Episode 178: How I Prioritize Time For My Goals With a Packed Calendar?

Life isn't going to slow down while you're waiting to build healthier habits. In this episode, I share the simple mindset shifts and practical strategies that help me make time for what matters most, even with a calendar that's already packed.


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Transcript

Becoming MindStrong Episode 178:  How I Prioritize Time For My Goals With a Packed Calendar?


Speaker 1  0:00  
A thing we hear time and time again from our women is this: How do I prioritize making space or or putting time in to build new habits? Welcome back to the Becoming Mindstrong podcast. My name is Rachel, and I'm the founder and CEO of Mindstrong. And man, oh man, do I love the work we get to do here. We only work with perian-postmenopausal women, and the reason that this sets my soul on fire the way that it does is we get to give back hope. And that sounds so cheesy, but it is my absolute capital T truth. This is a time of life where I've just heard so many times, Rachel, I'm doing everything right. Nothing's working. I give up trying. I give up hope. And there's a reason that our 12 week program is called Ignite. Again, cheesy as it sounds, it is my absolute truth that we get to help you relight that spark to see, oh, I'm not broken. It is true that the tool bag in my 20s, 30s, early 40s doesn't work anymore. That doesn't mean all hope is lost. It means I need a new tool bag. And as the people who get to teach you that tool bag, there is nothing better to me. There's absolutely nothing better. So in today's episode, I want to do a few things. Thing number one is I want to. If you hung out here, you know how I love to teach. I want to zoom out really big picture and just do a little recap of habits. Habits are something we talk a lot about here, being in the health and fitness space, being in the life space, because as humans we can't compartmentalize. And I want to do a quick little recap of what habits are, how they're and how they're formed. Then we're gonna hone it in a little bit more to talk about prioritizing new habits, and at the root of that, I'm gonna share a bit of a personal thing that's going on right now that led to this conversation. So let me start bigger picture about what's going on behind the scenes, and then we'll talk about habits, and then we'll hone it into prioritizing habits. If you've hung out here, you know that as of the time I'm recording this podcast or watching this YouTube video, depending where you're watching or listening, Mindstrong Fitness has the very distinct pleasure of working with Alex Hermosie and his team. If if you are not in the online space and don't know that name, Alex Hermosy, is kind of known as the guru of online business. This man's strategy brain, holy cow! As someone who loves, loves, loves all things business strategy, this man's brain is like, let me just get in there and and learn everything that you know. So a couple weeks ago, I was out in Vegas for an incredible opportunity. It was myself and nine other founder, eight other founders, in a conference room with him for nine hours, just completely laying out strategy of how we can help more women, how we can grow bigger and better, how we can change more lives. We go back in a couple months to regroup with his team, check in how everything's going, keep the plan going from there. So, in that conference room, what Hermosy does is he goes around the room again. There's myself and eight other founders, and he lays out a strategy for each of us. They've done an audit on the business, they've done a deep dive, and he calls them the five levers. Here are the five levers that, when you pull them, the business grows exponentially. You can reach more people. You can you can change more lives. One of the quote unquote levers that he gave Mindstrong was is directly for me. So not just for the company, but it's something that impacts my schedule significantly. It's a big chunk of time every single day. So, and I'll tell you what it is in in a minute here. So, in coming back and implementing that, it my brain connected the dots about a conversation we have time and time with our members, which is about prioritizing habits, fitting this into already packed schedules.

Speaker 1  3:56  
So, let me start with a zoomed out reminder or conversation if you're newer here, about what habits are, how they're formed, the importance of them, then I'll I'll funnel it in a bit to talk about themes we see with the women that we serve, and then I'll get back to this Hermosi story and and tie the two together to give you some actionable tactical tools that you can go implement in in your own life, in your own schedule, so every time we think a new thought or take a new action inside our brain, you can go on YouTube, you can watch this. It is the nerdiest, coolest things ever. If you're a science nerd like I am, every time we take a think a new thought, take a new action, a neural connection is formed in our brain. Every time we repeat that thought or action, this stuff called myelin acts like cement and coats that neural connection. Habits: the things we do on autopilot. We wake up, we brush our teeth. If someone were to say, "How was brushing your teeth this morning? You'd be like, "What in the world are you talking about? I have no idea. I don't think about it. That is a well-wired habit. Is a. Myelinated habit. It is a cemented habit into your brain. It runs on autopilot. When we zoom out and examine our life, the stuff that we love about ourselves, about our lives, that we're like yes, yes, yes, checking the boxes, kicking butt, taking names. If we dig deeper, when we dig deeper, we will see that we have solid habits around those areas, the parts of our life when we examine and say, "Ooh, not not my favorite, some room for improvement there. When we dig deeper, we will see that typically in those areas of life, we have some work to do around our habits. So, if we know that habits are the holy grail, the the me that exists today, the you that exists today, the best friend that exists today. We are a result of our habits. the The key to taking control of building the life of your dreams, and I'm going to say taking control in air quotes because we can't control everything. That's a rabbit hole. I'll restrain from going down. But if we want to consciously build the life of our dreams, the root of that is consciously wiring our brain for habits aligned with that, and consciously unwiring our brain for habits no longer aligned with that. Because our brain is always looking to put things on autopilot; it is always looking to build habits, whether they serve us or not. So, if we want to consciously construct the life of our dreams, it starts with our habits. It's one of the most important things as humans that we can consciously focus on. That's thing one. If we back up a step, we can now understand that how do we build a habit? Time and consistency, right? The key to a habit is this myelination, is this cementing of the neural connection. So if we want to build a habit, first we have to be conscious about it. We have to unwire the one that doesn't serve. We have to rewire what we want, and then time and consistency is what myelinates that neural connection and builds the habit. So if we want time and consistency, the root of this, I used to do back in the day a workshop called the three keys to building habits that actually last. Spoiler alert: not really spoiler, because I don't have the workshop anymore. I'm sure it's floating around on the interweb somewhere, but this is the Cliff Notes version. Habits are the holy grail. Time and consistency is what builds them. The only question we have to ask ourselves to establish time and consistency is what kind of accountability do I need? When we can hold ourselves accountable, we will stay consistent. We will put the time in. We will build the habit. So, what kind of accountability do we need? Which brings us to our conversation today. A thing we hear time and time again from our women is this: How do I prioritize making space or or putting time in to build new habits. So let me zoom out for a second. I'll zoom back in.

Speaker 1  7:45  
One thing that that I'm really proud of within the world of Mindstrong is that in doing this for a decade, we have been very very intentional about building a program where we like to say, if you reach out, you will never be flailing. And most of the women with whom we work, they are highly intelligent women, right? If they are still working, working, they're super driven at work. If they've retired, they've probably filled that space with something else. They have family and friends and a lot going on. They've nutrition pun totally intended. They have a lot on their plate, so one thing I'm really proud of in this company, and we've been very intentional about it. It didn't happen by coincidence; it happened by listening to feedback, tweaking, adjusting over the years. Is we have built a program where, when you reach out, you will never be alone. You will never be flailing, and you do not need to go join a silent retreat in India to do this program, right? Like we are not here to take over your life. We know that that you have a lot on that plate, and we're always going to make sure that you have accountability in support. With that, we're we're establishing some new skills, right? A lot of people think that that getting learning nutrition as a skill is going to be hours of their day. They are pleasantly surprised to learn it's not in the beginning. It's going to be an extra 1520 minutes to play this skill when you eat. As you get better at the skill, it becomes significantly significantly shorter. Some of our women, not all, because nutrition's 90% of the game, and we have tons of women who just do nutrition and don't work out. And there are some women who are establishing a new workout routine, so the question becomes: You know, I know that this is important to me. I know that I want to prioritize it. What I'm struggling with is the how to prioritize it, how to fit this into my already packed schedule. So this brings me back to the Hermosie levers. Let me tell you my little personal story behind the scenes, and then we're gonna. I'll tell you what I've been doing in hopes that you can take these tools and plug them into your own schedule. One of Hermosy's levers for us, and this there were five of them. This is this is one of them. One of Hermosy's levers for us is. As an online company, you can imagine we create a lot of content, right? I'm recording this podcast, this YouTube video right now. We post multiple times a day on Instagram, on YouTube Shorts. Like we do our best to inundate the interwebs with my face to educate women on on what's going on with their metabolisms to undo a lot of the noise in this diet industry, all the stuff that we do here. So creating content is a vital part of this company of how we reach new people, of how we help more women. So one of the first levers that Hermosi gave me personally. This is not just the company. This is Rachel's schedule. Is every single weekday the first two to three hours of your day non-negotiable content creation? And he said that to me, and I took a deep breath and I said, "Yes, sir. Let's go. Now, here's the thing behind the scenes. I mean, Mindstrong is a rapidly, rapidly growing company. It has been for years now. So as it is, and I don't say this to complain in any way, shape, or form. This is by choice. This is by design. I freaking love my role in this company and who we are and what we do. And my typical workday is 12 to 15 hours, so having someone say to you the first two to three hours every single day non-negotiable is now content creation. Holy fork in the road! Like holy whatever the expression is of of how am I going to fit this in right? Because when I look at my list of of my roles and responsibilities as CEO of this company, that that is a big chunk of change. That is a big part of the day, and he's right. There was no part of my brain that's like, "Do I have to do this?

Speaker 1  11:53  
It was like, "Yep, that makes a lot of sense. That is absolutely what one of my main focuses should be. So I came back from Vegas. This was just a couple weeks ago. I sat down with Swoma, my partner, and I said, "Hey, here's the game plan. We need to figure out-not I need to figure out-we need to figure out what this looks like because number one, my day is going to start earlier because logistically that's the only way this is going to happen, which means I'm going to start going to bed earlier, which means dinner is going to be earlier, right? Which means gym time needs to be adjusted. There's a whole chain of command here, and there's going to be a block in my calendar every single day from this time to this time. I put a three-hour block just as a buffer that is going to be a non-negotiable. My phone's going to be on Do Not Disturb. I am not going to check email. I'm not going to respond to slacks yet. I'm going to be holed up in my office for those three hours, pretty much unreachable unless unless the the house is burning down. What does that look like? So we sat down as a family and we had a conversation of how does the rest of our day adjust so that this time block is held sacred. That was step number one. Step number two is that I literally went into my calendar every single day for this time block. It was blocked in. It was non-negotiable. Do not schedule meetings. Blocked off every single weekday. That was step two. Step three is I met with the team and I said, "Hey, heads up! Here's lever number one from Hermosy. What you will see if you look at my calendar is that every single weekday is blocked from this time to this time. The first three hours of my day, my phone's going to be on Do Not Disturb. I will not be on Slack. I will not be reachable. Anna, our wonderful COO will be available during that time. If if there are fires, if there is something little, anything and everything you need, this is your go-to. I will be back online at this time. So it started with two conversations: one at home, one with the team, and then very tactically, a block in my calendar, right? Which was just copy. I put it in one day. I set the settings for repeat every weekday, Monday through Friday, indefinitely. And guess what? It works. It is now, as of the time I'm recording this, this is week number two of the schedule. I've not missed a day. It has not been a thing. It's actually been fairly simple. The I'll talk more in the weeds in a second, but the morning time block has actually been lovely. Swoman, I always check in of like you know what was your favorite part of the day, and I told her like my my morning time block has become one of my favorite parts of the workday because can you imagine like two to three hours of straight recording? I'm getting a lot done. I'm getting like a month's worth of recording done each morning. It is it is a it is a game changer in terms of content creation and being able to impact more lives. So the reason I am sharing that personal story is this. Again, as I mentioned a few minutes ago, the women we tend to work with tend. Be highly driven, highly intelligent, and with that comes a lot on their plate, a lot of responsibilities. Any time we want to establish a new routine, we want to build new habits, right? And this could be nutrition, this could be workouts, this could be connecting with your partner, this could be getting your finances in check. Choose the area of life that you're looking to improve to focus on. There are a few steps to how we can hold this capital S sacred. So I want to take what what I'm personally working on right now, what I've implemented, I should say, because I'm not really working on it. It's done, and give you some tactical tools that you can take away as you're prioritizing new routines in your life, and hopefully do the same.

Speaker 1  15:43  
Step number one, and if you've hung out here, you know I hate the word mindset because none of this is rainbows and glitter and unicorns. This is neuroscience, and step number one sounds very mindsety, and it's the most important step. You have to make a decision, and a decision doesn't mean it would be nice or I should. Right? We talk a lot here about shooting on ourselves. S H O U L D I N G. A decision means line in the sand, burn the boats. This is happening. Right? What I didn't do is come back from Vegas and say, "Hey, I'd like to prioritize as many mornings as possible getting in this time block. It was, babe. Here's what Hermosi said. I 100% hands down, agree. There's no question in my mind. How can we make this work? Not can we make this work. Not I wonder if I can get in a few days. It was this is a capital M must for me for this company for the women we serve. Let's talk about the how, and that level of conviction only comes by burning the boats. Right there's that whole thing of like if you're going to war and you get on on the shore of the island. I'm butchering this, but you get the idea. You either sit there and you've got your boat so you can retreat, or you burn the boat so it's win the war or die. That is very extreme and violent, but that's where burn the boats comes from. Is like we are all in. This is a non-negotiable. That is a decision. Tony Robbins has a saying I love where you didn't actually make a decision until you've taken action, and I love that. This is when when we do these strategy sessions, and there's tears and women. I know I need to make a change, and then I need to think about it. Like, what do you need to think about, right? If if our brains are designed for safety, you are not going to think your way into making a change. You're not going to think your way into investing yourself. Whatever the case may be, we're not going to think about it. We're going to take action because you have not made a decision to change until you've taken action. I get very passionate about that because not enough women take action. So, with that said, step number one is you make a decision, and a decision means line line in the sand, burn the boats, take action, which leads to step number two. Real quickly, if you are loving my content, I want to invite you to apply for a free one-to-one strategy session with my incredible all-female team. On your session, we'll talk about where you are, where you want to be, a game plan to bridge that gap, and see if one-to-one coaching is a fit. You can use the link below to access the two-minute application, and we'll see you on your session. Step number two is to block out time and hold it sacred, and this is a capital S sacred. Okay, and I will be transparent with you. I have blocks in my calendar that I do not hold sacred. I have been trying to form a habit. I tend to go to the gym late at night, because by the time I'm done with a 12 to 15 hour workday, then getting to the gym it keeps getting pushed later and later. I have been trying for a long time now to find time in my day where I can sneak out in the afternoon and go to the gym. I do not hold it sacred because I haven't drawn a line in the sand. Right? There's that voice in my head that's like, well, I can always go to the gym later at night if I need to, so the block in my calendar in the afternoon for the gym tends to get filled with meetings, and I'll just shorten it. Next thing I know, I'm deleting the block, and it's not that big a deal to me, because what I do hold sacred is I'm going to go to the gym. What I don't hold sacred is that afternoon block?

Speaker 1  19:21  
So that's kind of a weird example, but I think it's an important one because this is why step number one has to be a line in the sand. My morning time block is non-negotiable. Nothing is getting booked in there. Everyone in my life knows that. Come hell or high water, Rachel is has that three-hour time block. Afternoon gym time block. Every once in a while, I'm like, "Hey, could you just book in during that time? Just feel free to delete my gym block, because I know I can just go later. It's not sacred to me. I can't record two to three hours at night. It gets too dark. My energy's not the same. Different conversation, gym. I haven't drawn the line in the sand. So. Step one, line in the sand decision. Step two is we take action on that. And action for a lot of these topics we're talking about can literally be a block in your calendar, but it has to be a capital S sacred. Do not touch. Do not disturb. Come hell or high water, this is happening. Now to do step two, we need parts sometimes A, B, C, right? What I didn't do is come back to Vegas, come back from Vegas, and tell Swomo, "Hey, I don't want to hear about it. This is what I'm doing, right? What a terrible partner I'd be. Number one, number two, my home life would probably be in ruins because I'm not around very much during the workday, and to have a family that's supportive of that takes conversations. So the first thing I did was we sat down and said, "Hey, I agree. This is really important for the company, for the women we serve, for the for our growth. How can we, as a family accommodate this schedule. What does that look like? What does dinner look like? What does gym time look like? Right. So part A of taking action was a conversation at home. Part B of taking action was the block in my calendar, and part C of taking action was a was a conversation with other people. This impacts in my world. That means the team. It was a conversation with our COO. Hey, can you hold down the fort if I'm unreachable for three hours? You can. Cool. I'm going to roll this out to the team and let them know you're the go-to person. Right? There's a game plan there. So what is not realistic for most of us, unless you don't have other people in your daily life that this impacts, for a lot of people, drawing a line in the sand, taking action, holding a time block capital S sacred requires some conversations. Maybe a spouse or partner at home, maybe a family member at home. Whatever the case may be, it probably is going to require blocking a time in your calendar and holding it capital S sacred, it might require a conversation with a team or other people in your life. Step one: decision. You have not made a decision till you take action. Line in the sand, non-negotiable. Step two could be as tactical as as putting a block in your calendar and then parts A, B, C, maybe having some conversations around it. Number three is really part number one, but I'm gonna I'm gonna reiterate it as its own step because it's the most important thing. Nobody can do this for you. You have to decide that come hell or high water, this is happening. Right? Nobody in the world cares if I'm recording in my three-hour block in the morning, Hermosy doesn't care. I mean, the man has manages more businesses than I can count. He does not give a crap if I am doing my recording block. He wants the best for us. He wants to see us succeed. His world does not change if I don't record. Right? The company might not grow as much. My COO might not like it. My team might not like it, but we will still serve a good number of women. No one's life is going to change. The world's not going to end. My partner's not going to leave me if I don't record for my three-hour block in the morning. Right? Our lives don't change drastically if I don't do it. And for me, I know the value of this.

Speaker 1  23:18  
I know the impact that we will have as long as I prioritize this time and keep creating this much content. So for me, it is a burn the boat situation. For me, it is a non-negotiable. Unless I am out of town and I'm in a place where I know ahead of time that this is a planned day off, come hell or high water. Every weekday, this is what my schedule now looks like indefinitely into the future, until something changes in the business, and that's not my role. That is a decision that only I can make. And here's the last thing I'm going to say about this: as humans, something I have noticed in working with humans for a decade is that we love to rationalize. Right? We love to say, "Oh, I've done A, B, and C, so I really deserve X, Y, and Z. Or ah, maybe it would be in my best interest if I A, B, and C because X, Y, and Z. And listen, sometimes those are valid, right? I'm sure there will be a day in the future where something happens in the morning. I rebuke this, but I'm going to say it anyway. There's some kind of emergency, and my block gets messed up. There are legitimate emergencies that happen in life, right? If I am in bed with 105 degree fever, I'm not going to create content that that day. That is crazy. That is not in the best interest of everyone. And if you look for an excuse, you will always find one, and you will always find people to validate that excuse, right? I love Swalmo to death. She is the most supportive human being I know. And if I went to her and was like, "Oh, babe, I've been getting up so early for the past two weeks. I've been going hard on this content. I just really feel like I should take a day off. It's probably great for me. Of course, as a supportive partner, she's going to be like, "You have." Been, I mean, you've been going to bed earlier. You're like a whole different person with how early you've been getting up. You've been going hard. You really should take that time for right because that's what a supportive partner does. Not only if I look for an excuse will I find one. I will find 100 people in my life who will validate that excuse. I am the only one who can hold my feet to the flame and say, look, at the end of the day, the world is not going to end if I don't do this thing. And power of choice. I see the value of doing this thing, so I am drawing that line in the sand. I'm burning the boat. Come hell or high water, this time is sacred. When you have that level of conviction around something, I'm going to insert here. This is not about suppression. This is not about just put your head down and work harder like masculine energy, right? Listen to your body. If you are sick, if you are burnt out, of course take time off. This is a bigger picture conversation. You are the only one who can draw that line in the sand, who can burn the boats, who can say this is a capital M must for me. If I look for an excuse, I'll always find one. If I look for people to validate, I will always find 100 of them. But I am the only one who can say, come hell or high water, this is a capital M must. I am holding this time sacred because I know the result on the other side is 1,000% worth it.

Speaker 2  26:23  
For more information on Mind Strong Fitness or to apply for a free one-to-one strategy session with my incredible all-female team, visit www.mindstrongfitness.com.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai