Try this experiment to ruthlessly reclaim your time.

What if you could ruthlessly reclaim your time?

As scientist mothers, our ⏰ time is our most precious, yet elusive resource.

We never have enough of it, we constantly 🏃‍♀️ race against it, and it can feel like it is always spent in service of everyone except ourselves.

Even when we make real attempts to change these dynamics, the forces at play (the broken systems in which we work, inequitable societal expectations of women, living up to our own expectations) often knock us right back where we started.

This isn’t about being harsh with others but about making bold changes that could transform your daily life.

Imagine what it would be like to drastically shift how you manage your time, aligning your schedule with your true priorities.

Sounds amazing, right? How do you get started?

Do what you do best and conduct an experiment!

Conduct a soul search (instead of a literature search!), design your experiment, and reflect upon your results using the questions below.

𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: 𝗥𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗹𝘆 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗺 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲

𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗹 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵:

🟢Visualize your ideal work week: How many hours would you work? What types of work would you focus on? How would you feel while working?

🟢Identify the gaps between your ideal and typical work week. What’s holding you back from making these changes?

🟢Brainstorm ways to adjust your week to get closer to your ideal. Some ideas that have worked well for others:

• Limit meetings to a certain number of hours per day or per week

• Limit email correspondence to set blocks of time

• Schedule self-care/family/"flow state" activities on your calendar and keep these appointments with yourself

• Reduce task-switching and promote presence by being truly unavailable during certain times—no email, no phone, no exceptions

𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝘆 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻:

🟢Choose one feasible but potentially impactful idea from your brainstorming to implement. Define how, when, and for how long you’ll test it.

🟢What would be the costs of NOT doing this experiment and maintaining the status quo?

🟢What potential internal (e.g., limiting beliefs) and external (e.g., system-level, interpersonal, etc.) challenges might you face in testing your experiment?

🟢How could you overcome these anticipated challenges?

𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀:

🟢What was the impact of your experiment (positive and negative)?

🟢What got in the way?

🟢What did you learn about yourself?

🟢How might you apply these learnings going forward?

𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗿?

Join us at one of our FREE virtual group coaching workshops where we explore strategies like this one to help scientist mothers achieve better balance.

Registration will be capped to keep the group intimate, so register early!

I can’t wait to see you there!

#ScientistMothers #MotherMind #TimeManagement #WorkLifeBalance #Coaching #Leadership #WomenInMedicine #WomenInScience #WomenInSTEM