Candice (00:00.27)

As a former wedding planner, time management is basically coded in my DNA. I live and breathe productivity in time management. And as a business coach, I really don't know any entrepreneur that also doesn't want to maximize their working hours each day. Today, I want to talk to you about the one time management hack that I implemented in my business that changed everything for me.

This is also the biggest mistake I see wedding pros making when it comes to productivity and time management. So in today's episode, I'm giving you all the steps that you can take to make this the most productive off season ever. You're here to grow a business, but not just any kind of business. You want to grow a profitable business with purpose, a business where you wake up every single day driven to serve your customers and make a difference in your own.

life. I'm Candace Coppola, published author, business coach, and your guide to building a profitable business with purpose. Join me here every single week as we explore how to build and grow your business with purpose. Get ready to dig in and have meaningful conversations about the strategies and techniques that will help you build your dream business. This is the power in purpose.

Candice (01:28.238)

Hey there, friend. Welcome back to the Power and Purpose podcast. It's me, your host Candice. And today we're talking all about time management. I'm going to share a time management hack that I implemented in my business that changed everything for me. It's something I teach the women in my mastermind and work with them on. And it's something that I want to share with you because I know it will benefit you in the off season. In fact, this has been top of mind for me for several weeks because it's been coming up a lot inside Wedding Pro Insiders.

And I often get asked like, Candice, what can I be doing to manage my time better? And many times this comes from a place of missing deadlines or feeling like you're always behind the ball, whether it's editing photos or getting things out to clients, whatever you might do. Maybe you had a client be disappointed in some of your services recently, or you feel like your clients are one step ahead of you. All of that noted, understood. It's just part of

running a business in this crazy wedding industry, you're definitely not alone, because I hear about it all the time. But with that said, I think that there might be a better way for you to approach how you manage your time to not only get the maximum amount done, but to do the right things at the right time. Plus, we're in the off season for many, not all, but many. And at the end of the year, we're often reflecting back on the time we spent.

but then also what we want to change or do differently going forward. And I think this is the perfect time for you to think about time. I'm going to be saying the word time a lot today. I have a feeling. I'm going to be saying time a lot. Now, listen, I'm not perfect. And while time has been encoded in my DNA as a wedding planner, there was a moment where I was struggling with time and struggling to get

all the things on my to-do list done and show up in a way that honored what my students needed from me, and then also reserve energy for myself on my own business. Maybe you can relate. You feel like you give away all your good energy and time to your clients. And then when it comes time for you to work on your business, you don't really have any energy or time left to do it. That's very relatable. It doesn't have to be that way. There are some

Candice (03:50.862)

changes you can make that I'll talk about today that will definitely help. So this isn't going to be a podcast episode, I'm going to say right off the top that talks about time blocking or tasks get like task batching. All of those are great techniques and they can, they absolutely help. I use both. It's not going to sell you a software about managing time because that's not what I'm here to do today. Although, you know, systems and processes can definitely help you with your time management. That's not what today's episode is all about.

Today's episode is all about understanding energy and capacity. And this is the hack, this is the hack that changed everything for me and how I manage my time. So like I said, I think I naturally have a good understanding of how much time things take and how to manage my time. But what I've had to learn is how to manage my energy.

because there's a difference between having the time to do something and having the energy to do it. And it's in this distinction that I found this hack, applied it to my business, and it has forever altered how I manage my time and how I stay productive. Let me repeat that. There is a difference between having the time to do something and then having the energy to do it. How often do you have the time?

to work on your website or to blog or to sit on the couch. You don't have any meetings. You don't have anything going on and you can literally do whatever you want, but you don't have the energy to do it. So nothing gets done. Raise your hand. My hand is raised. It's all about energy. And in order for you to be able to make best use of time blocking or task batching or any of the other great time management techniques, you have to first take into consideration your energy.

Energy is everything. And without the right energy, you're not going to be able to get certain things done. So let me share with you step by step how we can go through this and the steps I took in order to bring this hack into my business. The first thing I did was I started to pay attention to my energy levels.

Candice (06:10.318)

how they ebbed and flowed on a daily basis, on an hourly basis, on a weekly basis, and on a monthly basis. I started to notice patterns and trends around my energy, when my energy was at its peak for creativity, when my energy was at its best to make decisions, when my energy was at its worst or its lowest. So for instance, I'm a morning girl. I love getting things done in the morning, and in fact, my secret little window.

of productivity is between like 10 and one o'clock. 10 and one o'clock, most of the time my creative juices are really flowing. Anything after two, I start to wane in my energy. I'm not as energetic, I'm not as sharp, my brain is not in the game as much. And so that's probably not the best time for me to work on really heavy lift or very energetic creative tasks. I noticed that about myself.

I also noticed that I tended to have the most energy on Mondays through Wednesdays, so beginning of my week. I had great positive energy. Usually my energy was flowing. I didn't feel bogged down. I had rested over the weekend, so I had great positive energy throughout the week. Finally, I started really paying attention to my cycle.

And for all my ladies and friends here with a cycle, this will be very important. If you're a gentleman or if you don't have a cycle, still hang out with me because you're gonna learn something today about hormones and cycles. But I also learned that throughout the month, my energy also changed depending on where I was in my menstrual cycle, to be just quite honest with you. I would have different seasons, some of which were very creative and very...

just energetic and I could take on anything. I was full of ideas, ready to get it done. And then the pendulum would swing and I would have seasons where I didn't want to get out of bed and I had no energy to work out. I had no energy to think. I had no energy to have calls. Literally just wanted to be in bed, eating snacks and watching General Hospital. And I still have those days. So I began to pay attention to my energy and I asked myself,

Candice (08:25.334)

a couple of questions as I was doing this, looking at hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly. I asked, what impacted my energy? Was there anything that I did on a daily basis that helped to boost or that actually took away energy from me? What days of the week did I have the most energy? What days of the week did I have the least? What hours of the day did I have the most energy versus which hours of the day did I have the least?

How did my cycle affect my energy? And I also tried to figure out when I was at my optimum and also when my tank was empty on a daily, hourly, weekly, and monthly basis. And what I began to find were trends and patterns that emerged day over day, month over month, my natural routines, my energy flow, how I move through life as a human.

I began to see trends that actually I got excited about because I began to understand when I had the energy to do certain things. For instance, I might see when I have the energy to work on creative projects, when I'm at my absolute highest creatively, and that's when I would schedule those tasks to occur versus non-creative.

energy draining, soul sucking tasks that I didn't find exciting. I experimented with my calendar. I experimented with days of the week where I had in-person or what I like to call people days. And then I experimented with days of the week where I had absolutely no people days. Meaning days of the week where I would interact with other people. I would have calls.

You could schedule a call with me. I might do training or teaching. I would get dressed. I would put on makeup. I would do my hair and I would be ready to exchange energy with other people showing up in the ways they needed me to show up for them. And then to balance that out because I discovered I needed that balance, an equal amount of balance by the way, I had non-people days and these were days where I did not schedule meetings. I did not schedule calls and I did not have to be forward facing at all.

Candice (10:51.244)

I could introvert, I could work on things behind the scenes in my business, and I had no obligation to show up outside of what I was working on that day. That absolutely, unequivocally changed the game for me. And I would love for you to start there as you begin to look at your energy and begin to evaluate things. So here's your very first step. I want you to start taking

inventory or start looking at your energy throughout the day? What do you notice? What impacts your energy? What hours do you have the most energy and when do you have the least? And what days of the week do you find you have the most energy and what days of the week do you feel like you have the absolute least? And looking at your month,

What weeks during the month are you in your winter season of your cycle, which means that you might be experiencing your cycle at that point, having your period? When are you then moving into your spring season, which is that week after your menstrual cycle? When are you going into your summer season, which tends to be ovulation, or when you're just absolutely feeling yourself?

And then when do you move into fall where things start to change? You know, the leaves change. You might hibernate a little bit more. You might get more introspective and more reflective. What does that look like for you and how's your energy throughout that cycle? This will be different for all of us depending on our age and all different types of things that are unique to us. But it's good for you to pay attention to. P.S. I use a great cycle tracking tool. It's called Clue.

And not only does it help me track my cycle, but it helps me track my energy. I can log how I woke up, how I felt, how my energy was throughout the day, what my mood was like, and other awesome things that will help with this entire exercise. But to begin with this time management hack, you need to begin, you need to take inventory of your energy and understand how it changes throughout the day, because it does change. We cannot be working at 100%, 100 % of the time.

Candice (13:06.254)

That's not possible for any human, any machine, any animal. We don't work 100 % of the time at 100%. In fact, I think that if you can work 80 % of the time at 80%, you're good actually. 80 % of the time at 50 % is even pretty good. But when you can begin to notice when you actually need more support on the days and hours where you need more support and on the days and hours where you are most productive,

and you start to schedule things in your business around that, everything changes. Hey, friend, hear that noise? That's the sound of HoneyBook depositing cold hard cash into your bank account. HoneyBook is an all-in-one client flow platform that helps you manage your leads, send wedding proposals, and sign more contracts all at the click of a button.

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That's candiscopla.com slash honey book. And thanks to honey book for sponsoring this episode of the power and purpose podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by our partner flow desk. Flow desk is an email marketing software used by thousands of creative entrepreneurs, just like you to grow their business and their brand. What I love most about flow desk is just how easy and simple it is to create stunning and effective email marketing campaigns

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Candice (15:32.076)

your first year. Check it out and see what's possible. And thanks to Flowdesk for sponsoring this episode of the podcast. Now let's get back to the episode. So to give you an example, I have my people days, my non-people days. And so I will be on certain days of the week for my students. It might be where I have coaching calls. It might be where I schedule podcast interviews or record podcast episodes. It might be where I create content.

All I know is I'm on, I'm ready to go. Then I have my non-people days where I don't do any of that and I introvert. I want you to think next about your people versus non-people days based on how your energy flows throughout the week, throughout the day, and throughout the month. This is a great place to take it to the next level because a lot of the work we do requires us to interact with other people. And as a wedding pro,

You have client meetings, you have consultations, you might have vendor events, people might wanna get together with you for a coffee, you've got networking stuff. You're just forward-facing, you've got meetings and things to do. One thing I know for sure is that if you let anybody on your calendar any day of the week at practically any time, you're gonna set yourself up for burnout. And you should have some rules around your calendar that take into consideration your energy.

So let me share some of my rules with you because I think this will help to put it in perspective. I schedule meetings, like I said, Monday through Wednesday, and then Thursday, Friday and weekends. That is me. That is my time to do however I please. I may work weekends. I may not. And on Thursday and Fridays, I dig into my business and my stuff, but it doesn't just stop there. I also have two weeks a month that I allow calls to be scheduled. And the other two weeks I reserve

for myself and my own projects. So my month tends to look like this. The first week of the month is reserved for me. I have limited calls and limited availability for any meetings whatsoever. The second and third weeks are meeting heavy. I'm meeting with clients, I'm meeting with other people, I might be recording or doing things that are more forward-facing, which means I am giving more energy to those tasks and I am ready and prepared.

Candice (17:54.552)

to be forward-facing and to meet everyone where they need me to meet them with the energy and the enthusiasm they need. And then on the fourth week of the month, I reserve that for myself as well. It's often to finish up a playbook for the planner's playbook and any other content tasks that I might have. But I reserve the last week of every month for myself where I don't schedule a lot of meetings, calls, or any forward-facing energy-dependent stuff.

That cycle repeats itself every single month and I've been doing this for pretty much the last four years and it has been a game changer for me. So I would ask you, what days of the week do you think are best for you to give energy to others that can be forward facing? Which days of the week would you like to not give your energy away and reserve it for your own business and whatever's on your to-do list?

And then would you even have certain weeks out of the month that you spend forward-facing and then some weeks that you reserve just for yourself, for your own projects, for your own to-dos, or just to kind of recalibrate, just to fill back up your tank so that you can get energized for the next call, the next client meeting, or the next thing you have to do?

Now I do know that you might have some resistance to this because you may think that you need to be available to people all week long. At pretty much any hour, you might be seeing that this feels hard because you're used to exchanging your energy whenever someone asks for it. And what I would say to you, if you're sitting in that space right now, I was there myself actually, so I totally get it. I was very nervous to implement this.

But I also had to remind myself that I want to show up for the people who are paying me when I'm at my very best. I want to show up for my students, for my podcast listeners, and for anybody who is relying on me to support them at my very best. And I'm not doing anybody any favors if I show up exhausted, anxious, burnt out, tired, unmotivated, and uninspired. I show up at my very best.

Candice (20:09.79)

the opposite way. And that's what people want from me. And so if that means that I have to put some rules around my calendar and rules around my time, then those rules exist to benefit the people they serve. And I would say the same to you. It's easy to start off with one or two days a week trying this and graduate to more, but I promise you, your clients are only going to benefit.

by you understanding your energy and reserving certain time for them when your energy is just right to support them. Now, outside of evaluating my energy and making these changes, I also think about my time based on tasks. So it's not just meeting with people and exchanging that face-to-face energy, which is very important to nail down. But once I understood what that looked like, I was then able to schedule.

projects and tasks around forward-facing energy versus when I can introvert and be inward. This helps me think through what days I might create content, what days I might work towards certain goals or high-level tasks that require concentration or require no distractions. The same can be said for you. You can begin to think about maybe client work on certain days of the week where you have that focused energy to dedicate to

certain client tasks or projects. You might also find too that you enjoy doing lots of meetings all at once and then having freer weeks without a lot of face to face. And if that's the case, I would give you a little tip. If you're going to do a lot of meetings back to back, or if you're going to have meeting heavy days, let's say Tuesdays and Wednesdays are your meeting days, maybe you're a little back to back on your calendar with client meetings and other stuff.

Don't schedule other things to happen on those days. This is a big, big lesson I learned. When I have a meeting heavy day, I don't expect myself to do big lift tasks outside of just showing up for the meeting. And in between meetings, I might go rest, I might go lay down, I might go on TikTok. I might just go chill and chill my brain out, chill my voice out and just...

Candice (22:30.094)

quiet my nervous system, quiet my mind, and then get ready for my next meeting, I would encourage you to do the exact same thing as you manage your energy throughout those high energy, high people involvement days. But you can begin to start to see how you can play around with your meetings and also some of your big projects because I imagine your off season to do list is big. There are things that you want to try.

There are things that you want to implement, processes or systems you want to improve. And the only way that you will get these things done if you've struggled getting things accomplished in the past is to start looking at it, not through time management, not through productivity, but through energy, paying attention to how your energy changes throughout the day, throughout the week and throughout the month. So that is the biggest

biggest time management hack that has changed literally everything about my business. Everything. Once I implemented this, everything changed and I'm still doing it to this day. Now I will say over the years, I've lately modified this and I've experimented with different formats. You know, after a while, something might not work for you anymore and so you pay attention to that. You try something different with your time, but it has consistently been

the biggest game changer for me. And I hope that you're listening to this episode and how I implement this in my business and you're getting ideas for how you can track, manage and honor your energy. Now, remember it's not a one and done system. I've been working on this for years and I'm constantly evaluating and adjusting, which is important to listen and notice your energy changes and fluctuations.

I get more done, but I also enjoy it. Isn't that like such an awesome side effect? I started doing this because I was burning out, giving my time away and not having any time for myself to work on my business. But one of the awesome side effects to doing this was I not only get more done, but I actually enjoy the tasks I've set out to do for myself because I've scheduled them to happen on days where my energy

Candice (24:57.122)

meets the task. I would love for you to try it for a month. Maybe you try it for this month and you see how it goes for yourself. My best advice in getting, like taking the next step after this episode is to track your energy for the next couple of weeks and then try one day. Implement this on one day of the week that you're mostly intrigued by and selfishly could be a day that you reserve just for yourself and your business.

Try it just one day and see how it feels and make some adjustments in the next week for the next time that day rolls around and so on and so forth. It takes about 60 days for us to create a new habit. So I love starting with just one day at a time. And once you've kind of mastered that one day, you can then do two days, try another day and then try a third and then try a fourth. And before you know it, your whole week is figured out for you and you begin to place projects and

meetings and stuff based on your time rather than your availability. It's a game changer. All right. I want to hear from you. This episode was personal for me. I want to hear from you. What did you think of my hack? Are you already doing this? Is this an aha moment for you? Are you going to try it? I want to hear all the things. So please come DM me on Instagram. Tell me your thoughts and thanks for listening today. I hope this episode has helped you. I want to remind you.

There is so much power in your purpose and I'll see you next time. Thanks so much for tuning in to this week's episode of the Power in Purpose podcast. If you enjoyed the show, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode and consider leaving a review. Head over to powerinpurposepodcast.com to access all of the resources and links mentioned in today's episode. That's powerinpurposepodcast.com.

I'll see you next time.