In this 100th episode of the Bright Method podcast, I’m sharing something I haven’t said enough: I believe you can do this.

Yes, time management is hard. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you. In fact, the reason it feels hard is usually because your life got more complicated—and the system you were using just can’t keep up.

But even though it's hard, you CAN do this.

Today, let's talk about:

• Why I don’t believe time management is a quick fix 
• The kind of women I’ve worked with across 350+ Bright Method clients—and why that matters for you
• The only profession I’ve seen where Bright Method is a tricky fit (and what that tells us about calendar control)
• What’s often really going on when people say, “I don’t have control over my calendar”
• Why I believe women with ADHD and women who love paper can absolutely use the Bright Method
• How we mold the system to fit you—not the other way around
• Why being smart—and you are—means you can learn this skill, even if it feels overwhelming at first
• What one big law associate shared about implementing the Bright Method… 3 years after taking the program

Plus, I share a behind-the-scenes look at my own experience: I’m not some mythical Pinterest-perfect person. I lose my keys. I leave food sitting on my desk. I had to learn this stuff just like everyone else—and I still use it every single day because it works.

If you’ve ever thought, “This sounds good, but I'm not sure I could do it,” I hope this episode gives you a different perspective. If you want to try out the Bright Method for free, check out my 5-day video series at kellynolan.com/refresh.

And truly: thanks for being here for 100 episodes. I’m so glad you’re here.

Links you might enjoy:

• 🌿 Free 5-Day Time Management Program Get five short, practical video lessons packed with realistic strategies to help you manage your personal and professional life with more clarity and calm.

• 📱 Follow me on Instagram Get bite-sized, real-life time management tips for working women—like reminders to set mail holds before travel, anonymous day-in-the-life calendars from other professional women, and behind-the-scenes looks at how I manage my own time.

• ✨ The full Bright Method™️ program If you're ready for a full time management system that's realistic, sustainable, and dare I say… fun, check out the Bright Method program. It's helped hundreds of professional women take back control of their time—and their peace of mind.

Today, we’re talking about career transitions and job searches—and I’m excited to bring on a guest to help us with it: career coach Julia Lynch.

Inside the Bright Method, women gain clarity around where their time is going. And once some see it all laid out in front of them, they realize that it’s not just a "them" issue, it’s that their industry or employer just isn't the right fit for the life they want. That clarity often kicks off the desire to make a job move.

To help with that process, I brought on Julia Lynch. Julia is a personal brand strategist and career coach who helps high-powered women make bold career moves by networking smartly and packaging their experience in a way that opens new doors. She's also the woman behind the Instagram handle @smarterinasec and Substack Varsity Reader.

In this episode, we cover:

• The first step you need to take before you even start networking.

• Why it’s your job to create the story about who you are and what you bring to the table—so others can take that story and market you to others.

• Why you should start networking before you need a job.

• How some senior-level jobs are shifting into more "fractional" roles—and what that means.

• What a career coach like Julia really does and how to think about whether working with one makes sense for you.

• What to ask if you’re thinking about hiring a career coach.

We also talk about the reality that if you've been heads-down in one industry for a decade or more, it’s hard to know what else is out there—and how working with someone who knows the landscape can help you move faster and smarter.

Whether you’re already thinking about a move or just want to be ready in case you want to make one down the road, I think you’ll find this conversation helpful.

Julia's website is linked here, and you can set up a free discovery call with her here. 

You can also find Julia on Instagram at @smarterinasec and on her Substack, Varsity Reader—she’s a great follow for both smart career advice and fun recs.

Thanks for being here—and here’s to making career moves that better align with the life you want.

Additional links you might enjoy:

• 🌿 Free 5-Day Time Management Program Get five short, practical video lessons packed with realistic strategies to help you manage your personal and professional life with more clarity and calm.

• 📱 Follow me on Instagram Get bite-sized, real-life time management tips for working women—like reminders to set mail holds before travel, anonymous day-in-the-life calendars from other professional women, and behind-the-scenes looks at how I manage my own time.

• ✨ The full Bright Method™️ program If you're ready for a full time management system that's realistic, sustainable, and dare I say… fun, check out the Bright Method program. It's helped hundreds of professional women take back control of their time—and their peace of mind.

In this episode of the Bright Method Podcast, I dig into something I wish I’d fully appreciated earlier in my career: your boss likely has no idea what’s actually on your plate. That’s true whether you work for multiple people or just one—and it matters when it comes to managing your workload in a realistic and less overwhelming way.

We’ll cover:

• Why you shouldn’t assume the work being assigned to you is reasonable or doable

• What it looks like to truly take ownership of your workload—and why it’s empowering

• Why understanding your own capacity is the first step in managing your workload

• Why this empowers you to propose solutions you want and protect the kind of work you enjoy

• What to do when your boss won’t adjust your workload—and how that clarity can still serve you

• Why boundaries “work” even when they don’t go the way you want them to

I also talk through how a visual, calendar-based system helped me go from feeling constantly underwater to confidently managing what I could take on—and even turning down work in a clear, strategic way.

Plus, I share a client story about how this clarity led to a more reasonable workload and enjoyable work that made a bigger impact.

If you’d like a free way to get started with this system, check out my 5-day Reset & Refresh series at kellynolan.com/refresh. You can also DM me the word “refresh” on Instagram to get the link.

Links you might enjoy:

• 🌿 Free 5-Day Time Management Program Get five short, practical video lessons packed with realistic strategies to help you manage your personal and professional life with more clarity and calm.

• 📱 Follow me on Instagram Get bite-sized, real-life time management tips for working women—like reminders to set mail holds before travel, anonymous day-in-the-life calendars from other professional women, and behind-the-scenes looks at how I manage my own time.

• ✨ The full Bright Method™️ program If you're ready for a full time management system that's realistic, sustainable, and dare I say… fun, check out the Bright Method program. It's helped hundreds of professional women take back control of their time—and their peace of mind.

In this episode of the Bright Method Podcast, I’m joined by professional life coach Michelle Gauthier to explore a topic that deeply affects how we spend our time—people pleasing.

If you’ve ever said yes when you wanted to say no, or agreed to something before even thinking it through, this episode is for you. We break down:

• What people pleasing really is (hint: it’s not just being nice)

• How to recognize it, even when it’s subtle

• The emotional and physical cues that signal it’s happening

• Why so many high-achieving women fall into this trap

• Practical strategies to pause before saying yes and evaluate requests with intention

• Michelle’s “Love & Fit” test to help you assess whether a request is aligned with the life you want

• Specific phrases to use when you want to say no with kindness and confidence

• Tips for handling pushback when you do say no

• How to gamify the process and even calendar your “nos” so you can see how much time you’re reclaiming

Michelle and I share examples from our personal and professional lives, including the awkward conversations we’ve had to navigate and the mental load that comes with trying to control how others perceive us. If you’ve ever resented someone for asking you to do something—because you felt like you “had” to say yes—this episode will help you step back, get curious, and reclaim your time.

Michelle Gauthier is the host of the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast and helps high-achieving women create calmer, more intentional lives through private coaching and group programs. She brings warmth, humor, and a down-to-earth approach to this powerful and all-too-relatable conversation.

Whether you’re looking to set stronger boundaries at work, say no to another PTA role, or just want to stop defaulting to yes, you’ll walk away from this episode with tools you can actually use—starting today.

Learn more about Michelle at www.michellegauthier.com, and listen to her podcast, Overwhelmed Working Woman, wherever you get your podcasts.

Additional links you might enjoy:

• 🌿 Free 5-Day Time Management Program Get five short, practical video lessons packed with realistic strategies to help you manage your personal and professional life with more clarity and calm.

• 📱 Follow me on Instagram Get bite-sized, real-life time management tips for working women—like reminders to set mail holds before travel, anonymous day-in-the-life calendars from other professional women, and behind-the-scenes looks at how I manage my own time.

• ✨ The full Bright Method™️ program If you're ready for a full time management system that's realistic, sustainable, and dare I say… fun, check out the Bright Method program. It's helped hundreds of professional women take back control of their time—and their peace of mind.

>> Click here for the list.

>> Click here for the list.

I've had a few people ask me recently about time management during the newborn baby phase. Here are my random tips – take them or leave them!  A full transcript of this episode is available on my website about two weeks after the episode is published. To find it, click here and then select the episode. -- To take my free 5-day program, the Reset and Refresh, click here: https://kellynolan.com/reset-refresh. To learn more about and sign up for the Bright Method 8-week program, click here: https://kellynolan.com/the-bright-method-time-management-course-with-kelly-nolan. I also share actionable bite-sized time management strategies on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/_kellynolan_/. Come hang out with me there!

Finances can be so tricky. I anticipate more conversations around budgeting, etc. (just like time, how we spend money matters just as much as what we make/have), and this is a wonderful kick off episode with Emilie Dayan Hill. 

To learn more from Emilie:

• Click here to get the guide mentioned in the episode, and
• Click here to follow her on Instagram. 

A full transcript of this episode is available on my website about two weeks after the episode is published. To find it, click here and then select the episode. -- To take my free 5-day program, the Reset and Refresh, click here: https://kellynolan.com/reset-refresh. To learn more about and sign up for the Bright Method 8-week program, click here: https://kellynolan.com/the-bright-method-time-management-course-with-kelly-nolan. I also share actionable bite-sized time management strategies on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/_kellynolan_/. Come hang out with me there!

Coming out of January and February, months when lots of curveballs hit, it's hard to motivate to plan after likely weeks of plans getting derailed. Let's talk about that frustration – AND why it's still worth planning (even when those plans later get derailed). 

Ep. 8 gives you a high-level overview of my weekly planning session if you're curious. A full transcript of this episode is available on my website about two weeks after the episode is published. To find it, click here and then select the episode. -- To take my free 5-day program, the Reset and Refresh, click here: https://kellynolan.com/reset-refresh. To learn more about and sign up for the Bright Method 8-week program, click here: https://kellynolan.com/the-bright-method-time-management-course-with-kelly-nolan. I also share actionable bite-sized time management strategies on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/_kellynolan_/. Come hang out with me there!

Sometimes, we realize we're the ones giving ourselves too-tight deadlines – either out of a desire to show how eager we are or because the sense of urgency makes us react too frantically. Instead of beating ourselves up for that tendency, let's talk about why this can actually be a great thing to realize – and what to do about it!

A full transcript of this episode is available on my website about two weeks after the episode is published. To find it, click here and then select the episode. -- To take my free 5-day program, the Reset and Refresh, click here: https://kellynolan.com/reset-refresh. To learn more about and sign up for the Bright Method 8-week program, click here: https://kellynolan.com/the-bright-method-time-management-course-with-kelly-nolan. I also share actionable bite-sized time management strategies on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/_kellynolan_/. Come hang out with me there!