Every year after the holidays I am just so wiped and I'm so overstimulated and overwhelmed and I really just need that time to recharge. And now that I've had that, I've had a good solid like two months of not really worrying about new episodes or anything like that. I've been kind of ho hummed. Chillin in my business all together and now I feel like, okay, we are in 2025, let's get to work. And so that's what I'm doing, but I intentionally take that time, listen to my body, listen to my brain and just relax.

Welcome to systemize her the podcast that's all about helping you create a business and a life that you love without losing your mind in the process I'm Leah your host and go to system strategist for side hustling moms. I Get it. We've got a whole lot of hats to wear and being an entrepreneur is just one of them But who says you can't have a business that brings you both freedom and flexibility from streamlined home hacks to boss level business automation We're diving into everything that helps you blend work and life seamlessly. Yeah sis, you can absolutely run a thriving business, make those weekend memories with the kids, hit up brunch with your bestie, plan a getaway with your girls, and even sneak in a little vacation. All while your systems have your back. You really can have it all and I'm here to help you make it happen. So grab a cup of coffee or maybe a glass of wine, get comfy and let's dive in. Are you ready sis? Let's do this.

Oh my goodness. Welcome back to the systemize her podcast. It has been a long time. So I took a very much needed break for the holidays. And then every year I try to ease into the new year. So January for me is still like holiday period. For that time of year, it's just like resetting, getting back into routine. Shainen's birthday. We actually just celebrated yesterday at the time of this recording. So by the time this goes live, it'll actually be two days ago, but it's like the first couple of days in February. And so I just always ease into the new year and the podcast really followed suit. So we are back though. So look forward to Weekly episodes back at you make sure that you're subscribed so that you do not miss them every Wednesday We are getting back into the rhythm y'all. So what happened over the break? What did we miss? Honestly, not really a whole lot Everybody has had The holidays and all the things, I was no different, celebrated, all of the stuff got hit with whiplash from everything going on with the economy and the election and all of that that I'm trying to ignore. What else? Half of the country was on fire, while the other half was freezing for a while. Now at least in Texas, we have random 75 degree weather. Which I'm not mad at, but I believe it's gonna get cold again. It's just been a whirlwind of things. And I'm trying to get back to at least some consistency, some sense of normalcy in my life. So here we are, back at it with Systemize Her. So that is really the only catch up that we needed. So what is this week? So what are we talking about this week? Well, I I love at the top of the year, of course, to really examine like how I'm spending my time, what I've been doing, what worked last year, what's not working what do I want to keep, what do I want to throw out. And that gets me thinking about my time management and really just how I personally am spending my time. But, when you are a busy mom, time management is really important. It always feels like time is our scarcest resource, like we just never have enough of it. So this episode is really built to dive into actionable strategies for reclaiming the time that you do have, managing that overwhelm, and then building systems that work for you and your family and your life, whether that is in your personal life, your family life, or the business realm. The first thing that I really want to talk about is where does your time actually go? Honestly, when I've done a really, like, informal audit of my time, I really notice that these small, unnoticeable habits are what really drains a lot of my hours and makes me feel like I don't have time. What do they say? The first step is admitting that you have a problem? I have a problem. My problem is spending a lot of time on things that For example, Instagram. That is a problem. I will doomscroll and doomscrolling is a huge time suck. I have tried to be more cognizant of not doing that. I have been sleeping with my phone like across the room so that I don't land in the bed. Either before I go to sleep or when I wake up in the morning and scroll my phone. So I've done that I am also working on putting my phone down after Shainen gets home from school. And just like putting it in the other room and forgetting about it. Because I do feel like I always scroll. I look to my phone to like scroll in between things with that as well. So I think that might be helpful. But Instagram for me is a huge problem. TikTok isn't as much of a problem for me, but I know that's a common one for some other people. But, with it potentially being gone soon that might actually help. Doomscrolling for me is a huge time suck, the other thing that I notice is that multitasking is something that leaves me feeling overstimulated and also less efficient, so switching back and forth between tasks really takes a lot of brainpower and it's something where you don't even realize it, but there is like statistics that show it takes you a significantly longer amount of time to finish a task if you are going back and forth between two tasks instead of just dedicating your time to the task at hand. So this is really difficult for me though because I have self diagnosed with ADHD and I'm almost certain if I went to a provider, an actual doctor, they would I 100 percent agree and diagnose me, but I just, I, it doesn't really matter to me if I'm diagnosed or not. I know. I have ADHD. But my undiagnosed ADHD brain makes it hard to focus on one thing at a time. For me, I have to be crafty and very deliberate in making sure that I set myself up for success so that I can focus on one thing at a time. For me, timers are very helpful. And so I will set a timer for a short period of time and say, Hey, my timer is set for 15 minutes. You have 15 minutes to dedicate to this one task that you're trying to do. You cannot switch to something else until you finish this task. And a lot of times if I can help it, I will close out other tabs or I'll open a window of my own so that I am just Doing that one task if I'm on the computer if I'm at home and let's say it's laundry or something like that Then I just have to be really intentional about not walking away from it And if I do and catch myself trying to do something different then I have to literally stop myself And I will say out loud like Leah that is not what you're doing right now Go back to your task at hand And so that is really helpful for me to try not to multitask so that I can get one thing done completed all the way through, and then move on to the next thing. The other thing that I noticed when I was doing my time audit is that tasks take me longer when I'm not rested. I used to always be on the go, all the time, every minute of the day, and honestly I am still busy. However, I have made an intentional effort to slow down, and sometimes I just do nothing. I have days off every couple of weeks, and my weekends are usually packed, but if I do get a free weekend, I treat it the same. I will Do something that needs to be done. So I'll say hey this project I was working on this thing for work I need to do and I will make sure that I get that thing done But I will also make sure to build in some downtime. So whether that is literally just laying in the bed, which I've Taken advantage of a few times recently or that means that I am going to do some self care getting my nails my hair done All of that kind of stuff, but I intentionally make time to slow down and do nothing Because ultimately if I am rested then I can have that slow time in order to speed up to be able to be more Productive when I am on It really took me a lot of time to recharge over the holidays and that's why I just decided to kind of embrace it. Every year after the holidays I am just so wiped and I'm so overstimulated and overwhelmed and I really just need that time to recharge. And now that I've had that, I've had a good solid like two months of not really worrying about new episodes or anything like that. I've been kind of ho hummed. Chillin in my business all together and now I feel like, okay, we are in 2025, let's get to work. And so that's what I'm doing, but I intentionally take that time, listen to my body, listen to my brain and just relax. So I really want you to do an audit, whether that's formal or informal, of how you spend your time and where does it go? Think about those small habits that can drain the valuable hours each week and be aware of them. If you consciously choose to say, Hey, I'm going to spend an hour on Instagram every day scrolling because that's how I de stress or whatever the case might be, that's fine. But you need to be aware of how you're spending your time so that you can reclaim that if you need to. Okay, so once you know where your time is going, then you want to try to streamline things so that you can utilize the time that you do have as best as possible. For me, that is through systems. I implement simple and practical systems for both my home and my business. And what this does for me is freeze up time without adding extra stress. And There are three ways that I like to do this. So one is one that I already mentioned and I won't beat a dead horse, but built in rest. I make sure that I have a system for resting. Like I said, I will kind of time block my off days, and I'll say, Hey, the morning half of this is for me to sleep in, the afternoon half is for me to do XYZ thing. Or I might flip it. The morning half, I have to get up and be at this doctor's appointment, or go pick up my groceries, or whatever. But then the afternoon, I am going to take time to rest. I make sure to schedule rest into my day. I really make a conscious effort to put it on my calendar to make sure that I am building rest into my day. And for me, that's a system. I also have like my nighttime routine. So when it's time for me to wind down for the day, I am making sure that I'm doing my routine So that I am getting my mind and my body ready to rest and to go to sleep and recharge for the next day. So that's number one of how I streamline my systems. Number two is batching. Batching is a Huge lifesaver for me, like I said, I can really catch a squirrel and go from one thing to the next thing to the next thing and never finish anything. So batching like tasks is super important for me. I batch tasks, I also batch my planning. I actually just taught a class about this inside of the Moms Who Podcast Summit. I was a speaker in there and so if you got a chance to grab that, then you need to make sure that you check out my class on batch planning. Shameless plug, but this is my show so I can do that. Batch planning is a huge thing. I take time to really map out and plan things, and then batching my tasks. If that means that I am doing all of the laundry at one time, I do that. I hate doing laundry. If I have to do towels on one day and sheets on another day and my clothes on one day and Shainen's clothes on another day, I will never be done. So I just say, Hey, I'm going to carve out an hour, two hours of my time, and I am going to do all of the laundry. When I'm like cleaning the floors, I'm like, okay, I'm going to clean all the floors in the house. When I'm cleaning the bathrooms, all the bathrooms get cleaned. I like to just batch my tasks when it comes to business. I do the same thing. So on a copywriting day, I'm writing copy for a lot of different things, but that is my writing day. When I'm recording, I am recording multiple episodes in a day so that I can do it all at one time. And it's done. Batching is a huge way that I am able to streamline my life and my business. And then last but not least is outsourcing. So Two things can be true at once. One is I really love to outsource certain things. For example, my grocery shopping. I do grocery pickup and I have somebody else shop my groceries. I like to outsource that. I don't mind it. I'm actually thinking about going back to Instacart so they can just bring them here so I don't even have to go get them. But that, for me, I, I enjoy outsourcing that. Cleaning, same thing. I enjoy outsourcing a lot of my deep cleaning. I like to do my maintenance. But that's really it. So outsourcing for that, those types of things comes easy to me. What does not come as easy to me is outsourcing in my business. So that's something that I'm working on this year. But, that is, Definitely something that can help to streamline the way that you are spending your time. If you can outsource these mundane tasks, a lot of administrative things, a lot of time suck things, then that gives you more time and it frees you up to do more of the things that you like. So in your business, if that means that you need to hire a virtual assistant or something like that, start thinking about what that looks like. I'm not telling you to go out today and go. hire anyone. But think about what that looks like, what that job description would be. Start writing down things that you're like, Hmm, this doesn't really light me up and I don't have to be the one to do it. Start writing all of those things down because eventually you'll have a full job description and you can say, Hey, now I can hire somebody because I have 15 things to get off of my plate that they can do. And that's a full job at that point. In your personal life, outsourcing might be that you hire someone to deep clean monthly, that you hire a laundry service, that you order a meal service to deliver your meals. There can be a lot of different things that you outsource, and that is okay. Another thing that I don't really I think I forget about it. Shainen is in school. And so up until this week my dad was actually helping me a lot and he was picking him up from school. So I would take him in the morning, my dad would pick him up and he'd kind of hang out with my dad until I was done working or until I got home from work. I decided that I wanted to put him in a before and after school program. We are getting to a point where Shainen is kind of wanting to do his own thing. He has his own thoughts and ideas about what he should and should not be doing. And he gets very distracted. So I thought that an afterschool program would be really good to have some of that structure in the evenings that he doesn't always get from being with my dad or with me when I'm super busy and trying to like cook dinner and do all of the things at one time. So I put him in an afterschool program where he can go there, they help him with his homework. He gets some structured time still that's more fun than school he gets to burn off some energy where he's not sitting in a classroom, but they help him with his homework, he gets some free play, he gets to get out all of the built up, bottled up energy that he's had throughout the day. I get to ease out of my workday and into home life without just right away being on. So if I was at home before, then I literally would like log out of my computer, walk out of my office, and there he is. So there is, there was really no transition from work to home life. It was very abrupt. Now, because he's in after school care, I finish my workday, I go and do a couple of like, cleaning up things around the house if I need to. I might start dinner, but it gives me a chance to ease away from work life into home mom life. And then I go pick him up and we're both in better spirits at that point. So outsourcing might look like you just get childcare. It might look like you get a sitter or someone, even someone to come into your home and just kind of watch them or play with your kids while you are there sometimes is a huge. weight lifted off your shoulder. So just think about that. You want to batch, you want to outsource, and then you want to build in that time for rest. Okay? So once we've figured out where our time is going, we have streamlined as much as we can with systems, then we want to Reallocate that time to focus on your personal goals, your family, or growing your side hustle in your business. So for me, time blocking helps me do all of these things. Y'all know I love my calendar system, and so the way that I use it is I build in blocks for batches of work to happen automatically without me having to think about it. So this looks like I have, like I said, I put my sleep in my calendar, so that's blocked out. I put my work schedule in my calendar. That's blocked out. Those two things are very. Much not flexible. I can't really do much with those, but then from there I'm able to see what blank space I have and I can say hey this space is gonna be allowed for family time I don't necessarily have a plan about what I'm going to do during that time But I know on my calendar that this space is for that. I say hey These are gonna be my office hours for my business. So these are the times that I'm gonna work I don't necessarily know what I'm gonna be doing yet at those times, but it is blocked out for that Once I have my basic blocks in place, then I go back in and I say, okay, now what does that look like? Since I have these X amount of days that I'm going to work on my business in a week, what am I going to be doing then? So then I'm able to further iron out the details of what that looks like. So like I said, sometimes I'll have copywriting. So I may say this block on Saturdays is for copywriting. This block is for recording podcast episodes. This block is for X, Y, Z, but I don't have to think about when I'm going to do it as far as like when in the day, because I have pre blocked that out. Then once I figured out when I'm going to do certain things, I will put that as a note in my calendar. So once I've said, Hey, this is going to be my podcast recording day, then I go and say podcast recording in the notes section so that I don't have to think about it. When I look at my calendar, I open it up. It says that this is a work block. This is my podcast recording day. Perfect. I don't have to think about what it is that I need to do because it's already set up for me and past Leah set, present Leah up for success and I love that for myself. But each block is scheduled and each work block is going to be themed. I am able to get a good overview of my week because pretty much every week is consistent. While I may be doing different tasks, The blocks themselves are the same. I can really get into a rhythm, and I thrive off of having a rhythm in a routine. So for me, this is really helpful. Now what really, like, sets all of this off is being surrounded with people that really help me to stay on track and to stay on task and to stay motivated as I am working through managing my time. For me, that has been through community. As many of you know, I have my community systemize her. I'm also a part of a few other communities, but overall, I feel like my main source of accountability is going to be systemize her. So SystemizeHer is my membership community made up of side hustling women looking to implement systems in their lives and their businesses. So we talk about time management, we talk about prioritization, and things similar to today's conversation. But we also talk about tech tools and workflows for business operation and organization. We do a lot of challenges, which we actually just finished one up for setting up our systems for success in 2025. We do live masterclasses. We actually have one coming up soon for February. We do office hours. We do coworking sessions. And so these are all things that help me to stay accountable. It keeps me sharp because I'm constantly creating content for this community. And so I have to stay on my stuff and know what I'm talking about, right? So I have to make sure that I'm organized. It also though, through doing the community, I've been able to say, Hey, this does work for me. This does not work for me. And it has given me a little bit more Rigidness in my already kind of rigid schedule. But it has given me a little bit more I guess made me set bigger boundaries as far as when I am willing to do stuff and when I'm not willing to do things. And so through community, it has just been. Amazing for me and I definitely recommend it to others not just because systemize her is my community and I want you there. Obviously I do But I just think that we are better when we are together. So just to I'm going to give you a little bit more insight into what all systemize her has to offer. Like I said, we do challenges, we have masterclasses, we have office hours, we have co working sessions. Sometimes I'll do some behind the scenes stuff. So I was recording actually a video for A class that I was teaching, and I said, Hey, does anybody want to jump on? And people jumped on. We support each other, so someone else was hosting a masterclass of their own, and a few of us just logged on, asked questions, were there for support, just to be supportive with our community. Alongside that, we also have a resource library. So everything that we do that is content based is available for replay after it's over with. And then there's also video tutorials for certain things. We have a systems help desk, so we have the office hours where we can talk through things, but in between time, if you think of something or something comes up or you need help, you're able to ask me specific questions and get a personalized answer. So the systems help desk has been super helpful for a lot of the ladies inside of the community. And then community itself is a huge bonus. I know it is a community, but the bonus of a community is the people there. What's the saying they come for you they stay for each other and that I feel like it's super true This community is just a group of like minded women. We've built a bond over there We're planning in person trips and meetups and things outside of just seeing each other virtually because that is how close and Interconnected that we've become because this these are our people. This is our community this episode was a little less like structured. I feel like I want for our episodes to kind of be more Conversational. I know this is kind of one sided because I am just talking and you guys are not actually talking back to me However, I would like for you to start talking back to me. So on Instagram I post a real or a Some sort of a post every single time a new episode goes live. I would really love if you guys could start going on there, commenting, giving me your thoughts, giving me your feedback. I am talking to you and it's kind of weird if you only listen and don't talk back to me. So please talk back to me over there on IG. If you don't follow me, my Instagram is at I am Leah Janelle. That's where I hang out the most. I would love to. chitchat with you over there, side of my DMs, all the things. The other way that I love to talk to you is through email. So if you're not on my email list, what are you doing? But head over to my website at leahjanelle. co and you can get on the email list that that link should be in the show notes along with my Instagram link as well. So if you're able to click on the show notes, go ahead and do that. And you should be able to find me in one of those two places. But, this has been a fun ease in from the holidays. I'm so excited to be back. I want you to stay tuned for next week's episode, where we are going to talk about building your confidence surrounding tech. I know that has been a really big sticking point for a lot of you. And so I really want to start off. Our year, just addressing it. Let's talk about the elephant in the room. We're going to talk about building your confidence and how to get started with tech without getting overwhelmed. So make sure you're subscribed so that you get that notification, because I know that that episode is going to be super, super beneficial and juicy for a lot of you. So if you enjoyed this episode, make sure that you're subscribed so that you know, when new episodes drop, if you haven't left ​a review, then do that now, before you go follow me on Instagram, before you join my mailing list. Go and leave a review. Don't say, Oh, I'm going to do it. I promise. Go ahead and do it. That is the only way that people find the show and that the platforms know that you guys love it here. Y'all tell me all the time how much I love it. So make sure y'all tell them. So those folks can boost us up and we can grow our show in our community. And then this week, I really want you to work. on one thing to move the needle forward in your business. I can't wait to meet you right back here again next Wednesday. And until then, have a great week.\ Bye for now.

That's a wrap for today's episode, but the conversation doesn't have to end here. Join our amazing community of side hustling moms over at the Systemize Her community where you'll get all the tools, tips, and support you need to simplify your life and scale your hustle. Remember, you're just one system away from living your dream and I'm here to help you make it happen because you can have it all. If you loved today's episode, be sure to subscribe. Leave a review and share it with a fellow mom who's on her entrepreneurship journey as well. Thanks for tuning in and I'll see you next time. Same time, same place. Thank you for listening to my mommy's podcast. Remember this is for entertainment. Purposes only. In other words, to your mom, not mine. Thank you.