Episode 40: Busting the Myth of ‘Not Enough Time’
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If you think the idea of having "plenty of time" isn't possible for you as a busy, working mom, you need to listen to this episode. If you’re a working mom juggling endless tasks and responsibilities, it can feel impossible to fit everything in. But what if the secret isn’t about needing more time—it’s about making intentional choices about the time that you already have?
In this episode, we dive into how to stop blaming time and start taking control of your schedule. I’m sharing practical tips and strategies to help you manage the time that you have while still doing what really matters without having to quit your job, hire a house manager, or completely overhaul your schedule.
And if you like this episode, be sure to register for the in-depth class I'm teaching on April 10th on this very topic. Register here for Plenty of Time: 4 Steps to Create More Space in Your Working Mom Schedule: www.themothernurture.com/class.
links & resources mentioned in this episode:
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Hey there. I've got a quick question for you. Do you feel like there's never enough time to do all the things that you need to do as a working mom? If you're anything like my clients and a lot of the listeners I've been talking to, I'm guessing the answer is yes. No matter what you try from. Time blocking and turning off notifications to fancy planners or lists, full of color coded categories.
Nothing seems to really have an impact on how you feel about what you've accomplished at the end of each day. If you resonate with that, I've got something for you. I'm hosting a free live training called Plenty of Time, four Steps to Create More Space in Your Working Mom schedule.
During this training, I'm gonna walk you through exactly how to get things done in the time that you have, no matter what season of life you're in or how busy you are. It's happening on Thursday, April 10th at 12 noon Eastern, 9:00 AM Pacific. No complicated tools or that just double down mentality. This is just a simple, repeatable way to make progress on that never ending list and create more space in your schedule.
Go to the mother nurture.com/class to get all signed up. Again, that's the mother nurture.com/class. I can't wait to see you there.
You are listening to the Life Coach for Working Moms podcast, the show where we are talking about what it actually takes to make life work as a working mom. I'm your host, Katelyn Denning, a full time working mom of three and a certified life and executive coach. I'm so glad you're here and I hope you enjoy this week's episode.
Hello and welcome to episode 40 of the podcast. I'm so excited to be here with you. I am fresh back from a short little spring break getaway with my family
for the last few years. We have. It's gone a little bit of a non-traditional route for spring break , we don't head to a beach or any place necessarily warm, but we choose a city within about a five to six hour driving distance from our home and we explore. We choose a new place to go and we check out what that city has to offer.
And so this year we traveled down to Huntsville, Alabama, about a six hour drive, and what a cool spot. I never would've thought that, I'm not sure I would have any reason really to travel there, but. So glad that I have that one checked off my list. We explored their beautiful botanical garden and they have the space and rocket center, which my space loving kids really enjoyed and appreciated.
I know you can't see me. Through the podcast that you're listening to. But I am in rare form. I rarely wear, ball caps, but I got a really cool corduroy NASA hat at the Space and Rocket Center, so I'm rocking that today. and we had some good food and we went to some of their downtown, parks and playground areas and it was fun.
It was short, it was easy. And. We will pick someplace new next year. So if you have any suggestions, send them my way. Let's get into the episode today because, oh, I'm fired up about this one, and I'm really excited to bring this topic to you because I know that so many of you out there are having this thought and I wanna help you through it.
What it is that I want to address is the idea that having plenty of time. Is bologna. If we were chatting right now in real life, I would absolutely be using a different word right there. If you know me, you know that. But we are keeping this podcast clean so you can listen to it in the car. Your kids can be around no problem.
So you're thinking that it's bologna, that it's hogwash, that it's rubbish. Insert your own choice words there that you are thinking that I am deceiving you. By saying that you could feel like you have plenty of time. Maybe you're not consciously thinking that maybe you are, but maybe you're not. But there is definitely a part of you that is dismissing that idea.
You're scrolling right past it. You're brushing it off, right? That doesn't apply to me. That's not possible for me.
How do I know that so many of you are most likely thinking that brushing it off, moving past, it's because I thought the exact same thing for years, and this goes back a long time, but especially after having kids becoming a mom. The only true thing that I knew about time was that there was never enough.
I never. Had enough time every day there were more things that I wanted to do that I didn't get to do, and while some of those things that I didn't get to changed day to day, you know, which work priorities didn't get done or which clients didn't get a call back today, or what chore around the house did I neglect to do today?
There were a lot of things too that consistently never got any time. Things like working out. Which now when I look at my life and I think about how I walk every day, I lift weights three to four times a week. I'm doing all sorts of stuff. It just blows my mind. But that was not getting any time.
Going on dates with my husband, doing anything fun for myself, playing music, knitting, doing puzzles. I do so many puzzles now, reading. I didn't have time to read. Side note, I read over a hundred books a year. Now every day was just packed from start to finish with everything that your days are full of.
I mean, we can run through the list, but I'm sure. It's comparable. We're working moms, right? We're getting people ready in the morning, changing diapers, preparing food, nursing or feeding. We're going to work. We're doing emails, we're doing calls, filling out paperwork. We're doing more emails. We're responding to text messages and slack messages and team messages.
We're doing laundry and then more food where. Mediating sibling disagreements and making sure that homework is done and chauffeuring kids to extracurriculars and all the while wondering if you're doing enough for your kids, for your marriage, for your house, for your retirement, for your health. If you are anything like I was, and I'm guessing you are because you found your way to this podcast, you are not wasting away your time.
You are legitimately in motion all day long. Maybe the one time you actually sit and aren't in motion is after everyone else is asleep. When you know you should probably be asleep too, because sleep is important, but you're not. You're up doing whatever you want. Scrolling, watching, reading, because it's the one time you can.
But aside from that, you're not wasting away your time,
but that list of things that you have that you really want to get done or be making progress on, there's just not enough time for all of that. And that list continues to stay the same size or grow because you just don't have the time. So when you think about this concept or you hear the phrase, plenty of time.
Yeah. Right? That is not for me. The only way that you would ever be able to say you have plenty of time is if we added hours to the day, took it from 24 hours a day to, I don't know, 28, 30, 36. Then I feel like maybe, or. If you quit your job or changed your job or went down to part-time, if you're full-time now, or maybe you could say you have plenty of time if you had family nearby to help.
So many of my clients do not have that luxury, that kind of support. I didn't either when my kids were young. I do now, but that was not the case when I was raising babies. Or maybe the only way you think you could have plenty of time is if maybe you hired a personal assistant or a house manager,
this thing that so many people talk about, someone who could come in and take over a huge chunk of your to-do list so that all of it could fit.
So unless that is what we're talking about doing here. You're still calling baloney on the idea of a working mom, especially you having plenty of time.
But what if it wasn't actually about having plenty of time? What if it's not even really about time you are just blaming time. We blame time and point fingers at time. There's never enough. It's always running out. I just wish I had more. Why can't I have more time?
But here's the thing, we can't get more time.
And time is actually just this thing that we use to measure. It is a unit of measure. It allows us to show up to something at the same time as someone else. It's how we gather and meet. It's how we mark birthdays and record history. But having plenty or having. Enough or not enough time is actually about you making decisions.
It's about you deciding what matters. Is having clean clothes important to you? Then you decide to use some of your time to do laundry. Is cooking a certain type of meal important to you or for your family? Then. You use some of your time to plan and grocery shop and cook is having money to pay for things that life requires.
Important. Is sleeping a priority? Is maintaining your home, paying your bills, exercising, getting outside, having your kids bathed, fed in clean diapers and learning things. Does that all matter to you? If so, then you make decisions about what goes into your time.
It's when you've decided that all of these different things are important.
It's when you decide that they're all must do items. And they don't fit into the 24 hours that you have. It's then that you blame time. There's just not enough. But what you really need to do is go back and make another round of choices.
Women who feel like they have plenty of time have just decided that having space in their schedule. Is what matters, and they've made decisions about what they're willing and not willing to do with the time they have.
Now, maybe you don't know anyone in your real everyday life who you see as having plenty of time. I get that. I know I didn't have a ton of examples in my life either when I was feeling like there was never enough time. We know that representation matters. When we can see something, it's so much easier to believe that it's possible, and that maybe we could have that too.
It plants that seed of possibility. So I'm going to have to ask you to trust me on this one because in my personal life. I see friends with plenty of time. I watch my clients transform as they graduate coaching and feel like they have time. And in my own life I know that I have time. There are working moms who have enough time.
We are just making. Choices to support that we're hanging out, relaxing, or reading in the evenings and leaving that room over there that we're gonna not look at right now. A little messy. We're spending time outside with family working in the garden instead of going to that kid birthday party. We are doing capacity planning at work so we can communicate realistic expectations about what we can and can't take on, and when other people on our team or in our workplace could expect that things will be done.
We are doing the workouts and choosing instead to make slower progress on that house project.
Having plenty of time is not about needing or having to make drastic changes. I'm not here to make you give up all of the things that you're doing, so many of my clients continue to do a lot. I do a lot right now at the time of this recording.
I have clients who are the executive director of their organization leading an entire organization. I have a top performing associate in a big law firm, newly promoted managers and leaders, single moms clients who are working full-time while also building a business of their own. And these women are also present for their kids, for their families.
Some of them have outsourced things like cleaning or have caretakers that are helping Absolutely, but not all of them. Not all of them have family support or are working part-time schedules. In fact, they're all working full-time schedules.
Do they have weeks where they feel like they don't have enough time? Absolutely. I do too. But when we feel like that, we know exactly what to do, we can catch ourselves blaming time and redirect that energy toward the solution. Because time is not the problem. It's what we're doing with our time. That deserves a second look.
You don't need to blow everything up or hire or outsource everything or even quit your job unless you want to, and that's okay too. But you have the time that you need. And when you learn how to look at what matters in your life and decide how best to use your time to support that, that's when you'll feel like you have plenty.
In my upcoming training called ironically Plenty of Time, I'm going to teach you exactly how to create more space in your schedule so that you feel like you have plenty of time. It is happening on April 10th at 12:00 PM Eastern 9:00 AM Pacific, and I would love to see you there. You can head to themothernurture.com/class to save your spot, and until the next episode, take care and I'll talk with you soon.
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