[00:00:15] Amy: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Holistic Health Show. Thank you for joining me again today. Today we have Dr. Christiana joining us. She's a health and happiness coach, and we're going to dive into time management. We're gonna learn all about some strategies to help us with time management and just, you Help us get some more me time in, which I think we can all agree we all need.
[00:00:37] Amy: Christiana, thank you so much for joining me today.
[00:00:41] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Thanks so much for having me, Amy. Really thrilled to be here and sharing some of my secrets and strategies.
[00:00:47] Amy: I think I'm going to learn a lot from this and I'm really excited, , I'm always looking for more time. I want to dive right in, tell us a little bit about what it is you do. How you do it and why you do it.
[00:00:57] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Yeah. So as you introduced myself health and happiness coach, and it's actually the happiness is really directly tied to the topic we're going to talk about today, because if you do feel overwhelmed and stressed and feel like you have no time for anything, we tend to not be super happy, right? So my goal is really, we're kind of aiming for what I call harmony between running our business, running our life, keeping our family healthy and happy, and more importantly than anything else, taking care of ourselves.[00:01:30]
[00:01:30] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: And that's really where that happiness comes in because it's like in the airplane, they always go to the safety procedures, but when they do say, put your safety mask on first and then help others. So true, especially for female entrepreneurs, for moms, if you are taking care of yourself, you're going to be a way healthier and happier person.
[00:01:53] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: And even though we always think we don't have time for that. That's probably the best spent time ever because everything else is just going to be running off your fingertips, so to speak, because you feel that you put yourself first and that you are the very best person that you could be interacting with your children, with your partner and with your family, of course.
[00:02:16] Amy: I love that analogy of using the airplane. You know, you always put your mask on first. It seems counterintuitive, just like it seems like it's just easier. It's faster. It's more important to look after someone else. But what people don't realize when they're not doing the looking after themselves first, is that's where you kind of start to fall short because you're then not able to give your best self.
[00:02:41] Amy: To the others around you, to your family, to your work, to whatever it is where you're putting your time. So I guess one question that comes to my mind straight away is For someone that is really busy, you know, busy moms, busy entrepreneurs, busy dads, everyone, [00:03:00] students, you know, I remember in uni, where do you get time to do anything other than uni, you know?
[00:03:06] Amy: And it just goes across to all aspects of our lives. So anyone who's in that kind of hamster wheel, how do you just take a minute and
[00:03:17] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Well, as crazy as it sounds, But starting really means kind of taking stock of what are you spending time on right now. And while that sounds like a really crazy task to think about, Oh, I really have to write down what I do during the day. Even kind of roughly outlining your routines and the little times in between.
[00:03:38] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: That's really where the time goes, gives you a good overview of how you spend your time, because you can kind of like start, you know, working like reverse engineering from the back. Okay. So what are the times that I maybe should be sleeping? Maybe you don't even get enough sleep. Right? So that's like one area where you're like, Oh, well, I don't have time to sleep because I have to do
[00:03:59] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: the laundry, I have to clean up the kitchen. I have to do this and that and that. So reverse engineer maybe with the time that you currently do sleep and then back into your day. And of course, there's areas there where you might have to drive somewhere. There's work that you have to be at, but then there are like these little time sucking activities in between, which could be scrolling on social media.
[00:04:25] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Or maybe sitting down and watching just 10 minutes of TV, but those turn into more like [00:04:30] 30 or 40 minutes. And those 30, 40 minutes could be when you could go for a walk, you could maybe read something, you could actually rest on the couch and just close your eyes, or just do a quick breathing exercise.
[00:04:44] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: So when I talk self care, I don't talk about going to like a spa and doing like a weekend getaway thing. I'm speaking about 10 minutes per day. That you have for yourself. And I always tell my clients, if you don't have 10 minutes during the day, you have a serious problem because everybody has 10 minutes during the day.
[00:05:05] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: And I hear that all the time because I work full time as a professor. I have two children. I run my coaching business. And then of course, I'm also a fitness instructor. So I am very careful in my time management for me and my Because I know what I need myself. It starts with setting clear boundaries between my different buckets or containers of my life.
[00:05:35] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: And I also need to be really good in saying no to activities where I feel that if I were to say yes, that would kind of impede on the time that I would spend with my family or with myself.
[00:05:46] Amy: You've touched on quite a few points that really resonated with me and in a recent episode, we also talked about the boundary setting and the saying no, which is really challenging for a lot of people, particularly women. [00:06:00] And you know, we, we tend to lean towards, yes, I'll do that as the immediate automated answer without thinking, well, do I actually have the time and what am I going to sacrifice if I do?
[00:06:13] Amy: Say yes, and it can be a hard, I mean, all of these habits can be hard to change, scrolling on Facebook, you know, you get sucked in or whatever it is, the TV, you know, you put one episode on and then you want to watch the next and, and the saying yes, and they can be really challenging habits to break, but I, I'm, thinking of one, I know a friend of mine, I'm And at their workplace, they were given this time management book, and one of the tasks that they had to do, no matter how busy they were, it was another task they had to add to their day, and the task was, write down where, what you're doing.
[00:06:50] Amy: Every time you change an activity, write down what it is, and how long you spent at it before you changed activities. And if you accomplished anything from that activity. And one of them came back, and something really ridiculous, it was a very large portion of time, was spent on the phone. And that wasn't his main role, wasn't to be taking or making calls.
[00:07:15] Amy: And it He found out that while he was, you know, building these really beautiful relationships with clients, he was chit chatting for hours in a day. And some days that would be all he would do. And that's when he realized, well, this is why I'm not [00:07:30] getting my job description done because I'm allowing these people to take up my time by talking to me or whatever it is they, they want to get off their chest.
[00:07:39] Amy: And it was pretty eyeopening. So I can see where you say, write it down.
[00:07:44] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Yeah, it's actually kind of fun to, if you think about, let's say 10, 15 years ago when we were in different places. About like standing in line and we maybe didn't have a phone. What did we actually do? So maybe we were talking in person to people, which is way better for our mental health than, you know, standing there and just looking down at our phones.
[00:08:09] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: So the, you know, so socialization in person is actually something that we really hope you with regard to feeling overwhelmed because you are building connection. And you're also expanding her friendship circle, right? So it's might not be somebody you just chit chat with, but that might be somebody that actually turns out to be a real rockstar in your life that you might've just met at a coffee shop.
[00:08:34] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: And all this is what I'm bringing up is that we Tend to spend what we feel in idle moment, and maybe just quickly checking email or quickly scrolling on social media, where in reality, if you wouldn't do it, you would actually really not miss anything as harsh as it sounds this fear of missing out this constantly like I need to check in, I need to [00:09:00] make sure what's happening.
[00:09:01] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: If you don't do it, the world will still go on. I'm always amused about people that post on social media. I'm going to take two days off or something. It's like, did you really think we're going to miss you? I mean, just take the time off. You don't need to excuse yourself. Just go have fun. You don't need to like put a little sign up, like a store or anything like that, we're closed.
[00:09:23] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Because. Social media is, as the word says, just to be social, but you don't need to see it as your job to do your thing.
[00:09:30] Amy: No, I absolutely agree. And you know, so we touched on the prioritizing of ourselves. We've touched on identifying where it is we're wasting the time in our day. And then you have, you know, the coaching business side of it. So I want to know, you know, people are thinking, okay, now I have to prioritize me. I have to find the time wasters.
[00:09:53] Amy: And then where would you come in? And how do you help people get there?
[00:09:57] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Yeah, so that's really the piece to where I talked earlier about the community building. That is just so important because we can be taking diaries. We can take stock in ourself. And then we look at the different data that we wrote down and we're like, so what now? Right. So that's really when community comes in, because even though we might be the best judge of how we spend our time and we look at it.
[00:10:26] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: We still have good days and bad days where things don't [00:10:30] really work out and it's far more successful to change habits in a community. where you have accountability, where you build connection, where you maybe have collaboration with regard to finding new strategies or finding those little more efficient or time saving strategies than doing it on your own.
[00:10:50] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Because if we would be all equipped with everything, I mean, we have in reality, really, of course we have everything. You could just Google it or you could read a book about it. But then it's really the implementation that is the struggle because deep down, we are all procrastinators. We tend to things do things maybe that are like more the convenient way.
[00:11:11] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: And we appreciate the immediate gratification, which is not changing habits and. You know, getting up and exercising from the couch when you're in the middle of watching a soap opera. So having the community, my community is called Mastermind Collective is really where I see amazing results in terms of changing habits, because all of a sudden you are feeling accountable and you're feeling heard and seen.
[00:11:41] Because you listen to these others and you realize, Oh my gosh, so only me who has this problem and you choose the other on and becomes like this. I can't wait to share what I learned this week. And I can't wait to share these little successes that I have. And I'm also feeling good when I share my [00:12:00] failures and I feel that others have experienced that too.
[00:12:03] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: That's really when the magic happens.
[00:12:04] Amy: The mastermind, it must be, very rewarding. You know, they say that if you have one or two or three friends that exercise, you are more likely. To be someone who exercises or prioritizes health, but if you surround yourself by people who don't exercise or are unhealthy, you're more likely to lean that way as well.
[00:12:25] Amy: So having access to that online community, because it's not always easy to go out and just change your friend circle. You know, you work where you work. Your family is your family. Sometimes you're surrounded by the people you're surrounded with, surrounded by, and that takes quite an effort to change. So having access to this community online with people who are like minded, who are wanting to make the changes, who are willing to share their successes and their mistakes and their setbacks, that to me is very valuable.
[00:12:55] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: And you're bringing up a great point, really. So the, the amazing thing about the community is community with goals that might be somewhat aligning with your goals, or that could be also somewhat different, of course, but I am actually gamifying my community with incentives. So I have these little challenges that we do.
[00:13:18] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: I have monthly tasks. And believe it or not, when we have an incentive to change something, people will kick into gear and they will do it because as I mentioned, [00:13:30] the immediate gratification is sitting on the couch and watching the soap opera, but you also get motivated as scientific studies have shown.
[00:13:39] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Buy a gratification that will happen as a reward in the future. And so you will work towards that reward because you can't wait for that feeling when you're getting rewarded for all the hard work that you put into this. And it's of course more time, but it's also prizes and I'm giving out little awards, so to speak, for working towards those challenges.
[00:14:03] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: So that is the fun part about it. Changing habits is hard. And doing it together is amazing. Getting those little rewards in there is basically just like the little cherry on the top.
[00:14:14] Amy: And then along with that, do you help people kind of learn how to build the balance, you know, the work life balance or the family life balance, .
[00:14:24] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Yeah. So basically what I teach is, and you might hear that from my accent is I'm from Europe and in Europe, we actually, in Germany, where I'm born, we don't even have a word for work life balance, believe it or not. We don't, because it's. I guess it's just an understanding that when people come from work, they are in their home and then they try to focus maybe on family and friends and try not to work as much and the vacations are longer.
[00:14:55] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: It's maybe not just 1 or 2 days, but it might be actually 10 or 14 [00:15:00] days. So, what I'm bringing in is that European flair in terms of bringing your work and your leisure to more harmonized state. And that means that I'm focusing on what I call petite practice, tiny habits. That will compound to big results, because if you think about it, let me give you a very simple example.
[00:15:22] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Let's say I were to say, okay, so you'll need to start maybe walking every day. You're like, I don't like walking. Well, yeah, if I were to say, walk 10, 000 steps, that really sounds pretty intimidating. That's more than three miles, right? Does not sound good at all, but if I were to say, okay, how about you just go outside the house and you just walk up and down the street, get like 200 steps or something like that doable, right?
[00:15:50] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: That might not take you very long at all. So that's what I call a petite practice. You're starting small, and when you feel comfortable with it. Over the course of, say, five days, 1, 000 steps. And so you see where I'm going with this. Those 200 steps per day are better than zero. And over five days, you're actually getting used to it and you nearly start missing it if you wouldn't go for the walk.
[00:16:14] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: So I help people by weaving in a habit without feeling it's a chore and without completely changing your life around. Because the one thing you don't want is you don't want to make it too uncomfortable to where it's [00:16:30] something that, you know, like those yo yo diets, you're like, sure, I can do it for five days.
[00:16:35] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: And then afterwards you're like, Oh my gosh, I'm so glad it's done. You want to build sustainable life changing habits. You have to do it in a way that it works for you, who you are. But also you have to start slowly. You can't like, you know, jump in a pool and expect to swim. You could have put a toe in and then maybe the leg.
[00:16:53] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: That's really how you see big results. You don't expect overnight success, but rather you weave it in and then you're really going to see the lifelong learning happening.
[00:17:03] Amy: And it's amazing how after we start a new habit, like you said, it's the mindset change that begins and, you know, someone who says, well, I don't like walking and you can kind of. Yeah. You may not say this back to them immediately, but perhaps after they've learned that they probably do like walking is well Did you not realize that you didn't remember the last time you went for a walk and spent some time for yourself?
[00:17:28] Amy: So you had this idea that you didn't like it without having ever given it a shot you know and It's really about what we tell ourselves in a lot of cases and but what we tell ourselves is so powerful Our mindset is really, it, it's the mindset change that, that to me is just very, very remarkable. And I wonder when somebody's in this community and they're making these small changes, what can they expect?
[00:17:55] Amy: You know, I, I just, I know from experience when I have clients walk through my door, it's like, [00:18:00] well, how long is this going to take until I see a result? So I'd love for you to share that with us.
[00:18:04] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: No, that's a great question. And it's also very fitting because I'm a fitness instructor and people sometimes walk out of my six pack abs class, lifting their shirts and checking out whether the abs already happened. Right. We tend to expect these, these quick results. And I always say, if you see an ad or anybody promising you that things happen, and it just seems like.
[00:18:27] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Unrealistically rapid or unrealistically drastic. It's probably either way, not true, or it happens in a way that it's not going to last. So it might be there, and it's like a little blimp of a moment, and then it's gone again. And if you want it to stay, it's going to be not healthy. So think about, okay, what length of time does it really build, does it take to build muscle?
[00:18:57] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: What length of time does it take to change? Eating habits, what length of time does it take for me to figure out a program that I need in my business, like creating videos or social media content, there's a learning curve involved with it. And guess what? It's not a linear one. It's not like you just start walking and you keep walking every day because it might be raining.
[00:19:22] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: You might be having friends over, there's like a million reasons that could happen and you have to be the [00:19:30] person that, again, with that accountability group, keeps going. So, I always say there might be that one day where things don't work, on the next day you have to go walk again, and even if it's just 10 steps.
[00:19:42] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Out of the door, get the mail and back in because if you keep compounding the positives and even as small as they are, you're going to keep doing it. Right. So how long does it take? I usually say give it at least a month and you're going to see amazing results. Habits do take time to change. And the longer you take for them to settle, the more you're actually going to start embracing them because you're approaching it in a very realistic mindset.
[00:20:14] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: And I love that you brought this up with the mindset because let's say you say, I don't like walking. I don't like any workouts. Well, if you keep repeating that for sure, you're not going to like it. Right. But you could also say, I'm an athlete. I wear sneakers. And I put some jogging pants on. I mean, along the fact you haven't even started working out yet, that you tell yourself you're an athlete already makes you maybe feel walk a little bit prouder and feel you have the skills to actually start walking.
[00:20:43] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: And that's really where the change happens. It happens In the habit that leads to the habit that once you have the sneakers on, you're going to start walking. So you, you kind of like need to reduce the friction that leads to the actual activity, [00:21:00] sneakers, socks, shoes by the door, telling yourself I'm an athlete.
[00:21:04] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: And then we get going. So the more that changes. Everything else is going to fall into place.
[00:21:11] Amy: one thing that really works for me is I go to fitness classes and I have to book them in advance. And I set my outfit out in the morning outside of the bedroom. And if I do that, I know my outfit is there. I don't have to look for it. I know my class is booked, so I don't want to be that person who's booked and doesn't show up.
[00:21:30] Amy: And it's, for me, that's taking the friction out of it. So I know exactly what I'm doing, where I'm going, and I've got a little bit of accountability by booking that class as well. And you mentioned a month. Give it about a month. And when we, we talk so often at the moment, I hear many people saying time is flying by.
[00:21:49] Amy: How fast is it going? And when you put it in that perspective, a month is really not a long time. It's over in the blink of an eye.
[00:21:56] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: It is. And think about like all the amazing things that you will learn during that month. So in my mastermind, I also have a 21 day to 21 day journey to wellness program, which has the word says 21 days, you don't have to even do it consecutively. You could spread it over a month, two months, three months.
[00:22:18] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: And in fact, it's like one of the little challenges. You can currently, if you were to start it, you could only access a week of it. And then after completing the [00:22:30] week, the next week would unlock, because otherwise it's like, first of all, it's super overwhelming. And second of all, there is no reward in keeping going.
[00:22:38] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: So it's like in a, in a little computer game, so to speak, you have to work yourself to the next level.
[00:22:44] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Think about this in terms of your life, a month where you may be doing something different is really not that big of a reward. You know, a timeframe, if you think about this could really impact your life.
[00:22:59] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: And what I haven't even mentioned, and that's like the most important thing of it all, because I said, I'm a full time professor and I'm a coach and I'm a wellness instructor and of course, I, I teach business classes, teach innovation, entrepreneurship. So for me, when I teach in my mastermind. I basically look at all these little businesses, I look at the innovation, I look at the entrepreneurship and I try to even strategies that are trending, but that are basically there to make our life more efficient, right?
[00:23:34] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Whether that's based in artificial intelligence, whether that's based in spreadsheet methods that I maybe could be used as tools. So, for instance, I use a tool to set up a time tracker, or I have a tracker, I have a tracker that my clients use to keep track of it. It's like post it notes, just electronically, so to speak.
[00:23:55] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: So when I'm bringing these things up is that my [00:24:00] daughters see what I do. And our family now uses an electronic calendar. My children track the habits and I sometimes come into their room. And they do like little stretches on the ground, looking watching some YouTube video or something. What you're really doing is yes, over one month, you're taking care of yourself, but your friends and family are going to watch you.
[00:24:22] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: And even though they might not immediately say, I want to do that with you, they get inspired by you. And that's really where the, the, you know, the storm keeps rolling because people around you that initially might not have been motivated, you know, They will get motivated by you. So it's this, this little positive aura that you're creating that what I mentioned earlier, with regard to, you put your mask on, on yourself, that's really when the magic happens.
[00:24:51] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: And all of a sudden you're realizing, oh my gosh, yeah, I'm doing something amazing over that course of a month. I impacted a whole bunch of people's lives.
[00:24:59] Amy: And it's like we said earlier, when I mentioned about who you surround yourself with, you could be that positive influence in somebody's life instead of looking outward and trying to look for that person for yourself. You could be that person for your family and your friends, which in itself would be incredibly rewarding.
[00:25:16] Amy: We were talking about incentives.
[00:25:17] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: It's so true. And especially if you have children, it's so hard to always be the role model and to know that you are the role model. However, they [00:25:30] do look at you and they feel that things that you do are maybe, you know, at least two, they could role play, they could imitate them, but they also see when you struggle and what helps you fight struggle, you know, So when I, for instance, I'm overwhelmed or stressed out I go, you know, to my workout room and I do a stretch and I know that my children associate that self care, self care help with something they can do for themselves too.
[00:25:59] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: So I don't, you know, go to the closet and grab a bag of chips, but I'd rather do that. And I think that that's really. Important so they might not immediately do it, but it's still something that will in their little memory. I always think of my children's memories as like a little jukebox that when the time is right, they will pull out that memory and they will play that.
[00:26:21] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Oh yeah, stretching. My mom used to do that. I remember this now. And then they will use it. So you're teaching them skills, whether they see it or not that are really life changing.
[00:26:33] Amy: It's just another tool for everyone to have in their toolbox, an option that, that people People know is there and Christiane, I'd love for everyone to be able to access the masterclass. So can you tell us where we can do that?
[00:26:47] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: So the mastermind is at my business website, which is hellohappynest. com and then it's bass backslash mastermind. It's called the mastermind [00:27:00] collective. And we are empowering female entrepreneurs to take care of themselves without adding more to their to do list. And it's a beautiful community lots of smiles and fun.
[00:27:12] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: And what I feel is amazing is you will find your accountability partners and your community right there that can help you to reach your goals without the overwhelm.
[00:27:24] . Of course keep hustling along. That's the name of my podcast, Happy, Healthy Hustle. I also share a lot of tips and tricks on there. So if you want to tune in, maybe you're going for your walk, whether that's 10, 000 steps or 100 tune into my podcast and I give some tips and tricks away there too.
[00:27:43] Amy: And I'll share the links in the show notes, the description of the video and the episode as well. So if you're thinking about it, go over there, have a look at the Mastermind Collective. Don't be shy. Reach out. You can always reach out to me if you have any questions and I can hand them on to Christiane or you can reach out to her directly.
[00:28:01] Amy: Christiane, thank you so much for joining us on the show today.
[00:28:04] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Thank you, Amy.
[00:28:05]
