35. The Self-Care Shift: Scheduling What Fuels You First

In this episode of The Nurses’ Breakroom with Jenny Lytle, RN, we’re diving into the messy, real-life struggle of time management for busy caregivers. Jenny shares her eye-opening experience with a time audit and how it revealed that burnout isn’t always about poor choices—it’s often about packed schedules and misplaced priorities.

We explore how common it is to delay joy for “when things settle down” and why that mindset may be keeping you stuck. Plus, Jenny offers a powerful mindset shift to help you reclaim energy by intentionally prioritizing what lights you up—starting now.

💡 Key Takeaways & Action Steps:

• Time Audit = Clarity: Track your time in 30-minute blocks for a few days to see where it really goes.
• Joy Isn't a Reward: Schedule the activities that fuel you before the to-do list is done.
• Awareness is Power: You’re likely not failing—your plate is just too full.
• Guard Your Time: Boundaries with yourself are just as important as boundaries with others.
• Proactive Scheduling: Don’t wait for “someday”—protect time for what matters most now.

If you're feeling overwhelmed, burned out, or like there’s never enough time, I’ve got something just for you! Head to https://selfcareisntselfish.com to grab your FREE copy of my book, Self-Care Isn’t Selfish: The Compassionate Nurse’s Step-by-Step Guide to Personalized Stress Relief. It’s packed with simple, effective strategies to help you prioritize your needs—without guilt—so you can feel energized, focused, and ready to take on the day. Go to https://selfcareisntselfish.com 

Looking for connection with people who get the stress and self-care struggles of nurses and caregivers? Check out https://thenursesbreakroom.com

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennylytlern/

More ways to connect here: https://linktr.ee/jennylytle

Chapters

• 0:58 Welcome & Time Management Focus
• 2:07 The Revealing Time Audit
• 3:57 Breaking the "Soon It'll Settle Down" Myth
• 5:22 The Sewing Story: Rethinking Rewards
• 7:09 Time As Your Most Precious Resource

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:29

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Nurse's Break Room with Jenny Lytle RN. Today we're going to focus on time and scheduling and what our day-to-day lives look like. Like a lot of you, I have multiple hats that I wear and lots of different moving pieces in my life and while I knew that, with everything I have going, that that I didn't have a lot of extra time, I felt like I was failing and like I needed to get it together. And I actually am in a program. I invested in a program that helps with prioritization and with planning and processes and things like that, because I know that is a weak area of mine and I also know how important that's going to be as I continue to move forward in my business and just in my life.

Speaker 1: 1:38

And one of the things that I had to do first was to do a time audit and in this particular course, she has us doing a 30-minute time audit. For every 30 minutes you're writing down what you're doing, and I really resisted doing that because I already do a little bit of it and my schedule varies a lot from day to day. But as I skipped ahead to some of the other parts, then I realized, ok, I really need to go back and do that, because that's what all this builds on. So go figure, like listening to what the person who created it says and the reasons for it. So I went back and I did that and the reasons for it. So I went back and I did that and when I took a look at my week and I categorized some things and looked, I thought, okay, this, right here, is why I'm not getting the traction that I want to get in some of these areas. It's not that I'm failing, it's not that I'm being lazy, it's that there really isn't much free time. There really aren't many pockets of time where I can work on the projects that I'm trying to move forward. I'm doing a lot of networking and connecting with people in the community and that's wonderful and been it's been enjoyable and it's been very beneficial.

Speaker 1: 2:55

But at the same time, it has taken over a lot of things and so, to be honest, I don't have the the answers yet. I haven't completely figured out what I need to do differently, but just having that awareness that it's not this is not a failure and this is also not something that is going to get better on its own if I don't do something to change. It has been really, really eye opening for me, and I think it's so easy to just think, oh, when I get through this season, then it's going to be okay. And I know that's something I tell myself a lot oh, right now things are really busy, but soon it's going to settle down. And the reality is, soon it probably isn't going to settle down unless we do something proactively to put some guardrails in place, to set some boundaries, and not just with others, but with ourselves. And I've talked about the fact that I want to do and see and be everything, and the reality is that's just not possible all at once, and that was a big, it was a big reality check for me. And so I just wonder are there areas in your life where you're feeling some of that too, where you're like you know what I just as soon as this gets done, then I'll have all this free time, or then I'll be able to do these things. And so what that really boils down to is that we have to be proactive about scheduling the things that matter the most, and not necessarily the things that seem the most urgent or that seem the most important to other people, but the things that really are the things that matter the most to us, because that's what's going to give us the fuel that we need to be able to do those other things.

Speaker 1: 4:53

And I think I shared this already, but when I was doing a presentation last month, there was a woman in the audience and we were talking about what kind of things do you do to take care of yourself? And she said I really like to sew, but I don't do that very often. And I said why is that? And she said because I have this to-do list and basically there's all these things that I want to get done and my reward for getting those things done is that when they're done, then I'm going to take time to sew and they don't get done very often, so I don't sew very often. And I said okay, you know that that makes sense, but what if you turned that around? What if you chose to sew because you know it's something that you enjoy, that makes you happy, that brings you joy and peace? And, instead of seeing it as a reward for something, what if it was a motivator for doing these other things that maybe aren't so fun?

Speaker 1: 6:02

When you do things that you enjoy, then that gives you more energy and excitement to carry over into, maybe some things that aren't quite as fun but are still necessary, and so I'm not completely sure if she ended up sewing or not, but I know that I've talked with some other people about this, about that story of hers, and it's just these simple mindset shifts that we can make sometimes that are so impactful, and so I just want to end with a quote by David Norris that says how you spend your time is more important than how you spend your money. Money mistakes can be corrected, but time is gone forever. So I'd love to hear if you're having challenges with your time and and if this brought any awareness to you or any ahas. Until next time, remember self-care isn't selfish. It's essential if we want to continue to care for others and live our best lives. Have a great week.