Do you ever feel like you're just bouncing around from 1 thing to the

next? Do you forget about something you unscheduled, or maybe even

double or triple book yourself for something? I've been

there, but only when I'm not doing the things that

we discuss in today's episode. Welcome to educate and

rejuvenate the podcast, stop feeling frazzled with your schedule,

episode number 138.

Insert the intro. Welcome to the

podcast today. I'm really excited for today's interview. So

today is actually an interview that originally aired on my friend Chantel's

podcast, Preschool Made Easy. Now so she's

actually interviewing me because it was for her show. But as soon as we

finished up the interview, we just had such a great time chatting and I feel

like we just really clicked and it was a great conversation. So I asked her

if she would be okay if I also aired it on my episodes. So

it so it originally aired on the preschool

made easy show. So if you love this interview and you happen to teach preschool

or pre k or kindergarten or have children that age, make sure you also subscribe

to her show. But it's really a topic that all teachers can benefit

from. So if you don't teach those grade levels, don't fret. Today's episode is

actually not grade level specific. It's really about creating

your schedule. I was just helping her preschool audience with that.

It was so much fun that I'm really excited that we get to share it

with you today. And Chantee, she's also presenting

at our educate and rejuvenate event as you'll hear more about during that

interview. But this is just a quick reminder that Educate and

Rejuvenate is getting so close. I know a lot of you love coming to

this event each year and you might just be, yeah, I just need to grab

my ticket before it begins. But here's the deal. The pre party

is starting July 8th. Every day we're having giveaways. We're

having fun Every day, like, even there's a giveaway going on where

each day, if you tune into the podcast, you get entered in to win a

prize. Like, it's so much fun. I don't want you to miss out on

the pre party or the event. So take right now as your

sign to go and grab your ticket. It's educateandrejuvenate.com/conference.

We want you to snag your ticket. We don't want you to miss it. We

talk more about the why during the episode and what exactly is happening

during the event, but, I mean, the long story short, it is it is the

only professional development that I know of that is really PD meets

personal development, meets a crazy fun time, community,

comedy, giveaways, galore. It is

only $19 to come and take out the price, actually, in case we

change that. And you can do it all for less

than getting takeout for your family. Like, it is such a great deal.

Okay. So without further ado, though, let's get to today's

interview.

Alright. Hey, Kelsey. Thanks so much for joining me today. I am so excited to

have you on our show and ask you some questions. Thank

you so much for having me, Shanti. It's such an honor to be here on

your show today. Yeah. Awesome. Alright. So

can you tell me a little bit about what an intentional schedule

is and why do parents need 1?

Yes. I think this is such an important question. I feel like with

kids, it's so easy to to just get lost in the

motions of everything. Like, I mean, I don't know about you, but I've definitely

triple booked, not even just double booked myself or something before

between my 3 kids and my husband and myself and

all the different things that we have. It's easy enough to do that. And if

so if you don't get intentional, there are so many opportunities all over the place.

Right? Like our kids, they might have soccer practice or gymnastics or

art lessons or, you know, dentist appointments, doctor's

appointment, everything that we have. And then if we're teaching, like, I

know you have parents and teachers who listen. Right? Yes. And if

you're working, like, there's another whole aspect to it. Right? So it's just,

like, so much going on in our lives, and it doesn't matter if you are

a stay at home mom, if you're teaching. No matter what, you've just got a

lot going for you. And it's all good things. Right? Generally, it's

usually, like, we have a lot of great things to be grateful for that are

going on in our lives. But, what I often tend to

hear when I'm coaching either parents, teachers, really

anybody, the most common feeling that comes up in our community of educators,

which when I say educator, I really mean anybody who teaches anyone anything.

So, that means, like, if you are teaching your child at home, I

include you in that. Just wanna make sure that they know that. Because sometimes Yes.

They're like, oh, I'm a teacher. I'm not an educator. Parents, you are definitely

if you're teaching your kid, you are a teacher too. 100% agree with

you. That was a decided, but what I hear from our whole educator

community is overwhelmed. Everybody's feeling

overwhelmed all the time. Yes. Especially when you think about it, like,

the running to do list, like, bouncing around our heads, like, all the time.

And when we think about all those things, it makes us feel overwhelmed. Right? When

you're like, I haven't done this yet, or I need to do that, or I

need to rush to this next thing. We feel really overwhelmed. And

an intentional schedule helps us to kind of wind down that overwhelm a

bit. And I know some people are like, oh, well, I just don't like planning.

I like to go with the flow. And the way I teach an intentional schedule

is it can be very structured if you're very type a. Like, you're like, no.

I like to have, like, everything really organized. So if you're like, no. I'm already

doing that. That's great. Also, it can be very good with the flow, but

there's some structure to it. Right? Like, you can have flow built into

an intentional schedule, which we'll talk a bit more about today. So it's really gonna

look like whatever it needs to look like for you, but it's really important to

have because it relieves that overwhelm that, like, just constant

everything going on. Yes. And I love that. I love that you mentioned, you

know, we try our best, but we really do fit into so many different

roles simultaneously. And it gets hard when you have that running to do

list, even if you have it written down. You can have a daily

planner, and you can have, like, the hottest digital planning system

and whatever the trendiest thing happening. But sometimes it's like,

it just keeps rolling over and then you feel like you're not doing enough

or like you're doing too much, but you're not really going anywhere. Right? Right.

Every single parent can relate to this. So can you walk us

through trying to figure out how to manage urgent

or important tasks? Yeah. So 1

thing that I like to talk about is, for 1, the difference between

urgent and important tasks. So when I was doing the

research for my book, I found this quote from Dwight d

Eisenhower in a 1954 speech. Right? So he says, I

have 2 kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are

not important and the important are never urgent. So a lot of times,

we tend to have urgent things come up. For For example, 1 that just comes

up as a parent, which obviously this is urgent. You're going to attend to it.

Like, my daughter just, like, fell down and skinned her knee. Like, that's urgent. Suddenly,

I'm dropping whatever I do, and I'm going to go help her with that. Nothing

wrong with that. That's what we wanna do as parents. Right? But it's when little

things are coming up all the time, like, oh, I forgot to do this thing

that matters today and is not going to matter at all tomorrow or a week

from now. When all these urgent things pop up, if we're spending all of our

time doing urgent things that are like, oh, it's urgent and needs to be done

right now timely, but maybe it's not important. Maybe it's not, like,

long term. This is something that's going to help me move towards

my goals or move towards my child's education or, you know,

whatever it is. So not that we're not going to tend to urgent

things because we need to, but it's when we get pulled into only doing

urgent things or mostly doing urgent things and

forgetting about the important. That's where we can get ourselves

into a little bit of I mean, there's a little bit of trouble

where we're gonna feel that overwhelmed because we're always gonna feel like

we're not getting what we want to get done. So when we're

just not prioritizing those important things. The problem comes when all the

important things are keeping us from getting those done. And this is called the

urgency effect is actually what it's called. So,

the result of it is we feel burned out from doing so many things, and

yet we still aren't getting all the things we want to get done.

So what happened later on, kind of utilizing that concept,

Stephen Covey from the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

wanted to kinda find a solution to this problem. So he took this concept

of urgent versus important and put it into a matrix.

Because, again, sometimes something is urgent and important. Right? Like, for

example, even where I said, like, oh, my daughter fell down and skinned her knee

or whatever. Obviously, it is important to me as her mother to

go take care of her. Right? So I'm going to do that. Do it right

away and make sure that's taken care of. But then there's, there's urgent

and not important. Right? There's like, oh, we really need groceries.

Like, yes, I need to feed my family. Right? It's urgent. We need to do

that. But we can plan that in. Right? It's not it

has to be done right this second unless there wasn't intentional planning

and, oh, no, so we suddenly don't have anything. Right? And that's where it can

become an urgent thing that gets in the way of us doing what we want

to do. Does that make sense? Yes. Of course. Absolutely. And I love

that you describe the difference between urgent and important

because a lot of people tend to confuse both terms. And it's like,

well, a lot of things are urgent and important. Yeah. But when you're looking at

from a scope of or a perspective of what needs to be done right

now or what is getting me closer to my goals.

Right? What is moving the needle towards my goals? Yes. Exactly. And

so there's this matrix. So that's 2 parts of it. There's urgent and important, and

there's urgent and not important. Right? So if you're kind of trying to envision it,

there's, like, this matrix. And if you Google the urgency matrix, you'll

find it. Also, there's a cute illustration we put

together in my book, Educate and Rejuvenate, that is coming out soon. But

there's like kind of 4 quadrants, so it's kinda like imagine there's like urgent

and important on a matrix. Right? So there's urgent and important, that is you're

gonna do it right away or schedule it very soon. There's not

urgent and important where it's like it's not urgent, it's not timely,

but it's really important for your goals. And you want to be moving

forward to it, like, moving forward on it. For example, like,

if 1 of your goals is to run a marathon, like, it's not gonna

be urgent each day that I need to get up and I need to run.

Right? That's not urgent. Yeah. But if you keep putting it off, it's

important to you. And then when race day comes, you're not gonna be ready for

it. Right? So it's not urgent, but it's important. So we want to fit it

in. But again, we don't have somebody telling us, like, you have to do it

a lot of the time, so it's easy for us to put it off. Right?

These are important things that are important to us, but we need to

make sure we schedule that. So it's an important part to think of when you're

kind of creating an intentional schedule. And then the next 1 is urgent and not

important. Kind of what I talked about. Like, okay. It's urgent. We need to have

food on the table each day. Right? Or, you know, I need to have lesson

plans for my classroom. Obviously and again, you could say these things are

important, but by important, I mean, like, does today's lesson

like, today's very specific lesson plan, obviously, teaching in general, feeding your family

in general. Yes. But it's like, the 1 for today, is that, like, what we

eat today, whether it's this exact dinner is the most important

nutritious meal, is that gonna matter, like, a month from now? Like, what you ate

for dinner today? Not really gonna matter. Right? So we're talking about what, like, individually

that you're doing. Is it compounding? Is it important long term? So, again,

if I, like, say not important, you're like, but grocery shopping is important. It's

like, well, what I'm talking about is, like, that exact 1.

Right? Right. For example, grocery shopping, a way you could for urgent

and not important, like, it's like you wanna see if you can delegate it if

possible. So for example, grocery shopping, instead of, like, lugging your children

to the grocery store, maybe you do, like, a Walmart plus grocery pickup or

Instacart or something, or even just your grocery pickup where you just drive

and they put it in your trunk. Right? Yeah. So you can, like, delegate it

so it doesn't take you as much time. And even better is if you can,

like, kinda put in that online order, like, have, like, a

process in your schedule or, like, every Sunday night or whatever it is, I go

in and I add the things to my cart, and then they get delivered to

me. And then it's not, like, popping up as an urgent thing because it's more

of a routine. Right? And then it's not even popping up as an urgent thing

anymore because you've got a system in place that actually is a lot easier.

So when you can plan ahead and do things like that, it can really help.

Another thing, and this won't work for preschool, but, like, for the older

grade teachers, I will tell them, like, maybe you can have your kids help you

grade papers, but papers. But pre k, that's not going to happen. But for that,

you decide, is it important? Do I need to grade all these things? You know?

Like, I've learned a lot

a lot with preschool. Pre k is hands on anyway. Right? So it's

like, where can I where can I, you know, have fun with this? But then

also, how can I make it so I'm not doing so much outside of

school? Right? Exactly. And then the final 1 is not urgent and

not important. That's when you're really again, I was kinda getting into it. Like, does

this need to be done? Like, do I need to grade this? Like, a lot

of times our brain tells us I have to do this, but really, you don't.

Like, we're just telling ourselves you have to. So it's not and I'm not saying

ask yourself, does this need to be done? The answer has to be no. But

actually ask for the question, because a lot of times we don't. Sometimes we might

be like, no. I really do feel like I need to do this, or I

really want to do this, and then own that you want to do that, and

then it's important to you. You know? So but a lot of times we just

tell ourselves we have to do things or we're people pleasing. We're like, oh, well,

my principal really wants me to do this or my husband really wants me to

do this or, you know, whoever. So again, it's just being more

intentional. Like, does this need to be done? Does it need to be done by

me? Does it need to be done now? Yes. I love that. Oh my gosh.

So many things about it. Where do I even start? Walmart orders a

100% yes. I love having a system where it's just like

you said. We're all about the routines on this show. And, of course, my

audience knows that we love having a routine for pretty much just about

everything. And placing that order of groceries,

like, let's say on a Sunday or just, like, 5 minutes when you're just sitting

on the couch and no one's bothering you or jumping all over you. It's like,

okay, I can actually get things done and know what's expected. The kids know

what's expected. Well, okay, this order is coming in. As soon as it comes in,

everybody's hands on deck. We're gonna put everything away, and then that's it. We have

our groceries done. Right? It's kind of like a it's a process and a system

that we have as a family, but it's, like, fun. Like you said, you make

it fun. So and I love that you also mentioned routines. So we're

gonna lead into our next question. How can we create an

ideal week and kind of plan out

our weekly schedule with keeping routines in mind, of

course? Yes. So the concept of the ideal week, I learned it

gosh, I don't even remember when. I learned it a while back, but I just

love it. The idea behind it is that you're creating kind of

schedule. You're looking at it's kind of like a planner page, like, with hour time

blocks, but you're not planning out just this week. You're planning out what does

an ideal week look like, Almost like you're making a template for what your week

will look like week to week. Now some people argue back and be like, well,

my week changes from week to week. Like, and there are things that change. Right?

Like, you know, you might have a dentist appointment 1 week and depending like, some

people have less flexible work schedules. Totally get that. So you need to do

this however it applies to you. But, for

example, for those who are preschool teachers or those who are, you know, stay at

home moms who are homeschooling their preschooler or whatever,

you might be, like, these are the hours that I'm teaching, and you'll put that

in your ideal week. Let's say, like, you know, if you're a mom homeschooling

your preschooler, maybe you're, like, from 9 to noon is when we

do these different activities and, like, really have that time together and read lots of

books and do whatever we're doing. So you put, like, 9 to 12, whatever it

and again, it looks different for everybody. I homeschool too. Sometimes my homeschool

is an hour, so I'm, like, 9 to 12, that's a lot. But Exactly. But

yeah. Anyway. But as an example. Okay? So put in there and again, I like

to give generous blocks. Right? So put 9 to 12. Sometimes it might not be

9 to 12, but on your ideal week, you'll put that. Right? So you put

that there. You put in your self care. So, like, for me, I have

kinda my default, like, this is when I do my workouts. This is when I

do yoga. This is when I do strength training. And I have that plugged in

in my ideal week, and really it kind of stays pretty consistent from week to

week. But then if for some reason when I'm planning, and we'll get to that

too, it doesn't. I just, you know, know I need to move it. Right? But

you kind of have things planned out. You're like, this is when we have family

time. This is when we have dinner time, and you kind of actually, and not

just in your head. This is the important part. I actually have a template that

you can use. I will get you I will get you the link to that.

I actually realized that it's not 1 I got you. But, also,

in the workbook that comes with my book, we have a template and way more

for you there as well. So that will help you to create your ideal week.

You'll have the template that you fill in everything. The reason you put this

together is so that when you go to start your weekly planning, you're not

starting from scratch each week. You kind of have, like, oh, yeah. This is where

you can kind of, like I have my planner here, and I'm like, I don't

know. Do you have this video version or just audio? Both.

Both. Okay. Yeah. So cool. So for anybody watching, I'll show you. So this is

kinda ideal week. Right? This is that template that I have for all of you.

Oh, and I'm now realizing my screen is probably a little No. You're good.

You're good. Wiped off. We're good. So, again, you can see, like, you know, we

have, like, go in this is an example I did for teachers, but I have,

like, you know, different things plugged in here, and then there's still white space. It's

not like to have everything planned out, but it's just, like, these are where different

things go. So then when you go to grab your planner

or your, you know, your fancy thing, whatever you're talking about, because, again, it's not

the system or whatever planner or Google Calendar you use that's going to help you

is the actually getting clear yourself. Because, again,

we have to see what it is we need. Like, a fancy planner is not

gonna do it for you. We have to understand what is it that we need.

What is the self care we need? Like, get it in there, and

we need to decide on that ourselves. It doesn't even matter what planner you

use. It doesn't matter if you use a Google Calendar. It's really just

getting clear and intentional is the important thing. So creating your

ideal week helps you to do that, and then you get out whatever it is

you're using and you map out your week. So what I do first,

though, even before I get to the mapping out my week, I do a brain

dump, like a to do list of everything my brain is

telling me that I need to do. So and I don't filter it. I

not at this point. I write everything down. Now I've had people

argue back at me with this before. They've been like, that

sounds more overwhelming if I had to actually think of everything I need to

do and write it down. Well, let me tell you, it's already there in your

head buzzing around there. And if you don't get it on paper, that's where it's

going to stay. And that's why the thought of it feels overwhelming to you

because it's all in there. So, again, you might have a part of you that's

kinda fighting you on it because it's trying to protect you, but, well, this is

how we do things and I don't wanna feel overwhelmed, but because change is hard.

Right? Right. But again, just try it. Try it for 3 weeks. Okay?

Try writing everything down cause once you get it out of your head and onto

paper, it's really going to help. So again,

imagine everything that's buzzing inside your head not needing to do

that anymore because you got it down on paper. So write it all down. And

then what I do is I actually use that urgency matrix that we talked

about, and I look at my list that I wrote down. And I'm like, okay.

What here is urgent? What here is important? What could easily slide through the cracks

if I didn't, you know, make the time for it? And make sure

that gets plugged in, right, as I'm doing my weekly planning. And that's when I

kind of what I do is I like to time block, like, hour by hour.

I kind of have and, again, I have a lot of white space still. Like,

some people will do hour by hour, like, everything. I don't like that. I do

like to have some flexibility. And so what I found, it took me some time.

And we'll talk about this too, like, kind of with a time audit and figuring

out how this is going to work for you because it's not gonna work the

first time you do it most likely. You're gonna be like, oh, that didn't work.

And you take that information and you learn from it because we

tend to think things are gonna take less time than they do, so I like

to be very generous with that amount of time as I'm planning. So I'll put,

like, you know, for this podcast, for example, I think I put down, like, 2

hours, and we're not gonna be here talking for 2 hours. But, oh, I don't

want some time to, like, go through the questions, and then we're gonna talk, and

then we'll probably chat after. So I'll just give myself a good tune for it.

Or we could. Why not? Right? Or we could. Right? So again,

like, you just want to and then I leave, like, some white space around. Like,

you know, if I were to show you and here's a planner that I'm using

right now. Funny because I'm actually I go back and forth between planners. This week,

I really wanted time blocking, so grab this 1. You'll see that I have

white space in here too. It's not filled out completely, but I have the things

in there and they leave some white space as well. So I still have that,

like, flow in there, but, like, the things that are important are

scheduled in. I love that because it's so true. 1 of the things that we

talk about the most here on this show and on my Instagram is

leaving white space for just anything, especially if you're at

home, there are family emergencies. And Yeah. More

times than not, I find, like, a working stay at home mom. Right?

Even, let's say, you know, you have your own business or you have a remote

job that still requires your time. A lot of

people, including family members, seem to think that we're just kinda sitting

around, and we're available for all things. Yeah. And it's like, no.

We're not, actually. You know? So it's nice to leave white space for that

for you know, in the event that you need to go to Kohl's to pick

up an order or return something from Amazon or just, you know, like you

said, like, my daughter fell, and I just need to be there for her and

holding her because this is gonna take more time than I expected. You know?

Right. We gotta get the boo boo kisses and all the things. But yeah. I

love that. And you mentioned time audits, and that's something that's so

interesting to me because, this is where I struggle. You see,

I've done I've gotten the planners. I do the well,

sometimes I've done the urgency matrix, trick also. But

I've I've seemed to, like, kind of time block, but we lean

more into a routine versus a schedule. So I'm really intrigued

with the time audits because I feel like this is gonna be the game changer

for us parents and and even teachers, getting

a grip on our time and managing it like a boss. So can you

share more about time audits, please? Yes. So the time

audit, it is such a fantastic tool, and it's also 1

that, like, again, I've had resistance to. A lot of people like, oh, I don't

wanna do this. It's not fun. It's like a

reality check. It's such a good tool. So for me, what I

did, because I wanted to have it with me at all times, I just

had my note app out on my phone, and every,

like, 15 minutes, I would need to check-in and put what I've been doing the

past 15 minutes. Okay. And again, I wouldn't actually do it every

15 minutes because, I mean, again, like, say, example, we're on a podcast. We're talking

longer than 15 minutes, but in 15 minute increments, I should say.

So, like, like, you know, maybe after 2 hours, but, okay, what was I doing

for, like, each of these, like, 215 2 to 215, 215

to 230, and whatever. And see what was I doing because

then you catch all the, like, mindless social media scrolling. All

the, oh, I went to my pantry to get a snack

or and, like, you know, and then, you know, scroll and

texted a friend there, you know, and then I did this, and, you know, I'm

not saying there's anything wrong with any of those things, but you realize where your

time is going. That's really the reason I say do a time audit.

If you're feeling good about how things are going right now, you don't need to

do a time audit. If you're like, things are going great, like, with my schedule,

my routine, that's great. The time you do a time audit is when nothing

seems to be working. So you've, like, been trying to do the urgency

matrix, you've been trying to figure out what's urgent, what's important,

you've been using a planner, and you're just like, I cannot figure out why

I'm not getting all these things done. And it can be to catch little things

like that. It can be to realize, like, oh, that took

3 hours, and I'd only ever been giving myself, like, 1 and a half to

2 hours to do that. And you realize, okay. This is why I was,

like, not giving myself enough time. But when you do a time audit, you really

realize, like, you're you're kinda doing the opposite of planning. You're not writing what I'm

going to do. You're writing what I did. Right. Right. I feel like it's like

a humble check because I can spend hours on

my block puzzle game on my phone gladly, but then

other things got neglected, you know? And even

sometimes it's like, oh, like productive things, but, like, sometimes, like, oh, I just spent,

like, 5 hours on a blog post that probably did not need to be 5

hours. Like, I spent 2 hours just getting the graphic just right when maybe

b minus work would have been fine. You know? Yes. So it's

just giving us information. Nothing is good or bad. It's just like,

okay, this is what happened. We're observing ourselves. Really, it's a major

extreme version of observing yourself, which is what I love to talk about. It's actually

the first step of my 3 step pushing framework. The first is to observe yourself.

You're really getting to know yourself because you're seeing what am I doing all throughout

my days. And for a time audit, again and when I did it, I was

like, I don't wanna do it, but it was when I was actually working with

a business coach. And she was like, I need you to do this for the

next week because you just keep saying you're overwhelmed and you don't have time for

things. And it's really important for us to understand where you're at and do that

time audit. And it was just such an eye opening experience for me that now,

like, if people are at that state, if they're like, I'm overwhelmed and I can't

figure out what to do, I definitely recommend a time audit because that is where

you'll just get a lot of information about, okay, this is what I wanted. This

is what is happening. Where is the disconnect? And what needs to change

even on my expectations? You know? I love that. Did you find

that you were able to get clearer on your

priorities and, like, just the tasks that you needed to get done for

work or your homeschooling as opposed to, like, these are all the things I want

to get done. But I mean, for me, I realized like how much how

much it was doing that I probably didn't need to be doing. Yeah.

Yeah. And then how much time was even taken up by email and,

checking in with my team, checking in with, like, all, like, all these things that

is, like, all of that, none of that was actually on my to do list.

So it's like I have my to do list, and then there's all these things

that weren't even on my to do list that were happening on the side. So

it's kinda like being, like, aware. Like, okay. So when I realized that, I was

like, I need to cut back on how much time I spent doing that, but

also I need to make room for some of that too. So it's kind of

like a happy medium type of thing situation for me. It was like, yeah, I

still need to chat with my team. I still need to check my

emails, and I still wanna network with people, but I need to figure

out, like, a good balance. You know? I love that. You're

giving me all the ideas of just doing a time audit just because. Maybe,

like, a quick challenge on Instagram for, like, the audience

and myself, and then we'll just tag you on it. Oh, yeah. Let me know

how it goes, for sure. That sounds awesome. Alright.

So Kelsey, why do you think so many of us feel like we're busy

all the time, yet we never get anything

done? Yeah. And you know what? I'll actually let me tell a little story first

that kinda ties into it. So when I was actually writing my upcoming book,

I just felt like I had so much going on, and yet I was not

making progress on the book hardly at all because everything else was

happening. And I was like, I have this deadline. How on earth am I going

to meet it? I ended up we're on vacation, and I'm, like, writing my book

to meet the deadline. Like, while my family is, like, playing out games in the

hotel room. And I'm like, how did I end up in this situation? And then,

like, you know, I was thinking that, but then I really, like, asked myself that

question. Not just like, oh, dramatic. How did I end up in this? But really,

how did I end up in this? Like, why am I, like, having to write

17,000 words in a hotel room? And again, this was not for the final

draft, everybody, by the way. It got way better by the time it was done.

This is where my very first submission, which my publisher teacher goals was very

smart in having me have a deadline before the deadline. I kind of asked myself

why did this happen, and I realized it was all those urgent things, but not

the important thing of writing my book. It was even like, well, I have I

need to create content for a podcast every single week. Right?

And then for a while, I was doing 2 episodes a week, and then, you

know, and then I was also doing a coaching call with my members every week.

And that's when I realized, I'm like, you know what? The podcast is important to

me, but actually getting this book done right now is even more important. So I

did some replay episodes. I did some, like, where people would interview me, and

I was like, hey. Can I re put that on my podcast or whatever to,

like, repurpose content? And it wasn't ideal. Like, we did have our podcast

downloads go down, and so now I'm back to, like, mostly releasing new stuff every

week. But, again, I did still keep my commitment of releasing something

every week while I finished my book, and that book actually

got done because then I had more of my creative energy left for writing the

book. So that was really kind of what, you know, kind of asking

myself and auditing my time a little, and that 1 I didn't do an official

time audit. I really just asked myself a question and, like, kind of dove into

it. But it's really about that urgency effect that we talked about

before. I think that is why so many of us feel like we're busy all

the time because there's all these urgent things we're doing, And then that,

yeah, I never get anything done. That is a sign that you're letting the

important things not happen. You're letting the urgent things take

over. And so we just wanna take a look at that and be like, okay.

What can we do about that? And just really ask yourself that question and

not in a not in a negative way, in a I can do something about

it type of way. Just ask yourself, like, what is it I can do so

I can get the more important things done and really think about it. And I

might be doing something like I did, like, something that is also important

to me needs to take a little bit of a back seat so this other

important thing can get done, but being really intentional about it. Like, that was actually

a very intentional decision on my part to do that. Right. I

love that. Alright. Cool. So then my last, well,

second to last question is what is your number 1 tip

for helping preschool parents? Because you have something

pretty big coming up and already in the works, and I am

beyond thrilled to be a part of it. Can you share more about your

number 1 tip for helping parents right now? Yes. So right now

it is summer. Right? So we are in that time where

a lot of parents and teachers make, oh, I just need to fully pull back

and not even think about school or teaching because I just need to

recover. But the problem I find with that is, for 1, it's a symptom.

Right? If you feel so burned out that you feel like you need a full

2 and a half to 3 months to recover from it, that's a symptom that

you were doing too much during the school year. Yes. So if

you don't change anything now, you're likely going to repeat that during

the school year and end up in the same situation again, and I don't want

that for you. So the big thing we have coming up is our

educate and rejuvenate conference, which is going to help you to

do the both things I recommend over the summer. I recommend that you don't avoid

thinking about school and teaching and preschool, but you also

rejuvenate yourself too. So educate and rejuvenate the conference. Summer

2024 is where we are going to help you not only learn new things to

get you excited about teaching, again, get you excited to go back next school year

with new teaching strategies, but also rejuvenate yourself through

life coaching, like, kind of the things I talked about today. If you like what

I talked about today in today's interview, I'm teaching, like, a full

multiple session segment live to everybody about my 3 step coaching

framework. We've got incredible keynotes like Christina Kuzmiche

and Gaspar Randazzo, who are both incredible and funny, so you'll

get to laugh. We've got yoga. We've got dance because we we

start each day with a workout. It's going to be a really,

really great time to help you not only to educate yourself, but

rejuvenate yourself too so you can feel ready to take on next school year and

go in with some better habits so that by next summer, you don't feel as

burned out. Again, you're going to obviously have stress and overwhelm come up. That's

not going away, but you're going to be able to manage it a lot better

with everything you learn at this event and get so many exciting ideas that

get you ready to go back. So we're really excited for educate and rejuvenate.

I call it professional development meets personal development because

it's really giving you so much of both, and that applies if you're a

parent too. It's it applies to you up leveling as a parent and teaching

your kids, but also yourself too, because we need to take care of ourselves

before we can fully take care of other people.

Yes. 1 thing I love the most about this conference is that

it's amazing. The sessions are so specifically

tailored to teachers and also homeschooling parents, and

some sessions like mine are even great for both. Yeah. And

so I'm thrilled and honored to be a part of this conference this

year, Kelsey. I'm super excited because my session is going to be 3

Keys to Preschool Homeschool Success. And I'm really

excited. This is my first time presenting at your conference. And,

if you're interested in learning more about it or just seeing all of the

amazing speakers that we're gonna have there, go ahead and check out the link

in the show notes. And that leads me to my last question for

you. How can listeners connect with you? Yes. And before I do that really quick,

I wanted to touch on what you were talking about in the teacher and the

homeschool track. You are not limited to 1 or the other. You get to

pick any speaker you want to watch or listen to, but we do make sure

we have so whether you are teaching at home, we've got a full panel of

speakers for you there, And then we've got a full panel of

speakers for the teachers as well. So but then you can pick and

choose. You get to watch whatever you want. And I'm so excited for your

session. Yeah. Thanks. I'm excited for yours. It's gonna be so

amazing. I'm even more thrilled that that this amazing

audience has opportunities to be able to take

care of themselves and also learn. Because, like you said, so many of

us wanna just unplug and not do anything. But at the same time, if we

don't take care of ourselves and we don't get our learning and our groove

on, then it only you know, like, we can't what's the

word I'm looking for, recharge and refocus and really get

excited about this upcoming school year. So I'm thrilled. It's gonna be so much

fun. Me too. And we're literally going to get our groove on, like you said,

because we actually just confirmed, a new workout instructor we haven't had

before. And she teaches a class called wild, which I just discovered,

and I love it so much, because they teach it at my yoga

studio. So it is like Zumba, a lot like Zumba, but with

meditation kind of added in too. So meditation and

mindfulness is going to be so fun. Oh my gosh. I'm stoked. It's gonna

be a good time. So for them to connect with me, they for 1, I

hope that they just join us at the conference, then we can chat face to

face virtually, and it's gonna be a great time. Also, you

can find me on all the social platforms at educate and rejuvenate,

with the and spelled out because you can't have the little

and sign on the platforms. Actually, no. You know what? I think

Facebook I can't remember. Either way, just either way, you should be able to find

it. And then my podcast is Educate and Rejuvenate the

podcast. So if you enjoyed listening to us chat here,

I've got a lot of episodes over there you can listen to as well on

Apple, Spotify, or YouTube. Wherever you're watching or

listening to this, you might be able to find mine as well. And then my

upcoming book is called Educate and Rejuvenate. I, got the

wait list to you, so you can add that to the show now. So you

should be able to check that out, And it comes

out August 13th, which I'm really excited about, so there'll

be a lot of a lot of bonuses. And if you sign up for the

wait list, you can actually get chapter 1 depending when this airs

very soon. I'm just waiting on the link to be able to send out,

but we'll send it to everyone as soon as we have it, and we'll update

the page when soon it'll be, you'll just get it immediately. Yes. And

as soon as it does, I will go ahead and share with you here on

the podcast and also on Instagram, if you're following me. If you're not, go ahead

and check it out on the link in the show notes. This is

amazing. Thank you so much for taking your time, to

share all of your expertise and experience with us. I feel like this was a

mini master class, and we are so lucky that we got it. It's

free life coaching. So yeah, if you wanna just go ahead and

participate and, tune in with Kelsey, all of her links will be linked

in the show notes. And again, thank you so much. This has been

really enlightening and rejuvenating. So fun. Thank you so much for

having me.

If you enjoyed this episode, please hit subscribe so you don't miss the

next 1. And if you're hungry for more, be sure to check out the book

that I wrote. It's called Educate and Rejuvenate, a 3 Step Guide to

Revitalize Your Teaching, Renew Your Spirit, and Reignite Your

Passion For Life. It is scheduled to be released in the summer of

2024. This book takes all the life coaching skills we talk about here on the

podcast and puts them together in 1 easy to understand guide.

Plus, when you pre order, you'll receive a PDF workbook and additional

resources to deepen your understanding and application of the concepts we've

covered on the book and on this podcast. You won't find these

resources anywhere else. Visit the link in the show notes to join the wait

list and be the first to know when the book becomes available for pre order.

Let's continue this journey of growth and rejuvenation together. Until next

time.