Finding Balance: Mastering Time Management and Self-Care

“We are worthy of it, and we need it.”- Felicia Baugh

In this episode of Entrepreneur Encounter, we dive into two critical aspects of entrepreneurship: prioritizing tasks effectively and embracing self-care. From overcoming decision paralysis to creating a realistic to-do list, we share actionable strategies to harmonize your daily tasks and manage your time more productively. The conversation also highlights simple, meaningful ways to integrate self-care into your routine without overcomplicating or overspending. Whether you’re juggling business demands or family responsibilities, this episode provides practical insights to help you thrive in both.

In this episode, listen for: 

• The Power of Prioritization: Start your day by identifying six key tasks, organizing them by urgency, and focusing on the most critical ones.
• Overcoming Decision Paralysis: Shift your mindset to believe you can balance tasks effectively by using planners and project management tools like Asana.
• Simplifying Self-Care: Self-care doesn’t have to be extravagant—small actions like enjoying a quiet cup of coffee, taking a short walk, or preparing a nutritious smoothie can be impactful.

Have you ever struggled with prioritizing your tasks or finding time for self-care amidst a busy schedule? What strategies have worked for you?

Listen to this episode for more tips, tools, and mindset shifts to help you stay productive and balanced!

Connect with Felicia Baugh: 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/feliciabaugh_/

Website: https://feliciabaugh.com/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAabmIObrHC7UIY8USXcQpmZIpqKzR02CygPWoQShscyVDFTF4nPoXsAhY64_aem_nkolnD6hyGJMI4pD0cEz3w

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We’re Dana Johnson and Sara Lowell hosts of Entrepreneur Encounter, a growing and thriving entrepreneur podcast dedicated to soft skills development and we’re so grateful you found us. We started this podcast to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you feel more empowered, thrive, and be fulfilled as you reach your entrepreneur goals. 

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Transcript

Have you ever encountered a hurdle with launching or growing your business? Listen, there are two things that run a business, the back end and your soft skills. Telling you right now, if these aren't in place, you'll lose clients and you'll lose money. You don't want that while you're in the right place. Hey, I'm Dana. Hey, I'm Sarah. We're your hosts of the Entrepreneur Encounter and we're going to give you a behind the scenes glance into our businesses, give you genuine feedback, tips and tricks.

Plus occasionally bring on guests that care about supporting you to grow your business organically and nurturing authentic relationships. Are you ready?

Welcome back to the Entrepreneur Encounter. We're your host, Sarah and Dana. And today we are discussing something that is near and dear to our hearts, time management, especially from the viewpoint of being a mother. We're going to be discussing the challenges and rewards of being a working mom. And to do that, we have a special guest, Felicia Ball. Thank you for joining us. Happy to be here. Thank you for having me.

Of course, it's been like a long time coming. So you've been time management struggles. Can you share a bit about your experiences balancing motherhood, career and personalized? Yes, currently I have two sons. I work full time job, 95. Also had a beauty business and my two boys, they were very active in sports, football and track.

So can you imagine working a full-time job trying to be in this on the side per se and very a sports mom. So that means every evening I had either track practice or football practice, I had dinner, I had my full-time job. So I had a full plate pretty much every single day. Yeah, I can only imagine how that is. mean, like I have two kids and running a business, working from home.

They're not in sports yet, but my youngest is seven. He's ready to join some sports and like, okay, let's do it. I'll be a sports mom. I'm okay with that. But yeah, it's definitely interesting. Whatever you're doing in life as a parent, having the balancing act of managing all these things. I call it beautifully chaotic. It's a lot of beauty, but it's a lot of chaos. Yeah. Very rewarding, but at times very challenging.

how to harmonize and how to balance it all. mean, if I'm going to be honest, I was very challenged from day to day in working my full time jobs and in the afternoon, getting them to football practice and track practice. And then I got to have dinner prepared. And then I have to be a school teacher. I have to assist with homework. And then of course there were the dishes after everybody had dinner and everything. So by the time

I would lay down, it was like, I'm just exhausted. And not to mention self-care, that's just another whole different section, not to mention having time for any self-care for me. So yes, there were times that I was very challenged, but I knew there were times that I felt I was tired. I was agitated because I was tired. I felt like I never had any time for me. And I knew I needed to find

some way to balance out my day and to harmonize my task and my responsibilities that I had each day. And I always say that if I ever find out in how to just harmonize this thing, a way that I don't have to constantly operate in overwhelm, I don't have to constantly operate in that overwhelm and that anxiety. I don't know.

How many your moms out there have from day to day, even just thinking about what you have to do the next day. A lot of times at night I slept, but I didn't sleep because when I got up, I was still tired because at night my mind was racing about what I had to do the next day. So I said, if I ever find the way to harmonize my daily schedule where I don't have to constantly feel those feelings of burnout and overwhelm, then

I know there are other moms out there that are dealing with the exact same thing. I'm going to reach back and help those moms. How do you work towards that, harmonizing all of the things that you have to do? Did you run into any harsh expectations of being a working mother, or did you feel the weight of societal pressures?

As you were trying to cut things, switch things, and testing different ways to find that harmony among all the things that we have to do as women, and either working a nine-to-five and being a professional or doing your own business, which can feel like more than a nine-to-five from time to time. Because I know personally, that's why my laptop is genuinely an extension of my arm. So when I'm in the car line or I happen to get there early,

for 10 minutes before I can walk up and pick up my kids or they walk to the car. I can sit there and work and I can bust out at least one task, but that is just a societal pressure. I feel like that, I constantly have to be doing something as opposed to I could just sit in the car and meditate or take a breath. But no, I always have my laptop. Well, definitely with me, there were times where

One thing that I did that I will always compare myself to other moms, but I had to get to the point where I had to do what fitted me. I had to operate in the particular season that I was in. Being moms, all of us are in different seasons of life when it comes to parenting. We may have newborns, we may have teens, young adults, middle schoolers, but all of us are in different seasons and we can't compare.

ourselves two of the moms. And also a lot of times too, like you were just mentioning, sitting in the carpool line and you feel like you always have to be doing something. I always felt like that. if I won't, I felt guilty for not doing always, for always doing something. You know, I felt that guilt trip there. If I'm sitting there, rest, I don't have time to do this. I need to be doing da da da da da da da. But yeah.

dealt with that guilt trip as well. But I had to get to the point of prioritizing was a major change for me. Beginning to prioritize my task in order of importance. Prioritizing my task was a big change for me. Walk us through kind of how you did that on your own. Because I feel like for me, I have decision paralysis sometimes. And I'm like, I don't know which one is more important. Is it?

batch-diddling our newsletters? Is it creating next month's content so I'm not up till midnight? Is it doing my marketing minute? Like, how did you personally, like, shift that mindset to knowing what to prioritize each day? First of all, I had to have a mind shift. My major change came in breakfast to have a mind shift, believing that I could balance these activities out, that I could harmonize my life in a way.

that would be more truthful and productive in the way that I use my time. So the first thing that I began to do, I began to seek God and I began to pray and ask God to lead me and guide me daily. As I acknowledged Him in all of my ways, I asked Him to lead and guide me daily. This is the things I would get out my planner. This is the things that I have to do for the day.

If I write down my six most important things for the day, I will write out my six most important things for the day. And at the top, I will put the urgent things and then come on down to the important things that I need to do. So at the top is the urgent things. And I will begin at the top at the urgent things, the things that were most important that I knew that I had to try to get done on that day. The deadlines that was meeting me for

that day for that particular task. Those were the important urgent things that I will put at the top for my day. That's a good way to do that. I mean, like if it needs to get done, needs to get done on your list. And then that satisfaction of crossing it off, like I got this done today. You know what I mean? Right. I thrive on making lists because if I don't write it down, I'm not going to do it because we have so much in our head, so much going on. If you go to the grocery store, you write a list, right?

You don't forget things. So that's kind of essentially what I think that would be too. I'm one that a list maker as well. And I have to check it off because I have to get it out of my head. If I don't have it out of my head, I don't have that clarity. I don't feel productive. I don't feel fruitful. I got to see it in front of me. It helps me to be organized. It helps me to know that I'm prioritizing my task and it helps me to

see that I'm being productive because I'm checking it off my to-do list. Okay, I got that done. Okay, what's the next thing? Okay, I got that done. What's the next thing? So at the end of the day, I can look on my list and see the things that I did accomplish in that day. I had to get to the point that if I didn't get it done in that day, I had to get to the point that it's okay that I didn't get it done in that day. It's okay, Felicia, you didn't get it done.

If the Lord bless you to see another day, add it to the next day. But you did get done the three urgent things that really just had to be done on today. But I had a problem with that, not getting everything checked off my checklist. I had to get over that. So I had to get okay with it. I had to become okay with that, that I didn't get everything done in that day. I have to make a checklist. I have to have a planner.

I have to put my planner out in front of me. Those five days, I began to write out what I got to do on each day. The importance of the things that I have to do on each day so that I can have a plan for the week. I'm one that's a planner. I have to plan. I have a plan and then a backup plan. So you mentioned having a like cheaper planner.

But are there other tools or apps that you've utilized over the years that have helped you with that prioritizing and like tracking your time so that you know what needs to shift? No other tools basically other than me having my planner, depending on what season that I'm in, like I stated earlier that I knew that I would have to make that shift to shift my work life balance plan. Okay.

So for me, I write things down too, but typically if I'm writing something down, it's what I did not get to that day for a client. And that is how I prioritize my next day is, okay, these didn't get done today. I need to get them done tomorrow so they don't slip out of mind. But I have a project management tool, a sauna that I use, longer term things, or maybe following up with a client if they like during a weekly sync have mentioned, I want to

send out an email blast for XYZ product. Well, but I don't need to do it today or this week. If I don't put it in my project management tool, I won't remember at all. Like it'll just be lost in the sea of should have, would have, might have. Yeah, I use mostly paper. Even though I still use like a tool, I need the satisfaction of writing. I like to write. I want to write it down. I want to check it all, things.

Dana and I like work on the podcast together and all that. So obviously it's helpful for both of us as a team to put it in the interwebs on a project management tool so that we both know what's going on. So those are different ways that we both do that as well. Hey there listeners ever feel like you're struggling to connect with customers or lead your team effectively? That's where soft skills come in.

Entrepreneur encounter isn't just another podcast. We're a community dedicated to helping early stage entrepreneurs like you master the soft skills that make or break a business. Technical skills are important, but without communication, collaboration and confidence, your business might never get off the ground to the next level. In our membership, Dana and I share actionable insights and tips to help you nurture the soft skills you need to thrive. Give you access to bonus content.

workshops and a network of like-minded entrepreneurs who are all on the same journey. We'll teach you how to boost your confidence, become a leader who inspires and motivates your team, navigate conflict like a pro, to resolve disagreements without drama and build stronger relationships, communicate clearly and concisely, get your message across, build trust and close the deal. If you're ready to take your business to the next level, join the circle by clicking the link in the show notes.

Switching gears a little bit. So earlier, I think you said something that resonates with basically every business building mama. You were so tired at the end of the day, you didn't have time for yourself. So then of course you're grumpy or cranky or short fused. So obviously we know through social media and shifts since the pandemic that self care and wellbeing need to be prioritized. But

We all have busy schedules and it's hard to fit in exercise, mindfulness, relaxation techniques. So what tips do you have for other working moms to fit those in to like make that balance? So at the end of the day, they're not completely just dead on their feet. Well, one thing that I have learned when self care is definitely a passion for

me because I feel like we as moms, and I will vouch for this myself, that we always put our kids, family in front of our health and our well-being. It's something that I will always say. I'm going to be all right as long as my children are not good. But I had to learn that if I'm not well and I'm not healthy, then I won't be able to serve.

my family the way that I desire to. So when I talk about health care and well, self care and wellness for career moms, a lot of times we think about going to get our nails done, pedicure and all of that, but it don't have to be the high big time luxury things. It could be having a nice hot cup of coffee in the morning time for 15 minutes. It could be on your lunch break.

Even if you're working remote, even when I'm working remote, I get up from my computer, especially if the sun is shining and beautiful. I go outside, I get me a 10 minute walk around my block just to get out and breathe and think and just have that few moments of fresh air and quietness. So it doesn't have to be the big things. It could be just the small things in reference to self care. In the morning times,

when you prepare for your day, fix your smoothie. That's healthcare. I mean, that's self care. That's wellness. You're putting good nutrients in your body. So while you're preparing your lunch for your kids, you could be fixing your smoothie. And that's part of your, what, 10-minute self care that you are investing back into you so that you can stay well and healthy. So there are so many small ways that you can

and very self care back into you, you can stay mentally healthy and well as well. I wouldn't agree with that 100 % because for the longest time when I heard self care, like, I don't want to spend money. Like I don't want to, you know, things, whatever. So I purposely wake up before the kids do so that I can have my copy by myself.

And every time I go to the store to buy whatever, my husband goes, buy yourself something. And I never do because I just like, why would I buy something for myself? Like the kids need stuff. Like we need stuff for the house. And about a month ago or so I came home, like I bought something for myself. Really? You bought something for yourself? I was like, yes, I did. He's like, finally, like all the time. Here's some money. Buy yourself. I'm like, no, I don't want to know what you bought. I bought it first.

The only things that I really carry are my wallet and my phone. But obviously, as we know as women, our pockets are really small. And I mean, so like I just need a little tiny purse that holds my sunglasses, my phone, the keys and my wallet. That is it. So I bought it. It's green, my favorite color. And I'm super happy with it. Right. And everybody's always like, that's a nice purse. I'm like, thanks. I think that makes it even better. I think we need to do that more.

Yeah, we can say we bought ourselves a cup of coffee, but that's whatever. like treat yourself, have fun with it. Right. But I we feel so guilty. I used to feel so guilty. Yeah. But my son and me, our pants shoes, but we just feel so guilty when we do take out that time for our fields. So we take out a little bit of money to splurge on that with me, just like you said with that purse. It doesn't take a lot to make me happy.

It doesn't take a lot to make me smile or to invest into my self care. But I used to always feel guilty for doing it. But we are worthy of it. We are worthy of it and we need it. I'm going to unpack that wholeheartedly. And I don't even think I'm sharing this with you, Sarah. But I told you I went to a women's summit. It's called the Uncover Her Summit. It's here in my area of Charlotte, North Carolina.

I originally wasn't going to go because it just wasn't in the cards. Then another friend of mine was like, hey, I have an extra ticket. Do want to go? I was like, I will miss heaven and earth. I'm going to the summit. I'm so glad I did. We did some breath work and I can't meditate. It's so hard for me to get my brain to just stop, to be quiet. But the way that she did it, we had IMAX, so like sensory block.

a lot of things out. And I was just like, my brain is not moving. And that was my thought was nothing. I don't feel like rested. I was just noting that, I only have like one tab open right now. That's great. And then we took the max off at the end of how long it was. I think it was only like 10 minutes. And I immediately just started crying. Was it good or bad? I just started crying. I was like, what is happening?

I think it was the ability for me to one, recognize that I can do it and it only took 10 minutes. And I spoke with the lady that was running that part of the workshop afterwards and we had an OSHA woman, credit's more, it's fine. But she broke it down to me in that way. Like every time you put something ahead, so like in the case that you provided.

You will couldn't sleep at night because you're so stressed out about what you need to do tomorrow. And I'm the same way. If I wake up in the morning, I'm already overwhelmed. I won't do my morning walk. And that is my self-care drama. Kids off before I come here and work, I go for a walk and I will cut that. And she's like, by you doing that, that is you either consciously or subconsciously saying to yourself, you are not worthy of taking care of yourself and will literally affect

everything else. You are putting other things in place of your self-care and that you are worthy. like that's the mindset shift is even if you have to say it to yourself for a minute of putting your hand on your heart and closing your eyes to say, I am worthy of taking care of myself. Even if it is a 10 minute walk first, because that work is not going anywhere, but that work will go away if you are so overwhelmed you can't do it anyway or you're not going to

best of your ability. It was amazing. I really recommend everyone do it. I highly recommend that portion of self care, especially as early entrepreneurs. We don't have a budget to go get our nails done every week, but I have time and budget and space to take a few minutes to breathe and try and clear my head and tell myself repeatedly, I am worthy of being taken care of, even if it's doing it for myself. Yes. One thing you said, tell yourself.

repeatedly. We have to constantly remind ourselves of that because it's so easy for us to just slip right back into that way of just putting ourselves last and not doing that and not so much as a luxury per se, but it's a necessity for us as career working moms in order for us to continue to

work in our profession in order for us to continue to serve our families and do what we need to do every day with our daily tasks and responsibilities, it is a necessity. We make appointments for our doctor's appointments, make appointments for our kids' appointments. We have to make an appointment with ourselves and keep that appointment. Don't counsel it or don't keep counseling it, but keep that appointment because that appointment is important.

I'm going to open my calendar right now and set the deployment. Yeah, nothing going on tomorrow morning. I think that's why I go for my walks before I sit down because I know like it is so easy for me to say, well, let me just move on to the next task. But for I sit down, that's my mantra. And usually that's where a lot of my inspiration comes from is when I'm walking and either listening to another podcast or a playlist, random playlist sometimes.

and just letting my mind wander through the 5,000 tabs that I have going on, but I'm seeing it from a more relaxed lens, then the inspiration comes of, this is how we can do this. And usually by the time I get to my desk or on my drive, I've Sarah or my virtual assistant about 10 voice memos of, here's what I have today. think we should do for this project or this thing or an episode. Then I think it just keeps things moving.

I love all of that. So, Alisha, how can our listeners, if they heavily resonated with everything that we have said and would love to connect with you outside of this episode, how can they thank you? I have a podcast. It's called Time Matters Method. Time Matters Method. And I talk about organization, prioritization, and

time management, of course, and being prepping all of those good things that will help us as career work and moms, our spiritual growth, to help us as career work and moms to save more time in our day so that we can do more of the things that matters to us. We're able to operate out of our core values and we can keep those core values at the forefront. So it's called, you can find me at my podcast, Time Matters Method.

And I also have a website and that is feliciabaugh.com. And it's my hub there and you can see everything there. Also, I have a Instagram page, instagram.com forward slash at feliciabaugh. And I'm still working on getting my Facebook page reestablished. Hopefully our listeners are inspired and will take moments to prioritize their self care.

play around with effective time management, and then find this will help lead them to have a more positive work-life balance. All of these links will be in our show notes. And until next time, bye. Bye. Bye.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode. Remember, soft skills aren't just some fluffy buzzwords that get thrown around in the corporate world. They're the key to unlocking your full potential as a professional and a human being. Don't be afraid to invest in yourself and seek out opportunities to improve your soft skills. Sarah and I have a variety of workshops, online courses, and complimentary clarity calls for you to practice in real time with us. Links are always in the show notes.

And be sure to join us next time for more insights, tips, and tricks to help you succeed in your entrepreneur encounter.