Episode 38 - Stop Living Everyone Else’s Schedule: How High-Achieving Women Design Their Ideal Week
Welcome to Episode 38 of the Time for Living Podcast!
TRANSCRIPT
show notes
Welcome back to Time For Living! If you’ve ever felt like you’re running on autopilot—living by everyone else’s agenda but your own—this episode is for you. Today, we’re unpacking why high-achieving women so often feel overwhelmed and how you can reclaim your time by intentionally designing a week that energizes you and supports your ambitions. Get ready to move from reactive to intentional, and finally make space for what truly matters.
What You’ll Learn:
• Why managing time isn’t enough—and how designing your week changes everything
• The four-step Ideal Week Design process:
• Energy Mapping: Identify your natural energy patterns to work smarter, not harder
• Anchor Your Priorities: Schedule your non-negotiables first
• Boundary Setting: Learn what to stop, delegate, or do differently
• Implementation Rhythm: Make your new schedule stick with the 80% rule
• How to create your own “Quick Win Challenge” by designing one intentional day this week
By the end of this episode, you’ll have a practical framework to design your ideal week, so you can stop feeling depleted and start feeling empowered by your schedule.
Free Resource:
Ready to see where your time is really going? Download your free Time Audit Workbook and get clear on your time drains, high-value activities, and what you can immediately change: timeforliving.co/takingcontrol
Join my email list at timeforliving.co for weekly quick-win tips, exclusive resources, and a supportive community of ambitious women who get it.
Let’s Connect:
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timeforlivingco/
Final Thought:
Your future self is counting on you to step off the treadmill of “busy” and start building a life that supports your goals and your well-being. Start with just one intentional day—because real change begins with small, consistent steps. You’ve got this!
TRANSCRIPT - Stop Living Everyone Else’s Schedule: How High-Achieving Women Design Their Ideal WeeK
IntroductioN
Hey there, and welcome back to Time For Living, or if you’re new here, welcome to the Time For Living family and I’m so glad you’re here with me today.
I have a question for you today, do you remember the last time you did something just for you. You keep telling yourself that once this project is done, once this season is over, once you get through this busy period, THEN you’ll have time for the things that actually matter to you.
But that “someday” never comes, does it?
I remember one time I was sitting in my car waiting for my son to get out of school, and this thought just hit me out of nowhere: “I feel like I’m living everyone else’s agenda but my own.” And it just stopped me in my tracks.
Can you relate to that? Because I bet if you’re listening right now, you’re nodding your head thinking, “Yes, that’s exactly how I feel.”
Here’s the thing – you didn’t become successful by accident. You’re strategic, you’re capable, you’re brilliant at what you do. But somewhere along the way, you started saying yes to everything and everyone except yourself.
Today, we’re going to change that. We’re going to talk about how to design your ideal week – not some Pinterest-perfect fantasy, but a real, achievable week that honors both your ambitions AND your need for breathing room.
And I’m going to give you a framework that you can start using immediately. No waiting until Monday, no waiting until next month. Today.
The Why
So let’s talk about why this keeps happening. Why do brilliant, capable women like you keep ending up feeling like they’re drowning in their own success?
It’s not because you’re not good at time management. Trust me, you wouldn’t be where you are if you couldn’t manage your time. The real issue is that you’ve been managing time instead of designing it.
What do I mean by that? Well, managing time is reactive. It’s looking at your calendar and trying to fit everything in like a game of Tetris. You’re constantly adjusting, rearranging, squeezing things in. Sound familiar?
But designing time? That’s intentional. That’s looking at your week and saying, “What do I actually want this to look like? What would make me feel energized instead of depleted?”
Most of us – and I include myself in this because I’ve been there – we default to what I call “the accommodation mindset.” We accommodate everyone else’s needs, everyone else’s timelines, everyone else’s priorities. And then we wonder why we feel resentful and overwhelmed.
Here’s what’s really happening: You’ve never actually decided what YOUR ideal week looks like. You’ve just been responding to what everyone else needs from you.
Think about it – when was the last time you sat down and asked yourself, “If I could design my perfect Tuesday, what would that look like? When would I do my best work? When would I exercise? When would I have space to think?”
I’m guessing never, right? Because we’ve been taught that being busy equals being important, that being available equals being valuable.
But here’s what I’ve learned from working with a lot of women just like you: The women who feel most fulfilled and least overwhelmed aren’t the ones doing the most things. They’re the ones doing the RIGHT things at the RIGHT times in ways that actually energize them.
They’ve stopped trying to fit their lives into other people’s schedules and started designing schedules that fit their lives.
And that’s exactly what we’re going to do today.
Four Step Solution
I’m going to walk you through my four-step Ideal Week Design process. This isn’t theory – this is the exact framework I use with my private clients, and it’s what I use in my own life.
Step One: Energy Mapping
Before we can design your ideal week, we need to understand your natural energy patterns. And no, I don’t mean just figuring out if you’re a morning person or a night owl – though that’s part of it.
I want you to think about this past week. When did you feel most focused and creative? When did you feel most social and collaborative? When did you feel like you were running on empty?
For most of the women I work with, there’s usually a pattern. Maybe you’re sharp and strategic in the mornings but better at collaborative work in the afternoons. Maybe Mondays feel overwhelming but Wednesdays feel manageable.
Your ideal week needs to honor these patterns, not fight against them. If you’re trying to do your most important creative work at 4 PM when your brain is fried, you’re making everything harder than it needs to be.
Step Two: Anchor Your Priorities
Now, I want you to identify your non-negotiables. These are the things that, when you do them consistently, make everything else feel more manageable.
For some women, it’s their morning workout. For others, it’s uninterrupted focus time for their most important project. For some, it’s family dinner without phones.
Here’s the key: These anchors go on your calendar FIRST. Not last, after everything else is scheduled. First.
I had a client who kept saying she wanted to work out consistently, but she’d try to squeeze it in whenever she had time. Guess what? She never had time. So we anchored it: 7 AM, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Non-negotiable. Everything else got scheduled around those anchors.
Within a month, she was the strongest she’d been in years AND more productive at work because she was starting her day feeling powerful and energized.
Step Three: Boundary Setting
This is where most people get uncomfortable, but it’s also where the biggest changes happen. You need to identify what you’re going to stop doing, delegate, or do differently.
I want you to look at your current week and ask yourself: What’s draining my energy without adding real value? What am I doing just because I’ve always done it? What am I doing because I think I “should” but it doesn’t actually serve my goals?
Maybe it’s checking email first thing in the morning when you know it derails your focus. Maybe it’s saying yes to every social invitation when what you really need is downtime. Maybe it’s staying late at work because you think it makes you look dedicated, when really it just makes you less effective the next day.
Here’s what I’ve learned: You can’t add good things to your week without removing some things that aren’t serving you. Your time is finite. Acting like it isn’t is what got you overwhelmed in the first place.
Step Four: Setting an Implementation Rhythm
Finally, you need to create a rhythm that makes your ideal week actually sustainable. This isn’t about perfection – it’s about consistency.
I recommend what I call the “80% rule.” If you can stick to your ideal week design 80% of the time, you’re winning. Life happens, unexpected things come up, and that’s okay. The goal isn’t to be rigid; it’s to be intentional.
Start with just three changes. Maybe it’s protecting your morning routine, blocking focus time, and having a consistent evening shutdown ritual. Master those three things before you try to overhaul everything.
Remember, you’re not trying to become a different person. You’re trying to become the best version of who you already are, but with systems that actually support you instead of exhaust you.
Summary
Okay, before we wrap up, I want to give you something you can do today. Not tomorrow, not next week. Today.
Here’s your Quick Win Challenge: I want you to design just ONE ideal day. But I want you to think about this in two parts.
First, imagine your ultimate ideal day – the one that would happen if you had complete control over your schedule, your responsibilities, everything. Maybe you’d start with a peaceful morning routine, have uninterrupted focus time for your most important work, take a proper lunch break, spend quality time with people you love, and end with something that fills your cup. Don’t worry about whether it’s realistic right now. Just dream it up.
Got that picture? Good. Now here’s the key: Your current ideal day doesn’t need to look exactly like that future vision. It just needs to move you one step closer to it.
So pick a day from this upcoming week – maybe it’s tomorrow, maybe it’s later on in the week – and I want you to intentionally design it with ONE element from that future ideal day.
Maybe your ultimate ideal day starts with yoga and journaling, but right now you can commit to five minutes of deep breathing before you check your phone. Maybe your future self has two hours of uninterrupted creative work, but this week you can protect just 30 minutes.
The magic isn’t in creating perfection immediately. The magic is in starting small and building momentum.
Start with those energy patterns we talked about. When do you do your best thinking? When do you need to be “on” for other people? When do you need space to recharge?
Then add ONE anchor from your future ideal day – even if it’s a smaller version. What’s one thing that, if you did it that day, would make you feel like you’re moving toward the life you actually want? Schedule it first.
Then look at what you can remove or do differently. Maybe instead of checking email throughout the day, you check it at 10 AM and 3 PM. Maybe instead of saying yes to that lunch meeting, you suggest a phone call while you walk.
The goal isn’t to create the perfect day. The goal is to create ONE day that feels intentional instead of reactive, and that includes at least one element that makes you think, “Yes, this is who I’m becoming.”
And here’s what I want you to notice: How different does it feel to START your day knowing what you’re going to focus on and why, instead of just reacting to whatever’s loudest?
Now, if you’re thinking, “This sounds great, but I need help figuring out where all my time is actually going right now,” I’ve got something for you.
I’ve created something called the Time Audit Workbook, and it’s exactly what it sounds like – a step-by-step guide to understanding where your time is really going, what’s working, and what needs to change.
It takes about 20 minutes to complete, but the insights you’ll get will save you hours every week. And when you download it, you’ll also get my email series with more strategies for designing a life that actually energizes you instead of exhausts you.
You can grab it at timeforliving/takingcontrol (I’ll link it in the shownotes). Because here’s what I know about you: You didn’t get where you are by settling for “good enough.” You got here by being strategic and intentional. It’s time to apply that same strategic thinking to how you spend your time.
Your ideal week isn’t a luxury – it’s a necessity. You deserve to feel energized by your life, not depleted by it. You deserve to wake up excited about your day, not dreading it.
The women who have the most impact, who build the most fulfilling careers, who create the most meaningful lives – they’re not the ones doing the most things. They’re the ones doing the right things in ways that energize them.
And that can be you. Starting this week. Starting with one ideal day.
So go design it. Your future self is going to thank you.
Thanks for listening to Time For Living. I’ll see you next week, and remember – you don’t need more time. You just need better systems and this is where we create them together, you’ve got this.