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Welcome back to the Y ‘all Are Crazy Ranch podcast. Today we’re gonna be talking about being a pro at managing your time well. And trust us, when you have seven kids, run multiple businesses, and do lots of things, it’s so important to be an expert manager of your time.
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Managing time is something that, for us at least, just speaking from experience, that you have to learn.
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It’s not taught in schools. It’s not taught usually by most people. And so we’ve had to learn a lot over the years. And even if you don’t have seven kids in a lot of Oklahoma Grassfed Beef business, you still need to learn how to manage time well. So hopefully these tips and tricks we share with you today will be of help.
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Absolutely. And like you said, no matter what stage of life you’re in, we have kids who let their teenagers listen to this Oklahoma Grassfed Beef podcast. This is a great thing to learn as a teen. Our daughter, she loves listening to our Oklahoma Grassfed Beef podcast and she’s 13. And so if you’re that age, great. If you are in your 20s, 30s, 40s, or even if you’re older and you’re like, I still wanna get better at this, this is for you. I wanted to do a Oklahoma Grassfed Beef podcast on this because I get asked so often, how do you manage your time so well? You have to be so organized. And the truth is I am. But that’s how we’re able to get so much done.
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Yeah, and being organized, honestly, like if you’re organized and manage your time well, it’s not that hard. It’s not as hard to get as much done. It’s hard to get things done when you’re unorganized and things are chaotic.
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I think that’s true.
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And you feel like your life is a wreck. You can’t keep your house clean. You can’t get your kids’ places on time. That kind of, you show up to work late. But that’s because you don’t take the time to organize, plan, schedule, all that. So sometimes people think, well, I don’t have time to manage my time.
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That’s right.
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Right. And it’s like, you don’t have time not to listen. If you put that time in on the front, you’ll have a lot more time and be able to get more things done and not be so stressed out all the time.
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And so that’s what I would kind of tell you is don’t look at it as another oh, I don’t already don’t have time How am I gonna add this to my plate? You know, this will free up time and give you peace Absolutely.
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I have so many things going through my mind. I want to share So I think we have a lot to talk about in a short time. Yeah So I think number one you have to have a calendar system you have to have a way to plan out your days weeks months ahead and Especially if you have a lot that goes on in your life for us We have just discovered the shared calendar on our phones and we we use Google Calendar, I guess right Apple calendar. I love Apple things. So anything Apple we like our Google is tied into it true But we’ve learned to color -code things. So when we put things in the calendar, we have a shared family calendar Which is all red. So anything in red we know it’s like both of us should be there So if you are a married couple, this is an awesome
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idea. I used to be solely paper calendar and I still like paper calendars, but now that I’ve gotten more into this day and age and the way things work more efficiently, I do all my calendar planning from my phone.
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Yeah and so like if you use Apple calendars, just just so you know to create the color coding system, you guys can watch YouTube videos on this, I’m not gonna spend much time on it, but you have to create an Apple world different calendars. It’s just the way they do it.
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You’re right.
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And so we’ve got a family calendar and so I went and created these things and then shared them with you and then now anything she puts it’s family. You just hit the little drop down and hit family and then it goes on.
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And who’s ever in the family calendar can see it.
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Yeah and in your master view of your calendar with Apple, you can select which calendars you want to view. Family, work, Ashley’s work, Bronson’s work, and then it puts them all on one screen for you to see.
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And I think I have access to your work calendar, but I don’t have it where it shows up all the time.
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Yeah. So there’s a little hot tip. So like I have access to her work calendar. She has access to mine, but we’re not, we keep that unchecked most of the time.
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I don’t want to see all your stuff every day.
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Right. But if we’re like, she’s looking to plan something, let’s say during work hours and the work week, she can check my calendar to view it and then see if something fits there. That’s the point of having it. You know, so that part is nice. You have to have a calendar and you have to manage your time.
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So and here’s another just thing that I want to mention is that if it doesn’t get on your calendar, it’s not a priority. It’s not. I have a standing Bible study that happens every Friday morning and it’s on my calendar every Friday morning. And I have my babysitter already scheduled to come every Friday morning. And that’s a priority to me. But if it’s not a priority, you’ll put other things in that spot.
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You will fill it with other things or you just won’t show up or you’ll just be like I have other things I need to do today because it wasn’t a priority on your calendar and it tells people like it was not a priority on your Calendar so if it’s important to you it has to take priority and go in your schedule My mom was really good at teaching me growing up that when you say you’re gonna do something Do it and I that’s still drilled in my head I think and so so much of what I do it’s like I committed to this I said I was gonna be there.
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I’m gonna be there I don’t cancel very often at all because I committed right and if you’ve got a weekly thing like a weekly Bible study I’ve got several weekly things on my calendars, whether it’s a weekly call with a person or a Weekly group interview or a weekly meeting with a person like those items go on there. You simply click
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Edit, you know, repeat, repeat weekly or monthly.
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Just like Wednesday night church, Sunday morning church.
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Just hit repeat. Repeat weekly. And that’s on there, right? And then when you look at your week ahead or your month ahead, I don’t know what that was.
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I don’t know what that was.
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But you can see those things on there and it’s also serves as like a reminder. Okay, Friday I’ve got Bible study. Well, I’m not gonna plan anything between eight and nine or whatever because I’ve got that commitment already. If you don’t have that on the calendar, you just say, yeah, we’ll go whatever on Friday and I’ll just tell these people I’m not gonna be there. The problem with that is, is like over time you’re kind of hurting your reputation of being reliable. If I have my calls and stuff every week at let’s say Monday at two o ‘clock and then I just show up half the time, half the time I don’t, the person that I’m scheduled to meet with.
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Like I lose credibility with them, right? They’re gonna stop prioritizing that meeting or that call as well because Bronson Mayer may not be there, you know? You don’t want that kind of reputation. You want the reputation of, if we have this planned, I’m gonna be, you can count on me, I’m gonna show up. And if you just schedule, it makes that stuff a whole lot easier because when somebody else says, hey man, you wanna go out to lunch on Tuesday? And I’m like, man, I can. I’ve got an appointment at 11. I’ll be done at noon. I’ll meet you at 12 .30. You know, now you kept your commitment and you were able to go to lunch. If you didn’t even have the commitment on your calendar, yeah, we’ll go to lunch. Oh, I forgot about that appointment, you know? Now you gotta make one of the two disappointed.
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That happens so much. So many of my agents, we have once a month meetings and they know the whole year, like it’s the last Friday of the month or the first Monday of the month. Like you know in advance.
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And it like, let’s say they were like, I can’t make it this morning, I have an inspection at 10. It’s like, well, you scheduled the inspection at 10. And you knew you had a meeting, so you’re not prioritizing the meeting, which tells me you’re not prioritizing the Oklahoma Grassfed Beef business. And like you said, it just over time could develop a bad reputation and you don’t want that. Plug in what matters first, stick to it, and do what you say you’re going to do. What you commit to, follow through. That actually rhymed, that sounded pretty good. What you commit to, follow through.
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Follow through. Yeah, and so like we were saying earlier, if you’re organized, you can get a lot more done without that much more, with actually less effort, honestly. It takes more effort on the front end, but I feel like it’s more effortless as you’re kind of executing your game plan. But what gets scheduled gets done.
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And the other side of that is too, is like that perception and reputation we’re talking about. I can’t tell you how powerful that is, right? It might open a door for you in a new job or a new opportunity or something that you weren’t even expecting because you kept a commitment and were punctual and all that kind of stuff.
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I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been working with somebody on something and they’re like, hey, and I tell them, hey, I’m gonna call you Friday at 10 a .m. Okay, I know they didn’t put it on their calendar, I put it on my Friday 10, I mean, I’m talking 10 a .m. 9 .59 and picking up my phone and I’m hitting call at 10. And they’re like, holy smokes, you weren’t playing around. You called me at 10 a .m. And I’m like, yes, that was our time.
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You know not 1004 not 1006 10 It sets you up as a professional truly when you do that when you do what you’re gonna say you’re gonna do yesterday I was in appointments.
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I had kids activities and had a guy call leave me a voicemail. I listened to the voicemail He wanted to set up a listing appointment with me had some questions. So I text him right away Hey, I’m in appointments and activities that this right now. What time can we talk this afternoon? He’s like, hey anytime after three is great. I’m like great. I will call you at 330 So I finished all my things and at 330 I called him and we were able to have a uninterrupted great conversation Great, and I also think when you do things like that, it also sets you up as a professional I’m busy right now, but I will call you at 330
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You’re scheduling the time you’re following through and I think them not really knowing me and having that first impression of me Showed them I’m gonna do what I said. I’m gonna do I’m gonna be a professional and I’m gonna follow through and Because of that like I got the listing I’ve got a listing appointment set up and they know what to expect from me if I would have taken Three hours to get back to him probably wouldn’t have been the first greatest first impression very true But just by saying hey, I’m busy right now, but I’ll call you then That’s just a great way to do business And here’s just a little tip on like how to do that Well, right I talked about this and other stuff that our brains are not meant to remember They’re meant to think right you have that situation pop up.
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What I do is
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when something like that happens, I immediately put it in my calendar. I put the calendar app, I hit a plus, and I go, call this listing appointment at 3 .30 p .m., reminder, I might say, remind me 30 minutes in advance, and then set a second one, remind me at the time of event, boom, save, and now I can let my brain forget about that and go right back to what I was focusing on, and I don’t have to remember and go, oh crap, I didn’t call that guy, like, is my phone’s gonna remind me? That’s just a little tactical tip on how to actually do that. I do that all the time.
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I think that’s really good. Okay, several things to talk about. Let’s start with biblical. I have so many people tell me, how do you find time to read your Bible every day? Well, it’s because I start with it, and we prioritize reading our Bible first thing in the morning, because if you wait until you have time throughout the day,
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Oh, then it’s like everything’s going on and then you’re tired or a forbid. So just start with it start with the Bible first Same with church. How do you prioritize going to church every Sunday? It’s a non -negotiable. We go to church on Sundays Wednesday nights we go to church That like we said in your calendar repeat.
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That’s what we do Yeah, and if it’s in your calendar whether that’s something like church or a commitment to somebody else Here’s another tip. You never want to cancel on anybody if you can absolutely help it You know, I don’t care if the new thing is more important than thing. You’ve already got schedule, right? Just try to never cancel on somebody that doesn’t mean once in a blue moon and emergency is gonna happen But people do it like we’ve gone to we’ve had so many situations where I’m not saying this is the best We’re just kind of built different.
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Okay, where we’ve like had to take day quill
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and met, you know, to get through the day, because we have a day full of appointments.
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Oh, all the time.
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You know, where we’re like, man, I feel terrible today, but I’m just gonna suck it up, like take some medicine, push through. We do that, and we are healthy people, we don’t get sick a lot, but when we do, oh, I’ve had so many times, or I’ve had a time where I’ve had to take my kid with me because, you know, if childcare falls through, or the school’s canceled, I don’t have a backup, but I’m still not canceling on somebody.
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Right.
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That’s just not what I’m gonna do, and so you do have to make alternative plans, and I will say for childcare, always have a backup. I pay for a childcare service in Oklahoma City, and sometimes I’m like, oh, I wish I didn’t have to pay for this, but it’s always my backup plan.
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If babysitter cancels, if school’s out, I’ve always got a backup plan of this drop -in childcare center, and it’s saved me many times. Because I certainly don’t want to go to a listing appointment or a closing where I don’t know someone super well and have to take my two toddlers. You know? Now if I know them super well, I know they won’t mind, sure. But that has saved me many times where I’m like, no problem, I’ve got drop -in childcare. So you always do need to have a backup option.
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Yes, I do.
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Yeah, we push through things a lot, and maybe we wake up and we don’t feel 100%. You gotta keep going if you want to get ahead and you want to be a professional.
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You know, I keep a bottle of Day Cool at the house, I keep a bottle at the office, and I just always joke when you don’t feel good. I tell my team, you know, just keep taking.
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Checking some swings.
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We’re not, I’m not saying this is the healthiest option.
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This is not medical advice.
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And we’re not doctors.
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Gee, I’d be like, give me a plug of that day quail, you know, you just, you know, and I always joke, you know, if your arm starts tingling, it’s kind of time to lay off, you know.
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Yeah, I’d say so. Well, I mean, and it goes down to our kids too. Like sometimes they don’t feel good. And certainly you do need to rest when you’re sick, but like life doesn’t stop and you can’t just take four days to lay around. You have to keep going. And I think that’s trickled down a lot to our kids of like, you keep going. Now, granted, if somebody’s in the emergency room or something super unexpected, yeah, you might have to shift some things. That is a valid reason and people will understand that. But most things you can push through and you can keep going.
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Yeah, so managing your time like a pro.
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starts with creating a calendar, maybe multiple calendars, depending on your situation. Like we have a family one and a work one. Then we each have those. And so, you know, might start with that. But then it also starts with keeping your commitments once you do have things scheduled. Make sure you keep them and don’t move people around when you shouldn’t, you know. What else would be like a tip on that?
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I think a huge, huge, huge thing is in your home. I have so many women that tell me, how do you keep your laundry caught up? How do you keep your house clean? So here’s the first tip that I told a friend this morning. Decluttering is so important. You don’t need as much stuff as you think you need. So getting rid of a lot helps your mental state a lot.
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So I would declutter especially kid stuff and then second of all, I don’t do it all I have help Now so many are not willing to pay for help or prioritize help But if you will, oh my goodness, it’s going to help you tremendously I’ve said on previous Oklahoma Grassfed Beef podcasts and I at all my speaking events I say Um, I have someone that helps me with laundry and i’ve had that for six seven years. I don’t know six seven A while now a while, but I have somebody that comes in twice a week helps me with laundry That is a huge deal because it it just takes that off my plate. It’s not that I never do laundry um, but I have help with it and that helps me a lot So whatever you need help with you can hire it out.
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You can ask for help Well, that goes back into managing your time. So how do you do that? Well, if you’re going to hire help part -time help to come in you have to have a schedule for them
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they have to be able to rely on you to actually if you tell them I need you to come on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 9 30 a .m and 2 p .m those are the and then the next Tuesday comes around you’re like oh I don’t need you to come you know then Thursday they’re planning on the income they’re planning on being there you have to keep your schedule or like yeah and so if you can’t man if you can’t manage your calendar to where they can rely on you uh you know then they’re quit and then you’re gonna you see it’s a it’s a compounding rippling effect and I would say this too humans like we are a we are creatures of habits and we love routines okay there’s a lot of good books and studies on habits and routines and I would just tell you to use you know create a new habit of using a calendar and scheduling things and then like your important items put them on there and make them repeat weekly
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and create routines for yourself, because when you’re kind of in that good flow of a routine and a habit, stuff becomes more and more effortless, you know?
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For sure.
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You don’t have to go, hey, what am I doing Wednesday at five? Well, I already know, I got a group interview for a state farm. What am I doing Tuesday at 4 .30? It’s like, I already know, I got a group interview for OxyFresh. It’s like, you know, what are we doing on Friday? I already know, I’m doing the Oklahoma Grassfed Beef podcast at 9 .30 in the morning, and it’s ranch and real estate day. There’s like those rocks in your calendar that just put them on repeat, and then if you don’t like what your life is like, then you just make changes to those.
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Yeah, we’re almost into summer, so, you know, we’ve talked about, you have three months if you have kids that.
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Are out of school. You already should have this is mid -may your summer should already be planned out You should pretty much know like these are my vacations. These are what Mike the camps my kids are doing. These are my work days Here’s what I’m doing this now, obviously, I don’t have every single day. Although last summer I kind of had to because we had a lot going on I pretty much had every day nailed down but not everybody’s like me and I understand So but you do need to have a general idea of here’s what we’re doing this summer Here’s what our weeks look like kids thrive on structure kids thrive on routine Kids like things to be in line. They may not tell you they do but they do and and they need it and by you Doing that you’re teaching your kids to do that, too. Yes
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So I was trying to think if there’s any other like practical tips to share But I would say this when you create events if it involves another person Okay, they might not be a super organized person But grab their email address and add them as an as an invitee on the on the calendar invite You put on your own calendar. Okay, we do this in my insurance business. So when we set we run by appointments I mean we we probably have 20 to 30 appointments on the calendar per day as an office and We we grab everybody’s email and when we create the event it sends it to them and it automatically if they accept the invitation It’ll remind them automatically on their phone for the appointment because based on the reminders we put in the appointment so that’s a good tip for you to is
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whoever you’re scheduled to meet with, whoever you’re planning to be with, send them the calendar invite too. It makes you look more professional, it makes you look like you got it together. They’ll take that appointment more serious than they would have, and then it’ll give them reminders automatically so it increases your likelihood of actually having that meeting or whatever it is.
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That’s right. And other things, you don’t have to just focus on scheduling work things and things that matter, vacations, like schedule your fun things too for me, it’s been a really big deal for us since last summer, we wanna be more active. And so for me, like I know I wanna do this many half marathons, 10Ks this year, so I’m gonna go ahead and schedule those. People say, how do you have time to do that? Well, I’ve had it on my schedule since January. I know it’s happening. It gives me a goal to work toward, and I’ve already paid for it, so I’m gonna do it. I’ve committed to it, so I’m gonna follow through. And so even if it’s things that aren’t, you know, as big of a deal, I guess you would say they’re still.
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to me and so I’m gonna put them on the calendar I’m gonna plan for it that’s a goal for me so I’m gonna do it and so even things that are you know fun things things you want to do like plan it out make a goal put it on the calendar pay for it yeah I know people say like how do you have time for that here’s the thing we all have the same amount of time we all have the same 24 hours a lot of this stuff we’ve learned we’ve we’ve seen it and learned from other people or in books or whatever the case may be and we learned over the years like how to live this away and it’s not that we have more time intentionally yeah it’s just intentionality and like I said when stuff is on the calendar you’re pre -committed you’re committed already
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Then when somebody else something you already know what you’re doing So you don’t have to be like wake up this today and go what am I doing today or what am I doing tomorrow? You’ve already got those things in there Yeah If it matters to you you put it in the calendar and you commit to it something I wanted to end on is you and I are both big on reading and writing and So many times I know you have experienced this too If we are at an event or one of our kids things that we know we’re gonna be sitting and waiting a lot like we bring our book in our journal, yeah, and Yesterday I was at the at Bowen’s track meet and I was reading a book and it’s called How to what a difference moms make and I was reading it and one of Bowen’s friends walked up to me said What are you reading and I showed him and he’s like, I’ve never seen a book like that before and I was like, yeah I’m reading this on how to be a great mom and he was just like
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You’re just kind of like that’s weird and I’m thinking why is it weird that we? Read books on how to like get better and do better and why is that weird?
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But you I know you’ve experienced that a lot too of like people think it’s so weird to be like somewhere reading a book It is and then we both have journals too that we write in when we have free time put our minds on paper Think and process things and it’s also it’s funny because it teaches our kids and now I see our kids they bring a book and they bring a notepad or a Journal book well that kind of that’s what allows you to think and create a life that you want and Create a schedule that you want if you’re just if your life is in such a chaos And you just you can’t even keep up and you’re burning the candle at both ends And then when you do sit down for a moment all you do is scroll social media and then you get distracted even more than your back of the like
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You can feel like you don’t ever have time to breathe and you can’t get things together and you’re overwhelmed. And it’s like, man, if you can learn to manage a calendar and schedule these things in, keep your rocks in your calendar scheduled, read and think and journal. I mean, all that is helping you build an intentional life and I’m telling you, it’s way better.
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And you work out every morning, you know that’s happening, you don’t cancel. I focus, I walk every single day and that’s a priority to me. Whatever is a priority to you, you will do.
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Yeah, John and I have worked out together, four days a week at least, lifting weights for about three years now.
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And I think he and I both might have missed one workout, like where we were super sick and couldn’t come.
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Only one. And if you go to bed late the night before, do you skip it?
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You never do. Like last night, I didn’t get in bed to almost 11 because of baseball and my alarm goes off at five. And for me, six hours of sleep isn’t quite enough for me. Some people can operate on that. I’m not so good at that, but it doesn’t matter. I’m still gonna be there because John’s gonna be there. I know he’s gonna be there.
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Have you had workout partners in the past that would cancel on you a lot?
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Oh my gosh. It’s like these guys, I wanna come work out in the barn of gains with you. And I’m like, okay. And so we start scheduling it. The first day they show up, the second time they show up, and then all of a sudden they got an excuse, right? Then the next week they show up one day, then they got an excuse for the next day. And it’s like eventually just kind of fades to black because they can’t keep a calendar or a commitment.
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And it’s like, if you know you’re supposed to be somewhere in the morning at 5 .30, you gotta get in bed at at least an hour. So, don’t go hang out with friends at Buffalo Wild Wings, still 11 .30 at night.
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And I have so many friends who are like, oh, I’d love to do half marathons like you, or 10Ks, and I’m like, you can, here’s the link to sign up. Very few sign up, because it takes commitment, you have to plan ahead, and you’re committing to, I gotta get my body ready for that.
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Yeah.
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So, you can do it, but you gotta commit to it, and be serious about it, and want to. I mean, we’re out of time.
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We’re out of time. Last tidbit, is when you have a calendar, and you have important things on there, it allows you to say no.
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And saying no is almost more powerful than, I don’t know, scheduling. I mean, it’s not quite, but it’s powerful because you can say, you have to say no to a lot of things so you can do the things that you want to do. And when you have commitments already there, you don’t have to feel bad about saying no because you actually do have a commitment on the counter that you can’t get out of. And even if the commitment is with yourself, it still gives you grounds to say no to whatever somebody is trying to pull you into.
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And don’t be afraid to hire help on your areas of weakness or areas that you need help. So if you need help, we share an assistant. We’ve talked about that. You know, she helps us tremendously because she does the work behind the scenes that allows us to do what we can do best in our areas. If you need help at your house, hire help. Ask for help. Don’t mind spending a little bit of money to make your life better, easier and more efficient.
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Yeah. And if you learn to schedule things and manage your time well, you’ll probably find some margin in your life.
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Where you can make a little more money or save some more money and then take that money and go hire some help I promise you it’ll help you get the ball rolling in the right direction So be a pro manage your time. Well do what you say you’ll do and if you commit to it follow through with it