Reclaim Your Time

1. We plan and set goals, but forget to check-in, or avoid looking at them again:

Do you set nicely stretching and ambitious goals, make a beautiful plan (possibly colour-coded)... and then put them in a drawer or in an obscure folder on your desktop and never look at them again?
Do you set tonnes and tonnes of goals, with the best intentions, but realistically there’s no way you can get this done in time? The result being the plan feels overwhelming and you abandon it? Are you overly ambitious with how long things take, so you plan lots in and then inevitably fail and feel bad about yourself?
Successful planning includes a few key ingredients, leaving you feeling calm, in control and with a sense of accomplishment and alignment as things happily tick by. Some of these ingredients include having the plan somewhere visual, the combinating of minimalist but stretching goal-setting, and celebrating successes in our community.

2. Not including the importance of mindset in productivity and time management planning.

The reason you're procrastinating on the journal article is because you're actually scared of a reviewer ripping it to shreds, or subconsciously worried that someone will figure out you’re an imposter. The reason you start your day with email is because you feel anxiety about all of overwhelming demands you have on your plate, or you dread a complaint from a student, or that you're going get in trouble from your boss because you’re not seen to be working, or perhaps because you’re procrastinating on the article out of fear (see above) and need a distraction.
Any approach to productivity that does not take these things into account will ultimately fail, because we are not airing out these subconscious emotions and thoughts and the result is that the person just thinks they are “bad” at this kind of thing and a failure.
Let's face it, most productivity texts are written by men who simply don't seem to suffer with the same crises of confidence and constant second-guessing as many women do. I'm here to change that.

3. Not aligning everyday actions with bigger purpose.

What’s your “why” for everything you do? When we know what our grander purpose is, we can make steps to ensure that everything serves that. That can be the things transparently in service of our goals, such as 30 minutes writing time each morning, or it can be indirectly serving our goals, such as 2 hours of crunching through admin on a Wednesday afternoon in order to meet the demands of your department and students, and be a good colleague, as well as reassuring your brain that you’re on top of things and giving you a quiet well-rested mind once work for the day is over.

4. Not respecting the cyclic and seasonal nature of things.

Are you in drive mode constantly? Teaching finishes and whilst you collapse in a heap for the weekend, you don’t book a proper holiday or do research on your day off. You use rest time to “catch up” on admin and research. Is this you?
Everything is cyclic. The season: we flourish in spring, shine in summer, harvest in autumn and hibernate in winter. The sun rises and falls, the moon waxes and wanes, the tides come in and out. As women, if we’re working with a menstrual cycle, our bodies have their own in-built cycle of high energy times and rest and reflect times. A problem of modern academia is that we’re in drive mode all the time. The sun is always up, perpetually on, no rest. This is unsustainable.
To get the best out of our brains, we need to respect the seasonality. Take proper breaks, stop working when our work day is done, take weekends relaxing and book proper breaks. The is how to get the best out of our creativity.

5. Leaving no room for fun or joy.

We’re academics. We could do plenty of other jobs if it were just to pay the bills. We’re meant to be doing our job because it’s something we’re passionate about, something we deeply believe in. Yet so many of us are unhappy. Why? Because we feel overworked and overwhelmed.
But when we’re joyful, we’re more optimistic about our future work and this has an effect on everything. How can we bring the joy back? When we know exactly what we have on our plate, when we can manage our mind and emotions and we know our “why”, everything falls into place. We are comfortable pushing back on overwork, saying “no” and knowing exactly what we should be doing in any given moment.

If you struggle with any of these, it’s not your fault.

Firstly, we are experts in the arts, sciences, languages, humanities and so on. We were never taught productivity methods.

Secondly, we are operating in a culture which prides itself on overwork and is currently in constant economic anxiety, cutting costs and leaning more and more on a stretched workforce.

Thirdly, as women, we are socialised to be helpful, nice and are punished more often than our male colleagues for putting up boundaries or saying “no”.

If you want to write a million research articles this year and win the Nobel Prize, great, I’m right there behind you.

But my main wish for you is for you to feel comfortable, calm and at ease in your academic job.

I want you to connect with your subconscious thoughts and the feelings that they trigger, and for this to become second nature, so you can always disentangle which pesky emotions are holding you back on a particular day, and so you truly know the difference between procrastination and much-needed rest.

I created the time management and productivity course I wish I would have had 8 years ago - one which acknowledges that your self-worth does not depend on your productivity.

One that celebrates a productive research pipeline from a position of mastery of emotions (the fear, the doubt, the anxiety, the dread) rather than relentlessly grinding through.

One that creates the kind of career where you enjoy seeing your work out and appreciated by others, whilst having the time freedom and spacious calendar to lead a fulfilling and exciting life.

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I’m not sure if this course is for me…?
If you’re a woman* with some connection with academia then this is for you. If you have left academia, are between jobs, in professional services, you are all welcome. Reach out if you’re unsure.

(*note that I use an inclusive definition of women and welcome trans-women, genderqueer women and non-binary folk who are significantly female-identified).
I need to miss some of the live calls. Is this OK and will there be replays?
That’s totally fine but the calls are not recorded so everyone feels fully comfortable sharing.
Can I have a chat with you about this?
Yes, schedule here: https://tidycal.com/danielleturton/group-coaching
When’s the deadline to join?
Before the first coaching call (see dates below).
How long can I access the course modules?
As long as you like if you remain in The Sisterhood and for 3 months if not.
I am very busy during this period and don’t know if I can commit the time. How much time will I need between modules?
The modules are roughly 4 hours content plus 6 hours live coaching. So if you have 10 hours to spare this quarter, then you will be fine. The modules can be completed at a time convenient to you.

And if you don’t have 10 hours to spare then you need to take Reclaim Your Time to free up some time for yourself.

Telling ourselves we don’t have enough time is one of the stories we seek to challenge in this group course.
OK, sounds good, I’m doing it! Is there any pre-work I need to do?
Not necessarily, but I can send you the link to my previous planning webinar to set goals for your quarter!
Do you have a payment plan?
Yes, get in touch if you’d like to do this.

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