Simplify with Amanda B

This week on the podcast I want to talk to you about overscheduling and we’re going to cover:

• What is it?
• Why do we do it?
• How do you stop overscheduling?

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll remember that I talked about this a few weeks ago!

First, what is overscheduling? Overscheduling is when you over-schedule, you put more things on your calendar than you can realistically manage and execute. This might look like having every single hour from the time you wake up to when you go to bed planned with zero buffers or downtime. It can also look like planning to get things done on your calendar that you know very well based on previous experience, you won’t be able to get done but you do it anyway. 

For example, a few weeks ago I was in Amsterdam for a client project. I’ve been self-employed for over 10 years and for the first 7 years I traveled a lot. I was traveling 3 out of 4 weeks a month. Sometimes solo and sometimes with another person or a group of people. Some client projects had longer days than others. Some days would be 4 hours and some days would be 12 hours.

In the past when I traveled I would over schedule myself even though I realistically knew that I wouldn’t have a lot of time or energy before or after client work because I would need to sleep and eat, and if I was traveling internationally include potential jet lag. Plus, days that I’m traveling for client work I expend a lot more of my energy due to the type of work I was doing.

But in addition to client work, I would schedule a workout every morning, then plan to write podcast content, maybe sometimes record an episode, write training content, and a possibly even sales page. While also working for the client.

What would happen is I would be able to get in at least one workout, I would start writing training content, I would start a podcast outline but never record and never finish anything. This would cause me to feel even more drained because I was starting something but not closing a loop and also frustrated with myself because I would have to reschedule what I didn’t get done which pushed other things back.  

Over time, I lacked belief in my ability to get things done. I was trying to cram so many things on my schedule when realistically I knew that it didn’t make sense based on past experiences and not being able to get all those things done. Doing this added a lot of thought drama to my day.

Take for example, you wake up and you’re tired from jet lag but in your mind you’re thinking “Well I said I was going to go work out, I brought work out clothes, I should work out, but I’m so tired. I have to figure out what workout I’m going to do, then shower and get ready…” 

I’d go round and round with myself. 

I know personally for me I simply do not workout as much when I travel as I do when I’m at home. 

Fast forward to today…rather than trying to force myself to workout just as much while traveling, I accept it and aim to do it once or twice while traveling vs every day like at home.  

I think there are a few reasons why we might over schedule. 

1. Feeling like we must be productive all the time / fear of falling behind

If you’re not used to having white space in your calendar you may feel like you have to fill every single space and if you don’t there is this fear or thought of falling behind.

2. We are curious to see how much we can expand our capacity to getting as much done as we possibly can. We’re optimistic about what we can accomplish. This might be a learned behavior. 

I was talking to my husband about this. I am someone who in general probably over schedules simply because I want to see how much I can take on and expand my threshold. The question is why do I do this? When I thought about it, two things came up…1. I’ve always been someone who was involved in almost everything as a child, too much at a time and so it is what I know. 2. It is what I’m wired to know. It is who I am. And so if this is you, I’m going to share a few things in this episode that I believe will help you. 

Here are a few different things to try to help you not overschedule:

• Start small by practicing small amounts of white space on your calendar and start to experience the benefits of not over scheduling.
• Rather than saying YES in the moment, pause, take space, tell whoever is asking you a question about your time that you’ll “check your calendar and get back to them.”
• If you’re in the habit of saying YES to a lot of things, feel through the urge of not saying YES on default.
• If you still feel like you need to get everything done that leads to overscheduling, then there might be an opportunity to ask yourself, “What are my priorities? What matters most to me?”

It could also be a great time to see if there is anything that is on your calendar that needs to get done, and can be outsourced to free up your time. I'll share some ways to identify outsourcing opportunities in an upcoming episode. 

That’s all for this week, friend. Come hang out with me on Instagram @attentionaudit and if you haven’t already please make sure to leave a review wherever you listen to your podcasts!

Take care and have a great week!

Free Resources:

• Download my Productivity Playbook for Busy Moms
• Download my 10 Home Systems Checklist for Busy Moms

Hey friend, welcome back to another episode. In this episode, I am excited to talk to you about allowing urges and what it has to do with managing your time and energy and how it plays a role when you’re working on strengthen your focus.

In this episode we’re going to dive into…

• What it means to allow urges
• Why you want to get good at allowing urges and the benefit in doing so
• What fuels these urges

Let’s use one of the most common examples of urges: the urge to check social media. You’re deep into working on a project and all of a sudden you get an urge to check social media. Maybe you just checked only 15 minutes ago, yet here you are with the urge to check it again. When that urge comes in you can either take action and check social media or you can continue working on the task at hand. 

Let’s say that you take action on the urge and check social media; thus you continue to strengthen that connection. This means that next time you have an urge to check social media you’re more likely to check social media. This could also be an urge to check email, same thing, the next time it happens, you’re likely to check your email rather than finishing the task at hand before checking your inbox.

Sometimes I find that urges happen when we’re doing something that is either challenging for our brain to do or it is a mundane task that isn’t quite engaging so our brain is looking for a distraction. Knowing this can be helpful because then we know to expect the urge to arise. When urges happen rather than resisting them and trying to not focus on them, and resist them we want to allow them to happen, feel the urge but not take action on. 

While you may not fully eliminate all your urges, there may be some things you can do to help reduce or decrease the amount of time you experience them.

Did you know that it takes you on average 22 minutes to recover from a distraction. Let’s say when you see your phone, it triggers an urge to check social media and you end up spending 20 minutes scrolling. Not only do you have to account for the time you spend scrolling but also the time it takes you to re-focus on the task you were working on. That alone can create enough leverage to help you stay focused rather than following through on the urge. 

Rather than resisting an urge or following through on them, we want to practice allowing them, and when I say allow them I mean, feel them. The more you allow urges the more you get good at not following through them which will allow you to maintain your focus which will allow you to be more efficient and increase your output. 

Next time you have an urge, get curious about it. Take a pause and feel into it. Allow it to pass and then pick up where you left off. Over time, you will train your brain to be less distracted by urges and more focused with the task at hand.

Next time you have an urge to do something, pause, feel into it, experience it and let it pass.

That’s all I have for you this week. I’d love for you to visit me on Instagram @attentionaudit, and I look forward to next week!

Free Resources:

• Download my Productivity Playbook for Busy Moms
• Download my 10 Home Systems Checklist for Busy Moms

Hey friend welcome to this' week’s podcast episode where I’m going to be talking to you about a tool called task batching.

Before I dive into the episode I want to remind you about a free training I’m hosting next Tuesday, May 2nd called Distraction Detox. In this training I’m going to share with you why your brain loves distractions, how to retrain your brain to seek focus, three simple scheduling techniques to help you increase your productivity, and easy tweaks to make to your environment so you can get more done and lastly how to realistically plan your days so you can stop being overwhelmed. The training is completely free and there will be a limited time recording available. I hope you’ll join me!

Now, let’s talk about task batching!

Task batching is grouping similar tasks together and executing them in the same time block vs randomly completing them. It reduces context switching and the need for you to be in and out of a process multiple times. Task batching allows you to do similar tasks with similar tasks which helps you get in the flow of doing that type of task therefore becoming more productive and efficient. 

Take for example, social media content creation. Rather than everyday thinking about what you want that day’s social media post to be, writing it, creating it (reels, graphics), and publishing it, you might look at your social media calendar as a whole and plan from a place of what you need to create for the whole month at a time. This way you can sit down in one sitting and plan out your social media calendar, then separately write captions/content, then create social media posts, and schedule the posts.

So rather than being in and out of the entire process every day, you batch each step. The energy it takes to brainstorm and map out content is different than the energy it takes to actually create the content. This energy is the difference between preparation and execution. Switching between the two energies frequently can be draining. Which is why batching can help increase your overall productivity and energy. 

When it comes to batching you can start with one of two things:

• The task at hand
• The type of energy the task requires 
   

Areas to practice batching:

• Meetings: this could be internal or external meetings. Think about the different types of meetings you have and identify which ones are energy giving and ones that maybe take more energy from you. Become aware of the type of energy they are drawing.
• Sales calls: assign a chunk of time on your calendar where all you do is focus on making sales calls or outreach.
• Prep for sales calls: identity a chunk of time every week where you focus on creating your list of prospects, gather all the information you need to be prepared to tackle these calls.
• Accounting: rather than trying to piece together parts of our accounting can you carve out an hour each week for accounting purposes?
• Podcast recording: I shared in an earlier episode I use to do podcast interviews for She Did It Her Way any day of the week and time. It was very draining. Instead, I made the decision to only record interviews on the first Thursday of the month, so I could also streamline my efforts.
• Email responding: rather than living in your inbox all day, actually schedule time for when you’re going to check email and that’s it. Leaving the inbox open all day is like having an open loop and leaves you susceptible to being distracted. Batch when you are going to respond to emails.
• For personal use: it could be doing laundry once a week and doing it all within one day vs doing it all the time. It could be meal prepping. It could be scheduling all personal appointments all on the same day vs having them spread out.
• For example, my daughter’s nanny is here (for the most part) on Tuesday’s, Wednesday’s and Thursday’s, so I do laundry on Monday’s because that is task that can be going on in the background while I’m with my daughter. I also don’t want it to crowd into my working days.

How to get started:

• Make a list of everything you need to get done this week and begin to identify which tasks can be batched together. Pay attention to the type of task and the energy that is required of it.
• The first step is bringing awareness to what you’re doing so that you can start to make tiny shifts that create big results over time. 
   

That’s all I have for you in this episode, my friend. Come find me on Instagram @attentionaudit and don’t forget to join me next Tuesday, May 2nd at 2 PM ET for the free Distraction Detox training!

I look forward to seeing you there! 

Free Resources:

• Download my Productivity Playbook for Busy Moms
• Download my 10 Home Systems Checklist for Busy Moms

Hi friends! Welcome back to another episode of the Attention Audit podcast! I’m so excited for you to join me while I talk about this week’s topic: constraints.

But, before we get started I want to share something that I am super excited about with you! On Tuesday, May 2 at 2pm Eastern I’m hosting a free training called Distraction Detox. In this training I’m going to share with you three easy ways to help increase your productivity through simple scheduling techniques that you can actually use to change your environment to help you stay focused and increase your productivity, so you can get more accomplished while avoiding distractions. I’ll also be diving a little bit into why your brain loves distractions and how you can retrain your brain to seek focus. 

In this week’s episode is all about constraints; a truly powerful tool that you can use in both your business and personal life to help you create focus and increase your productivity and output. If you’ve heard this term, or have worked with me previously, you’ve likely heard me talk about constraints or are lightly familiar with them. I feel that constraints are, or can be, amazing and help you to limit the distractions and thought process and make decisions quicker and stay focused, or on task. 

What is a constraint?

A constraint is a limitation or restriction.
Some people hear the word ‘constraints’ and panic, thinking that they want to be free and live life, do ALL of the things they possibly can, etc. And on one hand, that is great, but on the other hand it can actually cause you to be all over the place and feel like you aren’t getting anything done or lack in decision making. The way I practice and teach constraints is so that you can find freedom by simply limiting the number of choices you need to make and better set yourself up for success by quickly filtering your options. That filter will only allow the things that are important to you to take up your time and focus and ignore all of the other distractions around you.
 

Why should you be using constraints?

One of the benefits is that is reduces the number of options and allows you to better focus. ?
 

Consider these examples: 

You decide to niche down in your business and only work with one type of client. This allows you to write very specific copy, ads, and really focus on those specific clients needs.

Having a budget is another example of a constraint. By deciding you are not spending money on non-essential things so that you can say, buy an investment property, you are putting a constraint on your spending so you can achieve something that you really want, that is important to you. 

You could decide that you are only offering call times on a particular day of the week so you can focus all of your energy on the calls that day, rather than being all over the place, constantly jumping from task to task. 
 

Constraints are a really unique and powerful tool that allows for small shifts that help to protect your energy and be more productive and I’d love to hear how you plan to implement using constraints in your business or personal life. Share them with me on IG @attentionaudit!

Make sure you grab your spot for my free training, Distraction Detox, happening on May 2 at 2pm Eastern!

I hope you have an amazing week and I'll talk to you next time!

Free Resources:

• Download my Productivity Playbook for Busy Moms
• Download my 10 Home Systems Checklist for Busy Moms

Hey friend, how are you doing? Here we are in April already! Lots of things happening and no signs of slowing down. The next round of Attention Audit Accelerator will be happening mid May. You can head on over to the website to get on the waitlist and be notified when doors open. I absolutely love the entire  program. I teach you how to streamline your life by using a digital calendar. We go through and declutter your existing calendar, get clear on what matters most to you and strategically plan your days/weeks so that you’re being as efficient as possible. I also teach you how to protect and defend your calendar aka how to set boundaries and say NO. So if you’re looking to practice the building blocks of time management, then you’ll want to join us for the next round!

Alright, this week’s episode is all about bringing awareness to what it is that you’re already in the habit of doing. When I Googled the definition of habit it read: “a habit is a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.” Habits are something you do often and regularly. Habits are small decisions that you make every day that soon become unconscious over time. 

Habits can be created by being intentional and they can also be created unconsciously. You are what you repeatedly do (or don’t do). Your success is determined by your habits that you keep.

What are you in the habit of doing or not doing?

Are you in the habit of waking up at 5am and working out?

Are you in the habit of snoozing your alarm?

Are you in the habit of checking your phone regularly? 

Are you in the habit of brushing your teeth?

Are you in the habit of reacting a certain way to certain situations?

Are you in the habit of feeling overwhelmed when someone asks you to do something?

Are you in the habit of tightening up when you go to open your calendar or email inbox for the day? 

Are you in the habit of responding intensely if you’re stressed or overwhelmed?

Knowing what you’re in the habit of doing can be a powerful tool because it helps you slow it down and see which habits are helpful and ones that are not. It is easier to see that what you want to create is built on different habits. 

Rather than label habits good or bad, I prefer to label them as helpful or not helpful. For me, labeling something good or bad often doesn't serve me and simply isn’t helpful. 

When you’ve created a habit you’ve created momentum. And the more you do something, the more it becomes a habit, the easier it is to do. And because the brain loves efficiency it becomes easier to do. And if it is easier, you’ll do it. The brain loves the path of least resistance. 

What I like about this tool and bringing this awareness is that it also separates you and your habits. When you see that you behave in a certain way because of your habits it becomes more empowering for you to want to change your habits vs thinking ‘that’s just who you are’. 

For this week’s homework, I encourage you to bring awareness to what it is that you’re in the habit of doing? Do you like your habits? Do you want to change some of them? 

For habits that you like, why do you like them? How do they support you in your life? 

For habits that you want to change, consider why? What will be the benefit by changing them?

Alright I’ll talk to you next week, come say hi on IG @attentionaudit!

Until next week, take care my friend!

Free Resources:

• Download my Productivity Playbook for Busy Moms
• Download my 10 Home Systems Checklist for Busy Moms

Hey friend! This week I want to talk to you about the difference between producing vs doing. When I first learned about the difference years ago it was mind blowing and game changing for my productivity and I hope it will be the same for you. 

First, neither one is bad or good, what I find most helpful is knowing the difference so that I can make sure I’m not mixing the two. 

When you’re producing something, it leads to a very clear, specific result when you’re done. It leads to increased productivity.

When you’re doing something, you’re working on something but there isn’t a clear result when you’re done working. 

Neither one is right or wrong, it is simply important to know the difference between them and bring awareness as to when you need to leverage one over the other. 

Knowing the difference is extremely helpful when it comes to getting things done. Sometimes people think that they’re being productive when in reality they’re just doing. Again, it isn’t to say one is better than the other, we simply want to bring awareness to them so we can be mindful of what we’re doing. 

For example if you sit down to “work on something” you’re most likely not going to be as productive as you would be if you sat and asked yourself, “What do I want to produce in the next 30 minutes?”

Producing might look like sitting down for 30 minutes and at the end of the 30 minutes having:

A proposal completed

Salespage built out

Email copy written

Social media calendar finished

Create 5 Instagram posts for the next week

Doing might look like…

Spending 30 minutes cleaning out your inbox

Spending 30 minutes writing

Producing is helpful when you need to be productive, when you need to produce something. 

Doing is helpful when you’re doing maintenance tasks or when you’re finding yourself meeting resistance around starting something new. For example, if you’ve never set up an email marketing funnel before and you know you need to learn it, the idea of setting up your first funnel can be overwhelming and therefore you may procrastinate and continue to push off taking action. So instead, you can focus on “Log into ConvertKit and play around with the software for 30 minutes.” Here you’re not creating anything; at the end of the 30 minutes, you’re simply doing and that’s okay. You might need to simply do things before you start producing things.

Again, the key thing is to be aware so you can be intentional with your time. Rather than doing things on autopilot you can bring awareness and ask yourself, “Is this a doing or producing task?” “If it is a producing task…what is the result I want to create?”

I’d love to hear how you are doing when it comes to producing vs doing and how you plan to implement this strategy over the next week. Let me know over on Instagram @attentionaudit.

That’s all for this week my friends, take care!

Free Resources:

• Download my Productivity Playbook for Busy Moms
• Download my 10 Home Systems Checklist for Busy Moms

Welcome back friend! Today I want to talk to you about creating leverage with your thinking in terms of getting yourself into action. 

On a recent coaching call my client who does flowers for weddings, she shared with me that there was a particular task that only she could do that needed to happen every week when there was a wedding. During wedding season that could mean doing this task every single week for multiple weeks on end. It wasn’t something that could be outsourced, only she could do it. 

She always intended doing the task on the Tuesday before the wedding but often found herself waiting until the last minute which meant she was doing that task either on Wednesday or Thursday nights sometime around 11pm or midnight. 

She wanted to figure out why she kept procrastinating that one task even though she didn’t want to.

There are a couple of things going on: 

1. She’s in the habit of procrastinating that task. So for her to create a different habit, like doing that task on Tuesday rather than later in the week at midnight, meant that she needed to expect some resistance. Anytime you change a habit, you shift your momentum which also means it can take a lot of energy.
2. Her thinking: I asked her what she was thinking when it came down to doing that task on Tuesday, “I don’t really want to do it. I can do it later.”

Instead here is what I recommend:

1. Remind yourself of the tradeoff in the moment. For this example here, when my client sees that task on her calendar for Tuesday and it comes to Tuesday and she wants to procrastinate, I told her to remind herself in the moment of the trade off. If she didn’t do it on Tuesday, it most likely meant she would be doing it later that week around midnight. We are wired to move away from pain or towards pleasure. In moments of procrastination we can often find a sense of relief that will provide us that pleasure. But in this case my client will use the reminder of “pain” to override her desire for pleasure, i.e. procrastination.
2. Create an empowering thought ahead of time. Knowing that her default brain will think “I don’t really want to do it. I can do it later.” What can you think instead? Maybe something like “I know I’m going to want to procrastinate and that’s normal. I’m committed to following through. I can do this.”

Other examples might be:

• Working out. Maybe you have it on your calendar for the morning but the morning comes and you want to either skip or push it to later? What is the cost of doing so? What is the trade off?
• If you have a fitness goal and maybe you’re following a plan for eating. How can you remind yourself in the moment of when you want to veer off plan, your long term goals, your why?

For this week, I ask you to think of something you continually push off that is part of your daily/weekly routine, and how can you bring awareness in the moment the trade off? How can you decide ahead of time a thought that inspires action vs procrastination. Share with me on Instagram @attentionaudit how you can leverage your thoughts to push through

That’s all for this week my friends, take care!

Free Resources:

• Download my Productivity Playbook for Busy Moms
• Download my 10 Home Systems Checklist for Busy Moms

Hey there friend! This week is the final episode in this batching series. If you don’t know what batching is, don’t worry, I have an episode on that coming up next month. It is one of my favorite tools. But for today’s episode I want to talk to you about my ‘Only One’ Rule. My ‘Only One’ Rule is a rule that I have when it comes to planning and organizing (along with so many other areas, but we’ll talk more about that in an upcoming episode). 

What is the ‘Only One’ rule?

The ‘Only One’ rule is designed to create a constraint so that there is a system as to how you operate. When you use too many programs or systems, it gets overwhelming. Rather than you knowing by default where to take notes, which calendar to schedule things on, where to store files, you only choose one. 

Why it is important?

By choosing one you’ve eliminated additional guesswork out of making future decisions. Which saves you time and energy. 

What are some examples of the ‘Only One’ rule?

• Instead of using a paper calendar and a digital calendar, I only use one.
• Instead of using Evernote and Google sheets, I only use one.
• Instead of using Dropbox and Google Drive, I only use one.
• Instead of using physical ‘Post It Notes’, Notes on iMac or Google Sheets, I only use one.

I’d love to see how you use the ‘Only One’ rule so snap a picture and tag me over on Instagram @attentionaudit.

Until next week, take care my friend!

Free Resources:

• Download my Productivity Playbook for Busy Moms
• Download my 10 Home Systems Checklist for Busy Moms

Do you have a specific time that you sit down to plan your days and weeks? If not, that may be what is preventing you from achieving your goals and feeling like you’re barely keeping your head above water. 

In this week’s episode I’m sharing:

• What designated planning time is
• Why it is important and the benefits
• How to do it!

Free Resources:

• Download my Productivity Playbook for Busy Moms
• Download my 10 Home Systems Checklist for Busy Moms

Did you know that energy management is just as important as time management? Very much like time, you also have a finite resource of energy and things you do can either increase or decrease your energy making you more efficient and productive or leaving you feeling burned out and on the brink of a breakdown. In this week’s episode were talking about what energy management is and why you need to know about it plus I’m sharing the 3 things that may be zapping your energy and what to do about them.

What is it?

Energy management is rather than looking at how much time you spend on a specific task whether it be independent work or collaboration, let’s say a meeting, you look at how you energetically feel before, during and after. 

Why it is important?

Energy management is key to understanding your personal energy rhythm and also how you can productively and efficiently plan activities. When you can manage your energy, you’re able to use it more efficiently which ultimately allows you to operate at a more optimal performance. 

Free Resources:

• Download my Productivity Playbook for Busy Moms
• Download my 10 Home Systems Checklist for Busy Moms