The Bold Day Method: A Calendar That Bends Without Breaking

If you’ve ever thrown your whole day away the moment one thing went wrong, this episode is for you.

This episode is about learning how to:

• 🗓️ Backwards-Plan: Create consistent, recurring time blocks in Google Calendar based on your personal goals.
• 🛠️ Strategize Daily: Use a morning "brain dump" and the Eisenhower Matrix to filter urgent vs. important tasks.
• ⏱️ Use the 1-Hour Rule: Prevent overextending yourself by using a physical desk timer.
• 🔄 Tweak the Week: Move your calendar blocks around unexpected changes instead of deleting your plans.

Connect with Bold Clarity: https://www.bold-clarity.com/ 

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#BoldClarity #SelfTrust #IntentionalLiving #MindsetShift #PersonalLeadership #BreakTheCycle #GrowthMindset #Season2 #Episode7

Transcript

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If you are wondering how do I actually build a day that that works, then this episode is for you. Welcome back to Bull of Clarity where we slow the noise, tell the truth, and make room for the people that we are becoming. So on the last episode, we talked through protecting your energy like it's your income and how important it is for you to do that so that you have the energy to do the things that you want to do to build this life that you want to build. And today I want to take a step further and actually talk about the how. And so I'm going to be sharing with you the system that I actually use to plan out my days. And there's two layers to the system. Honestly, it works really, really well. And so today I'm going to be sharing my system that I actually use to build out my days. It's called the bold day method. And I'm really excited to share it because at the end of the day, what we know is true is that you living this big and bold life is not something that happens by accident. It's something that takes intentionality and planning. And so I'm really excited to share something that you can put into practice and start to use to build your days. So whether or not you own a business or um you have a more traditional nine to five, or maybe you're just managing your family, right? This method works for anyone and it is built in a way to allow for some flexibility that I think is really important because, like realistically, um it's hard. It can be really hard to stick to a schedule, especially when it's so rigid. And so a week that historically um, you know, could have been chaotic and stressful and all over the place um actually was manageable and uh impactful. And it is all because I use this system every day, including on the weekends. Um, and it's just a really good way for me to look at all the different things that I have going on and make sure that I'm spending my energy that is very costly, right? That we talked about last time, to make sure I'm spending it in ways that are impactful and um, you know, aligned to who I want to be. And so um at the end of the day, I think that a lot of people struggle with sticking to a calendar because they don't have a system that allows them to plan out um with the context of everything that they have going on in their life and the reality that things are gonna pop up, right? Like there are going to be things that you didn't necessarily plan for that require your attention, and there's a way for you to account for all of that and still feel like you have some level of control, you're able to still be intentional about how you're ultimately um spending your day. For context, you know, the last I don't know what seven years probably, I have tried so many different methods for time blocking and in calendaring and to-do list and all these things. And I know uh how important it is and what a big impact it does have on your life when you can find a system that that really flows. And speaking for myself, um my struggle with with making a calendar and and all of that, and and not being able to, or not following through in the way that I wanted to, was that I would either overplan to the point where there was no white space on my calendar, on my Google Calendar, right? Um, like everything was back to back to back, which I talked about that in my last episode. That led to burnout, right? Um, because I didn't have any time for the things that popped up during the day, nor did I have time to rest. And I think at one point I held the belief that you build your calendar, you stick to it, you should never really remove anything. Um, this every minute of your day should be completely accounted for. And there is still some truth to the importance of you know, actually adhering to what you plan, and there is a way to still allow for life to happen and it not completely disrupt your day, right? Because what would happen is I'd have this beautiful calendar, and then I get a phone call that my daughter's sick and I need to pick her up, and now I'm completely thrown off. Or um, I don't know, maybe I get a phone call from um an agent on my team, on my previous team, and they have a fire that they're putting out and they need my attention, and now I'm 45 minutes behind schedule, or maybe I delegated, or um maybe I I planned 30 minutes to do something, but it really took me an hour, and so now I'm behind on everything else. What would happen in those moments is the moment that I was slightly disrupted from the schedule I had planned, I would just basically throw the whole day away. So that's one extreme. The other is I didn't plan enough, right? So I would have too many uh white spaces on my calendar where nothing was planned, or I would have things on there that were way too broad, like follow up with actually at a point in time I really just had follow up on my calendar as a realtor. Okay, that's not super impactful, that's very broad. So when it came time for me to follow up, that could look like a million different things. It could be following up with active clients, it could be following up with third parties, um, like lenders, title, it could be so many things, right? And so that's the other extreme where you're not actually planning enough, you're not getting specific enough with what you are planning. And so this method is birthed from me having been on both sides of the spectrum and really finding a way for me to actually still accomplish the things that I need to accomplish, but also be flexible when I need it to. And so there's two layers to the bold day method. The first layer is the foundation, right? So this is where you are looking at, you know, okay, the next week, month, even year, okay, looking at what are the things that you are going to be spending your energy on. Um, it's really important that when you go through this foundational process, that you backwards plan from your goals. And the way that I make my goals, I make health goals for different categories. So, like financial health, mental health, physical health, spiritual health, um, social health. So I have all of those different categories, and then I have my goals that I have for the different categories, and then I backwards plan from there. If you're not a teacher and you don't know what backwards planning is, that's when you kind of take an end result, right? Um, and then you think about all right, what are all the steps that I need to take to get there, starting from the beginning so that I can make sure I end up at the right destination. And so I would figure out what are the activities that I will do that are going to get me to this goal. So it's like a path basically. I was building out a plan for getting to a goal. And so um for looking at those those paths, after I figured out what activities I would do. So for example, if you're thinking about um for me, if I think about um like my mental health, you know, I go to therapy. That's something that's really important to me. I also know that my morning routine is something that helps me start my day in a way that is mentally healthy for me. And so I identified what are those activities, journaling in the morning, praying in the morning, um, you know, waking up at a certain time, accounting for therapy, you know, each week or every other week. So I would then come up with okay, how how often am I gonna do those things and how much time am I gonna spend on those things? And so um what ultimately I would get are these time blocks that are broken down. Um, for example, if I think about that that goal um for my mental health, right? I know that I want to make sure that I spend, you know, a pretty significant amount of time praying or um you know journaling or doing a devotional um every month. Like that that's something that's really important. And so if I say, hey, okay, over the course of a month, I know if I have dedicated 10 hours to my my my mental health or my spiritual health by by journaling and by having that quiet time, then I know I'm gonna be on the path to hitting my spiritual goals or my mental health goals. Then I think, okay, well, I can break this down a bunch of different ways, right? Like, could I literally just have one day where I spend 10 hours like reading the Bible? I guess so. Or I could break it up and I can say, okay, so 10 hours that 600 minutes in a month, okay, so I can break that down each week. That's gonna be, I don't know, about 125 minutes, and so about 125 minutes each week. So I could have two days where I, you know, maybe I do 45 minutes um one day and 45 minutes another day. I know that doesn't add up to 125, but um, you know, I could break it down that way, or I could divide it evenly throughout the days, right? Like 125, okay. I could do 25 minutes a day. You want to figure out what chunk of time you want to group things in, and then how and then naturally you're gonna figure out how often, right? And so for me, it really did end up being about 25 minutes um a day. And so I then go and I create my time blocks and I say, all right, I know that in the span of five days, I need to have five 25-minute blocks on my calendar that are dedicated to my mental and spiritual health, right? So I make those five blocks and I use Google Calendar. I make recurring events Monday through Friday, 25 minutes. I pick a time, they can be different time each day, it doesn't matter, but those block that block is on my calendar every single day, right? So the point is you would do that for every goal in every area of your life to make sure that on any given day, week, or month you know that you have accounted for spending your time in a way that's going to align with your goals. Okay. So you would do that with your physical health, you would do that with your financial health, um, you could do that with your business health, right? Like your business goals. Um, and you're gonna end up with a bunch of recurring blocks for the things that are most important that you are going to do repeatedly, you make them reoccurring, and you've got your foundation, and you know with confidence, hey, the things that are aligned to my goal that are going to get me to this destination are planned and accounted for on my calendar. And here's where the flexibility comes in. Me personally, every Sunday I go in, I look at my calendar for the upcoming week. I think I've shared this before, and I tweak the week. So um, if I know that week I've got, you know, something going on, maybe I am adding in some blocks and and moving some around, like the last week of my daughter's school. Um what do we call it? May Sember. The last month of school. Like there's so many parties and ceremonies and whatever, and it's great, right? Well, guess what? Those are not time blocks that I'd you know plan for because they're not necessarily like monthly occurrences. And guess what? When I went to tweak my week, I would make sure that I had all of those things on my calendar, and I would just rearrange and adjust. Now, a rule that I still try to follow is that I don't delete things from the calendar, I just move them. So if I know that on Wednesdays I'm gonna be at the market center and I have meetings, I'm not going to delete um, you know, my time to edit the podcast, right? I'm going to move it to another time that week, or maybe it's the week after to make sure that it still gets done. And so that's what I spend my time doing on Sundays because it's another layer of, all right, there may be some life things happening this week that maybe they're not normal or consistent occurrences, but they're things that are happening. And so here's my way to make sure that those things are incorporated. And so at the end of this process, you should have a calendar with consistent time blocks, right? And then every Sunday you should be able to go in and have a calendar that for the most part is going to fit your week and whatever things you have going on. So this is like the foundation of this process backwards planning to create your time blocks, make them reoccurring, and then tweaking your week. The second part of this um uh method, right, is actually what you do on a daily basis. And y'all, I'm not kidding, I do this every day. Every day. The only day that sometimes I don't do it, but even that is rare, um, is is Sunday. And really on Sundays I still do it. I just may not do it first thing in the morning. Um, because I do like to kind of like be a little bit lazy on Sunday mornings. Nonetheless, this is your day-to-day. How do I make sure that I am doing the things? Okay, this is layer two of the bold day method. So I have my morning habit stack that I've shared with y'all before, right? Like I wake up, I take my medicine, I have 25-ish minutes of you know, doing my devotional or journaling or reading the Bible. Um, and then the very next thing that I do every single morning is I go in with a fine tooth comb and I plan my day. I know you might be thinking, but Asia, your day is already planned. You are right. And because I know that life happens and I know that there may be things that pop out throughout the week that maybe I did not plan for, I know that realistically taking some time each day to survey where you really are, right? And what you're really gonna be able to accomplish in a day is huge. You are relieving this pressure to stick to a calendar that maybe it's Thursday, you made this calendar on Sunday, and life has happened. Your kid has been sick, you've been sick, you got invited to a last-minute dinner with your friends, whatever the case may be, things happen, okay? Like we're not robots, and so by every single day having this be a part of your morning routine, you're able to account for those things and still make sure that you are on the path to the being the person you want to be. So, me personally, I have a lovely, actually, I have several whiteboards. I love whiteboards. Um, I've got one whiteboard in particular that I use every day. And I start with just doing like a brain dump. I write down literally every single task that I can think of that I would like to accomplish. Um, and and they may not all be things that I am like, oh my god, I have to do this today, but just like the things that are on my mind that I want to accomplish, right? I go ahead and make a list. Y'all, this list is giant, okay. It could be anywhere from like 15 to 20 items on this list. Am I every single day going to have the capacity to add in 15, uh, 15 to 20 unplanned tasks? No. Do I have the capacity to maybe add in five to 10? Absolutely. Because I, when I time block, I forgot to mention this, I do put some blocks that are a little bit more vague. Um, which let me explain this part first. So I do my I do my task dump, right? To filter through that list of 15 or 20, I use the eisen, the Eisenhower matrix. And so for that, you draw um a vertical line and a horizontal line. Um, you draw them, you know, perpendicular to one another. And so you end up with four quadrants. Quadrant one, urgent, and important. These are things that matter, and they're things that like have a timeline that is you need to do this now, okay? Um, quadrant two is important, not urgent, right? So these are things that they really do matter. You you really do want to get them done, but maybe they are not things that you need to do today. Q3 is urgent, not important. So these are things that ultimately um they need to get done, but maybe there's flexibility around like who does it, okay? And then quadrant four, not urgent, not important. I've relabeled quadrant four as my maybe someday um quadrant because there are things that like really you could just delete them, like you really don't need to do them, but they're like, oh, if I get some extra time, maybe I will. So if For quadrant one, those are the things that you are going to do now, meaning make sure you do them that day. Quadrant two, those are the things that you're going to schedule a time to do. Quadrant three, those are the things that you're going to delegate. So you could get somebody else to do those things. And then quadrant four, like I said, that's my maybe someday. And so lots of things can happen with that category. Nonetheless, after I do my uh task dump, I then basically filter everything through that Eisenhower matrix, and I am focusing on Q1, the urgent and important. So from there, I am going to color code um certain time blocks throughout the day. So this is where what I was saying earlier comes in. When I make my um calendar in for each week, I do have a time block on there that says um Q1 tasks or Q2 tasks. Um, and sometimes I'll label them specifically to um a certain area of my life, right? Like if it's a busy time for PTA, I'll say PTA Q1 tasks, right? Um, or podcast Q1 tasks. So I've got time blocked off for me to fill it with whatever is urgent and important that that day, or maybe the things that I'm scheduling. Nonetheless, I've got these these blocks of time already that I can use for these tasks that I'm going through. And then I've also got white space on my calendar where I can add in blocks. And so I go through the things that are urgent and important, and I pick a color and I will group them. So I will find three urgent and important tasks. I'll number them one, two, three in pink, and then I make a pink time block, maybe from I don't know, nine to nine fifty. And now I've got three tasks that I know I'm going to get done at nine o'clock, that I have 50 minutes to complete, and I go through and I repeat that process for all of the urgent and important tasks that I have on my calendar. Couple of things. Um, I sometimes will go back in and maybe I've got three things for a time block. Maybe I've only got one thing. I'll look at some of that Q2 stuff, or maybe the Q4, right? The um maybe or would be nice one day. Um, and I might add them to the end of a certain time block. So maybe I've labeled three tasks pink. One, two, three. I'll go back and find a Q2 task and say, okay, I'll make that number four. Because here's what I do. I set a timer, not on my phone. I have an alarm clock or alarm timer, whatever they're called, that I put on my desk. And whatever time I have assigned for the block, that's how long I set the timer for. My time blocks are never more than one hour. Okay. My physical alarm clock literally only goes for one hour. Like that's the most you can set a timer for. So I set that clock and I've got that time to work on the tasks, right? Um, if I finish early, maybe I've got all three tasks done, then I could go to maybe number four and number five that weren't as um urgent or as important, and I can actually knock those out in that same time block. So essentially, I've got my most important tasks accounted for in different blocks throughout the day, and I've allowed flexibility for me to potentially complete other things if maybe I'm running ahead of schedule. Um, one thing that I want to note when I first started doing this, I would write like five things that I was gonna accomplish in a 60-minute period. Now, there are five things sometimes that you can do that maybe will only take you 60 minutes, and I very quickly learned that I was severely underestimating how much time it took me to do certain tasks. And so what's happened now is I've gotten really clear on how much time it actually takes me to do things, and so I am not overextending myself as much and then having all of this stuff left over at the end of the day that I didn't do. I've got re I've gotten really good at saying, okay, I know that in this 45 minutes, realistically, like I maybe only be able to get one task done. That's okay, so I'm just gonna write one, and then maybe I'll add in, you know, hey, if I'm done early, I'll get to one of the others. Um this entire system has just caused me to relieve some pressure from myself and still feel confident in the fact that I'm spending my time wisely, that I'm making good decisions about what my day looks like. Um, while also not being like so much of a stickler that you know things can't happen, things can't come up, and I can't do them. Um, so I told y'all I use this every day, including Saturdays. So I'm gonna tell you a quick story. Um, so yesterday was Saturday, and I woke up and I I already knew I had a bunch of things that I wanted to get done. I pulled up my whiteboard, had a long list, I made my time blocks. Well, then my boyfriend woke up and he's like, Hey, I thought that we could all go get pedicures today. I was like, Okay, cool. And so I was like looking and like, okay, that's fine. I can move this time block here, I can move this here. Cool. We go get pedicures, we were gonna go run errands after. Well, as we're sitting there getting pedicures, I kind of just got the urge that I wanted to be a little bit social. I mean, I don't always get that urge, and so um I texted two of our friends and I said, Hey, um, like, would y'all maybe want to come over tonight? Um, it's my boyfriend's best friend and her sister, and her sister has two kids that are close in age to my daughter, and so I said, Would y'all want to come over and just like hang out tonight? And one of the the one of them responded and said, like, I would love to, but I actually am studying for a test. I have lots of work to do, and so today's probably not a good day. And then I was like, light bulb, no problem. Actually, I have things that I would like to get done today, and so we could actually the two of us can like work and study, the kids can play, and my boyfriend and the other friend, they can go out and it'll be fine. And she was like, Okay, and so originally I was going to go run errands with my boyfriend and my daughter after we got pedicures, but because now we were adding in this social element throughout the day. Um, I was like, Okay, can you take me home? You guys go do whatever you guys are gonna go do, go run your errands. I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna go ahead and start on the things that I had on my list today. Um, and so I ended up basically like swapping time blocks, and so I cleaned, organized the laundry room, did laundry, and then I had time to just kind of chill when our friends first got here. And then on Saturday night, my friend and I worked here at home. We had a bottle of wine while we worked, the kids played, my boyfriend and his friend went out. It was perfect, and I felt good about that choice because of this system, because I did not feel so attached to doing things at a specific time that I couldn't be flexible and enjoy my Saturday when I decided at the last minute that I wanted to be social. Um, and to me, that's the kind of system that works for real life because at the end of the day, we can't actually plan every single thing out. There are unexpected things that come up. Some days you feel like doing something, some days you don't. And this this system allows for so much grace while also still allowing you to be on your path and to get the things done that you really want to get done. So I'm so excited about this method and and finding a way to actually share it with other um people. And on that note, I actually am going to be sharing a guide to the bold day method soon. It'll be linked in my um bio on Instagram as well as on my website, which is bold-clarity.com. And so you will have the full instructions for how to actually apply the bold day method to your life. Um, so please be on the lookout for that. And then, as always, if there was something in this episode that resonated with you, like please make sure to share it. Maybe you know somebody who is struggling with um planning out their day, and maybe this will be something that helps them. And then please, please book a clarity call with me if you are someone who really wants to get intentional and get serious about building a day that works for you and works for the life that you want to build. Um, hope this was a helpful episode. I'm super passionate about this system and about finding ways to um enjoy your life while also building a life. So, as always, remember to be honest, stay intentional, and choose bold clarity.