Differently
Simple, yet powerful ideas for building a life, differently. Hosted by Carla Reeves, creator of The Differently Coaching Experience, this podcast offers thought-provoking conversations and practical insights for anyone looking to get out of survival mode and build a life that is truly your own. From the highs and lows of love and relationships, to the challenges and opportunities of work and career, Differently will challenge you to to rethink what’s possible.
Differently
Creating Your Ideal Week: Budgeting Your Time for What Matters Most with Ashley Freehan
If your time worked like your budget, would you be broke? Time is your most valuable asset and you want to budget plenty of time for the things that matter.
In this episode, productivity and motherhood coach, author, photographer, and podcast host Ashley Freehan walks you through creating your ideal week through budgeting your time.
Your home life and business life can often bleed together, making you feel guilty for spending too much time in one area and not enough in the other.
That all ends when you learn how to carve out time slots for the things that really matter. Listen in and get the tips you need to feel organized and productive without going over budget in any area!
Episode Highlights:
Thinking of your time like a budget
How an ideal week differs from traditional scheduling
The beauty of being proactive rather than reactive
Tools for creating your ideal week
How to budget for what matters to you, nonnegotiables and commitments
Bedtime and wake time boundary setting
Budgeting for transition time
Don’t forget free time!
Structure creates freedom
Kick guilt to the curb
Handling things that fall through the cracks
Handling the unexpected
Setting boundaries
Benefits of the ideal week method
Enjoy!
Learn more about Ashley:
Website: https://thepurposegathering.com/
Podcast: https://thepurposegathering.com/podcast/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepurposegathering/
Learn more about Carla:
Website: https:/www.carlareeves.com/
Connect on LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reevescarla/
Connect on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@differentlythepodcast
Go to https://www.carlareeves.com/getunstuck.com to download Carla's on demand journaling workshop + exercise to help you stop spinning and start moving forward.
Explore Coaching with Carla: https://bookme.name/carlareeves/lite/explore-coaching
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Thank you for listening!
I'm Carla Reeves, and this is Differently. Whether you feel stuck in survival, navigating a change, or seeking more for your life, may this podcast be your weekly nudge to take a risk to build a life that is uniquely bold, authentic and in alignment with your deepest values. What if you worried less about the bumps in the road and instead got equipped for the journey? Get ready to rethink what's possible. Have you ever thought about the way you spend your time, Like the way you spend your money? Thinking about it as we're investing our time in certain places, and if you were to track that, you would have a very clear picture about what is important in your life or what is running your life. I have done this before and it was truly life changing. I'm so excited to share my guest today with you.
Speaker 1:Ashley Freehan is a business and motherhood coach. She is the host of the Organized Mompreneur podcast, which I definitely recommend checking out. She's a photographer and she's all about teaching you how to maximize your limited amount of time, have a thriving business while having a thriving family and home life as well. I left this conversation so inspired. We are going to dive into things like planning your and creating your ideal week. We're going to talk about how being proactive, even just ever so slightly, can change the course of your day and week. We talk about transition time, which is so vital when you have little ones, but also important when you're transitioning from work back into home life, and so much more. I know you're going to leave inspired. She has amazing energy and heart for what she does. Her passion is going to come through and I can't wait to see what you take away from this episode Enjoy.
Speaker 1:Hey, everyone so excited for this episode. I have Ashley Freehan with me today and she's a business and motherhood coach working with mom business owners, helping them with productivity and managing all the things, and we're going to have a conversation today especially about creating your ideal week, and so I know you're going to love this. Welcome, Ashley, to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here and can't wait to have this conversation. This is something that I just geek out over, so I can't wait to chat.
Speaker 1:I love I could talk productivity and scheduling and planning and all that stuff all day long too. So tell us why, why you, ashley, why you and organization and efficiency and all the things. Does it tie back to earlier in your childhood or anything like that? I'm curious.
Speaker 2:That's such a great question.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of people just naturally think that I was born organized and I just loved time management and systems, and that is definitely not the case.
Speaker 2:It's definitely something I've had to learn over the years. I've been an entrepreneur for 13 years and all of which I have had kiddos, raising kids, and so I kind of was forced honestly to learn how to be efficient, because I had littles at home and I really had to get specific about how I was going to spend my time, because I did spend a lot of years just working in the pockets of time. I spent a lot of years, you know, waiting for the nap time, counting down the minutes till my kids went to bed so that I could work on my business, and just over the years I realized that's not how I want to live my life. I want to set up more systems. I want to have more time freedom, and that really looks like getting really micro about where my time is going. So definitely not something that has always come naturally, but I just learned that if I wanted to live a more free life, that I needed to take control of my time.
Speaker 1:Well, and a lot of times it comes from our own need, right that we have, I mean, I can trace my business back to just a need that I had to figure out in my own life too. So give us a sense of where you are in the stage of motherhood.
Speaker 2:Ooh, okay. So I have a 10 year old son it's very smelly up in here and I have a 13 year old daughter. So there's lots of emotions happening and we homeschool. So that has been something that we've been doing for about four years. So they started out in the public school system and when COVID happened, it really gave me this sense of hey, you could do this Now. Also for those listening who are like, oh my gosh, I could never homeschool. Covid homeschool was so different Like that was, you were being forced into it and when you actually get to decide and choose to homeschool, it's entirely different. So that's what my life looks like right now it's a lot of still juggling kids at home and running my business, and I actually have three different businesses and work only about 10 to 15 hours a week.
Speaker 1:Wow, I can't wait to hear how it's so funny when you said it's smelly, smelly around there with a 10 year old. You made me go back to this memory of I have two boys.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Like I had this candle display on a coffee table in our house or something and there were like dirty socks like thrown in the candle display and I had to take a picture and send to my girlfriends, because that's just my life.
Speaker 2:I know it's so bad Okay.
Speaker 1:So when it comes to ideal week, tell us for people maybe some people have never even heard of that Like, give us your definition of what that is and how is it different than traditional planning and scheduling and all the things?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. So. I like to think of an ideal week as kind of like a budget for your money. Only it's a budget for your time, and so traditionally, when you are budgeting your money, it's important to know where every dollar goes right, because you don't want to just leave money literally on the table, and so the same is true for your time. It's really important that we are really good managers of our time and we know where every minute is going, and it's the way to do that is to create an ideal week.
Speaker 2:Okay, and this is going to be for personal and business related items.
Speaker 2:So when I think of my ideal week, I am thinking of everything that I have to get done, because my business and my life although I do keep it separate, it does bleed together, and there has to be time blocks for both, and so I'm excited to kind of dive into what that looks like.
Speaker 2:But here's why an ideal week differs than traditional scheduling. So normally, when you go to schedule something, you put it on your calendar, and that's typically like when you have to be somewhere, right. So normally you're like oh well, you know, I have to take my daughter to her voice lessons or my son to guitar or sports, and or I have a doctor's appointment, and so you just put those things in there in your schedule. But what about things like planning your grocery, you know meals for the week, putting your grocery order through, like setting aside time to have a date with your spouse or a date with your kids, like where are those types of things? And so your ideal week is truly carving out every intentional part of your week and giving it a specific time slot that you're going to take care of that specific task.
Speaker 1:So I'm curious how do you wreck? I love that you're doing this time sort of time budget, because I think that's so important. It's like where we're spending our time. It also shows us like what we value right, and sometimes we're not aware of that and it can be totally out of alignment with what we really want. I've actually had that happen in my life. I didn't realize that I was saying my marriage was important, but it was getting the breadcrumbs of my time.
Speaker 1:And so that was a huge eyeopening moment. How do you recommend people start to do a time sort of budget? Would it be making a list? Or how do you walk people through that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. This framework that I'm about to walk you through, it truly gives you the accountability, like we were just talking about, when it comes to scheduling, so that you're pre-planning. So there's this idea that I really love to talk about on my podcast and with my students is this idea of being proactive and being reactive. And so when we are proactive, that means we're planning ahead and we are anticipating roadblocks that might come up ahead, right, and we're trying to strategize in advance versus being reactive. So let me give you an example. So have you guys ever come home from work? Or you know your kids came home from school and they're asking you, like mom, what's for dinner? And you're like I don't know what are you cooking, right? And like you totally forgot that you needed something for dinner and so, instead of proactively, like getting out the ingredients for the meal that you had planned, you're in reactive mode, like oh my gosh, we have to run to the store or we have to go through the drive through, and now everyone's hungry and you had no plan. And so creating this ideal week is going to give you that proactive mentality so that you're going to walk into the week knowing exactly what you're doing when you're doing it and ensuring that every important aspect of your week is actually happening. So how I like to start with this is either to create a Google Sheet or you can use a Google Calendar. So if you already have Google Calendar maybe some of you are already doing this, but I use a Google Sheet, and so what I'm about to explain you're going to just do it in Google Calendar if you want to. I've had other people do it, like you know, pen to paper if that's easier for your brain, and then you can transcribe it and put it into a digital, you know format, but I use a Google Sheet, and so what I do is I just start at the very top and, do you know, monday through Sunday or Sunday through Monday, however you like to set up your week, and I go through literally time block by time block, and I start with the non negotiable things and some of the things that I say right now. You might be like, wow, I don't even have time for this. That's why we start with these non-negotiables, because these are things that you definitely should be thinking about, if you're already not. Those are things like self-care. We all should have self-care somewhere on our calendar every single day, even if it's just five minutes, but get self-care on your calendar.
Speaker 2:Family time when are you spending time as a family? Because I think there's a difference between spending time together in the car or, you know, rushing from here, there and everywhere, to spending intentional time together. So there should be time for family time. There should be time for date nights, as we mentioned, and I'm a huge proponent of doing special time with my kids 10 minutes of one-on-one time with them every day. So that is definitely on my ideal week.
Speaker 2:So then, once you have your non-negotiables, then plug in your commitments. So those are things like if you go to church, if your kids have sports or other activities, like we go to the chiropractor once a month and we have, you know, other various things that are just on repeat. So those commitments go into the calendar as well and you're going to. So, across the top, you have your days of the week and then across the left side, you're going to have the time slots. Left side, you're going to have the time slots. So I typically do 30 minutes, so I wake up at 530. So that's when my time starts at 530.
Speaker 2:And we have a wake up boundary in our family. Since we homeschool, we're not usually rushing out the door. We have two days a week that my kids go to an enrichment program. So it technically is like school, those are our rushing days. It technically is like school, those are our rushing days. But I block out the morning time from 530 to 730. That is my self care time, and then what I do during that time differs every day depending on what day of the week it is. But my kids know that if they come in my room before 730, like they're gonna get a hey, good morning, go find something to do till 730. Like that's just what we've been doing their whole life. So they just know, if it's not 730, it's not time for you to ask me for anything. So we plug in our non-negotiables and our commitments and then we have that wake up boundary in the morning and then we also have a like bedtime boundary.
Speaker 2:So even though my kids are 10 and 13, they still go to bed at seven o'clock and some people might be like what, like how? And the reason why is because they get to go in their room and they get to wind down and they get to read a book and they get to have some self care time to themselves and then my husband and I actually get to have alone time together. Now we put them to bed at seven I'm using air quotes, but they don't actually go to bed until eight and nine o'clock, but again it's their time to just go wind down. Usually we're in their rooms probably from seven to 8pm, so we're putting, you know, our son down and we're putting our daughter down reading them books. This is kind of another segment of special time getting to read, say prayers with them, and then the person who is not putting the kids to bed does the dishes.
Speaker 2:So we've always alternated that kind of family habit and that's worked out really well for us. But that's in there as well in our ideal week. Then we add in meals and snacks. So obviously we have to eat breakfast right, and a lot of you whose kids are in school, you're probably, you know, doing breakfast and dinner and then lunch is already, you know, maybe taken care of at school, or if you make lunches, you have to have a time block for when you're making lunches. So this is the kind of stuff that I'm talking about, is all those little things, that kind of slide through the cracks and all of a sudden you're like, oh my gosh, I didn't remember that we had to make lunches. Why do I always forget that? Like it's always happening every day.
Speaker 2:But if you create a habit and that's really what I like about the ideal week is it's not super rigid in the sense of, oh, it has to be at this certain time, but it's a rhythm. So every morning I wake up and I do my self care, and then we go into breakfast, and then we have special time, and so it's a rhythm. And if I get off on the times, I'm not as worried about that, unless we have somewhere to be right. So, but it gives me this idea of what's coming next. And then we do transitions. So that's another huge one, too is do you leave time for transitions? So when you, you know, are cleaning up breakfast and then getting the backpacks, finding the shoes right all of that kind of stuff takes time.
Speaker 2:So creating a buffer in your schedule for transitions and tidying also. So one of the ways that I really like to help keep our house tidy is to create a five minute tidy after every single mealtime. But again, if I don't leave a buffer, then there's no time for that, and I don't like rushing out of the house and leaving a mess that I have to clean up when we come back. So if you leave time for transitions and tidying, it's going to make your life so much easier. And then we always add in work blocks and child care next. That way you really can have a clear picture of when you're going to be working, because it's really hard to plan what you're working on if you don't even have your work blocks planned. So that's going to be really important.
Speaker 2:And then keeping time for free time and margin. So I would recommend not scheduling everything like back to back, but leaving some blank space. That's margin, or what I like to call free time. And then the key here is to keep this schedule the same every week, if you can, because once you have this sort of rhythm set in stone here, your brain starts to remember oh, on Mondays at 2pm that's when we do, you know, tidying up or whatever it is like. You always know, based on the day and the time, what's coming, and if you can keep it the same, it's just going to create an incredible rhythm for not only you but your family to follow as well.
Speaker 1:Beautiful. I love that so much. I hear so much mindset, boundaries and discipline in what you have created in your life. Yes, I think that I mean from my perspective of raising two boys. Like kids love structure and they thrive in structure. And for people listening who maybe feel overwhelmed by so much structure because I've had people talk about that too Like especially if you were coming from a place of not having any- um you know, I think it can probably feel overwhelming, but I just want to remind everybody like structure creates freedom.
Speaker 1:And um, I would love to hear, like what do you see people either bumping up against or challenged by in doing this? And I'm curious to like, if you're not living in this at all, how do you get people started on this path?
Speaker 2:Can you repeat that question? It totally froze on you.
Speaker 1:Yes, so how do you? I can imagine that people feel a little bit overwhelmed, like if they don't have any sort of structure like this um how do you get people started on a structure like this and what, what do you see as far as, like, mindset or boundaries, challenges that come up for people like people have to actually address in order to create this in their life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. I have a few students that come to mind who have really resisted this ideal week because they like the spontaneity, they love to kind of just like fly by the seat of their pants. But when I ask them, like how's that working for you? Yeah, it's not going well, and I'm like so why do you like that so much? Like, why do you like not having to pay attention to a schedule but then getting the results that you don't want? Like being reactive, putting out fires left and right, missing, you know, kids, friends, birthday presents, like all of that kind of stuff. Like why do you, why do you want to continue living in that that way? And I think a lot of it is just because change is hard, like people don't want to change. Number one it's it's, you know, it's mental right. Like our brains are trying to keep us safe, and so when something is new and different, our brains like nope, we're not doing that. Like that's too hard, like let's default back to you know what's easy, what's comfortable, and so to that I would say number one is to really reframe your mindset and to really understand that, like you mentioned already, is the freedom comes from having a routine. Freedom comes from knowing what's expected of you. And once you have this ideal week in place and you're following it, because that's the key. If you're going to create an ideal week and then you're not going to follow it, well, then it's not going to work for you. Key. If you're going to create an ideal week and then you're not going to follow it, well, then it's not going to work for you.
Speaker 2:And so, committing to the process and also, just secondly, being okay with being a beginner this is something that I have been working on with my own coach.
Speaker 2:I hired a macro coach to help with nutrition, because I've been struggling with my nutrition for a while, and she said be okay with being a beginner. And that was just so beautiful to me because I was like okay, I don't have to have all the answers, I don't have to do it perfectly, like all I have to do is show up and try my best. And so what I would say is commit, be okay with being a beginner, and then also understand the freedom that's going to come on the other side of it, like, once you have everything plugged in that you need to have taken care of, then you have the freedom to be flexible and spontaneous, right, like we have a whole morning on Mondays every other week where it's kind of like a flex day, so we can just do whatever we want. We can go somewhere, we can stay home and lounge around, like we have that ability and that freedom.
Speaker 2:But I also know that, like my grocery planning is getting done, I know that I'm spending time with my kids, I'm spending time with my husband, I have all of my work blocks set up, like I just know that everything that I need is set up for success. So I would say too that if people are like very overwhelmed by this, that they, if they just give it a try and give it at least two weeks before they try to jump ship or change anything, it'll be really helpful well, I, I well, two things.
Speaker 1:One is I love this idea. What I hear from moms a lot is so much guilt, like no matter what they're doing, like they're either feel, if they're working on their business, they feel guilty that they're not with their family and if they're with their family, they feel guilty that they're neglecting their business. And what you have outlined and defined like sets into motion, in place, like knowing that we've already planned for having that quality time with our kids. And I know, for me, when I was a young mom, um, it was quality over quantity, like if, if I had had some quality time with my kids, like that freed me up to do all the other things that I needed to do, but if I wasn't having that quality time with my kids, it would just eat me up. And so you've created these containers and I think that would put somebody's mind at rest, knowing like I've got my big rocks, I've got my big commitments accounted for. It's about your marriage too.
Speaker 1:I think that is so important and as you were describing it, I saw like just all these containers and then so you create your containers, but then you have the flexibility and spontaneity. You can play around with how those fit for your life and rhythm and all of that.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly. And one thing that I wanted to add to was I made some notes to over here to like make sure that I helped people learn how to like stick to this, because I think when you are learning something new and it feels rigid and it feels different, like you, you just resist that, but I think being able to notice that if you want something different for your life, you have to do something different. And this is going to be hard at the beginning, like it is going to be hard because you're going to have to take time, you're going to have to look through your schedule, you're going to have to piece out every single time block that you'll need, and it will feel overwhelming. But once you do this and once you continue to check in with this again, we're looking for progress. Not perfection, okay, but it might help. What might help, too, is to start with some of those things that are falling through the cracks.
Speaker 2:So, if mealtime is not a problem for you and you've got that taken care of and you know homework's not a problem, but maybe it's like, oh my gosh, like I really am struggling to get quality time with my kids, maybe it's just starting small, maybe it's just saying I'm going to take two time blocks for the next two weeks and I'm going to really focus on I don't want to say mastering, but I want to really focus on making sure that those time blocks happen and then maybe, you know, two weeks after that I'm going to add in a couple more time blocks and so maybe you're just starting with those things that you think are really going to move the needle for you, what are really going to give you the biggest bang for your buck, if you will, because I think sometimes people I know spang for your buck. If you will, because I think sometimes people I know for me I have the all in or all out mentality where I'm like you know what I'm doing this, and if I can't do it 100%, well then I'm just I'm giving up, and what I'm learning through this macro coaching program that I'm in is like it is okay if we're not doing it. Perfect it's when we quit and when we completely give up, that's when it's a problem. It's not a problem If it's not perfect, it's a problem if we give up, and so that's my encouragement to you is to just give it a try, keep going, and if you're feeling like this is too overwhelming to do all the time blocks.
Speaker 2:Just start with one or two.
Speaker 1:I love that experiment. I always love to experiment, like do a two week experiment and you're going to learn so much just in that experiment about how you spend your time and probably, I would imagine, get really clear on maybe what isn't fitting anymore in your life or what needs to be put on pause.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that needs to be put on pause. Oh, I love that. Um, okay, so I know how. So we have our ideal week. This is amazing, but then there are weeks in our life that everything sort of goes to the wayside because we have some unexpected circumstance or thing that we're dealing with. How do you recommend that we sort of are flexible and bounce?
Speaker 2:back when life happens, oh, so good. I mean, I think it is so important to just expect the road, like the roadblocks, like just to expect stuff to happen, because life is messy and when we expect it it doesn't catch us by surprise. And so, when it happens, coming back to that progress over perfection, just reminding yourself that like, oh, this was a really off day, but tomorrow I'm going to jump right back on track, or this week is just really tough, I'm going to give myself grace this week and we're going to jump back into it next week. So really just allowing ourselves to have a moment, right, a human moment, where we're like okay, things are not going well, but that's okay because I can get back on track.
Speaker 2:The thing that we need to avoid is to wait too long, right? And so, like, if you, if your ideal week, if you put it on pause for a day or two, that's not a problem, but if you put it on pause for like a whole entire month, that's really going to be stressful. And so, again, I would recommend and urge you to just focus on a smaller ideal week, like, if you can't do the whole thing, then just start with maybe, like, what is your busiest day. Pick your busiest day of the week and just say, okay, I'm going to create a really good outlined ideal week for ideal day for Wednesdays, because Wednesdays are chaos, right and start there and get really good at Wednesday and then go to the next day. That feels like it's a little bit hard, but I hope that helps. I hope that would be helpful.
Speaker 1:I think so for sure. I remember, like as a young mom, like just carving out, like, well, you have two hours in your morning. I do that now. But as a new mom I started with just like 30 minutes before everybody woke up and that was just. That was a game changer and I've never let it go. Because that time in the morning alone to pray and get centered and write and sometimes just all create my day just on a little sheet of paper, that alone changes the course of everything. Um, so I I love that you're saying start small. And I think that, like you're saying, like, just get back on track. What's beautiful about what you've laid out is that there's a track to get back onto. You know it's like so you fall off. That's not the big deal. The more important thing is that you get back on. And now you've got a track sort of built out that you can fall back into, which I think is great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and I think it's. Oh, I just had one more thing too, and I think it's really important that when you are creating your ideal week, that you are creating some. We talked about the boundaries, right, but creating some boundaries around your schedule, and so here are just a few things like I won't book anything these nights of the week, right? So maybe you have like Mondays and Wednesdays where you're like I'm not going to book anything on Mondays and Wednesdays, or I won't schedule something I expect my family to be at without checking with them first. Or I don't schedule evening plans three nights in a row or two nights in a row, or kind of creating these like scheduling rules for yourself. I only schedule X commitments per day. So like I've had a really hard time where, like sometimes, I want to schedule all of my errands all at once, including appointments, and then by the end of the day I'm just like that was too much, right. So like what's that number for you?
Speaker 2:And then set up certain nights of the week, potentially that you and your spouse can plan things separately. So maybe your husband is with the kids on Tuesday nights and you know that every Tuesday night is your night, and then he gets a different night. And then one question that I always ask myself that has saved me time and time again from making you know, choices that I'm going to regret is, I ask myself, how will my future self feel if I decide to say yes to this and I, like I said, I've saved myself so much agony because I put myself in that spot and I look at what's around it. Oftentimes we open our calendar and we're like, of course, I'm free on Thursday, and then we forget to look at what comes before and after and we're like, oh my gosh, I shouldn't have scheduled that because I am going to be so exhausted. So those are just some scheduling guidelines that I thought would be helpful.
Speaker 1:I've so done that.
Speaker 2:We all have like those early morning flights. We schedule those early morning flights.
Speaker 1:We're like, oh yeah, it'll be fine, and then you have to get up at 3am.
Speaker 2:Right and you're like why did I do this?
Speaker 1:What were we thinking? Boundaries? I want to just touch on one thing about the boundaries that, um, I see in you is that you're modeling that for your children, and I think that that is so important, um, because they're watching you more than they're necessarily listening to what you tell them, and you're showing them that that's important, and you're also giving them that time to learn how to like be alone, and I think that that's really, really, really a gift that you're giving your kids. So, thank you, thank you so much. So let's talk about some of the benefits of doing this, because I think that, yes, it might feel hard and overwhelming, but the reason we do it is for all the gifts that this provides for both you and everyone around you.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, okay, so good. So I feel like the most important benefit is that it's giving your brain a break from thinking of all the things because you've already thought about them. So now you know when everything is happening and so you don't have to keep trying to remember everything and you're also creating time for the most important things. So you already know what is most important to you and you're like yep, that's done, that's taken care of, and it really helps your family know what to expect. So I think the biggest like we already touched on but the biggest thing that is hard for kids is they just basically they're at our will. You know, like if we say we're going here, they're going here. Like if we say we're staying home, they're staying home. Like they don't get a lot of say in what's happening. And if we can set them up for success by showing them like, hey, this is what's going on.
Speaker 2:And I will ask my kids a lot too when I'm doing this type of planning. I'll say, like, who do you want to see this week? What do you want to do? Like, I include them in the schedule. My daughter, as I mentioned, she's 13. But like she helps me so much she like when we're driving in the car, I'll be like, hey, why don't you pick out some dates that we can go do like a you know, a day trip with the family? And like she'll help me plan.
Speaker 2:And to your point about modeling for our children, like it's so important that we give our children the tools and the skills and the practice now, when they're not outside of our home, for them to learn how to manage their time, to look at a schedule, to ask themselves, you know, how will we feel if we plan this Like is that a good use of our time? And we also keep in mind and have conversation around the fact that you know my husband works full time and so he is not going to be as energized and jazzed to go out at night when he gets home from work. So we always are talking about, like the family dynamic. My daughter could be busy every second of the day. She loves it.
Speaker 2:And I'm like, okay, you are. So, my daughter, because I love to be busy too. I love going from here, you know, to there and seeing all the people and doing all the things. But as I get older, I've learned like, if you don't build in the time to rest and recover, then you're going to pay for it eventually, and usually it's in lashing out to people, because your nervous system just can't handle go, go, go all the time, and so I really love, you know, bringing them on board too.
Speaker 1:Well, you can feel like how much um is built into this of like making sure that you're managing your own well-being and that is so vital to your household. I mean our energy and our mood. I mean everybody else is kind of swirling in mom's energy and mood and so you're taking, you're eliminating so many places where there's room for stress and other things to creep in, and I think it's amazing. Okay, did you cover all the benefits? I'm sure there's so many more.
Speaker 2:I think so I mean, I think that was the biggest one is just like avoiding overwhelm and knowing that everything that is important to you will get taken care of.
Speaker 1:Well, in the brain, rest, like if you're not literally having to think about this every day, all day, like strategizing what's coming next and who's doing what, like I can't even imagine where you can either not use that brain energy or use it for something else. So that's exciting, okay. I have one last question, and that's about, like, what kind of planner you use or to keep track of in the day to day what's happening. Oh yeah, I'm just curious what your system is. I think do you have a planner.
Speaker 2:I don't have a planner. I use cozy calendar, which is a shared calendar. It's like a free app for your phone. So I use that for my appointments, so all the places I have to be. But for all the things I have to do, I use Asana, and so that's how I keep track of all of my business tasks. But I also have like a homeschool board and we have meal planning and budgeting and we have all of our personal stuff on there as well that I share with my husband and it works really well for me. Now I can't say that it works really well for him, because he is not type A like I am and he's like I need something simpler, but we're working on how to make it simpler for him, but that's what works for me.
Speaker 2:And then I do have my ideal week printed out, and that's the other thing that I think would be really important is when you are creating your ideal week and then implementing it.
Speaker 2:It's important that it's posted so that everybody in the house can see, like what is coming up. And when I did my ideal week, I actually like asked my kids about it and I got my husband's in, you know, input on it as well, because when we're building out this week, it not only affects me, it affects everyone in the family, and so that was really helpful. And I said like, hey, are we missing any time blocks? Is there anything that you guys want to see in here? And that was really helpful. And then setting different alarms will be helpful as well, so that you can start to remember, like, oh, I forgot, like we were going to do this tidying thing that that lady on the podcast talked about. Right, like whatever it is that you really care about, set a timer for a while, probably like a few weeks, until it becomes a habit, and then you won't need that anymore. But I think that could be really helpful too.
Speaker 1:I love timers.
Speaker 2:Me too.
Speaker 1:And you could just see like have some buy-in and ownership to what you're creating too, which I think is so valuable. Okay, we could go on all day.
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 1:So Ashley has a podcast called the organized mompreneur that you must, must, must check out. Um, but tell us all the other places that they can find out what you're doing.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, absolutely. So. I love my podcast. That's like my favorite thing. So, yes, listen to the podcast. And I also have a 14 day challenge. That's totally free that I have been talking about a lot on my podcast and it starts at the first of every month, so whenever this episode airs I'll give you the link that they can go check it out. But it's basically I give 14 days of all of my favorite strategies to create work-life balance. So it's what I use day in and day out in my business, for not only business but personal as well, just so that I can have more of that separation in those boundaries. But I also hang out on Instagram, so you can find me over there at the purpose gathering, or my website is just the purpose gatheringcom.
Speaker 1:So I must ask what is the purpose gathering? Where does that come from?
Speaker 2:Ooh Okay, so I'll try to keep it short and sweet, but I started the purpose gathering back in 2019. Out of desperation, because I felt like I had so many mom friends that didn't have a business and so many business friends that didn't have kids, and I was like absolutely nobody in my world understands what it's like to be a mom and a business owner. And so I was praying one day and I was like Lord, I just wish that there was a community of people that were moms and business owners. And he was like I think you should create that. And I was like, nope, I think I heard you wrong. But for months it just kept coming back and it kept coming back and I was like, okay, he really wants me to do this, huh.
Speaker 2:So I started a workshop. I created a workshop and a community and called it the purpose gathering. So it has just been the most beautiful transformation from entrepreneurship, because this started. What is that? Like? Eight years into my entrepreneur journey, I started the purpose gathering. I started as a photographer and then turned into an online business coach and community founder. So I still have my purpose gathering community. It's here in Arizona, we meet in Gilbert and we have events and it's just the most beautiful container of moms who own their own business, who understand the struggle. It's so good.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness, I love this. I want to come yes, please do we? We found out that we both live in Arizona, so cool, okay. Well, I love all of this, ashley. This has been a wealth of information and so much goodness. I know people are going to take so much away. It is awesome to get to know you and I just thank you for your time and sharing with us.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. This was so fun.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Differently. It's been an honor to share this conversation with you. You know, one of the keys to living fully is to take action when you're inspired to do so. I hope you found that spark of inspiration today, and would you help us spread the word? Did someone you know come to mind while you were listening? If this episode could impact someone you know, please share it and pass it along. New episodes drop weekly, so tap that subscribe button and join us next time as we continue to challenge the status quo and get equipped to live life differently. And would you help us spread the word? Did someone you know come to mind while you were listening? If this episode could impact someone you know, please share it and pass it along. Remember, new episodes drop weekly, so tap that subscribe button and join us next time as we continue to challenge the status quo and get equipped to live life differently.