Revamping Schedules: The Benefits of Choice and Flexibility

Do you ever feel like your calendar is controlling you instead of the other way around? Here's a promise: You're about to venture on a journey that will transform your approach to time and scheduling. This episode is all about the art of creating blank space in your calendar, especially as we navigate the hectic holiday season. Drawing from personal experiences and insights, we'll explore the benefits of having a flexible schedule that prioritizes your energy and capacity. Say goodbye to burnout and hello to the freedom of choice. So, grab your planner or fire up your digital calendar, because it's time to make decisions that serve you.

In the second half of our dialogue, we'll delve into the joy of having that precious blank space in your life. Let's face it - we all have chores to catch up on, spontaneous family outings to enjoy, or perhaps, just a good book waiting to be read. We'll share some personal anecdotes of how we utilize our free time and we invite you to share your own stories! Remember, it's about making choices that align with what makes you feel good. So, don't forget to subscribe and join our ever-growing community as we reclaim our calendars. Let’s make sure those blank spaces are filled with joy, relaxation, and things that truly matter to you.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Importance of Blank Space in Calendar
• 9:16 Finding Joy in Creating Blank Space

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:51

Hello, hello, amazing humans, welcome back to neurodivergent bites. I am your host, Cara Lee, and today I want to talk about your calendar, or your schedule, and the reason that this is perfectly placed here in October is because we have the holidays coming up, which means it is the most vital time of the year to have your schedule and your calendar in check. So, during this holiday season right, what happens? We still have all the work that we need to do, usually that we'd have any other time of the year, but we also have a lot more family gatherings or a lot more commitments in general, right? Maybe your kids are home from school more often, right, because they have break. So this time of the year is incredibly vital to have your schedule really figured out, okay, so I'm going to give you your very first action step, like not even a minute, maybe a little over a minute into this episode, because I really want you to have blank space on your calendar. So I want you to get out your planner, get out your Google calendar, your Apple calendar, whatever. Wherever you keep these appointments, these things, okay, and when I think about my calendar, I have appointments that are at a certain times. I've got really important things that I need to make sure I do like, at certain times, different things like that. And then I also have like a certain things from like business on there and whatnot, because you know, my scheduling software also pulls from that calendar. Okay, so that's that's.

Speaker 1: 2:29

I use a digital calendar, but you guys know me, or? If you don't, I'm all about digital, digital organization. Oh man, words are just not coming to me today. So I've really I'm a huge advocate now this does not used to be me, but I'm a huge advocate now for blank space on the calendar, and it is for spontaneous outings. It is for really being able to prioritize what's really important in the moment, really feeling in alignment with my energy and what I have the capacity to take on and do. So I don't say yes to everything, not even in the holiday season. This year will be tested the most out of all the years, because this year is the year where I really have my shit together. But it's going to be a lot harder to stick to those boundaries than any other time, because I might have my shit together this year, but I also have more things on my plate this year. So that's intentional. Keep that in mind, but it's intentional to make money to also still keep my calendar flexible, like so many things.

Speaker 1: 3:45

So my very first action step here since I didn't actually give it to you, my bad is to look at your calendar. You got, you got it out, and I know I want you to look at it and see if there are blank spaces, like I'm talking full weekends with nothing on it. I'm talking days with maybe only a handful of things on it. If I showed you my calendar, it wouldn't overwhelm you and, trust me, there is a ton of things on there. It has been so freeing to be able to keep my calendar wide open for rain, like I said, spontaneous outings, feeling in alignment with things, and if I had my entire schedule planned out from, you know, sunday to Saturday, monday to Sunday, whatever you want to say right, for my entire week, from the time I wake up to the time to go to bed, with very little flexibility. If that's what you want, fantastic. And that's not what I want, that does not feel good to me, and so having the blank space allows my brain to have the freedom to not be forced into doing what it has to do at that time. Plain and simple. My brain does not like to be told what to do and do it when I literally have to, like, give myself a pep talk. When I have to go do something at a certain time If I'm not excited about it, but I'm excited about it, then like we don't have to get a pep talk, we have to, like you know, prevent myself from getting too overly excited, pretty much.

Speaker 1: 5:15

But look at your calendar, see how. What does it do? How do you feel about it? Your calendar and your schedule, right, how does it make you feel? Does it make you feel overwhelmed? Does it make you feel blah? Does it make you feel like you're really good? Maybe evaluate that kind of feel into that. If you're a journaling type of person, write some stuff down. You know, if you're able to take anything off of your calendar, out of your schedule, do it.

Speaker 1: 5:41

And it might feel weird in the beginning, especially if you're not used to having any blank space and suddenly you have choices, you have options. It might feel really, really strange and unnatural. When I started slowing down my life over the last year, it felt so unnatural for someone that was booked solid, said yes to everything, complete people pleaser. Okay, I'm telling you. Having blank space in my calendar used to give me anxiety because I'm like, well, what if I'm bored, or then I'm going to have to do this, I'm going to have to do that. No, no, that blank space can allow you to catch up on things, for example, or it can allow you to have spontaneous outings with your family or you know whatever you want to put in there. You have choices. Okay, I'm all about choices. I'm all about feeling an alignment with what you're doing and the energy in which you have available to you. Okay, so if I've got a packed week Monday through Friday, you better bet my weekend is going to be light, because I'm not going to suffer because I didn't allow myself enough time to have choices and to breathe and do not have to do anything, right? So, look at your calendar, see what you can take off, see what you don't feel an alignment with, and kind of just make choices from there. And then, once you have that blank space, like I said, it'll feel a little strange for a little bit and then it'll start feeling really really good. And when it starts feeling really really good, that's when we get to add in some fun. Okay, we get to add in so much fun.

Speaker 1: 7:33

The goal in life is not how many things can I do in a 24 hour period, you know, how fast can I hustle and grind? Or how much can I hustle and grind, right? That's not what life is all about. How much can I fit into this little tiny basket of time, bucket of time, right? That's not supposed to be the case. At minimum 24, seven for sure. Okay, we're supposed to be human beings that can have, you know, days off, that can have options and choices, okay, and regardless of what type of job you have, I'm going to, I'm going to graddle them here and say regardless of what type of job you have, you can implement this to a degree.

Speaker 1: 8:20

Now, my husband still works full time, sometimes has to work weekends, so when he does have those days off, we are super intentional with how he uses his time, meaning, you know, if we have some family things, we'll do family things, but otherwise I literally give him free reign to be like what feels good for you to do. If sitting in front of the TV all weekend feels good or playing video games feels good, great Rest. If sleeping all weekend feels good, then sleep. Your body obviously needs it. In this past, one of these weekends in the recent past, he was like I can't slow down. My body doesn't feel like it can slow down right now. So he cleaned our entire garage and he was super proud of himself. But because he wanted to do that with his free time, he was able to enjoy it a little bit more than if he was forced to do it just because he had the time.

Speaker 1: 9:16

So kind of feeling into what feels good and in alignment for that time that you do have blank space in the calendar. What I do with my blank space is I tend to literally I sit down and read, sometimes I watch a series, sometimes I'm like man, I just want to get just digging and getting all this laundry caught up. You know, other times I hang out with my family and we do other fun things like get out of the house. You know so, but I have those as options and that's what's really powerful. So today I just really want you to think about how you want to feel about your schedule and your calendar. Most of us want to feel really good and if that's not the case right now, I want you to really reflect on why and what you can do about it. And if you want to go ahead and head to any of the social media platforms that I am on and send me a DM and, just you know, have a little chat about it. Or if you want to schedule a coffee chat, we can chat through. You know the schedule.

Speaker 1: 10:18

I would really love to be able to support you in this way.

Speaker 1: 10:20

There are many options as to how to do that, so I look forward to hearing from you.

Speaker 1: 10:27

I would love to get your feedback on what you would love to hear on this podcast, and in the show notes there is a podcast topic request form I would love to have you fill out so that way I can record podcasts on what you truly want to hear about from me.

Speaker 1: 10:44

And if you haven't subscribed, go ahead and hit that subscribe button so that you're notified whenever I drop a new episode but currently it's every Tuesday and I look forward to being able to support you even more, and I look forward to seeing some DMs come through from you with your brainstorm and your questions. I am sure you're going to fall in love with the blank space that you are creating in your schedule and if you're like, terrified that this blank space is just not going to be for you. Let me tell you that that was the thought that I had when I first started creating this blank space to allow more flexibility. And you know what, like I said, I fell in love with the blank space of flexibility, the spontaneity, all of those things. And that doesn't, that's not me, it wasn't me, and now it is, and that feels super, super good.