Ashley Brown 0:00 [Intro]
Hey, Hey, and welcome back for another episode of the routine and things podcast. I'm your girl Ashley. I'm so glad that you're joining me today because the topic of discussion is about a question that you can ask yourself to best utilize your time, because I really feel like the questions that we ask ourselves can bring about so much more clarity and purpose in action. And so I want to give you a question that you can ask yourself so that you can feel like you are being the best steward of your time as best as possible. Okay, so that's what we're talking about today. Before we dive into this question, I do want to let you know about something I'm so freaking excited about. We've raised over $10,000 in February, which was amazing to help me create the very first yearly routine and things planner that is going to be utilizing and bringing about a planning method that I use in my life as a stay at home mom that I use in my life currently, as a working mom, as a business mom, and I'm superduper excited about this, this planner is going to bring about so much more ease to your life, it's going to help you avoid burnout is going to reduce your stress and promote self care. And I am so overjoyed about it. And so if you want to be the first to get this planner, I want you to go ahead and join the planner waitlist because you will also have some goodies as well that you'll get when you join the planter waitlist and if you purchase a planner, so go ahead and get on that waitlist, it is linked below in the show notes so that you can be the first to hear about when the planner actually drops. And when it launches, which is going to be this fall, it's going to be a 2023 planner, girl, I am so freaking excited about this. So that is linked for you in the show notes to join the planner waitlist.
Ashley Brown 2:11
Hey girl, before we get into today's episode, I wanted to share that we have four new freebies for you at routineandthings.com right now. So these are four free downloads that I put together that will help you with your routines and also planning. So just to give you a sneak peek, one of the free downloads is my top five planning tips for mindful productivity. These are tips that I use every single week to make sure that I'm creating a realistic plan that I'm being thoughtful about how I'm planning so that I don't over plan and that I actually stick to my plan. So these are some really great tips as well as another freebie that I put together for you is a routine assessment.
Ashley Brown 2:51
And so this is actually a download where you can assess the five routine categories cooking, cleaning, children self care and planning to see which routine category do you need most in your life right now. So that you can start to build a routine based within that category. So this is a really great routine assessment. And this has helped so many women when it comes to them trying to decide which routine to start. So I know it will be helpful for you. So these are just two freebies, I have an additional two on the website. So I want you to go ahead and check them out, you can go to routineandthings.com. And I'll also place a link to all of the freebies in the show notes. I want to share that with you. But let's go ahead and get into today's episode.
Ashley Brown 3:34
Let's go ahead and get into this episode. So like I said, this question I'm going to share with you is to help you best utilize your time, we all want to be good stewards of our time. And if you feel like time gets away from you, or there's never enough time in the day to do the things that you want or need to do keep listening. Because if you're feeling this way, there's a problem somewhere there is a problem somewhere and that problem is how you are using your time and what you do with your time. Okay, so here's the question that you're going to ask yourself today that can help you shift how you've been utilizing your time. And that question is, am I too focused on the what and ignoring the how? Let me say that again. The question you're going to ask yourself today is Am I too focused on the what and ignoring the how? What does this mean?
Ashley Brown 4:26
This means that you may be too focused on what you're doing, and not how you're accomplishing or doing that thing. This is huge and this is major because if we are just focused on the what, then yes we're gonna feel like I'm not utilizing my time in the best way. I feel like I'm not really getting anything done that may be in alignment with what I want to get done. Or maybe I feel like you know what, I'm burning myself out because I'm doing way too much because I'm focused on the what and not focus on the how because the how is the process by which you go about doing something in the process if it's not done in an effective way in in an efficient way then you will see yourself burning yourself out you will find yourself and not having enough time to do certain things because you're not thinking about the how you're not thinking about the process, why you feel like you don't have enough time in your day is because you're not considering the how behind the task that you're doing.
Ashley Brown 5:27
Because many tasks have multiple steps, multiple actions to them, right when you are cleaning your home, you're not just gonna put down in your planner that oh, I'm cleaning my home today. Why because cleaning your home requires a lot of steps and if you don't take that into account, then you will think you can clean your home you can go grocery shopping, you can head to the mall to pick up something for your children, you're going to feel as if you can go take the dog to the dog park you're gonna start to put a lot of things on your list because you're not factoring in how you're doing those things and the amount of time it takes you to complete it. So if you want to best utilize your time you have to think about how you're utilizing your time that how in terms of the tasks that you're doing this is why many times we will fill our to do list to the max and wonder why we didn't get it all done we didn't consider that the test has multiple steps is the process is a process to completing the task and you have to remember that are you considering the how? Are you considering how you get things done?
Ashley Brown 6:36
Are you accomplishing your to dos in the most efficient and effective way? It's all about efficiency and effectiveness because if we're doing things willy nilly then we're going to see and think that we don't have enough time and this is what I hear a lot. I feel like many people say I don't have enough time there's not time for this how do I make the time and it's like you have to think about not only what you're doing but how you're doing that thing because if you think about the how you're going to realize oh, you know what, this is gonna take me longer than what I thought it would take me or this is gonna take me a good amount of time. So you know what, I'm not going to do this extra thing today when you think about how you can utilize your time in the best way right when you think about the how.
Ashley Brown 7:20
So remember this that's the question I wanted to share with you today. Because if we stay focus if we stay focused on what we're doing and we never factor in how we're doing that thing then we're going to end up burning ourselves out. If you feel burned out right now it could be because you're not focused on how you're doing things in your life. The how is what brings about ease not the what so much how is what brings about ease in your life how you go about doing things in your life brings about the ease, right? We want to make sure the what aligns with our values aligns with our intentions but the how is what really gives you and brings you ease into your life. So you have to start thinking about the how. So that's the question to consider Am I too focused on the what and ignoring the how start thinking about how you're doing things in your life, how you are accomplishing the tasks that you have to do on a daily basis and routines help you so much with this.
Ashley Brown 8:19
So if you feel like you need support in a certain area of your life because the how isn't working or is not the most efficient way of going about it, then a routine can help you support you in that area. So just think about that today. Consider this question when you're in a season where time seems scarce and you feel that you're not being a good steward of your time consider this question and I hope that this was helpful for you this is it for this episode short and sweet. I just wanted to share that with you because that was on my mind. And I hope that you found it extremely helpful.
Ashley Brown 8:52
Please be sure to rate and review the show before you hop off and share this episode today with someone you know I would also love to know if you're listening as well. So if you have the time you can take a screenshot and then share it on Instagram tag me @routineandthings I would love to know what you got out of today's episode that you enjoy the podcast that would mean so much to me. So that's it for this episode. I hope you enjoyed it. Until next time, continue to enjoy wherever you are. Whatever you're doing, stay happy girl, and I will talk to you next week.
Ashley Brown 9:25 [Outro]
Thanks for listening. If you enjoy today's episode, take a screenshot and share it on social I would love to know you're listening and for tools to help you start maintain and enjoy your routines. Be sure to head to routineandthings.com. Here's to staying happy