EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Have you ever had the thought, how do they do it all? I know I have. And I can tell you it’s not because they have a time machine to help them go back every day and add a few extra hours in. Welcome to the Samantha Leith Show with me, Samantha Leith. This month, we’re going to look at the tips, tricks and tools they use to make magic happen with their time, let’s go. Time is our most precious resource, it’s limited. We can’t look into a crystal ball and know how many hours we have in this life and we can’t wave a wand and make time stretch as far as we want it to. So why do we… And yes, I’ve been very bloody guilty of this wasting. We live lives in a constant state of doing with busyness being a badge of honor. It leads to burnout, depression, anxiety, masking our stress with things like drugs, alcohol, food, sex. And you know what?
It generally, leads to failure in one or more areas of our life but we keep doing it. Around and around, we go on the hamster wheel, do wing, do wing, do wing, do wing… Somewhere along the way. We forgot the human being bit. So let’s find it again, shall we? I first started speaking way back when with my ditch it, delegated it, leverage it and live it keynote. Don’t say that when you’re drunk by the way. This was when I was a systemization wizard and I was too scared to admit, I wanted to be in the personal development space. Helping people organize their businesses and lives was my way of helping them feel a little bit better. It just wasn’t how I described it at the time. How did I know how to do it? Simple, I’d always done it. Stick with me.
Way back in the beginning when I was at school, I was a machine. Up to 30 hours a week dancing and singing rehearsals, maintained an academic scholarship, had the best teen parties in the Eastern suburbs. I’d help my mom and dad with their businesses which means I make a really good muffin. And then I’d be performing probably, at least one night a week. I didn’t stop when I left school either. Diary systems were my crack, full-time work during the day, great social life, performing a few times a week. I was always tired but I always kept going. I didn’t allow myself to stop for anything till I got sick which yeah, you guessed it. It happened a few times a year. I’d be forced to just stop or take truckloads of medication, booze, food or drugs to keep going. I remember once taking sleeping pills in a recording studio during break times because I was so sick and I needed to rest but I didn’t want to miss a thing, it’s crazy.
Coffee didn’t really work even though I started with a cup at 5:00 AM every school day while I did my homework. I Still drink it but it’s truly because of the flavor and the ceremony of it, it does bugger all. I called my first business, Smart Not Hard Proprietary Limited because in the back of my mind, I thought if I said it enough, maybe I’d stop working so hard. I come from a family of hard workers you see, where days off… Well, they almost show weakness and nothing could be further from the truth. People would always ask me, “How do you do so much?” I just did, didn’t everyone? Couldn’t everybody? I’ll admit, I was probably, even silently judging people that didn’t do a lot. Now, I know this doing was my part of proving I was meant to be here, that I was worthy and needed, that this almost obsessive behavior was another symptom of my undiagnosed ADHD. Filling my time with what I thought was optimal efficiency was my A type personality masking the complete chaos inside my mind.
The wheels fell off all during the pandemic. I no longer felt able to organize even the simplest of things which is what led to my digging around and my diagnosis. Now, whilst you might not have ADHD, if I was to be a gambler, I’d be willing to bet money that you have had times you felt completely out of control, drowning in the weight of to-do list and multitasking and obligations and uttered those words, “Finally, I had a couple more hours a day.” So let’s find them, I know they’re in there somewhere in the recesses of your mind. Trouble is we can’t find those extra moments where we get to be or get to choose something we’d prefer if we don’t first take a look at what’s already happening with your time. Remember when I mentioned, ditch it, delegate it, leverage it and live it.
Well, it still works. I’ve just tweaked it so you get a lot more true living it not work disguised as living it. You may be watching this and don’t work or feel like you have a perfect time management system. Please don’t let that stop you doing this work, I promise it’ll be worth it. Life is a full experience though, remember the 50,50 rule? Pleasure and pain, stress and relief, time will lack thereof, fun and frivolity, love and laugh, delight and magic to name just a few. So I’ll ask you… Yes, you. Which ones would you rather experience and which ones are you mostly experiencing now?
I’m not one to usually say keep score and I sure a shite would never get a gig as a score keeper in any sport. But it’s what you need to do right now with every single moment of your time, “Sam, don’t make me do a spreadsheet.” Don’t panic, you can get it in the freebies section. I really, really want you to do this for a week. And yes, at the end of the week you’ll probably, be thinking, “Fuck, I spend a lot of time watching insert video type here,” for me, it’s real estate and cooking by the way. I want you to note everything from running for half an hour to doing a social media post, doing the dishes or redesigning your business cards to spending an hour on Pinterest, coming up with your dream kitchen. Ah, yes. Whatever it is, I want you to write down the time you spend on it, what the task was and then ask yourself the following questions as you do.
Does this make me time, does this make me money? Does this cost me time, does this cost me money? Okay, why the money question? Simple, money is a tool we all need. Does it buy happiness? No. But it does buy you options and can buy you time. The last question is, do I love it or do I love it? It’s like doing a Marie condo with your time and asking that fabulous question, does it bring me joy? I just want you to say whether you love it or loathe it. Did you love it or loathe it? Remember, you don’t need to share this with anyone, well, if you don’t want to. This is for you to assess your time, not get another opinion. If I listen to everyone that questioned why I still make my daughter’s school lunch, for example, I’d be miserable.
I happen to love doing it. I’d rather stick pins in my eyes than iron but I have friends that use ironing like a less aerobic boxing class, taking out all of their frustration on those perfect sleeve creases. No judgment, you may love creating the perfect spreadsheet to share with your team for your social media for the year. And then you may loathe the spending time on Canva actually, creating the posts. Some of you may love driving your kids to school, others loathe it and find it stressful. Perhaps, you love meal planning and loathe even the idea of what is in the fridge meal? I like doing a grocery shop unless I’m hungry and then it’s hell, I tell you. I don’t want you to miss any parts of this, really, like really nothing, note it all down. If you don’t want to do it on this tracker, no problemo.
There are many apps out there that can help you chart what you’re doing but please make sure you note how you’re feeling about how you spent that portion of time, it’s so important. And before you say it, yes, I know doing this will take time and I said we were going to find some. Well, we are but after this bit. Thank you so very much for spending your very precious time watching this week’s episode of the Samantha Leith Show. Now, don’t forget to head on over to the interwebs SamanthaLeith.com/freebies to get any of the worksheets that I mentioned. Now, you probably, know many people that could do with a little extra help with their time so do them a favor and share this episode. And if you tag me, I’m going to encourage you on the journey. Till next time, remember you have exactly what it takes to be extraordinary.
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Produced by Rebecca Saunders and Pyrmont Studios
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Manic Monday
Songwriters: Prince Rogers Nelson
© Npg Publishing
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Produced by Samantha Leith / Michael Tan
Vocals by Samantha Leith
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