#17. 5 Surprising Benefits of Time Management
Episode Shownotes:
Most people think that the benefit of productivity coaching is that it allows you to get more done in less time. While that may be one of the byproducts of productivity coaching, I don't believe that it's the most important result. Today I am sharing five unexpected benefits of better time management skills. These are things I've experienced firsthand and things my clients have shared in sessions. If you know you want more control over your schedule, but you think the struggle to get there won't be worth it, then this episode is for you.
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Episode Transcript*:
This is Your Speech Path: Mindful Time Management for the Busy SLP. My name is Theresa Harp and, as a mom and speech pathologist turned productivity coach, I know a thing or two about how hectic life can be. If you're an SLP who's overworked, burnt out and feeling like you're constantly falling short as a therapist and a mom, then this is the podcast for you. I cover time management and mindset strategies so you can learn to love your work and your home life at the same time. Let's dive in.
Hey there, podcast listeners. Welcome to another episode of the show. Today I'm talking about some of the more surprising benefits of improved time management skills. I've been thinking about this recently because I've been paying attention to some of the things—well, I always pay attention to what my clients say—but I've been paying attention, I've been paying closer attention to what they've been saying in sessions about how time management coaching has helped them in various areas of their life. So I actually think that most people at least most of the clients that I have worked with on time management coaching have come to me because they feel like they don't have enough time to do what they want and need to do. And I don't know if you listened to last week's episode, but I recorded an episode last week, episode 16, about the most common lies that we tell ourselves about time management and about time in general, and that was one of them, and that's often what gets people in the door in terms of becoming a client for time management coaching. However, what they don't realize until once we really get started and they start to experience the shifts in their lives, the different ways that these habits and strategies that we talk about in coaching sessions actually trickle over into the different other areas, like different areas of their life that maybe they didn't come to me thinking of or looking to improve, but it just sort of carries over into those areas. So I want to share what some of those areas are, what some of those surprising benefits are. Now, some of these might not be so surprising to you, but I'm going to venture a guess that many of you, when you think about time management, you might not think about these things, these payoffs.
Okay, so the first surprising benefit of better time management skills is improvement in physical health, and when I say physical health, what I'm talking about is really things like movements, right, exercise, nutrition, diet, weight, yes, but more so what you're eating, when you're eating it, how often you're moving your body? What kind of sleep are you getting? Those types of things that are often the things that we neglect first, when we're in a very busy stage or when we are feeling, maybe perpetually, like life is so crazy, I don't have time, right? And so most people start out by working with the time management coach because they feel like they have so much to do at work and this is what I often hear is that I have no quote unquote work-life balance. Okay, and I hear you, I get it. Yes, we can absolutely work on that, but what they're not necessarily expecting is how managing their time at work allows them to manage their time at home and in all the other areas of their life and their other quote unquote time buckets, and one of those being physical health. So I've worked with clients who wanted to create workflows in their day, and so we've spent coaching sessions coming up with what would a system be for your day in your private practice? How are you going to structure your time, how are you going to know what tasks need to get done and prioritize and all of that, and then what happens is they wind up using their time more efficiently, more wisely, and it allows not only time but also energy bandwidth, so to speak, for things like their physical health. And so then we build in time for things like meal planning or meal prepping or sneaking in little you know pockets of time for movement taking a lunch break, taking 30 minutes at lunch to go and walk outside or doing a quick you know 10 minute exercise, like low-key, low cardio type of exercise that you can do in your workday or at the beginning or end of your workday to hit those priorities of physical health but still make sure that you have time for the work tasks that have to get done right. So that tends to be one of the, I would say, benefits, one of the carryovers of having better time management skills at work, having better time management skills in general, because, let's face it, once you learn not only the time management strategies but the mindset strategies of how to spend your time at work, you can just rinse and repeat that and apply it to your time out of work, outside of work, right.
So okay, the second surprising benefit of better time management skills is the discovery of new interests or new hobbies. So what happens often in the clients? That with the clients that I work with is at the beginning of our sessions, at the beginning of our time together. We look at what their values and needs are and that's where we start to sort of. This isn't the point of this exercise, but often what happens and what comes up is things that they enjoy doing, that they haven't taken the time to do in forever right, and they because they think that they don't have time for these things. They've never done them. But once we start creating systems and processes in their private practice and in their work schedule, their work days, it then allows just like with number one, with the first benefit it allows more bandwidth. It allows more room for those hobbies, those interests, and they start to realize that not only can they take the time to spend on those types of things, on those new hobbies or interests, but they can. In doing so, they can actually help themselves get more accomplished at work. It actually helps them to get more done during their work day, which is a little bit counterintuitive, but I'll give you the example. She might be listening to this, to this podcast episode. I don't know if you're listening, but if you are, I think you'll know who. I think you'll know, this is you. I've worked with a client who came to me because one of the reasons why she came to me was because she wanted to have better control over her time at work and she felt like she was just working constantly and burning the candle at both ends my words, not hers, but that was basically where we started and after working together for about 10 or 11 weeks, what came up in our session was she came to me and she said I have a whole new business that I want to create and she had created this, you know, this plan like a low key business plan of something that was not even on her radar when we first started. It was not even in the cards. It was not something that she had identified in initially as one of her goals for our time working together. It just sort of evolved as she started this journey of taking back control of your time and looking about how we view and value our time and how those two things time management, strategies and mindset combined together to impact what we put on our calendar and what we spend our time doing and in doing all of that, in learning all of that and that sort of journey of like self discovery, so to speak. It led to this whole new area of interest. And whereas in the past she might have maybe come up with that idea but said to herself there's no way I could do this, now it was like here's my idea. I've already started spending time on it. Now help me figure out how I can continue to spend time on it without sacrificing my current business. And so that's where we're at, that's what we're doing, okay, so that is, in my opinion, one of the biggest payoffs, the biggest benefits of better time management skills. Who knows where it will lead? Okay, all right.
Third surprising benefit of better time management skills is, I think about this one a lot is teaching our children how to be quote unquote better with their time management. And I know, for those of you who are parents, you know that we really need to lead by example and you know it's like that whole saying of do as I say, not as I do, but we all know that they really just do as we do. And I see this in kids, like the kids, the clients that I worked with when I was, when I was practicing as a speech pathologist. I see this in my own kids. I see this in. You know just friends and just children who I am around that we don't necessarily teach this to our children, and when I say this I'm talking about time management. We don't really teach them how to spend their time and all that goes along with it. And I think that in order to teach this skill and break this cycle of productivity and the cycle of like hustle culture and needing to accomplish all these things in order to break that pattern if that is the pattern that you want to break, and for me it is we need to lead by example. So we need to teach our children how to be good with time management and in order to do that, like I said, you need to lead by example. Side note, I will say what I'm thinking of right now. What's coming up for me is in sixth grade we did have a class. I remember this. It was called I think it was called study skills, and in class it wasn't necessarily specific to time management, but it did teach us indirectly things about time management. But it very much taught us, like how to be a good student, how to learn, how to listen in class and take notes and create outlines and commit things to memory and better understand them. And I don't remember a whole lot about that class, like in terms of specifics, but I do remember that it was incredibly valuable. I do remember loving it and I do remember the one thing specifically that I remember about it was note taking and how to create an outline when you're sitting in a lecture and taking notes, and a lot of the stuff that we learned then are things that I still do now when I'm in class or when I'm in a webinar or workshop or whatever. I still use some of those strategies. So that's just a little tangent, but I think it fits here because it was. It stands out in my mind because there was no other class like it. We never learned those things. We weren't taught them as students, as kids, and so being able to teach that to our children and lead by example helps to set them up for success in knowing that they get to decide what they want to spend their time on. Even though you know there are many things that they can't control, they do have elements of control in deciding what they're working on and deciding what they're spending their time on and helping them really understand these skills that will hopefully carry into adulthood. Okay, so that's the third surprising benefit.
The fourth surprising benefit this one is one I can attest to is increased emotional regulation. So for me, I notice that I have a hard time emotionally regulating myself day to day and that kind of like day to day stuff, especially when my schedule is overfilled. So this has happened time and time again. Even as someone who teaches this or coaches on this, even as someone who studies this, there are still times in my life where, for whatever reason, I have over scheduled or over committed and the way that it shows up without fail is in my lack of emotional regulation or in my emotional dysregulation, and so I will find myself getting angry very easily, getting triggered or, you know, kind of just being getting frustrated, snapping at my kids, just not really showing up in a way that I want to show up as a parent, or that I want to show up, as you know, as a speech pathologist, as I'm teaching, or the way that I want to show up as a coach, not that I would ever snap at a client, but it's harder for me to regulate my emotions when I'm in this, this, this place of, I would say, dysregulation in my schedule. So I would encourage you to look at that. If that is something that you find yourself struggling with, might it mean that that you would benefit from better time management skills or from focusing on your time management? So I know for me if I have a schedule that's erratic, or if I haven't planned out my day, or if I'm in response mode all day instead of like planning or proactive mode, if I'm just sort of handling things as they pop up instead of having a set plan for what I'm spending my time on, all of those things are things that lead me to feeling frustrated and just sort of snapping or having little like mini meltdowns, as I'll call them. And I can always point it back to my calendar. Really, in many ways I can point it back to my calendar or in my ability to manage myself, like manage myself and how I'm spending my time. But once I started getting really clear on what I wanted to spend my time on and getting really systematic with how I was spending my time, I noticed a little bit more calm, a sense of calm, a sense of peace, a sense of control that helped me to feel regulated and to show up in a way that I could be proud of when things didn't go according to plan, when something did pop up and it would normally kind of push me over the edge, but because I was in a place of control and in a place of having my finger on the pulse, so to speak, of what I'm spending my time on, I knew that I would be able to handle any of those little setbacks, if and when they pop up. So increased emotional regulation is definitely one of, in my opinion, one of the surprising benefits of improved time management skills.
Okay, I've got one more for you. The fifth surprising benefit of better time management skills is improved relationships. I was talking with someone about this recently and I was sharing how I have found that when I take control of my day, when I take control of my calendar and I know what I'm working on and when I'm working on it, it allows me to be more present with my family, with my kids, with my husband, with my friends and with my clients. And it's because I'm not distracted, I'm not as overwhelmed with this running to-do list in my head or, you know, all these intrusive thoughts that pop up about oh, forgot to do this, oh, did I do that, oh, I still need to follow up with this person, or oh yeah, I got to get to that, oh, I forgot to do this. Those types of things, those thoughts that our brain offers to us, and I'm not going to lie and say that when you have improved time management skills, that those thoughts don't pop up anymore, because they still will. But I have found that they don't happen as often and when they do happen, I'm more equipped to address them internally. I can just sort of acknowledge okay, brain, yes, I hear you saying that you didn't do this, this and this, but I know I'll be able to get it done because I've planned for it on this day or I can plug it in my, I can plug it into my calendar on this day, Right. So it it sort of offloads some of that mental load and then it allows me to show up in my relationships, being more present and pausing, and not checking email and not reading texts and not, you know, trying to finish some, you know, report or grading papers or whatever, while I'm also spending time with my kids. And I'm not saying that you should feel guilty or you're a terrible person if you do do those things when you're around your kids or around your family. But I'm offering to you that it doesn't have to be that way, that you can a lot time for work things and personal things, and it will allow you then to make those connections and to show up feeling more present and connecting on a deeper level, without thinking like I really should be doing this instead. Right, and I'll also offer, for those of you that are listening, I think that this also helps improve our relationships with our clients. So, for those of you who are practicing, I think that by having better time management skills, you can show up in your sessions feeling calm, feeling in control, feeling very much aware of what you're working on, feeling capable, feeling prepared, right, imagine, imagine if you were showing up in your sessions as an SLP or an OT or a PT, feeling like I can give this client my undivided attention. I know exactly what we're doing today. Now, that doesn't mean everything's going to go according to plan, but you're not at least scrambling, trying to figure out oh yeah, what's this client working on again? Oh yeah, what did we do last week? You know you've got all of that planned out, to whatever level you, personally or professionally, want to have it planned out, but you can go into those sessions and focus on the things that you're good at, focus on the things that you need to do in order to serve your client at the highest level.
And, building off of that, I also think that this helps us model the same thing for our clients. So I mentioned earlier one of the surprising benefits about better time management is being able to model for our kids, teach our kids how to be good time managers. I would say the same thing applies for our clients, and I'm thinking here's what I mean by this. I'm thinking of when I was practicing and parents. I always had parents in the sessions. I did peeds and they would always be in the sessions with me. And I know that might not be the case for all of you who are listening, but when families were in the sessions with me, and even in the rare occasion when they weren't in a session for whatever reason, when I was interacting with those parents, I can't tell you how many times the parents or family members would say something along the lines of like oh, we just didn't have any time to work on that this week. Or, you know, oh, I'm not sure if we're able to make it to our session next week because I think we may have a scheduling conflict. Or, oh, I think we just need to take a little bit of a break because things are really crazy right now. Or I'm sorry we're late. You know, we, I just things went wrong and I'm sorry we're late. Or I'm sorry we forgot about this session. Or, oh, I totally forgot, that's what I was supposed to be working on. Now I'm sharing these examples with you, not because I'm saying that families are wrong if they've thought or done any of those things, not because I want to suggest that you, as the SLP, should shame them or judge them. No, no, no. This is like just judgment free. I'm not judging. I don't think we should judge. That's not going to help them in any way. However, I do think that when we can show up cool, common, collected for our sessions, when we can show up on time for our sessions, when we can slow down in our sessions and connect with the client and connect with the client's family on a deeper level, on a more personal level, we're sending that message that clients can do the same in their own lives, that clients are in control of their time, that clients can take the time to implement strategies that they can take the time to schedule out their sessions so that they're not forgetting about a session or they're not showing up late. Of course, life happens, things happen. It doesn't always go according to plan, but you're modeling for your clients the ways that they can take control of their time Right, and you're sending that message indirectly, but you're sending that message that, hey, I'm here for you, I'm showing up for you, I'm present and I want and expect you to be here and to be present as well, to the best of your ability. And it also allows us to meet them where they're at right, because, let's face it, not every client is able to do the things that we are recommending that they do at home. And I realize that I've seen this, as on the clients, you know, on the clinicians, from the clinician’s perspective. As a provider, I've also experienced this from the family perspective, as I've had my kids in intervention. I get it, but I think that let's work with families, let's work with them to figure out how they can make these things a priority. So sometimes what happens with my coaching clients is they start thinking differently about their time, they start thinking differently about the value of their time, they start recognizing that they're in control of their time. You know all of these things and it impacts how they show up, as clinicians and families pick up on that, clients pick up on that and they start to change how they're showing up, right? So the sort of trickle down effect of better time management skills can help not only you and the personal level, on the professional level, but also those around you being your friends, your family and your clients.
Okay, you know what I'm gonna throw on one extra thought right here. This is like my squirrel brain that's adding this in. I didn't plan this piece, but I just thought of it right now and I think it's important to mention that not only will not only will better time management skills benefit those people that I just named friends, family, clients but also contractors or employees or colleagues who you work with or who work around you, because when you, let's say, you're a private practice owner, when you show up as a business owner who's in control of her time, you're sending that message to your clinicians as well. You're teaching them, you're modeling them that there are ways for us to implement better time management skills, there's ways for us to reexamine the value of our time and it shows up in your interactions with your team. I've worked with some practices where we've done this. I've worked with practices where I went in and I coached all of the members of the team, so they were getting it directly from me. But I've also seen this happen with clients that I've worked with, with coaching clients that I've worked with who I didn't work with their team, I just worked with a private practice owner. Yet they say to me the business owner is my clients. Now will say to me yeah, I'm actually teaching this to my employees, I'm teaching this to my staff, to my team, and it's changing the way that we're doing business. It's changing the way that we're practicing. It's changing who we're able to help and how we're able to help them, and to me, it's like what better payoff than that right? That's the goal as a business owner is to change the way that you're running your business so that it's in alignment with what your values are and with the goals that you have, the dream that you have for you, for your business, for your private practice and for the people that you're serving. So, all right, little soapbox, little tangent I just feel like I had to throw that in there. I don't know how I didn't think of that before I planned out this episode, but here we are. I'm glad I got that in there.
So just to recap, five surprising benefits of time management improvements in your physical health, right, improvement in your ability to integrate new interests and new hobbies, teaching our children how to be better with time management, improvement in your ability to regulate your emotions and, last but not least, improvement in your relationships.
All right, that's all I've got for you on today's episode. If this landed with you, if this resonated with you, let me know. Pop into the SLP Support Group, let me know what you think about this week's episode. What questions do you have? What roadblocks are you facing? Let me help you. I will see you there and I'll talk to you all next week.
*Please note that this transcript was generated by AI and may contain errors.