How do I know I’m spending my time on the right things in business?

Many purpose-driven folks wonder if they’re wasting time, especially when it feels like you’re working hard but nothing’s really moving.

If you’ve been caught in that spiral of questioning it all, you’re not alone.

This post explores why that feeling shows up so often, what it might really be pointing to, and how to reframe “wasting time” into something much more compassionate, embodied, and aligned with how your business actually works.

You’re not wasting time. You’re encountering a tender edge.

I’ve been there. That place where you’re doing all the “right” things—posting, planning, emailing—but nothing is really moving. It feels heavy. Off. Misaligned.

There was a time I’d spend hours tweaking my website and clearing out my inbox just to feel productive, even though what I really needed was to pitch my offers or reach out to collaborators.

That wasn’t about not enough time or laziness—it was fear. A fear of being seen, misunderstood, or not ready.

Once I named it and started tending to those deeper edges, those scary tasks actually became easier. My work felt truer. The energy came back.

What “right” actually looks like

The binary question of what’s “right/wrong” isn’t useful, at all. There is no perfect solution to business because it’s all an experiment anyway.

Please try and remember: You don’t need someone else’s formula—you just need your own clarity!

Here’s how I define the “right” things now:

• Move you closer to what you actually want—financially, emotionally, energetically

• Feel exciting, alive, or at the very least… not draining

• Are rooted in desire, not fear or “should”

• Honor your nervous system, your values, your capacity

• Often support your long-term vision and ripple out to your community

If a task feels like a constant uphill battle, there’s probably a deeper reason—and that’s not a failure. It’s an invitation to listen and tend.

How to know when you’re not spending your time ‘well’

There are some common yellow flags that tell me it’s time to pause and check in:

• Doing the same thing repeatedly without new results

• Feeling tired before the workday even starts

• Being busy, but nothing feels joyful or meaningful

• Constantly second-guessing your offers, content, or pricing

• Resenting parts of your business that used to light you up

Again, these aren’t signs that you’re failing. They’re signs that something needs tending.

Sometimes you’re avoiding a deeper fear. Sometimes you're operating from someone else’s strategy. Sometimes you're just in a transition and things are taking time.

None of that is wasted.

But here’s some tough love:  If you’re feeling stuck, spiraling, doing the same thing over and over but not helping you move closer to what you want…don’t keep doing these things!

Reflection Questions

When those things show up, I no longer push harder or force myself to keep doing the same things. I ask:

• Where am I performing productivity instead of following purpose?

• What’s one thing I keep doing that no longer feels alive or aligned?

• What am I avoiding—and what fear might be underneath it?

• What would it feel like to trust myself here?

Let things take the time it needs

We don’t always talk about this part, but even after you realign, there’s usually a transition period. You’ve changed something, and now your brain, your body, your business need time to catch up. That’s not a problem. It’s part of the process.

Some things grow slowly. Some take off fast. I’ve seen both in my business. But either way, when it’s aligned, it moves. It nourishes. It works.

Next steps

Want help sorting through all this so you can feel super confident in how you’re spending your time and healing the patterns that keep you stuck...the 2025 Holistic Time Practitioner Certification is for you.

We’ll get to the bottom of questions like these:

• How do I structure my time around my actual life, energy, and needs?

• What if I’m stuck thinking instead of doing?

• Is it okay to move on from old offers that didn’t “work”?

• How much admin or content is *enough*?

• What does rest look like when I still need to earn?

You can bring your own real, messy questions—and get support every step of the way.

Learn more and enroll now.

"Do I still want to be a coach?" A reset for space-holders

“I don’t know if I want to keep doing this.”

It’s a sentence I’ve heard more and more from the most thoughtful, committed space-holders I know—and I’ve whispered it to myself, too.

Many of us come into coaching, healing, or facilitation work with a deep desire to help people, build purpose-driven businesses, and claim more freedom over our time.

At first, it feels hopeful. Expansive. Like we’ve finally found a path that aligns with our values.

But over time, that clarity can get buried under the weight of what we’re told we should do to succeed: Build the funnel. Grow the list. Create the signature offer. Be visible every day.

And somewhere in that maze of marketing plans and launches, we stop hearing ourselves.

This is how hustle creeps in—not out of greed, but longing. Not because we’re doing it wrong, but because we want it so badly to work.

Time Shame: When decisions get recast as failure

Eventually, many of us ask:

• Is this even working?

• Am I doing something wrong?

• Do I even want to keep doing this?

Then we start blaming and punishing ourselves.

• If only I’d launched earlier…

• If only I’d spent my time better...

• If only I’d been more disciplined, more visible, more consistent.

I call this Time Shame—a neaky, corrosive belief that convinces you the reason you’re not where you want to be is because you misused your time.

In this case, time shame tells us our business isn’t thriving because we misused our time. It confuses overextension for laziness. It recasts survival as failure.

And it doesn’t just live in our thoughts. It stays with us and shapes our decisions today.

We overcommit. Say yes when we mean no. Operate from panic instead of clarity.

Time shame is a systemic, internalized response to a world that values speed over sustainability.

When you can’t meet the pace or expectations, it’s easy to assume the problem is you. That you didn’t try hard enough. That you’re “behind.” That maybe you’re not cut out for this work after all.

Especially if you’re neurodivergent, chronically ill, a caregiver, or holding marginalization, there’s often no space to pause without shame.

Growing a sustainable business takes time

No one says this enough: it takes years to build something aligned, ethical, and sustainable. Especially if you're doing it without replicating hustle culture.

You’re not just building a business. You’re building a body of work. And that happens over seasons, not sprints.

It’s completely normal to need other sources of income while building your business. Forcing your business to carry the entire financial burden before it’s ready often leads to closing it down.

Letting your space-holding practice take the time it needs to grow is an act of resistance in a culture that prioritizes fast profits over real people.

Questions to Consider

• Have I made things harder for myself by trying to “make up” for time I think I lost?

• What if “I don’t know if I want to do this anymore” is actually a turning point, not a failure?

• How would your business look if it followed your body’s pace—not just your mental ambition?

• What would it look like to rechoose this path, instead of abandoning or doubling down?

Rechoosing, not quitting

If you're here—wrestling with doubt, questioning whether to keep going, wondering if it's all worth it—I want you to know that it is. It just might not happen on the timeline your brain wants it to.

What changed for me wasn’t a new business coach or another launch strategy.

Instead, I stopped asking how to “get back on track” and started asking whose track I was even on.

I gave myself permission to slow down. To listen. To remember why I started this in the first place.

And that’s what I’m offering now to other space-holders in the same place.

If this conversation speaks to where you are, I’d love to invite you to learn more and enroll in the 2025 Holistic Time Practitioner Certification summer cohort.

It’s a 12-week live cohort for space-holders who want to grow a steady practice—slowly, intentionally, and in alignment with their values—while learning to support clients navigating time shame and make time for what actually matters to them.

We begin July 31st.

Whether or not you join, I hope you know:

Your gifts are so needed. Especially right now. You’re not too late. You’re not too far gone.

You’re in the thick of becoming. That’s not behind.

What amazing results are students seeing after certification?

I’m in awe of the incredible transformations my students have experienced after completing the Holistic Time Practitioner Certification Program. In this episode, I share some of their wins and officially announce the 2025 cohort. If you want to learn how to support others with their time and energy in deep, meaningful, and radically different ways, this episode will give you a glimpse into what’s possible.

Want to learn how to better help your clients do the things that matter to them in a radically loving and gentle way? We start July 31st.

How a near-death experience changed me

Trigger warning: This episode includes discussion of a recent near-death experience. I share the story of what happened and the profound lesson it left me with — that the closer we are to death, destruction, and loss, the closer we also are to feeling alive, awake, and open to joy. This is an intimate reflection on mortality, presence, and what it means to truly live.

I don't want to be a time management coach anymore

I don’t want to be a time management coach anymore. In this episode, I share why the title no longer fits, what I want to focus on moving forward, and how my work is shifting toward helping people break free from scarcity-driven, exploitative, and toxic relationships with time.

If you are interested in supporting others in reclaiming their time in liberatory, embodied ways, you will want to hear about the Holistic Time Practitioner Certification.