40+ different and surprising ways you can use your digital calendar
Almost every client I’ve ever worked with are shocked to learn just how much they can do with their digital calendar.
For this reason, a blog entirely dedicated to all the ways you can use your google calendar. (Plus, I’m sure that I am missing some, hence the + sign in the title, so I’ll be adding more as time goes on.)
I truly believe if more people used their calendars in a holistic, human-centric way the world would change.
We’d be healthier, happier, and wealthier humans! We’d make the money we want to make! We’d be a force in our communities!
The biggest thing keeping that from happening?
People NOT using their calendars.
Or worse… using it to overwork, overcommit, shame, and guilt themselves. 😣
In this article, you’ll learn 40+ different ways you can use your calendar for a healthy mind, body, soul, relationships, and business.
From your mind and body to your relationships and business…you can do so much with your digital calendar!
Ways you can use your google calendar for a healthier mind
According to The American Institute of Stress: 73 percent of people have stress that impacts their mental health. Just by using your digital calendar, your stress level will decrease.
In 2019, a study from North Carolina State University found that people who manage to balance living in the moment with planning for the future are best able to weather daily stress without succumbing to negative moods.
You can use your calendar to…
Schedule therapy, meditation, journaling, and other meetings.
Create daily affirmation reminders throughout the day.
Realistically plan your days and weeks to heal the tendency to overcommit, time scarcity, toxic productivity, and feelings of uncertainty.
Practice keeping time boundaries with yourself and others by saying no.
Set reminders to keep yourself on track throughout the day and build greater time awareness.
Move events around to live in the moment while also healing procrastination, shame, perfectionism, or other forms of self-sabotage.
Add time for focus work helps you to feel good about how you spent your time at the end of the day.
Habit track by adding your habits and deleting the habits you didn’t get to that day.
Spread out predictable events that tend to be more stressful.
Ways you can use your digital calendar for a healthier body
One in four adults worldwide don’t get enough exercise (source). The heart foundation says, “ I don’t have enough time” is the third most common reason why people don’t exercise.
Of course, exercise isn’t the only way to have a healthy body, so here are many different ways to have a healthy body using your google calendar.
You can use your calendar bestie to…
Set time aside for movement and attach tailored workout plans to the events.
Plan time to meal prep.
Make sure you don’t work through meal times. Looking at you lunchtime!
Track seasons, astrology, and hormonal cycles for more aligned planning.
Schedule conscious time off + rest.
Reminders to take vitamins or medicines.
Add and manage appointments with doctors.
Ok, you got me. I’m ready to feel healthier and balanced.
Dive into Digital Calendars For Humans today.
Ways calendar management allows you to have a healthier soul
Stark contrast, but it’s true! Everyone has different definitions of the word soul. I think of it as my heart, my joy, my essence, my truest self. I am a deeply spiritual being, and connecting to that part of me in my calendar is essential.
You can use your digital calendar to…
Keep your purpose at the forefront as you move through the day.
Set aside time for your passion projects and hobbies that bring you joy.
Acknowledge and celebrate yourself for all that you do get done.
Travel feeds my soul, so you can use your google calendar to schedule vacations, flights, and important travel dates.
Schedule time for a spiritual connection with the natural world, your higher power, source, or God (whichever word you prefer).
Build self-trust by experimenting with whitespace in your calendar.
Add time to learn new things you’re passionate about.
Learn to trust your intuition and gut instinct.
Ways you can use your calendar for healthier relationships & community
The Mental Health Foundation gets right to the point, “Relationships are one of the most important aspects of our lives.
People who are more socially connected to family, friends, or their community are happier, physically healthier, and live longer, with fewer mental health problems than people who are less well connected.”
You can use calendar management to…
Share a calendar or specific events with your partner, team, children, and/or friends to facilitate better communication and have time to be present with them.
Schedule your house care for your home or with your housemates.
Make a difference in your community by scheduling volunteering opportunities, calling your representatives, and voting dates ahead of time.
Set reminders to call friends and/or family members you care about.
Add and manage events you want to be a part of, with the people you care about.
Ways you can use your digital calendar for a healthier business (or work-life).
We all know using our time wisely helps us be productive and achieve our goals at work. Google calendars are known to substantially increase your ability to accomplish the things you want.
You can use your google calendar to…
Plan more effectively (I saved over 37 hours and $2500 every quarter by planning more effectively using my google calendar).
Establish a work schedule that feels good to you and integrate it with apps like Calendly so other folks can make appointments with you while respecting your boundaries.
Create marketing and content plans and schedules.
Manage project deadlines or launches with ease.
Plan ahead for admin time, which I find most folks usually don’t account for.
Collaboratively schedule meetings with your team, clients, and other collaborators.
Create a reference calendar for networking events, programs, masterminds, and more groups you’re apart of so you can pop in when they fit into your week.
Use themed days to juggle the many responsibilities you have.
Block time to work on a workflow in your project/task management software.
Invoicing (if you aren’t using auto invoicing).
Reminders to help keep you on time for your meetings and appointments.
Keep track of payments. This one can work for your home life too!
Yeah, mind-blowing is right!
Info is just that. Without integration, your digital calendar won’t be as magical as it can be.
Let me help you organize and simplify every area of your life.
Digital Calendar 101: Everything you need to know to get started today
A life on my terms is what I’m after.
What does that look like for me?
Right now it looks like growing my business, traveling the world with my husband, taking really good care of myself, and enjoying every moment I can.
Of course, living life on your terms will look different from mine.
I expect that!
No matter what your vision for a "good life" is, how you organize and structure your days and weeks is the foundation for making that vision a reality.
The problem? We haven't yet learned how to use tools like our digital calendars in a supportive, nourishing, healing, and human way.
If you've been looking for a flexible tool to help you stay organized and feel in control of your time, your digital calendar is the answer.
Throughout this post and the Digital Calendars for Humans series, you’ll learn how to use your digital calendar to reclaim your power and agency and create the life you want.
The magical powers of your digital calendar
A digital calendar, in my opinion, is one of the most powerful tools that anyone can use in their lives.
On the surface, your digital calendar is a time management, planning, and execution tool for work and your life. Deeper, it’s a tool that supports you in being flexible, adaptable, and intentional with your time, energy, attention, and life force.
Most use their digital calendar to keep track of work events and appointments only, but there are so many more ways you can use it.
It breaks my heart that many people use their digital calendars to shame and guilt-trip themselves. It’s possible to use it in a gentle and nourishing way making it much more effective and successful.
I want the world to know how supportive and life-changing a digital calendar can be.
By becoming more aware of the potential and capabilities of your digital calendar and taking the time to learn how to use it in a way that feels good to you, you can unlock the full potential of your digital calendar and radically change your life.
Want to explore a new way of working with your digital calendar. Click here.
What did approaching my digital calendar in a human way do for me?
My digital calendar is now my home base. No matter what I have going on in my life, everything goes in it. And it’s created a massive positive ripple effect in my life.
My digital calendar helped me…
Prevent loads of mental overwhelm, stress, and anxiety.
More easily recognize and meet my physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs.
Plan so much more flexibly and realistically allowing me to stop overcommitting and saying yes to everything.
Find more self-acceptance and compassion for myself. Huge for my self-critical self.
Stay focused on what’s most important to me and my priorities that I would tend to put last (aka my health and rest).
Take my power back and start following through with what I said I wanted to do.
Acknowledge and celebrate me for what I did get done, creating more feelings of satisfaction and purpose.
What did all of those things give me? Who I am and the life I live today.
Not only that, but I’ve helped dozens of busy business owners and professionals do the same. Even for folks who really struggle with managing their time in a traditional sense.
The key is making your digital calendar feel good, and work for you.
How to make a digital calendar work for you
The Digital Calendar for Humans blog series! After reading through this series, you’ll have everything you need to get started on the right foot.
Or if you’re already using your digital calendar, the series will help it become a more supportive tool and work better for you.
Committing to your digital calendar
Paper planner vs digital planner vs digital calendar: Which one is best?
40+ different and surprising ways you can use your digital calendar
10 Best calendar apps that make time blocking a breeze
Time blocking 101
Time blocking like a human being: Why it's so important
The 5 Surprising kinds of people that time blocking will help
5 Common time blocking mistakes that you can start fixing today
Making your digital calendar feel good
7 Magical Google Calendar settings that allow for intentional planning
4 Mindsets to heal for a more supportive digital calendar experience
Calendar Management: Why your intuition is more important than you think
How a weekly schedule template saved me 37 hours every quarter
Cultivate a sustainable schedule that joyfully honors your plans and cares for your whole self.
Buy Digital Calendars For Humans 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.
5 Self reflection questions for an end of the year review session
5 Self reflection questions for an end of the year review session
We 21st-century humans move through life at such a high speed, whether it feels fast in the moment or not, we often miss what’s right in front of us.
As a time coach, reflecting is the key to intentionality, healing, growth, progress, and success.
Self-reflection or introspection helps you acknowledge what you did, who you were, and what went right.
It can also help you determine what can go better moving forward. Better meaning more authentic or aligned. Not better according to society or guilt.
Want to feel more aware of how you spent your time?
Want to more easily celebrate yourself? Feel more compassion, motivation, and confidence?
Grab a pen and paper or open a fresh google doc to reflect on your last year with me!
Before continuing, PAUSE!
Before we pause and reflect, let’s get super meta and pause to take a few big deep breaths.
Feel free to close your eyes, put your hands on your heart for a gesture of self-compassion, and take three big deep breaths.
Open your eyes, when you’re ready, and we'll go ahead and get started.
5 Self-reflection questions for an end-of-year review session
Q1: What happened in your life and business?
The first question that I always need to journal or think about to decompress from the past year was: What happened in my life? What happened in my business or job?
Here’s what happened in my life and business and what I learned in 2022.
Pause reading this blog, and take some time to journal about this question. I’d recommend 10 to 15 minutes. Feel free to open up your digital calendar or planners to help jog your memory.
Q2: What happened in the world around you?
The second question is: What happened in the world around me?
So not just in your personal life, but expanding out to what happened in your community and the world.
In 2022, we seem to be recovering from COVID, wars and revolutions broke out, elections were had, and so much more. I often forget about how current events in the world impact me and add internalized stress and anxiety.
Feel free to take another 10 to 15 minutes to jot down all the things that happened in the world around you that you can think of.
Q3: What goals did you accomplish? Not accomplish?
The third question is: What were the goals that I set at the beginning of the year? Which of them happened, and which didn’t?
If you want to go deeper, ask yourself why you think that was the case. For the goals that happened, what supported you in accomplishing them? For the ones that didn’t happen, how can you give yourself permission to let go of them?
If you need help letting it go, go back to the last question, what happened in the world around you? What happened in your life? Hopefully, those two questions will give you a bit of permission or compassion around why they didn't come to fruition.
Pause reading and journal about that connecting to the last two questions and truly start to see kind of how all these things that impact our time, ourselves, and our lives start to fit together.
Q4: What have you learned over the past year?
The next question that I always love to reflect on is: What significant lessons can I gather from the last year of my life? Some additional questions are:
What have I learned from all the things that have happened?
What did I learn about what makes me successful?
Then, ask yourself: How might I carry these lessons with me into the new year?
Again, pause reading here to take some time to journal about your takeaways now.
Q5: How can you celebrate yourself and your efforts?
The fifth and final question is: How can I celebrate myself and my efforts?
If you're here reading this and reflecting on your last year, that is enough to celebrate. I’m celebrating you reflecting and reviewing the past year because it’s 100% going to set you up for success.
A simple and easy way to celebrate yourself is through self-talk. You can say to yourself, “Thank you for making it through another year. Thank you for reflecting. Thank you for caring about me. Thank you!!!”
Another question you can ask yourself is: What do I need to do to make sure I actually celebrate myself?
It’s really easy for people to move right past celebrating themselves. This is the most important part of the end-of-year review session. You deserve celebration and acknowledgment!
Ok, I lied. Q6: Where would you like to be in a year from now?
With your above reflections and this question, it’s time to create a plan for 2023 that is sustainable, realistic, and most importantly authentic to you.
Want to end 2023 knowing that you made the best use of your time, energy, and attention?
Want to be able to take more time off to rest and take care of yourself than ever before? Or discover the strategies that will help you stay focused on and follow through with what matters most in your life?
Whatever it is, I'm here for it.
Click here to learn how time coaching can support you as you thrive into the next phase of your life.
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.
Themed Days: A surprisingly powerful way to make time to create
If you’re here, you’ve most likely got big dreams, a big heart, and somehow… never enough time to create the things you want to create.
Whether it’s writing, art, bringing new offerings into the world, or anything else that brings you joy.
Now if you’re a creative soul, traditional time management advice isn’t usually your cup of tea. For good reason, most of it feels shame-y and icky.
However, when used in a curious and compassionate way, I’ve seen the most anti-structure folks find a way forward that works for them and helps them do the things they’ve been trying to do for years.
If you’ve been struggling with never having enough time to create, themed days are here to help you make the most of your day.
Keep reading to learn more.
Why is finding creative time such a challenge?
Bills! Survival Mode! Valuing working/doing over creating! Self-sabotage! Limited capacity! Feeling undeserving of creative time! Etc! Etc! Etc!
There are so many reasons why finding time to create such a challenge, and so many things fighting for our precious time and energy. Know you’re not alone in this.
If you wear tons of different hats, finding a way to collaborate with time is extremely important. And themed days are a surprisingly powerful way to heal what might be keeping you from creating and finally, create.
Who might benefit the most from using themed days?
If you…
Never have enough time to create/make things for any reason. Often because you seem to always do other things.
Struggle with the “time is up” phenomenon (you feel inspired one day and would like to spend more time on something. Yet the schedule you’d made tells you that time is up and you need to move to your next time slot. UGH, the worst!)
Want to be more space + flowy + intuitive with your scheduling. Click here to read about why intuition is so important when it comes to your schedule.
Want to make easier or faster progress on a project you care about.
Find yourself multi-tasking or getting distracted more than you’d like to.
Struggling with being consistent and/or self-disciplined.
Resonate with any of these? Then themed days might be a good next thing to experiment with!
What are themed days?
As defined by Leonard Alexandru, themed days are about “Having each day of the week (or the work-week) dedicated to a certain topic or project.”
Blaz Kos shares, “Themed days are strategically planned days in your calendar which are completely dedicated to one single thing.”
I wanted to share both of those definitions as they might be helpful for your understanding. However, I’m a rebellious, creative, spiritual soul language is really important to me. How things are said makes a huge difference in being able to buy into and effectively use tools and strategies.
That being said, I would define themed days as, “Regular scared containers of time dedicated to deeply important things.”
Is language important to you too? Do you have a different definition? I’d love to hear it in the comments below.
How to create themed days that feel good to you
Identify the things that are deeply important to you (see definition of themed days above).
Open your calendar or the thing you use to visualize your time. See what time you have or can make available.*
If you don’t have something, pick someplace you’re going to use to visualize your time (I use my google calendar for everything!)
Pick a set amount of time (half-day, day, etc.) that you can turn into a sacred container.
Pair the important things with the sacred container, and that’s your theme!
After you’ve set up a themed day, you can get more granular and turn that time into smaller blocks of time connected to specific things you’d like to do.
Ask yourself what you need to have in place or do to commit to your sacred container.
This can range from communicating boundaries with others, changing your availability in your scheduling system, or sitting with it until the theme feels right to you.
These steps might feel simple, but they are profound when integrated. When themed days are properly set up, following them feels natural and 10x easier to do.
*A solid foundation for themed days is knowing your capacity, availability, and responsibilities and having a home for them. Again, I use a weekly schedule template in my google calendar to holistically capture all of this.
How I’ve historically used themed days in my life
When I was starting out with my business, I was also an engineer working 5 days a week. I themed out 3 hours each day of the week for all of the things I needed to do to grow my business.
Monday’s were CEO days (planning, reviewing, mindset, strategy).
Tuesdays were building days (develop offerings).
Wednesdays were writing content days.
Thursdays were grow days (networking, talking to people, etc.)
Fridays were bonus days to do anything I didn’t get to.
Now, my themed days have simplified a bit and have gotten more intuitive:
Monday’s are to create whatever I want to create.
Tuesday - Thursday are call-focused days (clients, networking, podcasting, etc.)
The rest of my time is off/unscheduled.
Watch out for these common themed day pitfalls
1. Automatically assuming themed days won’t work for you.
Of course, never try to force things on you if they don’t feel right. However, when we immediately think about why something won’t work for us, we won’t see what parts might work for us. Ultimately this keeps up stuck.
2. Not experimenting with your themes until you find what feels good.
Themes (aka what’s most important to us) are always evolving and changing. Try not to expect them to perfectly work at first, or forever.
3. Not being flexible in real-time.
Things come up in life and they change things. This is expected, and it doesn’t mean you or your themed days suck. You are completely in control of your themes, sacred containers, and time.
4. Overdoing it.
It can be really easy to overdo planning in an attempt to feel safe and keep uncertainty at bay. If you create many different themed days before integrating even one, it will most likely feel overwhelming and you’ll want to scrap it all.
Give yourself permission to get creative with time strategies!
Themed days are one of those things that can be used rigidly, ineffectively, and shame-y. They can also be used in a powerful, creative, and spiritual way.
When themed days are used with curiosity and compassion, I’ve seen even the most anti-structure folks find a way forward that works for them and helps them do the things they’ve been trying to do for years. You can too!
Want to set up themed days that’ll WORK (no messin’ around)? Read more about my Sustainable Schedule VIP Day.
Calendly Free Plan: How to set availability that respects your boundaries
When you are starting or growing a service-based business people need to book a session with you.
If you don't have a scheduling system set up, you need one ASAP. (See below to be convinced!)
More importantly than just having an appointment scheduler, knowing how much and when to work is huge!
Your availability is key to sustainably and successfully running and growing your business without burning out.
Imagine how much easier your life would be if you knew exactly how many hours you could take calls and could simply send people a link to book a call that works for them.
That’s why free appointment schedulers, like Calendly, were created.
In this blog, I'm going to step you through how to set your availability that respects your boundaries allowing you to run your business with more ease AND energy.
Why using a free appointment scheduler (Like Calendly) is so amazing?
When you use the Calendly free plan, you no longer have to go back and forth with folks on finding a time that works for both of you. It automatically converts time zones for both of you. Events will automatically be put into your calendar and send reminders to the person who’s signed up.
If you want to take all the decisions and guesswork out of this super-important piece of your business, saving your time and energy for the call itself, set up a free appointment scheduler ASAP.
A Calendly free plan is here to help you simplify and stay true to your boundaries. If you’re still on the fence about Calendly, Calendar.com has this really amazing and comprehensive guide and tutorial.
Once you’ve set up your free plan account (if you didn’t have it already), it’s time to dig into the real topic here. Your availability!
Why knowing your availability is so important
Your availability is a resource to protect and be a good steward of. Knowing when you work and being able to easily communicate your availability is so important. It allows you to…
Show up confident and on top of things with clients, partners, networking calls, and anyone else you might meet up with.
Allows you to join in other events and continuing education programs, knowing you can actually do it without stress and overwhelm.
Know and utilize other days in the week to rest and work on your business.
Show up for the calls you do have more energized and present… usually leading to better transformation, connection, and success for both parties.
Avoid scheduling conflicts.
Determine your pricing for your offers more effectively and realistically.
In summary, it allows you to sustainably and successfully run and grow your business without burning out.
Speaking of, burnout. Check out this major burnout red flag!
Don’t let this be you! (If this is you, no shame. I’ve been there, and I think everyone has at some point. I got you. Keep reading)
What goes into determining your availability?
So many things. Your availability is essentially the same as determining your capacity. If success, sustainability, and enjoying your life are important to you… it’s a non-negotiable to take into account these things below:
How many hours you WANT to work
Your hourly rate (directly calculated from hours you want to work)
Physical health: How much physical energy you typically have and how much energy calls take.
Mental health: How much mental energy you have and how much calls take.
External circumstances like kids, a partner, and other responsibilities.
Time zones for both you and your clientele.
Holidays/special days off/etc.
Once you have all this information laid out for you, you can determine your availability.
I’m a super visual person so before adding anything to Calendly, I like to set it up in my google calendar. I use a holistic and custom-made weekly template to show my availability.
Now set your availability in Calendly!
Log in (Sign up if you haven’t used it before)
Toggle over to availability. Make sure you have one availability called “working hours” and all your events are linked to it.
Add in your availability (I like to see it in list view.)
Double-check that your events use your working hours.
BONUS: In your events, you can add buffers to events so you won’t have back-to-back calls to recoup your energy and take a short break.
Don’t forget to keep your availability up to date when circumstances change in your life.
And that’s all you need to do to set up your availability in Calendly!
Did you know I can support you in holistically determining your availability for sustainable success?
Click here to read more about and book a Sustainable Schedule VIP Day.
Partner Works Too Much? Why & What To Do About It
My partner means so much to me. We just celebrated four years (watch this short montage reel I created!) of marriage and it still feels like we’re in the honeymoon phase most days.
I credit much of the strength of our relationship to the healing and growth work I’ve done around time, worth, and success.
Why?
Simply put, time is your life. Time is your presence. And it’s how you show love.
Before I started healing my own misunderstandings around time... I spend most of it working. Not just on my “work-work”. I was always going and doing things.
Without checking everything off my to-do list and successfully achieving all my goals, I didn’t feel deserving of love or partnership.
Where did this leave me? Us?
While I cherished my relationship, it was suffering because of my inability to be with him. I rarely sat still long enough to form a real and deep connection with myself, let alone my partner.
Cue all the frustration, resentment, and guilt.
I created this blog for those of us craving more presence with our partners, our kids, our family members, or even ourselves. Keep reading for an inside look at making time for loved ones, because it is possible to have time for everything that’s important to you. And holistic time management can help get you there.
How do you know if you or your partner works too much?
These are the signs that I personally experience, and my clients’ experience, when we’re not making time for our loved ones.
Frustration, resentment, and/or guilt towards self or partner.
Feeling physically, mentally, or emotionally disconnected from your partner.
Never having time to cook and enjoy meals together.
Feeling unbalanced in domestic duties.
Struggling to not talk about work when you aren’t working.
Any successes you do have feel empty.
Think of something else I haven’t included in the list above? Feel free to share your unique experience in the comments below - who knows, others might be in the same spot.
Why is it so difficult to make time for our partners? We love them!
If your partner works too much or you find it difficult to make time for your partner... You are not alone.
As a time coach, an extremely common goal of my clients is to have more time for their loved ones. They want to know, “why is it so hard to make time for the people I love?”
Often it’s not about a lack of love. It’s because we’ve been taught to place more value on work, money (especially if we’re in survival mode), and success.
Many people label time with loved ones as rest, time off, and/or self-care. As we know, those are some of the most challenging things to actually have time for. We have to flip this inherent prioritization in order to reclaim our time.
If you’re a business owner, this feeling can compound even more. Our businesses feel like our babies in a way, taking time away from them feels impossible. Businesses that are passion-led and mission-based are deeply connected to our purpose.
Want to read more about the truth about the difficulty of taking time off? Click here.
What to do if you or your partner works too much?
The answer to this is a complex one. Because you and your relationships are unique, giving tips and advice doesn’t feel all that useful here.
The best thing I can offer are these three coaching questions:
Is making time for your loved one important to you?
If so, why? What will happen in your life if you make more time for them?
What is ONE small thing you can implement today to be more present with them? Some steps could look like:
Pause and take a deep breath (or three).
Setting clear expectations with your partner about how you spend your days.
Discover and focus on doing the things you both love to do together.
Heal any limiting beliefs around what’s preventing you from making time for them and being present.
Create time management systems to make the time actually happen. For example, a shared calendar to more openly communicate your schedules. In my Sustainable Schedule VIP Day, I’ve worked with clients to create shared calendars with their partners, for their kids, and a co-parenting schedule. Learn more here.
Adopt a practice mindset where it’s okay to mess up and fail sometimes.
Recognizing the little moments throughout the day.
Notice a trend in all these steps above? They’re all related to time management.
Why time management is so important for good relationships
Simply put, time is your life. Time is your presence. And it’s how you show love.
It’s also how you make money, pay your bills, and find fulfillment in your life.
Making time for everything that’s important and meaningful to you is no doubt a juggling act. I’ll be the first to say it is a constant work in progress. (Yes, even for me… a time coach).
Time management is the most important thing you can focus on because when you effectively accomplish everything you need to, tasks don’t bleed over into your time with your loved ones.
You can relax and enjoy the company of your people without feeling guilty (HUGE!)
When you prioritize and dedicate time and energy to your relationship, it will flourish.
If you are able to tap into the present moment when you’re with your partner, it’ll be a lot easier to feel connected and loved.
The opposite is also true. When you don’t spend time with the people that mean the most to you, the relationship will suffer in some way. Learn more about the benefits of rethinking how you manage your time.
Holistic Time Management is your best bet for making time for loved ones
Traditional time management focuses on helping you be your most productive self at work, sometimes at home. When you set goals, create a schedule, or write a to-do list… it’s rarely encouraged or taught to include things like rest, time off, and/or self-care.
If we equate our relationships with those things, it makes complete sense to me that they don’t happen as often as we’d like them to.
Holistic time management understands the entire scope of your life and what’s most important to you, like your relationships. Managing your time with a holistic approach will allow you to be a whole human being.
Learn more about why holistic time management works so well here.