Own Your Time Sarah Longfield
I’m joined this week by Sarah Longfield on Own Your Time.
Rebellious Time Management
What if time management didn’t feel like a punishment? What if your planner sparked joy and actually worked for your creative, rebellious brain?
In this episode, I’m chatting with my real-life friend and creative powerhouse, Sarah Longfield - a facilitator, coach, retreat host, writer and unapologetic creative rebel who’s ditched traditional productivity tools for a more human, playful approach to time.
We dive into what it really looks like to honour your energy, your ideas and your rebellious little brain while still getting the important stuff done. Spoiler: her “FML” method might change your to-do list forever.
We’re talking creativity, time flexibility, working with your natural rhythm and putting all those toxic "shoulds" in the bin where they belong. If you’ve ever felt like traditional time management advice doesn’t work for you - this episode is a must.
Sarah also shares how her planning tools (including her weekly origami zine planner) bring more intention, beauty and actual fun into organising your week. It's nerdy and rebellious in the best way possible.
Key takeaways from this episode:
How Sarah defines “rebellious” time management
The importance of embracing your “golden thread”
A gentler approach to systems that creatives can actually stick with
Why planning should feel like play, not punishment
Her brilliant FML method for navigating the workday (spoiler: it’s not what you think)
How she gamifies boring tasks to trick her inner toddler brain into productivity
Why “shoulds” are sucking the joy out of your calendar (and what to do instead)
Read the transcript:
Please note - this podcast episode was transcribed by an AI tool, there may be some typos or errors.
00:00 What if running your business didn't mean sacrificing your time, your health, or your weekends? Welcome to Own Your Time, the podcast where we trade hustle culture for mindful, sustainable success.
00:13 I'm Sarah Stewart, and around here we're all about getting more time for what really matters. In today's episode, I'm joined by the wonderful Sarah Longfield.
00:24 Sarah is a facilitator, producer and creative business coach based here in Glasgow. After 12 years as artistic director of Toon Speak Young People's Theatre, Sarah has carved out a portfolio career, including finding two social enterprises, and then post-pandemic, Sarah has consolidated all her projects
00:46 and strands under one roof, where you can find stories about participatory arts practice, retreats, coaching, online courses, and other interesting things.
00:57 She is bald and bald, blogging often about how living with alopecia doesn't stop her from living a joyful life. I've completed Sarah's online course in the art of online creative facilitation, and I've participated in some of her live planning sessions.
01:14 I also love her monthly email newsletter, Sarah Longfield's monthly musings, and I'll pop a link to sign up to this in the show notes.
01:24 Sarah always shares lots of interesting articles, links and so on, which gets my brain ticking. I really enjoy it and it's worthwhile, and signing up for that.
01:36 Um, anyway, so in today's episode, we're going to be chatting about her rebellious take on how to manage your time, your way.
01:44 Let's get into it. Hi, Sarah. Thank you for joining me. How are you? I'm good. Thank you. Thanks for inviting me.
01:52 It's okay to be here. Yeah, of course. Um, and I've done a little intro, uh, before we start our conversation, but the one thing that I didn't mention in the intro is that we're, um, friends in real life as well.
02:06 So I guess that's maybe just something interesting to know, whether, whether that changes the conversation or not, I don't know, but, um, yeah, a worthwhile shading, I suppose.
02:17 Um, so, I, I love what you do. Like, I love everything about your business and what you do. And, um, I read your monthly musings newsletter when that goes out.
02:31 I think that's fantastic as well. And when you put in your pitch, I sort of, yeah, I guess through the conversations we've had, you've got this unique perspective and approach to time.
02:46 But before we sort of dig into that a little bit more, do you want to share with the listeners a little bit about your work, and maybe an insight into what your sort of typical week looks like if you have a typical week?
03:02 Yeah, so, um, I feel like I do a few things and I tend to stop. You know, depending on who I'm speaking to, I'll start with, well, amongst other things, I, and I'll lead with whatever I think they'll be most interested in.
03:16 But, um, in essence, I'm a creative business and life coach, mostly working with creatives or entrepreneurs. And so the, the core of my business is my one-to-one clients.
03:28 But I also work with arts and heritage organisations. And sometimes I'm going into facilitate. Conversation, sometimes providing training. And so there's a lot of variety which I love.
03:44 And I also create courses that are useful to, you know, the people in my world and the people in my community.
03:52 So they might be quite specific about running a small business like storytelling or making online courses, you know, something that goes through a skill that would be useful.
04:03 Um, but I also create courses around mindset, so I've got ones on kind of, there's one called the imperfectionist, which kind of says what it does.
04:14 It's about encouraging imperfection rather than perfectionism, getting unstuck. Um, I've got a course that it shouldn't have favourites, but I do.
04:23 Um, a course called the cartographer's compass, which is about planning your year through using maps. Um, but what all that I do is about sort of Approaching useful practical things, but approaching them in a creative way.
04:39 Yeah, I think that kind of sums it up. Yeah, which I, which I love. Like every time you're, you're launching something like there, there is always sort of a playful, creative element to it, which I really like.
04:53 Um, and you've lived a few sort of creative lifetimes already, um, you, Had some social enterprises, um, you were working in theatre, you've sort of now moved into your coaching, um, I think you've been running retreats and things as well.
05:10 And one thing that has stood out for me amongst many others with your email newsletter was this idea of a golden thread, um, and that's something that sort of stuck with me.
05:22 Do you want to maybe just expand on that and maybe touch on what your sort of golden thread is? Yeah, I mean, I came up with this because of all the different things I do, because I crave novelty and variety.
05:36 And, you know, that's definitely one of my success criteria is to have a business. But I, oh yeah, I didn't answer your other part of your question about a typical week.
05:44 There isn't one, I think. Um, I try and break up my week. If I'm here working from home, I try and go to yoga and things.
05:53 And they're the kind of sort of like It depends on the rock face that actually stick in the diary, but everything else changes week to week, and I love that.
06:02 I don't go out and work face to face that often anymore, you know, pre-pandemic. I was flying across the country for loads of meetings and all sorts of things, and I was exhausted, so yeah, I went from home except when there's something important, you know, that's worthwhile going and working face to
06:20 face with people. But yeah, doing all of those things made me feel like I was too, I felt like I apologized about it.
06:30 I was too generalist rather than being expert. And I felt it might confuse some people if they came to my website and saw all these different aspects of my work.
06:41 But then I gave myself a good talking to and realised that actually what's important there isn't pleasing everybody. The ideal people I work with come to my website and go, ah, that's great, you do loads of different things, you know, those are the people I work for, um, and, you know, I'm here to serve
07:00 as it were because, yeah, because you shouldn't be apologetic about it. So the way I kind of explain what I do is talking about a golden thread that runs through everything.
07:10 So whether it's a beadwork retreat or a strategy day for an archive, Or a once-of-one client coaching opportunity, or whatever it is, there's some golden threads that run through, and for me, one of those is galvanising people into action in a way that suits them, not just taking a kind of, uh, a way
07:37 of achieving things off the shelf as it were in teaching a sort of, Approach, but, but finding a way that really works for someone to be able to take action and achieve what they want to achieve.
07:46 And the other thing is creativity that just flows through everything I do, um, yeah. Yeah, that's just the very core of who I am.
07:58 And when you think about creativity, I mean, that's quite a broad thing. Like, is there a specific, Sort of type of creativity or, or anything that you lean more towards.
08:12 No, um, I went with, like, I went with artists across all disciplines, you know, at the moment I'm working with writers, filmmakers, ceramics, ecstall artists, musicians, you know, across the board.
08:26 But also I work with creative people who might not be doing that as their job, you know. Um, I work with a lot of people who run their own small business.
08:35 Or are leaders in, you know, in their roles that still use creativity, they're still constantly problem-solving. And at its essence, I suppose, for me, creativity is transforming an idea in your head into something in the real world, however that manifests.
08:54 Love that. Yeah. That's a great way to think about it, because I think there's a lot of people that would say they're not creative, but I mean, Nonsense.
09:06 Yeah, I think everyone is creative, it just might look differently to people, because even like, yeah, I don't know, being in your garden, and like, you know, there's so many different avenues that you could come to creativity.
09:24 Absolutely, and I suppose there's things like my theatre background, I don't make theatre at the moment, I probably will return to it one day, because I think it's a bit of a bug that never leads you.
09:35 I'm not making it the moment, but I'm using all of that knowledge I gained from creating theatre in how I create courses, how I, um, you know, create coaching spaces, thinking about how do you create a space that's a little bit more special, a little bit more magical, because, you know, if I'm enhancing
09:53 a space, telling that story in a way that pulls people in, there's more likely to be transformation. Which, you know, is what you want when you're creating a piece of theatre.
10:03 You want your audience to feel slightly transformed from the experience. The same goes with coaching, obviously. You want people to make change, um, make positive change and work towards a brighter future.
10:17 So, they're really quite closely linked. And yeah, creativity is everywhere. It's just various reasons that people shut off from, From their own creativity, but they probably are doing it loads anyway.
10:31 They're just calling it something else. Yeah. And in your notes that you sent through, you had mentioned the word rebellious quite a bit, and like being a creative rebel and things.
10:45 What does that mean to you? Like rebellious or a creative rebel? Yeah, that was something that required quite a bit of minus that shifting work for me as well, was there was a big penny that dropped quite a few years ago now when I realised that rebellion didn't have to be kind of edgy and anarchic and
11:05 punky, you know, that I'm quite sort of softer on the edges, but I could still be rebellious. Um, and that I found really, um, kind of releasing to realise that I can, Push the boundaries of the status quo.
11:22 You can question things. You can rewrite rules that are no longer serving you. And I mean it in a sort of gentle sense.
11:29 I'm not sort of saying we should go, you know, break all the laws and go and fill out anarchy. But I think especially when you run your own business, we try and stick to rules that we feel we should be sticking to, which are just nonsense.
11:46 So. That's, that's what I mean by rebelliousness when I talk about it. It's, it's about having that kind of gumption and that energy to be able to go, actually, no, I want to do it this way.
11:58 And I've been doing it all my life. I just hadn't fully sort of embraced it as a positive. Okay. It's the same, it's the same with, you know, doing a lot of different things and loving that variety that it's taken me to now, I'm 47 now, you know, it's taken me to now to be able to kind of go, oh no,
12:15 these are superpowers. These arm Things I should braid myself for. Yeah, interesting. Um, and so if we, if we switch our thinking more to like time management and, and thinking about time, so you, you had shared that time blocking didn't work for you and your, uh, rebellious little brain as you put it
12:42 . And, and then it, yeah, it didn't, it didn't work for you. Can you, like, I am firstly, like, so interested in this?
12:52 Can you, like, maybe reflect back and explain maybe a little bit about what you were feeling or thinking at that time and, you know, how did you know that it wasn't for you?
13:06 Yeah, I think I've tried it in various ways, and I suppose in some ways I still time look, but I have to do it in a way that gives A sense of freedom and choice within it.
13:19 And so, like an example, I, I've now managed to get, you know, since the pandemic actually managed to get yoga in into my week on a regular basis, but for ages, I wasn't doing that.
13:32 My kids were also younger, I had a lot less, I had free time to be able to go out to a class or whatever, but I could still do it in the house, which requires quite a little bit more willpower and discipline, but it was still there, but I found when I put it in my diary, I can actually block it out an
13:50 hour, go upstairs, do a yoga class on YouTube or whatever, I completely rebelled against it. My brain was like, no, I'm not doing that.
13:58 Why are you telling me to do that? And it was me, it was me telling myself to do that, but it just, it actually, I found I did less yoga when I tried to schedule it in.
14:09 Which is so stupid, and I know it's stupid, but yeah, that kind of taught me a lesson that okay, it would be a square peg into a round hole if I try and organise my diary this way, but it just was counterproductive for me.
14:26 Yeah, interesting. And, you know, a lot of people do feel that they should, you know, and is that sort of word again, like they should be doing Things a certain way, they should be managing their time a certain way.
14:41 Um, but you know, as you shared, it doesn't always work. So what, like what might you say in terms of like encouragement to someone who's maybe not quite figured out what works for them yet?
14:55 And they're still sort of in that place of feeling stuck. Um, I think, yeah, there's a big thing around acceptance around accepting that you're going to work in a unique way.
15:07 And it's about having a really playful approach, I mean, you mentioned playfulness earlier. I think that's the thing, holding this sort of stuff lightly and playfully and go, okay, let's try this way and try and commit to a week of this and see what happens.
15:23 But then, not beating yourself up if it all goes wrong, like you say, it's not like, um, a dip, you know, if you manage to stick to a certain time management system, it makes you a better person.
15:35 Not necessarily. Yeah, being more organised and using your time more wisely is going to probably help you achieve what you want better.
15:43 But trying to do it in a system that isn't working the way your brain works is, you know, a bit.
15:52 That's not you being lesser. That's, that's just, you just haven't found the right system. Yeah. So do you think? Like you used a word system there.
16:06 Do you think that systems can work even for like creatives? Yeah, I think it's the word that can make quite a lot of people I went with shudder.
16:19 It's a bit like consistency, those words. Oh, um, but yes, absolutely. You can have a system, but the system could have lots and lots of wobbly spaciousness built into it.
16:32 And that's how I approach it because I still get stuff done, but I approach it, um, less in a kind of, I'm going to do this now and then 15 minutes I'll do this and then I'll do this.
16:45 That doesn't work for me. Occasionally I can do something like pomodoro if there's a task that I'm really procrastinating on because it's difficult, um, and it requires brain power and I'm avoiding it because it's not exciting me enough.
17:00 I will do something like, you know, 20-minute bursts with a timer. But that's only usually to get a piece of work over the line that really needs to happen.
17:10 Most of the time for me, it's about, yeah, just having some freedom, like waking up in the morning, going, right, where's my energy today?
17:18 And that's not letting myself off the hook. I think that's really important that you shouldn't, Yeah, there's a fine line between, you know, just excusing, not getting stuff done.
17:31 And, um, just genuinely listening to where your body's at. You know, I'm Perry, Menopause, or my energy levels can vary quite a bit, but I think being acknowledging that and so I know that some days is like waiting through treacle and it's so much kinder and actually more productive if I go, okay, I'm
17:54 just going to wait through treacle. Maybe I'll just actually give up. After lunch and go and watch Maths Australia or something dreadful.
18:04 But, you know, like, that, that would then lead to a much more productive next day, you know, over the course of my week, if I'm kind to where I'm at.
18:15 Um, yeah, so, so I think there's, yeah, just keeping that space and that freedom within works really well for me.
18:24 Yeah, love that. Um, because I think, You know, especially, you know, you touch there on like the energy-led planning, and that sort of check-in in the morning to sort of see where you're at.
18:39 I, like, the, I guess I also do that to a certain degree, and it is, yeah, it's interesting, because time blocking in itself will mean different things to people.
18:53 Like, my, my calendar is not blocked to the extreme and I'm not like, you know, blocked out to like 15 minutes, you know, this sat in the next thing.
19:03 Like, my calendar is also spacious as well and it, and it has been a bit of an experimentation to figure out exactly how much structure works and, and, and, and how much spacious this I need.
19:17 But like you, I think, With, particularly with my Crohn's disease as well, like, my energy can fluctuate. And so it may be that there are times where I'm not feeling fantastic and I do have to flex the plan.
19:35 And I think it's a case of knowing that the plan is just that. It's like, it's not a fixed thing.
19:42 Like, it makes me think of friends and Ross and how, was it Ross? or Chandler and one of them like had a list of peace celebrities that they wanted to sleep with and the list was like laminated, you know, when it was like fixed.
19:58 Whereas I, you know, my plan is not like written out laminated and stuck on the wall. Like I don't have to stick to it.
20:05 The plan is just that and it's like fluid and it lies, you know, there's like flags there for it to move with me.
20:13 And because my example this week was that I'd gone and had a And Covid vaccine on Sunday night and when I had done my planning last week for this week, I had neglected to take into account how I would feel after that vaccine.
20:32 And so I had my apt out like a Monday of like getting stuff done and then actually wasn't, you know, wasn't feeling fantastic and had to change it.
20:43 And yeah, it's that Like what you've seen earlier about that acceptance, like that's, it's okay. Yeah, absolutely. And I think, think for me, it's, um, it's not about in advance ordering what I'm going to do.
21:00 Um, you know, what tasks I have priorities. Like today, I need to get this done, but it could happen now.
21:08 It could happen at seven o'clock at night if it needs to. I tend not to work evenings that often that sometimes I do, sometimes I've got the urge.
21:17 And again, it's having that freedom and that choice, like if I choose to do this, like I sometimes quite like getting stuff done on a Sunday.
21:25 And, you know, that is not impinging on my work life balance because I really enjoy my work. And actually, there's something psychologically about working on a Sunday, just it's just clearer, you know, I'm able to do some focused work in a way.
21:40 That doesn't feel the same Monday to Friday, which is silly, really, because it's my business that I can work when I want.
21:46 I don't have to prescribe to rules. Um, one thing when I'm busy to stop me getting overwhelmed, I do use, um, a kind of little system that I've called FML, and I like it because it's kind of a bit, it sounds like I'm swearing.
22:04 Um, my life. Um, But yeah, sml stands for focused, medium and light. And I know when I'm busy, I have to do the focus stuff first, otherwise it doesn't get done in the day, because I am addicted to ticking stuff off my to-do list.
22:23 I love that dopamine hit, so I will go straight for those light tasks that only take like two minutes, like email that person back, chase that up, you know, book that thing, love those tick, tick, tick, you know, all look how productive I'm being and I'm ignoring.
22:37 You know, the focus bit of work that is going to stretch the brain a bit, that is going to be a bit tougher.
22:44 So, yeah, I do bring that in if I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and I'm a bit busy. FML. Yeah. I love that approach.
22:54 Yeah. And it's interesting how, um, you know, like when you think about task management, so like there's the calendar management, but there's also the task management.
23:05 Like, do you Do you have a system for your tasks? Like, where, where are you keeping all your to-dos? I love a notebook.
23:15 I'm very specific on my notebook. It has to be, um, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot I'm, I'm going to, I sound so systematic, don't I?
23:27 Even though my rebellious little brain doesn't cope with some things, but I, I index all my no-brains. I, I know I could sort of get a digital thing, but I just love right-putting pens paper and mark making.
23:38 So, I will have a weekly to-do list, um, that has little boxes that I tick off. And that, Isn't sort of managed in terms of task, but then I will put days on some things.
23:54 Okay, um, so yeah, like I'll show you, this is basically, you know, it doesn't work well in audio only, but I'm just sort of sharing my task list here.
24:04 And some of these are like two minute tasks and some of them are a full day. So it is all a bit of a jumble, but there's something about seeing them all in a clear list without them being segmented really helps me know where I'm at.
24:18 And I add to that as the week goes on, and then they get carried over a little. I do a line through it instead of a tick, if it's been carried over.
24:27 Oh nice, yeah. So over quite a lot, but, you know, that stops me forgetting those developmental things, you know, especially when you're running your own business, and there's no one else to check.
24:38 Oh, if you've done that thing, you said you were going to do, you know, it's just you. You've got to keep carrying that stuff over other ways you forget.
24:45 Yeah, yeah. Yeah, interesting. And, um, I forgot where I was going with this, but, because the FML bit, I do really like, because a lot of people, they might like have their task list, and they cut it and, like, cut the tasks in different ways.
25:02 And so, like, I might, I have a sense of my tasks, like, what are the things that need, Focus and energy, which are the ones that I could do when I've got low energy.
25:14 Some clients cut their tasks into what are the things that I need to be alone to do and what are the things that I could do when I'm like with my kids or, you know, um, so yeah, it's sort of interesting being able to then like hear how other people split up their work.
25:33 Do you know, actually, in the summer, this is quite interesting, because I've got a lovely light airy rim here, but it's from about sort of two o'clock, three o'clock, the sun starts to come in.
25:44 And so from about half two, and if it's sunny, it gets a bit too hot to work in here, you know, to do focused work as well.
25:51 So it's also, and I'm not stopping that because the bitumen did come through the windows. It's pretty amazing. And we don't see enough of it in Scotland, so.
25:59 Uh, but yeah, I kept bearing that in mind as well, so that actually motivates me to get stuff done before the sun comes in, because then I could be saving the more, you know, do some research on this reader on this fact that side, you know.
26:12 Yeah, the nice, non-screen tasks that I could just use in planning with my notebook or reading around a subject, you know, doing that outside, lovely.
26:23 Yeah, that's one thing I struggle, like I struggle to work outside. I, I don't know, I just, I like being at my desk.
26:31 Yeah, or not, I can do notebook, I can do reading, but I couldn't do laptop outside. Yeah, I know people can, you know, like in COVID, they constructed interesting boxes to be able to do, I couldn't do.
26:43 Yeah, I wouldn't be able to do that either. Yeah, that's just, just not me. Can you maybe tell the listeners a little bit about your planning scene that you had created, because I love- I just love how you really do intersect the creativity into everything that you do.
27:03 Like it's just fantastic. Tell us a little bit more about the tool. Yeah, so I've got a weekly planner, um, which you can download for free from my website.
27:12 And there's also a quarterly planner as well on there, um, which is- The quarterly one is about stories, you know, what, the last three months are the last three chapters, and you've got three chapters ahead, and you as the author, but also as the protagonist of your story, so, and the weekly planner
27:32 is a lighter touch than that. It's just a reflect back on what you've achieved, because we don't really do that very often.
27:38 Reflect back on what you achieved last week, and what do you want in the week ahead, and just getting clear on your priorities for that, but also, you know, This tapping into different things that work for different people, like, for some people setting an intention or a word of the week can really help
27:53 anchor. And, yeah, all of that is in this little, printable, foldy api origami zine. And I've got instructions on my website of how to fold it up.
28:04 Is there something, something I think really important in that physical touch, that tangible feeling of creating a little booklet and writing in it, that elevates it a bit?
28:16 It's not for everyone, but, you know, for the people who do like, he wants to hold something in the hand, he like a bit of stationary, like a bit of origami, you know, then it makes planning more interesting and you're more likely to stick to it if it's sparked your imagination a bit.
28:33 Yeah, and it's, it's that exactly that you said there. It's the sticking with it. That's the, the crucial bit, because it doesn't really matter what the tool is or what you're using.
28:45 Being able to stick with it, and that's, that's the bit that people find hard. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I could plan for days.
28:56 It is totally a comfortable place for me to plan things. You know, what, what isn't in my strength as strongly is execution.
29:06 You know, getting that project over the line, getting your head down. You know, doing a thorough, decent job on things.
29:12 That's the bit that requires me to dig a bit deeper because it's not my natural place is like, oh, let's think up new ideas.
29:20 Let's reinvent something, which is why my career is taken to squiggly route as well because I like setting up new businesses.
29:27 I have stopped now this because because this business that I've built has got enough variety in it that I don't need to keep it reinventing things.
29:34 Okay. Yeah, it's got this dope that I can, I can still feed, you know, feed my need for newness and developing new things, but also, you know, I can calm down a bit and, and just run a proper business.
29:50 Yeah. Oh, yeah, I love that. Um, coming back to the shoots. So the, and, and you had said in your notes that you've, you've Put a whole heap of shoots in the bin, um, and like time, time blocking is one of those.
30:06 What, what are the other shoots that you had to let go of? And some of them are quite micro, but there are ones like I sort of talked a bit about earlier, you know, that this idea that I needed to be working nine to five Monday to Friday, you know, and that I should feel guilty if I, you know, when my
30:27 kids come home from school or Um, or if they're off on holiday that I can shift my time around to spend time with them or Yeah, just just all of those sort of rules around hours and clocking in and clocking off.
30:43 There's quite a few sheds there that went in the bin and it's like no, I can I can do a really good job in what I do.
30:50 I can cover my bills sometimes and more, you know, that that I can have success, but I can do it in a way that Isn't, you know, working to someone else's schedule.
31:03 I can do it to my schedule. So that, yeah, that was a big should for me that, that, that, that it's still, you still have to challenge it, and especially I think if you've got kids who are at school age, you know, you're still following the school clock.
31:16 Yes, yeah. Um, yeah, I, I often wonder, like in ten years time, will I start work later? I think I probably will.
31:27 I think I am going You know, because I'm naturally, I naturally like a slower morning and then to work a bit later.
31:35 Um, yeah, it'll be interesting to see what happens when I'm like off the leash. Yeah, it is interesting. I mean, I, because I, my preference would be to work in the mornings and I am more of a morning person, but at the moment, because I'm doing, Quite a bit of consulting and my client, my main client
31:58 is in America. My hours tend to be in the afternoon. So I've been, I tend to now take the mornings for me and so that might look like a school drop off and then going to the gym or going to meet someone for coffee or taking a dog for a big walk and stuff.
32:16 Um, I think like tomorrow or the day after I'm going for a massage. But I, I think I was, it was very quick for me to get rid of that shoot in terms of like the 9-5, but it is so interesting, because I watched a video on the weekend of a guy who is like X wall street, but he's been, now he's been running
32:41 his own business for however long. And he was still in that, like, 9-5 mentality, even though, you know, he's hugely successful in doing his own thing.
32:52 It's funny how we just sort of feel like that's what we should do, you know, if we're even if we're in control of our own time.
33:02 Yeah. Yeah, and I think, you know, ultimately for me, the hours I work is related to my family and being there for my kids and things and so, Yeah, there's huge freedom when you put that should in the bin and you work when suits your family, you know, what suits your life.
33:21 Which, yeah, sometimes means I get stuff done on a Sunday or, you know, that I might work late one evening just because I choose to.
33:30 I mean, sometimes I do have clients, I have a couple of clients who work full time, so I see them in the evening as well, but yeah, that flexibility is, I just love it.
33:40 And so we should use it as well, that's the whole point of view. Yeah, exactly. So another thing that you touched on was and we'd sort of shared this word as well throughout this conversation, like about being more playful and thinking about time management as a game and like, yeah, holding it like,
34:06 like, being getting more creative. And, and it's your approach is sort of similar to my approach in that I'm also encouraging clients to come at it through the lens of science and we're thinking about it as an experiment and it's okay if it doesn't work and let's how can we tweak and change and I do
34:27 like the idea of a game though. Cause that, that size a lot more fun. Like science to me is fun, but it won't be fun to everyone.
34:34 Whereas a game, like, you know, most people I think can get on board with the idea of a game. But if we were to approach time management like it were a game, what might that look like?
34:49 Yeah, so I think that it's sort of how can you actually childhood, you know, what motivated you to do things?
34:57 And so sometimes throwing in an element of chance into something, like you can't decide whether, you know, post lunch, feeling a bit sluggish, should you battle on through and get, you know, do 20 minutes focused work, or should you go for a walk?
35:15 Well, you know, spin, spin and a domino with those two each end, or write them on a wee dice, or something like that, that then sort of gamifies it, that adds that chance.
35:27 Probably what will happen is it will land on something you go, no, I don't want that. Well, that's what it's meant.
35:32 But it helps make that decision. It kind of lightens it that it isn't, you know, life or death. It isn't brain surgery.
35:41 It's, it's just, you know, deciding what, what, how are you going to best use your time? So, I think, yeah, that, that's sort of one approach.
35:51 Also, reward. Reward is a huge thing. And quite a few of us do still love stickers. So, you know, get a sticker chart and start rewarding yourself for things.
36:01 You know, the harder things, doing that focused work, whatever it is, making sure that you, you know, do a particular task every day, something you're trying to be more consistent on, reward yourself with a gold star, and it works.
36:16 I mean, at the moment, I've got a reward chart for rejection, because I've been sending out my book proposal to agents.
36:24 You know, and I'm aiming to get like, I've got a hundred rejection list that by the end of the year, I want to have a hundred rejections.
36:32 Um, I've kind of come to the end, uh, I've sent out about 50 agents and my research is sort of limited there, so I think I just need to write another book proposal and start again.
36:42 Um, that, you know, so I want to film a chart up. So yeah, it's the ways of tricking your brain, especially if you do have a bit of a creative brain that likes occasionally going into toddler mode.
36:54 Digging your heels and going, no, I don't want to do that. That sounds boring. That sounds, especially, yeah, boring is quite a big one.
37:00 Or I can't be bothered doing that. Or that sounds too hard. Or ever, you know, if you know that you can get into that, that sort of thinking, then, you know, feed that toddler, make it fun for them.
37:13 Um, I've got, I had, I've been working with an amazing client who, yeah, I was talking, she's neurodegbess as a lot of my clients are.
37:24 A lot, a lot of people are with are either present with ADHD, uh, kind of symptoms, as it were, uh, or or are diagnosed ADHD and other neurodiversities too, um, but this particular client is ADHD and was just talking about, you know, just just the tasks that really bored her that she found really tedious
37:46 and were absolutely essential to her work. So we created names for them, like made it again. So there was one task which was about finding the right email address to send emails out to quite high profile people.
38:02 She works in the, you know, research world and needs, you know, certain people involved in projects. So we called that shark hunting.
38:11 Well, she called it. I'm not claiming that I came up with it. She told about going shark hunting, um, to do her invoices.
38:19 She called it robbing the bank. You know, she's not robbing the bank, it's all completely ever since. She's just sending out her own voices to some clients, but just giving it that playful name and construct can really help.
38:34 The same if you've got, you know, there's a part of you that's really resisting something, for example, you know, turn that into a character.
38:42 I was recently did an exercise where I was participating on the course and it was like If your resistance was an animal, what animal would it be?
38:52 And I immediately saw this honey badger in this like security guard outfit in a little heart, you know, not opening the gate.
39:03 It's not lifting the ball out to let me, you know, there's this little resistance creature that actually when I sort of visualise that, then suddenly I knew, I knew what, you know, what treats to throw that honey badger to let me go through, which, you know, sounds a little bit silly, but silly works
39:24 for our brains a lot of the time, if we gauge our imagination in something we've ruled out as tedious, if we engage our imagination in it, suddenly it starts to get a bit more interesting, you start to lean in, you start to question why your thought processes are going a certain way.
39:41 So interesting. Yeah, and I do love the idea of turning things like gamifying it and making it more like a game.
39:52 And then I guess that's where like, you know, someone like yourself who, you know, has oodles of creativity can then help support people as they start to figure that out.
40:05 Like I was told at primary school, and on one of my school report cards that said I had no imagination.
40:11 You see, this is, this is why people stop thinking they're creating this thing. Uh-huh. So like, say, say there has no imagination.
40:21 And, and it like, this is now what must be like, I don't know, 38 years later, and I can still remember that.
40:30 And, and so like, I know it's false. But I am certainly not the most imaginative. And I mean, I suppose there's, there's lots of different ways now that you can, you know, tap in and, and, and sort of leverage tools and so on or, you know, conversations with people and different things like, um, you
40:55 know, it's, it's, it's interesting now how, How I come to creative ideas, and a lot of the time it is just giving myself some space, so like, you know, this morning when I was walking the dog, I wasn't listening to anything, I was just just walking and allowing myself to think.
41:14 And I came up with a few pretty good ideas, I think. But yeah, I can see how like we're working with someone who's like really, um, you know, embedded in that creative practice and it's part of something, you know, you're every day, would be really helpful.
41:33 Hmm. And it's like a muscle, isn't it? If the more you go to the gym, the heavier weights you can lift.
41:39 It's the same with your imagination. If you're using it and testing it and challenging it in a fun way, then, You're going to be quicker at coming up with ideas, you know, imaginations just what if, just asking what if, in whatever scenario it is.
41:55 What would happen if, oh, what if I did that? Or, you know, just those sort of questions, which, yeah, going for a walk is a great idea for imagination, because imagination works best when there's space, you know, the head space.
42:10 You've got a bit of space in terms of time, which on the walk you do have. Um, physical space can make a difference too, like being out in nature gives you, you know, you can see the horizon more clearly.
42:21 So just create in that space. Then your mind starts wondering, you know, daydreaming is the most underrated skill, I think.
42:29 We should all time block. Now, if I time block daydreaming time, I would do it. I'd be like, yes, it's such a brilliant reward.
42:37 Yeah. Stir up the window and just think for a bit. Oh, gorgeous. And they, but that's another thing that they're like, bash out of you when you're at school.
42:46 Yes, you're not allowed to daydream or look out the window and yeah, yeah, it's a negative. Oh, there's such a dream.
42:53 No, that's brilliant. That's so amazing. Yeah, I got that my 16-year-old who is very academic, um, bright as a button.
43:03 But yeah, he would get that sort of daydream. He used to daydream so much, we'd be eating tea, and his mind would wander off and he'd forget he had food in his mouth, and it would just fall out again because he was off somewhere.
43:15 But you know, when you actually engaged and found out what he was thinking about, it was inside him, it was brilliant.
43:22 Yeah. Daydreaming should be encouraged, I think. It should be on the curriculum. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. So, before we wrap up, um, I've got a- and you're the first guest, I think has been- been through this, but I've put together a little quick lightning round, um, okay.
43:41 So, I've got three quick questions for you. So the first one game, isn't it? I thought this is- this is like a game.
43:50 So, the first one is, what's one thing that's been on your to-do list that's been there forever? What's the one thing that you keep putting that line through it to- Bring it forward.
44:00 Do you know, and because you did share this question with me a couple of days ago, and so I did the thing yesterday, and it's really ridiculous Sarah.
44:11 The thing that I kept putting off because it isn't directly related to my work at all was that I had a particularly lovely beanie hat that had a metallic sort of silver sheen on it, and I'd worn it all winter and eventually it was like this needs a wash.
44:28 And, and so, I washed it and the silver came off. And so, I, I've been talking to some of the textile artists, so I coach and, and I'd come up with this plan where you could get this sort of glue, this adhesive, and you get the foil and you can kind of iron it onto fabrics.
44:46 So I got very excited about that. And so, yeah, for the last two months, I've had, I bought the stuff.
44:53 I'm very good at buying craft stuff, actually doing the craft is a different matter. Um, as someone once said, my crafting is mainly retail based, you know, I get that.
45:04 So, yeah, for two months on my list, rolling over was foil hats, which made me giggle, so it made me sound like some sort of conspiracy theorist sitting in my shed.
45:15 But eventually yesterday, I got an old hat that I don't completely love, and I tried falling it, and it didn't work.
45:25 But I had such great joy of taking it off my list. I've tried it. It didn't work. So I'm going to say another plan with my hats, but okay.
45:36 Oh, I love that you actually then did it. It made me do it. It was a meeting with post-bond or pushback yesterday and I suddenly had a narrow.
45:46 I was like, I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to paste some glue on the hat and see if I can stick foil to it.
45:52 Nice. I'm sad that it didn't work. Yeah, the iron needed to be so hot that it kind of killed, it sort of overstretched the hat, it killed the light cracker in it.
46:03 And even then, the foil wasn't sticking. So, yeah, I've killed a hat. Yeah. Oh, that's a shame. I know, worked out, you know, I've now got some foil on the to work out, you know, I think on like a t-shirt material, it'll work fine.
46:17 Yeah, okay. Okay, next question. What is our favourite, Creative tool or, uh, ritual that you swear by. I realize this was lightning round and I just gave you a really long answer to the last one.
46:31 Sorry. It's fine. So creative tool or ritual. Uh, it's not particularly quirky. It's quite normal but I do morning pages.
46:41 I write, um, try and write three pages. It's not always three. Don't have to stick to the rules. Um, but yeah, I try and write every morning, especially before I pick up my phone.
46:51 I try and charge my phone downstairs, and I try and journal before I do my several puzzles where I like to do every morning that word.
47:02 Oh, nice. Okay. And what's a recent know that you're proud of? A recent know. The one I had has just floated out of my head.
47:21 I haven't been saying, like, directly no, like, bits of work and things, I'm in a really fortunate position at the moment where the stuff I'm being offered aligns and I've got space for, so I haven't needed to turn down things that are out of alignment that way, but I think I'm saying no kind of ensuring
47:42 where my priorities are, and so saying no in other ways, so like when I'm scheduling stuff, there are some non-negotiables like Pilates and yoga and things in the week, um, making sure there's space to daydream, whatever it is.
47:58 So I think that that's probably the most important node that I'm consistently making week in week out is to protect my time in a way that works.
48:07 Yeah, I love that. Amazing. Um, is there anything else Cedar that you would like to share with the listeners? I mean, I suppose if I- Picked an interest in origami planning, you know, head on to my website, www.serolongfield.co.uk I'm going to the free gift section.
48:27 You'd find, you'd find my weekly planner there that you can download. There's also a free course on oomph. If you're feeling you're liking a bit of information.
48:37 Yeah, there's various bits and bobs, so if people are interested they can just go and have a good rummage around there and get some free things.
48:47 Fantastic. And where is the best place for the listeners to find you? Is it your website or, um, where else are you?
48:57 Website and then I'm also on Instagram, um, and LinkedIn. So Instagram, I'm Sarah.longfield. The dot's important, otherwise you'd be sent to a YouTuber in Texas.
49:10 And you'd find me on LinkedIn as well, where I share a lot of stuff about my work, but I also share bits about, um, alopecia and being bald and living with a visible difference as well.
49:21 So if any of that's an interest, yeah, find me on Instagram for that one. Amazing. Thank you so, so much.
49:30 Thanks Sarah, thanks for inviting me. Okay, bye for now. You can find Sarah's delightful planner where planning meets origami over at SarahLongfield.co.uk forward slash weekly hyphen planner and I'll make sure to pop the link for that into the show notes.
49:49 If you're a creative rebel who's tired of time management advice that doesn't fit, this might just be your new favourite tool.
49:57 Thanks for listening to Own Your Time. If you enjoyed today's episode, maybe you were nodding along or scribbling some notes, do me a favour and leave a quick review.
50:08 It really does help. And please share this with someone who needs a bit more calm in their calendar. Until next time, bye for now.