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Tag: Email Archive
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Time Blocking Made Easier
Holi Dear Reader,
I’ve been thinking a lot about time lately. Friends and clients come to me frequently with questions about time and how to build systems around it, and I’ve yet to meet a single neurodivergent person who doesn’t struggle with time, whether it’s the estimation of it or an accurate reflection of how it’s been spent. Time blocking is often touted as the best solution to either of these problems, but I’m willing to bet your heart sank when you read that (because same, Imao)
Setting aside dedicated time to focus on your priorities is not an inherently difficult concept, so why does time blocking get such a bad rep? Estimating how much time a specific task will take is incredibly difficult when your body does not inherently mark and remember the passage of time. Time is an abstract concept; 15 minutes feels the same as 3 and also feels no different to when 5 hours have passed. It’s no wonder then that even familiar and oft repeated tasks are still an amorphous blob in my mind instead of a clearly defined block of time.
And yet, being able to review how the spent my time in the past is directly relevant to how I plan my future, and so, with great reluctance, I have spent a lot of time experimenting with how to make keeping track of time easier. In an effort to share my knowledge and the results of my experiments, I’ve listed the top tips I’ve collected here for you to peruse and perhaps use if you think they might be helpful to you!
COLOR CODING
Being able to see at a glance how much time I’ve spent on my different priorities and areas of life is really valuable to me, and helps remind me why I’m choosing to track and review my time. Most calendars allow you to select a color scheme for your tasks and events. I also use emojis to categorize my tasks in Notion.
COMBINING TASKS + CALENDARS
Not having to manually add my to-do list to multiple apps is key for my time-blocking success–if you’re already using google calendar, utilizing the task management system within google keep will probably be most helpful in this endeavor. I use Notion’s calendar app synced with my google calendar and my task’s database, so I can drag and drop my tasks into the correct time slots.
TIME TRACKING – NOTION CAL
Keeping track of how long tasks take is the truly difficult part of time blocking, for me. I’ve found that I cannot plan a day out on my calendar app, but if I keep it open next to my to-do list and drag a task on to the calendar when I begin working, I can then adjust the length of time once the task is complete.
TIME TRACKING WITH POMODOROS
I’ve always struggled with breaking down complex projects that can’t be completed in a single day. Dedicating a pomodoro timer to those projects helps me keep the momentum going even when the end date feels like it doesn’t exist. Setting a specific time to a task can also help me feel less daunted by the act of beginning, plus most pomodoro videos on youtube have visual clocks to make the passing of time more tangible. Giving myself permission to stop when the times ends means I don’t have to break up the tasks myself, and instead I pick it back up where I left off in the next timer.
TIME TRACKING FOR REVIEW
One of the ways I can be kind to myself and acknowledge that this is a difficult task is by allowing myself to adjust my calendar after events have taken place. Planning and review are different processes that happen at different times, and if my plan for how I’ll use my time ends up being unrealistic, as it often does, I simply adjust the calendar to show what actually happened or where the plan changed.
PLANNING MY TIME
As part of keeping my processes separate, I typically plan my daily time blocks by hand and use my calendar to record the reality of how my time is spent at the end of the day or week. I use a digital version of the daily passion planner on my tablet for the physical planning, but I also have loved and used a dry erase board in the past.
EVERYTHING IS AN EXPERIMENT
And as always, I look to every action and tool I try with curiosity and compassion and don’t allow myself to see failure as a reflection on who I am as a person. Having multiple ways that I can track and review my time and allowing myself to come back to these tools whenever it’s helpful and ignore them when it’s not helps me accommodate myself and the ways that my needs differ from day to day.
I think that’s everything, but I’m always open to new ideas and I’d love to know what experiments you’ve tried when it comes to tracking and reviewing your time! Hit me up in the replies and share if you’ve done something different, or just let me know how you feel about the ideas I’ve shared here and if you’re going to try any.
Wishing you as much rest as time spent working, and an easeful time of transition <3
Ela
This post was originally sent to our email list, who are the first to get all our stories, tips, and special announcements.
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How Systems Help My Mental Health
‘Tis the season for spiced drinks and mental struggles. Whether its the fact that we’re right in the middle of how the seasons have changed, or it’s that you’re also stressed by how quickly holiday vacations & family time is approaching, stress seems to come hand-in-hand with the festive joy this time of year. I’m not a doctor, and unfortunately I don’t have the fix-all solution that’s going to solve your mental health struggles. I do, however, have a love letter to my systems, and a list of ways that systems have helped me with my own mental health.
A quick caveat here to say that if even the word systems beings up stress for you, it’s okay. Ive been there, I’ve skipped past all sorts of advice that felt triggering, and if that’s what you need right now, it won’t hurt my feelings. AND I am going to say with compassion that it doesn’t have to be this way. If you’re in that place right now, send me a reply! I’d love to help you find what’s in the way and develop systems that aren’t actually scary.
And now, a list:
Systems help me come back to all my good ideas
This email’s topic is the most immediate example of this–l dug this out of my content database & thought, this is a good thing to reflect on right now. But I also have:
- an archive of all the art I’ve created,
- notes on all the life design experiments I’ve tried,
- every tarot reading I’ve ever done,
- a list of every successful action taken sorted by topic,
- everything I’ve read for the past 3 years,
- recipes collecting dust (sorry, even with systems I’m not perfect lol)
Collecting all these things in one place means I have the opportunity to, when I’m bored or curious, scroll my own ideas & interests instead of a feed full of other people’s ideas and thoughts. It’s not a perfect science, but I find I’m a happier and healthier person when I can be intentional about creating more than I consume.
Systems help me keep track of symptoms & solutions
Just making sure I take my meds every day is a lifelong battle, let alone remembering accurately how I felt at any time that is not right now. Having a place where I can keep track of my own actions & how I feel allows me to go back & test any correlations later on. If I felt energized every day the week I added an iron supplement to my daily meds or when I got nine hours of sleep, then maybe I try one of those actions again to see if I have the same result.
Systems help me measure my performance compassionately
As part of my weekly review, I see how many of the tasks I planned on doing were actually completed. I also journal on my weekly goal progress and take note of any contributing factors or external reasons why if my plan fell incredibly short. As a rule of thumb, I only worry if I fall below an 80% completed rate. Not doing Every Single Thing on my to-do list is normal, because I often include stretch tasks as well as extra fun things.
Systems help me offload my mental checklists
I don’t have to question how I’m doing things because I have everything set up to be as easy as possible for myself.
- I keep my meds next to the cat food because the cats will always remind me when it’s time for them eat, and seeing my meds when I go to feed the cats reminds me to take them.
- I know exactly where to look for the latest email I’ve written and what steps I need to take to get it out.
- I have a series of automations set up to make sure I never miss an important email.
- I show up to Recess every week to ask myself how I can make things even easier and keep adjusting as my priorities, goals, and needs change.
Most of all, my systems give me opportunities to be reminded of who I want to be, and they help me bridge the gap between that and who I am right now. Whether or not I use those reminders to review or guide my future actions is up to me, but just having them is a huge step that allows me to be compassionate with myself. I don’t always measure up, my mental and physical health is a constant work in progress, and some days are better than others, but I know I have the tools to make things easier and most importantly, I know that I deserve the accommodations my systems provide me. Making things easier gives me back time and energy to spend on creating art and connecting with my loved ones and even just resting in bed with my cats, all things that I value much more than my ego’s attachment to productivity or “working hard”.
Restfully and Respectfully yours,
Ela
P.S. We’ll be off for the rest of the year starting the 22nd, so you won’t hear from me again until next year (!), but I hope the next few weeks (and the year ahead!) are full of light, joy, and connection with people who love and support all of you. And if you want to find ways to make your life easier in the upcoming seasons, I’d love to help in any way that I can.
This post was originally sent to our email list, who are the first to get all our stories, tips, and special announcements.
If you want to launch into learning about systems, or simply support the work we’re doing, we’d love to see you in your inbox!
Don’t worry, we’re more than familiar with inbox overwhelm. We send out two newsletters a month, and promise there will never be hard feelings if you need to unsubscribe for any reason!
Want Rain or Shine in your inbox?
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Data-based Decisions require DATA 😤
Being an entrepreneur is my favorite thing, but I’d be lying if I said it was easy or that I feel like i know what I’m doing all the time. I’m so blessed to have the education and experience and community support that I do, and the uncertainty of basing my income solely on myself has been at times much more challenging than I expected. The thing that has made it easier to trust myself and my ideas is basing my decisions on actual data instead of throwing darts at a wall full of ideas and hoping for the best.
In this spirit of honesty, though, I didn’t always look at data when I first started.
Yes, I can give myself grace for not knowing what I didn’t know, AND, sometimes the data was there and I just had no idea how to find it nor the executive function to pull together all the many different reports. Hoping for the best took much less energy than tracking down CSV files and crunching numbers, and I knew that if this was really important to me I would need to make it much easier in order for it to be an option for me. I wanted to be making informed and self-compassionate decisions, which meant I needed to know myself and my needs, and I needed information about my experiments and my actions.
So I built the business hub piece by piece, adding in databases and templates and automations as I needed them, and slowly but surely, I was able to see my data in a way that made sense to me. I was able to include my own actions and observations and feelings with the same priority as my sales and campaign engagement, I let Notion do the math for me so I no longer had to triple check numbers because I wasn’t confident in my own skills, and I could see at a glance every experiment I’d tried and the results, whether that was numbers or my own notes on how it felt and what I liked or disliked.
I’m confident now that I know exactly what’s going on in my business and most importantly, why I’ve made the decisions that impact myself, the business as a whole, and my customers. My work is so much easier and more confident as a result, and I’m so excited for you to feel the same. The Complete Notion Business Hub is now available for purchase, with every resource I use myself in my business and few extras that have been most requested by clients in their own systems. Now you can get started organizing your business independently for half the price of custom help – and if you purchase yours before the end of September, you’ll even get a discount code for 10% off a one on one session with me!
I can’t wait to see you and your systems grow,
Ela
This post was originally sent to our email list, who are the first to get all our stories, tips, and special announcements.
If you want to launch into learning about systems, or simply support the work we’re doing, we’d love to see you in your inbox!
Don’t worry, we’re more than familiar with inbox overwhelm. We send out two newsletters a month, and promise there will never be hard feelings if you need to unsubscribe for any reason!
Want Rain or Shine in your inbox?