Episode description

This week on the podcast I want to talk to you about overscheduling and we’re going to cover:

• What is it?
• Why do we do it?
• How do you stop overscheduling?

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll remember that I talked about this a few weeks ago!

First, what is overscheduling? Overscheduling is when you over-schedule, you put more things on your calendar than you can realistically manage and execute. This might look like having every single hour from the time you wake up to when you go to bed planned with zero buffers or downtime. It can also look like planning to get things done on your calendar that you know very well based on previous experience, you won’t be able to get done but you do it anyway. 

For example, a few weeks ago I was in Amsterdam for a client project. I’ve been self-employed for over 10 years and for the first 7 years I traveled a lot. I was traveling 3 out of 4 weeks a month. Sometimes solo and sometimes with another person or a group of people. Some client projects had longer days than others. Some days would be 4 hours and some days would be 12 hours.

In the past when I traveled I would over schedule myself even though I realistically knew that I wouldn’t have a lot of time or energy before or after client work because I would need to sleep and eat, and if I was traveling internationally include potential jet lag. Plus, days that I’m traveling for client work I expend a lot more of my energy due to the type of work I was doing.

But in addition to client work, I would schedule a workout every morning, then plan to write podcast content, maybe sometimes record an episode, write training content, and a possibly even sales page. While also working for the client.

What would happen is I would be able to get in at least one workout, I would start writing training content, I would start a podcast outline but never record and never finish anything. This would cause me to feel even more drained because I was starting something but not closing a loop and also frustrated with myself because I would have to reschedule what I didn’t get done which pushed other things back.  

Over time, I lacked belief in my ability to get things done. I was trying to cram so many things on my schedule when realistically I knew that it didn’t make sense based on past experiences and not being able to get all those things done. Doing this added a lot of thought drama to my day.

Take for example, you wake up and you’re tired from jet lag but in your mind you’re thinking “Well I said I was going to go work out, I brought work out clothes, I should work out, but I’m so tired. I have to figure out what workout I’m going to do, then shower and get ready…” 

I’d go round and round with myself. 

I know personally for me I simply do not workout as much when I travel as I do when I’m at home. 

Fast forward to today…rather than trying to force myself to workout just as much while traveling, I accept it and aim to do it once or twice while traveling vs every day like at home.  

I think there are a few reasons why we might over schedule. 

1. Feeling like we must be productive all the time / fear of falling behind

If you’re not used to having white space in your calendar you may feel like you have to fill every single space and if you don’t there is this fear or thought of falling behind.

2. We are curious to see how much we can expand our capacity to getting as much done as we possibly can. We’re optimistic about what we can accomplish. This might be a learned behavior. 

I was talking to my husband about this. I am someone who in general probably over schedules simply because I want to see how much I can take on and expand my threshold. The question is why do I do this? When I thought about it, two things came up…1. I’ve always been someone who was involved in almost everything as a child, too much at a time and so it is what I know. 2. It is what I’m wired to know. It is who I am. And so if this is you, I’m going to share a few things in this episode that I believe will help you. 

Here are a few different things to try to help you not overschedule:

• Start small by practicing small amounts of white space on your calendar and start to experience the benefits of not over scheduling.
• Rather than saying YES in the moment, pause, take space, tell whoever is asking you a question about your time that you’ll “check your calendar and get back to them.”
• If you’re in the habit of saying YES to a lot of things, feel through the urge of not saying YES on default.
• If you still feel like you need to get everything done that leads to overscheduling, then there might be an opportunity to ask yourself, “What are my priorities? What matters most to me?”

It could also be a great time to see if there is anything that is on your calendar that needs to get done, and can be outsourced to free up your time. I'll share some ways to identify outsourcing opportunities in an upcoming episode. 

That’s all for this week, friend. Come hang out with me on Instagram @attentionaudit and if you haven’t already please make sure to leave a review wherever you listen to your podcasts!

Take care and have a great week!