Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
You're listening to the Poised Powerhouse Podcast. My name is Dr. Sita Hood, and I'm obsessed with empowering women like you with practical life strategies to live authentically without compromising your wellness.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: I used to be caught up in.
[00:00:21] Speaker A: The hustle hard mentality until I learned that my quirky little traits I thought weren't that important actually turned out to be the secret boss I needed to step boldly into my purpose and create impact not only in my life, but so many amazing women around me. Organizing your schedule, launching impactful programs, redefining leadership without code switching or compromise, and stepping boldly into your God given assignment are all topics we'll discuss here. Think of this podcast as that Sunday brunch with your girls that feels so therapeutic you can't wait to get to it. But let's clarify, this is not a substitute for a relationship with a licensed therapist. All right, grab your notebook and your coffee or your tea. We don't discriminate over here. And let's start the show.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: Welcome back for another episode of the Poise Powerhouse Podcast. I AM your host, Dr. Cedah Hood, vision architect and licensed therapist. What's in your mug? What's in your mug? What is in mine is essentially a caramel latte. Of course, y'all know we using bae, the nespresso. And to use this or to make the caramel latte, I used two double espressos. Okay. And I hesitated because I know that there are some of you that are gonna judge me for using two pods, but y'all be all right. Okay. How am I feeling? Well, spiritually, I'm not even gonna hold you. Spiritually, I'm feeling like that girl. Okay? And I don't mean that in a prideful way. I'm not trying to be, like, conceited or nothing like that. You know how it is. When the devil been, like, beating up on you, he been trying to kick your butt. And in that moment, it feels like you have nothing left. It feels like you can't get up out the corner and fight. You know what I'm saying? Sidebar. One of the songs that low key got on my nerves and still do kind of get on my nerves that encourage themselves. Like, no shade to y'all, but I be tired of encouraging myself. Okay? No, no, no.
But for real, though, you be getting tired of encouraging yourself, so no shade to them. But anyway, back on topic. So it's one of the moments when you play the song, encourage yourself, and you just don't even got it in you to Sing, encourage yourself. And so you've been feeling too weak to fight and then all of a sudden, all of a sudden you start to get that energy back and it's like, yeah, yeah, what's good? Okay, now we finna start praying and we about to start summoning the minister and warring angels to come down and fight because you done messed with the wrong one. It should have got me when I was down, cuz now it's too over with. Okay. God then reminded me who I am. So if I had to summarize that in natural language, I would say that I am feeling very much empowered today. So life is not perfect, but I'm feeling really regulated. How about you? What you drinking all? How you feeling? Let me know, let me know in the comments or you can tag me on Instagram. Okay, let's talk about our topic, time blocking. Yeah, I know, I know, I know, I know. Some people not even going to honestly click on this episode if they see that it's about time blocking. Because traditional time blocking be having people feeling very rigid. And honestly, it does give ick vibes. Right? Because it's no room to breathe. It is. Schedule this here, put this here, do this, do it, do it. Fitted Tetris game and you just feel overwhelmed, overworked, you are exhausted 24 7. And I think that it might seem like it's the best method for knocking stuff out of your to do list, but if it was the best method, your list would be done. Okay, okay. I'mma get out your business. I'mma get out your business. I'm going get out your business. Okay, seriously though, it seems like it is the best method, but it's really not.
So I want to talk about how I personally use time blocking because I do love time blocking, but when I'm talking to women, I talk about switching to routines instead of schedules. Now, obviously, sometimes things have to be scheduled. They have to be happening at a particular time, like dropping the kids off or making a certain class or something like that. Like you have to do those things so that you can't change. But if we do this sort of hybrid scheduling, what we can do is like establish routines and then have certain time blocks where we throw the routines in there. You'll see what I mean a little bit later.
Hey, hey.
[00:05:29] Speaker A: Aren't you tired of running around like a chicken with your head cut off? How many times have you promised to do better with your wellness routine routines only to let life get on top of you again? I want to invite you to pause and Pour by downloading my app, the Lavish Haven, your sanctuary for cultivating daily wellness. It's completely free to use. You'll start with our Pause and Pour quiz and then access our signature daily and weekly wellness trackers, mood playlists, elevated emotions, collections, scripture based guided audios, and super. So much more. Hit the link below. To start today.
[00:06:11] Speaker B: Let'S talk about some essential elements of time blocking. Before we get into the fun, creative stuff, the first thing to remember is that you have to prioritize your tasks. And I know you know that already. I know, I know, I know you know it. Just hold on. We hear it so much, but we don't actually do it. And here's how I know we don't actually do it. Because I'm ask you this question. I want you to be honest. I ain't even talking about your computer. I ain't talking about your computer. If we were to go to the Internet browser of your phone, how many tabs you got open? How many tabs? How many tabs? How many tabs do you have open right now? When you said that you was going to come back to that website and do that, Go back to that website. Oh, let me save this. That's all you got to go by, how many tabs? Now we allow ourselves to get distracted because we think that we do have the ability to multitask. But I have to say, like, in 2025, multitasking is extremely hard. Why? Because we got the ability to have so many tabs open at once and that's in multiple areas. That's on your laptop, that's on your tablet, that's on your phone. And it's not just that, like, how many times is it like, okay, I'm going to do this while I also do that. I'm going to do that while I'm also doing this. Like, you got your hand in too many pots. And the truth is, ain't nothing going to come out perfect because you're too distracted. Nothing is getting 100% of your attention when you are operating like that. So we can't do it. We got too many tabs open. And I know it's very much a struggle to close out all the tabs because I'd be having a struggle. I go through the same thing. I'll start working on something and then it's like, oh wait, let me come over here and finish this. And it's like, no, no, no, no, no. My secret weapon for not getting drawn up in what I feel like needs to be done. I Have my digital planner open and I have a digital notepad right there. So when I'm getting distracted and I'm like, oh, yeah, I still got to fix that and I want to stop and work on it because I think it's just going to be right quick quotation mark and it's really not. It's like another 30 minutes. I just scribble the task down and get back to what I was working on. So have you ever felt like you had a plan to tackle something really, really big, but then when you look at your to do list hours later, that top three ain't even been touched? Honey. In fact, maybe nothing on your list has been touched yet. You're exhausted because you feel like you've been running all day. The truth is you did do things and you were productive. You just took care of the low hanging fruit. You didn't take care of the larger tasks that would have built momentum that you need or cleared something completely off your plate and freed you up to focus on other things. So we have to remember that you have to prioritize. And like we started off talking about in this episode, time blocking traditionally is seen to be very rigid, but it actually is not meant to be rigid. It's meant to give you freedom and it's meant to create flexibility. We don't give enough room for projects and tasks that we want to work on. We tend to be like, oh, I could get it done in this time period. And then you have packed something else there and you wonder why it's taking you so long. And then it starts this cycle of shame and guilt because you feel like you're not handling things. I should have been further. I could have been. I would have been if this. You gotta leave yourself enough space. Be realistic in your expectations for accomplishing things and overestimate. And if you a mama, you really gotta overestimate because them kids gonna interrupt you, maybe they're gonna interrupt you. Okay? So just go ahead and plan for it. And let's say that maybe you don't have kids, but you have a lot going on. You have big personal life commitments or you got big projects that you're working on at work. Buffer in additional time because you're going to need it. You have to learn to anticipate or expect to be interrupted. In a perfect world, you wouldn't be interrupted. In a perfect world, a measly little thing like food or sleep wouldn't stop you from being productive, right? Because you got all this energy and you can go, go, go, go. Go. But the truth is, timelines do get pushed back and life happens. And it's okay. Because one thing about it, two things for certain, it's going to happen in God's timing, point blank, period. Something that I want to share with you that is a little bit of a revision. Because if you've been following me for any length of time, then you know that I would say I don't subscribe to the hustle hard culture, don't like it, it doesn't feel good, leaves us burned out, overwhelmed, overworked, etc. I could go down a rabbit hole on that. So I used to say hustle responsibly. However, I have in most recent weeks, been convicted of even that. Because why do I need to hustle for things that God has already promised me if I'm operating in his will? It's a mouthful right there, right? And so I was watching one of Dr. Darius Daniel's sermons where he talked about Adam. And when Adam was in the will of God in the garden, he ain't have to hustle. If we think about what happened as a consequence after that, that's when God said, you're gonna have to work by the sweat of your brow to get the land to bear fruit for you. But still, when I am operating in God's will, his timing is perfect. Timing is key. And it means that he knows that he created me with this feeble body. He knows that I have children. He knows I have a husband. He know I got a job. He know I got a. Anything you could throw in there. He already knows. And he still created time for you to do exactly what he wanted you to do without burning yourself out. And if we take the Jesus framework, we'll just say that he created, or God's framework, Jesus, the Trinity, the three in one. He created and then he rested on the seventh day. Created, rested. Which means there have to be regular periods or consistent periods of rest for you. Planning for interruptions, planning for that time where you get to rest as you're building. You cannot be so rigid in your expectations that you are creating an unrealistic schedule or timeline for your goals, because you have to stay engaged in real life. And the last thing that I want to say about this before we get into the fun part, is that you have to embrace progress, not perfection. Because one of the best things about time blocking is that it creates flexibility and room for you. And that's the reason why it works, because it helps you to generate momentum. There's a little bit of progress Every single day. But that progress adds up to something absolutely amazing. I just redid my therapy website and the old version of me would have been able to do a website in like three, four days. And I still could probably, if that was the only thing I ever worked on, truth be told. But the websites that I created back then were not as intricate as they are now. I didn't have a whole lot of videos. I probably have some stuff, stock images and actually, I don't think I had any videos on my old site. A lot of words and typical buttons, like pretty much a copy and paste sort of website that you see everybody else kind of using. But the websites that I have now for my therapy site and then for my consultation site, oh, those websites are dope, okay? They're dope.
And they're dope because God gave me the vision and then he gave me the strength to carry out the vision. But it took a much longer time. Why? Because the impact is greater. Because what I produced is greater than what I did then. But that had to be tiny little steps that I took. Progress, not perfection. Some of y'all ain't even started because you wanted to look like that. But you haven't produced this one yet. You got to start at the beginning so you learn all the things along the way. And I'm not even going to apologize for that because you know, you sitting down when God then gave you all the time, all the grace, all the mercy, all the ideas, all the resources to go ahead and get started. So you need to stop playing his face. Okay? Just, just, just stop doing it. Okay. All right. On to 6 Creative Ways to use time blocking. It's super simple to get into time blocking, but I want to encourage you to have some patience with yourself when you are trying new things. Because sometimes when you, when you're trying something new, you have this crazy expectation for it to work right off the bat with your first try and for every piece of it to work. And that's not always the case. And so I don't want you to get frustrated with unrealistic expectations. It might take a few times that you go at it before it actually starts to work. So the very first way is energy based scheduling. And this is one of my absolute favorite ways to move throughout my day. I will create a task list, either at night or in the morning when I wake up, of things that I want to get done realistically in the day. And sometimes if I don't make the list at night, I will intentionally wait to make it in the morning to see how I feel. Because based on how I wake up feeling, I pretty much know, you know, how much I can get done in that day and what my energy levels are going to be like. For the most part I have sleep apnea, so sometimes my sleep is a little bit wonky. And so if I wake up and that energy just not there, we not even going, we not going to deceive ourselves and add on a whole bunch of tasks. No, we're probably going to manage our energy coast, give what I got to my clients or the people that I have to pour into that day, give what I got to my family and then we going to let the rest figure itself out. So one of my favorite things about this is you can create your tasks and you know, based on, you know, if it's a typical task that you usually do, you know how much energy that's going to require of you. And based on how you feel, you know, when you can plug it into your day. So there might be some things sometimes where I plan to do it in the evening and I'm like, I really don't feel like doing it in the evening. I would prefer to get it done in the morning, but I'm not sure how I'm going to wake up feeling. And then if I wake up feeling really energized or something random happens where there's an extra space somewhere in my day and I get the opportunity to get it done and the energy is right, boom, we slide that task right on in there and knock it right out. Okay. And I think most of the time the reason why we struggle with getting stuff done is because sometimes people take that little extra time and just sit and do nothing, sit and scroll on social media or you know, time wasters. And I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with social media or anything like that because I do think that it could be an okay decompression method, you know, depending on what your algorithm is looking like, because some people social media be stressing them out. But if you know what your algorithm looking like and it is like exciting to you or energizes you, then that is maybe a good brain break. But if it's something that's really important that you want to get done and you are blessed to have this big old block of time and your energy is there, you should use it to just knock out the task. Just go ahead and get it done. Okay. And again, that's one of my favorite methods. Another one is goal oriented blocks or theme Blocks. These are really fun because sometimes you have maybe a lot of micro tasks that you need to do for a particular thing. Like let's say that I know that I need to clean my kitchen and maybe I don't have everything listed down that I need to do, but I know there are a bunch of little things in the kitchen that need to be tackled. So if I have a goal oriented block or a themed block, I don't necessarily have to take my time to make the list. I can just dedicate that block to all things kitchen. Right. Because maybe part of that is making a meal plan for the next week. Maybe part of that is taking inventory of what's in the cabinets and things like that, like little things that you don't necessarily think about. But that's the theme for that block of time. And that's all we're going to work on if we're thinking about something pertaining to work. You know, let's say it's our email list. If I go into the email list, you know, I don't necessarily have the tasks planned off the top of my head, or maybe I do, but that block of time is specifically designed for that thing. Telling yourself, during this time frame, I am only going to work on this theme or this topic or this goal is the best way to stay focused. If you're using this type of time blocking and everything else outside of this can wait until this block of time is over. So if I'm doing like a cleaning thing around the house or like a tidy up, I like to call it either a 15 minute power clean where I will set the timer and then everything in that space that I'm focused on is what we're pulling. We trying to beat the clock and see how much we can get done in that span of time. And I promise you, you will be so surprised how much you can accomplish in 15 minutes. The next time blocking method is mixing short and long blocks. For this I want you to think about the pomodoro technique. And if you've never heard of the pomodoro technique, essentially it is taking a long block of time for working and then taking a short block of time for breaks. So for example, the most Common one is 25 minutes of work, 5 minute break, 25 minutes of work, 5 minute Break, 25 minutes of work, 10 minute Break and then the cycle starts over again. Now I use that when I need to really concentrate or focus mentally. So I don't really use that one much anymore, but I used to use it a lot When I was in school for my doctorate. It's a really good one to help you stay focused. And my little sideline tip is to wait for it, right? Because those first two blocks, you're really gonna be distracted. You're gonna want to pick up your phone, you're gonna want to answer a text message, you're gonna want to do all the things, but the key is to not touch anything else for those 25 minutes. Somebody texts you, you can text them back in the five minute break. Somebody calls you, you can call them back in the five minute break if you think the conversation will be less than five minutes. And usually by that third break, that's when your real focus kicks in. So I host Slay your work day, which is a virtual co working session that I do inside of my community. And the ladies always agree that by that third pomodoro, we are in it. We're in a good groove, our focus is there. And it's super surprising because for people who do it the first time, their first two times, they struggle and they're like, oh, it's working for everybody else, but it's not working for me. But then by the end of our coworking session, they're like, yeah, I actually did get some things done. So that's a fun way to mix it up as well. The next method is the flex task block. Okay? So this could be mixed in with the Pomodoro method. You could take that, you could do the mixing, the long and the short breaks, but you can take the 25 minutes of focus, and then you can alternate, if you want to, a wellness block and a creative block for that five minutes. And we'll talk a little bit more about what that is in just a second. Or if you're doing household tasks, then you could do one simple task that takes you five minutes, like sweeping the floor, depending on the size of the room that you're sweeping. So you can be flexible with what you swap into these particular boxes. Next is the wellness block. Y'all already know I was going to throw wellness in here, right? Because that's who I am. Okay?
So I love these blocks because I like to throw either like a five minute neck stretch in my work session, and you can honestly look that up on YouTube, or even a five minute desk stretch or. We love a good five minute journal session, honey. Okay? Because do not tell me that a five minute journal session don't work. It does. It very much does. You will be surprised how much you can get out in five minutes. And that wellness block can be used for any one of the four domains. Mental, spiritual, physical, financial. And our last block is the creative block. To me personally, that is like listening to an audiobook or a song for like five minutes. When I think about a creative block, I think about something that gives you a break from the work that you're doing, but also allows your creative, creative juices to flow. Like you might have an idea sparked by whatever it is you choose to engage in, but what you engage in is fun and exciting and it's something that you actually want to do, but it is truly something that improves your mood. So next, I thought it would be a fun idea to give you three plug and play time block schedules that you can use. And I'm also going to leave a link for you to get the PDF of this as well or the PNG if you would like, just a picture as a sample schedule, just to get started. Ready? Okay, here we go. Here's my ideas. Okay, so for the folks that want to get started on this concept right away, the first one is going to be if you're using a creative block, if you're using an admin afternoon. And this would be focused on like energy based blocks. Okay, so let's say 7:30 to 8 morning routine, which could be hydrate, meditate, light stretching, etc. Etc. 8 to 10 creative work, this could be creative work in the way that we described it or creative work that is kind of related to whatever project that you're going to be working on. Writing, brainstorming, problem solving during like peak brain activity hours. Okay, now for me personally, 8 to 10, that's not when I'm at the peak honey. So that wouldn't work for me, but it might work for somebody else. 10 to 10:30 you go and you take a break, whether that's a walk, a snack, mindfulness, calling a friend, whatever. 10:30 we are back, right? We're doing some deep work on a priority project and that is from 10:30 to 11:30, 11:30 to 12 we're gonna add a flexible block in there so you can choose to function in the overflow. Okay? Period. Come on, come on, come on, come on.
You can function in the overflow or you can plug in some catch up tasks right here and then 12 to 1 recharge for lunch. One to 2:30 is going to be a theme block, admin tasks. So you can choose either scheduling, emailing, invoicing, whatever. 2:30-3 we are adding in a break, you're stepping outside, or doing some light movement. Three to 4:30, maybe that's where you have meetings or collaborative work. 4:30 to 5, we're going to wrap up and we're going to plan for the next day. Y'all see how that worked? Y'all see how seamless that was? Okay, let's try a different method here. Let's go with another schedule, themed work blocks for focus days. And I hope you're seeing how we can integrate different time block methods to create like your perfect sort of schedule. Again, nothing's going to be perfect, but you might have some pretty good days if you can combine some of these methods. So let's say that Monday the focus is creative work. Okay? So in the morning you're doing creative project work and in the afternoon you're doing the admin and the planning task. Let's say that Tuesday is collab day. Morning you have meetings or team collaborations and then in the afternoon you have follow ups and communications. So everything that you're working on is solely focused on collabs for this day. And then let's say that you reserve Wednesday for deep work. So in the morning you prioritize your must be done immediately tasks so you have a deeper focus. We're assuming you have a deeper focus. And then in the afternoon you're shifting to your research and finding resources or learning things. Maybe that's when you take some of those courses that's sitting up in your inbox that you had bought two years ago. Okay, okay, okay. I'm moving on, I'm moving on, I'm moving on.
Thursday is your admin and detail day. So let's say in the morning your focus is on emails, invoicing, scheduling. In the afternoon you're doing catch up tasks from the whole week and you're adding in a flexible block depending on whatever it is you want to plug there. And then Friday we're going to do review and reflection. So in the morning we wrap up the week's projects, we look at our accomplishments and we plan for the following week. In the afternoon we do some creative exploration or planning for the next week so that we're ready.
So that's a little bit with the theme. Let's see, let's see, let's see what else we got here. Okay, let's do flexible block with adaptability throughout the day. Okay. 8 to 8:30 morning routine. And that's you, you know, figuring out your intentions for the day or reflecting on your priorities, getting really serious about what you can actually handle from 8:30 to 10am let's say that's a flex block. And what we're going to put in here is high priority tasks. And you set that based on whatever is your highest priority for the day. So remember, you set your priorities pretty early based on how you woke up feeling. And then 10 to 10:30, you take a break to do something creative, to refresh yourself, to feel recharged. 10:30 to 12 is going to be a theme block. Let's just say that we threw creative work in there, whether that's writing, problem solving, designing, or even something that gets your brain flowing and ideas flowing through you. You can do a deep brain dump, something that makes you excited but also ready to dive back into the work. And then you're going to take a break, which I know sounds counterproductive to be taking a break when you, like, finally got your ideas and stuff. But we gotta let stuff breathe. So from 12 to 1, we're doing lunch and recharging. And then 1 to 2:30, we have a flexible block where we can do admin work or overflow tasks or even, you know, something that is fun or exciting. Remember these flex blocks? And a lot of these blocks you have permission to toss in there as you need it. So after that, 2:30 to 3, we have a break. We step outside, we do some mindfulness, we do a guided audio, something like that. 3 to 4:30 meetings or client communication, if you want to focus on that. And then 4:30 to 5, we wrap up, reflect on a day, and then you plan for the following day. So tell me what you think. Right. That still was like. If you look at it in terms of the blocks alone, it sounds like a really tight, packed schedule. But if you remember, we're talking about a wellness block thrown in there. I didn't give you any examples of that, but if you get the PDF, I will have some examples of that. We're talking about a wellness block thrown in there, a flex block, a creative block. So it's not just all bogged down with work and everything. And I promise, if you integrate some of those wellness blocks or those creative blocks, you will be surprised at how much your productivity will skyrocket because wellness and productivity are actually married. But y'all not ready to talk about that. Y'all be trying to leave one without the other. You cannot invite them to a party separately. They are a couple. They have to come together. Okay, but we'll talk about that in future episodes.
[00:30:59] Speaker A: You know those little things that just nourish your heart, mind and soul, Those little gems dropped in your week that make all the difference in your day but are seemingly unimportant. Like the person who went out of their way to do something nice for you or that amazing sermon on YouTube that just hit, hit exactly like you needed it to. Well, I'm sharing my weekly nourishment with you, and if there's something that nourished you this week, I'd love to hear about it. By tagging me on Instagram, Dr. Cedahood, or dropping a comment underneath this episode.
[00:31:34] Speaker B: Here we go.
My bestie had a baby and I got to go see him and get some cuddles, and it just warmed my heart. Also, another thing that has been nourishing me this week is I'm embracing a new level of fitness. You know, it's kind of exciting, but also a little bit scary because I'm noticing that I have to go up on my weight with some of the reps and stuff that I'm doing, and I'm like, okay, girl, it's because you out here getting strong. Okay, Period.
But also, them new weights is heavy, though. Okay? They heavy. No, don't get it twisted. Right? But I mean, that is elevation and promotion, right? Like, we pray, we ask God for new levels, new things, new assignments, new tasks because we've mastered the one we're at. And he's like, all right, bet. Put that weight on there. And we'd be like, hold on. I know it's gonna be that heavy, though. Okay, okay, hold on, hold on, Jesus. And then you learn to do the reps with the weight. So that feels really good. Also, it feels good to be loved on by God. I feel like God sent so many people to pour into me this week, and that has been making me feel really good and nourished. How about you? I would love to hear from you if you enjoyed today's episode. Share the love, share with your mama, share with your auntie, and get best to share with your best friend. Okay? And then head on over to Apple podcast and leave us a five star review. Reviews help the podcast to grow. Well, that's all I have for you this week. I'll see you on these social media streets. Bye.
