Time & Energy Management

Creating a budget for your time and energy can totally change your life. 

On the podcast this week, I share a brief overview of the 5 steps and then help us focus on the value of making our plan in advance. It is so much easier to decide and do what is important to you, than it is to allocate energy throughout the day without a plan.

 The 5 steps of my Time & Energy Management System:

• Protocol - Create a protocol or budget for your time and energy.
• Plan - Make a plan, decide in advance what to do each week, day, and hour.
• Priority - Choose ONE priority/project at a time to move forward.
• Practice - Decide small practice steps for your chosen priority. 
• Pivot- regularly reflect on your system and make changes to pivot as needed.

Let's connect.

I am cheering for you!

Transcript

0:09

Welcome to the Live a Vibrant Life podcast. I'm life coach Kelly Tibbitts, and each week I'll be here to encourage and equip you with the tools you need to grow in self awareness and invest your best energy in your dreams and your purpose. I believe self awareness changes everything. Let's get started. Welcome happy September. We're going to be talking today about how to use the system that I've created to invest your energy in creating results. I listened to a podcast by Lisa Woodruff called Organize 365, and that's probably the oldest podcast that I've listened to. I think I've listened to her for more than 10 years or something at this point. And she was talking about emotional labor. Now, That term is a little more known today but I had not really heard about the fact that there was work that I was doing as a mom and a wife that nobody was noticing. It definitely wasn't getting paid. And it was real work. It was exhausting work. It was caring for people emotionally. It was taking care of remembering things. And so I often do this, I'll listen to many. People who are podcasting, I will read a bunch of books and then I'll sort of make an idea baby and I realized like, Hey, what do I need? And so I began teaching this, at the time of COVID 2020, 2021, where people weren't really going out a whole bunch. So people would meet with me on zoom at night and we would talk about this. And in our time together is where we actually developed. the system. So that first little group of people in my coaching circle helped me create what I call the sticky note system. So there's five steps. And the first step is to realize that you need a budget. Now, have you heard that term before? There's an app out there for people who would like to have some more financial success. And so they say in order to have, you know, enough money at the end of the month, you need a budget. Well, I think that It's true of the resource of money, but it's really true of the resources of time and energy. Time is a resource that we all have equal access to. Energy is very, very different and very individualized. So when you're creating your time and energy budget, you are the only one that can create it because you are the only one who understands it. So last week I shared the idea of de summering of the season of summer coming to an end and moving into fall and needing to notice what you need in that change. That's why a protocol is so very, very important and actually needs a little bit of work. You can't just do it once and be done with it. It's very nuanced. So you're going to decide in advance that you have 100 percent of the energy you have today. And that can be a really frustrating thing to realize because many of us live life trying to have the same energy we had 10, 20 years ago. You might be trying with a young baby to be the same as you were before you got pregnant. You might be trying to do the same thing when you had three children in the home like I did to help you prepare dinner and cook a little bit. And now it's all back on me. Things change. So with a hundred percent of the energy I have today, what do I want to decide in advance to do? What's my budget for my time and my energy? And that's called a protocol. It's a template where we decide in advance how we're going to allocate our time and our energy. So this is an overview workshop of a process that we go deep in, in September and October in the coaching circle. And again, my number one goal is to be able to take this information and help you apply it, whether you work with me or not. So, if you want to create a budget for your time and energy, pick three areas. Decide that you and your soul deserve time in your weekly calendar. Decide that the work you do for pay, and because you've already said yes, it's a responsibility, has the time that it needs, and then make sure that the responsibilities of the relationships that you're in are also reflected. What do I mean by that? Relationships require emotional energy, and energy is like a wave. goes up and down throughout your day. So try not to give your emotional energy to people who are not the people that you want to be giving your best energy to. It's just natural in life when we're not paying attention to accidentally do things that don't create the results we want. So if there are one or two relationships in your life that are really important to you, look at the time and the energy they're getting. Does that reflect? what you would like your life to look like. Are you accidentally giving time and energy to a different place? Because that, you know, person's needs are loud and urgent. Nothing's gone wrong. How human of us, but something that we can start to pivot starting today. So create a protocol, decide in advance how you want to budget your time and energy. Once you have a protocol, you're going to be looking at at that. That's off to the side helping you decide. So again, if you have a financial budget, this makes a little bit more sense. If you're someone who's averse to budgeting, this might feel like something you don't want to do. If I can, I'm just going to ask you to be a little open to the idea, be a little curious. I've seen this serve so many people who began our time together on this really, really against the idea and then saw that it actually really served them and helped them create that vibrant life they want. So the protocol is to the side and maybe you're saying, okay, if I have 30 blocks a week, I have, you know, six days a week with five blocks a day, one day a week, I don't put anything on there. It's just free. I can choose on that day, but the other six days, okay, there's five blocks a day. I want to make sure that at least one of those blocks a day belongs to me, my soul, my body, my mind, making sure that I'm so full of life. It's pouring out into the other areas of my life. Five of those six days, maybe three of the blocks belong to the work that you say yes to. And then one of them might belong to relationship, a different day might belong to home, it might belong to, um, you know, a different relationship. That's pretty common, isn't it? So it's a protocol. It's a budget for your time and energy. Once that is there, you're going to use that budget to decide in advance what you want to do for next week, just for today and the next few days. If you can get through a whole week, that's great. That might serve you, but if you're just beginning this process, maybe just do two days at a time. What would you like to plan for today, or tomorrow, for the next day and decide what's going on your calendar? And it's not just a to do list. It's an actual time and place. So if you're going to pick up your neighbor's Um, child from a bus stop. You wouldn't just say, I'll get there eventually. Your neighbor would say the bus is going to be there at three and you're like, I will be there at two 45 and I will block up two 45 until three 30 to make sure I pick up your child and get them home safely to you. That's the kind of detail you want in the plan for your life. So work might be eight to four. But the reality is work involves getting up, taking a shower, doing your hair, driving there, making sure you pack a lunch, making sure you pack lunch for other people. So, Oh, look at that. It's actually six 30 to six. No wonder my life doesn't feel as open as I thought it might be. I'm not really acknowledging the reality of what is on my daily schedule. So that's what a plan does. It allows you to sit, use your best mental energy and write it out. Now, here are some new thoughts that I'd love for you to use while you're writing the plan. Is it coming from a place of love for yourself? Until we begin to do this work, we don't even realize how many people's thoughts are in our head. So you might be hearing your mom or a teacher or an old boss saying, you're not being very productive. You could work a little harder. I don't understand why you're not going to the gym today. See if you can replace those thoughts with love for both your current self and your future self. Be kind and loving to your future self. I want my 75 year old self to be strong and healthy and I want to be kind and loving to the present version of me. Staying curious, staying open, staying kind. These might be new ways of thinking and that is one of the best reasons to be in a coaching circle because we don't even realize the thoughts that are on repeat and they often are not serving us. So if your life currently is not reflecting the life you want to live, There are thoughts behind your actions that if you could acknowledge them and decide whether you want to replace them with something else could literally change your entire life. I've never been at a place where I am so kind and loving to myself. And you know what's happened? I'm much kinder and more loving to the people around me. You're going to need to modify your plan. There is nobody I've ever met whose week looks exactly the same. Next week, this week, this week. Two weeks from now, they're going to change. So you're going to need to keep writing these plans. What will you do at 730? What will you do at nine? What will you do at 11? And you're going to need to be aware of when you need to pivot that step five, and we'll talk about it soon. So once you have a plan for the week, you're going to choose one thing that gets your very best energy. So say your priority this week is to really catch up on finances, open the bills, pay them, check in with, you know, different recurring expenses that you want to let go. Maybe you'll decide, okay, I have 30 minutes a day. I'm noticing I have 30 minutes a day of good mental energy. I'm going to put that good mental energy for the next week or two to this one project, get my finances in order. And so, um, if you are on Tik Tok, like I spend a little bit too much time or just out in the self development world, you might've heard of the Huberman husbands. He's a Stanford guy who gives lots of like life coaching tools. And I just heard one of the podcasts this week where one of the things he said is there's some, you know, evidence out there that as humans, your energy tends to rise about 30 minutes, three hours and 11 hours after you wake up. Now, Speaker 2. Every human is individual, so don't hold me to that exactly. But that profound thought has changed my mind a lot because I didn't realize for most of my life that it didn't matter what time I woke up. I always woke up tired. And so deciding to get up a little bit earlier these last few years because I noticed that I have some good mental energy in the morning has transformed what I'm able to produce in my life. I just expect now that the first 30 minutes are not going to be highly productive. I'm going to be tired, but the energy begins to rise. And about 30 minutes after I wake up, really peak place for me mentally. And so if there's an important project for me, I want to guard that 30 minutes after I wake up. You'll start to notice this as well. And that best energy should be going into your priorities and a priority means one, but you can have several on a list. Just focus on one at a time. Once you have your priority chosen, the way to move forward to creating the results is to decide small action steps. We call those practices and you just want to pick one to three at a time. And if you begin to do them and you notice any kind of aversion, any pressure to not continue, it's because the step is too big. Cut it in half. I want to go to the gym five days a week. Get up. Oh, it's just like overwhelming. Okay. I want to go to the gym one day a week until I go for three weeks, one day a week. And then I want to go twice a week. And then I want to go three days a week. Okay. Even going to the gym is too hard. I want to put on my sneakers and walk for 10 minutes. Keep making it a smaller and smaller practice step until it's something that you feel like you can do. And try not to have more than three practice steps at a time. One is best. Two is good. Three is the most you should have. You want to be able to keep it small enough that you know exactly what time you're going to do it, where you will be when you're doing those actions and what days you're going to take off. So you've got an energy budget called a protocol. You've got your calendar planned for this week from a place of love. You've circled one thing that you're going to do this week that is your priority. It's the most important of all the important things. And you have little small practice steps that move you in the direction of creating the results. Finally, after we do all this work, life happens and we're going to need to pivot. So once a week at the minimum, have a time where you're sitting in a place you enjoy sitting, maybe have a beverage you enjoy and review the last few days and tweak the plan for the next few that are coming up. This is incredibly important that we do monthly, yearly, and as every season changes. And season does not just mean weather, it means any area of your life. If you're an accountant, you know what those busy seasons are. I was in ministry for a long time. There were very busy seasons around Christmas and Easter. And I was also a teacher, and there were very busy seasons around report cards and open house time and different projects that the school might have me working on. Every time the season changes, you're going to need to pivot, you're going to need to make an adjustment. This is just a high overview of the tool that I personally use in my own life to create results. I'd love to have you join me as we work on this together. I'll be there by your side, moving you forward so that you can create the results you want this fall. If you'd like to learn more, go to kellytibbitts. com or you can leave me a message on Facebook or Instagram. I'm Coach Kelly Tibbetts, and I really do hope that this tool is going to help you create the results you want this fall. I'm cheering for you. Thank you for joining the live a vibrant life podcast. I hope our time together encourages and equips you to move forward in your vibrant life. To learn more, you can follow me on Instagram and Facebook or visit my website, kellytibbitts.com. See you soon.