#135 A Day in the Life of a Crochet and Knit Pattern Designer

A (flexible) routine keeps me focused, productive and happy.

Honestly, I don't know what I would do without my daily and weekly routines. You can say I'm a creature of habit - for good reason. Habits just work for me.

I'm often asked how I juggle a full time podcast and YouTube channel and still manage to create so many designs. There's no way I could get it all done without a solid plan. In this episode, I'll share my updated routine, schedule and habits with you. I hope sharing what works for me will give you some ideas to explore that will catapult you to where you want to go in life - whether crochet is your hobby, your business or your life.

About The BHooked Podcast
Brittany's primary goal is to inspire you and help you grow in your craft with The BHooked Podcast. Through her own stories and the stories of each special guest, you'll discover tips and tricks to improve your crochet and knitting skills and find inspiration to achieve your hobby goals. When you want to kick back and learn from yarn industry experts, grab some yarn and turn on The BHooked Podcast. There's never a shortage of all things crochet, knitting or yarn.

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Transcript

Brittany 0:00

You're listening to The Be Hooped Podcast, episode 135, with Brittany. Well, hello there and welcome to episode 135 of the Be Hooked podcast. I'm your host, Brittany, and normally we talk about crochet things and knitting things and topics that are related to both of those hobbies. However, every now and then we do something a little bit different and that's what we're going to do today. Way back in episode 50, I shared what it's like to live a day in the life of me. I kind of brought you into my daily routine. We talked about some other areas of life that I'm really passionate about aside from yarn and crochet. I really love productivity and planning and health and cooking and all of that fun stuff. And to my surprise, you were very interested in that episode and it still is one of the most frequently listened to episodes. So I was really surprised to see that and thought that now, two years later, we're due for an update. Because although a lot of things are similar to how they were and how I kind of run through my typical day as a yarn business owner, but there have been some changes and some updates, and I want to share those with you today. Now, a lot of times I have many of these episodes outlined and I've got something in front of me, but I wanted to do this one completely off the cuff, just trying something new, proving to myself that I can actually do that and stay focused and on topic. But mainly because I want to share organically like what a day is like for me and As I'm running through my day, in my head, sharing my thoughts, I don't want this to be scripted. I don't want it to be outlined. I want you to see and hear all of the things that I go through on a regular basis. Not because I want you to think I'm interesting. That's totally not what I'm going for here. But I know a lot of you are yarn business owners. You've got some type of maker business. And we learn from each other. Even though my business might look a little different than your business, maybe some things that I do to make my life a little easier or more efficient can help you. And that's really my goal. I want to share what a day is like for me so that you can take some of the things that I do to make my life easier and see if they apply to your life and in your business if that's what you have. Okay, so let's start from the top. Actually, start first thing in the morning. One thing that has changed a little bit is how early I wake up. I want to say first and foremost, I am not a morning person. I do not enjoy getting out of bed before the sun, and I don't know that that will ever change. I do know, however, that when I do get out of bed early, I am so much more productive and energetic, and I just generally feel better about what I was able to accomplish for that day. One really important realization that I've learned over the last two years since we did our first episode like this is that my best creative time happens before noon. That's not always the case for some people. I was actually talking to my husband about this and he says that he does his most focused work after lunch. Not me. I'm like, you get some food in me and I'm ready to take a nap. So after lunch, I reserve that time for things that require less creativity, maybe less focus and that sort of thing. So I am usually out of bed, feet on the floor, no later than 6 a.m. And of course, I run through a morning routine because that's something that I believe is the best way to set your day up on the right foot. I remember when I was working for somebody else, I had a full-time job that I would go to. I dreaded going to sleep the night before because I knew I had to get up on someone else's terms, go make somebody else's dream come true, and do something that I really just wasn't super passionate about. So I read this book called The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod, and that was a perspective shift for me. That was when I first realized that I'm not a morning person, and maybe I should be a morning person because that'll make me be more successful. That's totally not the case. What I learned from that book is that no matter what time you wake up in the morning, you Do it on your terms and make sure that the first couple of things that you do in the morning are for you because you're getting out of bed for you, for something that you really want to do. And that might mean getting up before everybody else or it might mean something totally different. We all have different scenarios. So for me... I am up first thing in the morning. I take care of my fur babies. I take care of my husband, get him off to work. And then I sit down and I have my breakfast. I've played a lot with this because I just never really know if I, well, I just never really know what I should eat in the morning. But I learned that when I do have a good breakfast, I feel better. I feel more productive. I can last a little bit longer. Like I have more stamina throughout the day. I can get an exercise in in the morning and that sort of thing. So I will make myself a breakfast and then I sit down at the table while I'm eating and I watch some videos on YouTube. They're typically not yarn-related videos, however, I find a lot of inspiration from other creators. I like to look at the production quality. I like to look at formats and how videos are set up and how tutorials are set up so that I can draw inspiration and be a little more entertaining and basically just serve you better by learning. I think that's the bottom line. I've always heard that you should always create before you consume. And I have to challenge that one just a little bit because when I consume, I am learning. I always make sure that what I'm consuming provides some kind of value to me. And I think that's a good tip that maybe you could walk away from. I am not the person to roll over and start scrolling through email or social media or that sort of thing. Because for me, those two things, like email and social, are a little stressful because it reminds me of how many people need my help who I just can't possibly help all right then. And so that is... not a fun way to start my day. I don't want to start my day feeling like I'm failing anybody, but instead I start my day by fueling myself literally with food and by consuming something where I'm learning. I've also found it really important to hydrate in the morning, and I know that sounds so silly that we have to remind ourselves to drink water, but for me, I'm not a water lover. I really don't enjoy drinking water. So what I do is I squeeze some lemon juice in it and that becomes almost a craving for me. I love drinking lemon water bright and early in the morning. It hydrates me. Again, it just makes me feel better. So I know those are two kind of silly ways to start your day as a yarn lover. or maker business to say, oh, we'll wake up early and eat some food and drink some water. It sounds really basic, right? But let me tell you, when I start the day later, when I get out of bed later than I typically would, when I miss my breakfast, when I don't drink enough water, I really feel it. So these self-care things that I do are so critically important to how the rest of my day flows. And it's not so much when this all occurs. I'm not saying you have to wake up at 5 a.m. in order to do what I do or to have a happy day, but find the self-care things that make you feel better, that make you feel more productive, and just try to do that every single day. Treat that as an appointment to yourself. The same way that you would if you gave someone your word that you would do something. You're giving yourself your word. And try to be good on that so that you can be your best self. A lot has changed in my morning routine since we last recorded. I like a routine, but I like that routine to change every now and then. Now before I told you I was meditating with a new device called the Muse Headband. And I started that because I heard a lot of really great things about meditation. And I still love this device. I still use it. I'm not as consistent as I was starting out. And that's because I think it's a slow process to see the benefits of meditation. And I'm the kind of person that if I don't see a result pretty quick, it's harder for me to commit that time to doing that thing. For me, time is my most valuable asset and I want to make sure I'm spending it in a way that's either helping me as a person, that's helping me be more connected, helping me be a better wife, a better daughter, a better sister. I need to spend time making sure that those priorities are met. And meditation, although I do feel great when it happens because I'm sort of dedicating that self where I can turn my brain off, where I can calm the thoughts, that's really great. I have to remind myself of that before I can actually sit down and meditate. Meditation is either you love it or you hate it. That's sort of what I have discovered with talking with people about it. So give it a try. If it's something that you've never done before, there's an app called Headspace where it's guided meditations and it'll walk you through that. I've tried those. and found them really helpful. And then of course this muse is like a headband that you wear and it's kind of a pricey thing. I actually got it as a birthday gift and just love it. But I wouldn't like jump right into that unless you know meditation is something that you want to do. So this is all still part of my morning routine. A lot of this happens outside of my office. I like to keep separate spaces for different things. When I'm in my office, I'm in work mode. When I'm out of my office, I'm in wife mode, normal mode, just me mode. So these morning routines, the things that I do in the morning, they're for me. They're to help me be more productive and have a better day. Something else I have incorporated into pretty much every single day. Now I'm not as consistent with it as I would like to be in all honesty, but stretching. Stretching is, man, like when I don't do it, I feel it. Especially as a crocheter and a knitter, somebody who has a problems as a result of doing that so much, having poor posture. All of those things affect my shoulders. They affect my elbows, my wrists. And I mean, you know it. I don't have to tell you this because I'm sure you might experience this as well. But when I get down and stretch, especially like my shoulders, my chest muscles, my forearm muscles, when I stretch all of those things, I feel so much better. Now, I also make it a priority to stretch out my legs and my hips too. I don't do too much sitting nowadays because I have moved over to a standing desk to help with some of these posture things that I'm going through and just to really help encourage me to not sit all day. I really can tell a difference from moving from a job where I was on the go and was moving a lot more to a job now where I'm primarily stationary. I'm either sitting with a project for hours, finishing that, or I'm sitting at the computer editing. And after two years of sitting a lot more than I used to, I could feel it in so many different ways. So I have transitioned to a standing desk, but I still like to incorporate some stretches for my legs and my hips and that sort of thing. Now that's the bulk of my morning routine. And at this point, it's usually about 7.30, sometimes a little bit later, depending on how much stretching I do. And then it's off to the office. Now I work from home, so my home office is just a few steps away. I come upstairs, get things set up, and get right to work. The reason why I'm able to get right to work is because I have planned out that day several days before. I've mentioned in a couple of different areas sprinkled here and there that I like to calendar block in order to structure my day. And I have gone back and forth with calendar blocking. I've tried different methods, different strategies, and I think I've honed in on something that really, really works for me. What I'll do is on Monday, every single Monday, I will calendar block that week. Previously, I've tried to calendar block several weeks ahead, like I'll try to calendar block a whole month. And what I found is that things change. And then I felt like a failure when I had to shuffle things around or when it took longer to film something than I expected it to. And that's not a good feeling. Calendar blocking is supposed to help me be more productive, not feel like I'm totally failing. So I will sit down on Monday and calendar block my whole week. So on the topic of that, let's circle back around. Let's zoom out a little bit, if you will, so that you can get a better perspective of how things work. Put a bookmark here, right? We're going up to the office. I already know what I'm going to do because of things that I've already done. And I think these things might help you. Now in that first episode, I told you about how I have themed days. Now those themed days have completely changed since then, but it's still a themed day, if you will. Mondays for me are my household days. I realized that there's a lot of stuff that has to get done. Laundry, meal planning, grocery shopping, cleaning floors and bathrooms and all that stuff, right? Those are all things that have to get done. And I don't really like doing them sprinkled throughout the week. I like to just focus, get it all done, and then I don't have to think about it for several days. So on Mondays, I deem that my household and sort of like my planning days. So after I've done all of those household things, I'll sit down with my bullet journal, which is also new. I haven't used that in my, I didn't use that in my previous episode, but that helps me get a bigger picture and just put pen to paper. So I'll use my bullet journal. to map out what needs to happen that week. And for me, a lot of things are repetitive. Right now, I am filming season two of Be Yooked TV, which comes out every Monday. And although I thought about pre-recording all of that, I felt a little bit strange in doing that because I wanted it to be more... real life. I wanted to make pivots and change if there were topics that might help my viewers more than others. So I am filming an episode of Be Oaked TV every single week. Another thing, of course, as you know, I have a new podcast episode every single week, and then I'm doing a Saturday tutorial as well. So I've got three main things that I have to get done every single week. Fortunately, to prepare all of those things, I'm doing the same set of tasks. So I sort of have that memorized by now. I've done it enough that I have it all mapped out. But I previously, well, and still use an app called CoSchedule that helps me with all of that. It helps me create a task list for everything. And over time, I've just gotten to the point where I have that memorized. So I've got my bullet journal that sort of outlines the things that need to happen that week in order to meet those three goals, those three content goals. And then I start to put it into Google Calendar, which is the thing that I use for calendar blocking. I'm sure there are other calendar apps and that sort of thing that you can use. I'm not an Apple user, so I don't have experience with that one. But I really love Google because it syncs with my phone. It syncs with my iPad and with my computer. Basically any device that I might be on, I have access to my calendar. And more importantly, I have access to notifications. So whenever I am supposed to switch to a new task, I'll get a reminder, that 10 minute reminder that says, hey, you're supposed to be doing this in 10 minutes. It sort of helps kick me into gear to finish up or wrap up what I'm doing. Or if I know there's no way I can finish that thing, that I need to block more time for that in the future. Getting a little ahead of myself with that, but I use Google Calendar and I create an appointment for every task. So let's take the podcast, for example. For this particular episode, it's just a solo show. So I'm not interviewing a guest or anything like that. So I have fewer things to do for something like this. On my task list is to record this podcast. And I know that realistically, although it might be a 30 to 45 minute show, I like to calendar block an hour because I'm not perfect, right? We always make mistakes. You got to take a break to take a drink of water. It's really hard to talk for a very long time. So I'll calendar block more time than I probably need in order to help me save time later and avoid some of those frustrations if I don't get things done. After I record this episode, I have to edit it. I'm still a one-woman show, and I do all of my editing as well. So I will block out two hours to edit this. Again, that's way more time than I need, but it's there. I'll have a buffer if I need it. After editing, I will create some images to share with you on social so you know that this episode is available. I will usually block out a half hour or so for that. I create a page on my website, a show notes page, so that you can see any links, any resources that we talk about, which I'm sure there'll be quite a few for this one. By the way, the show notes are on behooked.com slash 135. And I budget about 45 minutes to create that post. So on my calendar for today, you'll see all of those slots. You'll see a slot for recording. for editing. And then tomorrow there's a time slot for creating those images, creating that post and then scheduling it out. Now, I don't want to get too nitty gritty on calendar blocking because I know it, although I am super geeking out about right now and for the last like year or so, it might not be your jam. It's certainly not for everybody. I know if I were working a regular full-time job where I'm away from nine to five, why would you even calendar block, right? Because you've got like a big chunk of that time, five days a week or however many times you work. In that case, it may not be super useful for you. The most important tidbit I want you to take away from all of this is just to realize how much time it takes you to do certain things, right? within either your business or your hobby. That's sort of where I want to relate it to. If you're running a business and you know that you need to have this project completed by next Wednesday, well, it's a good idea to sit down and think about how much time you have to invest in crocheting that thing and how you can break it up between now and the due date So you know you can get it done. The only way I personally can do that is to see it in real time. And that's why calendar blocking is really useful for me because I am one to overestimate my ability to get things done and underestimate the amount of time that it actually takes me to do them. So by calendar blocking, there's no fudging it. It is what it is. I have set up my calendar so that I am working between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. because that's when I want to work outside of that. I want to spend time with my family and spend time on my hobbies and that sort of thing. There's no making time that's not actually there when you calendar block. So even if you're not using an app like Google Calendar, If you're more of a pen to paper kind of person, having a planner or that sort of thing, where you can map this out and just see it in real time. I think you might find it super helpful as you're working through projects in your business. Also projects, right? If you're just doing this for a hobby and let's say you have a birthday coming up and you want to make something handmade for this person for their birthday, the same sort of reverse engineering will take place to make sure you meet that deadline, right? Now, I don't want to elaborate on calendar blocking anymore, but I do want to say this. If this is a topic that you find really interesting and you would love to learn more about it, head over to the show notes page and in the comments section, let me know because like I said, I could talk about this for hours, but only if it's useful for you. So if you want to learn more about calendar blocking and how I use it in my everyday life, for my business and for personal too, because I calendar block pretty much everything. Just let me know that in the comments section and I'll try to get some resources together for you so that you can try and experiment with calendar blocking and see if it works for you. All right, so on the topic of themed days, we said Mondays are like my household slash planning days. And then Tuesday and Wednesdays are my content creation days. I also group my project creation into this because they're more of my creation days, I guess, if you will. So on Tuesdays, I'm typically doing most of my filming for Behooked TV and for the tutorial. And when I'm on fire, like I am for today, for some reason, I'm also recording a podcast episode on a Tuesday. So Tuesdays and Wednesdays are reserved for creating new things, for filming, for creating new projects, and that sort of thing. And I'm pretty loose with everything else. I just know what I need to get done for that week, and I try to make sure that they get done on Tuesday and Wednesday. primarily because I notice that towards the end of the week, sometimes things come up, right? Maybe I'll have to take a Friday off that I wasn't expecting to take a Friday off. And if I get into a position where I needed to record something on a Friday, and then now I can't work on that Friday, that's not a good situation to be in. So the big takeaway here maybe isn't to have themed days, unless that's useful for you, But I think the bigger message here is recognizing the patterns in your week and seeing how you can incorporate the things that your priorities, the things that need to get done into the parts of your week that don't change very much. For me, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are pretty much work all the time. Never change. Never changes. We don't. randomly go anywhere on a Tuesday or Wednesday. So I like to get a lot of work done on those days so I don't get behind. But then it also gives me the flexibility to say, okay, my husband's taking off work today. Let's go do something cool because this is the life that I've set up for myself and I'm able to do that. I want to be able to do that. And this has helped. So that's Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Now Thursdays and Fridays are my production days. And I really changed this a lot since the last episode that you heard. Before they were very specific. I had a filming day. I had a podcast day. I had an editing day. I had an admin day. The other one I'm not exactly remembering at the moment because it's been a while since I did that because it just didn't work. I found that when I was a little more loose with the title, it gave me the flexibility that I needed. So anyways, on Thursdays and Fridays, those are my production days. Those are the days that I reserve for editing primarily. So I know that when I wake up on a Thursday or a Friday, if I want to work in my yoga pants, I totally can do that because I know I don't have to be on camera. I also know that Any outside noise or distractions, they're not going to bother me. I really don't like to record when there's a lot of distractions around me, when there's a lot of noise and that sort of thing. And that's why Tuesdays and Wednesdays work really well because I'm usually here and can dedicate my energy and effort into that. But like I said, sometimes Thursdays and Fridays are a little different and I can edit through any distractions that might be around me on those days. So that's the zoomed out look of how a week is set up for me. But I want you to just kind of wrap your mind around everything you've heard and see how you can apply it in your life. So again, the big takeaways are one, figuring out what your routines are. What are the things that you always do every single week? For me, I sat down and I wrote them down. I said, okay, these are all the household things that need to get done. And I wrote down laundry, clean the floors, clean the bathrooms, put the clothes away, do the ironing, do the meal planning, do the grocery shopping. I wrote all of those down. Get really granular with it so you don't miss anything. And then I... looked at my BeHooked stuff. What are the commitments that I've made to you as my listener and to my viewers on my YouTube channels? What do they expect from me every single week? And I have shown you to expect a new podcast episode, a Saturday tutorial, and when BeHooked TV is in an active season, to expect another video on that. From there, you can get even more detailed with it. Take it one commitment at a time. For the podcast, you know, just in my scenario, writing down all of the steps that it takes to produce a podcast and then looking at that next commitment, writing down all the things that you have to do to meet that commitment. And once you have that an idea of all the things that you're doing every single week sort of broken down into segments that are just easier to digest, then you can assign a general bucket to it, if you will. And that's sort of like my themed days. Now, again, that might not work for you. And if it doesn't, I wouldn't even try to force it. If you realize that your schedule changes a little bit more than mine does, for example, maybe a themed day isn't right, but perhaps knowing what your weekly commitments are every single week as they happen will be useful for you. So I would challenge you, when you have some time today, just jot down all of these things and see if you can find a pattern and how you can work that pattern into your daily routine. routine or your weekly routine and that sort of thing. So we're jumping back to that bookmark now. When I am in my office, of course, I know exactly what I'm going to do because it's calendar blocked. And you've got a pretty good idea now of how my days are structured just knowing what my themed days are. So if I'm walking into my office on a Tuesday, I am fixing my hair, I'm putting some makeup on, I'm putting clothes on, getting all the lighting and the cameras and all of that set up. And that's just become a routine. I don't have to think about it. And I film as much as I possibly can while I'm at my best. If I'm walking into my office on a Wednesday, it might look a little different. Maybe today I'm filming a tutorial, so I'm not filming like my face. I can be a little more relaxed with my appearance, but I'm filming my hands. Or let's say I've started filming a tutorial and I've had to start crocheting a little bit more through that. Then I will work through that sort of thing on a Wednesday. Now I have to say, Thursdays and Fridays really are my favorite days because I love the production side of what I do. Of course, I love to crochet and to knit and create projects and do all of that stuff. But I am a creator at heart and I get just as excited about editing a video as I do creating a new project. So Thursdays and Fridays are super fun for me because I know I get to sit down and express my creativity in a completely different way. No matter which day I'm walking into my office, I am always going to walk out of my office at about the same time every day. And that is about 1130. I will go move my butt and walk on the treadmill or jog on the treadmill because I know it's good for me. I really have a love-hate relationship with exercising. Not because I don't like to exercise or I don't like to move. But I love my work so much, I'm addicted to it. And I don't like to leave this room once I'm in it. I always want to create more, get further ahead, just get more done. I don't want to leave to go do something selfish like exercise. It feels selfish to me. I know it's so silly. But what I have realized is a couple of things. One, when I exercise regularly, and by the way, I'm not like running a 5k marathon on this treadmill. I'm usually strolling at like a fast pace. I'm walking for 40 minutes or so. Sometimes I'll jog a little bit in there as well. When I exercise, I have more energy and that makes no sense when you think about it. You would think that you would be tired and exhausted after running, but it helps me with that afternoon exercise. lag that I typically feel. It also means I eat less for lunch. So at this point in my day, I've taken care of a lot of stuff. I got up on my own terms. I took care of myself in the ways that make me more productive and make me happier. I already had my day sort of structured, so I didn't have to put any more thought or waste any time on figuring out what needed to be done. So I was extra productive. That gives me about four solid hours of really focused, creative time. And man, I can get a lot done in four hours. And I feel wonderful when I take the time to go and get in a little exercise and take a couple of minutes to eat my lunch and not jump right up to go to work. If I want to sit there and relax for a minute, I let myself do that because I've already been super productive that morning and I don't have to feel bad about sacrificing any time. So after that, we're looking at about... 1.30pm. I'll head back up to my office. And again, this is my less focused work. I try to calendar block my less focused work after 1.30pm. And depending on what day it is, I'll work on different things. So today, for example, is a content creation day. So after I do my exercise and eat my lunch, I will come back up and film a tomorrow will be the same story. It'll be another content creation day. I will work on filming whatever else needs to be filmed that sort of is left over from today. And then on Thursday, when I sort of get back from my lunch period then, I'll do more post-production work. So I will be editing. That's usually the day where I spend a lot more time in my email and in the community and answering as many questions as I can, sort of getting to all of those inbox messages. I will do my social media stuff on that day as well. So I might plan out some posts or that sort of thing. And typically on Friday afternoon, I try to keep those pretty open because as much as I like structure and a routine, I like a little bit of variability. So on Fridays, if there has been a project that has just really sparked inspiration in me, I'll usually feel a little like a rebel and start working on that project on Friday afternoon. And that way I'll have something to crochet up through the weekend when I have some free time here and there. As a general rule, I do like to have boundaries when it comes to my stopping point. Like I said before, I like there to be a designated spot for work so I can sort of be in that work mode. And for me, that's absolutely my office. Sometimes I will crochet a project in the living room or on the treadmill. I've definitely been known to do that. But for the most part, I try to keep separation between different things that I'll be doing. Basically, my different aspects of life. When you work at the same place that you live, you really do need to keep that separation so you don't feel like you're always in work mode. Or opposite to that... feel like you're always in home lounge mode and not get any work done. So for me, the solution to that problem was having a dedicated office space and only doing work in here. So there you have it. That is my long-winded conversational version of what a day in the life or a week in the life of me looks like right now in 2019. I know this is going to change in the future. And if it's something you're interested in, I will love to share that journey with you later on. But as I said before, the main purpose of this episode isn't so you can do everything that I do or that you can see how cool or how boring you think my daily routine is. Really, what I want you to extract from this is those little golden nuggets about the realizations that make up my routine. So I want to highlight those. The first big realization that made me a happier, more productive person was realizing that I needed to start the day on my own terms and I needed to do something for myself when I first wake up. The second realization was understanding when I do my most focused work. And for me, that was... tough. I really had to think about that. I heard somebody say, well, when do you do your best work? And I'm like, I don't know. I never really thought about it. But if you recall days that you've had recently where you really got a lot done or you really just felt good about what you got done, what time of day was that? And can you see a trend in that? I just realized through consciously thinking about when I felt like I could do the most, when I felt more creative, and that was always in the morning and it was always before noon. And opposite to that, I know that I'm kind of sluggish in the afternoon, especially if I haven't exercised or taken care of myself or eaten lunch. I'm not productive in the afternoon. So that's the other important realization I want you to take away from this episode. Think about when you do your best work and try to do as much important work during that time that you can. The third important realization is with routines and themes. Again, writing down your commitments. Write down the things that always happen and see if you see a trend. Is it possible for you to do all of those things on one day or in one afternoon? Because it's been proven that task switching is really difficult to do and our brains really aren't designed to do that well. So can you find a trend in the things that you need to do And is it possible for you to do those things on a certain day? The fourth really big realization I want you to take away from this episode is to start tracking how much time certain things take you to finish. For me, I used a time tracker app for many years. And I only recently stopped using that because I felt like I fully understand what how long it takes me to record a podcast or to crochet a baby blanket or to do any other task that's on my list. If you need to use a time tracker app, there's a couple that are really good. I'll have them linked in the show notes, the two that I have used, so you can give that a try. But even just taking a mental note of it. And generalizing, coming up with the average of how much time it takes you to do these things that you're doing every single week so that you can realistically put that task in a space on your calendar that you can get it done. Because there is nothing worse than having something on your calendar and not getting it done and then not having a space to finish it. That's the worst feeling ever. And that's why I've gotten to the habit of overestimating by quite a bit how much time it takes me to do certain things. The fifth important takeaway from this episode is to have a designated space if you also work from home. Create that separation so you feel like you have a work life and you have your regular life. Sure, there's going to be some overlap between the two, but in terms of happiness and productivity, there has been nothing better than doing that that has helped me. Just having that separation between this is work, Brittany, this is life, Brittany. All right, now I hope you enjoyed this completely different style of episode. Again, if you're new to the show, this is not something we typically talk about here. Normally, it's all crochet, knitting, and yarn-related inspiration. So next week, we will be right on track with that. If you enjoyed this, if you want to learn more about this again, if you want to learn more about calendar blocking, or if you just want to share some of the things that have helped you in your daily routine and your daily life, leave that for me in the comments section so myself and others in the community can read that. The show notes page for this episode is behooked.com slash 135. You can just scroll right down to the bottom and leave your comment there. I will also link to some of the apps and things that we talked about here so that you might be able to use them in your life if you find that they would be helpful for you. Again, for me as a content creator, I'm using more digital things. I'm using different things that maybe you wouldn't find useful or you wouldn't need at all as somebody who is just planning projects for... birthdays for holidays and that sort of thing. But again, those five major points are really what I wanted you to take home from today's episode. I hope you enjoyed it and I'll see you next week, my friend.