The Ultimate Blog Podcast - 16. Time Management Tips with Courtney Wolf

Episode Date: April 5, 2022

On today’s episode we are chatting with Courtney Wolf. Courtney is a certified time management coach and a mom to four kids under five. Courtney shares valuable advice on how we can work on time management in our lives, how implementing structure can actually allow freedom in your life and how to keep our schedule when other things come up. She also shares how to work on goals or plans when we don’t follow through with, the mindset shift that we need to start making better habits that help us be productive with our time, and how she organizes her week to stay on task. This episode is going to be so helpful for those of you who want to start a blog but feel like you don’t have the time or those of you who may have a blog already but feel like you need better time management to get everything done.Check out the show notes (link below) for links and resources mentioned in this episode!Thanks for listening! Connect with us on Instagram: @sparkmediaconceptsThinking about starting a blog? Check out the Ultimate Blog Bootcamp!SHOW NOTES: www.sparkmediaconcepts.com/episode16

Thank you. for years, we are excited to welcome you into this space where we are passionate about creating community over competition. We are bloggers who want to encourage you to believe in your potential, step outside the norm, and step into a life where you create your own schedule, your own success, and your own story. Join us for weekly episodes as we navigate blogging and work from home life, all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. We are so excited to be here today with Courtney Wolfe. Courtney is a certified time management coach, and she knows a little bit about time management because she is raising four kids, five and under. So Courtney is going to school us all on how we can implement some structures and systems today into our businesses, our blogs.

And Courtney, we are so excited to talk to you. Hi. Yes. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. Awesome. So tell us a little bit more about yourself and your business, how you got started. Yes.

Okay. So as you already said, I am Courtney Wolfe. I'm a mom of four kids. I have twins. So I have two, almost four and a five-year-old busy, busy, but I've also been a really a work from home mom since the beginning, since before my oldest was born, I kind of fell in to virtual assisting on accident, honestly. And over the past about seven, six years, I learned back ends of business. And then I really honestly learned the time management piece. That is what drew me in. I very quickly realized that I had to be able to manage my time well to do everything I wanted to do. There was a lot I wanted to accomplish as a

mom with little kids. And I knew that my time was a pivotal piece and being able to hone in and to achieve everything I was going after. So that's how I got where I am. Awesome. I love that you use something that needed help in your own life because you saw a need for it and have decided to help others with it. So what do you think is the main thing that most women or moms struggle with in regards to time management? What do you think kind of holds them back from mastering this? Yeah. So two things come to mind. The first one is number one, that a lot of people may assume, or they kind of take on the identity of, I'm just not good at time management. That's the label that they take on.

And then they operate in such, right? They operate as though they're not good at managing their time. And I think a lot of times we see it either like you're good at it or you're not. And that's just how it is. And in reality, that's not the case at all. Some people may definitely have a more natural ability, a more naturally toned skill towards being well at their time. But that doesn't mean that those who aren't naturally there, that they can't learn this

skill, right? It's like we were saying that if I'm not a natural swimmer, I can still learn to swim and to swim well. And it's the same with your time. You can learn to manage your time well. I think the second piece here, especially for moms, is control. There's a big element when it comes to your time management and being able to utilize your time well and A, being able to release control of certain things and B, being able to actually really own control over certain things. And I think usually we switch what needs to happen and which one we need to own or let go control of. Yeah. I think you probably nailed that. I think we can get kind of stuck in our own ways and it's hard to see outside of our own

box and, you know, for lack of better words there, but, and so we can be kind of resistant to structure. We were talking a little bit before we started recording and you said that, that a lot of people feel that way. I'm one of those people, but what I do realize is that when you do implement a little bit before we started recording. And you said that, that a lot of people feel that way. I'm one of those people, but what I do realize is that when you do implement a little bit more structure, like you said earlier, it gives you more freedom. So do you want to kind of shed a little light on that about how maybe implementing a little structure can allow that freedom in your life? Yeah. Okay. So I'll use an example from my personal life, right?

So again, I'm typing. So I know that about myself. I've always been very prone to a schedule. But when I see that falter, what actually ends up happening is maybe it's in the stance of like, oh, I'm not going to structure today. We're just going to have a free for all day. But what ends up happening is that it's actually just pure chaos throughout the day, right? My kids are bored. Everyone's hungry because it's past our normal lunchtime, right? They may be cranky. Like what seems like freedom is like tossing the schedule and the structure

out the window actually ends up bringing in more discord, more chaos. It reminds me that my family and I just got back from Disney, a trip to Disney this past weekend. And something we were talking about is we were like, oh, let's just go with the flow. You can't just go with the flow at Disney. If you do not plan and book. And so we're trying to eat dinner. Everywhere's booked in the park because of course it's a Saturday night and that's what happens at Disney, right? But we try to live outside of the structure and we were actually more limited because we were living outside of the structure where if we had actually structured and taken the time to plan what we were going to do when we would have had the freedom, we would have had more options to be able to pick and choose what we wanted to do and when we wanted to do it. And it's the same with our lives.

It's the same with motherhood. It's the same with our business that when you operate outside of structure, you're typically going to go towards procrastination and then you're going to be rushed and then you're going to be put under pressure and then your options are going to be limited because you've then taken away the freedom that you had in the beginning, had you planned and utilized structure accordingly? I'm laughing because you are so right. And I don't think I've ever had anybody put it so well into words, if I can be honest. Like I think about some of the times that Jennifer and I have, you know, planned a launch or something like that. And we're basically feels like we're racing the clock. Yes. And oh my gosh,

why didn't we do it this way? You know, and it's been lack of structure, lack of that from the get go. And so I think that, you know, we've been resistant to it in our own business as business owners. I know that me as a mom, I can do kind of the same thing. So as a business owner, what are some simple ways that somebody can start to slowly implement structure, especially if they're resistant to that in order to kind of have a more open mind to it? Because I think a lot of people hear structure and systems and they're like, nope, I work from home because I like the freedom. And so there's got to be this happy balance of the two. So how

would you help somebody who's in the beginning stages of wanting to implement a little structure? Yeah. So I think a lot of it does come down to your actual personality and not so much like type A versus type B, but what are you motivated by? Right. How can you use that to again, create structure? So if you are a very like high reward person, can you structure in where you do maybe like a low value task and then you reward yourself, right? Like that's a structure that is putting a system in place to your productivity. Something else that could be really good and really simple is batching your week. And so what I mean by that is each day, you kind of have a theme for your day that you can then utilize. And so for me, that can look like Mondays, a work day, right? I have my nanny. I know that I'm going to be working on

Mondays. What that looks like is going to change. My general structure for Mondays is going to be heavy on work. Tuesday is typically with my kids, with my younger three who aren't in school. And so I know that our structure for the day looks like going to the park, having lunch, getting outside. It looks very different. There's still a flow to it, but I have a general outline of what I expect our day to go like, right? And so each day we kind of go on and every day holds something different, but it allows you to make sure that A, you're spending your time how you want to, right? That you're not pinning yourself up against the wall, that you're actually saying, hey, this matters most to me. So this is what I want to get done.

So for Fridays, that's always our, I call it like our community day. We're going on a walk. We're going to the park. We're having a play date. So again, that may seem like it's less structure because I don't really know every day what it's going to look like, but I know that on Fridays, the day is going to involve us genuinely doing something. So that way I know Friday morning, even if I don't know where we're going yet, I know the girls need to be up. They need to be dressed to leave the house with me, right? We're not wondering, are they leaving the house? Are they not? Do they need lunch? Do they not? Like we already have a structure in place that even though we're not saying every single minute of every day is filled in this way, we know, and we have the freedom to choose what we want to do, but we're still just kind of being proactive to know this is the generality of what I expect

from each day in our week. You can do this with your business, right? Whether it's Mondays, I take photos. Whether it's Tuesday, I edit blogs. You get to decide what that looks like and how it's going to flow for you. But really one of the biggest pieces of time management is getting rid of decision fatigue. And if you feel like you're stressed on your time or you're lacking structure, you're lacking time management, a lot of times it's also because you're lacking strong decision making skills as well. it's also because you're lacking strong decision-making skills as well. And that kind of ties in together. So if you can make your decision of what you want your structure to look like, you're going to set yourself up to have the flow and to have the freedom that comes within the

structure. Oh, wow. I totally get that because decision-making is really hard for me. And so I think that's where I end up getting thrown off. So like, I might have a plan for each of my days, but then something unexpected comes up and I have to decide like how to deal with it, how that's going to fit into the day. And I let it throw me completely off. What do you recommend when, I mean, I think it's inevitable as moms, like a kid's going to be homesick or, you know, a animal needs to be taken to the vet or something's going to come up almost every week that we're not expecting. Like, how do you factor those things into creating that

schedule? Yeah. So for me personally, what I do is I always try to have two different options for when I can get something done. Right. So if let's say one of my kids is sick on Friday, and that means that's probably a bad example, because if they're sick, we're probably not switching it to a different day. But let's say, you know, there's something comes up that I have to then make Friday my work day, then I can say, okay, maybe Saturday, we'll push the play date to that day, I always have another thing, right? Even as something as simple as let's say working out, let's say you oversleep your workouts, like gone. So I'm not necessarily looking at my schedule where it says like option B for working out. But I also know that I have

the margin and the flex space at this time in the afternoon that I can slide my workout into. Or again, I think so another, it all intertwines so well, but options, allowing yourself to have options and being able to creatively understand and determine your options is a big piece with the decision-making as well, right? So maybe it looks like I didn't get my workout in this morning, but I have the option to go for a walk on my lunch break, but I still have this blog post to write. So let me voice dictate while I'm walking and just get out a rough draft or maybe an outline. Right. And so it's always being able to look at your schedule, to look at the structure and decide how can I flip?

How can I ease? Where can I flow to still get done what you need to get done? And sometimes we say this didn't happen and that's fine. And it goes. And honestly, sometimes if something didn't happen and you don't feel the need to put it somewhere else, it wasn't a big enough priority to begin with. And you need to readjust what you're actually trying to get done. Yeah, that's excellent advice. To have that attitude surrounding it, I think is really helpful.

Something that I think I struggle with sometimes, and I think this is a common theme with a lot of women, especially who stay at home and have kids, is guilt surrounding working. So I love that you say that you kind of plan for those days with your kids. So you have a nanny that comes in and helps you on the days that you're working. Is that right? Yes. So I have a nanny twice a week. And so those are my like heavy, heavy work days. And then the other days it's just nap time, nap time and after bed. Awesome. So I think that that's something that is really important that when you're building a business at home, it doesn't have to be a 40 hour work week.

You can actually get more done in less time with those systems and structures. Yeah. If we're willing to allow ourselves to have that, but also are you at a point in your business that you think you could only build it during nap time? Or did you feel like hiring a nanny was necessary in order to help you achieve what you want to achieve? Yeah. So interestingly enough, we've had a nanny since probably about for about a year and a half. So everything I did up until then was all me. It was all nap time and it was doable. I did it right. We actually got the nanny because it was after I had my twins and I needed someone for my

older two boys. So when we first hired her on, the twins were still with me. So I had a nanny, but she was there for my older two boys. And then I had the twins with me. As they got older, it kind of just evolved to where now my older two boys are in preschool some days. So she just has the twins. But I definitely do feel like there's a way that you determine, you determine what you want your time to look like. How much time do you want to put in? And really what it's going to come down to is your prioritizing, right? So it may mean that you do cut something off because it can't fit into your time, but there's something more important that you need to focus on, right? I think it's when we get stuck of, we have to do

all the things all the time is kind of when we dig our own hole with that. So I think for me, I was to a place where I was like, okay, could I definitely do this without a nanny? For sure. Yes. I totally believe that. But I also really like the idea and the option to have, do I need to go run errands? Do I need to record podcasts and just giving myself more flexibility? And I understand that's not for everyone. And I definitely fully, fully support and believe that eight, you do not have to be working. And I say, you shouldn't be working 40 weeks.

But if you are working from home, if you're doing your own thing, you should not be abiding by the 40 hour work week. That is like my personal preference. But I think it is. So it comes down to really delegating, prioritizing. And I would say making sure you're not procrastinating and really having a strong, strong hold on your time management is how you're going to be utilizing that nap time work grind, right? Getting the most out of the time you do have, even if that time is really limited. You said an important word there, procrastination. I think we all do that to some extent. Why do you think that, you know, we have these goals and we tell ourselves, like, I really, for example, a lot of our students, I really want to start this blog and

it's going to take me five hours a week. And they're like, okay, I'm going to do it. But then they come back and like, well, I didn't have time or this happened or this didn't work out. Why do we make those excuses? Why do we procrastinate? What's the most common culprit you see? Okay. This one might hurt a little bit. I say it with love. Honestly, it's because we cannot bear the weight and the responsibility of the choices that we made, right? So it's easy to kind of say, I didn't have time to, and which I would say, okay, do me a favor. Go on your phone and tell me how many hours you logged on social media. Go tell me how many Netflix shows you watched this week, right? It's all a trade-off, but sometimes we don't actually like to own the responsibility that

I didn't have time actually means I rather, and I chose to spend my time in a different way. And that, that can be hard when we have to kind of sit and confront the not so helpful habits that we have, especially around our time is what do they say? I think it's, Oh, I know it in my, I'm like going to butcher the statistic, but a large, significant part of our day is actually habitual. And so much of that is your time. It's what you're doing. And so if you do not intentionally come around the bad habits and set yourself up with habits that are going to support your new time management, you can't just expect it. Oh,

I need five hours. And so I'm just going to work my five hours. Your habits are going to derail you every single time, right? If you are used to having a free moment and copying on Instagram in that free moment, you're going to continue to be derailed. And then again, it's the, I didn't have time because you actually didn't choose to spend your time doing what you said you would do. I'm totally guilty of that. It's a tough one. It's a tough one to swallow. But I think you said something that I don't even know if I've ever really thought it through this way, but like it is habitual. Yeah. Yeah. It is totally habitual. And, and you don't realize that because I think at the end of the day, we,

we've all said that, well, I didn't have time to get that done today, but I mean, I know I have screen time turned on on my phone and that is a slap in the face at the end of the day that I told myself I didn't have time to look at not just like what I opened and gave my attention to that day, but how many times I picked up my phone that day to even with like, I don't have any notifications even turned on on my phone, but it can derail our time. I think that we have all these outside sources that are constantly coming at us these days. Like, give me attention, give me attention, give me attention. I think we just have a lot like input overload, you know? And so how would you recommend to someone who's admitting, okay, I've said, I don't have time. I want to grow a blog. Where do I start with like

a simple habit? Like what, because we all know like tiny habits, you know, that kind of build on top of each other is the better way to go versus trying to change everything all at once. So where could an individual start who, who sees this as an issue in their life? Where could they start? Okay. So it's, it's more so a mindset shift than a habit, but if you can get this mindset shift to become your habit, it's going to propel you. So I think a lot of times we think to be productive, we need to have large chunks of time readily available to sit down and work. It's not always the case, especially as busy moms. It's not always the case. So what I would suggest is creating your to-do list and actually writing out how long you expect the task will take you, right? And so then, you know,

so even let's say if you're, I know sometimes I'll get to a carpool line early and I'll have 30 minutes. The habit that I've created is to scroll through Instagram, but that's 30 minutes. What task on my list could I actually accomplish? And again, our phones are basically mini laptops, right? Like you can do almost everything on your phone, whether it's not like the actual format or like the actual like website editing, you can draft a blog in 30 minutes on Google drive and then transfer it over, right? You can draft an email, you can edit pictures, you can make a graphic, you can pin a Pinterest, whatever it looks like. So stop telling yourself that you have to have this undivided.

I have to sit down. Everything has to be quiet. We wait for the ideal scenario to come up to be productive when really you can knock out a task. And I think we also sometimes it's the balance between underestimating tasks versus overestimating. It's like we always do the opposite of what we actually need to do. But if you're sitting there and you have an extra 15 minutes that you're waiting for a store to open or that you're waiting to get your pickup at Chick-fil-A, try to knock out a task. Try to do those shorter chunk tasks. And so that way, when you do sit down,

you're going to know what is actually going to take me and fill this hour. Because if you spend that hour trying to do the five, 10, 15 minute task, you're not going to make it to the 30 minute task because then you just spent all your time. And you probably actually spent more time than actually was necessary with like distractions. Right. And so I think it's that if you can just say, I have X amount of time, I can utilize it to do Y versus I only have X amount of time. There's no way I can finish Y. Just shift your mindset and get in the habit of seeing it's really comes down to an abundance mindset around your time. If you are always feeling like you don't have enough time,

you're never going to have enough time. If you can shift to an abundance of, I have five minutes. Like if you act like, okay, let's think about it. Right. If you're in a plane cold, five minutes feels impossible. Like how slowly does five minutes go by? Right. But we always think like, oh, I have five minutes. I can't get anything done. I'm like, yes, you can. You knock it out. You will surprise yourself. And it's actually very interesting. They've done research where let's say you need to clean your kitchen. You have 15 minutes.

You set a timer. You will clean your kitchen in 15 minutes. If you also say you need to clean your kitchen, you have an hour. You will utilize the entire hour to clean your kitchen because it's our mindset. It's not the actual number on the clock. It's all about what is the script and what is the story you're telling yourself in regards to a, the task at hand and B the time you're actually utilizing. I think part of that, you saying that is also

the story that they tell themselves about. It's not just the time, but maybe they're procrastinating because they have a lack of belief in what they are wanting to accomplish. And so we use that excuse. I don't have enough time because they're afraid of failure or not being able to be the best or yeah, I think that that can play a huge role. Mindset is huge. Once again, I've never really thought of that in regards to time management. You've brought like a lot of things to my own,

my own head that I'm thinking about today for me. Oh, I'm so glad. That's exciting. Have you ever wanted to start a blog, but had no idea where to begin, or maybe you have a blog that you'd like to update and want some help to make it the best it can be. We know that there are many people out there who have big dreams for their own blog that never happened because they simply feel stuck. The Ultimate Blog Bootcamp is an eight-week course designed to help you create a solid blogging foundation by teaching you how to treat your blog as a business, find your audience, design a website that is optimized for SEO, all while providing support via online coaching calls each week of the course.

There is a private Slack channel for students as well, so questions will never go unanswered. The Ultimate Blog Bootcamp will give you the tools and support to create a blog that has the potential to turn into a profitable business. We are committed to helping each and every student feel empowered and confident with the foundational principles of blogging and the behind the scenes work that goes into it. If you don't want to blog alone, we can help. We keep each round small in order to provide each student the attention and support we

believe you deserve during this process. Since space is limited, get on the waitlist today so we can help you with your blog. The link to join the waitlist is in our show notes or go to sparkmediaconcepts.com and click on the ultimate blog bootcamp. So how do you recommend, like, do you use like a paper planner to kind of schedule your time or do you plan this out like by the week? So do you have like a system in place to kind of get your head wrapped around the week? Like I usually look at my week, you know, on Sunday nights, I look at the week ahead, but then every night I look at the day, the next day.

So what would be something that you would suggest to somebody as they're kind of trying to implement this slowly? Yeah. So I do a few different things. I always suggest find what works for you. I have a paper planner just because when I'm working, I like to physically see it. I don't want to have to scroll to another tab to quickly glance, but I honestly use an online scheduler more often than not. It's called Asana and it's basically like a task manager because that's what works for me. But then I also use an actual notebook for my to-dos that day, right? I think my favorite thing to actually do though is I have a journal that I write in the morning. And so it's just very basic

things like gratitude, my focus of the day, but I also have, what is the overall picture of my day? What is the flow? So this is, again, I live in structure, but I operate in flow. And so as I'm doing that, I'm writing down, okay, we're going to do preschool drop off. Then we need to run to target. Then we have gymnastics, preschool pickup. And it's just, I'm not doing times, right? I'm not saying at 1105, we will be at target. Obviously I know gymnastics is at 11

o'clock. So I have to be there. Like I have that in my head. I know what time pickup is at, but it's just the general flow of how I expect and what I'm envisioning my day to look like. And then again, and sometimes things come up and sometimes it changes. Sometimes I have to run back to the preschool so I can't go to target. And I just, that's okay. I can look at my schedule. I can look at my calendar and see, oh, I have an open time this day, this week, or I can get my husband to go, right? I can delegate that out. Do I have to be the one to do this? No, he is a free spot. Let me shift it to him. And it's all going to be what is going to work for you. I can't tell you how many moms I see who buy the actual planners and then by like February, they're not even using them. That tells me it doesn't work for you. Right. And so it's like, we're trying to force ourselves to operate in these ways that don't work. And

as much as time management is a skill and you need to push yourself and you need to grow, work with your personality. Do not ever try to force yourself and try to work against your personality or it's not going to work, right? And so if the paper planner isn't working for you, are you better in just a notebook and just literally writing out like, here's my to-dos, here's the times I need to be aware of. Is it utilizing your phone and Google or Apple calendar, whatever it looks like, right? Figure out what works for you. But if it's not working, do not keep doing it and just magically think it's going to start working because it's not. I think that's important because a lot of times we can tell ourselves, well, that's not working for me. So this whole thing isn't working,

well, that's not working for me. So this whole thing isn't working, not just this one piece, you know, this one piece of time management. So like, okay, I have a harder time doing it online. Yeah. I like to physically write like in regards to a to-do list. I like to physically write my to-do list. It's more difficult for me to have it online. And so a lot of times I'll feel kind of resistant, like, well, I just can't do it at all then yeah and so it's my mindset shift around that but maybe it is that so Jennifer and I use an online to-do list together so we can have like an idea as business owners what we need to do but maybe that means that I also need to write a to-do list that's sitting here on my desk every day to where I don't I can have a quick win essentially, you know,

and just knowing that everybody's brains kind of work differently. Well, not kind of, they do work differently and, and that's okay. Cause I think a lot of times we, you know, look at somebody in our space. So like for us looking at other bloggers, well, I don't do it that way, or I'm not doing what they're doing. So is what I'm doing wrong. And it's not actually, it's just in a way that, you know, that that's what works for them. Right. And I think being able to give over some of that power of that's the only way to do it, but realize that we all have our own goals and dreams that we want to accomplish by having our own businesses and how we get there can look different. Yeah. And like I said, your time and the way that you operate in your time, it is, it's going to look different. And so that just means finding what works for you. And sometimes I know for me, it took me missing an appointment to realize,

okay, I use my desk calendar, but I need phone reminders, right? Or I was over scheduling stuff because I was scheduling in my car on the phone and I didn't have my paper planner in front of me. So I didn't, and like knowing that I need this in multiple places, right? I enjoy having it on my desk, but I don't carry my planner in my purse. I carry my phone in my purse and I need to be able to quickly also see. And so it may seem like, oh, it's a waste of time to do both. I'm like, for me, it works. That's what I need. It allows me to know and to feel confident and not have anxiety that I'm overbooking myself. Right. And so it is, it's figuring out what works for you and just getting curious. Why is this not working? Right. Do I feel like trapped by my schedule? Do I feel like I don't

know? And so I'm not confident and I can't fully show up to what is needed of me. Is it because my to-do list is 400 pages long and it's too overwhelming. So I just toss it out the window and wing it, right. Get really curious and dig. Cause there's always going to be a route to it. I know it's like time management, but like you said, it's always going to be a route to it. I know it's like time management. Like you said, it's always going to be actually connected to your beliefs, your mindset, and what are you actually telling yourself about the situation at hand? Yeah. And you mentioned overbooking. I think that's something that we can all be guilty of because you're trying to not only do things for yourself, but for your kids and their schedules and all of that. So when you have your own personal goals and you've got a whole family to take care of, I assume a lot of it is

going to come down to prioritization. And you're like you said, you're on the phone, you're trying to book appointments. Like how do you figure out where all those pieces should go? Do you first block off time for work and then fill in the appointments around it? Do you take the appointments whenever you can get them and, you know, kind of work on everybody else's schedules? What do you recommend when you're trying to juggle so many balls in the air in terms of coordinating so many schedules? Yeah. So this, again, it comes down to what matters most to you, right? So how are you aligning your schedule that it reflects? How you spend your time should reflect what matters most to you and to your life.

So I know that I don't take playdates on days that I have my naming to work. I love playdates. That value is there for me. But I also know that that is a higher priority for me to work on those days. And my calendar should reflect such, right? Vice versa, on Wednesdays, I take my twins to gymnastics. So I don't work. I don't ever, like, that's not something that I would ever sacrifice and say, I mean, I'm sure my husband, my husband also works from home. So I'm sure he could watch the twins if I needed to take a call and they could skip gymnastics. I'm like, that's a priority

to me. I have this business so that I can take my girls to gymnastics during the week, right? That I can, I'm in the class with them. That's why I do this. Right. And so I think it is, it's deciding what are your non-negotiables? Where are you willing to give versus where are you not? And then once you determine that, you schedule accordingly, right? So I know, again, that I'm working with my own. I'm actually working with a few different coaches right now on different things. And so, again, I know that that's a priority to me. So I will block that off to clients because it's important to me to have that time with my coaches. And so deciding what are your

specific priorities. And there's no right or wrong. If you are looking to someone else and how much time they spend on their business, that's not the way that you are going to determine what matters most to you, right? So I have no problem missing dinner one or two nights a week. Like honestly, dinner is one of the most stressful times for me. And I'm okay being like, hey, can you take this? I've got a call. That's a-okay with me, right? Because I know that I have other times that I'm there. I have other, I'm doing lunch half the time, right? I know that there are other spaces. And so to me, that's not as big of a priority. And so my schedule reflects that I

have open availability until 6.30, a few nights a week, right? And so looking at what matters most to you, what are your biggest priorities and how can you allot your time accordingly? So you said, sometimes it just looks like, okay, I know that on Wednesdays, Wednesday mornings, kids, that's all it is. It's kids. Then I have the nap time block that I will utilize for appointments, for clients, for work. And then it's back to family, right?

And so that's just kind of how I block of like, it's either family or it's work. And these are the times. So if I have work, these are the times throughout my week that I will fill in for work. Everything else it's kids. Or again, I know what, what is flexible? Where can I switch that? What am I willing to sacrifice and a trade-off to switch something around? You sound like you have a very healthy balance in regards to your attitude with work and family. And that's something that I think many of us strive to have. So what advice would you give someone to kind of get there? Is that something that came easy to you? Is that something that asking for help was hard ever? I'm sure as you talk to your clients, I think that that's

probably a common thing that they struggle with is a little bit of guilt. Like when they're working, they feel like they should be with their kids. And when they're with their kids, they feel like they should be working. How do you, how would you coach somebody to kind of embrace the right now? So like on Wednesday mornings, when you're with your kids, how to embrace that and kind of like let work stay at work time. How would, how would you encourage someone in that area? So first of all, I think it's definitely a process. It was not, I mean, I can vividly remember my middle was probably about 18 months. So I didn't, I had a three-year-old 18 months and then I didn't have my twins yet. And I can remember my husband being like, Courtney, you are working all the time. Like it was before the kids get up. It was as soon as they go to bed,

it was during their nap time. Like, and it was all consuming. And I remember having this huge conversation with him and he's like, I never see like what is happening here. And I think that really helped me shift of like, you're right. But I think for me, it always came from a place. My struggle is that I enjoy my work so much. It's hard for me to turn it off. It's not like, it's not this pressure of I have to work. It's like, oh, I want to work. I also knew that at that point it was also damaging some of the most important relationships in my life. And I didn't want that to be the case, right? So that's when I had to shift and I had, and I had to also look at, okay, what is driving me here? I love my

work, but is it filled with anxiety? Is it filled with striving? Am I trying to prove something here? Am I trying to make everything perfect? What is actually driving why I'm, I was basically creating more work for myself than I actually had. Right. And so I think it is, it's getting super clear. Once you know, like literally take pen to paper, what matters most to you in your life, right? Who are the most important people? What do you want them to remember? Right. When I think of my kids, I want them to remember me as being present. I also want them to remember that they had a working mom. They had a mom who worked hard to build something to impact their family. I want them to see me working hard, right? I want them to see me being passionate and giving my all and serving other people, but never at the expense of caring for them. So that's why

it has to be right. What am I modeling to them? Do they see me building this successful business, but they don't ever get me to play with them. Right. And sometimes there's sometimes it's definitely the like, mommy has to work right now. I will be out in 10 minutes, set your timer. I'll be right there. Right. And sometimes that, Hey, this can wait. I'll come back to it. Let me leave now. And it's always going to be that ebb and flow. But if you are being fueled by guilt, right? If you are operating from a place of fear, whether it's because your kids are going to think that mommy works all the time or because your business is going to fail if you don't work

all the time, it's always going to be out of alignment. And so I think it's getting super clear on again, what is most important, right? And so when I say, what is most important to you, that also means in your business, what are the most important pieces that you have to do, right? What is going to actually bring your business into alignment is going to give you the ROI, is going to give you the success. We live in a world of busy. It is so easy to make yourself busy. It is not easy to not be busy, to live from a place of just ease and flow and abundance that you will have the time you need, whether it's with your kids or it's with your work. You just have to find that flow and catch it. And so I think it's definitely a process.

It's definitely something that I think you continue to work through. But I think when you see something start to come up, when you feel the pressure, when you feel the fear, just dig. Why? What is there? What do I need to replace that? Does my house feel super chaotic

because I'm running around with my hair on fire because I don't have enough time to do everything I need to do? Okay, A, are you filling your days with too much? Right? Are you doing what actually needs to be done? And then I think the second piece is just trying your hardest. And this one's the struggle for me, trying your hardest to be present where you are. Right? So if I'm with my kids nine times out of 10, I'm not having my phone because if I do, I'm checking my email, I'm searching Instagram, I'm talking with clients. Right? So a lot of times I just put it in the diaper bag.

My husband jokes all the time. He's like, you better be glad there's never an emergency because I can never get ahold of you. I'm like, I mean, you'll know how to if you need me, but you don't need me. It's fine. Like everything's good, right? Because that's how kind of like unreachable I am.

My friends know that you might not get a response from me for a few days, even sometimes, right? Because that's not my priority. My priority is not being available 24 seven to anyone who ever needs me. Right. And that's not saying I don't like ignore my husband all the time, but that's just kind of the standard I've set. I think that's really powerful.

Actually. I think that that's commendable because a lot of us do feel like we need to respond right away or be there whenever someone needs us at any given time. And I think that you, and I know you shouldn't have to give permission, but I think there's sometimes as women, like we just need that permission from somebody else saying, no, like you actually don't have to respond to the text message right away. Nothing is an emergency. No one is dying because you're not answering that email. You know, we're, we're not in that business, you know, that if it goes, if an email goes unanswered for 24

hours, it's okay. You know? So thank you for that. Cause I think that that's really powerful. I think that a lot of us need to understand that. And I love that you said, be present where you are. That's something I know I've been working on. Because I feel like when you do try to have that mindset, like, okay, I'm with my kids today, or I'm working today, and I'm going to be fully present here. You actually enjoy that time more when you're committed to it. Yeah.

enjoy that time more when you're committed to it. Yeah. Instead of this pull of, I should be doing this instead, or I should be. And that's not actually true because, you know, I, I have three kids. So, and my littlest is two and she only goes to parents day out like three mornings a week. And so the rest of the week, she's here with me. There is a lot of times I feel that pull and I'm trying so hard to work on that, to be like, I'm here with her now. And this is what's important because this is why I chose this kind of business. And I think it's why a lot of bloggers choose this business or a lot of other home-based businesses choose this because we want to be home with our families. Yes.

I didn't want to go work somewhere else and have them in charge of my schedule or my finances for that matter. I wanted that control. So I think that that's a really important piece that we have to remember. Like we chose this for a reason. So what was that reason? And reminding ourselves often, this is why you wanted this was for that freedom. And so in order to have that freedom, be honest with ourselves about the time. So you just said a lot of things that I think are going to be really, really helpful to come and listen to this episode, like every week. I love it. Yeah. Because I know, so what really sparked my interest in

time management is there was such a clear connection in how our days and how I showed up right towards work or as a mom, when I felt like I did not have enough time. When the story in my head is I don't have time to deal with this tantrum. I don't have time to deal with the fact that you just threw your floor on the food again. I don't have time for the fact that you don't have shoes on and we have to go and we're running. I mean, it was just life is so much more enjoyable when I can operate at my kids time because they don't move as quickly as we do. And when you are constantly rushing little kids, right? It's just kind of a recipe for a meltdown on all ends in my household.

And it doesn't, it brings peace and it brings freedom and it brings joy. And again, like you have that control. You have that ability to say, this is not working. What do we need to do different? Yeah. Awesome. Courtney, this has been amazing. I think this is going to help so many people. So if you would just let everybody know how they could potentially connect with you and what services you provide and yeah. Yes. Thank you. Okay. So you can find me on Instagram. It is Courtney C O U R T N E Y underscore, underscore, wolf, W-O-L-F. And right now I'm offering one-on-one coaching packages. So if you are interested, just feel free to reach out, send me a DM and we'll chat about what you need and the best way that I can come along to support you, to provide accountability and to

help you figure out what strategies are actually going to work for you. Awesome. Thank you so much, Courtney. Yeah. So helpful. Thank you. This is so much fun. I'm so glad we got to do this. Thanks so much for tuning in today. If you'd like to continue the conversation about blogging with us, please find us on Instagram at spark media concepts. You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter where we share blogging tips and inspiration. You can sign up by finding the link in the show notes for those of you who are ready for the next step and want to start your own blog, join the wait list for the ultimate blog bootcamp. The link to join the wait list is also in the show notes. Go out and make

today a great day.