Taught: The Podcast
Taught is a podcast where educators and others discuss how they really feel about education, burnout, and strategies to make the world and education burnout-free.
Taught: The Podcast
Time Matters: Reclaiming Your Schedule
Ready to transform your relationship with time? Meet sKedule sUther, the revolutionary yet remarkably simple tool helping burnt-out professionals reclaim control of their schedules without adding more stress to their lives.
When burnout expert Jamie London-Wahlberg found himself overwhelmed by competing priorities and multiple collaborations, he turned to sales veteran Tess Wall for help. What began as a personal scheduling solution evolved into something powerful enough that they felt morally obligated to share it with others. The Schedule Soother isn't just another productivity app – it's a reflection tool that helps you understand where your time actually goes and gives you permission to create space for what truly matters.
At its core, sKedule sUther consists of just three elements: a simple schedule grid, a color-coding system to balance physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of life, and a tracking component for important tasks. This minimalist approach is intentional. As Jamie recalls his initial resistance: "I literally told Tess I think initially I'm not even going to open this... I said I trust you, but I hate spreadsheets." Yet this spreadsheet-averse entrepreneur now calls sKedule sUther life-changing.
What makes this tool different is its emphasis on progress over productivity. There are no annoying notifications. No rigid structures. No guilt trips. Instead, users discover patterns in how they spend their time and make conscious adjustments. For those in burnout recovery, sKedule sUther provides concrete evidence when you need more rest or self-care – something impossible to overdo: "I have never heard anybody burn out because they put too much self-care."
Whether you're an entrepreneur juggling multiple projects, a parent managing family schedules, or someone transitioning careers, sKedule sUther offers a path to greater presence and intentionality.
Find out more about sKedule sUther: https://www.janusrising.com/challenge-page/bd50d539-4832-4a91-b0b3-6f26beae9ad3?programId=bd50d539-4832-4a91-b0b3-6f26beae9ad3
Season 1 :
Join the Conversation: https://taughtbymelef.blogspot.com/
Interested in being a guest on the podcast? Email promelef@gmail.com. Include your name, role in education, and a summary of your story.
Here's the book that started it all:
Taught: The Very Private Journal of One Bad Teacher
Available @ Amazon in ebook or audio:
https://a.co/d/1rNZ84h
For immediate help use link for resources:
https://www.healthcentral.com/mental-health/get-help-mental-health
Other resources:
Amy Schamberg Wellness: https://www.amyschamberg.com/about
NHS - Resources for Grief and Burnout
https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/feelings-symptoms-behaviours/feelings-and-symptoms/grief-bereavement-loss/
Melissa Anthony MA, LPC Trauma & Grief Counselor
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/melissa-j-anthony-grand-rapids-mi/944381
we developed this from an idea and, like I want to help you, let me see what I can do. And then jamie's saying I love this. What if we do this instead? Or what if we add to it? And it just became this beautiful thing that just grew organically and we're like holy blank. This is good stuff. We want to share this with people and we want to provide. And it doesn't have to be. That's the magic of this, melissa. It could be for entrepreneurs. It could also be for I'm a mom of four. What do I do in my time? I'm a busy working professional, but it's those windows of time that you aren't sure what needs to be there or what do you choose to be there.
Speaker 2:How much I miss not knowing that we're all screwed. A few years ago, I started writing a fictitious story based on my time as an educator. It is called Taught, and the story was partially inspired out of anger and frustration fueled by burnout. Okay, actually, it was more than partially inspired by anger and frustration fueled by burnout Okay, actually, it was more than partially inspired by anger and frustration. But taught has also become a vehicle for me to tell what I thought at the time and in some ways continue to think was and is the real story of teaching. I now realize that my perspective is not everyone's perspective, but there are some pieces of taught that resonated with many educators perspective, but there are some pieces of taught that resonated with many educators. This podcast is an extension of that story and I, a former teacher, will interview other educators, asking them to share how they really feel about the current state of education. Why are so many teachers burnout? Why are so many like me leaving the field? We likely won't solve any problems or come up with any solutions, but we can create a community of voices that maybe begin the conversation around how educators can take back teaching. I'm Melissa LaFleur. Welcome to Taught, the podcast.
Speaker 2:When I recorded this, my intention was that Taught podcast would be taking a little hiatus after a year of weekly episodes. However, after I recorded this, I spoke to someone who had an interest in taking over as host. So, despite my saying this is the final episode for a while, there will be new episodes coming soon with a new host, so stay tuned. Today's episode is dedicated to time management and, since this will be the last episode of taught the podcast for a while, as we take a much needed hiatus, I felt that the biggest thank you I could give anyone listening would be the gift of time. At the height of my burnout, I remember thinking that I just wished one portion of my day could not be half two. Every day, from start to finish, felt like an endless task of things I had to do, and I never got to do what I wanted to do.
Speaker 2:If you've experienced burnout, you know exactly what I'm talking about. So, before we begin, I want to ask you are scheduling headaches draining your energy? If so, this episode is my personal present for you, and I use the word present in all its forms. Today, we're diving into a new scheduling tool created by two incredible minds Jamie London-Wahlberg, a burnout expert and leadership mentor, who empowers transformation, and Tess Wall, a sales and team building veteran with over 25 years of experience. They've combined their unique perspectives to build a tool designed to simplify your schedule and boost your productivity. Let's explore how their diverse backgrounds shaped this innovative solution. Tess and Jamie, thank you for being here. Can you each share a little bit about yourselves and how and I'm going to ask you if I'm saying this correctly schedule soother came to be? I'm saying it.
Speaker 1:So okay. So if you're, if you see this in print, you're going to say there is a strange spelling of this and the K the schedule soother, if you want to think about. Like you know, avril Lavigne had like skater boy, all those like funny ways of spelling things. It was just a pop a little bit. And that's why the K's there, because it's fun and it's cool, it's different. That's what we're up to Fun, cool and different. And the U is capitalized in the soother because me and Jamie are going to do this thing together. Ready Because me and Jamie are gonna do this thing together. Ready Because it's all about you. I love that. It's to accentuate the you, and I'll let Jamie jump on this part too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was really just something that flew out. You know Tess and I were meeting regularly about this. Coaching each other through. This was not something that popped up overnight. This was a concept that we truly put into practice for many, many months before we put it out there, and what we realized is that this was literally calming us. It was de-stressing our perspective and our experience in living with what is as entrepreneurs who have a lot going on, and scheduling became progress Like our whole lives. We realized we were taking things from productivity to progress and, after failing constant productivity apps, we decided we wanted to be something different, and what is different is something that works for you in a way that feels good. We want you to feel excited about it. So that's where we get schedule soother and also like look like Google, all these other companies, like that's just the thing we spell things. You know, strangely, we make things up. It's also shorter.
Speaker 2:It does make it pop, though. I mean it really draws the eye and makes you remember and it makes you think. What is that? Am I saying? And I said it right? Am I saying that right?
Speaker 1:Congratulations. You said it right. So it's so funny Like the origin story of this was me as a creative, as an entrepreneur. I'm growing a business where I'm doing keynote speaking and workshops, so I have specific appointments. I have things like these calls on this day, I got to do this on this day. I have this, I get to do it on this day, I choose to do it on this day. And then there's a lot of gray area some days where, whoa, I have a whole window of an afternoon so I could do a lot of things in that window. I could just go back and take a nap. Maybe I need to do that. I could sit and watch Netflix. Maybe I need to do that too. Or this is the day that I really want to tackle.
Speaker 1:Fill in the blank. I could feel very called to work on something this day, specific to something, but it was like what do I want to do in that window? And that's how it came about that I was using this tool and Jamie's like Tess, help, I need help, I need help, I need to get a handle of this. I don't know if you remember, jamie, we looked at some schedule things together. I opened it up and I'm like I have a lot of patience. I look at, together, I opened it up and I'm like I have a lot of patience. I look at that. I'm like hard pass, like it would take us more time to set it up than it would be to actually use it, and that's not useful. It's not useful for anybody who's someone who's in burnout, someone who just wants to hit the ground running. That's what we're here for.
Speaker 1:And so, as as as it was over time, we developed this from an idea and like I want to help you, let me see what I can do. And then Jamie saying I love this. What if we do this instead? Or what if we add to it? And it just became this beautiful thing that just grew organically and we're like holy blank. This is good stuff. We want to share this with people and we want to provide. And it doesn't have to be. That's the magic of this, melissa. It could be for entrepreneurs. It could also be for I'm a mom of four. What do I do in my time? I'm a busy working professional, but it's those windows of time that you aren't sure what needs to be there or what do you choose to be there and you get to control your day and by controlling your day you have the flexibility with accountability and the stress just drops significantly. And Jamie has modified so many things since I started it that I'm sure Jamie would like to add onto that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean it was mind blowing for me, because what was happening for me is, you know, I have autism. Quick changes are really challenging for me and I'm also someone who just does a lot of different things, all looped within my passion. I have a lot of different collaborations and so I would freeze, because that's my reaction, that's my burnout trigger is like I get overwhelmed, I get overstimulated and then I shut down and then nothing happens. But because I have the schedule soother, I have the ability to take control of my life and see what's possible, as opposed to sitting there and thinking back and forth on which of these three things am I going to do?
Speaker 3:What is more important when everything feels so important and so many of us who burn out, regardless of the type of burnout you have, it comes from the muchness, and I love muchness. I'm a very much person. But when it comes to muchness, there's still boundaries to have, not to shut you down, not to be authentic, but to live your life in a balanced, authentic way. And Tess had this. You know I had major resistance because she like, opens up this spreadsheet. She's like, well, I actually use something that I think maybe we could build off of.
Speaker 1:So she opens up the spreadsheet and I said to her like it was like ah yeah, I was like no, no, no, no those of you listening I did like a, it was a vampire. Like I did a vampire sign like ah, it's a vampire, you know it's garlic. Where's my garlic? Help.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and and, and. So I was like Tess, I got to tell you like I trust you, but I hate spreadsheets and I don't get them, and I don't see how this is going to help me. And we both proved each other wrong. We both showed each other what was possible by bringing together her expertise and her ideas and mine. The iteration that now people can access of the schedule soother is far different than what it was initially, and it went through many iterations of things that we thought were going to be great for the schedule soother that we tested out. The reason why the schedule soother is the way it is is because it's minimalistic. It's something that you can personally add to. Like, tess and I have added different things to the schedule soother that we talk to each other about, but she's like I'm going to do this this way and I'm like, yeah, I don't want to do that, I'm doing this, though. And she'll be like, oh, that's really cool, but we decided we didn't want to put it in because we want the schedule soother to be simple.
Speaker 3:There are three facets to the schedule soother, and anybody can navigate something with three facets. Right, we do more than three things. When we wake up, right, we open our eyes, we take a breath, we usually navigate whatever alarm we're in order to turn off or whatever the case where we drink a glass of water. I mean, anyone can handle three quick steps to do something to create more freedom in their life, and so it's amazing. What we have brought into it really focuses a analytical perspective to also a spiritual perspective, because we look at the holistic health and, as you and I have talked about on a previous episode, which is out by the time people are hearing this, you know we need to look holistically at ourselves if we're going to prevent burnout and get out of burnout on a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level. We realized this was something that was not being done on any app that we could find, and so we have actually color-coded a very simplistic element into the Schedule, soother that allows you to take stock to where you don't have to even read everything on the page.
Speaker 3:You can see because you know what these couple of colors mean and you look at what you've done in the past seven days. Well, okay, how do I feel right now? Okay, I'm really drained. Well, did I have balance in my life? Like what this week? What color am I not seeing and what color am I seeing most of? So if you're seeing like all three and across, that means that you have been focusing on material, like business, you know things that are physical. You probably haven't taken care of all the other things. Conversely, if you're like, wow, I didn't meet any of my professional goals this week, I see all like orange and purple, it's probably because you're focused on creation and your emotions and your spiritual capacity. You're not really focused on those things. So we've really built something over time that is structured to be customized, and that is something that we actually help you to do.
Speaker 1:And it's so cool, especially Melissa, like if you, if you think of your day and and I would guess, jamie, I'm going to just guess most people are the first example where they would have a whole bunch of green and then not and not not be the other example, because that's, that's how we get in burnout and that's that's usually how we live our lives. You know, let's hit the ground running. I got to catch up on our to do list from the to do list, from the to do list, three days ago. The ground running. I got to catch up on our to-do list from the to-do list, from the to-do list, three days ago. And what did I not do already that I haven't even done? That I haven't even thought about. You know, that's how a lot of people start their days or go to bed at night. What did I not do?
Speaker 1:What happens with the magic of the schedule soother is just that you can look at your schedule soother that you've designed over the seven day period and you can say you know what, I need to schedule some me time, and it gives you permission to say, yes, I need rest during the middle of the day, or I need on a Saturday, I am taking people to do things this, that and the other, and I have no me time on this entire grid. And it gives you permission to say you know what I really wanted to watch? That movie that just came out on streaming. And it gives you permission to say you know what I really wanted to watch? That movie that just came out on streaming. And it gives you permission to do it and you don't have the guilt because you're like I have to do it. Look, I have the visual proof that it's needed and you choose not to, of course, but I mean ideally, yeah.
Speaker 2:I think sometimes, you know, especially I'm not going to put any label to it, but people who are already burnout, and I alluded to this at the beginning. I know for me it wasn't that I wasn't doing the things that I wanted to do, it was that I would get to the end of the day and I was spent and it's like by the time I did everything I felt was a have to. I didn't have any time for a want to and it was just my want to was to go to bed and rest so that I could get up and do it all again the next day. So I like the idea of looking ahead and saying this is important and I want to do this and making that a priority.
Speaker 3:It's a huge deal to be able to do that, because you're committing to yourself, and we know that that is what you haven't been doing if you're burnt out?
Speaker 3:right, if you're burnt out, you're not. I can tell you right now, of all of the burnout that I've studied, experienced and witnessed within my clients, I have never heard anybody burn out because they put too much self-care. That doesn't exist. You may fall short of other things, but that's easier almost to balance than the reverse when you're already there, because, like, imagine at that point if you've overspent major air quotes for people who are just listening to this, you know, if you've overspent in terms of your self-care, well then you're theoretically at your best, right, like within yourself, and therefore strongest to and well equipped to be able to handle all of the other things and adjust and rebalance. We have to start within ourselves and and that is a huge part of why we also have several different tiers of options of what people can do like, you can get the schedule soother as it is on the bare level, you can have it customized. You know Tess is the tech genius behind all of this and I want to be clear, though all of this is incredibly simple. Remember, I was hyper-resistant. Now I can't live without it and it's really not difficult. It takes moments and being able to look ahead it also helps you to feel secure in a way. You don't. You're not future tripping.
Speaker 3:In fact, interestingly enough, I've discovered that we use the schedule soother to manifest, and what this looks like is and I was telling Tess about an example of this the other day but, for example, I know that we all like music.
Speaker 3:So if you want to go to a concert and you're like, okay, this concert is on Saturday and I have a million of these different things to do, I need to get the money for the tickets, I need to do all these things Just by putting it on your schedule soother for that day and saying I desire to do this, it commits you, and then you start to just automatically hear, almost, and receive. What are these steps? Like, let's reverse engineer, what are the things that I need to do? And you start to motivate, like, without even realizing it, you just start to motivate and bring things into your life, and so it just allows you to. It's your buddy. Like we could have called it the schedule buddy, but we didn't think people would take that as seriously, but it really is. It's my buddy. When I came back from vacation from Spain, I wasn't stressed, because I would have typically been stressed about being gone for several weeks or when I just had that long case of COVID, but I had the schedule soother to back me.
Speaker 3:I knew that I had something that was gonna help me get back what felt like back on track right and I think that that's what keeps happening is we're like, well, I'm supposed to be here, I'm supposed to be at this level of success, I'm supposed to be doing this level of success, I'm supposed to be doing this kind of thing Like, as you said, these have tos.
Speaker 3:These have tos destroy us, and we didn't create this to be on a fantasy island. This is a very grounding tool, but it's a tool that allows you to be able to see an observer mode perspective. When you zoom out and you zoom in in life, a lot of those micro things that feel really awful in the moment dissipate, because I think, like what they say about emotions now scientifically is like you feel the emotion for 30 seconds and then anything after that is what story you make after that emotion happened. So anything after that is not actually emotion that you need to feel to get what you got. It's just that we do and our emotions are powerful, and this schedule soother allows for that. Like I think about all these productivity apps. They're so stressful, right, whether you have the list or whatever constantly notifying you on your phone get back to this.
Speaker 3:You haven't done this. Have you done this? No, there are times where Tess and I don't use the Schedule Soother. Do you want to talk about that?
Speaker 1:No, I was going to say actually. So people are probably thinking okay, so you keep saying the Schedule Soother. Like what is Schedule Soother? First of all, it's just a Google Sheet. It's a spreadsheet that's built out with different tabs with different functionalities on it. So, because of that, you can do it on your phone. You can access it in a tablet, desktop. It is meant for you to use it how you need to use it, and what happens is it's a grid that I've created. Jamie has been magical with the color coding system that we've added so you get this built in that has a grid for you to take accountability for your day in 30-minute increments.
Speaker 1:So the way I was using it I'll give you my example I was starting the day I would build out my week and this, this is y'all. This is not to take place of your actual calendar that says go to the doctor at one o'clock tomorrow. That this is not that. This is just an overall grid of the functionality of your day. And so what I was doing is I was building out my, my windows of time, like I need to work on my website here. This is when I do this, when it is and in the moment I can look at this and say I don't know what I was thinking that I could be on a call for three hours and sit at my desk for three hours working on my website.
Speaker 1:Now that's a little hyperbole. But in that case I could say yeah, no, I need to change this right now to me time. And then I can look at that again and say I probably don't need to set up my day like that. I need to be mindful of what happens after this time. And then at the end of the day you say, okay, so this is actually what happened. But in that moment I can take the guilt away from saying Tess needs some me time, y'all. Tess needs to go outside. Tess needs to do something. Like it's okay for me to do that instead of before. I would feel so guilty about taking a moment for myself Because I'm like I should have stayed at my computer. I'm failing. Ah, you know that kind of thing. Throw your hands up. You're about to say something I was.
Speaker 3:You felt it Melissa's about to say something. Oh, Melissa's about to say something.
Speaker 2:Yes, please, melissa. Of course I will have a Zoom meeting back to back to back, for whatever reason, and realize that I sat way too long, which is a huge no-no for me. I have to have movement. So, even if you're not scheduling me. Time to be able to see that and look at it through the lens of what's best for me am I making choices with my schedule that are the best for me is pretty amazing. Go ahead, jamie. What were you going to say?
Speaker 3:Oh, actually I couldn't be happier that I let you speak first, because I'm even just gonna zoom it all in together, because you brought up something that is but her me time could be.
Speaker 1:I need to stretch my back. Oh, 100%, 100%, no time could be.
Speaker 3:I need to stretch my back. Oh, 100%, no, but you're touching upon an even bigger thing about when you said what's best for me and what's amazing is coming like if we go down the timeline of little milestones.
Speaker 3:I came to Tess completely in disarray, wanting to feel organized, because I realized I was in unhealthy patterns that I couldn't understand. I couldn't get out of them. I tried everything and I was wanting. I was finally at this state of I want to live my best life Like. I know it may be cliche, but I'm a firm believer in that statement. I love it Like I want to live the life that I love. Believer in that statement, I love it Like I want to live the life that I love and I can't be a leader of love. That I say I am without that to to getting to the point of what you did, which is it didn't just become about organizing the schedule soother much like my self love audit, which is like if you go into the art coaching package, you will experience the self audit first, which actually helps you fill in. Everything else really brings you to this clarity where all of your behaviors and your patterns are right in front of you and you can't unsee it.
Speaker 3:Like we've we've added some really powerful things. Like we have this little section that's super simple to use, that has that's your three tasks that you want to take on each day, and this is. These are tasks that are already on. You know, we have like a master task list and all this thing, so all of you list people relax, we're holding your hand. We haven't taken away your list. We actually made an easier way of doing it. That's less stressful. But we have this little section and so you you could put there the three things that you feel are most important in your day. What we tend to put in there are the three things that we usually avoid, and so what happens is at the end of my day and my week, when I go to my little note section and I review and I'm like oh, whoa, like there was a period of time where I realized I was avoiding doing the dishes and that's been something that I have been tackling in therapy for years. This is something that started for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm going to speak to that. It was like Jamie, did you do dishes? No, okay, yeah. And I want to be clear yeah, no, yeah, I want to be clear.
Speaker 3:This was piled up the sink and part of, like, the counter, like it was out of control. I live by myself and I just couldn't figure it out, couldn't really figure it out in therapy, like all these things. And then one day I realized, um, as I was looking at my schedule soother, as I was looking at my schedule soother, that it was actually me feeling afraid to give time to the dishes, feeling afraid to give time to the house things, because I was so focused on my inner house and I was so focused on my projects. And so I like you were speaking to earlier, melissa of, like, by the end of the day I'm spent, I was like this is I was not making this a priority, and I realized that there was a part of me that actually wasn't feeding into my self-care, because, of course, it's important to do the dishes and clean the floors and, like, do all of these things. So the schedule soother does help you to live your best life because it empowers you to see what's not working and it empowers you to have the opportunity. And, speaking of filling in, you don't have to fill in every square.
Speaker 3:I spent months trialing and airing and all this and what I found, at least for me, is filling in every square, which is what I was initially so sure was the best method for me.
Speaker 3:It wasn't actually, because when things, would you know, quote, unquote, crash and burn and like five things would get canceled on me in the day or something would be longer than I thought or whatever, I would like totally freak out because I wouldn't get to those other things. And I and Tess was like, well, why don't you try putting in your appointments and like the solid things and then leave the rest blank and fill it in as you go? And I was like you're a genius, you know, and this is this, this is the thing it's like, right, we always the simplest thing that is so in your face, right? Sometimes you really need that mirror, and that's why Tess and I were coaching each other week by week. That's how we realized that the schedule soother was not just for us, but that like it was a moral responsibility to make it available. And also why we chose to have a coaching package, because some people aren't tech savvy, but also some people want help to navigate all of these things. And what I found is I needed that balance of that freedom.
Speaker 3:These are the things I'm committing to, and then these spots that are here. It's me committing to being in the moment and, as you said in the beautiful introduction that was so poetic at the beginning, with present in all of the forms. That is something that we're focused on. In order for me to live my best life, I had to be present with what was really happening, how was I really behaving and what did I really want, and I know that more than ever now from the scheduling.
Speaker 2:In the example that I gave. When I am booking myself back to back to back, I know I have a back problem. I make this a priority. It's that I'm not being mindful, and so that present piece is huge. When we aren't, then we're scheduling things for ourselves without thinking, and that seems to be a huge feature of this is just making you be present and think about where you are allotting your time and what that really looks like for you. So I want to take us back just a bit here, though, because it sounds to me that you two were collaborating on projects and you realized that, jamie, you realized that Tess seemed to be good organizing her time. And, tess, you said I have this spreadsheet. And Jamie, you said so do I have that story pretty correct there? Okay, yeah. So then the two of you were like, okay, well, maybe we can tweak this spreadsheet for something that works for Jamie and Tess. You were open to saying, hey, maybe we can take this in directions that will work better for me as well. Sure Again, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:The actual spreadsheet itself. That's not what we changed. Really. That's pretty much the original iteration. It was all like what do we want to build with it, to amplify its potency, and then just kind of like, well, this might be a little too technical or this could be a little too much information on the page. We were throwing around the idea of daily prompts. You you know just just like what would it look like if we had this and at the end of the day we were like like Jamie really made, made me be present. To keep it simple, people could go elsewhere for a whole bunch of stuff on a page. The point of this is it's it's magic in its potency, with the simplicity of it.
Speaker 2:Well, I want to speak a little bit to the coaching thing that you said, because essentially this was the first coaching is what it sounds like to me. But also, tess, you were willing to to have Jamie say this piece of the coaching. Maybe we could do a little different, and so it did turn into a collaboration. But one of the things that struck me, jamie, when you were talking is that coaching piece may really be important for some people, because not everybody is. You know, self-reflection is a skill that must be practiced and if we sometimes don't have someone there to answer our questions, I can give you an example right here of somebody who purchases things like this and it has all the tabs and the bells and the whistles, but if it doesn't get used you can have a stack of these, and sometimes that's what we need is someone to say, oh, you've got a good tool, now let me show you some things that you can do with this tool that might not just be there for us. So I love the fact that you guys do offer the coaching for that specifically because I think a lot of times, like I said, people you know the internet is a great place, and so are infomercials and oftentimes we have people that buy cooking gadgets that are going to save their lives. But if you don't know the basics about cooking and you don't know how to budget for your family and you don't know how to shop for your family when it comes to groceries or I'm making that sound very gender specific, but you know what I mean If you don't have it, you don't have to have a family. If you don't know how to shop for food, for a recipe, and you don't have those base skills and know when to show you, then this gadget is just a gadget. So I think it's, and for some of us, I think some people could take the schedule soother and into it. You know, be like okay, this is what I do and this is you know.
Speaker 2:And one final thing I want to say before I ask my next question is I really like the fact that there's this idea, this story? Jamie just told where Tess, you're like oh well, why do you have to fill it all in right now? We tend to make up our own rules. Actually, I'm very good at making up rules that make my life very challenging, and the rule is there are no rules, right? This is just a tool for people to use the way that they need to use it. So you've told us that it is this Google Sheet with these tabs and that they're color coded. Kind of walk me through how this functions for each of you. It seems like maybe you fill this out weekly. It's not like a monthly thing or a six month, okay.
Speaker 1:So kind of walk me through that, okay so and first, before I say that I do want to add, like a specific thing there is no wrong way to do this. You will not mess this up, Nobody is wrong, and I just want you know that's, that's so important.
Speaker 3:If you delete it, we'll send you another one one, but I might delete it.
Speaker 1:You're like, okay, and we can send you another one. Now, if we delete it there's a problem. But yeah, I don't think that's gonna happen. We're gonna send Melissa the secret copy that it's never deleted. Okay, I'll be the keeper. You're the keeper of the of the schedule soother master, but yeah, so okay, this is how my I'm going to do the day in the life of Tess.
Speaker 1:Tess wakes up and let's even back up. I'm like a Sunday evening, monday morning, you know, it just depends on what my weekend's been like. I build it out for the week, and I usually build out two weeks and I fill out like I know I have a disappointment, I've got these calls and so I'll block off these specific times or these activities, and then I will fill in the week and I actually do kind of like milestones I don't know if you've heard of the Merlin Principle Like I kind of build out milestones where I'm building to a future and then I walk back Okay, these are the things I want to have in place, what do I need to do to get to that five weeks from now, or whatever? And so that's how I do it, and then in the day. I'm going to sit there and like we're talking, like, oh my gosh, I've been on the phone. This call went longer. I have this built right now that I'm going to get on and do some networking and website stuff and I'm like, yeah, no, that's just not going to happen right now. I need to go eat. Oh my gosh, I haven't eaten Food. What I'm supposed to eat, this is crazy. So I will look at my schedule. I mean, generally, I do put in eating time, but let's just say right now, like I need a snack. I'm going to look at my schedule soother time or something and I'm going to change that grid in the moment to say food or eating whatever, and I'm going to go eat and I'm going to take ownership of that time and say, cool, I need to go eat. And then I come back. I'm like where am I all right? So I'm going back, this is networking time.
Speaker 1:And then what we have after that that Jamie was speaking to the to-do list we have these tabs that you have. What are the specific things with under, say, website, or I'm writing a book, or like we have that built in that you have that. So you say this is my block, what is needing to be accomplished within that block, and then so you have this reference, but it's all in the same location. You don't have to pull out a whole bunch of different things. You, just you can.
Speaker 1:If you can use a mouse and click a button, you're set Like. You got this. I'm telling you, you don't even really need to type y'all, this is just clicking. This is click, click, click, click, click, click, click. If you want to type, go for it. You know it. There is the typing If you're putting your notes in. You know it. Just it's what you want to do. It's for you. You can simplify it or put as much information on there as possible. So I build it out for the week with appointments, I backfill it and then I tweak it on the daily. And then I realized when I was telling Jamie, that Jamie does this really differently, which is amazing, and I'm like, really I never thought about doing it. Jamie has a more reflective mode of it, so I'm going to let Jamie jump in there. Did that? Did that paint a pretty good picture for you? Yeah, yeah, it did. Okay, jamie go.
Speaker 3:So I basically live in my schedule sooner. So, for anyone who does not know me, I have legitimately like 10 emails, like four different calendars, three of them I have to pay attention to on a consistent basis that I all connect. And yet I spend more time in my schedule sooner and I do much less overbooking and much less, you know, messing up of certain things. Now, because of the way that I have things in my schedule soother, it's probably the one digital thing that I spend more time on more time on social media.
Speaker 2:Can I say something, jamie? So I'm going to tell a little story about you that is just testimony to how committed to this you are, because the time Jamie and I were went to set up a meeting because I meet with people before I actually have them on the podcast um, I sent no, you sent me your calendar and we had it. Was it ended up being because of my schedule? I had some things coming up but I was going to be like three weeks before we could actually meet, and so I filled out the time and then I immediately emailed Jamie and said but you know, if you want to meet before that? And Jamie replied very respectfully but was like no, what we put in the calendar is the times that I'm available to meet and I'm really looking forward to meeting you. And that was that, and I was like I actually thought boy, this is somebody with some really good boundaries. I could, I could take a note or two here.
Speaker 3:So, yes, Tess knows how big of a deal this is. I appreciate you bringing up that reflection because what is this country you speak of?
Speaker 1:says jamie from. Yeah, I mean pat.
Speaker 3:No one would ever have described past jamie that way um it's.
Speaker 3:It's actually mind-blowing how truly therapeutic speaking as someone who's in therapy purely truly how therapeutic the schedule soother has been for me, because of how much I'm able to get from reflection and I have completely changed my life. Completely changed my life from again, something I didn't even want to open. I literally told tess I think initially I'm not even going to open this Tess I literally see that it's because she was like here, I'm going to send it to you. Why don't you take a look?
Speaker 1:and see if it resonates. I wouldn't even open it. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we had to get on Zoom. I'm like, listen, just calm down. It wasn't that bad. But I'm like, take a deep breath. We got this. I got you, man. I got you. I got you boo right. I got you, I got you boo Right. I was like, okay, I'm going to get on zoom and I'm going to we're going to screen share, I'm going to show you. Okay, fine, that's fine. But it was definitely like stranger danger here Y'all. No, no, no yeah.
Speaker 3:Like I literally trust Tess with my life. I can genuinely say that but I did not trust the fact that I was going to have to use the spreadsheet. I immediately I have said yes to like everything. That was way bigger that most people would have said no to a test. And then the spreadsheet link came and I saw XLS.
Speaker 2:And I was like no.
Speaker 3:And so, anyway, it's just, you know, it goes to show, especially and I really want to like put this out there, not only for those who identify with neuro spicy, but also with with anyone who is experiencing burnout right, we can experience so much resistance. That's how we get there and that's how we have challenges to getting out, and I want you to know that it's possible to get out of it because, yes, it was something to adapt, but as we were starting to come through it, like I went from being terrified of spreadsheets which was, by the way, really impacting me professionally and otherwise to something that now has totally changed my life. And if I had kept being the Jamie who I was, who had this story of I am a victim to spreadsheets. I don't do this. This is my rule. I can't do this. I'm not going to allow for help, Like even me, asking for help from Tess was a huge milestone for me at that time. So the way that I, you know, use the this is as well with tests, basically, you know, sunday evening, usually like right before sleep, and then I usually reevaluate or do it in the earlier part of my Monday and I sit with myself and I go through and the first thing I do is I open up my phone, all my calendars, and I put in everything that is, you know, booked clients, calls, appointments, whatever, this and the other and then I have all that open space and in that open space I now leave it there until I do a couple of other things. So then what I do is I go to my master task list, which is something that everyone will have, and the way that I have mine built out is in rows of all of my projects. So my company, waken has this, and then literally all of my collaborations have their own zone of genius in one spreadsheet. So I want to be clear. All these people are like.
Speaker 3:I thought you said this was simple and it only has three things it does. You don't have a million tabs, it's not as scary as it sounds. And because I don't have a million tabs, I have one spreadsheet that does this and I look at all of the tasks that I have and the which really I now look at as milestones, these things that I desire to do to reach these larger goals, underneath all these in the dates and I'm like, okay, cool. So today we're recording this on the 26th, so I will look at my schedule, my schedule, sue their master list, and I'll be like, okay, what were all of the things that I had listed that I wanted to accomplish on the 26th? And from there I determine, okay, these are the things that, like as tests, you know and you have talked about, like okay, I've done X, y, z. Now I realize, like as Tess you know and you have talked about, like, okay, I've done XYZ. Now I realize, okay, the rest of this is totally not practical, which is one of the biggest insights I've been recently having with the schedule.
Speaker 3:Soother is and I've been saying this to Tess a lot and we've been coaching each other around this it's like I'm I'm at this point right now where I'm very clear that I still keep sort of overshooting in what I think I'm capable of doing in each day. The difference is that I no longer get down on myself about the fact that I can't get these things done in these days. I'm just like, okay, whoa, cool. So like, this day was a really emotional day for me and all of these different things happened, and so, of course, I didn't get all these other things done. And now I know that when I'm having an emotional day, like putting myself at this level of intensity of tasks to get done is not. It's not logical for me, and so what I do is I take that and I then I go to my main schedule soother and I'm like, okay, well, how much time do I want to actually spend on these things? Well, thanks to the schedule soother, I have really learned that basically, I can do something from anywhere between 30 minutes to two hours, unless I am fixated on something. If I feel called and deeply passionate, I can spend hours and get lost in it again important for the schedule soother, because I remember to eat now and all these things that I wasn't doing properly and looking at it.
Speaker 3:So then I go in and I put in a couple of those blocks and then I still leave things open that need to be open, and what I do is I say to myself I'm going to fill these with things that bring me joy and that are in alignment in the moment, and I'm going to let that go. And then I go to something that I have called repeated tasks, which I don't actually think we've put into the initial schedule sooner, but it is something that, as people go along, they can access. And what it was was I realized. I said to Tess I was like at one point a couple months ago I said I'm really stressed out about my to do lists again, like this method was really working out. And now it's not. And I've, and I don't feel like it's actually the method, that, like the format of what we have, I feel like it's something psychological that I'm, you know, not doing.
Speaker 3:I realized that a lot of the things I was putting in my to-do list were repeated tasks, in other words, things that every human's going to do every day, or something that I do every single day multiple times, or multiple times a week, or multiple times a month for a particular project, and it was taking up all of the space. When I made a repeated task list which is just like check, check, check. You've done this, this, this, this and this and this, so that I can see by the end, then it totally cleared out I kid you not like three quarters of what I had there, and so I wasn't future tripping, I wasn't stressing out about all the things I needed to do. And not only that when I look at the end of my week and I have that little ego part of me that wants to be like Jamie, you didn't do enough. I can be like you're wrong Because I did.
Speaker 3:You know, when I'm checking off, I'm counting my check boxes and I'm like you did like 40 things that week. Remember that time when you were bedridden and you could barely breathe. Like you're doing so many things, good job, like awesome, like I literally give myself a high five and I'm like you made so much progress. Remember where you were. And by the end of those seven days, I look at again, especially those bottom three tasks of those challenging tasks, and I'm like did I do them? You know, like how many of them did I do? And on the days where I, where I don't do things, I make little, a little note at the bottom and I say like, hey, when you're reflecting back on this week, I want you to remember that you know you lost someone that you really loved, or you know this really exciting opportunity came about and you had to drop everything in order to do this thing for the long game, you know. And so so that way, when I go back and I'm like, whoa, jamie, like you didn't do half the things in your challenge list, it's not like me getting down on myself. It's me like, okay, I understand why I didn't do this and so you're reclaiming your understanding of the value of yourself and, as you said at the beginning, what you want to give people is the gift of time. That's what we all want and that's what you get back.
Speaker 3:Yesterday, I had a huge client opportunity come through out of the blue. I mean, I've manifested it, but ultimately I did not see this coming and it had it totally shut down, like 10 things that I had on my list and the things that I was going to do, and it also shut down certain things for today. Well, previously I would have been really disappointed in myself if I called and canceled PT because I was tired or because I didn't get done those other things. But I don't know, because I understand that I chose what was best for me in that moment and I know that I can just copy and paste things into the next day, which is often what I do. And then if I see, consistently, the week has gone by and that one task that I haven't done, well, then there's something to evaluate there.
Speaker 3:Do I need to slow down on this project? Is this something I love. Is this still bringing me joy? Is there a point to doing this? You know, am I getting obsessed with whatever show that I'm binging and I'm avoiding it Like, why am I avoiding it? Right? And so this? You know, you can use this as minimally and simply as you want in terms of this is my schedule.
Speaker 3:These are the things that I'm doing, but if you're burnt out, or you've been burnt out or you're getting out of burnout, chances are you need massive changes, and massive changes can be really scary and they can feel really hard, and we wanted to make something that was going to be easier. We never sought out if it hasn't become clear by now to make this a product. That was never the goal, which is funny, because Tess and I constantly come up with ideas that we're wanting to figure out how to sell. This was the one thing where we were like this is just for us. No, it's not, it's for everyone.
Speaker 3:If you're retired and you don't know what to do with your time and you're rebuilding your life, it's for you.
Speaker 3:If you're a professor and a teacher and you're building things out, it's for you.
Speaker 3:You can even use it in a way of if you are in a full-time profession and you have a particular project with someone else, you can guess what copy and make a new one of the same document and then cleanse it out and use it for that project to help you with your milestones with that person, put in your different things so that way you know where things are at and by the end it's like, well, okay, we're fighting over this really big thing, well, and we see that we've never taken a break or we never had a conversation about what it was that was bothering us.
Speaker 3:That's going to be very clear to you. So if you're looking for clarity and ease in your life, if you want more freedom in your life, if you want to get out and stay out of burnout, this is a tool that can help you. And it doesn't matter what device you have, it doesn't matter where you are in the world and it doesn't matter how frequently you use it. There will never be a notification annoying you at you, saying you know, wow, you're a total screw up if you don't come in and open your schedule soother, like there. When I went on vacation, I didn't use my schedule soother and we sell it. We actually celebrated it.
Speaker 1:We celebrated the fact that I didn't fixate on my schedule and then I just allowed, Duolingo has been emailing me like why aren't you talking to me, Tess, and I'm like I'm sorry, Duolingo.
Speaker 3:And like who wants that?
Speaker 1:No, it's like yeah, it's guilt, it's like great, so you're going to guilt me into using your app again? Yeah, and you know, melissa, jamie brought up an amazing like whole place for this is people that are, that are retired, like and they're just all of a sudden now what? Or people and I even thought about, maybe people that are in between jobs. It's like this is totally different. My life is a totally different um structure now and like what, what? How do I fill this in? Like I'm totally doing a 180 now and I need something and, honestly, that is what the coaching will provide, literally, whatever you need.
Speaker 1:Do you need technical support? Do you need us to? To like, I want to fill in my day, I need your help. Or do you need higher level thought process, with Jamie saying it's okay, what do you need? Let's, let's talk through these things. Where are you? How are you feeling in this? How are you feeling with the schedule it is. It is because of our abilities and because of the way we can be with people. We can, we can, we can help. We are just honestly here to help. We've done it all.
Speaker 3:Yeah we've done it all and, to be clear, when you get the schedule soother, you are going to have the opportunity to have access to these videos that we personally made to handhold you through the process. So, if you are someone who's like I am super independent and I, at minimum, want to try this by myself, we have full on demos and these are not super long, annoying videos. These are actually things where you might pause and like, okay, let me go, you know, step by step, like I have a little video where I explained the entire color coding and how to to maximize this for yourself. So we've really we, before we even put this out, we were like okay, what is like every question? We actually had a brainstorming meeting where all we did was focus on what are all the questions that we have and what people would have as, as we're going yeah, and we do have a questionnaire that will will break down some things and really give clarity for people and uh, that's, that's what we're about.
Speaker 1:We're about what can we do to help you? Yep.
Speaker 3:And if you don't know if this is for you, take the quiz. We have one, a little quiz. It's brief and it will tell you like this is for you or it's not. And if it's not for you, that's okay. If you have something that's you're crushing it, we don't. We're here to support those who need that support. We're not here to chase someone who's happy with their system.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I think you have hit so many of the things that I've already said. You know the, the reflection piece, the self-care piece, the knowing where you're spending your time, and then just asking yourself is this how I want to spend my time after you see it, giving that visual there, and you didn't mention it this way, but my mind went to what a fantastic way to track those goals that are personally important to each and every one of us. So I'm just going to kind of summarize what we're, what we're doing here. I it's three things. You said it's as simple as doing three things, so walk me through the three things.
Speaker 3:So walk me through the three things. You want me to take a test or you want to Go ahead? Sure. So the three things are that you have the main page, which is really what the core of it is. Everything else, first of all, as we said, everything is optional, right, um, but we, we have put in the implementation of the things that we think are critical in order for you to get there on the baseline. So you have the main capacity, which is that main grid right where you have your tabs, where you click and put in all your things. You have the color coding, which is letting you know your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual right, so that there's a visual component. And then you also have that tracking component. So you have your day-to-day list and within that is the option of putting in those three things that are either challenging or not, and so what it allows you to do is go with sort of you know, we didn't want to take away certain creature comforts, right?
Speaker 3:There are a lot of list people. I was a list person. A lot of people feel very satisfied by literally removing something and checking something off and like they need that to feel like they've been productive off and like they need that to feel like they've been productive and others don't. They're like I don't even want to think about this, you know, I just want to look here. So the three components are the actual soother of putting in all of your different things throughout your day, the tracking of the colors and the tracking of the task itself. That's it.
Speaker 2:So I thought that's what I was hearing it is. I get up in the morning and here's my schedule. It has down the things that I need to do, but within that, I also know which areas of my life I'm contributing to and I'm able to, if I want to, for that day, fit in those bigger goals that I am working towards. So I'm ready to sign up. How do we get to you and how do we make this happen for ourselves?
Speaker 1:Want to take this one Tess. So this is located on my website, wwwjanusrisingcom. That's J-A-N-U-S. Risingcom and it's going to be under the projects tab. And again, I do want to mention you will see my keynote stuff, my workshop stuff, but this is just something that, for me, the passion is I can help individuals, whereas a lot of my business is touching people on a more group scale. But I love this because anybody, anyone, can use this. There is no rhyme or reason to your job, to your profession, whatever it is. So it's under that and you're going to see within that the options of just to like check it out, like a demo of do I want to do this? It's like a little introduction and then we're going to have a little more breakdown of the options of the coaching, what it would look like, and then you can purchase those things either now or later and it's just really it's different tiers and you decide what works for you.
Speaker 2:And is the questionnaire there also? Okay?
Speaker 3:It is.
Speaker 3:The questionnaire is for those who actually get past the point of like okay, I am booking this, so you have the quiz to figure out whether this is for you Once it's for you and you've chosen any of the options, any of the three packages, you will engage with the questionnaire, and the questionnaire is very insightful in itself much like self-love audit is, but it's really going to give us a very clear understanding of what is working for you right now. Like, where are you at? Are you burnt out? What are the things that you need so that we can make sure that when we get there, we're meeting you on your first call, where you are, and if those who go even to the Waken website, I have a whole I have a pop-up actually that comes up for the schedules to do there and a whole page that also leads you to tests. So, whether you're exploring either of us, you will find your way there and we are so excited to be able to support you. And if you are, for example, you know, if you have a whole company and you're like, hey, this seems like something that I really want to make available as a tool, that is also something we can do. We can, we can teach everyone in a workshop like that's not a problem, but this really is.
Speaker 3:One of his eyes has tested. This is an individual thing. This is not something you want to pay your assistant to do that's your calendars. You can't help yourself if you have someone else doing this. This is a tool that helps you bring your inner world and your external world together into an actual synchronistic, harmonized reality of what's possible in your life. So it's really powerful to be able to use this and we're happy to answer any questions that people have outside of everything if they're still like what is this? I'm not really sure. Like I've taken the quiz, but you know, reach out to us, like, but promise this is our story. Like we have lived this. We've been testing this out for, we think, at least eight months, eight to nine months, every single day, meeting consistently. I can't imagine my life without it and if you ask any of my collaborators and clients, I'm showing up stronger and more fully, authentically myself, more energized than ever before, and I'm just so much happier. I feel so at peace.
Speaker 2:Well, I think that you gave yourself the gift of time, which is what we started out with and for my listeners, I just want you to know it out with, and for my listeners I just want you to know. I will have in the show notes and on all the platforms I will have the links to so that you can get directly to Tess and to Jamie. They both have products beyond and services and just really cool things to offer and share with everyone. This is just one, but this is one that can be transformational for people especially. It can be transformational for anyone, but especially if you are in the middle of burnout, because that's the hardest space to get some of you back. It just feels like all of you is given away. So you are providing the pathway and I'm I'm excited, I'm excited about this. Is there anything else you'd like to share before we end today?
Speaker 3:Anything to us. Shall we leave with another affirmation, as this is your last episode? Oh yes, we can also do that, and the scheduler is for you.
Speaker 2:Yes, and me and you.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, I would say. Affirmation is your time is valuable. Who you are in the world is presented by how you choose to use your time. So, instead of focusing on how others see you, focus on how you can show up for yourself, and you will show up as your best self in the world, and the schedule soother is one of those tools that can help you do that.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, melissa, seriously, and thank you, tess, like honestly. This has been, you know, an incredible journey and I'm so excited for us to be able to really finally be at that point where we can help people on theirs.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:Today's episode was produced and edited by me. The theme music is by Otis McDonald featuring Joni Enos. If you know someone who might enjoy these conversations, please share the podcast episodes as much and as often as you can. It's as simple as copying the link you use to access today's episode and sending it in a message or sharing it on social media. I'm a small, independent operation and your shares broaden our audience. Perhaps you or someone you know will be inspired to talk about teacher burnout. Perhaps you or someone you know will be inspired to talk about teacher burnout. If you would like to get your voice on my podcast, contact me via the link on my webpage, totbuzzsproutcom. Coach speaker and author Rashid Ogunlaro said it may take many voices for people to hear the same message. Join me in being one of the many voices rising up to get the message out around educator burnout. This is Melissa LaFleur. Thank you for listening to taught the podcast.
Speaker 1:I wish I knew.
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