Hey everyone, this is Katie with New Vision, your marriage counselor Edmond, and as you can see, we don’t have any guys with us today. Yeah. So it’s just girls today, but Sean and his family are on a much needed vacation. So you’ve probably seen some vacation photos pop up and some silly Facebook lives within in Branson and they’re enjoying themselves. But I’m sure Sean will be back next week with all of his energy. So we’re going to try to keep it lively today. We can dot. Yeah, hopefully not as lively as Shawn, but we’ll do our best. So today we are starting our Facebook lives on simplify. And so la yesterday, um, you may have seen Audra George and I tune in for um, our first Facebook live on simplifying and Audra has a declutter experts. So she came and was a guest on that. Yes, yes. Yeah, she is amazing.
So we could probably use her help a little bit more. But today we’re going to be talking about simplifying your schedule. And so I have three practical ways to simplify your schedule. And it seems like this year, this time of year is the time of year where I particularly need the most help with simplifying my schedule. I don’t know what it is about the spring, but it’s like I have more energy and I decided, oh, I can do this, this, this and this. But really that’s, that’s not true. I have limits even in the spring, even when the sun’s out, I have some limits. So, um, so I’m going to use, um, the three r’s today to try to remember how to simplify our schedule. And so in the theme of April and Earth Day coming up, I’m going to use the RS, um, reduce, reuse and recycle in your schedule. So the first one is reduced.
So that seems obvious, right? So we can all reduce some things in our schedule. Um, the way I like to think of this, as a marriage counselor Edmond, is, um, like we need to reduce waste on the earth, right? When we’re thinking of Earth Day, there’s a lot of wasted time in my schedule. Do you guys have wasted time and your schedules? Unfortunately, yes. And so, uh, sometimes I think, okay, I’m so busy and I’m doing all these productive things. There’s no room to remove anything. Everything’s great in my schedule. But when I’ve actually taken the time to list out everything I do per day or you know, those things that, you know, people tell you to do, where you list out every hour that you spend in a day, I actually have quite a bit of wasted time. And so reducing the waste is the first thing that you can do to simplify your schedule.
Um, when it makes me think of is John 15 two where it talks about how Jesus pruned away. Um, right. He pruned away evil things like those that don’t bear fruit, he prunes. Um, and RNA are you guys gardeners, gardeners have a girl? I’m not either. I think I’ve included gardening in time. I don’t have, yeah, I do too. I love gardens. But yeah, I’m not a gardener either, but um, but I, my mom is a gardener and my mom always has a beautiful garden and she is, she would tell you that pruning is really important. And part of the reason that she has such pretty roses and her backyard looks like a little oasis is because she does put the effort in to prune. And that’s the, that’s the thing that’s so important about reducing the waste is because then the beautiful flowers and all those things come up as a result. Um, hey there. Hey Brandy. Yeah. So Brandy says Prune to prepare for a new season. Yes. Yeah, that is so true. And how fitting right as we’re kind of, we’re finally entering into spraying. I’m, yes, pruning is really important as we enter into a new season. So are there any things that you guys had to prune in your lives schedule wise lately?
Can you think of anything? I think when I think about getting rid of wasted time, I, for me recently I’m trying to replace waste with rest. Oh. Because I had it in my mind that if I wasn’t doing anything, that I was wasting time and sometimes I’m arresting. And so I think there is some value in intentionally identifying time to rest and recognizing that just because I’m not doing anything so to speak doesn’t mean I’m wasting the time, but it’s very valuable because I’m resting. Oh, that’s so goodness. That’s what you’re going to be on my heart recently. Yeah. That’s really good. That’s really good.
Yeah. One thing I do is I always just carrying my latest marriage counselor Edmond book that I’m enjoying with me in case I get stuck in a traffic jam or you know, um, God forbid if a client cancels, you know? Right. Yeah. An extra hour of, so I’m not wasting, you know, thinking, well, what am I gonna do with this hour? I always have something that I’m reading and then it’s available, you know? Right there.
Good man. That’s so good to you because something that I’ve struggled with recently is for whatever silly reason, the Wifi and my office has not been working correctly. I don’t know why everybody else’s office seems to, Mine’s like the black hole for some reason right now. And so there’ve been several occasions where I’m like, okay, I could be doing my case notes, which are online or I could be, you know, like doing something online that would be productive. Um, and so if I was actually carrying around a paper book, I wouldn’t have this problem cause I’m like twiddling my thumbs. Like what do I do without Wifi? But really there are things to do without Wifi. So that can be books. Yeah. And I actually have the stack of paper books in my office, but if I was actually bringing like, encouraging one, that might be what my heart needed at that moment.
So, yeah. That’s great. That’s great. Yeah. So, um, so reducing that waste is so is so important and, um, we just feel better when we reduce the waste. You know, that it’s kind of like reducing fat. Like you feel better when you get rid of fat, whether it’s just like fat on your plate, pat on your body, whatever it is, but like you feel better and it’s like the waste. So. Okay. So we talked about the reducing for your schedule, um, to try to simplify for marriage counselor Edmond. And so the next one is to reuse. So this might seem a little confusing talking about reusing in a schedule, but I think it may, it really, as silly as that sounds, I was thinking about these things and it really resonated with me thinking about reusing. And so, um, so the definition for reusing according to the recycling people is so donating or figuring out other uses for items.
Okay. So this might be like I moved recently and so I found that I have a lot of items that I hadn’t seen in awhile and I didn’t need, right? So I was, I was making trips back and forth to thrift stores and donating a lot of items. So when I’m thinking about a schedule, thinking about actually donating or reusing time, um, was something that was really powerful to me. And so a silly example, but one that might help this make more sense is, um, a lot of times specifically with the gym, which I feel like we end up talking about the gym a lot in our Facebook lives, but it’s just a good example. Um, is I used to in different jobs when I worked like eight to five every day. Um, I would either work out really early in the morning or late in the evening and that worked out really well for my schedule.
But now my schedule is different because I see clients at all different times. And so now I go to the gym at this weird time in the middle of the day and sometimes it means that I get ready once, then I go to the gym and then I get ready again, which seems really silly and it seems like an inefficient use of time. But when I’ve actually assessed how to reuse my schedule the best, that actually is what works better for me. And so I’ve haven’t really assessed how do I reuse this time in a way that works for this current season because our seasons are always changing. Just like brandy, marriage counselor Edmond, was saying earlier, how we have to prune for different seasons. I think we have to figure out how to reuse certain items for different seasons. Is there any other time that you guys have had that you maybe have had to reuse differently as you’ve entered in different
seasons? Um, I think for me what comes to mind is just that in this particular season I’ve had to say no to things that maybe I wouldn’t have said no to in the past. And so it is an innocence reusing and that this is the time that I would have given to, like I serve on some boards for organizations and that’s really important to me, but it’s giving up a lot of my evening time and taking away from some other things that I needed. So I had to actually, um, I had to step down from a board that I was serving on. It was very dear to my heart and struggled then with guilt and back and forth on that. But I’m saying no to in certain seasons of your life, you may have to now begin to say no to something that previously wouldn’t have said no to. That’s a part of taking care of yourself and your family and the priorities of that season.
And I think no is a really good example of reusing your time. Cause even when I think about the mass quantity of random items that I drove back and forth to thrift stores, I was saying no to those items. I was saying, okay, these items can be used for a better purpose right now. I don’t need, you know, 50 sweatshirts or whatever it was. Um, that’s not something that I need. Those sweatshirts could serve someone else a lot better than they’re serving me right now. And so I think similarly, you said, you saying, no, my evenings need to serve my kids or my husband. As a marriage counselor Edmond, even though I really love this board, I can’t, I have to reuse the time differently. So I think that’s a really good example. Have you experienced that also? Well, I don’t know if this fits, but um, you know, my husband and I like to work out together, but um, we’ve kinda lightly incorporated, are working out with our date night and we’ve started rock climbing and we have so much.
Oh, I love that.
Yeah. And so because a lot of times we struggle, what are we going to do on date night? We’re not big movie watchers and we would rather kind of move and do and you know, when it’s cold there’s not a lot you can move into. And so we’ve kind of combined those and so we kind of get a workout, but it’s fun. That’s great. Yeah, it really is. I realize when I’m there I don’t think about anything but that. And so that’s, yeah.
Yeah, no, that’s a great example. And I think I talk about often and marriage counseling Edmond as I’m sure you guys do as well, that, you know, date night can have, he can have other things incorporated with it. You know, date, a great date night. It might be the kids going over to grandma’s and you guys folding laundry and laughing. Right? But like that may be really fulfilling. And if you’re, you know, actually talking and engaging, then that’s great. So I love that example, being able to reuse time, um, for multiple purposes. So that’s great. That’s great. Okay. So if you’re just tuning in, we talked about how to reduce waste in your schedule and then how to reuse time in your schedule. And now we’re going to talk about how to recycle things in your schedule. And this is the part where may seem a little confusing, but I think it’ll really resonate with some of you because it resonated with me.
So, um, when you think about recycling, the actual purpose of recycling is that we put things in that little green bucket so that they can actually be broken down to be reused in a different way. So as opposed to like reusing those donated items or something like that with recycling, something is actually broken down and created into something completely different. And so when we’re thinking about recycling in our schedule, I think that’s the moment kind of the come to Jesus moment in the schedule, which I think we’ve probably all had at different points. But the way I like to look at it is it’s the time when you put everything on the table and you say, okay, I which some, you probably had to do this with the board also where you say, okay Lord, this is everything I have. These are all the things that I do take it what you want me to get rid of.
It’s yours. What you want me to keep. I’ll keep, I would probably choose this, this and this, but I’m taking my preferences out of it and I’m just giving it all to you. And so that’s what I’d like to look at. The recycling piece. This is truly in my marriage counselor Edmond opinion, the hardest part to do. I think we can reuse time and I think we can reduce commitments, but I think actually laying it on the table and truly like breaking down our schedule and reshifting it to completely honor the Lord. And when he’s called us to do is so hard. Um, I really think that’s, um, that’s when you think of, um, just starting over, it’s really difficult. Um, have you guys ever had times that you’ve had to do that in your lives? I think I should do that with the SR nine minutes at a time.
I’m wasting away on the snooze button that I should probably reevaluate and break down and things. What else can I read to me? That is so funny. You mentioned like come to, that’s so funny. I um, I am lately I’ve, I feel like the snooze button and I have had a love hate relationship for a long time. Yes. Um, and yeah, I recently actually got a new alarm clock because I was like, okay, this like nine minute thing is apple. You’ve sabotaged me. Um, so I got a different alarm clock and I’ve now set a time where I’m like, okay, if I’m not up, because I really do value time with the Lord each morning. And it’s very rare that I don’t have, you know, whatever you call it. I’m baptist, so we call it a quiet time. But that time with the Lord in the morning, I really do value that and that’s always a priority, but there’s a lot more I could accomplish in the morning.
Um, if Andy, I think what I’ve done is okay at a certain time, I know that if I’m not up, um, I will not accomplish that. And that’s helped me with that. And if you think about it, when you hit snooze to get more sleep, oh, these nine glorious extra minutes of sleep, it feels like it’s over like in that. But if you actually were to use that nine minutes to read the Bible or to eat lunch between sessions or to spend quality time with somebody, that nine minutes is really long and valuable. You get a, you get way more out of that nine minutes using it for that than to fall back asleep and this illusion that it’s going to help us the day you actually feels rested after they’ve snoozed from, no, I sure don’t. I actually feel more groggy. It’s never, it just, it’s so nice and cozy and my bed. But of course, um, yeah, yeah, that’s a great example. Yeah. I think that’s really good. So, um, have you ever had that happen where you’ve had to kind of put things on the table?
Even recently? Just maybe this might just be for a season. I just felt like I needed my husband and I kind of have this, um, routine in the evening of watching a certain program for, you know, amount of time before we get a bed and, and um, you know, I just first season and I’ve told him, honey, I’m going to bed. You know, you can stand here and watch this, but I’m going to go and read the word and, um, and I don’t know if that’ll do it for the rest of my life, but for this season I, I just felt like I needed to give that up, just traded for time in the word. And, um, I don’t need to use my alarm anymore. Oh, well look at that. [inaudible] that’s great. That’s perfect. So you feel so much more refreshed, do that. That’s it. I think that’s a great, um, I think that’s a great way of looking at and just truthfully, um, you know, counselors, we work weird schedules. Um, you know, just full disclosure here, our schedules are weird. I think all of us, at least for a marriage counselor Edmond, work evenings, um, at to some degree and, um, I am a morning person. Truthfully, my ideal schedule would probably be going to bed at like nine 30 and waking up at like five 30. I am definitely a morning person, but with working evenings I need some time when I get home to decompress, I just can’t go right to bed. So sometimes I have clients until nine o’clock at night. Well, I can’t go to bed at nine 30 by clients and I am calling at night. Um, and so I have actually had to make my like go to bed later as a result, but that’s even messed me up a little cause then I’m like, okay, well this is really screwy and it’s been a weird season for me as I’ve gotten in that.
But I think for me, something as I’ve been trying to just really recycle my schedule is saying, okay, um, I’m, you know, I have less evenings where I see clients and on those evenings where I do or don’t see clients trying to still maintain some sort of like consistency in the evenings, even if it’s, I only have a 30 minute decompression time so I can go to bed at a decent time and continue a regular schedule one night shouldn’t throw me off this badly as it’s thrown me off. So yeah, recycling your schedule is tough. It’s really tough for sure. So, yeah. Well I think, I feel like you guys had some really good insights today. Do you guys have anything else you’d want to add to that? I don’t. No. No. No. Okay. Well, I think so in April we’re going to be talking all about simplifying and marriage counselor Edmond.
So I talked about scheduling. Um, there’s gonna be things about relationships, which schedule certainly impact. And, you know, we talked about clutter in your home and things yesterday. So, um, so get ready for some more on simplifying and April and next week Sean will be back to bring more energy. So that’ll be great. Um, but if you or someone you know, you feel like really needs help with, um, learning to simplify things, um, maybe some of these things even hit some emotional things for you and some blocks, um, then that’s when we would be happy to help you more. And that’s when you could try to schedule an appointment with one of her therapists. And the best way to do that is just to go to our website, which is New Vision counseling.live. Um, we’ve recently started a new website, so you can just go straight there or you’re welcome to call us at four zero five, nine two one seven seven, seven, six. And we will look forward to seeing you next time. Have a great day.