3 tips on how to maximize your time

Today’s episode, dives into the concept of time blocks and calendar techniques, which serve as tools to prioritize tasks that truly matter. By assigning specific time blocks to tasks, such as recording this podcast episode during my toddler’s nap time or planning activities around work schedules, you can create a structured day that maximizes productivity without compromising peace of mind. This structured approach is further complemented by the psychological benefits of activating the prefrontal cortex, which seeks accomplishment and rewards us with dopamine boosts, thus reinforcing productivity.

Our discussion touches on overcoming limiting beliefs and the exhaustion of burnout. These mental barriers often impede progress towards achieving goals, and by addressing them head-on with the help of a free consultation session offered in the episode, listeners can gain personalized guidance to navigate their unique challenges. The consultation aims to craft a path tailored to individual aspirations, emphasizing that thriving within deadlines is not just possible, but attainable.
Tune in and be prepared to walk away with a fresh outlook on the time you have and how to maximize it to its fullest potential.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello, ladies, and welcome to episode 201. I am so happy that you're here today, tuning in either from your car or even from YouTube which, by the way, if you haven't checked me out on video on YouTube, this is now a video podcast, so go check it out now. All you have to do is go to the show notes. If you're listening to this on a podcast, scroll all the way to the very bottom and go to the show notes. When you're a dot com four, slash 201 and you'll find the video down there, so you can see all the gestures that I'm making, what I'm wearing, how I have my hair and if you are able to do that, that's completely okay too. If you are tuning in from the car, completely fine. I want to share today and I'm really excited to share with you all the topic of what I'm talking about today maximizing your time but also invite you to an upcoming webinar that I have for January 25th, on a Thursday at 12th Eastern Standard Time, and what I will be offering during that session is how to manage your mind around time and also walk you through my very own way on how I put things on my calendar, but also the process on how to do so in the most simple way possible. More details to follow. Stay tuned in the next couple episodes. Again, right now, just save the date, go to your calendar right now and just put the meeting with Wendy, thursday, january 25th, 12th PM, eastern Standard Time.

Speaker 1: 1:35

All right, so today we are going to be talking about three tips on how you can start maximizing your time. Before I do so, though, I want to share with you why this is important, and I know most of you are possibly thinking like Wendy there's no way I can still continue to maximize on the very small, limited amount of time that I have, because there's just so many things I need to get done and I just don't have the time for it. But today I want to share with you three quick trip, three quick tips. There are tactical that you can start doing right now, even as you're driving, even as you're in your office, you're cooking, whatever you might be doing, because I know most of us are multitasking while we listen to podcasts. I'm doing that all the time because that's really the only time that I am able to listen to a podcast. Do laundry or whatever else I need to get done. Drive to pick up my kids. That's, honestly the time that I enjoy listening to podcasts, when I'm in the vehicle, when I'm doing a chore, when I'm doing something that I'm able to also pay attention to and as well as doing something else.

Speaker 1: 2:46

And so, with that, I want to begin with telling you why it's so important for us to be able to maximize on time. One, because you are creating more time for yourself and for your family, and two, because you want to be able to get done with whatever time that you have, whatever items that you have to do with the time that you do have, from a place of peace, not from a place of chaos, not from a place of stress, not from a place of frustration or overwhelm, but from a place of peace. And I know that that's difficult sometimes to even imagine, because we're constantly on the go-go-go, we're constantly going a thousand miles an hour that we don't pay attention on how we're feeling, and so the biggest takeaway for you here is to do things from a place of a positive emotion or whatever that may be for you. For me, it's more of peace, joy, loving for you and maybe just not being stressed right, being less stressed, being less frustrated or just being more present, and I know most of you are wanting to be more present, are wanting to just do things and not feel like you're on autopilot, and so, again, this is why we want to be able to maximize the time that we do have, because I know it's very limited, especially if you're active duty, especially if you're in a season of transition, especially if you're in a season on where there is something new that you knew was coming, but you didn't have the time to prepare ahead of time or in advance, because it's just there's so many things going on in your life or you may be a single mother, right, there's just so many things, so many circumstances. But I'm here to offer you that you can begin to maximize the time that you do have, even if it's 20 minutes a day, even if it's 10 minutes a day.

Speaker 1: 4:50

And the first thing, the first tip that I want to offer you, is that you one thing that you need to let go of they stop saying that you don't have enough time. That is really the foundation on where we can be kin to find time, because we sometimes forget that we have that responsibility, that self ownership of actually creating that for ourselves. No one's going to say separate that time for you. You have to do that for yourself, and it begins with you saying that you don't have enough time, because when we do that, when we say we don't have enough time, we procrastinate, and then we judge ourselves for not having this time management skills down to a T, and so when we stop saying that, we then now go into OK, how much time do I have? How much time can I set aside for this one task that I have?

Speaker 1: 5:57

Maybe it's reading a book, maybe it's reading a chapter in the Bible, maybe it's just simply starting a new hobby, maybe it's simply just looking at your budget from a different perspective. Maybe it's setting up a call with a life coach, maybe it's just setting time for yourself to really explore how you're feeling. Maybe it's time for you to study, for you to plan a vacation, whatever it may be. You now start asking yourself better questions instead of reminding yourself that you don't have enough time, because here's the truth, we all don't have enough time. There's so many things that I have in my idea bucket that I have and that's like for the podcast right so many podcasts that I want to record. I can't record all of them that I have on my queue in one day, because there's just so many, but they're there for the future, when I do have the time, when I do set the time.

Speaker 1: 6:52

It may be the same for you, right? You have many, many ideas for a business, or many ideas for your business, but you can only tackle so many things at a time. You may have so many ideas on how to transition out of your career, but you only have a certain amount of time to work towards it. And so when you're able to do that, again you stop procrastinating and you stop judging yourself and judging yourself on how you don't have this time management skill, going on, how irresponsible you are with not managing your time. So, tip number one stop saying that you don't have enough time and begin thinking of how you can use that time.

Speaker 1: 7:27

So the next tip is it goes into creating that list on what you want to get done Now, what you need to get done, because most of the time, what we need to get done, we'll get done by going to work, like brushing your teeth, like getting in the shower. Those are the things that you need to get done, right? I mean, ultimately we want to because it's a long term Well being will affect us if we don't shower, if we don't brush our teeth, if we don't go to work, right. But here's the thing when we create a running list on what we want to get done and the desires that we want to actually do like a hobby, go get our nails done, go get a massage, go read that book, spend more time in prayer, whatever it may be, find a community Again, it could be even hiring a life coach, right?

Speaker 1: 8:13

Creating that time and adding that to a to-do list and being able to do something from a desire, or a I want desire versus I need to, is crucial. You having somewhere where you can store that is very, very important for when you do have time, for when, all of a sudden, that meeting got canceled, all of a sudden. Now you don't have to go pick up the kids, or your boss decided to let you go home early. Now, instead of going and hanging out or doing unnecessary things that you didn't even plan or didn't even want to do. Now you have something that you can go to. Now you have something on that agenda and here's the thing Keep it as simple as possible. It doesn't have to be fancy, you don't have to go to click up on what I have right, like, the way I do things is very different from what you do things. The way you do things. You may still be on pen and paper, that's completely fine. Write it down. Write, have a funding list that is going to keep you focused on what you want to do. You can use it, sell, you can use whatever. You can use a board Very similar to this one behind me, whatever works for you. Keep it simple, nothing fancy.

Speaker 1: 9:32

Tip number three be able to focus on only spending that amount of time that you set for yourself ahead of time. So let's say you give yourself 20 minutes to only focus on planning for that trip, for that desire that you have that task. Let's say you only you know spend 10 minutes looking at different resorts. Because here's another thing we will get sucked in to all the available options that are out there, especially if you have to go through social media. You are going to get sucked in. So you have to give yourself a duration time on how long you're going to do that thing. If you're going to get carried away, you're going to forget to go get the kids. You're going to forget to do that other thing that you have to do for work, this other project. You're going to miss out on something else, and so then you're going to just not stick to it, because then you're thinking, ok, this did not work, be writing it down and getting it done. It took three hours instead of 30 minutes. I missed this one thing that you needed to get done, or it ran into dinner.

Speaker 1: 10:45

Whatever it may be, you want to be able to do that ahead of time. So, for example, when I record this podcast, I know that most of the time I'm going to record this podcast when my daughter is sleeping, when she's taking a nap, when I don't have anything else going on if the kids don't have practice, if there's nothing else after work there's nothing else going on before work or even if the kids don't go to school. I have this time to be able to record a podcast, to be able to get on my computer and do something on that running list, and so being able to do it in a period, an amount of time that you have, will allow you to also have this clear mind and know that you are going to go pretty much headfirst into that task, and it allows you to not take too long and also, like, overdo it or get sucked in to all the options that are out there, because that's another thing. It depends on what task. It is right. Some tasks you can do right away and you send an email great, you need to go call this specific place. You get it done in two, three minutes.

Speaker 1: 12:01

But there are going to be tasks that you may have when it comes to researching, and so with that, if we don't give ourselves our amount of time, we will research forever and we're not going to get to the next task, and so that's why it's so important for you to have a duration, so that you're able to just focus on that amount of time that you have, because, remember, you have a limited amount of time anyways. So give yourself some grace, and if you only have 20 minutes and it takes 20 minutes, then do so. Now, what happens when you give yourself 20 minutes and it really takes you 30 minutes? Again, have grace, don't judge yourself to an in 30, but remember that next time you need to give yourself 30 minutes instead of the only 20 minutes. And so now you have one. You stop telling yourself that you don't have enough time. And it's that you create time. You stop procrastinating and you create that amount of time that you know you do have.

Speaker 1: 12:57

You create a running list. Create a running list of the things that you want to do. Remember, nothing fancy, very simple, simple is better. And then the last thing add the duration that you're going to take for each test. So and it doesn't have to be, again, fancy at all All you have to do is say okay in email it's gonna take me no more than five minutes, I have to go get my nails done. It's obviously gonna take an hour, whatever it may be for you, things like that. So when you do have that window, you're like, okay, I can go get my nails done because now I have an hour, whatever it may be, study for a test a long time, whatever you need to do.

Speaker 1: 13:39

And so, again, being able to do these things maximizes, one, the time that you do have and, two, you're doing it from your prefrontal cortex, meaning our brain operates from two different parts your prefrontal cortex, meaning the part of the brain that is going to plan ahead of time, and then the primitive brain, where that's the part of the brain where it's pretty much there to help you stay safe, to help you survive, to help you not go into danger mode and actually be able to do things on a day to day. And so when you're able to plan this out and you're able to lay this out ahead of time, your prefrontal cortex kicks in and now the dopamine hit that it's looking for is accomplishment. It's going to get done. And when we can do this consistently and we do this every single day, your mind, your brain, is going to get a dopamine hit, meaning that it's going to want more of it and you're going to continue to do this and continue to maximize on the very small amount of time that you do have. Now, if you want to be able to do this and you're thinking, well, I can do it now, it's completely okay. Maybe you're in the field listening to this podcast, maybe you're in a season where you are mentally trained and you want to be able to do this. When there is more time that you're able to use or be able to effectively get things done, that's completely okay.

Speaker 1: 15:19

Give yourself some grace. I know most of the time we want to get into it right away. There's probes and cons for that. We want to be able to understand why we're getting into this right change. Our brain doesn't really like change as much as we think it does and then we want to be able to understand how this is going to serve us, how it's going to serve you individually. If this is something that you know, it's going to help you. Start right away. Start doing this, like I said in your car One, stop saying that you don't have enough time to create a running list.

Speaker 1: 15:52

Write it out. Type it out on a word dog, on an Excel sheet, and then just put the amount of time that you're going to take for each. Very simple should not take you no more than 10 minutes to get this going maybe five at the most and give yourself five minutes Again. We don't have to get overwhelmed over a list, a running list. How to maximize should not be overwhelming. Maximize your time should not be overwhelming, and so I offer you this invitation to start today, to start maximizing time with these three tips. Go and do it now, and I also want to invite you to join me on January 25. It's a Thursday at 12 pm, eastern Standard Time, where I will walk you through how to start managing your mind around the time and also show you a tactical way on how I do it in the most simple way possible.

Speaker 1: 16:44

All right, ladies, and listen. If this resonated with you and you're like I really need some help now, I need some accountability, I want to invite you to schedule a free consultation session with me where I walk you through where you are now, with limiting beliefs that you may have that may be keeping you stuck, that may be keeping you in burnout, that may be keeping you from taking action, and also give you steps that are specific to you on how you can start getting after the goals and desires that you want for your life, for your career, for your family, so that you can continue to make an impact within your military career, but also beyond. All you have to do is go to winyarraycom for slash consult. You can also scroll to the very bottom of the YouTube video or podcast and you'll find the link there. All right, ladies, I pray that everything is going well for you and have a great and beautiful rest of your week. Bye.