Cara Harvey (00:24.558)

Welcome to the Purpose of Your Mom Show, episode 496. Today, we’re gonna do a little comparison of different types of time management strategies so you can determine which one is the best for you depending on the day and what you need. We’re gonna talk about batching versus flow versus the 15 minute formula, why I use all three, and how you can decide which ones to use what days and what minutes of what day. You can check out show notes at purposeofyourmom.com, so it’s podcast 496. And I get the frustration.

You’re like, all right, I wanna batch. I hear this a lot from like time blocks and batching and like, I’ve tried it, but I’ve always failed at it. And I’ve also tried, hey, let’s just go with the flow and see what happens, but nothing seems to move forward. And then sometimes your brain plays that trick on you where it feels like those 15 minute pockets don’t actually count. The issue here is not consistency. It’s not discipline. not your motivation.

It’s that if you’re not using the correct strategy for your brain, for your time and for your season, then you’re be butting heads against what actually works. Instead of trying to have this one size fits all time management type of way of living, what if you’re like, here’s my tool and I’m gonna use this tool in my toolbox. I’m gonna pull it out so that I can move forward on things. We’re gonna break down today these three different strategies, what they mean, how you can use them and how you can determine

where you’re forcing it to happen versus where you can choose something that works best for you. All right. And here’s the thing. Traditional productivity often misses the mark for us moms. I shared this in the last episode. It’s probably the reason I wrote my book, right? Because most advice out there assumes long uninterrupted time. I remember any bro books I read in the productivity space that are like, take the three hours, get the thing done. But we don’t often have that.

It also assumes predictable energy. We know that men are on a 24 hour cycle and women are on a 28 day cycle. My energy today is not the energy I will have tomorrow. It’s not the energy I will have next week. So it assumes that our energy is always the same. So we should always use the same strategy. And it also assumes the low mental load, which is the opposite for most of us, right? We are carrying a lot of mental energy and a lot of mental load. Our reality is the time we have to get things done.

Cara Harvey (02:41.878)

and time in general is fragmented. It is different every day. It is different every time of day. We also own and hold the emotional labor and we’re constantly multitasking, context switching. I try my best to like, I pick my kids up at 3.30 from school at three o’clock. I try to end my workday, put on my mom hat. But lately, especially because I’ve taken on multiple part-time jobs and things that I’m doing, really fun side projects.

It’s harder and harder to do that because I’m constantly like in this mode of I’m doing this and then I’m this person and now I have to be this person. Time management in itself though, it’s about capacity. It’s not about hours, right? We all, you you have the same 24 hours as Beyonce. Okay, but Beyonce has, you know, like a nanny and a chef and a cleaner, right? We don’t have the same 24 hours.

We are all at different capacities. And when you learn different time management strategies and techniques, you can take that concept and make it work for you. So I’m gonna define kind of the three different suggestions that I give moms on how they can get work done and on what that can look like for them. It’s what I use. And I’ll give you some real life examples of when I choose to use each strategy. I know, like, because I have moms come in my program.

They want it one size fits all. They want it to look a certain way. Just tell me what to do. But here’s the thing, I can’t. But I can give you tools where you can empower yourself to make informed decisions on what you need based on your season, your day, the time, okay? So let’s start with batching, which connects a lot to my time blocking strategy. I feel like, and I will say this, 15 minute formula batching and flow all fit into time blocking. I…

I’m a huge believer that time blocking is the best way for moms to manage their days. In particular, themed time blocking, which is what I teach, okay? It’s the concept of taking the hours, breaking down your day into three to four hour chunks, and then theming out what’s gonna happen during that three to four hours based on your life. Now inside each of my themed time blocks, sometimes I’m batching, sometimes on flow, sometimes on 15 minute formula.

Cara Harvey (04:55.948)

And that’s the three things we’re gonna talk about, but it all fits into time blocking. If you’re a mom and you’re trying to make your stuff fit with hour to hour schedule, I’m gonna suggest you give time blocking a try because it really is so hard for us to work that way because of the demands on us, all right? But let’s talk about what batching is. It is essentially grouping together similar tasks, okay? And this is where you’re gonna focus on, hey, I’m working on these tasks. Right now, I’m in my podcast batch, okay?

getting all my podcasts recorded so that I can get ahead. Now, why do I choose to do this? When I’m in a flow for the podcast, it’s so easy to, one episode to become four. I’m talking, I’m conversational, it’s easier. And again, I don’t fake it. You’ll know when I’m matching. If you’re watching on YouTube, I’m wearing the same outfit. I’m not changing my outfit eight times. Those things aren’t important to me and I don’t think they’re important to you. I think the content is important.

you’re the type of person that does care that I wear the same outfit for two or three episodes in a row, then you’re probably not my people, right? It really for me is about how can I get into a flow so I can record a bunch of episodes instead of starting and stopping, now I have to get my mic ready and then I have to like mentally prep myself. In my non-work life, my meal prep, batching for me in meal prep, I would rather take an hour and a half on a Sunday. We do like buffet meal prep around here or I’ll make like a bunch of.

potatoes, ground turkey, grill some chicken, and then we kind of just piece together our lunches and some dinners based on that. Doing that is so much faster than doing it in the flow state or the 15 minute formula because I’m taking out my ingredients. If I’m gonna use this pan, if my oven’s already on, I might as well get into a groove. Essentially think of batching as like getting into your groove. The other thing I think is great for batching are errands. I realized them a few years ago.

I was wasting so much time running errands every day. I was like, well, today I’m gonna run this errand and today I’m gonna, by the time I get in the car, and especially if I know this is maybe not the best for those of us who have little kids still in car seats, because I remember when my kids were still in car seats, you might want to use the 15 minute formula strategies.

Cara Harvey (07:08.086)

or flow strategies for your errands. For me, I’m like, let me batch because I’m not trying to get kids in and out of a car seat, right? That’s so frustrating and annoying. It’s just me. And I would rather batch at all my errands when my kids are at school so I could just drive around, do everything one day, maybe take an hour to get all those done, an hour and a half, than having to get in the car and go somewhere every single day. Other things that I like to batch together are like my admin block. This is where I’m like, all I’m gonna get my calendar done, my meal plan for the week.

go through the mail, I’m gonna go through the kids folders, like I’m gonna do all those sort of things, emails, sometimes like content creation days. I haven’t been on social media, but when I was doing a good flow for social, I would record a bunch of my reels. Getting in that flow allows me to get more done. Now, batching works for those types of tasks where you can get together, because it’s gonna build your momentum. Again, it’s the start that stops us. So once we get started,

It reduces your decision fatigue because you’re like, is what I’m working on today. I’m to go record four podcast episodes. And it’s really good. Batching is the best for like deeper creative work. When I wrote the book, I did it in a mix of 15 minute formula mindset, but it was mostly batching where I knew I had math it out. I use my numerical process. Ten thousand words divided by I can’t remember now like how many days I wanted to do it. I had to write a thousand words four times or five times a week every time I sat down.

To get into that flow felt really nice. And if I was to just stop and not allow myself to keep going and have to do the 15 minute formula, I think it wouldn’t have worked. So more creative types of tasks work really good with batching. And it also is nice if you have protected time, which we’ll talk about in the con section, I guess, in a second of when batching might not be the best for you. My kids go to traditional school, they are there nine to three. I have protected time.

I choose how to block it out. Some days I’m better at it than others. Some days I wanna watch TV. Some days I go and have coffee with friends instead of using my protected time, right? I have this freedom that I’ve created for myself on how I make a schedule. I’m not always the most efficient with it, but when I do have this protected time, I like to use it because I know that, for example, today is a batching day for the podcast.

Cara Harvey (09:23.776)

Why? It’s December. I know it’s February, but it’s December when I’m recording this. My kids will be home next week and the next two weeks for winter break. I will not have protected time to record podcasts. So I wanted to get a couple episodes for February ahead to give them to my podcast editor so that in January I wasn’t having to play catch up. I want to use that time smart. So it does allow me to not toggle back and forth as much because I’m more focused on I’m getting this one task done.

Cara Harvey (10:00.354)

Now there’s also challenges to batching, okay? When you have constant interruptions, it can make it really hard to sit and focus on stuff because you’re having to stop and start and then you don’t get that space. It also can, for some people, feel a little bit more overwhelming and rigid of like, okay, I do have two hours to work on this one thing, so I’m gonna batch all that out, but like, I’ve got five podcasts to record, I’ve got all these emails to go through, And it also requires upfront planning and energy.

This is going back to the energy piece of all this. Batching for me works best during certain weeks of my cycle. There are certain weeks where I’m like very low energy. I can’t batch very well. I’m a little scattered. And I don’t always know this. I can’t always predict. I do my best to try to like look at my cycle, look at the week, like set it up. But then there are some parts of my day.

where I’m lower energy. And I think, again, that’s the thing to remind yourself, like in my morning energy isn’t always my evening energy. So I can batch really well in the morning. Like this is 1030 in the morning right now. Peak time for me. I shared this on the last episode like this. Anything before noon between nine and noon, that first time block of my day is my most energy energized, focused product. It’s the best time for me to batch work stuff. So I know this about myself. So I try to make sure to batch work things in the morning.

I also know that like after like 1 30 I’m kind of done. Like I don’t really want to work anymore. I’m kind of like man. So I might batch different things then I might be like, all right, let me go watch an episode of TV while I batch stuff on my computer. I’m more administrative things. I’m still working, right? I also might be like, hey, this is a good time to run my errands. I never run my errands in the morning because

I know that that’s my energy time. So if I’m batch an errand day out, it’s gonna be at one o’clock in the afternoon. So I still have that uninterrupted time, but it works best for me. This will work best for you if you like the structure, which I love, so it works for me. you, like making a plan has you feeling like calmer, more together. You’re like, I need a better structured plan. And if you have access to longer blocks. So some of my friends who have littler kids,

Cara Harvey (12:10.55)

and you don’t have that as much longer blocks of time like I have some days of the week, this might not work for you, okay? Batching for me works best because it lets my brain focus on one thing at a time. And it also makes my brain feel safe, like going back to theme time blocking. I can say to my brain, hey, I know I need to work on these emails, but I have an email block later in the week, so I’m not gonna get distracted. Now, the second strategy we’re talking about is a little bit more flow.

I don’t always like this one. It’s not my personality, but I know it might be yours. So I want to talk to you about what flow is and how you can decide when to use a flow strategy. And at the end, I’m going to talk about how we use all three of these strategies together, which is super fun. This is choosing tasks based on kind of energy, intuition, capacity, and like what you feel like doing. So I teach a routine batching method, and I always share the one I have with my kids. When I taught my kids their morning routine,

They, picked tasks, we did it slowly over time. Now we’re at the point where they have a couple things they do. They have their breakfast and clean it up in the morning. They have to get dressed. They have to brush their teeth. And what am I missing? There was like a fourth thing that they’re supposed to do, but let’s just go with the three. Cause I can’t think of the fourth right now. So there’s, they do it so routinely. I can’t even think about it, right? So they have their tasks that they have to get done. We know that this is when it happens and I would like them to do it in a certain order, but they’re children.

And they don’t listen to all time. And also, that’s not the end goal. The end goal for me is that they get dressed, brush their teeth, clean up their breakfast, and are ready to go to school. Would I like my kids to brush their teeth before they get dressed so they don’t get toothpaste all over their shirt? Talking to my son here. Yes. But the end goal is that he brushes his teeth. And I can’t micromanage everything in his life. So, in this situation is pre-planning out what tasks have to get done, but deciding the order.

based on how you feel. Now, I’m gonna talk about a little more flow that is not my personality, but this is how I use flow first. I also will do this sometimes in my theme time blocks, depending on again, like what week I’m at in my period, like where I’m feeling, right? All those things. I will have a list of, these are the, okay, so I keep going back to podcasting, because I’m batching podcasts today. I have a list of all the podcast stuff I have to get done, all right? I had to record an intro, a mid-roll.

Cara Harvey (14:31.468)

I had to record two episodes. If I get any more done, that’s a win. I needed to pick all my February topics, all my February mid rolls and outline the third episode. Like those are all the things I wanted to get done from nine to 12 today. I’m doing good. I’m on my episode two. If I do a third one, it’s a bonus. Cause I’m just trying to get ahead. Otherwise I do have to record next week. And I just really, I just don’t want to record. I don’t like to record when my kids are home. Like I just, would rather not worry about it. But anyway, this is like what I had to do that week. Those six tasks.

So I decided I was going to batch them together, okay? Which means from nine to 12 on Friday morning, which is where we’re at today, I’m gonna do all my podcast things. I’m not thinking about the rest of my business. I wanna think about the club. I wanna think on On Purpose You, my brand new program. Like have all these things I wanna think about, but right now I’m only thinking about podcasting. Where flow comes in is I’m permitting myself to do it in whatever order I feel like. So if I feel like…

recording an episode and then taking a break and picking topics, I can. If I feel like outlining, I can. The goal though is up at the end of the block, all of it gets done, but I allow myself to be flexible and adaptive based on what I need, okay? This is another one of those like when my brain feels lighter, I’m gonna work through my admin things, maybe doing some shorter bursts of work. Again, this is great for like the creative work when you’re like, I’m inspired to work on this right now. Cause you don’t wanna be like, well, I said this was my time block.

for home tasks, but I got really inspired about a personal project or a work project. So I’m not allowing myself to look at it. Sometimes you want to give yourself, right, that time to be flexible. Now I struggle with flexibility. So I just gave you an example of how I use flexibility within structure and that works for me, but you might be a person who needs to be a little more adaptive, right? It also honors your emotional.

and your mental energy. And it works well when you’re kind of like in an unpredictable season. We teach a concept of when the poop hits the fan. And that’s like when you’re having a hard time, like what your blocks look like inside my program. So when the poop hits the fan is, is great to be like, I’m to flow. These are the five things I got to get done today. When they get done, they get done. All right. The challenges here that you may face and I know I do is easy to avoid the hard tasks when you don’t have it planned out. It’s easy to be like, I’ll get to that Monday. I’ll get to that Friday. And it never comes.

Cara Harvey (16:46.412)

Also, progress can feel a little invisible when you’re just kind of going more with the feeling. And it requires a really strong self-awareness to pause yourself and be like, am I just putting this off? Am I procrastinating? This will work best for you if you’re like super creative, energy-driven, you need flexibility, my rebels, right? Like constrained in the rigid schedules doesn’t work for you. Or if you’re in like a high interruption season, this will work good. But I also want you to think back to what I said about how I use both strategies together.

and I’ll talk about how I use the 15 minute formula and all of that in a second. But I do use flow within my batches. It does work. If I’m my errands, the example I gave there, right? If I have an errands block and I’m running my errands, now normally I’ll just do it by geography because that makes the most sense. But let’s just say for, you know, for example, today I could also do my flow. What do I feel like doing right now? Do I feel like doing this one? Oh, I’m really excited to go run over to the thrift store. So maybe I’ll do that one first, you know.

I allow myself to have flexibility because I’m a human being, not a robot. Now, one of my favorite strategies, as we know, the 15-minute formula. This concept is great for making consistent progress by using small, focused pockets of time. This is a great bridge between structure and flexibility. The core belief in my process is that small pockets count, progress compounds, right, doing little by little over time,

And consistency beats intensity because you’re showing up. Don’t forget, though, consistent doesn’t mean constant. It just means I show up. I think that the 15 minute formula works really great to also convince your brain that you can just get started. Part of it is saying to yourself, I don’t have to do it all perfectly in order for it to count. So if I can just clean my bathroom for 15 minutes, I’m counting that as a win. If I can just get

15 minutes of emails written, it’s better than none. Often though, the trick here is we get more done than we realize because we get started. And then the barrier, the obstacle of getting started is off our plates. And now it’s just about showing up.

Cara Harvey (19:14.092)

I use the 15 minute formula a lot because it really is that mind trick when I’m unmotivated, when I’m struggling to get started. This is saying like, hey, it’s nap time. I can’t work on all my goals, but can I get 15 minutes of something done? This is what we do in coworking. This is why the timers work because it’s saying this is good enough. Okay, I just dropped my kids off at school. I have 15 minutes. What can I get done? This is something we were talking about in…

What was it? Two days ago, I think, in one of our coaching calls, a few of us have cleaning goals for the new year. So we were talking about how to make it work. And I was saying, I look, I have to do my cleaning, like as soon as drop off is done or it’s done, like anything after that, it’s gonna feel extra and I’m not gonna wanna do it. And one of my members, she was like, yeah, and I’m telling myself I’m not doing more than 30 minutes. And I love that because that’s something I’m gonna do too. I’m gonna be like, I have to get it done in the first 30 minutes of the day. And what doesn’t get done doesn’t get done because I don’t wanna be doing it forever.

This also is a good for like a short sprint before or after dinner, like doing a quick pickup before we eat dinner, like, hey, dinner’s almost done. Let’s do a quick pickup of the toys. Let’s get all this stuff off or at the end of the day to reset or let me get one action done, right? Maybe I don’t have three hours, Cara, to work on work stuff, but can you do one thing? This is great for us who struggle with getting started, who are feeling really overwhelmed with our tasks.

And if you’re looking to build some confidence and some momentum, right, it creates this new identity. I show up even when time is limited. And I say 15 minute formula, but 15 minutes can be 30 minutes, can be 40. It can be whatever you want. But the concept is I’m just going to get started for 15 minutes. The challenge is here, though, is it requires you to let go of the perfectionism. You have to let go of the all or nothing thinking, which is one of the biggest struggles. The moms that come to me have worked with thousands of moms and. 90 percent of them.

Their big struggle is they’re stuck in perfectionism. They had the all or nothing thinking and they need to get out of it in order to move forward. The thing with this also is that progress often feels slower because you’re not getting three hours to work on something, because you’re only decluttering one, your spice cabinet verse the entire kitchen, okay? But it’s sustainable progress. And this is gonna be best for you if like the big plan feels daunting, it feels overwhelming.

Cara Harvey (21:38.144)

and you don’t have a lot of those like bigger blocks. This is also good if you’re like, I need to build some momentum. And also I need to rebuild trust with myself that I can be a person who shows up. So how do you decide? Where do I use it? When do I use it? Which one makes the most sense? All right. I encourage you to reflect on a couple of these questions and ask yourself, like, do I know myself, right? Do I shut down when I don’t know what to work on? Like, do I sit down and I’m like,

I’m not sure what to do right now, so I’m just gonna stare and disassociate, right? Then flow is probably not for you, okay? You need a little more plan. Do you resist a rigid plan or do you crave a more rigid plan? Because then batching and the 15 minute formula might be a little more up your alley. Do your interruptions derail you or can you restart? Because if an interruption at any point throws you completely off, the 15 minute formula might be a better thing for you to lean on.

These things also can change based on the task. So I have some tasks that I’m better doing in batching. I have some tasks I’m better doing the 50 minute for you laundry, right? I used to batch laundry. I realized that I can’t really batch laundry anymore because I just look at four loads that I have to fold and I’m like, no, I’m not doing it, but I can do one load. One load feels easy to me. OK, there are some seasons where I don’t have time to do one load a day, so I have to batch it and then I change my brain around it. I want you to think.

Batching will give you kind of clarity and focus if you have the time to do it. And flow gives you permission to lean into your energy, some flexibility. The 15 minute formula can help you get consistency and grow confidence because you’re like, hey, I’m showing up, I’m showing up, I’m showing up. But your strategy will change by the goal, your mental load, your season of motherhood, your life demands. And I want you to take these three tools and ask yourself, which is the best tool for me in this situation with this goal right now? All these are tools in your toolbox.

that you are capable of using, you just have to stop and think through. Because we want to go to Pinterest and print the chart and it’s going to solve our problems, but that’s not what your life is like. You have to learn the tools to apply to your current life, current minute, what you’re feeling, things like that.

Cara Harvey (24:07.246)

So if you’re looking for a little bit of a framework, I’m a framework early, I want you to think of this way. Batch the big things that you can do. If you have the stuff to go, again, this is December when I’m recording, cause I’m batching, and I’m trying to get ahead. If you have the time to batch the wrapping of the gifts, go do it, right? Batch the big. Flow through the things that are flexible, the things that you can be a little more flexible with, like I’m getting my cookies made today for Christmas.

I am flowing through. I know they all have to get done by the end of the day. I don’t know which ones I feel like doing first. I don’t have much of a rhyme or reason. Most of them are in the freezer. So I’ve got to take them out and go with it. So I’m flowing through the order, right? Flow through the flexible order and then use your 15 minutes for consistency. Don’t feel like you have to force it just because it’s what other people are doing. And don’t discount your small wins when you’re getting a few things done. I want you to adjust your strategy.

based on how you’re feeling. That’s self leadership. That’s you know what you need and you are very capable of doing it. So I want you to pick one strategy this week, okay? Pick which one you’re gonna use for what specific goal, cause every goal is a little different and pay attention, track it. How does it feel using this strategy at this point? What is getting done? Am I stressed out? Do I have momentum, right? Progress doesn’t always have to be so like in your face, but as long as you’re moving forward, I don’t care if it’s an inch or a mile, it matters.

And these three strategies can help you move forward and feel so much less stress. Remember, you’re not bad at time management. You’re learning how you work best and what strategies work best with you. So head over to A Purpose to RememberMom.com such as PECS 496. Go check out the show notes, send me a DM, go leave a review if this helped you and share this with another mom friend because I think that we don’t do this enough. We hear these great things and we’re like, this is great. And then you go to the next one.

The best, we’ve been almost 500 episodes in and the reason our show continues to get downloads is because all of you share it with your mom friends. And I appreciate you so much for that. So if someone ever shares an episode, like say thank you to them, right? Cause they’re giving you a nice free little gift and I am honored to just be in your earbuds today. Head to yourpurposetovermom.com, such as pack S496 and I’ll see you next week.