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TAKE THIS QUIZ TO FIND OUT WHICH SYSTEM YOU NEED TO GO FROM OVERWHELMED TO ORGANIZED

Crunchy mom of two, married to my favorite boy for life, and lover of dark chocolate peanut butter cups!
I went from nearly losing my mind and business to an intentional, successful woman all because of systems.

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The Magic Of Mastering Time Blocks + Routine Stacks

July 19, 2024

Productivity

Today’s episode is one that we have not done in a long time. I have a near and dear friend, Cathy, who is the owner of Retail Mavens. She is an incredibly brilliant business owner that I had the opportunity of meeting, becoming friends with and working together since we met at a mastermind. This is a coaching call that we had and I thought it brought brilliant insight to what it looks like to really get down into the nitty gritty of getting time blocks and routine stacks in place. I thoroughly hope you enjoy!

Listen Below For The Entire Episode On The Systemize Your Life Podcast

Mapping Out Your Time Blocks

Chelsi Jo: Okay so here is the goal – The goal is to get your five time blocks mapped out in a way that you feel confident to try for 2 weeks, and then you can come back and check in. The expectation here is that this will feel unfamiliar. This will feel not right or like it won’t work. This will feel unrealistic for a while, and that’s the point. It is going to stretch you outside of your comfort zone. We’re going to make it feel really great, but at the same time I always like to set the realistic expectation that all of this is for you to go collect data to bring back to me so we can tweak it and dial it in. Through that process, you are going to learn how to do for yourself what I am about to do for you. 

Cathy: Okay!

Chelsi Jo: Okay, so all we want to do is get your five time blocks. So at the very top we’re going to have you create a legend so that you know what these are. So you have your morning routine block, and then your a.m. block, then work and p.m. block, and then your night time routine block, and then right underneath that you’re going to write Fundamental Needs. 

Chelsi Jo: Okay, your morning routine time block is everything that you do before you really start your day. Meaning, I think you say you do like, I think you call it your God time? When do you typically do that in your day? First thing? 

Cathy: Yeah, first thing. There are two things that happen simultaneously depending on when my husband wakes up. I do my God time, then we both wear Oura Rings, so we do this sweet thing where we compare numbers, then we pray the daily verse together. 

Chelsi Jo: What happens naturally after that in your morning? 

Cathy: Then I start work. 

Chelsi Jo: Okay, awesome. So before I go any further, we’re going to pause on that for a minute. I want to talk about some things that you feel aren’t happening in your life, that you want to have happen outside of work. Around your home, giving to your family, giving to yourself… This could look like errands, catching up on anything around the house, projects around the house, grocery shopping, meal planning, getting workouts in, spending time with your kids… What does that look like right now, that you’re not getting to, that you wish you could? Or anything that feels chaotic?

Is There Anything That Feels Chaotic In Your Life?

Cathy: Because I don’t like to do any of this,  I have two chairs in my bedroom that are always completely full of my clothes. Then our basement is totally full of stuff and our house is totally full. I told Paul this morning we really have to do something about it. I’m starting to feel like I’m drowning. But see, this is where it’s hard to talk to you about it because the problem is that it all represents decisions for me. And decisions just exhaust me at this particular moment in my life. Well, they’ve really always exhausted me my whole life. I don’t even like to shop because I can’t stand making all of those decisions. 

Chelsi Jo: Well, we can make that easier for you. 

Cathy: Really?! 

Chelsi Jo: Yeah, of course! We can make it really easy. We don’t have to make all the decisions all at once, but we can start really small. Especially when it comes to decluttering, I can make that very simple for you. It doesn’t mean that it won’t be challenging, but we can make it very simple to where you don’t have as much decision fatigue. You’ll find great reprieve when we can get your bandwidth, that’s at max capacity, to have a certain stop time in your day. 

Cathy: Wow.

“It’s hard to imagine that any of this would ever feel like a reprieve, but I’m trusting you because I know that you know what you’re talking about!” – Cathy from Retail Mavens

We Have To Talk About It, Especially If You Want It To Change

Chelsi Jo: So anything else? What about any of the other things that I mentioned? 

Cathy: So actually… yeah, this makes me cry… I stopped planning meals because I had long covid. I’ve had horrible brain fog and it’s getting better, but I have to be so careful about things. Like I have to be so careful about sleep. I’m not always good at the night time routine or the morning routine. I have all of this stuff mapped out already. Like this morning, I set the time block for myself to do client prep before Bible study, but then I didn’t sleep great last night so I kept sleeping instead. Then last night I wasn’t feeling great, so instead of going to sleep when Paul did at 10:00, I ended up scrolling through Instagram for an hour. I was like – wait, it is 10:59?! How the heck did that happen?! I know I sound like every other person in the world… 

Chelsi Jo: Everybody feels that though… We have to talk about it, especially if we want it to change, you know? 

Cathy: Yes, and I do want it to change. It’s hard to imagine that any of this would ever feel like a reprieve, but I’m trusting you because I know that you know what you’re talking about! 

Creating The Domino Effect In Your Day

Chelsi Jo: It’s going to take time and dedication. Really, the magic comes from bringing all of these things together in a very specific order. So when you tip that first domino of the day – essentially, your whole day is just going to roll like dominoes instead of you grasping at straws to try and put your whole day together, all day long. And that is where so much of the reprieve comes from. At first, that’s not going to feel like a flow of dominoes because you’re so used to playing the game of “whack-a-mole” and putting out fires.

Chelsi Jo: That’s where the mental exhaustion comes from. When we get rid of that, it’s like the veil has been lifted and there’s hope. It’s like this lightness that comes back into the day. Not to say you won’t still struggle with sleep. I still struggle with stuff! I still totally do. But I know very quickly where I went wrong and how to get back into it. It’s a constant decision still on my part because we all have distractions. We all have addictions in our phones, we all have life problems. Mine is the same! I remember one time you said I made you feel so good when you knew that my house was dirty sometimes, too. My house gets dirty every day! All the time! 

Cathy: Yes! When you said in your stories that you hadn’t done your weekend routine for 3 weeks I was like, “Oh my gosh, what happened? Was she too sick to do those things?” But you chose to do things with your family instead because you knew you could get back on track. I was like, “Oh wow!” 

Chelsi Jo: It’s really nice to have that tool in your back pocket. Without it, essentially you don’t know that there’s another way. I think that’s the saddest part for me… This isn’t related to you, but when I see that people don’t know there’s another way. You don’t have to do it my way, but there IS another way and it’s worth trying!

Meal Planning And Decision Paralysis

Chelsi Jo: Okay. So meal planning… Is that important to you? 

Cathy: Yes, it is. It will be. So I just ended up buying meal plans because of that, but Paul just recently decided to join the same group so we will be making dinner again. We don’t normally end up eating dinner together.

Chelsi Jo: That may be a goal for you guys to say you want to do this two nights a week, and then we’ll see what two nights a week together feels like. You don’t have to jump into the whole thing fresh out of the gate, but we can map out what that would look like! 

Cathy: Yeah, okay!

Chelsi Jo: Okay, what are your typical hours that you would like to be working?

Cathy: I would like to work from nine to five. 

Chelsi Jo: Great. Do you typically take a hard stop for lunch or do you eat while you’re working?

Cathy: I eat while I’m working.

Chelsi Jo: Do you get up and take a quick walk at any point? 

Cathy: I’ve only started doing that in the last week because I can’t get my steps in unless I do. My reward for making my goal is buying myself one of those under desk treadmills, and I’m really excited about it. It’s supposed to come tomorrow.

Chelsi Jo: That’s so legit. I’m highly considering that!

Cathy: Since I got paralyzed by making the decision of looking at them all, I talked to a friend who is really into it anyway, so she gave me a link to one on Amazon. So the answer was no. But what I have become more aware of is that when I get tired, I always thought it was that I wasn’t feeling myself well enough. But now I know that’s not true. I know now that I just have to have a break. So I absolutely should do that during my buffer block. I see my buffer time block as just time to get more work done. That’s all I have ever seen my buffer block as during my work day.

Productivity, Sleep And Fundamental Needs In Your Time Blocks

Chelsi Jo: Okay, well here’s a couple things that we can play with. That’s 40 hours a week.

Cathy: Which is not enough. I always have to work on the weekend. I’m willing to do that short term, but I can’t keep doing it. It’s not sustainable.  

Chelsi Jo: I really think that we can 100% get you to this. Let’s get 40 hours on the books. So here’s the goal for Cecilia. If she can give you 40 hours worth of work every week and everything outside of that should be tagged for… Saturday, right? For me, whenever I see that in my schedule, I work really hard. This task that was supposed to take an hour, you better bet your buttons I’m going to try to get it done in 20 minutes. It really shows me the advantage of not getting distracted while I’m getting a task done. Because now I can see what getting out early allows for in my life when I finish this work sooner.

Chelsi Jo: Whatever time we give ourselves to do something we will fill it, right? Now sometimes we’ve got a project that’s 4 hours, and it’s going to take 4 hours. There are certain routine things that we’re doing, that we’ve just figured out how to make it take 30 minutes to an hour and then it’s boring and we do it all the time and it doesn’t light us up so we’ve checked our phone and we’ve gone pee and we’ve done this, and then we clicked another tab… and now we’re distracted and then, “Where was I?”, and it’s a whole thing. So I really do think that you could become more efficient, but we’ll get there! Either way, I have work down for you from 9 to 5. What time do you get up in the morning? Ideally, to start your morning routine.

Sleep And Morning Routine Time Blocks

Cathy: I have to back it up to how much sleep I want to get, so I would say that I want to sleep from like 10 to 7:30. Which isn’t actually how long I’ll sleep because I’ll be up some of that time. Which is something else I’m working on. 

Chelsi Jo: Okay, but you ideally would want lights out at 10:00? 

Cathy: No, 10:30. I can’t see having lights out at 10:00. So 10:30 to 7:30, let’s say that.

Chelsi Jo: How long is your morning routine? 

Cathy: It’s an hour, but it can be shorter. I certainly let it expand or contract to fill the time.

Chelsi Jo: Nope, that feels great. That’s amazing. 

Cathy: But then where’s the time for the a.m. block? 

Chelsi Jo: It’s 30 minutes. That’s all you need. It’s 8:30 to 9:00.

Cathy: Oh really? Okay, I see what you’re saying!

Fitting Your Fundamental Needs Into Time Blocks

Chelsi Jo: Okay, when you’re done working at 5:00 let’s just say… What does that typically look like for you in the evening?

Cathy: I work out. That’s what I do. Okay, because the other thing that happens is something else that I don’t know how to handle. So my beloved loves to go outside and have a cigar and some cocktails. I don’t like to do that and so that’s when I work out. But then if it rains, he’s here in the house because he’s not outside. I mean, sometimes he is, but often he’s not. So then I throw my whole routine out the window. Not because he’s asking me to, but since he’s not doing anything I feel like I should not be doing anything. But I shouldn’t be thinking that way, should I? Because he wouldn’t do that since he would just keep on his routine. He’s really big about routine. 

Chelsi Jo: Haha… It’s totally like that here, too. But I’m a bad influence on my husband… I’ve swayed him. But we LOVE being together, so when we have the opportunity and he’s home, I skip the gym so we can be together. And I don’t necessarily think that that’s bad, but I give myself realistic expectations to say I’m only going to allow myself to do that 2 days a week – not all five days a week. So I’ve got to hit a minimum of three days a week. Whatever your minimum is, you set that for yourself. 

Cathy: I can’t go less than 5. It’s such a mental health thing for me.

Hashing Out The Evening Time Blocks

Chelsi Jo: For sure. Okay, so when you get done with work, what is it typically like? Talk to me about your evening. From the time you’re done working till you go to bed. Just tell me all the things that you normally would do.

Cathy: Sure, so I work out and then at 7:30 usually is when Paul will come in from outside, and that’s when I’ll just throw my meal in the oven. And then he puts together something on his own. Then honestly, we just sit and talk for a bit and watch tv. That’s it. And I sit there with the computer, working, you know.

Chelsi Jo: Yep, okay I love this so much. This is so great. I don’t know how you feel about this, and this can be a really big goal. I do want you to have that fundamental need. As soon as you get off work you’re going to jump into your p.m. time block, and every day you’re going to start a fundamental need no matter what it is. If you want it to be a workout, that’s fine. You can do that. Essentially, you’re going to stack a bunch of fundamental needs in your p.m. block and then maybe a couple on the weekend.

Chelsi Jo: I would suggest that if your husband doesn’t go outside, you replace that workout with a different fundamental need. That could be: “Hey come sit with me while I fold laundry or while I clean out this meal drawer”. You’re still engaging, you’re still talking. You’re tackling something in your house and it still feels productive. It could also be an intentional to-do block for making phone calls or running errands. So put that fundamental need in there since it’s already part of your rhythm to have a workout or some other fundamental need. So your p.m. time block is going to start with your workout. When you’re done, I bet we could peel this meal time back for you to be in the kitchen by 6:45 to start cooking. I would love it to be 6:30, but if right now it starts at 7:00, that’s fine too. 

Cathy: So if it is nice and Paul goes outside, he won’t come in before 7:30, so why would I be in the kitchen at 6:45? 

Chelsi Jo: Because essentially you want to start cooking your food right? 

Cathy: Yeah, I got you – 6:45. Got it… okay yeah, I can do that. I can start working out at 5:00 because my workouts are usually an hour, so five to six. Then that allows me to drink my muscle repair stuff and get changed and hop in the shower.

Chelsi Jo: If you say 6:30 it’s probably going to be 6:45, right? For moms with little kids we say 4:30. That’s the hour we want to be in the kitchen, but then ultimately end up pushing our night out really late. Try that. You’re going to go work out, then into your dinner routine. I’m building a routine stack for p.m. time block right now. So it’s your workout then dinner routine. After that, however many nights a week, you can pop in a power hour of work. You’ve got one hour and that’s it. Power Hour, remove yourself, come back. If you want the Power Hour in the same area that’s fine, but realize you’re not going to get as much done. You could probably pop out for 20 minutes and essentially complete as much as you would doing a power hour of work on the couch. 

Cathy: Let me think about this… so the time is 5:00 to 6:30 for my workout, and then recover, so then at 6:30 I’m in the kitchen, and then dinner is at 7:30… so you’re saying like 8:00 to 9:00 would be my power hour?

Chelsi Jo: Or 8:30 to 9:30… depends on how long your guys’ dinner hour goes together. We’ll have to feel it out. 8 to 9:00 would be ideal, in my opinion, but 8:30 to 9:30 will still work. Then from 9:30 until 10:30, you and your husband can choose to do whatever night-time routine you want. Now, that is when your night-time routine time block is going to start. The reason I’m structuring it like this is because now you’re going to see very clearly in your brain that your night-time routine block is an hour long. And if at some point, you want to level up, you’re going to ditch the TV, ditch the screens, and you’re going to go into a night-time routine… in that block of doing things that actually helps you get to sleep faster and sleep better.

Chelsi Jo: WE don’t do that every night. Most of the time, our night-time routine block looks like us connecting on the couch. My husband and I watch CrossFit videos on YouTube. We are obsessed with it, but we try not to let the kids watch YouTube. There is only one screen in our house, the main TV, so when they watch YouTube we’re in the room. But we still don’t want them watching it at all. So we sneak it in when they’re in bed. Sometimes we say this is our date night or we’ll play a board game, just sit and talk, go over finances or goals or whatever during that time. When we’re really doing great, we get our butts upstairs in our bedroom. That’s a work in progress for us, as well as for most people, but now you’re going to know those are your parameters.

Laundry, Routine Stacking, And What If You Don’t Like Your Bedroom?

Chelsi Jo: Okay, so the only thing we have left to talk about, is what is happening in your a.m. time block for those 30 minutes. Are you clear on that?

Cathy: I’m clear on what to do. I know I have all that written down. I’m not worried. You know what I just realized that I didn’t realize until you were talking… I don’t want to say it too loud for Paul to hear, but I don’t like my bedroom. 

Chelsi Jo: Oh! There you go! 

Cathy: Yeah, so that’s a big realization.

Chelsi Jo: I had a podcast episode on this once. Creating these sanctuaries within our house where we are drawn to go, to encourage us to do that routine. So even if it’s to get a different pillow case or a different throw, completely change up your night stand, the things that you have control over. Unless it’s not about your husband at all and he doesn’t care. 

Cathy: He doesn’t care. It’s all the clothes that are all around. There are three closets in there that are full of stuff that I’ve actually tried to go through, and just couldn’t decide what to do with it all.

Chelsi Jo: Okay, so this is the other thing I wanted to talk to you about. I wrote down some key things: One was your laundry and the other was decluttering. 

Cathy: It’s not even the laundry. Paul does all of the laundry, I just have to put it away! 

Chelsi Jo: Okay, so if you are completely caught up, all your laundry is put away, how many times a week would you need to hang up clothes to stay on top of it? 

Cathy: Wouldn’t I have to do it every day, because I wear clothes and I’d have to do something with them? 

Chelsi Jo: But the laundry that comes out and is dried. How often is that being done? 

Cathy: Oh! Like once a week.

Chelsi Jo: Great. Fantastic. Here’s what I want you to do: Find one day a week, either your a.m. block where you’re going to put a fundamental need, for 30 minutes… OR where else did we put your fundamental needs? 

Cathy: Right after work. 

Chelsi Jo: Yep, okay, so as soon as you get back from your workout, all you need is one day a week. That’s it. So pick a day. Ideally the day that Paul does laundry, but it’s okay, when it’s on your chair you just go do it. 

Cathy: There’s always other stuff there anyway. And then when there’s a change in seasons… oh my goodness, the hell. Yeah, that would’ve been a great Instagram story just then…

Chelsi Jo: Hahaha… What state do you live in again? 

Cathy: Illinois, Chicago. 

Chelsi Jo: There’s so much snow! 

Cathy: I know, I love it. 

Chelsi Jo: Oh gosh, so much. Okay, so the one thing that I want to make sure that we tackle is because – guess what’s going to happen if you don’t like what you see when you walk into your bedroom. You’re going to avoid going in there, and it’s going to literally impede you from being successful at getting a night-time routine in place. Which then impacts everything else, and this happens all over the place. It’s the same thing in your kitchen. If you hate what you look at when you go into your kitchen, you won’t want to go in there at 6:30 to start making dinner. 

Cathy: So okay, I have to tell you this. We actually have a brand new kitchen because we had all this mold, and so we have a brand new kitchen as of Christmas. But my whole shake area… I can’t for the life of me figure out how to make that work! Anyway, what’s been terrible is that I’ve started to feel the same way about the kitchen. And I really do love it, I really do! But I cannot stand for things to be disorganized and I just can’t see how to put things together. I’ll never forget meeting Cecilia. She’s like, “Oh, I walk by my son’s room and I just take one quick glance, then I know where everything has to go.” I was like, “I walk by my son’s room and just close the door because I don’t have any idea where it should go.”

Routine Stacking Using Your Paper Planner

Chelsi Jo: Okay, here’s what I want you to focus on. I want you to use your paper planner and map out these time blocks. And inside of them, I want you to write your routine stacks. For a while, you’re going to put time stamps next to those things, written in by hand. When these routine stacks are happening, and when the start and stop time of your time blocks are. You’re not putting that in your Google calendar. 

Cathy: Okay, I understood. I remember hearing you talk about it and I understand the power of that. 

Chelsi Jo: So now I want you to put a big star by this next thing that you’re going to write down. When you go through your day, and you do all of this… for example, you go to make your shake. The one thing that I want you to focus on is: “How can I do one small thing to leave the space better than the way I found it?” One thing. You don’t need to make the whole shake area better. I want you to do one small thing. “What one thing can I do to make this space better than the way I found it?” 

“What is one thing I can do
to make this space better than the way I found it?” 

Cathy: Alright, I’ll try it. 

Chelsi Jo: If you fail miserably at it one day, that’s okay, you have tomorrow. 

Cathy: Got it. Yeah, I understand. 

Chelsi Jo: You can focus on being really good at one time block and one routine stack at a time. Who cares if you even get to the back half of the day. You can focus on being really great at what you set from 7:30 to 8:30. You get comfortable with that, then we can be really intentional about being good about the next one. Who cares if the rest of the day sucks. 

Cathy: Okay, alright. Wow. Look how good God is. I was feeling numb like I was drowning.  Thank you.

Chelsi Jo: You’ll be good. I’ll see you back here soon! 

Cathy: Sounds good. Thank you very much.

How Can You Receive Personal Coaching From Chelsi Jo?

If you’re ready to achieve real results in your home and business, please take me up on my offer to join one of my student communities today. Systemize Your Life, Systemize Your Biz and Systemize To Scale are your paths to organized homes and businesses while you watch your dreams come to reality.

If you’re looking for more juicy tips from Chelsi Jo check out, Time Blocking To Reduce Stress and Anxiety, 7 Tips for Getting the Sleep You Need and How To Time Block Your Fundamental Needs To Reduce Stress And Anxiety.

Time Blocking Secrets: The Magic of Mastering Time Blocks + Routine Stacks

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