E149: Eliminating Overwhelm & Creating Work-Life Balance
E149: Eliminating Overwhelm & Creating Work-Life Balance
Four weeks worth of group coaching wrapped up into a 30 minute episode to support you with understanding the real reasons why you’re feeling overwhelmed with work-life balance.
Continue for helpful solutions, journalling prompts, and action steps moving forward…
Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
[1:29] Welcome back to the women’s empowerment podcast. I am your host, Valerie LaVigne. For those of you in our Instagram community, you would have seen that we’ve spent the last four weeks behind the scenes in the Make a Habit Mentorship program - the same one that is sponsoring this episode… well sort of.
The behind the scenes look is really a mock-up of how the program works. I decided to play around with the concept after a friend of mine suggested I share this on socials as a way to give people an idea of what the Mentorship program is like.
Now, in all honesty, I wasn’t sure how this was going to go, but here are the logistics of how it went:
I offered the idea in Instagram stories and had three different options for habits we could work on together for the month of September. The community voted and the most popular vote was Eliminating Overwhelm and Creating Work-Life Balance. Once we had our set habit, we could start the case study. I tried to keep things as simple as possible, and spent a lot of time learning as I went.
Since I was using a mock-up client, I wanted to engage with the instagram community to really understand the struggles with this particular topic. To do that I used Sunday to poll the community in stories with different questions relating to work-life balance, stress, overwhelm, etc.
The responses from the polls helped me craft the content for a weekly Instagram live turned IGTV. These lives were a look into each of the four calls we have during the Mentorship program. In each call we analyzed the data to “check in” to where we were at and offered some solutions as well as asked more in-depth questions.
Here’s where I personally found this part of the case study the most challenging: in the actual 1:1 there is an intimate dialogue and conversation. With the live, not many people were there to interact with so I offered many examples. It still lacks the connection and customization of the 1:1 program.
However, from a business perspective this makes a great resource for future clients or anyone with questions about the program and how it works. In addition to that, the weekly quizzes and specific theme for the month was also really helpful because the community engaged really well in stories and I had lots of feedback to work with for content creation and further support.
Now, there were a couple other things I created during this case study. The first was a follow up carousel post. The follow up was post-IG live with the key points, takeaways and next steps. This part of the case study is meant to be a mock-up of the follow up email I send to my clients. After our coaching call I send an email with key points, and homework for the week.
Lastly, I created some additional content that was more light and motivating or inspiring. Sometimes this is sharing a relevant post, other times it is a motivational quote or a funny reel. With my Mentorship clients I also develop a close relationship with them and will send and share posts or quotes that are relevant and positive in between our coaching calls.
Overall I think the Case Study went really well and I have lots of ideas of how I want to continue doing it in the future. I’d also like to incorporate this into the content calendar quarterly! More info to come!
Okay let’s break this down into each of the weeks.
[10:01] Week One: Discovery Call. The goal of this week is to better understand our starting point. Where are we struggling with work-life balance specifically? What does balance mean to us? What do we feel are we missing in our lives?
Based on the story polls, our mockup client is lacking balance between work and life. They work for someone else and finish work at about 3:30pm-5:30pm on weekdays. They aren’t really feeling a life of purpose, but it’s more on the purposeful side of the scale vs the neglected or lack of passion side.
To our mockup client, having more work-life balance would make them feel fulfilled, in control, be less stressed, and allow them to do things like focus on personal growth, take more pauses throughout the day, have a flexible work schedule, sleep, and exercise daily.
When asked, “what do you need more of in your life?” the client answers: movement/activities, sleep, and money would be their top 3. Overall, they feel pretty successful in work and in life.
With this information we can use the rest of the discovery call to outline some next steps. We’re breaking things down into teeny-tiny habits this week and here were some of the takeaways…
For people who want more time, our tiny habit is: notice where you have “lost time” or have time leaks in your schedule. Do this by writing out your weekly schedule in detail to see where you can “gain” extra time.
For the people who voted for more movement/activities: get creative with adding new ways to incorporate movement throughout your day. Do 20 squats after sending off emails, add in some jumping jacks while you wait for your coffee to brew, or walk and talk during meetings.
Those who voted for needing more money in life: go through all of your expenses from last month. Where did you spend your money? Break this down into categories relevant to your spending: coffee, clothes, houseplants, eating out, etc. Did anything stand out? Were you shocked at spending a lot of money in a certain area? Can you pare-back anywhere?
The mockup client homework for the week is to focus on one of the tiny habits and bring the data or share how it went the following week. Depending on the conversation with the client, in a 1:1 setting we would also discover how this habit would best be tracked and figure out if other things needed to be done before the habit we created.
[15:44] Week Two: Checking-in and Overcoming Obstacles. The goal for week two is to see what’s working, and what isn’t. Where are you getting stuck when it comes to your new habit and/or your work-life balance? Now that we’re bringing awareness to this new habit or area of life, we will also start to discover old and bad habits, as well as certain factors affecting us that we might not have considered during the discovery call.
Based on the story polls, our new client is not going so well with their habits 52/100 rating and is currently feeling overwhelmed with work. The top three obstacles are: saying yes, when they really mean no; ignoring the body’s needs and signals; and not valuing self-care/personal time. Their biggest struggle with this work-life balance is time. Either not having enough of it, or not checking out on time, or not having a plan for the time allotted for work.
If I could wave my magic wand, our mockup client would need: another Sunday, spa, better sleep, a whole day to themselves, a virtual assistant, motivation, to move on, energy, and to pause the world so they can rest and also not miss out on anything at the same time.
As with any obstacle or struggle, there is always a deeper meaning. This week, instead of offering suggestions, I’m asking deeper questions…
If you’re reading this right now and you resonate with not valuing self-care/personal time, journal on these questions:
What does self-care mean to you?
Where does personal time appear on your priority list? Why do you think that is?
When do you feel like your cup is full?
If your biggest obstacle is poor planning/scheduling, journal on these questions…
What’s the real challenge here for you?
When are you saying ‘yes’ when you really mean ‘no?’
What is the ideal schedule/balance you want to achieve?
Answering these questions helps us really understand the deeper meaning behind our struggles, and how we can overcome them permanently. Week two can be a bit intense in the Make a Habit Mentorship Program as it asks us to dig deeper and be (sometimes brutally) honest. Depending on how the first week went, we’re either continuing with our tiny habit, or building on it a bit more.
[22:22] Week Three: Staying Focused. The goal for week three is to stay focused and keep our eye on the goal, and our heart on the intention. There’s a reason why we started this habit and it’s because we wanted to feel a certain way. The weekly call is a great support in staying accountable to the goal, and honouring the WHY.
Based on the story polls, our mock-up client is overwhelmed AF. They’re feeling slightly more balanced than week one, but still not there. This week they focused on resting, physical activity/movement. And mindfulness/intention setting.
When asked what activities they feel most fulfilled and joy doing, their top answers were: exercise, being outside, and reading. When asked why they think they keep getting stuck with balance, they answered, need to set boundaries, lack of organization, bad at saying no, need more hours, and procrastination/laziness.
By week three if you’re not doing the work, I’m going to tell you straight up that YOU are the one who gets to make the choice. Stay stuck or grow. Because you’re reading the show notes, I’m assuming that you’re choosing growth.
To choose growth, focus on what is working. Sprinkle in little things every day that bring you joy. CHOOSE the healthy habit, even when it’s easier not to. Change comes from the small actions every day.
[26:13] Week Four: Observations and Next Steps. The goal for this week is to reflect on how the last month has changed for us, and create an action plan for the month ahead.
Based on the story polls, the mockup client loved the make a habit mentorship. The observations made about themselves were that they can be too nice at their own expense, they need/like alone time, and that they’re learning to listen to their body.
The observations made about their environment was that it’s a little too chaotic and hectic. Decluttering, reorganizing, and simplifying also needs to take place. And the season is changing where evenings are darker and cooler as we move into autumn.
The one thing the client can commit to in the next 8 weeks is making time for self care such as slow mornings with intentions setting and/or taking breaks indeed of sitting at the desk a;; day and working through the day.
In the 1:1 make a habit mentorship program, this would be the best time to decide if continuing the program for another month would be beneficial to the client. If they’re comfortable on their own, the new habit to focus on for the next 4-8 weeks will be more specific to creating and honouring boundaries when it comes to work-life balance.
Getting more firm with saying “no” when you mean “no.”
Not checking emails or messages or DMs first thing in the morning, and start building out a more consistent wake up and bedtime routine so that you’re getting ample rest to have the energy for busy work days.
In this type of case study, I noticed that the content was either going to be super specific for one person, or too broad for the group, so I gave multiple options on what to focus on. The idea for this fourth week is that we’re building a custom plan that can be achieved and tracked with the client on their own, however sometimes the client needs that accountability and wants to come back in one month, or continue with the program moving forward.
Full 28-Day Action Plan for Creating Work-Life Balance
When you’re ready to invest in your healthy habits, visit www.valerielavigneife.com/mentorship to get started. I would be happy to support you with your growth and transformation.
EPISODE BONUSES:
FULL GUIDE: Mock-up Make a Habit Mentorship Case Study
Podcast Host
Valerie LaVigne
Valerie is the creator and founder of Valerie LaVigne Life and the Women's Empowerment Show. She helps busy and empowered women create healthy habits so that they can become the best version of themselves and transform their lives. Learn more about Valerie here!
