Latest / All Figured Out with Andrea Barr: Figuring Out Work, Life and Parenting / 130. Why working parents need to stop managing days and start managing months

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130. Why working parents need to stop managing days and start managing months · All Figured Out with Andrea Barr: Figuring Out Work, Life and Parenting

• 0:05
  This is all figured out. I'm Andrea Barr.
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  I'm a career coach for parents, a mom of two, and I absolutely
• 0:11
  believe that you can continue to grow personally and
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  professionally while protecting family time.
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  We're about to figure out this work, life and parenting stuff
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  out together. Welcome back to the all figured
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  out podcast. It is just me today, your host
• 0:36
  Andrea Barr. Thank you for joining me again
• 0:39
  this week. And when this goes live, I will
• 0:43
  hopefully be on vacation if my my calendar math is correct and
• 0:48
  I I'm leaving tomorrow morning, we are going on a sunny vacation
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  as a family of four. We're going to meet up with my
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  folks and some other family members and just have a fabulous
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  time. And I have so many open
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  suitcases, so many half packed bags and like things that are
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  stacked in piles in different places.
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  And yet I felt super inspired to record this episode for you.
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  We are literally leaving in less than 24 hours.
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  But I've just been thinking so much about my schedule and time.
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  And I've actually been working on this with my therapist too,
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  like my relationship with time. And I always find it so
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  interesting before I go on a break or have a vacation or take
• 1:43
  time or there's some sort of break in the regular scheduling,
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  programming, what have you. I get super, super reflective.
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  And I think I was talking about this at the top of the year,
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  just about how it's like this opportunity to like rewrite
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  everything and like completely recalibrate or like throw
• 2:03
  everything that we used to do out the window and start again.
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  I don't know what it is. And hit me up.
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  Tell me if this is just me or if you are like this as well.
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  So that is what this episode is going to be about.
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  It's probably going to be short and sweet.
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  I have a few notes that I wrote. Got a coffee here.
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  I'm sitting cross legged in my leggings.
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  If you're watching this on YouTube, you can see this is a
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  casual vibe. And I want to just be really
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  honest with you about my relationship with time, my
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  relationship with my calendar, what life looks like now that
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  I'm an entrepreneur, what life looked like when I was apparent
• 2:41
  in corporate navigating that. And just some of the things that
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  I think I'm going to do differently coming back from
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  this vacation. And you know what, you can hold
• 2:50
  me to it because this is going on the interwebs.
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  This is going to be landing in your ears and I'm going to make
• 2:57
  this official. So let's get into it.
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  And if you like this format, there's more chatty like I'm
• 3:04
  really the the vibe of this is going to be voice note.
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  Really, really long voice note. I love a good voice note.
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  I have a few friends that I send like wildly long voice notes to
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  you know who you are and they are also listeners of the show
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  and I just love getting them back.
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  I love doing dishes and listening to a juicy long voice
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  note that like you don't even know how to respond to because
• 3:26
  you forget all the things the person says, but it's just the
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  best. So anyways, this is like a voice
• 3:31
  note episode and let me know if you enjoy this format.
• 3:35
  OK, so when I think about if I take it back and I think about
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  like my first relationship with time and schedules and calendars
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  and all that, it was probably back in high school.
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  I was somebody who, go figure, probably surprised to nobody was
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  involved in so many different things.
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  I'm one of those people that would have like, my theatre
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  friends, my basketball friends, my like friends that I'd like to
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  like go and chat about boys with on the weekends or whatever.
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  So I was definitely no stranger to juggling like a lot of
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  different schedules, but I loved it and I thrived in that, in
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  that way. And then you get to get like, I
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  got to university and it was like, OK, now I have to like
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  really manage my own time. Like, you know, in high school I
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  still had my mom who would be like driving me around or like
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  helping me navigate and figure things out.
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  And yeah, it was kind of like more alone and was having to
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  navigate my time again. I was involved in all sorts of
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  different crazy things again, doing musical theatre and I
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  don't know, like business group council for this thing or that,
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  I don't know, weird, weird, weird stuff.
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  And then it started to be like the work hard, play hard vibe,
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  which was when that started. And then I graduated university
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  and I got into advertising. And if anybody has worked in the
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  advertising world, especially like the 510 years ago vibe when
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  it was very much still like Mad Men style.
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  Like if you've ever watched Mad Men, I say that that it's true.
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  Like it was very similar to to Mad Men.
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  There was less cigarettes, probably just as much booze,
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  just as much like office romance.
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  That's where I met my husband. So I mean, it was pretty spot
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  on. And that was when the calendar
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  and the schedule and the juggling and the time management
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  got so crazy and out of control. I didn't even have kids.
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  And that is, like, a big part of my story that I've said on this
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  show a number of times is, you know, looking at my boss and my
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  boss's boss and my boss's boss's boss and those who were heading
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  up the company who had children, young children.
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  And I remember thinking, like, whoa, I can barely do this.
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  And it's just me. Like, sure, I'm at the bottom of
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  the totem pole and I'm getting all the work and I have to stay
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  late. And like, that's just what you
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  had to do back then. But I remember looking at the
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  people who had kids and being like, how are you doing this?
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  Like, how are you doing this? And I wanna, maybe I should go
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  back and interview some of those people because it was an
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  incredibly intense culture. It was, again, very work hard,
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  play hard. And I, I don't have any regrets.
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  Like you really don't have any regrets in life.
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  But there were a few moments that really didn't feel right.
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  And I know that those aren't regrets because they taught me a
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  lot. Like I missed my sister's
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  wedding shower. Baby shower, No wedding shower.
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  And we had a pitch that was like happening that Monday or
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  something. And I was the business
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  development person. So I did like all the grunt work
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  on the business development for the agency.
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  And it was like my playoffs basically.
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  So I'm not making excuses, but like, that was just no bueno.
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  Like, I cannot believe that. And that was our first taste of
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  being like, OK, if I keep on this path and this, you know,
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  journey, will I be missing my kids?
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  Things like, you know, if I were to have kids one day, am I
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  missing the basketball game? Am I missing the concert?
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  Like, I don't want to be the person in those movies who's,
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  like, running through traffic trying to get there.
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  So that was definitely my first nudge and like, I don't know,
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  awakening that was like, whoa, what time is such a weird thing?
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  And Fast forward again to COVID. I would say that was the next
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  juncture in my like relationship with time where, you know, we
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  got into like a really nice rhythm routine.
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  Like again, I was working in the fashion industry in learning and
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  development, leading the people development programming at a
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  really high performance organization.
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  Very stressful. Again, intense pressure and
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  culture, though I, we didn't have kids yet.
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  I had my husband. We bought a house.
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  Like things were very like, OK, we've got some rhythms.
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  I was even working 2 jobs. Technically I was coaching.
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  I still, I opened my own business and was coaching in the
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  mornings in the evenings. I was going to work during the
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  day, was working out, you know, somewhere in there like we're
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  just just doing it all. And it felt like it was like
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  very much in control. And I think that that's a big
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  theme for all of this too, is like that sense of control,
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  like, you know, do you have control?
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  Like when I was in advertising, I didn't really have any control
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  of my calendar. I couldn't be declining calendar
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  invites because it was like my day was too much or my nervous
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  system was off Like, no, like I'm, I was chockablock with
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  meetings, but like, I did not have any sort of leg to stand on
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  to dictate how my calendar went. And then I did have like time
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  and space. And then come COVID, it was even
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  more time and space because so much got cut for like all the
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  noise cut. A lot of good stuff got caught
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  cut, but it was very focused on just like health and walks in
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  this nut. And I bring all this up as like
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  the back story to say, like, you know, maybe reflect on your own
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  as well and like your own relationship with time and like,
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  you know, what's the baggage that you carry and what phases
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  of, you know, your relationship with your scheduled do you have
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  to look back on? And it's just such an
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  interesting, like, journey to walk through to then come to
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  this moment whenever you're listening to this and be like,
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  OK, and so where am I at now? And what I was in corporate and
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  had my daughter and I went back to work after Matt leave.
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  That felt really, that probably felt like the most constrained
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  I've ever felt. And I'm saying that not because
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  I've got a solution per se. I've definitely got tips and
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  tricks and all that and how to make things work, but I don't
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  have a solution for that pressure.
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  I was coaching a woman this morning and she was like, it was
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  one of the hardest things to do to go back after Matt leave with
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  her first. And I have to agree.
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  That is so much of the motivation of the work that I do
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  now because I just don't believe that mothers especially are
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  resourced, have enough resources, have enough support
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  for that transition back. And I felt so out of control.
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  And that's that story that I tell I've told on the podcast
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  about going back to work and just feeling in shambles.
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  Like I remember my hormones just felt like so off.
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  Like I wouldn't say I had mom brain or any of those, like, you
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  know, words that people use or phrases, but it was more just
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  like I the I say this a lot I've said on social, like I just
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  don't care. Like, I don't care about this.
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  You know, the people are getting so riled up in a meeting and I
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  feel like I'm chained and handcuffed to this meeting when
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  I hear my daughter in the other room.
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  We had a nanny and so I could hear her and it wasn't me that
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  was with her. And she's like giggling or like
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  eating or crying or whatever. And that's, you know, someone's
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  going off about something that does matter.
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  You know, it matters in the context of work.
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  But like early in the grand scheme of things, like does not
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  matter. And I remember just being like,
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  Oh my God, this is, this is ridiculous.
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  Like, how is anybody here caring about caring about this?
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  And that was that first moment for me of being like, wow, I
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  something has got to give. Something's not right.
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  And of course, that and I explored like, OK, what is it
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  about this? Is it the subject matter?
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  Is it the fact that I'm not with my daughter?
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  And for me, it was the lack of control.
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  I felt I had to be bum and seat whether it was at my desk or in
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  the office. At the time, it was like, I
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  think a hybrid. And it was like 8:30 to 5:30.
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  And there's no leniency. Like, sure, if there's an
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  emergency, like there was like kindness, but there really
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  wasn't leniency. There was no, it was not
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  flexible job. And I was like, that just does
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  not work for me. And then when I was looking at
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  the work itself, I was like, this is the this is work in
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  theory that I love and that I have experience in.
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  And I was, I was doing cool work in theory.
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  However, the day-to-day of the work, the pace that it was
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  moving at, the impact it was making just wasn't there for me.
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  So I was like, so not only do I feel so not in control of my
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  time and I can't just like go put my daughter down to sleep if
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  she's having a hard time falling asleep, she's like 1.
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  I also am working on stuff that I'm like, I don't like, you
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  know, I was just like, and I have to call out that money is
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  absolutely a factor. So that was a big piece of why
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  sometimes the is OK. And like, had I not had, you
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  know, a series of events where, like, my husband's health
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  dramatically improved around that time.
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  It was really poor for a long time.
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  And then he started to get so much better, so much better.
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  And just a lot of things unfolded for us where it felt
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  like, OK, we could take this risk and I could leave and go
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  out on my own. Um, like for me, it just wasn't,
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  nothing was really lining up. And that was my decision to
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  leave because of my relationship with time, because of my
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  relationship with flexibility. And just it, it just, it didn't
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  feel like the reward was coming from anywhere.
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  Like the financial reward didn't feel worth it for me when I knew
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  that I could be making a bigger impact, having more fun, having
• 13:56
  greater alignment with my family values my schedule.
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  Like to me, time was just like, it was so important at that
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  moment. And so I'm so appreciative that
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  I did go back because I think I wouldn't say I made an impact
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  when I went back, honestly, like I was back for only for about I
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  think 4, three or six months. But having that experience of
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  transitioning back into the corporate world after a
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  maternity leave is so important. It's such an important
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  experience that I went through because now just that awareness
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  and empathy I have for those that I work with as a coach and
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  when I'm facilitating group programs and doing my VIP days
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  one to one with clients. It's like that is a topic that
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  thumbs up almost every single time, whether it's somebody who
• 14:46
  just had a really rough go and they're still holding on to like
• 14:49
  a bit of trauma from it or somebody who's going through it
• 14:52
  at that moment and I can help them to really prepare.
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  It is so important to like really think about your
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  relationship with time, your relationship to the different
• 15:02
  reasons why you're working. You know, how much of it is
• 15:04
  about money, how much of it is about your time?
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  How much of it is about your enjoyment?
• 15:09
  And if none of that is really working for you, that is when
• 15:13
  you absolutely have to maybe hit the drawing board again.
• 15:17
  Come back, reassess, give me a call.
• 15:20
  We can have a free intro call to chat about what work life
• 15:26
  alignment could look like for you.
• 15:28
  I digress, but that brings me to today.
• 15:33
  So that's kind of the back story of like my history, my
• 15:35
  relationship with time. I'm not going to get into like
• 15:38
  the personal side of it where like I did lose a parent at a
• 15:41
  really young age. And so my dad passed away when I
• 15:45
  was four. And my mom has always said like
• 15:47
  we just have to live life. Like we just have to live life.
• 15:50
  Like you have to live every day. You life is too short.
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  Like that's always been the narrative for me in my house and
• 15:57
  growing up. And so that's also really
• 16:00
  important context as well in my relationship with time.
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  So here we are today, two kids, one is 5/1 is 3.
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  My husband and I are actually both self-employed.
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  So he is kind of like a foster fail.
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  He works in an organization that he's worked at for like I want
• 16:17
  to say 3 or 4 years is technically as a contractor, but
• 16:21
  it is a full time gig. But he does work for himself, so
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  he has flexibility there. And then I fully work for myself
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  and I'm footloose and fancy free.
• 16:29
  And I have often told people when they've asked me, so how's
• 16:33
  it going? How's the entrepreneurial really
• 16:35
  going? I've said this so many times
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  like I am the worst boss I've ever had.
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  Hands down the worst boss I've ever had.
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  The things I say to myself in my head is ridiculous.
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  The just the, the lack of like KPI's or metrics that give
• 16:56
  myself like, it's so unbelievable to me that people
• 16:58
  that can run their solo preneurship or their
• 17:02
  entrepreneurial experience with like by themselves without any
• 17:06
  sort of accountability is like, Oh my gosh, kudos to you.
• 17:09
  So for me, it has really, it's really been an interesting
• 17:15
  experience of time management. I and I really hate that.
• 17:20
  Like I know there's energy management, which is a whole
• 17:22
  other topic. We've talked about that on the
• 17:25
  podcast for sure before, but just like how do you structure
• 17:29
  your time? So when you do have the
• 17:31
  flexibility, I think it's important for me to call out
• 17:34
  that a lot of you listening might have a nine to five job
• 17:37
  and you might be really craving freedom and flexibility.
• 17:41
  That looks like it comes with entrepreneurship and it does.
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  And the shadow side to that, because there's always a light
• 17:49
  and there's always a dark. The dark side too.
• 17:51
  It is. You are in control and you have
• 17:55
  to hold your own parameters, you have to hold your own
• 18:00
  boundaries. You have to and get to decide
• 18:04
  what happens when. And that has to me felt recently
• 18:09
  really, really overwhelming. So to peek behind the curtain of
• 18:15
  what my business looks like, I say that I run like 3 different
• 18:21
  businesses. That's kind of how I structure.
• 18:23
  It's how my folders look on my Google Drive.
• 18:28
  I have a quote UN quote media business.
• 18:30
  So that is the podcast. I have an events business which
• 18:34
  are my all figured out events which currently happen in and
• 18:39
  around the greater Vancouver area.
• 18:41
  And then I have my coaching business, which is technically a
• 18:46
  global practice, as is the podcast.
• 18:48
  So I have three very, very different businesses.
• 18:52
  So the podcast is a beast of its own.
• 18:55
  Like it is, I know people say this on podcasts, and it's like,
• 18:58
  yeah, yeah, how much work can it be?
• 18:59
  It is an incredible amount of work, especially when you're
• 19:02
  somebody like myself who really cares about the quality and
• 19:06
  really cares about the output maybe coming from advertising,
• 19:10
  being on commercial shoots, like being close to the creative
• 19:14
  output and final deliverables for things like that.
• 19:16
  Like it matters to me so much, almost to my detriment.
• 19:19
  So if I wanted to, the podcast could be an absolute full time
• 19:23
  job in terms of time, not yet revenue, but we are getting
• 19:27
  there. Anyone want to sponsor the
• 19:28
  podcast? Let me know.
• 19:29
  Come chat. We are starting to take a
• 19:32
  partnership sponsored episodes and it is 2026.
• 19:37
  It's fun, it's going to be good. So that's the media podcast side
• 19:41
  at the business. Then there's the events, which
• 19:45
  are one of my most favorite things to do.
• 19:47
  And then there's the one to one coaching.
• 19:51
  So in terms of revenue, my 1:00 to 1:00 coaching is what brings
• 19:54
  in the most amount of money. My events bring me so much joy
• 20:00
  and a good amount of revenue. And the podcast is just getting
• 20:03
  started. And so the weird thing when I'm
• 20:05
  I bring all this up to say that like it's so important also to
• 20:09
  look at the different areas again of your calendar of your
• 20:15
  life and be like, what does each provide?
• 20:17
  It's got to provide something, right?
• 20:20
  It's like the friend who doesn't provide anything in the
• 20:25
  relationship or you know, relationship you've had in the
• 20:27
  past where you're like, if anything that drains me, you've
• 20:31
  got to really think about like the things that you're working
• 20:33
  on, the things that you're doing.
• 20:34
  Like what is it providing? It's like that nine to five job.
• 20:37
  Like if it's not providing you enjoyment, it's not providing
• 20:39
  you a sustainable living wage. If it's not providing you the
• 20:43
  experience for your next step, like it's got to give you
• 20:46
  something in return when it's taking your time and your
• 20:49
  energy. And so where I'm at right now is
• 20:54
  feeling scattered and I'm feeling like things are
• 20:59
  dribbling all over the place. There's an event here, There's a
• 21:02
  meeting here. There's a speaking engagement
• 21:05
  here, OK? I'm going to record the podcast
• 21:07
  here, OK? Doesn't work for that person
• 21:09
  here. It's going to happen here.
• 21:10
  And I've just been feeling like I was so excited to start the
• 21:14
  new year. I felt like it was going to be
• 21:16
  fresh. I was really going to have some,
• 21:19
  like, just really cool new rhythms and systems.
• 21:22
  And then time just gets away and I didn't really put in the
• 21:26
  systems properly in place to really feel like like I had a
• 21:32
  handle on like what was happening and when.
• 21:36
  And so you heard it here first. When I'm back from vacation, I'm
• 21:41
  almost treating the end of March as my reset time, my
• 21:44
  recalibration period. So that's starting in April.
• 21:47
  And then we'll have like April, May, June before the summer.
• 21:51
  Oh yeah, Q2, we'll say Q2 is when I am going to be testing
• 21:56
  out some new time blocking methods.
• 21:59
  Now for me time blocking doesn't work great on like a day-to-day
• 22:05
  basis. And I wonder if this resonates
• 22:07
  with the parents out there who most of which are you are all
• 22:11
  parents listening. I find that if I chalk the block
• 22:15
  my days and I try to time block things without any sort of
• 22:17
  flexibility and making it so that it is like this is what has
• 22:22
  to happen at this exact time. That doesn't work because we
• 22:26
  know it's a House of Cards. One thing happens you have to
• 22:29
  drop them off late to daycare. You got to know the doctor,
• 22:32
  whatever everything else in the day when you've time blocked, it
• 22:35
  really precisely falls. And then it creates even more
• 22:39
  chaos. And for me that has created more
• 22:41
  internal chaos and chaos in my relationship.
• 22:45
  And like just just for me, it doesn't work.
• 22:47
  For some people it works great. Depends on the type of job you
• 22:50
  have, depends on the arrangements you have in the
• 22:53
  household. So if you know X child is sick,
• 22:56
  what happens? What's your backup plan?
• 22:58
  What's your fall back, that sort of thing.
• 23:00
  But I find that what's been working really well is zooming
• 23:05
  out and saying, OK, I record podcasts in my studio downtown
• 23:10
  Vancouver once or twice a month. Here are the blocks giving a lot
• 23:15
  of advanced notice to people and saying, here are the 2-3 blocks
• 23:19
  coming up that I have pick 1. And I had a client, a beautiful
• 23:23
  client a couple of years ago who remarked that she loved that I
• 23:27
  did that with my VIP days. So I also host VIP days now.
• 23:31
  I actually host them either Wednesdays or Thursdays, but I
• 23:34
  said to her at that time it was I host my VIP days on
• 23:37
  Wednesdays. Here are the next Wednesdays
• 23:39
  that I have available. We have our VIP day from 10:00
• 23:43
  AM. We start with brunch and we will
• 23:44
  wrap at 3:00. And she was like, wow, I love
• 23:48
  that. I love that.
• 23:48
  That's like just the day. Like we're not going back and
• 23:51
  forth. You're not saying, ohe, pick a
• 23:53
  day, pick a time because of course it's always going to be
• 23:55
  the day and time that is most inconvenient for you.
• 23:58
  So why don't you start off and this is what I told myself, why
• 24:02
  don't you just create the calendar and create the
• 24:05
  availability that you really want.
• 24:08
  And that was such an unlock for me.
• 24:10
  Now to layer into this conversation is I've gotten
• 24:14
  really aware and familiar with my cycle recently.
• 24:16
  And I've definitely noticed that there are times in the month
• 24:20
  where I don't want to be back-to-back in meetings.
• 24:23
  I don't want to have two VIP days with clients in that week.
• 24:28
  I probably, if I can swing it, like would like to avoid having
• 24:33
  an event that I'm hosting or an event in a VIP day, like avoid
• 24:37
  huge, huge weeks when I'm in my luteal late luteal phase or
• 24:41
  during my period and go listen to my episode with Doctor Liza.
• 24:45
  I will link it in the show notes.
• 24:46
  She talked about your cycle and how you can use it to work with
• 24:50
  you versus against you and how you can start to really think
• 24:53
  about your calendar and your months and your weeks so that
• 24:57
  you're like setting yourself up for success.
• 25:02
  Ah, this is all stuff I know, but I have just like, let it
• 25:08
  slide. You know, life happens.
• 25:09
  I haven't been proactive. I haven't really been looking
• 25:12
  ahead. I've just been like, yeah, like
• 25:15
  just reacting, reacting, reacting, barely look at my
• 25:17
  schedule ahead of time. I'm looking on like Monday that
• 25:20
  morning and being like, oh, wow, this is what's happening this
• 25:23
  week versus being a bit more proactive.
• 25:27
  And I'm also somebody who likes spontaneity.
• 25:30
  Like I like having enough space to let things unfold.
• 25:35
  And so for me, making chockablock like really
• 25:38
  intensely scheduled weeks doesn't work.
• 25:40
  But if I zoom out, which I talk about all the time, if you zoom
• 25:44
  out and you look at like the week as a whole or you look at
• 25:48
  the week within the month and like you really zoom and be
• 25:52
  like, OK, there's 20 weekdays in this month.
• 25:56
  How many of those days do I want to do this?
• 25:59
  How many of those days would I want to have a date night?
• 26:01
  Do I want to see a friend this month, one to one?
• 26:04
  Do we want to go out for dinner with a couple?
• 26:05
  Do we want to have a family over?
• 26:07
  Like even these things are so important to think about.
• 26:10
  And I will recognize I like, well, have to obviously
• 26:14
  recognize that if you're listening and you were in a
• 26:16
  corporate job, sure, like some of your days might be like
• 26:20
  really out of your control. But I have a beautiful client
• 26:23
  who I think I've shared this story on the podcast before we
• 26:27
  were working together. It was actually I think a
• 26:29
  session she either won and it give away or something like
• 26:33
  that. I can't remember it was, but it
• 26:33
  was I think it was a 30 minute session.
• 26:36
  And by the end of it, we basically cracked the code on
• 26:39
  this huge block that she was facing, which was time.
• 26:42
  She felt like she was really stressed and struggling with
• 26:45
  time. She was not present, you know,
• 26:47
  watching her daughters like ballet lesson because she felt
• 26:51
  like she had to be working because she didn't have enough
• 26:52
  time during her day to actually do the damn work.
• 26:56
  We've all been there and she was in meetings all day and then
• 26:59
  felt like she had to do the actual work in the evenings.
• 27:03
  So what we did is we said, OK, when you're looking at the days
• 27:06
  like that, nothing is really movable because all these
• 27:09
  meetings have to go somewhere and you've got to block them in
• 27:11
  somewhere. However, we took a step back and
• 27:14
  then another step back and we zoomed out and we realized if
• 27:17
  she blocked off one afternoon every single week and got the
• 27:22
  enrollment of her team and her organization and said, OK, this
• 27:25
  is a block in my calendar. There's no meetings allowed at
• 27:29
  this time. Like no meetings allowed.
• 27:31
  And for her, it also wasn't time to be doing other things like
• 27:35
  medical appointments or whatever.
• 27:36
  This was like a work block, focused work.
• 27:39
  And what that did for her was make it so that the available
• 27:43
  times that she could be booked were every other day that week
• 27:46
  except for this, I think it was a Thursday afternoon, could not
• 27:50
  be booked. And guess what?
• 27:53
  It worked like people just made it work.
• 27:57
  So if you said I kind of, I don't know.
• 27:59
  I have like feelings about the word boundaries like, but for
• 28:02
  lack of a better phrase or word, I have not yet figured out what
• 28:05
  word I do like. But for lack of a better phrase,
• 28:09
  when you set your boundaries or you set your dream schedule,
• 28:12
  your ideal schedule, and you're like, OK, this is when I'm
• 28:14
  available. Here are a couple options like
• 28:17
  you've got, you've got 4 1/2 days to choose from.
• 28:21
  Choose one of those. Or I can meet you next week.
• 28:23
  There's 4 1/2 days to choose from there too.
• 28:25
  People make it work, and that is what I think I'm going to do.
• 28:32
  I am going to get better about implementing my Sunday calendar
• 28:36
  resets with my husband. We have gotten a bit better.
• 28:40
  We've gotten back into the groove of it.
• 28:41
  It's definitely one of those things that I always suggest to
• 28:44
  people to implement when things are feeling sticky and everybody
• 28:47
  always like falls off and then comes back together, but do a
• 28:50
  calendar reset with the partner. It is so, so helpful.
• 28:55
  And what we used to do is we used to just look at the week
• 28:57
  ahead. But what we started doing every
• 28:59
  so often, like every couple of weeks is we'll actually look at
• 29:03
  the next month or like 4 to six weeks ahead just to see like
• 29:07
  what's on the horizon. We won't go day by day, minute
• 29:09
  by minute, but we will be like, OK, is there anything we want to
• 29:13
  do in the next month or so? Do we want to go to Whistler or
• 29:15
  do we want to, I don't know, like have a family over?
• 29:19
  Like we all know that it's really hard to plan with our
• 29:21
  friends because everyone has such these schedules.
• 29:24
  And so like, OK, those are things you have to book in
• 29:26
  advance. And so we've started doing that
• 29:28
  and I'm going to be doing that calendar reset for myself where
• 29:32
  weekly I'm going to look at my calendar for the week ahead and
• 29:36
  in a detailed way. And then I'm going to look at
• 29:38
  my, say, next four to six weeks and be like, OK, do these blocks
• 29:42
  still make sense? Do do I need to add more podcast
• 29:45
  recording times? Like am I short on episodes or
• 29:47
  do I have too many? When am I doing the work?
• 29:51
  When am I meeting people? When am I leaving space for like
• 29:53
  connection, business development, meeting new
• 29:56
  clients, things like that? So OK, that was actually way
• 30:00
  longer than I thought it was gonna be, but these are my
• 30:03
  thoughts on the old calendar. It is not a new conversation.
• 30:08
  It is not a new issue that parents are facing, it is just a
• 30:13
  different context. We are in a new stage of life.
• 30:17
  We are all adults adulting for the first time in our lives.
• 30:20
  And so we've got to give ourselves the grace that they
• 30:23
  don't have to have this figured out, but we can make tweaks
• 30:26
  along the way and we can recalibrate.
• 30:28
  So this is what I'm going to be doing.
• 30:30
  I'm going to be calendar resetting with my partner, with
• 30:34
  my husband, Scotty. We'll do a weekly, We'll look
• 30:38
  out to the, you know, four to six weeks ahead.
• 30:40
  Personally, I'm going to be doing that in my business and
• 30:42
  I'm going to be testing out like for real this time.
• 30:46
  I'm going to be testing out the calendar blocks on that like
• 30:50
  monthly basis. So I'm going to look to see, you
• 30:53
  know, how many times a month am I doing this, how many times a
• 30:56
  week am I doing this? And I'm going to try it out.
• 31:00
  So I will keep you posted. I'll give you another update,
• 31:04
  but I am feeling excited to have a bit of a pause so that I can
• 31:11
  recalibrate. And if you are in the middle of
• 31:13
  a pause, if you're on a spring break, March break, if you're
• 31:17
  listening to this a bit later and you're like, whatever, it's
• 31:19
  a Tuesday, I'm ready for a pause.
• 31:21
  Then I implore you to also think about your own schedule.
• 31:25
  Think about your relationship with time.
• 31:27
  Think about what's working and what's not working.
• 31:29
  You actually might be listening to this and be like wow, I
• 31:34
  completely disagree with everything you're saying.
• 31:37
  That's not true for me. In which case that's amazing
• 31:41
  because that is like completely solidifying for you that the
• 31:46
  opposite might be true that you do love rigidity, that you are
• 31:50
  obsessed with Georgia. And I'm looking at you, you
• 31:52
  know, like you have like really planned plans really far in
• 31:57
  advance. And I know that works for you.
• 31:59
  So if you or somebody who is like me and you want to come
• 32:04
  with me, try out this, this like kind of, we'll call it month
• 32:08
  blocking or week blocking, then let me know how it goes.
• 32:12
  Find me on Instagram at all figured out, Andrea.
• 32:15
  And that's where I'm most active.
• 32:17
  I would say if you liked this episode, please share it with a
• 32:20
  friend. We are in a growth spurt on the
• 32:23
  podcast. We are growing, we are reaching
• 32:27
  new heights, we are reaching new audiences and it's just the
• 32:31
  start. So I really, really, really
• 32:34
  would love to ask you if you are a listener of the show and
• 32:37
  you've not yet left a review on Apple Podcasts or, and giving it
• 32:44
  five stars, those little stars, it is so hard to find it.
• 32:47
  If you need help finding it, let me know.
• 32:49
  I will make you a little screen recording because it's very hard
• 32:51
  to find where you leave the review and where you give the
• 32:53
  stars. And if you could also, even if
• 32:56
  you don't listen on Spotify, if you could also go over to
• 32:58
  Spotify and give five stars there, leave a comment on an
• 33:03
  episode, whatever you can do. I honestly thought that reviews
• 33:09
  and stars and all those things has gone by the wayside.
• 33:13
  But I have been working with a wonderful new podcast manager
• 33:16
  who is opening my mind to what is possible for this show.
• 33:19
  And she said no, they are very much still important.
• 33:22
  So I would so, so, so appreciate if you could do those two things
• 33:28
  for me. Apple, Spotify, and if you're
• 33:31
  feeling extra generous, hop over to YouTube, hit subscribe.
• 33:35
  Like if you of the videos, all of these episodes are now live
• 33:39
  on YouTube all figured out Andrea over there as well.
• 33:43
  And I want to say thank you for listening to this episode.
• 33:47
  And I cannot wait to be in your ears in a few days.
• 33:50
  Thank you. Bye.