If the unprecedented events of the past month have left you feeling time-strapped, unfocused, overwhelmed, my friend Ashley Gartland wrote this special guest blog post just for you.
Ashley is a business coach who helps service-based business owners and online entrepreneurs streamline their business so they can grow more and work less, and her approach to simplifying your schedule will help you make space for what’s most important in business and life during a season when it matters more than ever to maximize your time.
And I, Brit, have plugged in some of my own insights at the end of this post to help you navigate Ashley’s incredible advice, based on your personality type.
A Simplified Schedule to Reduce Overwhelm Due to COVID-19
I know you’re feeling overwhelmed right now. I know that time management feels elusive at best. I know that it doesn’t feel like there are enough hours in the day to do all that needs doing. Or maybe it’s more like your days feel like an endless stretch of unstructured time that you know you could use more productively if only you could figure out how.
Whatever you’re facing and feeling, getting a simplified schedule in place will help.
Because whether you’re busy putting out fires all day, feeling stuck in overwhelm or facing a ton of new time constraints, a schedule will help you feel better.
More than that, it will help you take consistent action to keep your business on track (and even grow) during this unprecedented time.
A simplified schedule will keep you focused and intentional in a time when it’s easy to give in to distractions.
It will ground you on days when you’re feeling untethered and lost.
It will help you make space for what’s most important in business and life (whether that’s learning how to homeschool your kids, getting that new offer out, or making sure you get your self-care in).
It will help you get your work done in whatever hours you have available right now – even if your working hours have been cut in half.
It will help you juggle the many moving parts and new obligations as you learn to navigate your new normal.
So while it might seem like a small solution, a schedule is an essential piece of the productivity puzzle. And if you use my approach to create your schedule, you’ll discover exactly how you can:
- Stop feeling like you’re busy all day but never very focused or productive.
- Design your weekly schedule so you have time for yourself, time for your business and time for the things and people you care most about.
- Create space in your schedule to pour into your business and ideas that will help you grow to the next level (even when extra time feels hard to come by).
Plus, when you take the time to learn my scheduling approach now, it will do more than get you through this tough stretch. It will help you harness your productivity, find your focus and make the most of your time in future seasons as well.
You’ll find the steps to set up your simplified schedule inside my free workbook. The only thing you need to do is download it and carve out 30 minutes to do the work. (And yes, I recognize the irony but if you can commit 30 minutes to set your schedule up, you will save ten times that amount of time in the weeks to come.)
Get my free workbook, Simplify Your Schedule: 4 Steps to Living More and Working Less, right here.
The workbook is my gift to you because there’s nothing I love more than helping busy business owners find ways to maximize their time – especially in light of all we’re juggling right now.
I can’t wait to hear what your newly simplified schedule creates for you.
All my best,
Ashley
Simplifying Your Schedule Based on Personality Type
Hey, it’s me, Brit!
I recommend all personality types give Ashley’s simplified schedule approach a try because there’s something within this approach for everyone. Here, let me show you…
For the Sentinel Tribe:
You’re probably familiar with Ashley already, since she’s a Sentinel Tribe member herself! I spoke with her in this episode of the Marketing Personalities Podcast to give an overview of what it really means to be in the Sentinel Tribe of personality types.
Sentinel Tribe members naturally prefer order and organization, so if there’s any tribe that’s going to LOVE the recommendation of making a schedule, it’s going to be the Sentinels.
Plus, this simplified schedule approach has been developed by one of your own. It’s already perfectly poised to give you what you specifically need right now.
My best advice for you? Dive right in as soon as you can! You need this simplification right now, so don’t wait.
For the Explorer Tribe:
If the Sentinel Tribe is most likely to love the act of simplified scheduling, the Explorer Tribe is most likely to not-so-much love it. 😉
But hey, Explorer Tribe member – before you back away too far from this recommendation, hear us out:
This approach to scheduling isn’t like the others you’ve tried – the complicated, every-15-minutes, lose-your-freedom kind of scheduling. No way. I would never recommend that kind of scheduling for you.
Instead, Ashley’s approach is simple and offers you tonnnssss of wiggle room. Once you download her workbook, you’ll see exactly what I mean.
My best advice for you? Go in with an open mind. And remember you don’t have to do this perfectly for it to make a big difference in your life and happiness right now. Give it try.
For the Analyst Tribe:
If any tribe of personalities is going to resist admitting they’re overwhelmed, it’s going to be the Analyst Tribe. Because, hey, maybe you’re not. Orrrr maybe you’re just a good faker. You decide.
You’re so freaking capable, dear Analyst. So you might be continuing on, taking the bull by the horns, and miraculously pushing through. Maybe you don’t think you need a simplified schedule right now.
But in the case that you do notice you’re hitting a bit of a breaking point and you need to check yourself before your wreck yourself into capital-B-Burnout Mode, let’s simplify your schedule now, rather than later.
My best advice for you – take a look at your schedule today and tomorrow. Find a 30-minute time slot where you can work through Ashley’s workbook. It won’t take you more than 30 minutes to get through. And as you prepare for that 30-minute appointment with yourself, begin considering your top 3-5 priorities right now. This will help you get ahead of the game a bit, even before you sit down to use the workbook.
For the Diplomat Tribe:
I know, I know, fixing your schedule seems like too easy of an answer right now. The overwhelm you’re feeling is not just your run-of-the-mill overwhelm – this is COVID-19 OVERWHELM.
I hear you. And I’m sticking to my recommendation. You still need this, Diplomat. Because this isn’t just another approach to fitting a crap-ton of things onto your Google Calendar and worshipping productivity at all costs.
This goes deeper than that.
Ashley’s simplified scheduling approach doesn’t even begin with you looking at your calendar. It begins with you looking at your priorities.
So for you, my best advice is to identify your priorities and then attach a strong WHY Statement to each. Your WHY holds so much power for you. So let’s use it.
Here’s a personal example of what attaching a WHY to a priority can feel like:
One of my top priorities this week is my Writing Practice. I’ve decided it must have a place within my simplified schedule.
Why though? What does that matter to me? Because my Writing Practice serves to process thoughts and feelings that would otherwise get stuck within me. When those get stuck, I get stuck. I stop making progress. I stop showing up for myself and others. I lose inspiration in all other work-related tasks when I haven’t first completed my Writing Practice that day.
Now, for me, when I see my WHY written out like that, I am SO much more inclined to not only make a space for my priority in my schedule, but then follow through on keeping that appointment I’ve made with myself. I bet you’ll feel the same, being that you’re a mission-drive Diplomat too.
Know someone who could use a simplified schedule right now? Share this post with them!
And for a total extra bonus, find out what your Best Physical Planner is, based on your personality type!
I mean, why did we even buy 2020 Planners in the first place?! Maybe it’s time for a fresh one? I definitely won’t judge.