How Do You Do It All?

“How do you do it all?” 

I get this question a lot. 

I have 3 kids, a part time job, and run an Instagram account with daily reels, a weekly podcast, a blog, a newsletter, and now a YouTube channel. Plus I lead a small group at church, read a fair amount of books, and am working on a book proposal, myself. (Of course none of this accounts for laundry, keeping the house tidy, feeding the family, etc.) So yeah…it’s not *not* a lot.

So I’m going to let you in on my dirty little secret…

I don’t do it all.

I really don’t.

• Teachers do it all with my kids from 7:30am-2pm every day.

• My husband does all the dishes and kid snack/lunch prep, bath time most nights, and makes dinner more often than I do. (After his full day of work as an engineer in the coast guard.)

• He also often manages the kids if my work spills into the weekend (I try to not let it, but it does happen). 

• My co-leader for church small group covers for me when need be

• We have yard workers who come every other week so that I only have to mow the lawn twice a month

…I’m probably missing some other areas that I can’t think of currently where I have help, but you get the picture.

As for the rest of it? I’m an absolute maniac when it comes to time blocking.

I manage to not overbook myself because I know exactly when I’m working on what. And I take into account the fact that I need to eat and generally relax my brain between creative tasks. So when my hours are full, I start saying “no” (to my own ideas as much as to other people). 

My general boundaries:

• I don’t work on weekends

• I don’t work past 4pm

• I don’t respond to emails or texts like ticking time bombs

• I don’t watch TV during the day

If you’re interested in what time blocking looks like, I highly recommend listening to my episode of Paring Down called “Managing Your Busy Schedule Using Time Blocking” by clicking HERE.

But big picture, I map out what my days will look like for the week every Monday morning (or Sunday evening if I’m starting to stress). 

By knowing where each hour of my work day is dedicated, I can enter the week feeling confident that everything will get done. I know it will, because I can see exactly on my calendar when it’s happening!

Of course life happens. 

Your kid’s teacher calls because they fell into a mud puddle at recess and managed to soak their entire body (real story from last week), so you have to run clothes up to the school. 

A task you thought would take one hour ends up taking two.

Technology glitches and forces you to step away from your computer for awhile.

Time blocking doesn’t mean you have a menty b if something goes off course. Flexibility is key. I maneuver and rejigger what I need to when I need to, but having a course of action for each week in place helps:

• Ensure I don’t get distracted by things that don’t matter

• Avoid decision fatigue of what to do next, thus freezing up and not doing anything

• Guarantee I don’t overbook myself, because when there are no hours left within my set boundaries (7:30-4pm on weekdays), that’s that! I can say no to myself and others with confidence.

I hope you take this from today’s post:

No one can “do it all” by themselves.

And finding a way to manage your schedule efficiently to account for things like eating and reading and generally being human is paramount when you’re juggling lots of different things.

Time blocking works great for me – I do hope you’ll listen to the podcast episode if it interests you!

Okay, my time block for writing this blog is coming to a close, so I’m going to say sayonara til next week!