110. From 4 Kids to Coaching: My Real-Life Productivity Routines

If you’ve ever looked around at your chaotic life and thought, "Is it just me, or are we all drowning??” then this episode is for you.  Today I’m pulling back the curtain and walking you through what a typical weekday looks like for me while raising my four kids, juggling my coaching practice, and chasing after two crazy dogs. 

You’ll hear how I break my day into four quarters (because honestly, it feels like four separate days), the systems that keep me grounded, and where I’ve learned to just let things go. This is a real-life look at how I stay productive without burning out, and how I build in flexibility instead of forcing rigid routines.

Here’s what I talk about:

• What my days look like—from quiet(ish) mornings to chaotic evenings
• How I decide what gets done when (and what doesn't get done at all!)
• Why Google Calendar is my brain + how we use a Skylight for the family
• The Time Bucket System I created to feel progress in all my roles
• How I’ve redefined productivity to work with my energy—not against it

Resources Mentioned:

• Download the Time Bucket System Template
• Join the SLP Support Group on Facebook

Want support building a version of productivity that actually fits your life (and your brain)?
That’s exactly what I help my 1:1 coaching clients do. I’ve got spots open—reach out through the link in the show notes and we can see if we're a good fit!

To find out how I can help you improve your work-life balance, click here.

Come join the SLP Support Group on Facebook for more tips and tricks!

Follow me on Instagram! @theresamharp

Learn more about Theresa Harp Coaching here.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome to Work-Life Balance for Speech Pathologists. I'm Theresa Harp, an SLP and productivity coach, and this podcast is all about how to build a successful career as an SLP and still have time for yourself and the people and things you love. So if you're ready to ditch stress and burnout for a more balanced and fulfilling life, then you are in the right place. Let's dive in.

Hello SLPs. Welcome back to the podcast. This is the first episode I'm recording. In a while I had been batch recording episodes, and then I've been repurposing some of the Facebook Lives that I've been doing in the SLP support group into podcast episodes as a way to sort of work smarter, not harder this summer, and to also provide value to people who might not be in the group, which by the way, if you are not.

What are you waiting for? Make sure you pop into the SLP Support Group. The link is in the show notes so that you get access to all [00:01:00] of the Facebook Lives, not just the ones that I share here on the podcast. So anyway, this is the first one. In a while it feels good to be back, back here recording and today.

I'm actually pulling back the curtain, so to speak, on what productivity looks like for me in my life. This is something that I have not really shared before, sort of, because I think it, I, I guess I thought it was, I don't know, boring or. Irrelevant. But what I've been hearing from some of my coaching clients in also some of the people in the Facebook group based on questions that people have been asking is that this is actually the stuff that you, nosy folk really want to hear.

So, and I know I always like those types of episodes for the, that I listened to. So that's what [00:02:00] you're gonna get for today. All right, so I'm gonna be talking through. What my days look like, what productivity looks like for me as a certified SLPA certified productivity coach, a mom with four kids, my husband, who is in the military, and I have, uh, was diagnosed as an adult with A DHD.

So lots of, lots of factors here. Oh, and we've got two dogs by the way, so there's a lot going on and. What my life looks like in terms of work life balance and productivity might be quite different from what you're envisioning. It's definitely not the color coded Pinterest worthy, you know? Planners, schedules, charts, all that.

But it works because I figured out things that have worked or things that are sort of [00:03:00] designed for my brain and my lifestyle and the season of life that I'm in right now. So. That's what we're talking about today, so I'm just gonna get into it. Okay. I'm gonna kind of dive in and try to highlight some of the pieces of this that I think would be really helpful for all of you, because I don't want this episode to sound like I am telling you that what I do is what you need to do.

If you are one of my coaching clients, you know, that's not how I operate. But if you are new to the show or maybe you're kind of just getting your feet wet, you might, you might, you might misunderstand. So I wanna be super clear about that. This is not about you, you know, doing what works for me. This is about you kind of seeing some behind the scenes ideas of ways that other people lead.

[00:04:00] Productive lives and what elements of that you can take for yourself. Okay, so now I really am getting into it. Alright, so. What does my day look like? A typical weekday for me, I, I sort of break this down into quarters. So like each day I envision it as four quarters of a day, and the beginning of my day is the morning.

So I've got the early morning prep, like from when I get up. To the time that my kids get out of the house for school, or in this case summer camp as I'm recording this. That is the first quarter of my day. Second quarter is my workday. Third quarter is the sort of afternoon and evening routines with my kids, and then the fourth quarter is the wind down.

So for me, I am a morning person. I [00:05:00] like to get up before. Everybody else in the house wakes up. I find that to be incredibly helpful for me and my mental health, and my sanity, my mood, right? So I, my alarm will go off shortly before five, but I do not get up at that time every day. In fact, lately it has been definitely later than that.

Uh, I will hit snooze quite a lot, but when I get up. Once I finally do get out of bed and I get my morning going, I tend to do one of two things, or maybe both. It's either getting some work done. So outlining podcast episodes, grading papers for my students, you know, stuff, some of that quiet work that, 'cause there's always work that you could be doing.

So I like to do some of my work or I will do a workout, some sort of an exercise, or sometimes I'll do [00:06:00] both. It all depends on my mood, my energy, how much sleep I got, what quality sleep I got, and I have. Learn to just allow myself to let this be flexible. Sort of the mantra that guides me is something is better than nothing.

So there are some days when my workout is a 10 minute workout and I used to feel really bad about that. Disappointed I don't anymore. For me, it is just about something. Yeah, and that being better than nothing. So I kind of have learned to like release those expectations and pressures that I used to put on myself.

For me, it's about just that time to myself spending it in quiet. So that's what my morning looks like. Then once the kids get up, they usually get up around like six ish. Once they're up, all bets are off. That is when the chaos begins and we're kind of, you know, scrambling to get them [00:07:00] out the door. Okay, so that's my like first quarter of my day.

And even within that one quarter, there's really like two halves. It's like the quiet me time and then the chaotic family time. Yeah, they're very different, very different parts of that routine, but they both, they both happen. Once the kids are out of the house, that's when my workday starts. And that's like the easiest part of my day, quite frankly.

It is the, the simplest, easiest, quietest part of my day. It's super enjoyable, I'm not gonna lie. It's very, I don't know, I just find it very. I mean, it's like a blend of relaxing, but then also stimulating. And I, I, I don't know, I just really enjoy my work days and I work from home. I'm not practicing at all any longer.

[00:08:00] As an SLPI am working all, like all of my work time, my paid work time is spent either teaching. I teach a grad pro, a grad course, and I also teach an undergrad course for two different universities. Both are virtual online, so there's my role as an instructor professor, and then I also primarily work as a one-on-one productivity coach.

Most of my clients are SLPs. And interestingly enough, about half of them have kids and half of them don't. So I have a nice kind of blend there of the people that are coming to me, but all of them are working on. Establishing some sense of work-life balance. And so I'll provide one-on-one coaching for my clients.

And we talk about lots of different [00:09:00] topics because as a time management coach, literally everything you do consumes time. So there's so much that we wind up coaching on, which is what I love about it, is never the same thing. And all of my clients, I would say. Um, I'm just thinking right now as I'm recording this, but most, if not all of them have a DHD or suspect that they have a DHD.

So we do a lot of coaching around understanding their neurodiversity and how A DHD shows up for them and. Creating systems and, and processes and routines that work for their lifestyle and their learning style and the sort of the guiding question, or like the overall question that guides me during my workday is.

Can this [00:10:00] be done when the kids are home? Because honestly, there's always more that I have on my list than I have time available for. And I don't make that a problem. It's not, that's not a problem for me. I'm okay with that. Um, so recognizing that there is more on the list than there is time available.

And so the way that I prioritize those, those tasks. Is by that one question, what can I do when the kids are here and what can't I do when the kids are around? Because if it's something that I cannot do when the kids are home, that's the top priority for me because I only have, you know, maybe a five hour window of, of work during the, the workday while they're out of the house.

By the time all things are said and done. So that's kind of how I structure what gets done during that time. Okay. And then the afternoons and early evenings, that is [00:11:00] when, like I always joke, that's when the real work begins. That's the part of my day that is like complete chaos. Um, I shouldn't say that.

It's not complete chaos. We absolutely have systems and routines that help us. You know, with that time of day for sure. But I mean, my kids, I have four kids. My twins are nine. My, I have a 7-year-old and I have a 5-year-old, and they are high energy. Kids. They are high energy, high needs a lot of personality.

They are a lot. They fight a lot. They are crazy. They're wild. They take a lot of energy. They take a lot of patience. This part of my day is definitely the wild card. It's definitely the most. Energy consuming, if you will. And there's definitely parts of this, this quarter, this third quarter, that are not optimized.

And that's okay. [00:12:00] I, you know, I do what I can and the rest we just sort of let go. So I'm usually getting them home settled, you know, depending upon what time of year it is. Different activities, different, you know. Routines and sometimes it's just like getting to bedtime. Like that is sometimes all we can do.

All I can do that's like the one goal and then that fourth quarter bedtime, once they're in bed, then I have my time again. And I'll be honest, more often than not, a lot of the days those, uh, you know, that last quarter of the day is like. Like done. You know, usually at that point there's a very little that I can take on.

It tends to sometimes just be like chaos, like recovery. It's like just drop and and recover and sometimes that's how it goes. Sometimes it's very [00:13:00] intentional, you know, self-care type stuff. Sometimes it's time with my husband or you know, whatever. Sometimes it's like catch up. It really just depends on.

What, how the rest of that day has gone. But I allow it and I give myself permission to spend that time however it needs to be spent. So that's kind of in a nutshell what a typical day looks like. And you know, like I said, I think of it in quarters 'cause that's what works for me. I also love that, that mentality, because if something does not go well during one of those four quarters or two or three of those four quarters, we still have another quarter and it's like a fresh start.

And sometimes I will have to treat that as like four separate days almost. And honestly, the amount of stuff that we do, the amount of stuff that I do in a day. It could be like four separate days. It's, they're, they're pretty packed. So, [00:14:00] but I, I like that that sort of mindset works well for me. So let me talk through some simple systems that I use that keep me sane and keep me productive.

The first one is. Absolutely. My Google calendar, that is my brain. That is all there. It, I used to do paper planner, used to carry my paper planner with me everywhere up until shortly after I had kids. I really hung on, uh, for the, like the first, like the early stages of when my twins were born. And even leading up to that, I remember booking, uh, OB appointments and.

There were times when I just didn't have the paper planner with me and it became really difficult to schedule. So that was sort of when I started shifting from paper to electronic and now everything is on Google. I still am like a paper pencil kind of person, [00:15:00] but Google's Google Calendar is what I have.

What I have adjusted to, and I, it, it, like for me, there's no turning back. It is, there's lots of different calendars within my Google calendar that I have. I have a shared calendar with my husband and then recently we also invested in one of those skylight calendars because I was finding that, uh, I had, I had been.

Like handwriting our family calendar on the dry erase board every month, and with four kids and two dogs and my husband. And like, it just was, it was so time consuming that I was resisting it. I was avoiding it. And then we didn't have the family calendar there, so I knew what was going on and my husband would know if he looked at the shared calendar, but the kids didn't really know what was happening, so that wasn't really working.

For us any longer. So we invested in the skylight calendar, which I [00:16:00] really love. I do, I really love it. It's coming handy. Um, so yeah, that's, that's what we use. Now, my second system. That keeps me sane is my time bucket system, which is basically, if you haven't heard me mention it before, I will link to it in the show notes because you can download this resource and learn how to use it for yourself.

But it was the system that I came up with when I was learning how to make progress across different areas where I felt like I was maybe focusing on work stuff, but I was letting things drop with the house or with the kids, and that was really, really difficult for me. And what I learned just for myself was doing a weekly brain dump of what needed to get done and then sort of categorizing those tasks into different roles.

So they were, they were grouped by role, so what I need to do for work, what I need to do for the family, what I need [00:17:00] to do for the house, what I need to do for myself, and that really helped me track progress across those. Those, those roles across those different, like parts of my life and I, I still use that system.

I highly recommend it for people who are struggling in that area. Like where you feel like you've got, you've got your hand, got a handle on one thing but not the other, or not another. Um, of course, like I said at the beginning, this is not about you doing what works for me. This is about you figuring out what works for you.

But it might be a good starting point for you to just kinda get some ideas and then the third system. That I'll share, which is my Achilles heel, is meal planning, and this is the one that I allow the ball to drop quite often. I hate meal planning. I hate making dinner. I hate being responsible for who's having what.[00:18:00] 

I've tried lots of different things. And what I have learned with meal planning is that, again, something is better than nothing. I let it be super flexible. I don't get stuck on one system because that has never worked well for me. So I, I sort of just allow myself to figure it out as I go. But a couple of things, really, one thing that has helped me.

The most is having a list, a written list on a chalkboard of the meals that the family will eat. We call it the queue. So it's like a list of all of the, the meals that I can make or will make, and just having that there in writing helps reduce some of the decision fatigue. And I, within that meal queue have identified some of like the go-tos, the, the meals that are really easy to make and we tend to always have the ingredients on hand.

So, you know, I have [00:19:00] like three or four of those. And off, I'll be honest, a lot of times that means we wind up eating the same thing over and over. And you know what? That's okay. I'm okay with that. Uh, that is just, again, one of those balls that I just allow to drop because something is better than nothing.

So those are a couple systems that help me. And then the last thing I wanna talk about is sort of my definition of productivity and how I've personalized this for me. So I make sure and believe that product productivity for me is, is. Rooted in self-awareness. So I look at how am I feeling, like what's going on with me physically, mentally, emotionally, energetically, and then I will adjust my expectations to allow for that.

I don't. I try not to push through any longer. I will pivot. I will lower the bar. I will ask for help. [00:20:00] I will move things or reschedule. I give myself grace. I will forget things. I will hand things in late, like I just have allowed that to happen and don't really get caught up in. You know, punishing myself for that or making it mean anything that just really helps work with me and my life and where I'm at right now.

And yeah, I mean that, that has been a game changer. And when it comes to how I think of productivity and how I define it, for me, it is not just about checking boxes. Certainly I love to, you know, check a box. I love to make a to-do list with a box, and I will check that box and I will love it. However, it is really about feeling aligned and feeling like I am making progress in different areas, across areas, and I'm like filling up my bucket [00:21:00] in those different ways, in those different roles and the different identities that I have and the ways that I show up.

So. Showing up being okay and being proud of that for better or for worse. Not just about how much can I get done and how fast can I do it? 'cause I want to feel good about how I'm showing up. I wanna feel good about the work that I'm creating, and I wanna know that I'm spending my time intentionally on the things that truly do matter.

So that has. In a nutshell is what has worked well for me, and again, this is not about you doing what works for me, but if this sort of version of productivity helps you in any way, helps you feel more, helps you feel more realistic or more doable, then. I then I've done my job, then I feel like this has provided value.

I'm not about rigid routines and systems that we force you into [00:22:00] or I force myself into, and I've sort of embodied that and brought that into my coaching sessions with my coaching clients. It's all about coming up with a DHD friendly. Systems and rhythms and routines that make space for all of your roles and what matters most to you, right?

And if that's what you're craving, if that's what you want help with, send me a message, chat with me. I would love to help you. The link is always in the show notes. Alright, that's it for today's episode. I will be back next week. I'll talk to y'all then. Bye.