Dani Tan: Hi, I'm Dani Tan, and if you are here, you are in the right place. Welcome to the Pivot and Promotion podcast, where we say, forget the rules because they weren't written for us. I'm Dani Tan. I'm your host as well as career and leadership coach and a proud advocate for redefining what success and leadership looks like. And here's what I know. You can lead at any level. You can pivot at any age, and you. And you can make moves that feel right for you. Whether you're climbing the corporate ladder, starting something completely new, or just figuring out your next step. I've got you covered with strategies, stories, and straight up inspiration. So let's make some moves. Hello. Okay, so in today's episode, we're gonna talk about how a time audit is super helpful, but not only that, how a time audit helped one of my clients make $2,000 in the course of one session.

And you may hear a little kitty or two in the background just for fun. All right, so let's get started. So I have this lovely client who I just started working with. She is a creative business professional. She has her own business. And the biggest thing for her is that she has many, many projects that are going on at once, some that are for profit, nonprofit, and volunteer. And she knows that with intentionality for the next year, she wants to grow her business when it comes to revenue, sustainability, being able to take care of herself through that. And so with that, our time together has been to map that out. So we had our first session just the other day, and the amazing thing that happened was that I gave her an exercise on the time audit piece.

And so what this exercise is about is just understanding where your current allotted time is, the work that you are doing, the tasks that you are doing, and how do they kind of layer up or mirror what it is that you want to do or achieve. So we're going to break it down to three phases per usual. So phase one may be that you are doing a lot, but it's not actually all aligned. So your calendar is super packed. You're always doing things, but it's hard to tell if it's actually moving the needle for you. So, for example, you are potentially like, juggling multiple roles. Some may be paid, maybe some are unpaid, maybe some are passion projects. And you're kind of feeling stuck when it comes to your business and its growth, but you're not sure, like, what do you keep get rid of?

Turn down, turn up. And so you kind of feel like, okay, I'M doing so much, how come it's not resulting the way I want it to result? And so the biggest thing that we do throughout this exercise is defining for you what is important and then breaking down how your time is being spent and what is actually helping drive your growth, your income and what you want for your future. But it always has to be about money. But the thing is, is that if that is one of your top goals of what you're trying to achieve for yourself, that is something that we have taken into account. So let me break down this example. So in this exercise, what I had my client do was essentially look at their calendar and list out how their time is being spent.

So like for example, project A is X amount of hours per week, project B is X amount of hours per week, businesses X amount per week, and then how much they have for rest. Because I think that's really important to map into as well as fun. So when she mapped this out, I then had her map out what her ideal scenario would be on a week to week basis. So great, this is what the baseline is. But what would be your ideal scenario? Same exact exercise of what would you want to give to each of these projects on a weekly basis. Right. An hourly perspective. Then the next thing that we did was live on our first call. So we had our first call, we had her go through in her current state to highlight the things that are going to be revenue generating tasks and to leave the ones that don't unhighlighted.

The next part is to prior like to go ahead and list out like to number through what's taking up the most time. So for example, this is a reflection that's going to help you see are the top three to five things that you're doing actually supporting what your goals are. Or maybe they're kind of eating up that time that's going to create space for what it is that you actually want to do. So we did that exercise and then the same thing. Exercise for what the ideal scenario is. Okay. If you were to rank these, like how are they looking? So then the first thing was, where can we start to cut back a little bit? So for the things in her current life that maybe are not generating what she needs them to generate, that are taking up lots of time, let's take one project and figure out how we can kind of scale back how much time is getting committed to that.

So we talked about, you know, how many hours get put into it, why do they get put into it, what could potentially be done and the funny thing is, is that she already knew deep down that she wanted to cut these back. But it was just, it's nerve wracking to get that started. Right. Like, she's very motivated, she does what she needs to do. But also sometimes it can be scary, especially if you are a part of a culture or a generation where everyone else is before yourself. And so it can be an adjustment, especially in your business, to think about putting yourself first. And so with that being said, one of the projects, she went ahead and she sent them an email letting them know that she could no longer work on things.

For free. Let's just say obviously written a more elegant way, but that she could help with any in person events, but anything else outside of that, she's gonna have to like hold for a second. So she went ahead and did that and she did know that they have previously know given out funding before for project from the moment she said, turned around and said, hey, you know what, we actually have a project for you. We have a budget for $2,000. So it's just really funny in the sense of when we have intentionality about our time and we start to protect our time more and we put it out there what it is that we're trying to use that free, that freedom and that flexibility and that time for these things present themselves.

So in the course of her just sending one simple email of trying to create space for her business, trying to create space for the things that she wants, she was able to turn that into a project, a paid project, which is lovely. Um, and then for her second one, for her scaling back her time, the team was super supportive too. So now holistically, just from scaling back those two projects, she, one, has gained $2,000 and then two, she has been able to open up about 30 to 40 hours per month that she can now commit to growing her business with more intentionality. So we absolutely love that. Um, so my question that I have for you and the reflection prompt that I have for you, what are you working on right now that maybe is not aligned with what you want next?

And I would just sit with that of like if you were to look at your day to day schedule, what is something that's this is taking it probably the second or third most amount of time in my week and is this truly aligned with what it is that I'm focusing on and that I want support on? I think that's something that's always good for all of us to kind of just take inventory of our time. So the next piece is phase two. So how a time audit can create clarity and options for you. So when we walk through this time audit, you're kind of being able to have this realization of like where your time is actually going and what's getting your best energy, like what's taking up space and what's getting your best energy.

So for example, it's not about like cutting everything and getting rid of it. It's also about like realignment. So for example, let's say you're using your morning time for tasks that are like, I'm just going to say like you're scrolling or you know, you're just hanging out and maybe in the morning you have the best time for your creative writing. So also understanding that too like when you're looking at your time of like where your energy is best throughout the day and what you can do to kind of re slot your projects because based off of that as well. So knowing that we were able to do this for her and get her those 30 to 40 hours back, one of the things she wanted to increase in her buckets was time for creative projects to be able to just like have some freedom, flexibility, just to explore.

So that was something she was able to do without having guilt. A big thing that I also had her slot in was making sure that there is just time and space to not do anything. So for example, if we feel like we are always going to have to work every single day, every single weekend, every single evening, then it always is going to be this unbiased like imbalance of the amount of tasks we have and the time we have. And it kind of sets us up mentally for a little bit of failure and a little bit of guilt. Because if I always anticipate that I will work 247 every single day and I'm not able to get everything done, it's going to be a vicious cycle, right? Because then the next week will come and the same thing will happen again.

So being able to be honest and okay with yourself of knowing like it's okay to have certain days committed and blocked out, to not have anything that it actually will help you sustainably to have that more creative energy and strategy with that space. And so that's another thing to kind of understand is that like having this audit also helps you create options for yourself. It actually does not hold you back. And it's always better to like under promise your time and over deliver versus constantly trying to over promise your time and then being burnt out. So the next thing I would say for you, the Prompt would be, you know, if you were to look at your calendar and be really ruthless with yourself, where do you feel you kind of need to realign your energy, whether that's on how your schedule is or where you're giving your space to have time just to.

Just to have nothing in there. And so the last piece that I would say is that the best part is that creating boundaries just opens up so many opportunities. And I feel like people think of boundaries as like a, as a negative connotation. Like I have a boundary, so I'm saying no or I have a boundary, so it's an absolute no. Or I'm saying boundaries, so I'm being selfish and it's about myself. But no, think of it more so of having like a guideline. A guideline or a route rubric of the guardrails of where you want to be. It's okay. We're going to fluctuate up and down, you know, from year to year, season to season, week to week. But it helps you to kind of just stay on track of where you want to go.

And so when you have that, it makes it easier to communicate, whether it's to an organization or a person, what it is that you're looking for. So versus us waiting for somebody to inform us or tell us what we want. We are just communicating what we would like. And then it's not just a declaration, it's also a conversation and a communication. Like you can negotiate those things. It's okay. You could say something of what you want things to stand at and someone else might refute it and that's okay. It's just a conversation. And conversations create clarity versus just going with what somebody, you know, demands of you or tells you. It's okay to speak to what it is that you want. So by doing this, creating the space in her calendar, she create an opportunity, which is amazing.

I'm so happy for her. And so just know that there is so much strength when we are taking actions aligned with what we want to do. And we're not just stuck in the day to day trenches of like trying to clear out the weeds. Now that's definitely going to happen from time to time. But also where can you intentionally create some space within your calendar so that way you have some opportunity for these pieces. So the reflection would be what opportunities do you have that you can kind of create some more space within your calendar? All right, awesome. So hopefully you found this helpful in some way, shape or form. I think the biggest thing is just really figuring out ways that you can own your calendar.

I know. I hear lots of times of, ah, But I'm at this level. I don't know if I can. I can be in control of my calendar, or my boss is in control of my calendar, or my clients are in control of my calendar. You are in control of your calendar to a certain extent. So finding a way that you can bake that in will help you just feel also more empowered and have you have more options for yourself as well. And honestly, people love people who are very clear and strong about what their needs are. And if they're not, they're not your people. So it's okay. All right. Awesome. And I will see you next week. Have a good one.