What would it take for you just to work a week ahead? And I know some people like, whoa, I can't work a week ahead, then work at least a couple of days ahead. Do baby steps because it will help you. You should be planning ahead in your business anyway. You shouldn't be living your business day by day by day. And you should know this quarter, we're going to push this. We have this goal. So starting with your end goal in mind for a quarter, a month, a week and work backwards you can be that person that is prepared and kept and walk away from there business. And you don't have to be on your phone crafting an Instagram caption because it's time to post today. – Lindsay Maloney

Lindsay Maloney is a self-made business and success coach who is specialized in teaching women how to start and scale their dream coaching business with simplicity and confidence. She believes that you should always use your intuition to guide you as you grow your business. Lindsay is also the creator of the Standout Coaching Academy and the host of the Book Your Dream Clients Podcast. This conversation is about time management and organization.

What You'll Learn

• Why time management is key
• Prioritizing daily activities
• Tips to prioritization
• Organizational tips
• Taking a day off
• Identifying time destructors
• Top three questions to guide your prioritization

Want to skip ahead? Here are some key takeaways:

[6:59] Importance of prioritizing. You become more productive while getting some more freedom during the day and avoid getting too overwhelmed.
[10:15] Tips to transition to prioritization. Set some hours for yourself. Schedule the things you need to care off. Respect the boundaries you’ve set for yourself. 
[19:27] Taking a day off. The world won’t get crushing if you take a day off
[21:27] Identifying time destructors. We often know them. For instance, uninstall social media apps when you want to focus and reinstall them back when you’re free.
[29:30] Questions to guide you in prioritization. Is it a short-term or a long-term problem? Is it something you can reschedule?
[32:37] Lindsay’s last words. If you don’t take control of your time, someone else will.

Full Transcript

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Hey, it's Sami. And you're listening to another episode of the Digital Marketing Therapy Podcast. And we've all heard the phrase, Time is money. And it's true, right? But a lot of times we don't actually pay attention to that in our day-to-day. And so I have Lindsey Maloney joining me today to talk about time management, how to take back control of your time and your calendar. And it's not going to kill your business. I promise. It's not going to make people mad. It's definitely going to take some work and effort, but you can do it and she has some great tips to share with you as far as how to control your time your schedule, get more done and be more effective, and have the life that you want. Lindsay Maloney is a self-made business and success coach who specializes in teaching women how to start and scale their dream coaching businesses with simplicity and confidence. She believes that you should always choose to use your intuition to guide you as you grow your business with her step-by-step teachings and creative guidance. You'll feel inspired to take her tips into action, push your business forward, and work with your dream clients. Lindsay works with women who want to get unstuck and structure their brilliance into a coaching business that's sustainable and financially exhilarating. She is also the creator of standout Coaching Academy and is the host of the book your dream clients podcast. I love talking about time management and organization and this conversation does not disappoint, I promise you. So take a listen. And I can't wait to hear what your biggest takeaway is. 

But before we get into this episode, this episode is brought to you by our digital marketing therapy sessions. So head on over to thefirstclick.net/officehours book your time with me. Let's figure out how to best use the tools from this episode. So that you can keep moving forward and make the most of your time and make the biggest impact in your communities. Okay, thefirstclick.net/officehours, I can't wait to see you there. Let's get into the episode. 

[Intro] You're listening to the Digital Marketing Therapy Podcast. I'm your host, Sami Bedell-Mulhern. And each week, I bring you tips from myself and other experts, as well as hot seats with small business owners and entrepreneurs to demystify digital marketing and get you on your way to generating more leads and growing your business. 

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Hey, everybody, please give a warm welcome to Lindsay Maloney. Lindsay, thank you so much for joining me today.

 [Lindsay Maloney] Yeah, thank you so much for having me.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Okay, so time management. That's what we're talking about today. And this is like something I'm obsessed with. And I love it. Because I don't remember who said it. But somebody said, like, you know, everybody has the same amount of time that it like Oprah has the same amount of time as you do in a day. So, like figure it out. So why is time management, like your jam? Like why do you love it so much? And why? How is it made an impact on your life?

 [Lindsay Maloney] Well, I'm kind of, I kind of have to have really good time management skills. I have a lot on my plate. And I guess it might stem from childhood, I grew up on a farm. And I remember on summer breaks, I knew my dad would get up early in the morning, of course, and I wanted to show up so I would set my alarm for six in the morning. And then I would make a little to-do list of all the things that I wanted to do. Did I get them done? Probably not. But I had big dreams in the evenings, right. So I always, I always wanted to plan ahead. I remember in the fourth grade when our school gave us all planners, I was so excited. I was probably the only one who was excited about it. And I would write all my plans. I'm going to stay overnight at Grandma's tonight. And I'm going to stay overnight at Grandma's next week. So I filled up my planner with all of my dates with my grandma. And I just fell in love with the fact that I can know what's ahead of me and I can plan accordingly. Little did I know that growing up and becoming a mother, I would be balancing my career, my business, and homeschool at the same time. So thank God that I dove deep into time management when I started building my business so I could manage all of the things.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Ok, so wait, I'm fascinated by this. old were you when you started writing a to-do list and where did you even get that idea from?

 [Lindsay Maloney] I was probably I don't know, maybe eight or nine I have these little cute pink posts. It’s that never stuck to anything because they're probably super cheap. It was I just loved making little to-do lists for myself and crossing them off. And I felt like it would make my dad proud of my mom proud and it made me feel like I was doing something and I loved. I loved I've always loved doing things and staying busy and being productive and I guess that's just kind of in my DNA.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Okay, so This is a great example, I think because I'm from northwest Iowa originally. And we have a lot of like farmers and ranchers and people in our world. And so I agree with you like the schedule of a farmer is intense. And I love that you just said like, I love to stay busy, I love to like have to dues and stuff, but like, they're busy all the time. But they just like get it like the stuff just has to get done that day, it doesn't matter what happens, the stuff just has to get done. So like, what are your feelings on the word busy? You know, people tend to throw that around a lot and say, Well, I'm just really busy. I can't get that done.

 [Lindsay Maloney] Huh? Well, taking out the fact that you might know that they're not and no judgments. And when you compare, you know, sometimes people will say they're busy. And then you look at what you've all done during the day, and you're like, Oh, my gosh, you have no idea what that word means. But to each their own right? I think a lot of times people say, I'm busy. And I honestly, I never use that. I never use that phrase ever. I might Mark myself busy at work because I don't want anyone to bother me. And I think that's what that really means when people say I'm busy. Don't bother me, because I want to do something else. And I think we can be as busy as we want to be. But I think it goes deeper than that. Like how are you? How is your day going? Do you want to avoid things? Or do you want to immerse yourself in those and if we go into, you know, our business or our family? Well, we're always busy as a mother, like we're never like, Oh, I finally can not be on call, right? That's not even possible. It just goes down to how you want how happy you are with a day that is ahead of you and kind of in your face.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Yeah, it's about how you're spending your time. Right, not what are you spending your time on? Exactly. Okay, so why do you think because I agree with this 100%. You mentioned that you're, you know, you run your own business, you're a mom, you're homeschooling. And I think that that too many entrepreneurs or too many, you know, business owners think about their life from a business only or professional only standpoint. So why do you think it's important to incorporate all of those kinds of what are some tips that you have for thinking about like, my mind when I think about my whole day from when I wake up in the morning until I go to sleep at night, and prioritize my personal my family and my professional?

[Lindsay Maloney] Well, I think starting with the mistakes is first, when I had just two kids, I remember thinking that my day was involved with me squeezing in every second of working on my business. So whether it was nap times before dinner, after dinner before bed after bed, it was like the day, my business was controlling my day. And so I had no, I had no downtime, except when I was sleeping. And I had no time to think about anything. Because I thought my family is just kind of surrounded by my business, and we weaved through it that way. And that's not a healthy way to balance motherhood and marriage and work and your business at all. And when I realized that I was really not getting anything done. Just because you're sitting in front of the computer, it does not mean you're busy. 100%.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] But you just said that I'm sorry to interrupt you. 

 [Lindsay Maloney] It's okay. Because I think that we think oh, I'm working I'm standing behind my computer. But what kind of towels Do you have open? How many times have you open Facebook? How many times have you opened a news website, or just went into your inbox yet again, we can waste time like no other. So when I started homeschooling my kids last year, I really had to look at what I'm spending my time on what I need to spend my time on. And I had to completely delegate certain days to certain tasks and leave other things to the day that they were assigned to. And that totally changed my day. Because you know what, in the afternoons, that's when I'm homeschooling my kids. And I'm not going to be talking to clients, I'm sorry, but that comes first. So I really had to really rein in the hours. And it made me more productive because I knew Fridays or podcast days or Tuesdays are this day, and I am not going to spend any other days doing it. And it gave me the freedom to know that I don't have to take care of this email right now because it's podcast-related. And I'm going to save it for Friday. And so when we think we have to do everything every day all the time, that gets to be way too overwhelming. And then you're going to end up sitting in front of the computer, going from tab to tab and really never accomplishing anything.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Okay, so now I'm hearing all the fear things come out and people are like why can't respond. to that person and I can't do that, and I can't, you know, tell like not get this done because then they're waiting for this. So like, what did that look like for you in that transition? And obviously, your business didn't fall apart. So like what you know how What tips do you have for people to kind of transition into that sort of prioritization?

[Lindsay Maloney] Right. So that is something that comes up a lot when I let people know that my clients have voxer access to me. And if you don't know what voxer is, it's a walkie-talkie for your phones. And it's, it's the best thing ever, but your phone will constantly go BBB BBB because people are vexing you. So you can either answer it right away, or you can set some hours for yourself. So for me, I'm only going to take care of those early in the morning, right? When I come into my office, and I've already taken care of myself, before I do this, then I'll check in probably mid-afternoon, and then the evening before I close for the day, because I have clients who are in completely different times zones. So that sets an example for my clients that they don't have to be on everyone's other end constantly, right. So if I would answer them right away, they would feel like they would need to answer their clients right away. And then we would just set up this whole wave of overwhelming for everybody. When it comes to emails, I totally get that sometimes something comes in and you're like, Oh, I want to respond so bad. So if you really need to scratch that itch, then download something like the boomerang on your email. So you can at least type it out. And then schedule it for later and get it out of your system. But try to stick to certain days, start creating creative filters in your inbox. So you know that these are all podcast emails, and they're pink. So I know pink is for Friday, and start really prioritizing and organizing and color-coding things. So you do when you do enter your inbox, you know, the things that you need to take care of. And you're it's something that you really have to build up because I get it, I totally get it. I kind of want to wipe the slate clean every day too. But people can wait. You don't have to be on call for everybody on the internet 24 hours a day.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Yeah. And I think it comes down to communication, right? So I mean, you set those expectations for your clients. And so they are going to respect those boundaries you've set as long as you respect the boundaries you've set for yourself.

[Lindsay Maloney] Exactly.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] I think that's great. So okay, so when it comes to managing your calendar, it sounds like you have a kind of time blocking, but what other kind of organizational tips do you have for kind of managing? Um, how maybe you set up your whole week before you get started?

[Lindsay Maloney] Yeah, so every Monday is I load my brain and my, all the notes that have been collecting in front of me, I load those into my planner. And this is my process. And it doesn't mean that if you don't do this, everything will go haywire. This is just how Lindsay functions, I need to get it out of my brain onto paper.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] I'm sorry, I'm with you like my Oh, 100% there because there's something about like when you write down all your to dues on a piece of paper like they leave your brain. And you have so much more space and energy to like, do things

[Lindsay Maloney] you do. And then I do that. And then I take it to the whiteboard. So all of my client calls and meetings are going to go on my whiteboard, too. So I can easily look to my left and see what's coming up today. Because sometimes I have like right now I have a bag of dog treats on my planner and a cup of coffee and I can't see that so I have that. And then I always take those appointments and I put them in Asana, I if I didn't have Asana, I would probably not be here. If it's not there, I'm not going to be there either, because that's kind of where my brain is. So everything is going to go from paper to digital as well. So if you don't have a digital project management system, I definitely recommend doing that. I use that to organize my homeschool stuff too. Because it just helps me see the big picture and what's ahead. And of course, I color code everything and I set them up as recurring tasks daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, so I don't have to constantly recreate the wheel. And I know what's ahead of me every single day.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Oh my gosh, I had the proudest moment this morning because I asked my husband a question about the schedule and he goes it's on the Google Calendar. Oh wow. And I was like whoa, did you just say that we are the same is he like we all have like we have like five different Google calendars that are all color-coordinated so everybody can see what's going on. So you are a woman after my own heart. For sure. So I love that, okay, and I'm similar to you and that I have my paper calendar for my stuff but then for our team, we use click up so everything's I click up Asana is another project management tool, so that everybody on our team can see big picture And I think that's crucial, right for people to see also like, what other people are working on or what's on other people's plate. So it's not like just a, well, why aren't you doing my stuff? And the team can kind of function well together?

[Lindsay Maloney] Well, yeah, I think that we, if we want people to work as a team and to be able to help each other out, why not share that visibility? So we can be mindful of not only ourselves but of other people's time as well? 

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Yeah. So you mentioned that your brain dumps on Monday. So how do you prioritize, then that brain dump throughout the week like and what has to get done? versus like, what would be nice to get done?

[Lindsay Maloney] Hmm. Well, I think that everything would be nice to get done. So I love to work ahead. So I can have that freedom. And working ahead is really essential for my peace of mind. For example, right now, I just scheduled our podcast episode, and that's 80 days away. So I like to say at like, at 808. I was pretty excited to see that one. 

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] And I'm, super excited, because we're recording this in the middle of September, and this goes live in November. Hey, that's awesome. I'm feeling pretty good about that. 80 days.

[Lindsay Maloney] That's close, though. It's not close.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Okay. Anyway, that's incredible. Okay, carry on. Sorry.

[Lindsay Maloney] That's how I do have the freedom to say it would be nice to get this done today. And you know what, if it doesn't, it's okay, the world is not going to come crashing down. And I won't have to wake up early on Sunday morning to get it done before Monday comes, I don't want I can't live that way. That gives me anxiety just to think about and you know what, having kids and pets like today, we have to take our property to the vet. So things come up, and it's not going to work with your business. And that's okay. Because if you work ahead, you can have a lot more flexibility. So that’s one way how I function. But I do have centralized days, like Tuesdays, I'm going to work on social media Wednesdays, I'm going to work on my signature program and just do what I need to do there. And Thursdays are for learning and Fridays are podcast days. So I do have themes for every day, so I can stay focused. And I know that you know if I don't get to editing a podcast tomorrow morning, it's okay. Because I am quite far ahead.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Yeah. Well, I think also, and let me know what you think on this, like, I feel like we hired her, by VA in July. And the reason why we started recording so far ahead was that it was like her requirement. She's like, I have to have everything for the following month by the 10th. And at first, I was like, Oh my gosh, this is crazy. But then it's like the creative, the creativity, and the organization. And the quality of what we're putting out now is so much better. because like you said, we don't have that feeling of Oh, my gosh, this is going live on Tuesday, I just got to like blurb some stuff out and get things done. And it also just kind of allows you to kind of be in the moment a little bit more. Do you feel the same way?

[Lindsay Maloney] Yeah, it does allow you to be in the moment. And at the same time, you know, we have to show up other places, right. So if we are consistent with social media, Instagram, for example, we can plan ahead for that too. And we're not going day by day, they're either our Facebook groups, all of those things, it allows everything to be ahead and working for you years ago, my son had to go into the hospital. And I could spend that time with him and not worry about anything, because I knew that everything was working as if I was at home, and it didn't matter. And that was kind of the beginning days when I started to implement this. And I that kind of solidified that thought process of work ahead because you never know what's coming up. Or maybe you just want to take a break. And no one's going to know the difference.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Well, and so I was gonna ask this to like with all of your planning, you're working ahead of your time management you're focusing on like, the priorities. The biggest thing that I hear from entrepreneurs or people that are kind of solo in their business is well, I can never take a day off because if I take a day off then the world's gonna explode. So how to how do some of these tools help you? Have you been able to just take a week off with your family and not worry about what's going on in your business? Like, how has that supported you in that

[Lindsay Maloney] Well, the world won't come crashing down, and did you take a day off? Even if you didn't? So know that and but I do get it? I have that mindset to where if I didn't have something planned then what everyone? I think I'm, I'm gone and something happened to me. But you know, probably not I mean, I, what would it take for you just to work a week ahead. And I know some people are like, Whoa, I can't work a week ahead, then work at least a couple days ahead, do baby steps, because it will help you, you shouldn't be planning ahead in your business Anyway, you shouldn't be living your business day by day. And you should know what you know, this quarter, we're going to push this we have this goal. So starting with your end goal in mind for a quarter a month a week, and work backward. So you can be that person that is prepared and can walk away from their business and you don't have to be on your phone crafting an Instagram caption because it's time to post today. Yeah, unless you want that high-pressure, business lifestyle. I sure as heck don't. I don't think it's healthy. But I think it's up to you. I mean, we can come up with as many excuses as we can that to work ahead. But we like like you said in the beginning, we all have the same 24 hours in a day. And you can plan ahead. I noticed that.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] And you brought up excuses. Um, and so I think we tend to love the devil we know versus, you know, what we don't know, doing things in a different way. And so you mentioned earlier, kind of like paying attention to how you're actually spending the time. And you might be surprised by where that is. So like, how have you worked with clients, or when you were working through this transition yourself? Like, how did you identify those time sucks, and then make those adjustments?

[Lindsay Maloney] I know, a lot of people will love the process of documenting everything they do, just doing a big-time audit of their day. And I remember doing that a long time ago. And I think we have more distractions than ever. And if you're really distracted by Instagram, for example, I had a client who would delete it from her phone every single day, because she knew that she got way too distracted with the app. So if you have problems, remove, remove the problems, you just yeah, hold your finger over it and delete it, it's okay. And then she, she would add it at the end of the day. And she would respond back to everybody. And then she would delete it again. Or just go on your desktop and respond. You can do pretty much anything except post on your desktop with Instagram, look at your problem areas and be honest with yourself. You don't have to share it with anybody and say like, oh, I'm addicted to Instagram or what you don't have to tell everybody, be honest with yourself and really think, is this serving me and my business? And then look at it a different way. Would you love for one of your employees to be spending the amount of time that you were on playing around with your colors or your website or social media? Would you allow that to happen day after day? Probably not. You're thinking of it as you're wasting your own time, and you cannot buy your time back. So if you're concerned with money and how your business is growing, that hell comes down to you.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Yeah, well, I'm going back to what you talked about with like categorizing your days, like I know, for me, if I'm in a writing mode, like, I'll make sure that my fate like all of my social media tabs, even my email tabs are all close. Because like there is I think you alluded to this earlier too like there is that human nature where you see like that notification pop up, like I have an email, even though it's probably spam like you still feel like you need to go look at it. And that distracts you enough and wastes time. 

[Lindsay Maloney] Mm-hmm. And one thing that really helped me and then you're going to hear my mouse cooking because I want to make sure I'm saying it right? It's called Toby, I think, okay, have you heard of that? No. But it is a pretty nifty thing to be why. And so every time you open up a new tab on your browser, it allows you to categorize your day. So I have these little folders and for every single day, and then you can drag in the programs and websites that you will need for that day. So for example, Fridays, I can pop open Friday. And it shows me that I need my podcast sheet I need Canva open, I need my podcast server to open everything that I need to function that day with my theme. All the tabs are right there. And I can just open it up and then go and start working. So that's a really great way to really control the tabs and the the the side of things that we get distracted with Toby, it's free. And I recommend you do that. Because you can just you can theme your days and have the days of the week and then pop in all the links that you need. And it's with a click of a button you can get to work

 [Sami Bedell-Mulhern] so you don't have to worry about it because those of you that have done live training with me have seen the 15 million tabs that I have opened. Basically, you're not being distracted by any other tab that's open that you don't actually need to be effective in that moment.

[Lindsay Maloney] Mm-hmm. Yeah, you have to check it out. It's awesome.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] we'll make sure to link that up in the show notes for you guys as well. That's, I've never heard of that. But that's what I'm like, my brain is running now like a million-mile like a guy. Okay, that's awesome. Because you could even do it for things like, could you save things for like, look at later? But you know you don't need it now but you might certainly Wait, huh?

[Lindsay Maloney] Yeah, I have a projects folder daily you can name any, any folder, whatever you want. And for me I just decided I'm gonna do centralized days and focuses and the only thing that needs to be open on that day is going to be listed there. So if you get into the habit of completely closing out your browser, no, sometimes we're in the middle of things and it's hard to do. So you can just open up a new tab on your browser, and you can view all of the folders.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Okay, so when it when you look at your schedule for the week, like I know you have these days, but you're also homeschooling you homeschool in the afternoon. So when like you put your schedule together on your Monday, um, how do you fit everything in? And how do you make sure that all of the parts of your person are being accounted for and being respected?

[Lindsay Maloney] Well, I'm really ruthless with my time. Yeah, I have set hours for clients. I have set hours for school, I have set hours for working on my business and in my business, and I'm probably not going to budge. We are, for example, we're really far booked out with podcast interviews into 2022. And I only do podcast interviews once a week. And I constantly get emails saying your calendar is booked. Is it up to date? Yes, it's up to date. That's why there's a calendar. Yeah, I could say well, no, let me go in and open up some spots for you. I am not going to do that. Because then I'm subtracting time away from my family, my clients, my business, and then it's all going to kind of start to crumble. And I'm not pulling out that that support system under me because somebody can't wait for a few months to go on a podcast interview. So you have to be really strict and ruthless with your time. And if you're not go and sit down with a paper and pen, write down the days of the week, write down the things that you need to take care of. And then delegate days for those things like I'm not going to go on a client call on Mondays because I want that I have not done that in years, clients are probably going to be on a few days of the week, and it will work. And that will allow you to price your programs appropriately price your packaging for your clients. Because if you know and you do the math, I go on calls with clients three times a week, I want to make this much money every month or every quarter. So that means I'm going to have to price it this amount when we leave everything so open and willy nilly and see what happens. We're not we can't do the legit math to see how we can grow our business. 

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] So does your business always operate that way? Or like how did you kind of come to terms with that, that process can feel very scary?

[Lindsay Maloney] Yes, because I had a nine to five when I started my business. So I knew that I can't just take a client at 10 o'clock in the morning, because that belongs to my employer. So I had to set those hours back in the day. And most of the time, those were, I mean, my kids now are four, seven, and 11. But I grew my business and did work with clients during nap times, you know, I've always been able to be highly functional with that amount of time. So a couple of hours a day. And I knew that when I started, I don't really want to work on my business before eight hours every single day. Because I'll get bored I need different things to focus on. So I knew that if I can make my business run off of high focus time, like two, three hours a day, then I think that will be a pretty dreamy business later on in the future.

 [Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Well, there's something to be said, around like, we will fill the time that we give ourselves. So if you give yourself six hours to work on something, you'll take the six hours if you give yourself an hour and a half, you'll take the hour and a half and it's probably going to end up with the same. 

[Lindsay Maloney] Yes, yes. 100%. I say that all the time, too. Yeah.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] So what would you say then? Like, just to kind of bring this all together? Like what would you say are maybe like your top three? Like if somebody was like, Okay, my time is getting away from me. My calendar is all over the place. I have board members and donors and clients all over the place, like what would kind of be the top three things that you would say, Okay, this is what you should do

[Lindsay Maloney] I would first look at it as Is this a short term problem or a long term problem? If it's a short-term problem, is this something you can just get through? Or is it something that you just need to go ahead and reschedule so things good out a little bit? If it's So long-term problem, then that means you're going to have to sit down with yourself and your family, and really take control of your schedule, and it's okay to reschedule things. It's okay to set your hours, it's okay to do whatever is going to make you feel like you can breathe and not have 50 pounds on your shoulders. I think we, I think we have this idea that we need to do everything and be busy. And I know, I know, I said at the beginning, I like to be busy, but not with my business. I like to be busy. As Lindsay right. We're, we're more than our business. We're multifaceted. We are so many things. And I think we get way too hung up on I need to be my business at all times and show everyone what I'm doing. And, you know, just keep up with everything. And you don't need to do that you can like let go and relax and be yourself. And if your calendar terrifies you, you have all the power to change everything in front of you. You say that one more time. You have all the power to change everything in front of you.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Yes, I was I have a group of ladies that we meet every Monday we like hold each other accountable and go through our goal. And there was one day where she was like, so I have like 17 hours of meetings this week. And we're like, Well, why did you do that? And she's like because I can't say no. And I have no control over my calendar. And like it was just she was fully aware that she did this to herself, and that it was not going to allow her to be productive. And she's like, I just need to figure out how to not do this. And so Yes, you are. And none of it was stuff that was like, I mean, it was all-important stuff. I'm not trying to minimize the work she was doing. But she just sat on this call with us. And she's like, I don't know why I did this. Like I could have easily moved a handful of these to the next week. So yeah, I 100% agree with that being aware and just owning your calendar is going to be so critical to your own mental

[Lindsay Maloney] It's okay to say no, no just with work like it's okay to say no on all fronts. 

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  Mm-hmm. Yeah. I'm Lindsay, I think this has been an awesome conversation. And I could 100% talk about this all day. But for all of you listeners, I hope that you are going to take action on your calendar, pay attention to the big tasks that you have. I know, I don't block days, but I definitely block times during my day for certain activities, so my brain can focus. So whatever works for you make it work for you. But do something to remove the clutter so that you can be more effective. Lindsey, any last words of wisdom that you'd like to share with folks?

[Lindsay Maloney] Yeah, I think it's the most important thing I'd like to say is if you don't take control of your time someone else is going to. And that sounds pretty scary to me. And I know that we can always be in full control, especially with little ones around. But at least you have that foundation behind you that you can always go back to. So you feel that there is something strong to hold you when things come up. But you know what I think it's the biggest thing is to be easy on yourself and not think that yeah, it just because you have a ton of meetings this week. I don't think anyone came into your office and schedule them without asking you. And I think we do a lot for ourselves. And then we look at it and we're oh my goodness, what did I just do? So be easy on yourself. If you had a boss who was doing this too? What would you say? And how would you feel about that? So be your own best boss.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] I love that so much. What Lindsay? I really appreciate you being on this podcast. If people want to know more about you. How do they find out?

[Lindsay Maloney] Yes. Thank you for having me. I can give you guys my podcast if you would like to listen to that. It's the Book Your Dream Clients podcast. Or you can go to lindsaymaloney.com and I'm on Instagram. LindseyMaloney.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] Great. And we'll link all of that up in the show notes. At thefirstclick.net/126 Lindsay Maloney. Lindsey, I appreciate your time. The topic of today and thank you so much for being here.

[Lindsay Maloney] Yes, absolutely. Thank you.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]Oh, my goodness, such a big thank you to Lindsey for joining me today. Did you guys find that to be as awesome as I did? I am rethinking my calendar. Even though I pretty much have it dialed in. I'm still gonna re-tweak and refine and take a look at some of the things that are on there and see what makes sense and what doesn't. But I hope that you found tremendous value from this episode. For now, make sure you Subscribe wherever you listen so you don't miss out on a single episode and I will see you in the next one.