia where we visited Dubrovnik, Hvar, and Zagreb.
Now I’m writing this from Greece where we’ll be celebrating Christmas, and ringing in the first two months of 2023 in Cyprus.
This year I will have traveled to 11 countries, and I would say lived in (trips longer than a week) 5 countries.
All while running a successful online coaching business.
After taking a moment to pause and reflect on 2022, here are my life lessons learned this year. (In no particular order).
As well as how I’ll take each lesson ahead into the new year with me to continue growing and thriving.
Life lessons learned in 2022
This is the third time I’m doing a yearly recap, which means I’m approaching 3 years as a holistic time management coach this upcoming January! Woohoo!
As someone whose main passion in life is to just be more of herself, it’s really cool to be able to go back and read past life lessons. It’s amazing to see my healing and progress and say, “Yep! I’m still living and now teaching these lessons I learned two years ago.”
<<Read my life lessons learned in 2021 and 2020>>
Here’s to all of us becoming more of ourselves! 🥂✨
Life Lesson One: Get comfy with uncertainty.
As a digital nomad, I have no idea where I’ll live two months from now. As a business owner, I have no guarantee of a paycheck. When I first started traveling full-time back in July 2020, the uncertainty was absolutely terrifying. To the point of losing hair, tears, and many sleepless nights.
I wanted to be in as much control of my life as I feel like I could be. I wanted to feel at home within myself, no matter where in the world I was. Most importantly, I wanted to get out of my box and see the world. And all of those desires continued to outweigh my anxiety and worry, so I kept on.
It took about 2 years of traveling full-time to get to the place where I landed this summer: Comfortable with uncertainty. At one point, I had no idea where I was going to live the next week. I’ve learned how to be okay with not knowing where I’ll live or where my next client comes from.
I trust that no matter what, I can and will figure it out.
This is a huge, massive, ginormous life lesson that’s taken a lot to learn. However, the amount of peace that I live with is totally worth the effort. So with this, I plan to continue to travel in 2023, let the places I want to live call to me, run my business, and see what happens.
Though, if you’re like, “Yo, you went to an extreme for this life lesson…” you’re right. This leads me to lesson number two.
Life Lesson Two. Find the gray zone.
Black-or-white thinking sucks.
For example, hustle culture and anti-hustle culture. Hustle culture tells us we are worthy if we work all the time, feel exhausted, disregard needing breaks, and neglect our health. Anti-hustle culture says if we’re working hard, we’re doing it wrong. Success in business is somewhere in the messy middle.
Another example, oppressive society and culture tell us we have no agency over our time. Spiritual gurus gaslight us and tell us we have complete agency over our time. The agency we have is somewhere in the messy middle.
Want another? Rigidity versus openness. We’ve been taught time management, structure, and schedules need to be super rigid. Due to anti-hustle culture, many of us have tossed out all structure in the seek for freedom. Structure that truly benefits us is somewhere in the messy middle.
Everything we do and are as humans are in the messy middle ground. The balance between masculine and feminine or yin and yang. As I approach the new year, I want to use this life lesson learned to be even more creative with solutions to any frustration, new ideas, places to travel, and just life in general.
Life Lesson Three. I create my own time paradigm.
As I travel across time zones and cultures, I realize more than ever how deep the societal construct of time runs within us. From what time we should wake up, eat meals, work, and go to bed… it’s all made up. And vaguely changes depending on what country you’re in.
You could make your new year tomorrow if you wanted. Literally.
Of course, with a “normal” job and external constraints, the more you’ll live in society’s construct of time. However, over the last 2.5 years, I have been reclaiming more and more agency over my time (see lesson 2) by choosing how much I want to subscribe to society’s time construct.
The more I define and live within my own time construct, the more manageable my life feels.
So as of now, I’m taking this lesson learned by fully stepping into cyclical planning with my astrological chart. No more going back and forth between the moons and the gregorian calendar.
What this looks like is: I’ll be essentially letting go of months in the traditional sense and planning completely aligned with each new moon. My “new year” will be celebrated on July 23rd, the Leo (my ascendant) new moon.
I’m allowing things on a day-to-day level, and a macro level to take as much time as they want to take. I’m learning more about mother earth and indigenous wisdom.
Life Lesson Four. This shit really works.
As I enter my fourth year of developing holistic time management and coaching people, I am still astounded every time one of my clients creates literal magic.
From starting podcasts, writing books, making tons of money, starting businesses, traveling the world, managing teams more effectively, healing deep wounds, and creating trust and safety within. I’ve witnessed so many amazing humans accomplish deeply meaningful goals and finally be the person they want to be all because they teamed up with time.
Absolutely magical. ✨
Not to brag or anything, but on a personal note, I feel like everyone right about now (late Nov/early Dec) is t.i.r.e.d. where I’m feeling really energized and good. I’ve taken lots of breaks, short and long, throughout the year. I’ve imperfectly stayed balanced while focused on and aligned with my priorities.
I knew this before, but this year I feel like I finally understand it on a deeper, more holistic level with each day and with each person I get to work with.
With this life lesson, I plan to continue healing my own time misunderstandings and doing this deeply meaningful and important work of holistic time coaching.
Life Lesson Five. My home is inside of me.
In November this year, as I traveled on a Bus from Croatia to Bosnia, it finally hit me. There are buses, trees, roads, dogs, construction, and clouds everywhere on this planet.
The only thing that stays constant throughout is me. My heart. My mind. My body.
This life lesson may seem obvious, but it wasn't to me as someone who sought her worthiness and fulfillment through productivity and achievements. My happiness and peace were dependent on my external success and the approval of others.
If this year has taught me anything, what keeps me healthy and makes me successful is listening to myself, my joy, and my gut. Period.
I can leave places and situations that suck. I can speak up for myself. I can do what I need to do to feel safe.
It’s my job to build a strong home for myself, and protect it at all costs.
This is what holistic time management is all about, and I’m excited to see what the next 6 months bring as I now celebrate the new year in July!
What lessons did you learn in 2022?
I’d love to hear in the comments below or send me a DM on Instagram.
Is 2023 the year you get more intentional around your time?
Click here to learn how time coaching can help you thrive in the coming year.
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.
Time management coaches are more important now than ever before: Here’s why
Life is beautiful and fragile.
Being human is amazing and challenging.
Staying true to ourselves is essential for living each of our one lifetimes with the most fulfillment, happiness, and health.
It's easier than ever before in our world to become consumed by all of our to-do lists, distracted by what other people are doing, and lose touch with ourselves.
A holistic time management coach is someone you can hire to make your life so much easier by supporting you with making time for, staying focused on, and being present with the things that matter most to you.
If you’ve been wondering what you can do to make more of your time and life, continue reading to find out why a time management coach is more important than ever before.
Time management coaches: An antidote to the state of the world
We’ve been living in an increasingly demanding and uncertain world that moves and evolves faster every single day.
American psychiatrist Edward Hallowell goes so far as to say, ‘Never in human history have our brains had to work with so much information as they do today… We have a generation of people who are so busy processing the information received from all directions that they are losing the ability to think and feel.’
Our societies are fighting against a global pandemic, the attention economy, burnout, overworking, addiction, individual and collective trauma, and so much more.
54% Gen Xers are burned out, whereas 68% of working moms are burned out (source).
As a result of the pandemic, it appears to me that we are collectively rethinking many things… one of which is the way we work and live.
I believe that’s why 47.4 million people have voluntarily left their jobs for better work (CNBC).
We are after more flexible working conditions, better wages, and a better quality of life overall.
More than ever, we have tuned into the fact that we have this one human life to make the most of.
And I don’t know about you, but I want an extraordinary one full of connection, purpose, impact, and meaning.
A time management coach is here to partner up with you to make the most out of your life.
Not your average time management coach
When the majority of people think about time management, being a productive superhuman at work and sometimes, at home, comes to mind.
I get tired just thinking about the way I used to think about time management.
However, here at The Holistic Time Coach, we’re about shifting our perception around time management.
Time is the fabric of life, and our humanness.
Time is the medium for meeting our needs.
Consciously choosing to spend our time is the most important thing we can ever do.
Time management, the kind that’s not just about being more productive at work, is about being a good steward of our life force.
Collaborating with time allows us to do all the things that are deeply meaningful to us and be the person we want to be.
The extraordinary life we crave goes from a distant wish to a real possibility.
Saying goodbye to getting consumed by all the to-do’s, distracted by what other people are doing, and losing touch with ourselves becomes possible too.
A holistic time management coach is someone you can hire to make your life so much easier by supporting you with making time for, staying focused on, and being present with the things that matter most to you.
How does a time management coach actually do that?
As a holistic time management coach, my role has 3 main elements. In order for someone to create and experience an extraordinary life on their terms, I assist someone in:
Playing in the possibilities to identify how and where they truly want to spend their time.
Discovering the unique skills and tools they need in order to spend their time how they want.
Integrating those skills until they become second nature with gentle support and accountability.
Want more details on what I actually do as a holistic time management coach? Click here.
Have you thought about what’s possible for you if you were able to stay focused on what matters most? If you were able to spend the majority of your time doing the things you want to do?
Let me know in the comments below!
Curious about what was possible for the folks I’ve worked with?
Click here to read from the amazing humans, entrepreneurs, and professionals I’ve worked with have said about working with me.
Don't know how to slow down and enjoy life more? Here's how she did it.
At a point in your life where you’re trying to slow down and enjoy life more yet don’t exactly know where to go from here?
You know a lot of the systems you’ve been using and the old ways of thinking about time and productivity aren’t serving you anymore and you’re not sure what else things could look like?
You’re not alone.
The pandemic has made quite a lot of people
Rethink what they’re doing with their lives
How they spend their time, and
Finally, realize they have needs and desires…like slowing down… they need to listen to.
Learn about how Kasia slowed down and the massive impact it had on her business, relationships, and health.
Tell us who you are and what you do.
Hi! I’m Kasia, a specialist in the field of menstrual cycle disorders, and a graduate of pharmacy and clinical nutritionist at Wiecej Niz Hormony.
Why did you want to work with me?
I was at a point in my life where I was slowing down, and I knew a lot of things I used to do didn’t work for me.
My systems didn’t work because I was trying to fit myself into them, instead of the opposite.
I didn’t know how to create my own flexible structure.
What doubts did you have before working together?
I was trying to figure out if I really needed this or if it was just a whim.
I was worried that I would place all of my future hopes in it, and I didn’t want to do that to myself again.
Of course, financially I wasn’t sure if it was the best time or if it wasn’t worth it…. BUT it was one of the best decisions of my life.
What has been your favorite part so far?
Every part!
I am in the center, and I am able to make decisions for myself. There are no shoulds and pressure.
The space you created for me is so calming and loving.
You ask me so many questions… permission to tell you something, what our next steps are.
I feel taken care of!
What would you say was the biggest thing that changed for you?
I let go of all the shoulds and musts and prioritize myself. Even though it sounds so simple and everyone talks about that, I didn’t do it because I thought there are still things I should do, rules to follow in order to be successful in my life and business. I now put myself first when it comes to my schedule and to-do lists.
My business grew and I earn more money.
I finally know so much more about myself and my needs.
I decluttered my life from so many things that don’t serve me.
I’m so much more in tune with myself, respect myself more, my time more.
My google calendar doesn’t scare me anymore, finally!
…and so much more. I could talk about this forever.
Who would you recommend me to work with?
People who are struggling with finding the perfect time management system.
People who want to live more in tune with themselves, want to discover their values, and want to live a peaceful joyful life.
Any last thoughts?
It was one of the best investments of my life working with you.
It completely transformed my life in a way I couldn’t even believe was possible.